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• MAD’s sixth writing rule – Adverbs, Adverbs, Everywhere

  Saturday, Sep 26, 2009 5:46AM / Members only

  So, most people know what an adverb is. They are words that modify other words.

   

  They can modify a verb – She walked to the door slowly. (How did she walk to the door?)

  They can modify an adverb – She walked quite slowly down the hall. (How slowly did she walk?)

  They can modify an adjective – She rode a very fast horse. (How fast was her horse?)

   

  Basically, adverbs tell when, where and why something is happening.

   

  The most common ones are what we in the industry call “ly” words (angrily, blindly, easily, happily, poorly, rapidly, slowly, etceteraly,) but not always. Almost, always, less, more, often, and well can also be adverbs. In addition, there are words that end in “ly” that are not adverbs. Motherly and friendly, for example, are adjectives.

   

  That motherly woman you like works in a friendly bakery.

   

  To make adverbs even more confusing, you have Adverb Clauses. These are a group of words that contain a subject and a verb but act as an adverb.

   

  When this movie is over, we are going to the park. (When are we going to the park?)

   

  And for the monkey in the wrench, I give you Prepositional Phrases and Infinitive Phrases. These are a group of words that do not contain a subject or verb, but still act as an Abverbial Phrase.

   

  She went to the park. (Where did she go?)

  He lived in Germany during the invasion. (Where did he live?)

  They ran to catch the plane. (Where did they run?)

  He flew to America to see his mother. (Why did he fly to America?)

  She picks flowers as often as possible. (When does she pick flowers?)

   

  ***And you thought this was going to be an easy rule!***

   

  Actually, Adverbs are an easy MAD rule. Let me explain.

   

  Again, I will reiterate what I have said before. If you are going to write professionally you need to learn all of the rules of the English language – and that is not easy. The biggest issue with our language is that most of us do not use the majority of the rules (except a few crazy English professors.) We communicate with each other, and we speak the words in English, but almost no one understands how our language is put together. Many professionals are just as confused as you are. I know I am still confused on many topics of the English language. The problem is schools don’t really teach it anymore. None at all in our lower education systems and very little in our higher education systems. And the fact is, for the most part, you don’t need to know the majority of the rules for day to day life. The average Joe-Doctor, Lawyer, Teacher, Bus Driver, Manager, etc. does not need to know but about 25% of the rules of English to communicate with his fellow workers. The funny thing is, at 25% both the average Joe, as well as all of his fellows, think they are using 95% of the rules correctly!

   

  O.K., let me get off my soapbox now. Why is the above statement important? It is important so that you can start to understand that the way you communicate – the way you talk with your fellows – is not going to cut it in your written work - Adverbs being the number one issue for most people.

   

  The majority of us use adverbs like they are going out of style. It is easier in a conversation to use them, they are very descrīptive, and everyone understands them.

   

  “Yo! You are totally not going to believe this. So I was slowly walking down the street and this car came whipping around the corner, completely out of control. I was barely able to jump out of the way! It nearly hit me! If I had been blindly minding my own business, that guy would have honestly run me down. My day would have ended badly, dude.”

   

  That is how we speak. There is nothing wrong with it for communication. You know that the person who said the above was very upset at his near death experience. Plus, they descried the incident in a very dynamic way. You can almost feel like you were there.

   

  So, as a story teller why is the above bad? It is bad for two reasons. The fist being that if you write your narrative in the above fashion, no agent – much less a publisher – is going to pick you up. The second reason is that it is just plain ole lazy writing. You just don’t need to write that way.

   

  Two things before we get going.

   

  First and foremost, forget about adverb clauses, prepositional and infinitive phrases. Why? We are story tellers, not English professors. We need to know our craft well and part of that is knowing what is important, and what is not. (Again, I recommend that you know what adverb clauses, prepositional and infinitive phrases are inside and out. Then you can understand why we, as authors, can ignore them for the most part.)

