Westley

Using Styles

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One of our readers recently pointed out that although we mention in a couple places about how to access style shortcuts, we never really discuss just what, or how important, Styles are, so we’re going to rectify that right now. In Word (and many other writing programs), paragraphs can be set to specific styles…allowing for consistent appearance. The best thing about using styles properly is that if you change a style, it changes all paragraphs of the same style instantaneously…saving you from having to search out and change each one manually.

Seeing Styles

Before you can adequately use styles, you need to be able to see them. Two places where Styles become visible and useful are the Navigation Pane and the Style Area Pane (only in Draft or Outline). Turn on the Navigation Pane by selecting the View Tab, and in the Show Group, check the Navigation Pane box. You should now be able to see it to the left of everything. It may not show much, unless your document is already using styles. The Heading Styles listed in the Navigation Pane can be individually expanded or collapsed by using the small triangles or you can globally show headings of any level by Right-Clicking and choosing Show Heading Levels. That will show the level you pick and any higher.

Accessing the Style Area Pane is more involved. First click on the blue File tab, then select Options (near the bottom). Once there, click on Advanced and scroll down to the Display section. There you’ll find the “Style area pane width in Draft and Outline views:” Set it to a number between 0.5 and 0.75. You can adjust it later, but you need to be able to see it before you can move it around. Click OK to make it happen. Now, when you’re in Draft View (Ctrl-Alt-N) or Outline View (Ctrl-Alt-O), you’ll see the style name for each pgph in a column to the left of the content. Now you can drag the vertical line next to it to adjust the width.

Applying Styles

The most common styles are the built-in Heading Styles. Heading 1 through Heading 9 are each a subheading of the proceeding one, but you can create custom styles—in fact, I recommend it. My typical novel file has styles named Chap Num, Chap Name, etc. I set them up so that when I type a Chapter Number, the next paragraph is automatically Chapter Name, and Body follows next. When I start a new chapter, I just type, no thinking, no formatting, no issues.

You can use any of the styles shown in the Home Tab, but sometimes you don’t want any of those. Good news: You can add to or remove styles in that list. I suggest you remove the ones you aren’t going to use and add in any custom ones you’ve created.

Creating new styles is easy enough…just make formatting changes to a paragraph, then Right-Click, point to Styles ►, and choose Save Selection as New Quick Style… Then give it an appropriate name, and you’re ready to go. Once you have a few styles defined, changing the style of any given paragraph is straightforward. Just click in the paragraph, then click the appropriate Style in the Home Tab. If you’re using the Heading 1, 2, or 3 Styles, you can apply them with a quickie key press: Ctrl-Alt-1, 2, or 3. (Apparently they decided that the other heading styles aren’t used often enough to warrant a shortcut.)

In your haste to be stylish, be careful to not create too many. It defeats the purpose if you have a different style for everything, but do style all the major sections appropriately. It will help you keep focused on your content when the Navigation Pane shows your headings—you can see right where you are in the overall document.

Use Style

Now that you can see, apply, and create your own styles, you need to remember to use them. If you save a blank file with all your styles in it, you can use it as a template whenever you’re starting up a new project. Have fun!

Creating an Author Website

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There are only a few things that you must do in the writing world…and even fewer that everyone agrees on, but if you plan to actually sell your book to folks you don’t know, you’re going to have to let them know it exists. To do that, you’re going to need a website where you can promote your wonderful works, call it your ‘home’ on the Internet—a place to focus your marketing efforts.

What to Name Your Site

Only a few things seem to be required no matter who you ask. The first, and most important one, is getting a Domain Name that matches your Author Name. If the name on the cover of your books doesn’t guide folks to your site, then most likely, they’ll never find you. If you find your given name is too common…or matches someone else (search the web to see who comes up), you may have to opt for a pen name, a nom de plume, a pseudonym. Many famous authors have chosen to use a different name for their writing to hide who they are. For example if they already have a non-fiction following and are now branching out into fiction (Charles Dodgson wrote as Lewis Carroll) or if they are writing an exposé and want to remain safe from persecution (Steven Billy Mitchell used the pseudonym Andy McNab to hide his connection to a failed military mission).

