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Time for Looking Back and Looking Ahead!

Unknown 16:36 Jodie Renner , Jodie Renner Editing

Happy New Year, everyone! May 2014 exceed your expectations in every way!

First, thank you.
I just want to say, first of all, that I'm so grateful to all the readers of my posts on various blogs and my two fiction-writing guides. And a special thanks to those of you who were kind enough to take the time to write a review of one or both of my books on Amazon! Thanks so much, all of you, for enriching 2013 for me, and I hope my books and blog posts have provided you with lots of helpful tips to make your fiction stronger!

And thank you to the writers I've worked with this year to make your novels and short stories more intriguing. I've enjoyed our interactions and reading your exciting stories!

It's the time for looking back on the past year and looking forward to the next one. How did 2013 go for you? What are you planning and hoping for in 2014?

Considering it has the number 13 in it, the year 2013 wasn't at all unlucky for me. I had a great year, in fact. And I've got some major lifestyle changes coming up in 2014! It promises to be a big year for me! Scroll down for those.

HIGHLIGHTS OF 2013 FOR JODIE: "It was a very good year..."

Travel and presentations:
I managed to continue travelling to various places in North America in 2013, starting with a trip to Cuba in January, then Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, in February, Colorado in March, Boston in May, NYC in July, Nashville in August, then visiting with my family in various parts of BC, Canada, in September. All stimulating and fun!

I participated in two panels at Left Coast Crime's conference in Colorado Springs in March and enjoyed getting together there with my blog pals at Crime Fiction Collective. In May I attended Grub Street's 2013 conference in Boston, The Muse and the Marketplace. In July, I was off to Craftfest and Thrillerfest in New York City for the fourth time, where I participated in a panel on revision and self-editing and sold a lot of books, especially Writing a Killer Thriller. Then I was on a similar panel in August at Killer Nashville in Nashville, TN, and I also presented a 90-min. workshop on point of view at Killer Nashville - and sold lots of books. Then, during a trip to BC in Canada, I presented to a writers' group and an editors' group. As well, I gave two talks, one on first pages and one on self-publishing, to my local writers' group, the London Writers Society.

Both books out in print, too:

And between traveling, presenting, and editing, I managed to revise and expand both of the books in my Editor's Guide to Writing Compelling Fiction series and publish them both in trade paperback format. Style That Sizzles & Pacing for Power came out in print in March, then I published a significantly updated and expanded version of my Writing a Killer Thriller also in paperback in early July, just in time to sell at Thrillerfest in NYC. I love having these books in both e-book and print, and sales indicate that readers do, too!

Book Award:
And one of my books, Style That Sizzles & Pacing for Power, won an award! It received a Silver Medal in the Florida Authors & Publishers President's Book Awards, in the reference category.

Magazine Articles:
I was interviewed in Southern Writers Magazine in the Sept./Oct. 2013 issue, and had two of my articles on tips for adding suspense, tension and intrigue published in Suspense Magazine.

Judge for Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards:
I evaluated books again for this contest. I received 25 books to review and was only allowed to choose one to go on to the next level. I submitted written evaluations for all of them, to go on to the authors.

Writing:
I've got about three-quarters of my next book in the editor's guide series, Immerse the Readers in Your Story World. I plan to publish it by April.

Blogging:
I've been busy blogging all year, too. After guest-blogging on the award-winning blog, The Kill Zone, for a year, I was welcomed on Oct. 7 as an official member and biweekly contributor (every 2nd Monday). I've continued to blog on Crime Fiction Collective on the alternate Mondays, and I also guest-blog occasionally on other great blogs for writers, like D.P. Lyle's Writer's Forensics Blog, Elizabeth Craig's blog, Mystery Writing is Murder, Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi's blogs, and others. And of course I still post here whenever I can!

Links to some of my recent blog posts:

The Kill Zone: Using Thought-Reactions to Add Attitude & Immediacy

Writers Helping Writers: Character Descriptions – Learn From the Pros!

