Jerry B. Jenkins's Blog, page 21

Do you ever wonder if you’re writing right?

As you’re writing, are you striving for just the right word, just the right phrase?

Do you fear that pros have discovered some secret approach you may never know?

I’m often asked what goes through my mind as I write—besides the story itself for a novel or the message for a nonfiction book.

In other words, new writers want to know:

What should I be thinking while writing each sentence?

Does this all just come naturally and you don’t think about it?

Is there something specific I should be doing?

Well, Yes and Yes

Yes, this eventually becomes second nature, but recently I was forced to think about it. And, sure enough, there definitely is a specific ritual I go through for every line I write.

This was brought to light when a teenage writer wrote recently and asked:

How many of theses are clichés?

Pangs of hunger

Close call

Close shave

Close encounter with death

I responded to her that all of them were, though that doesn’t mean they’re egregious. They won’t in themselves likely get her manuscript rejected.

Recognizing the Process

But, I said, “…the fact that you recognized they might be clichés tells me you can do better. That’s the fun, and the job, of being a writer.”

And as I thought about how I work to eliminate clichés, I was reminded of my standard operating procedure—which I confess I haven’t been conscious of for years.

I took the first of her examples, invented a character, and wrote the clichéd version:

Jack suffered the pangs of hunger.

Then I forced myself to become aware of my process.

As I sat there, I realized I was silently talking to myself and that the following is the type of inner monologue I engage in constantly while at the keyboard:

You’ve been hungry. What did it feel like? Did it stab? Ache? Give you a headache? Make you lethargic? Or make you manic?

Deciding Is What We Do

In that instant, seven variations on the hunger cliché seemed to hit me at once. I didn’t write these; I just considered them:

Hunger stabbed Jack’s gut.

Hunger poked at Jack.

Jack ached with hunger.

A ravenous ache made Jack squirm.

Jack’s head ached, but it was his stomach that sought attention.

Jack felt as if he were climbing a hill in slow motion, realizing he hadn’t eaten since dawn.

He needed to finish the task, but suddenly getting something into his stomach became Jack’s sole focus.

Believe in Yourself

I told the teenage writer that that’s what I do for every sentence I write. I silently run through all the options I can think of, then trust my instincts, pick my favorite, and keyboard it.

If it doesn’t fit or look right, I’ll try one of the others. My mantra is reader-first, and while that grueling part of writing makes me feel more like a ditch digger than an artist, I’m trying to create art.

How do you settle on the words that wind up on the page? Tell me in the comments below.

The post A Quick Lesson in the Writing Process appeared first on Jerry Jenkins | Write Your Book.

You’re writing your novel in the third-person limited, referring to characters as he or she or by their names, and confining yourself to one perspective character—your camera.

That means everything you write must be seen through that camera: your perspective character’s eyes, ears, and mind.

If you’re a beginning writer, this may sound tricky, because you might assume you must write in the first person, having your perspective character refer to himself or herself as I.

But, no, you’re writing in the third-person limited—the most common style for contemporary prose.

Make it Plain

It must be clear to the reader who the perspective character is—even if they don’t think in those terms. In the example that follows, that character happens to be alone, so, naturally, she’s immediately identified.

A writer submitted this to me, asking how he could better describe this character so her legalism and self-righteousness are depicted.

The original:

Mother Clotilde sat behind an ornate desk absentmindedly fingering a string of beads encircling her waist. She looked like something you unearthed at a dig. She leafed through a thick leather-bound Bible.

The Sneaky Error

Did you catch the POV violation?

Mother Clotilde is herself the perspective character, and because she’s alone, you can’t really say she “looked like something you unearthed at a dig.” Needless to say, she would not describe herself that way.

It’s not a bad word picture, but to get it into the story, it’ll have to come up in conversation. Perhaps another nun describes her to a novitiate, thus: “You can’t miss her. She looks like something unearthed at a dig.”

Fixing the Other Issue

Having an experienced nun finger her rosary beads while reading her Bible really says nothing about her, let alone that she’s self-righteous or legalistic.

It would be a mistake and appear to be obvious “telling” to reveal this through an inner monologue wherein she muses about the good old days, the stricter rules, and the folly of the new nuns who seem so liberal to her.

Better, for now, to just hint at this and let the reader deduce it, thus:

Mother Clotilde sat at her immaculately arranged [See how this says something about her while ornate merely says something about the furniture?] ornate desk, fingering a string of beads encircling her waist as she slowly read [There’s a big difference between a woman who slowly reads her Bible and one who merely leafs through it; she takes this seriously] from her thick leather bound Bible.

Now it would be good to linger on her a bit, to subtly convey character traits. You might say she “glanced at the clock and noticed she had six minutes and 15 seconds more reading time before her next obligation. But before turning back to her Bible, she meticulously repositioned her letter opener, which had somehow become no longer exactly perpendicular to the edge of the desk.”

See how that fastidiousness and precision and sense of obligation reveals at least the legalistic side of her, if not the self-righteous?

In the Comments section, tell me how you’ll apply these POV tips to your work-in-progress.