   

  Second, the above example of how we speak was written in dialog format. The nice thing about dialog is that all bets are off. You want your dialog to sound like people actually speak, so that example would not need to be edited. The adverbs are used correctly. On the same token, you will note that I use a lot of adverbs in this blog. That is because I am trying to write this blog in a very conversational tone to make it easier to understand. Oh, yea, and you are not paying me to write this, SO GET OFF MY BACK!

   

  Now you should have enough background that we are finally ready for the actual lesion.

   

  Keep in mind, I am not here to teach you English. Personally, I think I stink at English. I am here to help you become a better writer, however. So lets drop the technical English crap and get on to MAD’s sixth rule of writing.

   

  So what is MAD’s sixth rule of writing? It really boils down to the “ly” words. They are the ones that jump out at agents, editors and publishers. Plus, I will agree that they are lazy writing. For example…

   

  John walked slowly across the room.

   

  There is nothing wrong with the above. It simply does not invite the reader inside the mind of John. Let’s get a little more detailed.

   

  Dragging his feet, John dreaded reaching the other side of the room.

   

  See the difference? In the first example, John is a slow walker. In the second, there is some impending doom awaiting John that he is not anxious to deal with.

   

  The cool thing is that “ly” words are easy to replace. The first step is to bring them to your attention.

   

  Once I am finished with a section of work, I simply use MS word’s find/replace feature to point out all my “ly” words. Here is what I do for the best effect.

   

  First, before you do anything else select the green highlight color. This should be up on your toolbar. (Use MS help if you need more information on how to do this.) Then choose “edit” then “replace” from the menu list. In the “Find what:” box, type in ly. Just the letters ly nothing else. In the “Replace with:” box, again type in ly. Just ly no period. Now hit the “More” button for more options. Put a checkmark next to “Match Case” then hit the format button and choose Highlight. Finally hit the “Replace All” button and give it a second.

   

  Word will now go through your work and highlight every ly word that you have. It will also highlight things that do not apply. Say, for instance, you have a character named Ilyian. It is going to highlight the ly in the middle. That is O.K.

   

  Now that you have all of your “ly” words tagged, start scrolling through the work and take a look at what Word has shown you.

   

  My rule of thumb is to have only one “ly” word every one to two pages. Do you have several per paragraph? Well, now you know that you over use them.

   

  Start with the easy ones…

   

  As you read you will notice that some “ly” words can simply be deleted without loosing the meaning of your sentence.

   

  As you read you will notice that some “ly” words can be deleted without loosing the meaning of your sentence.

   

  (See what I did? Cleaver, huh?)

   

  Yet some are as easy as that. Just read each sentence that word has marked your “ly” word in. Then reread the sentence omitting the “ly” word. Are they the same? Then delete the “ly” word.

   

  Another easy fix is to look for redundancy…

   

  When the rock heated, John quickly snatched his hand away.

   

  There is no other way to “snatch” something other than quick. So, to quickly snatch is redundant and the quickly can be deleted.

   

  The next thing to do is look for ways to add more detail…

   

  John bowed his head sheepishly to avoid eye contact.

   

  John bowed his had and ground a toe of his shoe into the dirt to avoid eye contact.

   

  You not only get rid of an “ly” word, you give you character a little more action. Plus, you are “showing” (remember MAD’s rule #5?) instead of “telling” that he is acting sheepish.

   

  Others you may have to spend some time with. If a replacement does not jump to your mind quickly, skip it. Let it be your one “ly” word on that page.

   

  You do not need to kill yourself trying to cull all the “ly” words out of your manuscrīpt. The fact is, sometimes, John walks slowly across the room.

   

  Drake

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• MAD’s fifth rule of writing – Show don’t Tell

  Tuesday, Sep 22, 2009 1:02PM / Members only

  So, meat and potatoes – meat and potatoes. The wait is over. Let’s get down to brass tacks. (I am sure if I work at it I could come up with a few more cliché’s.)