Crime Fiction Collective: 10 Tips for Attracting a Top-Notch Editor for Your Story

The Kill Zone: 10 Ways to Add Depth to Your Scenes

The Kill Zone: Don’t Stop the Story to Introduce Each Character

The Writer’s Forensics Blog: Thrillers vs. Mysteries

The Kill Zone: Immerse Your Readers with Sensory Details

The Bookshelf Muse: Let the Characters Tell the Story

Mystery Writing is Murder: Concrete Tips for Developing an Appealing Voice in Your Fiction

Editing & Critiquing:
And of course I've been hard at work editing fiction manuscripts and also doing critiques of the first 10-50 pages of novels. I specialize in editing thrillers and other fast-paced fiction and I love my freelance editing, especially since I get to pick and choose the manuscripts I work on! I've had the privilege of working with some very talented writers in the last few years, so I find my work really satisfying and rewarding. And I love the interactions and friendships I've made with the authors whose stories I helped polish up to get ready to successfully publish or submit to agents.

BIG CHANGES FOR JODIE IN 2014:

The big move:

Kelowna, BC

My biggest news is that I'm planning to move across the country in May or June, and am busy decluttering and downsizing a 3-bedroom house with a full (and filled!) basement in preparation for the long-distance
move and setting up an apartment in Kelowna, BC, Canada. So of course every spare moment on the weekends is spent sorting through stuff and deciding what to give away, what to sell, what to toss, and what to take with me. I'm excited because I'll be near family and old friends again, and the area, the Okanagan valley, is gorgeous, with large lakes, low mountains, fruit orchards and vineyards everywhere!

Okanagan Valley, BC, Canada

Presenting at various conferences in 2014:
- January 24-26: SDSU Writers' Conference, in San Diego, CA. Two workshops: Deep Point of View; Revision and Self-Editing.
- May 16-17: Tallahassee Writers' Conference, in Tallahassee, Florida. Two workshops.
- June 18-24, RomCon University, Denver, Colorado. Two workshops: Deep POV; Revision & Editing.
- August - When Words Collide, Calgary, Alberta
- Sept. 25-27 - Florida Heritage Book Festival & Writers Conference, St. Augustine, Florida

Next book out!
I'm excited about my third book in the editor's guide series, Immerse the Readers in Your Story World, which will be out in print in the next few months!

And more editing.
And I'm looking forward to finishing fiction manuscripts I'm editing and collaborating with some new writers in 2014!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Here's hoping 2014 will be your most creative, productive, and satisfying year ever!
How was 2013 for you? What are your plans for 2014? Please share in the comments below.

Jodie Renner, a freelance fiction editor specializing in thrillers and other fast-paced fiction, has published two books to date in her series, An Editor’s Guide to Writing Compelling Fiction: WRITING A KILLER THRILLER and STYLE THAT SIZZLES & PACING FOR POWER(Silver Medalist in the FAPA Book Awards, 2013). Both titles are available in e-book and paperback. For more info, please visit Jodie’s author websiteor editor website, or find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Jodie also blogs alternate Mondays on The Kill Zone blog and Crime Fiction Collective blog.

To subscribe to Jodie’s “Resources for Writers” newsletter (published about 4-10 times a year), please click on this link: http://eepurl.com/C9dKD

E-book Giveaway, Price Drop, Links to Blog Posts, PW Review

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas season and a productive, creative 2014!

* Update: Jodie's busy editing, writing, planning workshops and a cross-country move, and blogging on 3+ blogs! (See down for links to best recent blog posts.)

Besides ongoing fiction editing & critiquing, working on book 3 in my series, entitled Immerse the Readers in Your Story World, preparing workshops for several writing conferences, starting with two at SDSU Writers' Conference in San Diego in January, I'm also busy sorting and downsizing in preparation for a move across the country next spring or summer.

In addition, I'm a bi-weekly contributor to two blogs, The Kill Zone and Crime Fiction Collective (alternate Mondays for both) and, less frequently on other blogs for writers.

E-Book Giveaway - to be drawn from new subscribers:

I'll be gifting two e-books on Jan. 1 to people who subscribe to my newsletter (published 4-10 times per year) between now and then. Names chosen by random draw. You get to choose which of my books you'd like to receive, Style That Sizzles & Pacing for Power, or Writing a Killer Thriller. This is for new subscribers only. Here's the link to subscribe: http://eepurl.com/C9dKD

* Price drop – Jodie’s e-books down a dollar, Matchbook: e-books for $0.99.