The post Avoid These Sneaky (but Deadly) Point-of-View Mistakes appeared first on Jerry Jenkins | Write Your Book.

I was working on one of the Left Behind novels in the mid-90s when I took a call from a childhood hero of mine.

When he introduced himself, I blurted, “The Jack Berrill of Gil Thorp fame?”

I told him I had been a fan of his daily newspaper sports story strip since childhood and still read it every day.

Mr. Berrill had created Gil Thorp in 1958, naming his title character after baseball player Gil Hodges and Olympian Jim Thorpe. Gil Thorp was athletics director and head football, basketball, and baseball coach at Milford High. The strip was carried by hundreds of newspapers throughout the U.S.

The aging Mr. Berrill (who tried in vain to get me to call him Jack—I just couldn’t) said he had happened upon several sports books I had written and wondered if I would consider writing a series of Gil Thorp books.

Getting Acquainted

My plate was more than full, but this intrigued me. Over the better part of the next year, Mr. Berrill and I chatted by phone probably a half dozen times, noodling the possibilities.

We somehow seemed to connect personally too. I told him I was impressed that he both wrote and drew the stories and asked how he made the strip so addictive.

Mr. Berrill’s Secret Formula

“It’s embarrassingly easy, actually,” he said. “The first panel reminds readers what the story is about. The second moves the story along. The third I design to make them just have to come back tomorrow.”

He also said he tried to tell as much of the story visually as possible, so the blocks of dialogue could be crisp and didn’t have to do a lot of “telling.”

The Sad News, and the Offer

Early in 1996, I stopped hearing from him, then noticed a small item in the paper that said he was ailing and that Tribune Media Services (the syndicate that distributed Gil Thorp) was temporarily rerunning old strips.

In March, a man from Tribune Media Services called to tell me Mr. Berrill had died of cancer. That saddened me, of course, and I regretted never having met the man.

“He left word he wanted you to take over the strip.”

”Oh, surely not,” I said. “He never mentioned that.”

A few days later I heard from his widow, who confirmed his wish. “He was fond of you. He felt you understood him.”

The Work

Honored beyond words, but not certain my skill set jibed with a sports story strip, I met with the Tribune Media Services man.

“I hope you’re not counting on me to also be the artist,” I said. “I couldn’t draw a gun.”

He assured me that the artist capable of imitating Jack Berrill’s work, who had filled in for him occasionally over the years, had already signed on.

He also informed me they would need a certain number of scripts every quarter that would consist of several self-contained stories, including detailed descriptions of what I wanted the artist to draw for each of the three panels every day, along with the dialogue.

Its Effect

For the next eight years, I did all I could to honor Jack Berrill’s legacy and do justice to his creation.

Writing novels and writing a story script are as different as prose and poetry. Every aspect of Gil Thorp had to be distilled to its bare minimum. What I remember most about those years—besides involving my three sons in coming up with story ideas—is cutting, cutting, cutting.

I strived every day to meticulously describe my vision for the artist while chopping dialogue to the bone.

That discipline became a refreshing break from the grueling ordeal of novel writing, yet I found it informed the whole of my career as a fiction writer. It continues to do so to this day.

No throat-clearing, no elaborate scene-setting, no flashbacks—just get after the story, get it down, and get out.

What Mr. Berrill taught me about the simple functions of each panel carried me through my learning curve and remain the blueprint for Gil Thorp to this day, though it has had a new writer/artist team for a dozen years.

It’s hard to believe we’re only a couple of years from the 60th anniversary of Jack Berrill’s first episode of Gil Thorp. I’ll celebrate that, not only because of his colossal creativity and talent, but also because of what it meant to me and my craft.

Can you apply the techniques I learned from Jack Berrill to your next piece of writing? Tell me how in the Comments below.

The post What Writing a Story Strip Taught Me appeared first on Jerry Jenkins | Write Your Book.

Why pay to be printed when you could get paid to be published?

If you’re shopping your book to publishers who require you to pay for any portion of the process, you’re self-publishing.

A company can call itself whatever it wants—hybrid, subsidy, cooperative, indie. But if you pay one dime for any of their services (even committing to a minimum initial order as part of the deal or paying for publicity or any other marketing element), you’re self-publishing.

How can I say that when you might have been told your book was “accepted,” and you’ve been “offered a contract,” and you’re paying only for this or that?

Trust me, whatever you’re paying likely covers the company’s other expenses to produce your book and even gives them a profit.

And you are still the decision-maker; that makes you the publisher.

What’s wrong with that? Why should we let the big, impersonal, almost-impossible-to-crack traditional publishers make all the decisions about our books?

Because they’ve earned that right, know what they’re doing, pay you for the privilege, and take all the risk.

Will Self-Publishing Your Book Really Get You More Money?

But, the argument goes, “Why should I accept a royalty of roughly 15% of sales when I could pocket all the profits?”

Because 15% of 10,000 books sold is a lot more than 85% of 1,000 books sold. Do the math on a $15 book.

10,000 x $15 = $150,000 x 15% = $22,500.