   

  If you have been keeping score you will remember that the biggest reason why manuscrīpts are rejected by the industry is that they just are not publishable by the standards of today. But what are those standards?

   

  If you have done even a small amount of homework, you have no doubt been given a laundry list of writing rules. Those who gave you “those rules” no doubt warned you that “those rules” were not negotiable. That if you failed to follow “those rules” to the letter your manuscrīpt would never see the light of day.

   

  Well, yes and no. Some rules are that cut and dry. Others not so much. Keep in mind that everything I discuss on my blog will be slanted to the sci-fi/fantasy writer. If you are writing in a different genre, most of what I impart here should apply. If it doesn’t, don’t use it. This is, after all, just advice.

   

  So what is the number one writing mistake I see? That is easy. Most writers (about 95%,) tell their story instead of showing it. Now, a few years ago I use to simply give that as advice. “Author person, you are telling, you need to show instead.” Unfortunately, most people do not understand what that really means. So, I will break it down a bit further.

   

  When you tell a story, you are relating the events that are happening. When you show it, there is no need to tell anything because the reader gets it.

   

  A while back I was asked to critique a manuscrīpt. The following is an excerpt from that manuscrīpt. (Used by permission of the author.)

   

  ***Disclaimer. Please understand, as you read the following examples you will be seeing my opinions on how to build tension and setup a scene. Recall that I said reading and critiquing are subjectional. I may say that one example is better than another and you feel it is the exact opposite. That is fine. The following examples are simply to get you to start thinking about your writing.***

   

  #          At that exact moment another earthquake struck, this one even more powerful than the last. Will was thrown onto his back and the ground seemed to tip. He was powerless to stop his decent towards the mouth of the cave. Rocks broke away from the ceiling and rained down upon him. Suddenly he was tossed completely out of the cave, but was luckily able to grab onto the ledge as the earthquake subsided.#

   

  Now, for the most part there is nothing wrong with the above. There are a few things, but let’s focus in on the show don’t tell aspect.

   

  Here is my rewrite of the same paragraph. (Again, used by permission of the author.)

   

  #          At the same moment, another quake racked the world. The cave pivoted, and Will’s breath caught in his throat as the floor dropped away beneath him. Slamming hard onto the stone ground, terror ripped through him with the realization that he was sliding toward the mouth of the cave. Rocks broke away from above, raining down upon him. Whipping out his arms in a blind panic, he sought for anything that would halt his decent into the vast openness that awaited him. Like a bullet, he shot from the mouth of the cave and tumbled into the open air beyond. Arms flailing, one hand struck an outcrop of rock and his fingers clamped onto it in a death grip, halting his decent to certain doom.#

   

  So what is the difference in the two? (You smart asses can go ahead and say, “About 52 words.” I will get into added word count at the end of this blog.) But, really. Let’s take a look at the differences.

   

  #Will was thrown onto his back and the ground seemed to tip.# Vs. #The cave pivoted, and Will’s breath caught in his throat as the floor dropped away beneath him.#

   

  The reader is feeling nothing of what Will is feeling. It is simply the author telling the reader what has happened to Will. Vs. Everyone has had their breath catch as the floor dropped out from under them (or they stepped off a step without knowing it was there, etc.) So the reader feels the floor fall away.

   

  #He was powerless to stop his decent towards the mouth of the cave.# Vs. #Slamming hard onto the stone ground, terror ripped through him with the realization that he was sliding toward the mouth of the cave. Whipping out his arms in a blind panic, he sought for anything that would halt his decent into the vast openness that awaited him.#

   

  The reader is told Will is powerless. Vs. We get to feel a little of the fear as Will starts the slide. Plus, due to the fact that he is flailing blindly, the reader sees that Will is powerless to help himself without being told.