Just to let you know, I’ve dropped the e-book prices for both of the books in my series, An Editor's Guide to Writing Compelling Fiction. Both Style That Sizzles & Pacing for Power and Writing a Killer Thriller are now $2.99 for the e-books, which you can also read on your computer, tablet, or smartphone. And if you purchase the print book on Amazon, you get the same title in e-book there for only $0 .99.

* Best recent blog posts - links to articles by Jodie and others:

~ Character Descriptions – Learn From the Pros! by Jodie Renner, at Writers Helping Writers blog

~ 10 Ways to Add Depth to Your Scenes by Jodie Renner, at The Kill Zone blog

~ How to Put the Boys in the Basement to Work, Great tips for releasing your inner creativity, by James Scott Bell, at The Kill Zone

~ Don’t Stop the Story to Introduce Each Character by Jodie Renner, at The Kill Zone blog

~ Why I Am Not Turning the Pages of This Novel, by James Scott Bell

~ Indie Authors – Should You Revise & Republish Your Earlier Books? by Jodie Renner, at The Kill Zone blog

~ Pros, Cons,& Tips for Publishing Your Own Book on Amazon by Jodie Renner, at Resources for Writers blog

~ Thanks, Amazon, for Promoting my Books for Free by Jodie Renner, at Crime Fiction Collective blog

~ 10 Tips for Attracting a Top-Notch Editor for Your Story by Jodie Renner, at Crime Fiction Collective blog

~ 4 Key Publishing Paths, by Jane Friedman

~ Crafting an Effective Opening, by Clare Langley-Hawthorne, TKZ

~ Power in Numbers – Authors Promoting as a Team by Kristina McMorris, on Writer Unboxed

* Review of Terminal Rage:

Finally, just in, a great review in Publishers Weekly for a riveting international thriller I had the pleasure of editing about a year ago, Terminal Rage, by A.M. Khalifa. Click on this link to go to the review:

www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-940387-00-0#path/978-1-940387-00-0

I hope you all find some time to relax over the holidays and spend time with family and friends. And all the best in 2014! Keep on writing! - Jodie

Jodie Renner, a freelance fiction editor specializing in thrillers and other fast-paced fiction, has published two books to date in her series, An Editor’s Guide to Writing Compelling Fiction: WRITING A KILLER THRILLER and STYLE THAT SIZZLES & PACING FOR POWER(Silver Medalist in the FAPA Book Awards, 2013).
For more info, please visit Jodie’s author websiteor editor website, or find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Jodie also blogs alternate Mondays on The Kill Zone blog and Crime Fiction Collectiveblog.

Pros, Cons, & Steps for Publishing Your Own Book on Amazon

Unknown 15:46 how to publish your own book , indie publishing , Jodie Renner , Jodie Renner Editing , publishing on Amazon , self-publishing

by Jodie Renner, editor & author
Follow Jodie on Twitter.

I get a lot of questions from newbie / aspiring authors interested in self-publishing their book. Many don't realize that it's free and relatively easy to publish your book on Amazon as a Kindle e-book. And fast! It takes about 12 hours to appear on amazon.com for sale, and you receive your 70% royalties every month!

I’ve published five books myself on Amazon since July 2012, as e-books for Kindle, and have also published three of them in trade paperback on CreateSpace and IngramSpark.

Here are some pros, cons, and tips, based on my experience:

ADVANTAGES TO SELF-PUBLISHING ON AMAZON:

- Amazon sells more books than all the other publishers combined.

- It’s free to publish on Amazon (and CreateSpace).

- You’re in control. You control the whole process from start to finish and retain all the rights to your book.

- It’s fast. You don’t have to wait around for agents to respond. You upload the book and it’s ready to sell in 12 hours or less. You can start earning money right away while you write the next one!

- More and more people are buying e-books. You can take a Kindle or other e-reader anywhere, with more than a thousand books inside it! And e-books are quick and easy to purchase from wherever you are – with one-click buying, the e-book appears on your Kindle within seconds.

- Readers can also read your e-books on their computer, tablet, or smartphone. Just download the free app from Amazon.

- You get 70% of the list price of your book (if it’s priced between $2.99 and $9.99; otherwise 35%), as opposed to 10-15% from publishers – IF you can get an agent and publisher to accept your book!

- You don’t need to write a whole book. You can publish a short story or article and sell it for $0.99 (you get 35% if it’s under $2.99)

- You get to control the pricing, so you can raise or lower the price of your e-book whenever you want, to boost sales.