1,000 x $15 = $15,000 x 85% = $ 12,750.

Why do I use those sales figures (10,000 vs. 1,000)? Because most traditional publishers will not accept a book they don’t think will sell at least 10,000 copies.

And because 1,000 books sold is way above the average for self-published books, despite the rare, noisy exception.

And how much would a self-publisher cost you before you started selling books? Up to $10,000 is not unheard of.

The Shocking Self-Publishing Statistic

Jeremy Greenfield, who writes about ebooks and digital publishing for Forbes, reported nearly three years ago that according to data from a new survey from Digital Book World and Writer’s Digest, the median income range for self-published authors is under $5,000. And nearly 20% of self-published authors report deriving no income from their writing.

“Few authors are getting rich off of their writing or even earning enough from their writing to quit their day jobs,” Greenfield quotes Dana Beth Weinberg, Ph.D., professor of sociology at Queens College in New York City.

It’s true that your traditionally published title might never earn you more than the $5,000 to $10,000 advance you might receive. But it’s also true that very few self-published titles get anywhere close to 1,000 sales. Most, in fact, are given away.

The So-Called Benefits of Self-Publishing

But hasn’t the self-publishing revolution—including all the nearly free ways to “publish” your book online—made this the greatest era ever for writers?

So some would have you believe. “Finally,” they say, “there’s room for everyone. You don’t face the Catch-22 of needing to be published before getting an agent or a contract. You can publish yourself!”

The fallacy in that argument is that writers who do this then represent themselves as “published authors”—a stretch, you must admit. And when they present themselves that way to traditional publishers, they find that having self-published was the worst thing they could do for their reputations.

Plus, because it seems nearly everyone is doing this, the bigger pool for everyone to play in has become a problem in itself. While competition is stiff and the odds of landing a traditional publishing contract are long, literally tens of thousands are self-publishing every day. I’m not exaggerating.

So the likelihood of your manuscript, even if it’s great, being noticed in that avalanche of mediocrity (and worse) is minuscule.

The Self-Publishing Predators

Sad to say, too many self-publishers and self-publishing online courses today are wolves in sheep’s clothing.

They lie in wait like jungle cats until an unsuspecting victim crosses their path. Playing on your dream of being published, they lure you with phrases like:

“Become a published author in less than 90 days!”
“Make your book an Amazon bestseller—guaranteed!”
“Self-publishing will supercharge your career!”

They promise “getting published,” marketing strategies, and wide distribution. But you pay for it all (regardless of sales success)—sometimes thousands for:

Poor cover design with exorbitant upcharges for changes
Unprofessional type and page layout
Little or no editing and/or proofreading
Overblown marketing promises that really consist of getting your title listed in some massive online catalogue that bookstores ignore
A publisher much less responsive (sometimes impossible to engage) once you’ve signed the deal and sent your check
Dismal sales

Even the better, more reputable self-publishing companies—those who can produce handsome products and even offer professional editing and proofreading—will either:

Overcharge for such services, or
Allow you to opt out of investing in such services

Frankly, that’s one of the biggest dangers. When you publish without editing or proofreading, it shows. Some authors even choose to have their manuscripts printed “as is.” In other words, rather than a traditional-looking typeset, they go directly from their computer-generated manuscript to the printed page.

More Self-Publishing Downsides

Opting out of professional typesetting can result in a book with:

San serif type (like this blog, as opposed to serif type—scientifically proven to read easier)
Flush-left paragraphs (not indented)
A space between each paragraph (again, like this blog)

That is customary for online copy. But all those elements are no-nos if you want your book taken seriously in the marketplace.

I’ve even seen books “published” with two spaces between sentences, the way we old-timers were taught to type in prehistoric days. You won’t find a traditionally published book with two spaces between sentences.

On top of that, many such companies will allow you to choose your own cover, whether you have any design background or not. They’ll also let you put “by” in front of your name on the cover—something else you won’t see on a real book.

I’ve seen Foreword spelled Forward, Foreward, and even Forword. It’s always a dead giveaway that I’m looking at a self-published book. I’ve also seen Acknowledgments spelled with the extra British e: Acknowledgements.

Those may not seem like big deals, but compounded they result in an amateurish, obviously self-published book.

Why Would Self-Publishers Allow This?

Not all would, of course, but to too many of them, you’re fresh meat to be moved through the cattle chute. I maintain a personal policy that forbids criticizing companies by name. But it does seem in many cases—based on myriad complaints I’ve heard from many writers—too many self-publishing firms seem to care most about cashing your check.

Of course, not ALL self-publishing companies are predatory.

But enough are that you should exercise extreme caution if you go that route. I recommend that you not even negotiate with one without first conducting a vigorous background check, including personal knowledge of a satisfied customer.

You’re Working with a Sleazy Self-Publishing Company When:

They refuse to acknowledge that traditional publishing is almost always your best option if you can break in (don’t even think about publishing with someone who doesn’t admit this)
They let you publish your book—and put their name on it—despite the blatant errors or sloppiness outlined above
They insist they’re not a subsidy- or self-publisher, despite that you are being charged (for any of the process)

Below I’ll cover when self-publishing is your best option and how to find a reputable company that actually cares whether your book succeeds.