   

  #Suddenly he was tossed completely out of the cave, but was luckily able to grab onto the ledge as the earthquake subsided.# Vs. #Like a bullet, he shot from the mouth of the cave and tumbled into the open air beyond. Arms flailing, one hand struck an outcrop of rock and his fingers clamped onto it in a death grip, halting his decent to certain doom.#

   

  The reader is told Will is tossed out of the cave and somehow saves himself. Vs. Will is dead. Stop reading and go home. He has been launched out of the cave with no turning back. Then, instead of being told he saves himself, we are shown that by some dumb chance of luck, Will’s hand snags a rock and he is pulled from the jaws of death.

   

  Let’s do a second one. This one was also from someone who sent me some work to critique. (Also used by permission of the author.)

   

  #          Slowly Simon stood, wary that the monster could still attack, but when it faltered again he charged and planted the butt of the fire extinguisher down onto the remaining part of the creature's head, flattening it with a sickening squish of cartilage and spray of grayish purple blood.

  After delivering the lethal blow Simon stumbled backward to watch nervously, half expecting it to jump backup and attack again. Gradually its legs curled inward in the spidery embrace of its own demise and when Simon was finally satisfied that the creature was truly deceased he sighed heavily and turned to his patient, hoping that it wasn't too late.#

   

  Again, not a bad read. Yes, there are other issues but I will get to them. Here is my rewrite. (Ditto with permission from author.)

   

  #          Knowing the monster could still strike him dead with a single blow, Simon rose to his feet keeping the fire extinguisher between him and the creature. A tentacle lashed out falling well short of Simon’s flesh as the injured monster stumbled toward him. Forcing himself into action despite the fear that gripped him like a vice, Simon lunged. With the full extent of his weight behind it, he slammed the butt of the extinguisher down onto the still smoldering head of the creature. A sickening sound, like a soaking wet towel plopping onto a tiled floor, echoed through the small laboratory. A spray of grayish-purple blood spackled with what looked like cartilage sprayed out into the air.

              As the monster crumpled to the floor, Simon staggered backward. The thing’s tentacles curled in upon themselves much like a spider’s legs would in the throws of death. Breathing hard, still fearful that the monster was not dead, Simon stood clutching the fire extinguisher, his eyes locked on the horror in front of him. After what seemed like an eternity, he let out a shuttered breath and lowered his weapon. Remembering his patient, he skirted the corpse on the floor and rushed to the gurney. Looking down at Genevieve’s pale face, he feared he might be too late.#

   

  I will let you pull the corresponding sentences from each to evaluate them, but the outcome is the same. In the original version, you have the author telling the reader what is happening without the reader having a vested interest. In the rewrite, the reader is more emotionally invested, and most importantly, they are not told things but rather shown them.

   

  Now, are my rewrites, correct, better, etc.? No. What is the right way is what you, as the author, feels is the right way. The above are simply examples. What I really want you to understand is this…

   

  The key to telling a gripping story is to have the reader “feel” the story. The story must surround and immerse them. They must feel something for the characters; either concern or pain or hate or remorse or elation or something. If I can get a reader to cry or laugh out loud or jump if someone enters the room they are in, I win.

   

  I have a story where I kill off one of the main characters. I have received several pieces of hate mail about what I did. Not that they disliked the story, on the contrary, most start the hate mail off by saying how much they enjoyed the story. Just that I was a bastard for doing what I did. But my favorite email was from a lady who demanded a personal apology from me. Here is an excerpt of her email…

   

  #          Even though I have thoroughly enjoyed your book, I do expect a personal apology from you. I was reading your book in my local Starbucks while having some coffee. I got to the part where you killed off that character and before I realized what I was doing I had stood up and yelled out the word “No!” When I looked around, the other patrons were all staring at me. I was so embarrassed.

   

  I can’t wait for the next in the series.#

   

  Oh, I sent her an apology, you can be sure of that. But, what astounded me was that I created a fictitious character, in a fictitious world and I killed him fictitiously. And I did it so well that some lady yelled no in a public place… That is awesome!