- It’s easy to upload your book to Amazon and you can revise it as frequently as you want and just keep replacing the one that’s there with a better version.

- You can check your sales stats daily (or hourly) and watch them rise. You can also view stats graphs over time (and geographically) to see what’s working and what isn’t to promote sales.

- You receive your royalty payments every month (one month’s delay), as opposed to annually or quarterly or whatever.

– Amazon helps promote your book, through your book’s Amazon page, emails they send out mentioning it, and their feature, “Customers who bought this item also bought…”

- If you enroll in KDP Select, you earn money when people borrow your book, you can offer it free for up to 5 days out of every 90 as a promotion, and you can take advantage of other great Kindle promo ideas, like their Kindle Countdown Deals, and their Matchbook program, where, if readers buy or have bought the print version of your book, they can buy the e-book for free.

DISADVANTAGES:

- You’re in charge of quality control! So you need to guard against publishing it prematurely. Make sure it’s polished and ready! The competition is fierce out there, and reviewers can be very critical if you publish a book full of typos or otherwise hasty or amateurish writing. Don't shoot yourself in the foot and damage your reputation by publishing a less-than-professional book.

- Although publishing it is free, you’ll still need to pay for editing, a cover design, and probably formatting. And you may decide to hire someone to promote it. You should have a budget of at least $1,000 to spend on all this.

- You’ll need to do most of your own marketing and promoting (although Amazon does a lot, too), or hire a publicist. But traditional publishers now expect their authors to do a lot of their own promoting, too. Mid-list published authors basically are expected to do all or most of their own promoting, including paying for it.

STEPS FOR SELF-PUBLISHING ON AMAZON:

1. Write with wild abandon.

2. Revise. See my articles “Revising, Editing, and Polishing Your Novel,” “How to Save a Bundle on Editing Costs,” and “How to Slash Your Word Count by 20-50% – and tighten up your story without losing any of the good stuff!”

3. Run it past a critique group or “beta” (volunteer) readers (smart people who read in your genre – don’t need to be writers themselves).

4. Revise again, based on feedback you’ve received from your critique group or beta readers (using your own judgment on what advice to accept and what to ignore, of course).

5. Find and hire a reputable freelance editor who specializes in fiction (if that’s what you write) and reads your genre.

6. Revise, based on the editor’s suggestions.

7. Hire a formatter (or do it yourself if you know a lot about formatting). See my article, “Basic Formatting of Your Manuscript (Formatting 101)”.

8. Hire someone to design an eye-catching, professional looking book cover. Be sure the title and author can be read at the small size posted on Amazon. Google “book cover designers.” or check the list of Resources on The Kill Zone blog.

9. Publish on Amazon.com, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).

- Decide on two categories, add a great book description, think of 7 keyword phrases (search words), and write an interesting author bio, with links and a photo.

- Once it's been up for a while as an e-book and you've had a chance to tweak it if it needs it, consider publishing it in print on CreateSpace. That's basically free, too. It's Print on Demand, so the books aren't printed until people (or you) order some. But it's surprisingly quick when they/you do!

10. In the meantime, you’ll have already been building up a social network and platform:

- Facebook, Twitter, Google +, author website, blog, guest blog posts for others

- Writers’ groups and organizations, Goodreads – lists, giveaways

I suggest, as a minimum, a Facebook page and either a website or a blog. If you don’t have time to blog regularly, create an author website instead.

11. Start actively promoting your book – but don’t be annoying. By the way, Amazon does an excellent job of promoting your book for you, for free, especially if you enroll in KDP Select. See my article today over on Crime Fiction Collective, "Thanks, Amazon, for Promoting my Book for Free!"

12. Start writing the next one. Or publish a short story based on characters from your book and price it at $0.99. Your second book will help sell your first one.

Good luck with all this! I look forward to seeing your book on sale!