But I’ve seen enough highway robbery in this business to advise you to be highly skeptical of any company before you’ve done your homework.

When Self-Publishing Makes Sense

I’ve made it my life’s work to coach writers to get their writing to a level where they can market it to traditional publishers. You’ll rarely see me suggest self-publishing as a first option.

So, when would I suggest it?

When your book does not have wide commercial appeal. Traditional publishers cannot accept books of interest to only several hundred friends and relatives. I self-published two volumes of my late father’s poetry, as well as a short biography of my wife’s grandmother, who lived to be 101.
When you need to be published for the sake of your career. You may be a professor under a publish-or-perish mandate. Or you may be an expert in some esoteric science or discipline in which it behooves you to have books available at speaking events.
When you have exhausted all traditional publishing avenues and realize that either your subject matter or your writing quality will never be favored by traditional publishers, yet you remain determined to be published.

In that last case, if you choose the self-publishing route, be prepared to spend as much as it takes to get a final product that looks as much as possible like a traditionally published book. If you’re not willing or able to spend that much, at least have someone edit and proofread your book.

And realize that the responsibility of promotion and marketing and sales will fall entirely on you. You’ll either do it yourself, or you will pay for it.

Before You Settle for Self-Publishing

If you’re having trouble landing an agent or a traditional publisher, take a hard look at the writing itself. Weak writing is the #1 cause of rejections.

And cream always rises. So do whatever is necessary to make your writing cream.

The Truth about Agents and Publishers

They aren’t looking for reasons to reject your manuscript. Though the best agents and editors can tell within five minutes whether your manuscript is publishable, they want you to succeed.

If your first few pages aren’t error-free or don’t grab the reader by the throat, agents and editors immediately know it’ll be far too labor-intensive (expensive) for an editor to clean up.

(If you’re wondering how to clean up your own manuscript to give it the best chance with an agent or a traditional publisher, my ultimate self-editing guide will get you started.)

That’s why the goal of this blog and my Writers Guild is to give you what you need to take your writing to the next level. Ideally, I want to see you shop your writing to literary agents and traditional publishing houses.

I Confess…

Despite holding for decades my current view of self-publishing, I did waver a few years ago and even offered self-publishing packages through my former guild. I heard enough writers complain that they found it impossible to break into traditional publishing. And enough traditional publishers admit that the odds were growing longer against new writers.

I believed I had seen the light and developed a self-publishing package that did little but prove to me in the end that I had been right all along. No one seemed to be able to afford a self-publishing package that included everything that I insisted would make it reputable.

I wound up publishing several of my colleagues, who largely resurrected and updated out-of-print traditional titles. Bookstores accepted these because well-known writers’ names were on them, as was mine.

That proved to be my short-lived attempt at doing something credible in that market. I was left feeling the need to post a blog like this.

So, My Advice to You
Give yourself to the craft
Hone your writing skills
Read everything you can about writing, including my idea of the best books on writing
Exhaust all efforts to get your writing quality to the level where you can compete for a traditional book contract

That may seem like only a dream right now. But if you apply yourself, you might be surprised at your results by this time next year.

If you do opt for self-publishing, there are some good, reputable companies out there. But do yourself a favor and read this revealing book before you sign a contract: Let’s Get Digital: How To Self-Publish, And Why You Should (Updated Second Edition)

Though I disagree that “you should,” aside from certain circumstances, the chapter on vanity presses alone (especially some associated with established traditional publishing houses) is a must-read.

Many of these have been under investigation for failing to pay writers, overcharging, and otherwise taking advantage of newbie authors.

My Bottom Line

This post is not intended to start an argument or even a discussion on the pros and cons of self-publishing. It reflects my view, and those who vehemently disagree are entitled to theirs.

But even if you are in that camp, let’s agree on this: Regardless the method of publishing you choose, your reader deserves quality writing. Self-publishing is no excuse for less than your absolute best effort.

Have you had good or bad experiences in self-publishing? Tell me in the Comments.

The post Warning: Before You Self-Publish appeared first on Jerry Jenkins | Write Your Book.

For years you’ve known you had a way with words.

People often tell you the same, and some of them aren’t even related to you. :)

You’ve long dreamt of being an author.

You’ve imagined a bookcover with your name on it. You can see yourself in a crowded bookstore, meeting adoring readers and signing their copies of your book.

Best of all, you can envision your message reaching a wide audience and changing lives.

The problem is, as fierce a dream as this has been and as determined as you have been to fulfill it some day, decades have passed and time has gotten away from you.

You know you have fewer years left than you’ve lived so far, and you’re convinced you’ve missed your chance.

I get this question several times a month: “Am I too old to write my book?”

Maybe you’ve lived your life for others for so long that you never really had the time—or the courage—to pursue your dream.

I won’t discount your fear, but let me bluntly answer the question:

No. It’s Not Too Late.