Other reasons to pick a new name is that your given name may not feel right for the topic you’re writing. Pearl Gray didn’t feel his name fit the western genre that he wrote, so he dropped his first name and changed the spelling of his last name to become Zane Grey. Then there are the gender issues where some female writers will hide their gender with either a pseudonym (like Alice B. Sheldon who published under James Tiptree, Jr.) or just initials (such as D. C. Fontana, J. D. Robb, and of course J. K. Rowling). Another reason may be that you’re trying out a new genre and you don’t want to confuse your readers. For example, Isaac Asimov used the name Paul French for a series of juvenile science fiction that didn’t fit into the rest of his writing.

What to Put on Your Site

The first thing visitors should see is your latest book (you do have more than one by now, right?). They aren’t there to find out about you…they want something to read, so show them what you have. As they scroll, they should find your other books, either listed vertically or just a horizontal row of covers. Each one should have a short blurb and should link to a page with more details (and a purchase link).

If you have a Mailing List, you could ask them to sign up for it…offer them some kind of reward for doing so…maybe the beginning of a new story or a short that hasn’t been published or a newsletter that will let them know what’s going on with you. You want to keep them informed and get some kind of response from them. A Call to Action is required if you’re going to get any good out of this site.

Next on the list should be your events page. You’ll want them to find you, either on line or live at a book signing or author promotion. If you team up with other authors in your local area, you could find a bookstore where you can all set up tables to sell signed copies of your book. That’s always appreciated by your readers.

Picture of Westley in Victorian outfitThe last thing every author site should have is the About the Author page. That’s where you put your contact info (via a form instead of publishing your email address). That makes you seem more approachable. Any links to social media would be good, too. And don’t forget a good picture (unless you’re in hiding!) like the one of me to the right. Although it’s a bit old, I really like this shot—it has the right attitude.  🙂

Share Your Page

That just about covers all the needed items. If you have other ideas, go ahead and add them in…after you’ve gotten the basics. Send us the site address, so we can see how you’re doing. We might just feature you and your work in a future posting!

Head Hopping

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Although Head Hopping sounds as if it could be some kind of children’s game, in writing, it’s a problem many newbie authors aren’t even aware of—despite being a logical mistake. After all, as he is creating his characters, he is all of them, in all their heads, feeling for all of them. He may balk at trying to keep in just one character’s view, because he then runs into the difficulty of letting the Reader know what the bad guy is planning—without letting the MC know. Some editors are rather touchy about POV slips, and some even judge it to be an amateurish mistake, so many stories come back from critique all marked up: Head Hopping. Once you’ve become serious about writing, you’ll probably discover that, other than Show Don’t Tell, you hear mentions of Head Hopping often…and wonder what it is.

Well, Head Hopping is related to Point of View—the perspective of the character through whose eyes and ears we experience the story. If the story suddenly switches from one character’s viewpoint to another, it disrupts the flow of the story…confusing readers, making them stop to figure out where they are. That means we need to understand just what Point of View is.

What is POV?

We have a post dedicated to POV, so here we are just going to hit the high points. First Person—in the head of the MC. Second Person—in your own head. Third Person Limited—in no one’s head…just a Fly on the Wall. Whatever the fly sees, the reader sees…whatever the fly hears, the reader hears—only in that room, at that time—no internal thoughts or emotions at all, just faces scrunched up or tears running down cheeks.

Third Person Omniscient—in everyone’s head, but only from a distance. We lose the opportunity to know any of the characters up close. The Omniscient Narrator, far removed from the story, sees all, knows all, and can report on the thoughts and emotions of anyone, but we don’t get to hear those thoughts or feel those emotions from the characters themselves. This technique avoids head hopping by taking a bird’s eye view, removing the reader from the story, from the action, from the characters—not telling the story from any one character’s perspective, rather from the perspective of some unidentified, all-knowing, massive, floating entity who is not even involved in the story. In some stories that may work, but most readers want to be in the action (picturing themselves as the characters…you know, escapism).

So, Where’s The Problem?

Most of the levels of POV are safe from Head Hopping. The issue only pops up when we use Third Person Close. In that POV, we sit on a character’s shoulder…listening to his thoughts, feeling his emotions, seeing the world through his eyes. Now although that’s a fine and dandy way to pull a reader into a story, because you are actually in his head, you can’t be in anyone else’s. In most cases, that’s satisfactory. The only difficulty is when you have some information that the POV character doesn’t have or isn’t supposed to have. How do you get that information to the reader?… Or do you?