Jodie Renner is a freelance fiction editor and the award-winning author of three craft-of-writing guides in her series An Editor’s Guide to Writing Compelling Fiction: Captivate Your Readers, Fire up Your Fiction, and Writing a Killer Thriller. She has also published two clickable time-saving e-resources to date: Quick Clicks: Spelling List and Quick Clicks: Word Usage. You can find Jodie at www.JodieRenner.com, www.JodieRennerEditing.com, at The Kill Zone blog alternate Mondays, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

Checklist for Before You Submit or Publish Your Novel

Unknown 14:23 Anica Morse Rissi , before you publish your novel , before you submit your novel , James Scott Bell , revision checklist

I recently discovered an excellent article by James Scott Bell, published on The Kill Zone blog

in 2010. Here's the beginning of Bell's post, with a link to the rest.

Before You Submit

by James Scott Bell

The May/June issue of Writer's Digest has a sidebar from YA editor Anica Morse Rissi, wherein she gives nine things you can do to elevate your manuscript before submission.

The list is right on, not only for getting a manuscript ready to submit to agents or editors, but also if you're considering self-publishing. So I'm going to give you the tips with my own commentary on them.

1. Revise, revise, revise.

As the author of a whole book on the revision process, I'm not going to quibble with this one. You can, however, become "revision obsessed" and spend way too long on a project. In my book I give a process for getting over that, but you can just as well come up with one of your own, so long as you eventually send your work out. Not too soon, but not too late, either.

2. Start with conflict and tension.

This is perhaps the most important tip of all. Some of our highest traffic here at TKZ has come from posts on what to do -- and what not to do -- on first pages, as well as the numerous first page critiques we've done. Search those out in the archives. Now, conflict or tension does not have to be "big." It can really be any sort of disturbance to the Lead's ordinary world.

3. Don't start with backstory.

An obvious corollary to #2. Backstory is best when it is delayed, although little sprinkles can be added to the first pages for depth. Just make the action primary up front.

4. Give the readers something to wonder about.

...

For the rest of these great tips, with Bell's commentary, click HERE.

Drama of Ideas

Unknown 16:34 Drama , Glossary

"Drama of Ideas", pioneered by George Bernard Shaw, is a type of discussion play in which the clash of ideas and hostile ideologies reveals the most acute problems of social and personal morality. This type of comedy is different from the conventional comedy

Drama of Ideas established George Bernard Shaw, one of the popular dramatist in English literature

such as Shakespearean comedies. In a Drama of Ideas there is a little action but discussion. Characters are only the vehicles of ideas. The conflict which is the essence of drama is reached through the opposing ideas of different characters. The aim of Drama of Ideas is to educate people through entertainment.

Arms and the Man is an excellent example of the Drama of Ideas. Here very little happens except discussion. The plot is built up with dynamic and unconventional ideas regarding war and love. Shaw criticizes the romantic notion of war and love prevailing in the contemporary society. Unlike the conventional comedies, here characters are engaged in lengthy discussion and thus bring out ideas contrary to each other.

Wordsworth's Theory of Poetic Diction

Unknown 16:12 poetry

Wordsworth preface to the second edition of the Lyrical Ballads, he sets fourth his aims: The principal object proposed in these poems was to choose incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them throughout in a selection of the language really used by men and at the same time to know over them a

certain coloring of the imagination whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual aspects. He goes on to say that humble and rustic life was generally chosen because in that condition the essential passions of the heart find a better soil. In which they can attain their maturity, realism under restraint and speak a plainer and more emphatic language, In the above statement we get some important points regarding Wordsworth's theory of poetic diction.

Firstly, in the choice of subjects or themes Wordsworth goes straight to common life and by preference to humble and rustic life.

Secondly, Wordsworth describes his themes taken from humble and rustic life as far as possible in a selection of language actually used by ordinary men. He does not look with favor upon the pompous and stilted circumlocution of the eighteenth century writers who delighted in using gaudy language.

Thirdly, Wordsworth says that while choosing his themes from common and rustic life and describing them in the language of the common people, his object to throw over them a certain coloring of the imagination, whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual aspect.

Wordsworth's Treatment of Nature

Unknown 15:38 poetry

As a poet of nature, Wordsworth stands supreme. He is "a worshiper of Nature": Nature devoted or high -priest. Nature occupies in his poems a separate or independent status and is not treated in a casual or passing manner. Tin tern Abbey is a poem with Nature as its theme.