You may have told yourself, It sure would have been great to start when I was 25. Who knows what I might have accomplished by now?

Let me stop you there.

Unless you’re on your deathbed, unable to communicate, you’re never too old to become an author.

You know why? Because…

Publishers Don’t Care How Old You Are

All they care about is the quality of your writing and the content of your manuscript. Your age is none of their business anyway.

It’s been my pleasure to see publishers get excited about many previously unknown and unpublished authors. Not once has one looked up from a manuscript and said, “How old is this writer anyway?”

If they love your message and your writing, they will not reject you or your work because of your age.

Need Proof?

Take DiAnn Mills, for example.

In her 60s now, DiAnn says she always dreamed of becoming a writer, “but I didn’t have the courage to take the first step.” Twenty years ago, vowing to write a book some day, she was challenged by her husband to take a year and try it.

Since then, several of her more than three dozen books have become bestsellers and have won countless awards. DiAnn says, “If I can encourage you in whatever life holds for you, don’t give up on your dreams. We have to live a lot of life before we realize what we have to say.”

Bring everything you’ve experienced to your writing and make this the year you finally write your book. Believe it or not, if you apply yourself, you could accomplish this in as few as six months.

Rather than focusing on why you can’t become an author, focus on:

Writing with emotion (Poet Robert Frost said, “No tears in the writer; no tears in the reader.”)
Carving out the time to write every week
Sharing your work with others—like a writer’s group
Finding a mentor who has been where you want to be

In the publishing industry, nobody but you cares about your age. So forget that and get back to chasing your dream.

What has kept you from writing your book? Tell me in the Comments section.

The post “Am I Too Old to Write My Book?” appeared first on Jerry Jenkins | Write Your Book.

Do you worry every time you sit at the keyboard that your story—or your storytelling ability—won’t be good enough to succeed?

Me too.

Even after penning the Left Behind series, which has sold over 60 million copies worldwide and continues to sell 21 years since the first title was released, I still have to stare down the fear every time I write a new book.

Why admit this?

Because I’m living proof that you can succeed in this game even if you’re afraid of failure. In fact, I believe fear of failure is a good motivator and should be embraced.

I’m going to suggest three possible reasons why the Left Behind series became a phenomenon, so stay with me.

But first, let me answer a question many writers ask me: “How do you write a bestseller?”

You don’t.

The reason writers ask that, I think, is because they believe such success would put to rest their fears forever. It won’t.

I’m grateful that it doesn’t. Humility is the most valuable piece of equipment on our writer’s tool belt.

Don’t Get Me Wrong

By now you should know that I will never promise a magic potion, a silver bullet, or whatever metaphor you want to use to guarantee overnight success.

If there were a surefire formula for monster bestsellers, 1—I’d have used it a lot earlier in my career, and 2—I would duplicate it every year.

There Are, However, Three Secrets…

…that, upon reflection, proved crucial to the success of Left Behind.

 

1.  Write from your passion

If you take nothing else from this post, get this: I did not set out to write a bestseller, and I never do.

If I had, I would have been tempted to follow all the current conventions, scour the competition, decide what kind of hero and villain work best, what kinds of scenarios, what to be sure to include or exclude, etc.

That’s a fool’s game. Fads, by definition, come and go. And if you’re trying to capitalize on one, it’s likely to be yesterday’s news by the time your book releases.

I wrote from my heart about something deeply important to me and which I earnestly wanted to share with as many people as possible. That compelled me to care about every word.

Hint: Be careful, if your novel is message-heavy, that it does not become sermonic. The story must do all the work, and if it does, the reader will get your point.

 

2.  Engage the theater of the reader’s mind

Ever wonder why so many say, “The book was better than the movie”? It’s because not even Hollywood—with all the CGI techniques at its fingertips—can compete with human imagination.

If you can get your reader to see your story in his mind’s eye, you’ll keep him turning the pages to the end.

Hint: That doesn’t mean describing everything in detail. You’re stimulating the theater of the mind, not doing its job.

See if you can describe an orbital character with one word: knuckly, oily, dour, peckish, dismissive, haughty… and allow your reader to see that person any way they wish.

The larger the role a character plays in your story, the more you can say about what he looks like. But still, refrain from spelling out every detail so you leave to your reader the fun of filling in the blanks with his own imagination.

From Left Behind:

Ritz was tall and lean with a weathered face and a shock of salt-and-pepper hair…

Notice that I don’t:

Describe how tall or how lean
Say anything about his teeth
Tell the color of his eyes
Reveal his age

Each reader can see this character any way they wish, and why not?

 

3.  Make description part of the action

Nothing stops a story dead in its tracks like a long passage of description.

If you’re poetically brilliant like Rick Bragg (All Over but the Shoutin’) or Charles Frazier (Cold Mountain), fine. If you’ve got it, flaunt it.

But the rest of us mere humans need to pull our readers into every scene without intruding and making them aware of our writing.