Sometimes a lack of information is a good thing. Suspense can keep the reader interested, and instead of giving everything away, you can let the Reader (and the MC) figure things out for themselves based on what has been revealed—a technique known as Sub Text. Just remember that bouncing around in multiple points of view can not only be confusing to the reader, but also kick them out of the story, reminding them that they are reading something…rather than being there. As with an Omniscient Narrator, the reader can’t be in the story, experiencing it first-hand. The head hopping prevents them from suspending their disbelief. Let your readers become part of your story—keep them happy. Keep the POV tight, and your readers will develop a strong, emotional connection to the character…unbroken by lazy writing—they’ll care about him and what happens to him.

Revealing Information

Sometimes, there are things happening out of the view of the POV character, but he needs to know about them. The quick and easy way to handle this situation is to have a Witness. Some other character can come running up and tell the MC all about what just happened down the street, around the corner, in the building. If the information isn’t urgent, then finding out later may work, via a news article or a message.

On the other hand, you may have some information that the MC isn’t supposed to know (such as what the bad guy is doing). The only way to reveal that info to the reader is by switching to a new POV…and that can be done only at a break—a section break, a chapter break, or a scene break (don’t forget to use *** to show a change in location, time, or POV).

Avoid Head Hopping

When you list out your scenes and their purpose, always include the POV character…the character who has the most to gain or lose in that scene. That will also allow you to see whether all your key characters are getting a turn at presenting the story. Then, just start the scene with their name and write on!

How to Keep Writing (Motivation)

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Once you start writing, you’ll find that it isn’t as easy as it looks. You may start a few projects, then abandon them…unfinished. A common problem amongst writers, so how do you deal with it? The answer depends on where you are when you hit that wall. Some writers never even started, despite the fact that they claim they want to write. Some get going, but then the enthusiasm fades away as they get deeper and deeper into the story. Then there are the ones who seem to be afraid of finishing. If you never actually complete your book, then you won’t have to hear anyone critique it—avoiding failure by avoiding completion? That’s not what you want to do.

How Far Have You Gotten?

If you’ve just started…or are just thinking about starting…you may have concerns whether your writing is going to be worth anyone’s time. Don’t consider that now…just write for yourself. Once you get going and have a project in development, then you can start thinking about your Target Reader. Ideas loose in your head just get all jumbled up and confused. Merely putting them onto paper will help spotlight where you need to expand.

Other writers get bogged down near the end of their undertaking. The closer they get, the more they fear that it won’t turn out as they wanted. Sometimes the ending they’ve planned just won’t work out because of some things that have happened earlier in the story. They thought they knew which way it was going, but when they got there, it just wouldn’t happen.

I can commiserate with them entirely. I knew how a novel I was working on was going to end…but half-way through, the characters told me that they didn’t want that ending. [sigh] I had to go with what they wanted and rewrite the entire ending.

The mere fact that you have come this far is a testament to your determination…just a bit more and you’ll be done! You’ll have accomplished something few others have. It won’t be completely finished, but I’ve always said that I can’t edit a blank page. Get it written…then address the issues.

The majority of failed writers get stuck half way through the novel. The beginning and the end are fine…it’s the muddle that drags them down. Trying to keep inspired as you’re writing can be a problem.

How to Keep Going

No matter where you get stuck, there are ways to get going again, but first you need to decide if you want to keep going. If writing is a hobby…because you like writing…then there’s no reason to keep going. I wrote a resignation letter one time that used the line: “If it ain’t fun, don’t do it.”

On the other hand, if you are writing in hopes of making a living, then you need to treat writing as a job. If you called your plumber, and he said, “I just don’t feel like plumbing today”, you’d probably be a bit surprised. What if your baker decided to take a day off because he wasn’t in the mood to bake? It would shock you. If you, as a writer, didn’t put forth at least some effort every day, then it isn’t really a job…I don’t know what it is.

The best habit to develop is of writing daily, then half the battle is conquered. Excepting weekends, you sit and write…whether you feel like it or not. Some days may be more productive than others, but at least you have something to show for it.