Wordsworth pursues Nature in a way different from that of pope. Unlike Pope Wordsworth sincerely believed that in town life and its distractions men had forgotten nature and they had been punished for it. Constant social intercourse had dissipated their simple and pure impression. One of his sonnets is eloquent of this idea:

The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we waste our power's,

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

Wordsworth brings a new and intenser interest in Nature. Pope looks at Nature as objectively as possible, naturally his view is hardly colored by his 'hyper-individualism'. It has been stated the antithesis to Pope's idea of nature is hyper-individualism. Interestingly enough, Wordsworth explorations of what Nature had to say to him spring from his hyper-individualism. Thus, with Wordsworth the poetry of Nature took on a new range, passing beyond sensuous presentation and description to vision and interpretation. Under the influence of nature , he experiences a mystic mood, a transcendental feeling.

The Ethereal Quality of Shelly's Poetry

Unknown 08:49 poetry

There is a vagueness, an abstractness, an ethereal quality about the poetry of Shelly. It is the poetry of a man living not earth, but in the aerial regions above. This ethereal in his poetry is due to the want in

general, of "a sound subject-mater". Even Adonais which is a poem of grief on the death of Keats , he preserves a sense of unreality and calls in many shadowy allegorical figures.

He talks of metaphysical powers like intellectual beauty and of vague things like the golden age of mankind. His imagery, too,is abstract and divorced from human lofe as he takes delight in giving us pictures of the shifting and changeling phenomena of nature like clouds, sunsets, winds, sky and ocean. Also he employs inverse similes which instead of making his meaning concrete, render it vague. "Like wrecks of a dissolving dream". "Like ghost from an enchanter fleeing," "like the hues and harmonies of evening " are examples of his inverse similes.

Shelly and Byron

Unknown 14:45 poetry

Shelly stands with Byron as a poet of revolt, but his devotion to liberty is purer, his love for man is readier to declare in deeds of hope and sympathy, his philosophy of life is ennobled by loftier and more selfless aims. Byron's cry is, "I am unhappy". Shelly's "The World is Unhappy and I hope to brighten it. The two poets in their

different ways represent two sides of the French Revolution. Byron its backward destructive side, Shelly, its forward reconstructive idealists side. Byron's heroes are engrossed egotists at war with society, while

Shelly's typical hero is a noble minded enthusiast, who willingly becomes a martyr for the cause of man. Shelly applied his noble ideas to his own conduct while Byron was very much like his own Don Juan. In Byron the intelect is superior and the imagination is subordinate. Byron's note is one of chaotic despondency, while Shelly is a prophet of hope, looking forward to the Golden Age, when love will save mankind

Shelly and Wordsworth as a poets of nature

Unknown 13:49 poetry

Interpretation of nature, Shelly suggests Wordsworth both by resemblance and by contrast. To both poets all natural objects are symbols of truth. Both regard nature as a permeated by the higher

spiritual life which animates all things but while Wordsworth finds a spirit of thought and so of communion between nature and the soul of man, Shelly finds a spirit of love, which exists chiefly in its own delight. And so The Cloud , The Skylark and The West Wind three of the most beautiful poems in the English Language, have no definite message for humanity. In his Hymn to Intellectual Beauty, Shelly is most like Wordsworth, but in his Sensitive Plant with its fine symbolism and imagery he is like nobody in the world but himself. Comparison sometimes is an excellent thing and if we compare Shelly exquisite Lament, beginning-

"O World! O Life! O time"

With Wordsworth's Ode on Intimations of Immortality we shall perhaps understand both the poets better. Both poems recall many

happy memories of youth, both express a very real mood of a moment . But While the beauty of one merely saddens and disheartens us. The beauty of the other inspires us with something of the poets own faith and hopefulness. In a word, Wordsworth found and Shelly lost himself in Nature.

Nature as a Chief Actor in Drama

Unknown 12:57 Drama

Synge is an exception, where drama is blended with nature mysticism. If some dramatists tried to maintain the balance between the two, the output was not much brilliant. Greeks to the

beauty of nature is charming us all which is a chief actor in drama.