Rather than stopping to change gears and trying to paint a word picture of the setting before describing what happens there, make it part of the narrative flow, like this (from Left Behind):

One of my main characters, Buck Williams, is desperate to get out of O’Hare Airport in Chicago in the midst of a disaster. A young woman behind the counter at an airline club lounge tells him… 

“The livery companies have gotten together and moved their communications center out to a median strip near the Mannheim Road interchange.”

“Where’s that?”

“Just outside the airport. There’s no traffic coming into the terminals anyway. Total gridlock. But if you can walk as far as that interchange, supposedly you’ll find all those guys with walkie-talkies trying to get limos in and out from there.”

“I can imagine the prices.”

“No, you probably can’t.”

“I can imagine the wait.”

“Like standing in line for a rental car in Orlando,” she said.

Buck had never done that, but he could imagine that, too. And she was right. After he had hiked, with the crowd, to the Mannheim interchange, he found a mob surrounding the dispatchers…

Keep these three storytelling secrets in mind as you write, and you’ll pull your reader in like never before.

Which of these can you inject into your work-in-progress this week? Tell me in Comments below.

The post 3 Powerful Storytelling Secrets That Made Left Behind a Mega-Bestseller appeared first on Jerry Jenkins | Write Your Book.

You face a difficult choice.

How will you invest your most valuable resource—the 168 hours you are allotted each week?

Not one of us gets a second more or less.

Despite my age and my commitment to finish well, I didn’t just now start thinking about how to prioritize my time.

Something told me, early on, to invest it wisely so I’d have no regrets. When people ask what I want said at my funeral, my nearly 200 books, 70 million copies sold, or 20-plus New York Times bestsellers do not come to mind.

I’d like to be remembered as a faithful husband, father, and grandfather.

The only thing I care to have said about my career? That I redeemed the time.

It Gets Harder All the Time

If your calendar looks anything like mine, you’re already balancing enough plates to make a veteran waiter sweat.

You feel pulled in every direction by the demands of your job, your family, your friends, and your writing.

There simply isn’t enough time, you tell yourself. Something has to give.

So what’s it going to be? What are you willing to cut from your life to allow your writing dream to come true?

I can think of a lot of things—TV, movies, parties, concerts, maybe a sport or hobby you enjoy.

But What About Family Time?

Can you cut in half the time you choose to spend with your spouse or the kids?

Don’t you deserve to pursue your dream?

They’ll understand, won’t they, that during certain hours you have to write? I mean, they accept that you go off to your job every day.

No, No, A Thousand Times No!

If you must choose between your writing and your family—

Give up the writing.

That’s right, I said it.

I’ve made my living, my career, my life as a writer. It’s paid the bills, put food on the table, kept us out of debt, and put our kids through college.

But I was not willing to sacrifice my family on the altar of my career.

If writing had demanded that—less time with my wife and our three sons, I would have chosen another career.

My Story and My Policy

One week when I was a 20-something newlywed, long before Dianna and I had children, I took a message right between the eyes.

In the course of my work as a magazine editor, I had five middle-aged men—independent of each other—tell me that the one regret they had at this stage of their life was that they hadn’t spent enough time with their kids when they were growing up.

Clearly, someone was trying to tell me something. I told Dianna that if I got to be that age and had that same regret, I’d be without excuse. We talked it over and established a policy for when our own children came along.

Simply, it was that I would do no work from the office nor any freelance writing from the time I got home from work each day until the kids went to bed.

The Benefits
I found time to continue to court and date my wife.
I gave her a much-needed break at the end of each day.
I learned to change diapers, heat bottles, rock babies, and put them to bed.
I catalogued 1,001 funny things toddlers say.
I taught the kids sports and watched them in every soccer match, baseball, basketball, and volleyball game until they left home.

You can tell kids they are your top priority. They hear what you say, but they believe what you do.

To kids, love is spelled T-I-M-E.

What Happened To My Writing

Despite that I am a morning person and the writing I do before noon is the best work I’ll do all day, during those growing up years with the kids, I could write only from 9 to midnight.

Yet, because I wrote without guilt, I was as productive during those three hours a night as I had ever been—and in truth, as productive as I have been since, despite that I have been a full-time freelancer for 25 years.

We gained real credibility with our kids, and they became our best friends. Naturally we didn’t agree on everything, but they never doubted our commitment to them.

What It Cost Me
A lot of TV
An hour or two of sleep per night
As full a social life as we might have preferred
So, What’ll It Be?

Only you can decide your own priorities.

TV?

Movies?

Parties?

Concerts?

Sports?

Hobbies?

Social Media? (There are apps to help you control that, i.e., Freedom. Google it.)

Let Me Say It Again

Whatever you decide, don’t sacrifice your family on the altar of your writing career.

What can you do this week to prioritize your writing time without negatively impacting your family? Tell me in Comments below.

The post You Don’t Have to Sacrifice Your Family On the Altar of Your Writing Career appeared first on Jerry Jenkins | Write Your Book.

Let me tell you from the get-go, my headline is tongue-in-cheek.

Know why? Because publishing is no place for whiners.

Compete on my playground and you’ll find we don’t argue with the refs. Only losers blame it on them.