   

  That is what you need to strive for. When you show your readers what is going on within the story instead of telling them what is happening, you can invoke the same level of response. It’s all in how you word it.

   

  And speaking of words. Several times when I have done the above critique for people I get bombarded by the “word count” Nazi. Yes, if you show vs. tell you are probably going to increase the word count. If you can’t tell from my blogs, I don’t really concern myself with word count. But as to this I will answer… Would you rather hit your word count quota, yet never sell anything. Or would you rather be a bit over your word budget and have agents and editors drooling over your work.

   

  I am of the philosophy that if the publisher wants something from me that is a bit over their word count quota, it is there job to cut it down to the size they feel is manageable.

   

  Drake

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• MAD’s fourth rule of Writing – Class is in Session

  Sunday, Sep 20, 2009 3:00PM / Members only

  So, great, write every day, be confident that I can become published and be confident that my story is one that will entertain others. So…?

   

  Still don’t know where to start, huh?

   

  Well, I am assuming that that is why you are here. Reading anything and everything you can get your hands on that may help you cut through all the malarkey that you have heard about what the correct way to write is and how if you do it that other way you will never get published.

   

  So, before I get to all that technical jargon, lets take a stroll down the information highway, shall we? (And I am not talking about the Internet.)

   

  Anything you do in this industry to improve yourself is a good thing. When you take the leap from writing because you enjoy it to writing as a profession, you must have a really good understanding in the essentials of the craft. Dangling modifiers, passive voice, adverbs, point of view shifts, author intrusion, and misused punctuation are all things that will stop you from being published. If you do not know what all/some of these are and how to correctly use them, you will not know when you are using them correctly/incorrectly. (Oh, the above is not a compete list, I chose them as they are what I see as some of the biggest issues new writers have. They will be the first several topics once I finally get around to actually telling you something of any value here on this blog.)

   

  The one thing I want to caution everyone about “learning this craft” is this…

   

  Just because someone is teaching something, does not mean they are good at it. Yes, it is important to know all of the rules of writing, but it is also important to know how to tell a compelling story. A good story teller will break every rule in the book… in their book. The difference in breaking a rule correctly and breaking it incorrectly is knowing why you are breaking the rule and when it is better to break it than to follow it.

   

  Before I start doling out advice on how to write and how not to, I thought I would point out one important fact.

   

  Do not take anyone’s advice as the be-all-end-all way of doing something. Take everything that someone says is the “correct” way, or the way you “must write or you will never be published” with a big fat grain of salt.

   

  I have a writer friend who I met really early on in my career. I met her a full year before I ever had anything published. She said something that stuck with me. She didn’t mean it as advice I do not think, but I sure took it as such.

   

  She had written a manuscrīpt. She then went out and started talking to people who “knew the right way of things.” They showed her exactly how to make the changes that would improve her manuscrīpt to the point that publishers would want to buy it. She listened to them as if they spoke the gospel, every word filled with gold. She edited and rewrote until her fingers were bruised and bloodied. Once she finished, and had followed every single piece of advice all the “others” had told her to do, her manuscrīpt was ruined. Technically, it was flawless. On an enjoyability scale it was a zero.

   

  The tragedy of this story was that she edited her original without concern or backup because she believed that her changes were going to be better. So she had no ability to return her work to its original condition.

   

  First and foremost, never edit your original. Every time I do any editing, I copy the file and rename it “filename(edit 2)” or some such. Yes, by the end of writing a novel, I have like 50 copies of it, each with a growing number at the end. But I can go back if I make a mistake to an earlier version.

   

  Secondly, and my point to the above story, advice is just that, advice. From friends, other writers, editors, college professors, websites, even from published authors like me. Writing for someone else’s enjoyment is subjectional to the person who is reading. Anyone who gives you advice, will be giving you the way that “they” would write it. “They” are not going to publish “your” work. The only advice I take as gospel is my publishers. If they say, “Write that this way or we will not pay you.” Well, I like to get paid more than I like how I have written something, so I make the change.