Elizabethan, many writers tried their hand in combining dramatic poetry with nature, it remained quite distinct from the unique style of Synge. For Synge nature is not only a background or a setting to charm the

eyes of the audience but also an actor whose role is essential for the existence of the drama i.e. a chief actor or a protagonist is not else but a nature is sometimes friendly and then cruel at the other moment. Irishman even today, are very much attached to their rural background and every minute thing on the Island may be it is mountain or sea, has the capacity to arouse their emotions. Even when Synge visited The Aran Island for the first time, he found in the Islands a strange love for every thing which is within the nature. But the most striking element was their acceptance of every state of nature, whether it is claim or it is harsh. Synge a man with dramatic mind, could not ignore this feature of the people and he portrayed the two sided aspect of nature, in his plays.

Synge's Limited Output of Plays

Unknown 07:31 Drama

The premature death of Synge kept his work some what limited. the classification of the work is difficult as Synge's plays are mostly blended with both forms of dramatization in tragedy and comedy.

Though his comedies include The Shadow of the Glen, The Tinker's Weeding, The Well of the Saints and The Playboy of the Western World, whereas, tragic elements in Riders to the Sea and Deirdre of the Sorrow qualify them as tragedies. This last play

Deirdre of the Sorrow is sometimes considered as melo drama because of the sense of blood- shed which intensify our emotions of fear. This work remained unversed, due to the sudden death of Synge after long illness. This play was criticized for lack of coherence and unity, most probably, because Synge could not

revise the work and prepare it as work of excellent. All the other plays are significant works of art and highly entertaining, no matters if some of his plays became the issue of controversy.

Tennyson's Poetry: General Characteristic

Unknown 05:12 poetry

Characteristics of Tennyson Poetry:

Tennyson is a chiefly remembered as the most representative poet of the Victorian age. He was a national poet, whose poetry reflected the various important tendencies of his time. That is why he was a popular in his own day. But one whose poetry is so representative of his age is apt to be less universal in his appeal.

Tennyson's Poetry General Characteristic

Therefore, with greater universality in his themes, Tennyson would have been far more popular both during and and after his own time. But the set back caused to his popularity by a certain want of universality is amply compensated by his being poet-artist of a very high and permanent value. Today he is admired mainly as a literary artist of a very high order. His word paintings of the external beauties of nature his careful observation, his accuracy in description to the minutest details, his keen sense of the value words and phrases, his strong sense of music in words- all these makes him a poet- artist in the truest sense. Prof. Web has ably summed up the qualities of Tennyson as a poet, "His poetry, with its clearness of conception and noble simplicity of expression, its discernment of the beautiful and its power of shaping it with mingled strength and harmony, has become an integral part of the literature of the world and so long a s purity and loftiness of thought expressed in perfect form have power to charm, will remain a passion for ever." Now these Characteristics may be studied more fully.

George Bernard Shaw, a Prolific Playwright.

Unknown 14:37 Drama

Shaw had completed his first play Widower's Houses, in 1892. In 1893 he wrote a play called The Philanderer which was followed in1893-94, by Mrs. Warren's Profession. From now on Shaw went on writing plays without interpretation, proving himself to be a very prolific writer. Although he did not earn much popularity or income in the beginning, success came to him during the repertory season

George Barnard Shaw a prolific Playwright

conducted at the Court Theater, London by Granville Barker in 1904-7. From that time onwards the story of Shaw's life is the story of his plays. By 1904 he had written, besides the plays named above, such important plays as Arms and the Man; Candida; The Devils Disciple; Caesar and Cleopatra; Man and Superman; Major Barbara; and The Doctor's Dilemma. The process of writing plays continued. In 1993 he wrote Saint Joan and 1929 at the age of 73, The Apple Cart. In all he wrote no fewer than fifty plays.

Key Essentials for An Authentic YA (Or Adult) Voice

Unknown 23:20 authentic voice , fiction writing , Jordan Dane , voice in fiction , writing tips , YA fiction

by Jordan Dane
@JordanDane

Purchased from Fotolia by Jordan Dane

This excellent article by Jordan Dane appears in full on The Kill Zone blog. Click on the link at the end to go to the rest of the article.

On Oct 17th at the KILL ZONE blog, I critiqued the first page of an anonymous author’s work –A Game of Days. Some interesting comments on the YA voice came from this post and I wanted to share more on what I’ve learned from writing for the teen market. My personal epiphanies.

Writing for the Young Adult (YA) market and capturing the voice of YA is less about word choices (and getting the teen speak down) than it is about getting the age appropriate decisions and attitude right. Urban fantasy or post apocalyptic plots can build on a world that is unique and unfamiliar. Books like the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins or the Divergent series by Veronica Roth can have its own voice, so teens are familiar with reading books like this.