I heard tell of a writer who stopped for lunch after spending the morning writing. His wife asked him how it was going, and he replied, “I put in a comma.” That evening, after working all afternoon, he answered his wife’s question with: “I took the comma out.” Not all days are going to yield something creative, but at least you’re attempting to do it. In basketball, they say that you’ll miss every shot that you don’t try.

Track Your Progress

Daily writing goals help, and by graphing your work, you’ll see how it adds up…how close you are to your goal. Using Excel to graph your progress can be challenging, but if you keep the analytical side of your brain active, you can reserve the creative side for your writing. (When I was in university, I always took a maths/science class as well as art/creative writing class…and I used the far south carpark if I didn’t have a kinesiology class. Gotta to keep both parts of your brain active!)

If you prefer someone else graph your work, use a program similar to Pacemaker Planner to set up a goal and daily plan, either word count or time spent. It then shows how much work you need to do—as you work, you enter how far you’ve gotten. It then compares that with where you should be…and can adjust the later dates to accommodate your actual progress. (Very useful if you’re trying NaNoWriMo.)

Eliminate Distractions

If you get easily distracted, most word processing programs have a Distraction Free setting. If you need more, there are programs out there comparable to Focus Writer. It allows you to configure an environment and background that helps you stay on task.

Blind Write takes a unique attitude towards writing. Fully espousing the philosophy of turning off your internal editor during the process of writing, they allow you to set your topic and a timer, then just type away…the only thing is that you can’t see what you’re typing…not until the timer runs out. It’s certainly a good way to get some ideas down without being bothered by small typos, phrasing issues, word choice problems, etc. Once the timer ends and you can finally see what you’ve typed, you just copy and paste the text into any word processor for clean-up. (It will really test your typing skills, too!)

I really recommend you try it…even if just for fun.

The Five C’s of Plot

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Just as we earlier had gone over the Three C’s of Writing, we will now look at the Five C’s of Plot. By considering these five ideas, you will be able to develop a skeleton that you can then fill in with appropriate details to build up your story. These aren’t named quite the same as the Five Plot Points, but I’ll show where they tie in. Before you start expanding your story by aiming for the Plot Points, you may want to at least identify what these concepts are in your story, so you can use them as a guide.

Character

Of course you have to have some characters in your story…otherwise who would we be reading about? Some authors argue that Plot is more important than characters…others argue the other way around. I find that Characters are part of plot, so you can’t have one without the other.

Right up front, you need to create a wonderful main character (MC) that the readers can worry about. You’ll also need a flock of minor characters to carry out the various tasks required of them (Elements—Character). We get to know all these characters in Plot Point #1, Introduction, but they need to be believable, not flat, or the reader won’t care what happens to them. All right, now that you have your cast of thousands, what do you do with them?

Conflict

Here is where the real story starts. To find the conflict, the question you have to ask yourself is why is this day different from all others? That’s the key to the start of conflict. Something happens in our Hero’s life that disrupts things the way they were. Although he spends the rest of the story trying to get back to normal, it never happens. This change in his situation makes a change in him as well.

The Conflict could be internal (he realises that he needs to change) or external (someone or something interferes with his life). A good example is a Bad Guy taking something away from him or preventing him from getting something he desires. It could also be something as simple as a tree branch falling on his car. This conflict happens as part of Plot Point #2, Inciting Event, but that’s just the beginning.

Complications

Here is where the bulk of your story resides. There is a problem…and every time your MC tries to fix the problem in front of him, another, greater, problem develops. You can have fun with these complications…dreaming up more and more convoluted difficulties. If he gets out a chainsaw to cut up the branch lying across his car…he could find the gas tank empty…OR he could be cutting the branch apart and the saw kicks back…slicing off his fingers!

It’s your choice to envision appropriate setbacks for him…depending on how seriously you want him to fail. These complications, taking place during the Rising Action, continue to escalate until the Hero is defeated…he has reached his Darkest Point (Plot Point #3).

Climax

This is the point where your Hero finally turns things around, coming from behind to somehow defeat the enemy. The method he uses to succeed in completing the challenge is up to you, but it has to be logical, though not predictable. Twenty-twenty hindsight will make it clear why he did what he did, but the reader shouldn’t be able to guess what’s going to happen before it does.