   

  Never change your work just because someone told you to. First understand why you should change it, then make sure you like the new way. Mull it over. If you are told to not use certain words, and you use them all the time, find out why you are not suppose to use those types of words. Then, take just a small sample of your work and pull those types of words out and replace them with what you were told was the proper words. Then read it. Do you like it? Does it still read well? Does it improve or hinder the story flow? Get a second opinion. Take the time to do some additional research on that certain type or word. What are other people/websites/professors saying is the proper way to use that certain type of word.

   

  I guarantee you, if you are diligent in learning why you should write a certain way, your writing will improve from your effort.

   

  So, where do you go to get this “must follow” advice that you will arbitrarily ignore unless you agree that it improves your story? Many, many places.

   

  You are here on my blog, so let’s start there. The Internet is wonderful. Need to know what a dangling modifier is? Type it in Google. Want some opinions on active/passive voice? There are thousands of websites on the subject. Yes, the Internet should be your #1 go to guy to learn what is what. But never go to just one site on a subject. I follow the rule of three. If I want information on what a dangling modifier is, I Google it. Then I pick no less than three different website and read them each in their entirety and compare what each has to say about that subject. You would be surprised at the inconsistencies. Plus, one site might say something in a way that I do not understand, only to read the same thing from a different site, just written differently, and it clicks in my head.

   

  There are tons of online writer’s critique groups. For the most part they are wonderful. My only caution is that the Internet is anonymous. You can get some real jerks on these sites that will simply spout off a bunch of hateful words at your work without any basis of truth in them. But still, lots of good from them as well.

   

  I love local writers groups! I highly recommend that you join any that are in your area. Be warned that you will have many different skill levels within these groups. Plus, you may even run into a jerk or two (I know I have!!!) Still, they are a goldmine of feedback, criticism, encouragement and fellowship.

   

  Read. Books that are published are not just for entertainment. They are your textbooks. Whatever genre you plan to write in, read books like a madman (or madwoman. Look at me being PC!) There is no better learning tool that stuff that someone paid for. And when I say read it, I mean study it. Don’t read Harry Potter for the entertainment. Look at how the sentences are put together. See how they use passive and active voice, point of views, etc. Rip it apart and study how it is put together. Word by word. Sentence by sentence. Paragraph by… well, you get the point.

   

  Oh, and in the reading way, you can also purchase books on how to write books. What a novel concept! (lol, I slay me.)

   

  Take some classes. Yes, paying someone to teach you how to write might really help you get a little better. This is the hardest for most people as it not only takes a financial commitment, but a time commitment as well. But, school is cool if you can swing it.

   

  Attend writer’s conferences. Now this is something most people do when they have a finished manuscrīpt and are starting the process of shopping for an agent/publisher. But it is so much more. They are chock-a-block full of seminars, classes, and professionals in the industry who are there to speak to you. Don’t avoid these just because you do not have anything to sell.

   

  Just remember my one most important piece of advice; no one’s advice is gospel. Learn everything you can, then decide what you are going to do.

   

  Oh, and as a final note. Whether you know what a dangling modifier or any of the other things listed above are, write your story anyway. Anything can be fixed, but it takes time to actually write the story. So, even if it is wrong, write it. Because you can’t edit it if it’s not written.

   

  Drake

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• MAD’s third rule of writing – Writing with Confidence (Part II)

  Sunday, Sep 20, 2009 12:49PM / Members only

  So write every day with the confidence that you can get published if you just learn the craft well enough. Great. But that is not all the confidence that you need.

   

  The second utilization of this word is writing with the confidence that people will like what you are writing.

   

  You must believe in your story. If you do not, no one else will.