When I went looking for solid examples of teen dialogue or introspection to share at a workshop, I searched some top selling YA books, only to find the voice I expected wasn’t there. Sure there are YA books where authors can sound authentically teen, but to keep up the realism for a whole book can be a challenge and an overabundance of “teen speak” can date the banter or be too much for adult readers to catch. (Yes, adults are HUGE readers of YA.)

As you read through this list, think about how each of these tips might also apply to writing ANY voice, even book intended for adults. Many of these tips work for cross-genre writing.

Key Essentials for An Authentic YA Voice:

1.) Use First Person or Deep Point of View (POV)
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For the rest of this excellent article, click HERE.

The Worst Ways to Begin Your Novel - Advice from Literary Agents

Unknown 01:52 first page , first pages , opening , writing advice , writing tips

Here's some interesting advice from literary agents on the opening pages of your novel, compiled by Chuck Samuchino, of Writer's Digest:

The Worst Ways to Begin Your Novel: Advice from Literary Agents

August 6, 2013 by Chuck Sambuchino

This column is excerpted from Guide to Literary Agents, from Writer’s Digest Books.

No one reads more prospective novel beginnings than literary agents.

They’re the ones on the front lines, sifting through inboxes and slush piles. And they’re the ones who can tell us which Chapter One approaches are overused and cliché, as well as which techniques just plain don’t work.

Below find a smattering of feedback from experienced literary agents on what they hate to see the first pages of a writer’s submission. Avoid these problems and tighten your submission!

False beginnings

“I don’t like it when the main character dies at the end of Chapter One. Why did I just spend all this time with this character? I feel cheated.”

- Cricket Freeman, The August Agency

“I dislike opening scenes that you think are real, then the protagonist wakes up. It makes me feel cheated.”

- Laurie McLean, Foreword Literary

In science fiction

“A sci-fi novel that spends the first two pages describing the strange landscape.”

- Chip MacGregor, MacGregor Literary

Prologues

“I’m not a fan of prologues, preferring to find myself in the midst of a moving plot on page one rather than being kept outside of it, or eased into it.”

- Michelle Andelman, Regal Literary

“Most agents hate prologues. Just make the first chapter relevant and well written.”

- Andrea Brown, Andrea Brown Literary Agency

“Prologues are usually a lazy way to give back-story chunks to the reader and can be handled with more finesse throughout the story. Damn the prologue, full speed ahead!”

- Laurie McLean, Foreword Literary

Exposition and description

“Perhaps my biggest pet peeve with an opening chapter is when an author features too much exposition – when they go beyond what is necessary for simply ‘setting the scene.’ I want to feel as if I’m in the hands of a master storyteller, and starting a story with long, flowery, overly-descriptive sentences (kind of like this one) makes the writer seem amateurish and the story contrived. Of course, an equally jarring beginning can be nearly as off-putting, and I hesitate to read on if I’m feeling disoriented by the fifth page. I enjoy when writers can find a good balance between exposition and mystery. Too much accounting always ruins the mystery of a novel, and the unknown is what propels us to read further.”

- Peter Miller, PMA Literary and Film Management

“The [adjective] [adjective] sun rose in the [adjective] [adjective] sky, shedding its [adjective] light across the [adjective] [adjective] [adjective] land.”

- Chip MacGregor, MacGregor Literary

“I dislike endless ‘laundry list’ character descriptions. For example: ‘She had eyes the color of a summer sky and long blonde hair that fell in ringlets past her shoulders. Her petite nose was the perfect size for her heart-shaped face. Her azure dress — with the empire waist and long, tight sleeves — sported tiny pearl buttons down the bodice. Ivory lace peeked out of the hem in front, blah, blah.’ Who cares! Work it into the story.”

- Laurie McLean, Foreword Literary

... and lots more! For more advice on your opening, click HERE:

Check out these links with concrete tips for writing an opening that grabs both readers and agents:

12 Do’s and Don’ts for an Amazing First Page
Those Critical First Five Pages

Set up Your Story in the First Paragraphs

Open Your Novel in Your Protagonist’s Head

Write a Killer Thriller Opening

Also, links to some first-page critiques.

2013

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