In addition, you have to remember that it has to be his decision that makes the difference, though possibly guided by his Mentor. Once he makes that decision, and is committed to following through, he goes for it and something changes…either himself or the world…but he never manages to return to his old self (Transformation). This part of the process matches up with Plot Point #4, also called Climax (isn’t that amazing?).

Conclusion

Now you finally get to tie up all those loose ends you left lying about with all the subplots you so carefully wove throughout the story and maybe explain how your Hero achieved his victory. This is your chance to show the reader the new world that was created by the Hero’s change.

Now would be a good time to allude to other activities in the continuation of the story…possibly revealing that a subsequent story may be about to take place. (Remember, the best way to get your first book to sell is to write a second book…and to get that one popular? Just write a third! You aren’t a one-trick pony, are you?) After all this, you’ve ultimately reached Plot Point #5, Resolution, just with a different name.

Put It All Together

Now that you have the Five C’s identified, all you have to do is figure out the rest of the story…but with this foundation, that should be easy, right?

First Impressions

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Readers can’t buy your book unless they know it exists, and it’s your job to let them know that your amazing book is out there and ready for them to find. A big way you can make a good first impression is knowing what your book is about. Yes, you’ve written it, so you know everything that is going on in it, but can you succinctly explain what it’s about…without hemming and hawing…stuttering…taking way too much of someone’s time? That is where creating an Elevator Speech will help.

The next biggest way to announce that your creation is out there works when you aren’t even around: printed info that you can hand out or make available for folks to grab later. We’ll cover both of those right now.

Elevator, Blurb, or Logline

If you have only 30 seconds…as the elevator moves from floor to floor…to tell someone about your book, you need to have a quick, yet complete, summary of your book…ready to go. That’s the idea behind an Elevator Speech. You’ve prewritten it to include enough information to catch someone’s attention, yet it leaves out enough to keep their curiosity up. Once you’ve perfected it…and practiced it in front of a mirror until you’re tired of it…you’ll be ready to tell anyone, any time, all about your book.

When used on the back cover as a blurb, you can also add quotes from well-known folks in appropriate fields, either praises about the content of the book or compliments regarding your expertise in writing it. When done right, the back cover can entice potential purchasers to open up the book and start reading…right there in the store aisle.

Though similar to a Synopsis, an Elevator Speech differs in content and audience. A Synopsis includes a brief, but complete, version of your entire story…including the Climax and Resolution…and is intended for Acquisition Editors or Agents. They don’t want to be entertained…rather they need to know that it is a finished product and has a satisfactory ending, so they can evaluate the marketability. Elevator Speeches, on the other hand, usually stop just shy of the Climax, often barely hinting at the Darkest Point. They are for prospective readers who need to be convinced that they must read the whole thing.

If you shorten it even more, you can use it as a Logline. Often only one sentence long, a Logline captures the main character, the central conflict, and the stakes involved, along with a key concept that makes your book distinctive.

Printed Material

You can’t always be around when readers are looking for something to read, but instead of trying to find them, let them find you. If you can put your info into their hands, then you can sit back and let them come to you. Putting your contact info…and enough of a hook…on different kinds of items can work wonders for your sales. You can use something as small as a business card (though there’s not much room for your pitch) or a bookmark (more room…for a picture, too), as big as a postcard (cover picture and a blurb), or even as huge as a poster (plenty of room for all kinds of info).

Business cards can be handed out whenever you meet with readers…and they will remember you when they get home. Bookmarks are always useful to readers and can be offered to interested folks. Postcards can be mailed as well as being available for folks to pick up when they wander past your table at the book fair. Posters that can be seen across a room will attract attention, drawing folks to come over to see what all the fuss is about. (Imagine a 3 foot by 5 foot poster of the picture to the side…now that draws a crowd every time he sets it up!)

Any type of handout you use should include some basic info: your name, your site (and QR), the book’s name, and the Logline or Tagline. On the larger ones, include your book’s front cover, so they’ll recognise it when they go shopping. You can also use a scene from in the book in addition to the cover to draw more attention.

QR Codes

We’ve mentioned QR codes in more than a few postings, but we never detailed just what they are. Let’s rectify that deficiency now. The abbreviation QR stands for Quick Response—a method of encoding information (such as a URL) in printed material that can be scanned by a smartphone.