   

  Mull the story over in your mind. Draw it out in diagram form on a dry erase board. Talk it through with anyone who will listen. Daydream about your characters. Think of them outside of your story. What were they like before your story takes place? What will they be like after your story has concluded? Anything to keep your story top of mind. If it entertains you, chances are it will entertain others. Flesh out the plot line. Stay fluid. Just because you thought the story would go one way, if you figure out a better way, try it out.

   

  The one thing I think people who attempt to make the switch from writing for the enjoyment of it to writing for profit is they forget the purest fundamental of what they are doing. You are telling a story to entertain someone else. Nothing more. A sci-fi/fantasy  author is a juggler, comedian, actor, musician, monkey with a silly hat… Simply put, people are going to use your work to escape reality for a while. Yes, you have to write well. Yes, you have to follow the rules of the craft. No, not one single reader will ever care that you did – nor should they.

   

  One of the decisions I made early on with my writing of the Genesis of Oblivion Saga was to never use a speech tag. No he said, no she thought, no she whispered and no he blurted out. Not one single speech tag. It was probable the single-most hardest rule for me to follow while writing the novel – and it was self imposed!

   

  I did it for the reason that I thought it would make the dialog more dynamic. I was forced to have each character DO something while they spoke so that the reader would not loose track of who was speaking when. And it worked. People compliment me on how real my dialog feels. Ever single time they do I ask, “So, you like that I used no speech tags?” And every single time they say, “What?” Then I tell them that there are none and what a speech tag is and they say, “Really? Not one? Hmm, I didn’t notice. But I really like your dialog scenes.”

   

  I still write with no speech tags. Now I am simply use to it. When I use them here on the blog, like above, it feels odd to me. But now I know that no one cares. They just like the entertainment value of my story telling.

   

  I hear people complain about the Twilight Series and the Harry Potter Series all the time. How they are poorly written, etc. Well, fans don’t care. They are in it for the story and both of those series are very enjoyable stories. And in the end, that is what will sell your books. Not how well you write them or some stupid gimmick you try like never using any speech tags.

   

  So, spend some quality time with your story. Make sure that it moves you. Run it past a few close friends or relative and see if it moves them. When you have that, when you have a story that really excites people, then you are ready to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard as the case may be.)

   

  Drake

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• MAD’s second rule of writing – Writing with Confidence (Part I)

  Sunday, Sep 20, 2009 12:00PM / Members only

  Other than not having time – family, job, spouse, friends, hobbies, etc., all take time away from being able to write – the second largest hurdle for a writer to overcome is confidence.

   

  And, I am speaking of two distinctly different utilizations of this word.

   

  The first is the confidence that you will ever become published. The second is writing with the confidence that you are doing so in a manner that will lend itself to becoming published.

   

  I will address the first in this post.

   

  The fact of the matter is, hundreds of thousands of manuscrīpts are written every year that will never be published. I will not sugarcoat this – this is a nasty business to break into. I have not run the numbers on this myself, (keep in mind as you read this, 78% of all statistics are made up on the spot) but I think you have more chance of being hit by lightning, or eaten by a shark, or winning the lottery than you do moving from the realm of unpublished writer to published author. Some of you out there may have been at it long enough to feel like you have more chance to be hit by lightning while being eaten by a shark seconds after you find out you won the lottery than getting published! That is why a common question asked at writer’s conferences is “So, how many rejection letters have you received?”

   

  Now, I am not trying to start this out on a bad note. I just want you to understand the realities of this industry. The good thing is, the majority of manuscrīpts written are written poorly.

   

  I am speaking of just my genre, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, and again I have not run the numbers, but I have heard that some 200,000 Sci-Fi/Fantasy manuscrīpts are submitted to industry for publication each year. Of these, only a handful are actually published. The nice thing for you is that probably some 190,000 of them are not publishable. So, if you can get your manuscrīpt into the condition that will make an agent/publisher sit up and take notice, your chances are not 200,000 to 1, they are closer to 10,000 to 1. (I make no claims to the accuracy of my statistics.)