When pros drop the ball, we look in the mirror, figure out what we did wrong, and do better next time.

In the writing business we say, “Never argue with the man who buys ink by the barrel.”

There’s too much competition to waste time pointing the finger at “the man,” “the system,” or “those people” who “don’t know talent” or who “wouldn’t know good writing if it smacked them in the face.”

So Are You Ready…

…to leave your excuses in your gym bag, pull on your big kid pants, and compete with the A-team?

You’re getting more rejections than sales. You’re inclined to be defensive. Don’t get me wrong—so am I.

But that won’t get us anywhere, will it?

Rather, let’s look in the mirror, consider the following, and commit to overhauling our approach.

What You May Need to Fix
You didn’t follow submission guidelines to a T

Magazine, online, and book publishers give you every opportunity to get this right. They make available to writers their style requirements and other preferences.

Prove you can follow directions and respect their wishes. Your competition will.

You didn’t go through the proper channels to get to them in the first place

It may not seem fair that you have to go through an agent or be referred by one of their existing writers, but rules are rules. If they aren’t accepting unsolicited manuscripts, don’t be surprised—or gripe—when yours comes back unread.

Your submission had typos, misspellings, bad grammar

Couldn’t they look past such seemingly minor issues for the sake of your brilliant prose? Don’t they have editors and proofreaders for those sorts of things?

Sure they could have, and yes they do. But your writing is going to have to be Rowlingesque to rise above competition that doesn’t scare them off with such amateurism. They might overlook a handful of such errors over several hundred pages, but not in a cover letter, a query, a proposal.

Do what it takes to put your best foot forward.

Your writing was simply not up to par

This is a much more serious issue, requiring going back and shoring up the basics by becoming a ferocious self-editor.

Seven quick tips to improve your writing:

1.  Avoid throat-clearing.

That’s what editors call anything at the beginning of your piece of writing that keeps you from grabbing the reader by the throat—description, scene setting, introducing too many characters, setting the stage with backstory…

2.  Choose the normal word over the obtuse.

Like obtuse. A savvy editor would change that to fancy.

3.  Omit needless words.

That’s the rule that follows its own advice.

4.  Give the reader credit. Assume people have brains.

He walked through the open door. She squinted as she looked up in the sky overhead at the sun above her.

5.  Avoid clichés, and not just words and phrases, but situations.

Beginning with your lead waking to a jangling alarm clock
Describing himself in front of a full-length mirror
Eventual lovers literally running into each other on first meeting, he knocking groceries or books out of her hands, helping her pick them up
The villain having the drop on the hero, holding a gun on him. A shot rings out, but it’s the villain who falls, shot by an unlikely third party.
Just when all seems safe, the incapacitated villain springs back to life for one more attack.

6.  Resist the urge to explain (RUE).

…she let out a panicked shriek. …she let go of the candle she had been carrying.

7.  Show, don’t tell.

Telling: Jim found it cold outside.

Showing: Jim hunched his shoulders and turned his face from the frigid wind.

(For more, check out my list of 21 self-editing tips.)

What will you do this week to start getting your markets to say Yes more often than No? Tell me in Comments below.

The post Why the Mean Ol’ Publisher Rejected You and How to Make Him Say Yes Next Time appeared first on Jerry Jenkins | Write Your Book.

You have something to say—something you desperately want to communicate.

You may even believe it comes from on high, that you’re destined to write it for the world to read.

Your motives are even right. The earth, society, your town, people will be enriched by reading what you have to say.

But You’re Afraid

You don’t have to tell me what you’re scared of, because you already have.

In emails, letters, at autograph parties, speaking engagements, and at writer’s conferences—everywhere!

When you’ve mentioned your message—to loved ones, friends, anyone—they tell you or you can see it in their eyes, sometimes in their body language:

They don’t like the way you say it.

You’re not getting the impression that they don’t like you particularly. Or even what you’re saying. How could they? Your message is important! You know this! It’s inspired or it wouldn’t have moved you so or stayed with you this long.

It’s How You Come Off

You don’t want to alienate people, you tell me. That won’t work, you say. You’re not one of those people who don’t get it.

The last thing you want is to go through life spouting opinions like you’ve got a direct line to the Fountain of All Truth while people are rolling their eyes and looking for the exit.

So how, you ask me, are some writers able to get away with this? How do they come off as  sages—able to teach and enlighten without coming off as know-it-alls or the dreaded P-word: preachy?

The Come Alongside Secret

It’s all in the approach.

Two writers could communicate the very same truth. One might point his finger in your face and say, in essence, “Here’s what you’re doing wrong and what you ought to do to change and start doing it right.”

The other might say, “Let me tell you about the time I learned a very tough lesson.”

Which are you more likely to listen to?

One is preaching at you, teaching you, eager to make a point.

The other is telling you a story, and when he is finished, he will not even have to turn the spotlight on you to be sure you got the message.

People Love Stories

In fact, readers love them so much, you can give them credit for getting your point without having to shove it down their throats.

Here’s a true example:

As a college freshman, I took pride in how tolerant and inclusive and color-blind I felt. In fact, I was so ignorant of my passive racism that I was shocked one day to be brought up short and humiliated by it.