   

  This has a two-fold effect. First and foremost, if you study the craft, really learn what it means to write well, you increase your odds of becoming published exponentially. Second is the fact that those thousands upon thousands of manuscrīpts that are poorly written are, for the most part, rejected by this industry. I say “for the most part” as I have read some published works that mayhaps had been better not published. Yet, I digress.

   

  The simple fact remains. If you finish a manuscrīpt, it is a hard road to getting it published. If you never finish it, you are guaranteed to never get it published. So, if you are really serious about becoming a published author, follow MAD’s first rule of writing and write every day.

   

  Drake

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• 
   D.Y. Sao

  posted on Thursday, Oct 1, 2009 2:55PM  [Report]

  xie xie ni xD
• 
  GerrNG

  posted on Monday, Sep 28, 2009 2:18PM  [Report]

  hope u get the succee too! spread out ur art in the world! if u come to hk, do let me noe!
• 
  zhanghao9150

  posted on Saturday, Sep 26, 2009 2:24PM  [Report]

  i know,but hou i dou,i don't know,can you tell me
• 
   D.Y. Sao

  posted on Friday, Sep 25, 2009 3:53AM  [Report]

  thank you Max XD
  
  there's much to learn and i wish you good journey also brother
• 
   Jayson Li

  posted on Thursday, Sep 24, 2009 9:04PM  [Report]

  Thanks!
• 
  V0lr4th

  posted on Thursday, Sep 24, 2009 3:07AM  [Report]

  nice words, thank you
• 
   Wu Di

  posted on Thursday, Sep 24, 2009 12:45AM  [Report]

  thanks man ...
• 
  MissScarlett

  posted on Wednesday, Sep 23, 2009 11:31PM  [Report]

  Thank you :) I try to be as positive as possible... and take as many people with me as I can ;)
• 
  GerrNG

  posted on Wednesday, Sep 23, 2009 11:12PM  [Report]

  thz a lot!! even a stranger also support me.. i believe i can overcome eth!!
  
  if u go to hk, welcome to my show!
• 
  TerryHui

  posted on Wednesday, Sep 9, 2009 9:43PM  [Report]

  good lion
• 
  q99823

  posted on Saturday, Sep 5, 2009 6:07PM  [Report]

  cool artwork!!
  cheer~~
• 
  miaotianxing

  posted on Saturday, Sep 5, 2009 8:45AM  [Report]

  来看望拜访你，祝福你永远完美，我心中的偶像－妙天行［博客］ｈｔｔｐ：／／ｍｉａｏｔｉａｎｘｉｎｇ２００６．ｂｌｏｇ．１６３．ｃｏｍ我公司网址ｗｗｗ．ｍｉａｏｔｉａｎｘｉｎｇ．ｃｏｍ．ｃｎ
• 
   Maxwell A. Drake

  posted on Thursday, Sep 3, 2009 11:05AM

  Thank you all. I will be adding more and more to this site as the weeks roll by. For now, the first 4 chapters of my new saga are available free at the official saga website - http://www.genesisofoblivion.com Check it out!
• 
   gruponaya

  posted on Thursday, Sep 3, 2009 7:02AM  [Report]

  Welcome Maxwell,
  
  And best regards from ARGENTINA
• 
   Francis Ko

  posted on Wednesday, Sep 2, 2009 7:06PM  [Report]

  Welcome Maxwell, looking forward to raed your book. Have fun here and good to have you here
• 
   Jayson Li

  posted on Wednesday, Sep 2, 2009 12:30AM  [Report]

  Welcome to AnD!
• 
   rottendoubt

  posted on Tuesday, Sep 1, 2009 2:48PM  [Report]

  welcome to alivenotdead.com! =D
• 
  Shyniana

  posted on Monday, Aug 31, 2009 11:04PM  [Report]

  Welcome to AnD!
• 
   Boon

  posted on Monday, Aug 31, 2009 5:01PM  [Report]

  Welcome!!