On my way to class I complimented a black man almost three times my age for performing a menial task. I smiled at him and told him he was doing a good job. He nodded and asked if I would hold up for a second as my friends moved on.

“Didn’t want to embarrass you,” he said.

“Sir?”

“Just wanted to ask you if you ever complimented a white man for painting a wall?”

Puzzled that he somehow wasn’t pleased, I said, “Uh, no sir, I guess I have not.”

“Can you understand how that makes me feel, to have a young man like yourself praise me for doing something that anyone could do?”

To suddenly face such ugliness in myself stunned me to silence, and I could only nod in shame. I’d rather he had slapped me in the face, as I deserved. Nearly 50 years later it haunts me.

When finally I found my voice, I whispered, “Forgive me.”

He said, “Of course, brother. Now make us both glad this happened.”

Resist the Urge to Explain

Give your reader credit. A mistake after sharing the anecdote above would be for me to make sure you got the point, ask if you’d ever had a similar experience, work at making you apply the truth of it to your life.

Why? Because the story makes its own point!

If the reader doesn’t get it, becoming preachy about it won’t help.

What will you do to communicate your message without being preachy? Tell me in Comments below.

The post How to Write Without Sounding Preachy appeared first on Jerry Jenkins | Write Your Book.

A massive, magnificent red thoroughbred won the Triple Crown in 1973, setting records in all three races that still stand today.

After Secretariat won both The Kentucky Derby and then The Preakness (both times with Sham, the horse that had beaten him in a tune-up race, finishing second), it seemed the entire country tuned in to watch The Belmont Stakes.

That included me, unaware I was about to witness the most spectacular performance I would ever see on television—including the miraculous U.S. Olympic hockey victory over the Soviets seven years later.

Even the memory of that race brings tears.

Sham was the only one in the rest of the five-horse field expected to challenge Secretariat’s bid for the first Triple Crown in 25 years. The two alternated for the lead all the way to the backstretch, when Secretariat appeared to grow impatient with the game.

Big Red (as he was affectionately known) began to pull away. Sham was spent and faded as Secretariat thundered around the far turn, impossibly accelerating during the final third of the longest of the Crown races (one and a half miles).

As he lengthened his lead, I leaned forward on the couch, rocking in rhythm to the dance of jockey Ron Turcotte and horse. Soon I found myself standing, eyes wide, mouth agape as Secretariat emerged alone around the last turn, continuing to lengthen the distance between him and the other four horses.

Horse races are often won by a nose, clear, easy victories by a horse length or two. As Secretariat chewed up the ground at a rate of 150 strides a minute (25 feet long each), his 22-pound heart pumping 75 gallons of blood per minute, he reached nearly 40 miles an hour.

CBS commentator Chic Anderson exulted, “Secretariat is widening now! He is moving like a tremendous machine!”

Big Red flew to twelve lengths ahead, now 15, now 18, now 24!

I stood riveted and, yes, weeping, as he continued to fly, now 28 lengths, and finally 31 lengths ahead of Twice A Prince. Sham, his great rival, finished last, 45 lengths off the pace.

Twenty-one Major Leaguers have pitched perfect games since 1900.

Three pitchers have struck out 20 hitters in a game, one twice.

Fourteen batters have hit four homeruns in a single game.

Wilt Chamberlain once scored 100 points in a basketball game.

Jamaican Usain Bolt ran a 100-meter dash in 9.58 seconds, making the other runners appear to be jogging.

But nothing I’ve ever seen compares to watching Secretariat blow away the competition by 31 lengths.

Writing Lesson From a Craftsman

For years I quoted one of my all-time favorite writers, William Nack, former horseracing writer for Sports Illustrated. (The movie, Secretariat, was based on his 1975 book Secretariat: The Making of a Champion.)

Here’s just a taste from one of his SI columns. Note how he deftly uses the lingo of the horseracing milieu in his evocative narrative:

Oh, I knew all the stories, knew them well, had crushed and rolled them in my hand until their quaint musk lay in the saddle of my palm. Knew them as I knew the stories of my children. Knew them as I knew the stories of my own life. Told them at dinner parties. Swapped them with horseplayers as if they were trading cards. Argued over them with old men and blind fools who had seen the show but missed the message. Dreamed them and turned them over like pillows in my rubbery sleep. Woke up with them, brushed my aging teeth with them. Grinned at them in the mirror.

Horses have a way of getting inside of you, and so it was that Secretariat became like a fifth child in our house, the older boy who was off at school and never around, but who was as loved and true a part of our family as Muffin, our shaggy epileptic dog.

Shortly before film editor Roger Ebert’s death in 2013, he was kind enough to connect me with Mr. Nack (they had met at the University of Illinois in the 1960s), and I was privileged to be able to write and tell him how much I admired his work.

How can you use the terminology of the field about which you’re writing to enhance your narrative? Tell me below.

The post A Memory and A Writing Lesson appeared first on Jerry Jenkins | Write Your Book.