Sharing your URL in print is fine, but folks often balk at having to type it all in or even just searching for your site. Putting it on your business card as a QR code eliminates that issue…they can just scan it with their phone, and it will take them directly to whatever page you’ve encoded. That’s a key point…because you pick the page they are sent to, you can have multiple similar pages and different QR codes on different items pointing to each one. That way you can see which handouts give you the best return for your investment—you can do your own A/B testing.

A Logline or a Tagline?

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Although today is National Grammar Day, we aren’t going to examine any aspect of grammar…rather we are going to expose yet another baffling term that is probably new to you…actually a pair of terms that are often confused. Because you’ll probably need both a Tagline and a Logline, it’s a pretty good idea to distinguish them.

Logline

Commonly expanded and used as an Elevator Speech, or expanded even more to become a Blurb, a Logline is a quick description of your book that includes enough information so the reader knows what it’s all about. Easy enough to build…determine the proper parts and put them together.

Start with your main character…but not his name, just a quick description as an outsider would see him with a couple descriptive adjectives to give some depth.

  • A former boy scout

Then you need to add some setting, just enough to set the general situation or time period. You could also include an indication of genre here.

  • A former boy scout, now in his early twenties, is finishing up college

Next, mention what’s changed in his life. Why is the story starting here? That would be the Inciting Event from Act I. Don’t go into too much detail, just a quick reason why things have changed.

  • A former boy scout, now in his early twenties, is finishing up college and arranges one last great adventure with some fellow scouts

Now we need to know the stakes…what could happen…what are the risks?

  • A former boy scout, now in his early twenties, is finishing up college and arranges one last great adventure with some fellow scouts. Using some experimental technology, they plan to travel far to experience a new world

Finally we need to get the reader to care about the characters.

  • A former boy scout, now in his early twenties, is finishing up college and arranges one last great adventure with some fellow scouts. Using some experimental technology, they plan to travel far to experience a new world where they discover more about themselves than they expected and have to make some crucial decisions to ensure that all return safely

Optional

To keep the tension strong, a ticking clock is handy to have.

  • A former boy scout, now in his early twenties, is finishing up college and arranges one last great adventure with some fellow scouts. Using some experimental technology, they plan to travel far to experience a new world where they discover more about themselves than they expected and have to make some crucial decisions to ensure that all return safely before the door to the new world closes.

That covers the Logline, just two sentences.

Tagline

Often found as a subtitle on a novel, the Tagline gives a feeling of what the book is about…but none of the details. You can’t predict anything about the book from the Tagline, but it makes you want look more, just like a slogan—complementing your cover image as it illuminates the heart of your book.

Creating a Logline was a straightforward step-by-step process…creating a Tagline, on the other hand, is a whole ’nother ball of wax. Because your Tagline has little to do with the content of your book, there is no quick and easy method to create one. It is a purely creative task, so we suggest that you consider the list below for inspiration and do a lot of brainstorming. Come up with as many as you can and pass them by your friends and family, critique partners, possibly total strangers. See how they react, what questions they ask, what excites them. Would they pick up the book based on that alone?

You’ll probably recognise some of the following Taglines…and could even name the book, movie, or show.

  • There can be only one.
  • A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…
  • Who you gonna call?
  • One ring to rule them all.
  • …the temperature at which books burn.
  • Winter is coming.
  • Don’t go in the water.
  • Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…
  • Winning will make you famous. Losing means certain death.
  • The truth is out there.
  • We are not alone.
  • There are two sides to every story.
  • Half Boy. Half God. All Hero.

As you can see, even if you know what those Taglines refer to, by themselves, they don’t give any clue what the story is about. That’s the problem with Taglines. All we can do is wish you luck!

Grammar and Readability

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If you search the web for Writer’s Tools, you’ll find quite a few suggestions out there…mostly falling into a few major categories: Grammar and Readability, Keeping Writing, and Finding the Right Word. There are even more tool ideas that don’t fit into any of those groups, but we are going to just hit a few of the big ones. Today, we will look at a few places where you can check the grammar of your writing…and as a bonus, get an indication of how tough it is for a typical reader to get through it.

Be advised, none of the tools we are going to cover can give your writing the same attention that an actual human reader can, so we always recommend having someone familiar with publishing traditions give a close look at anything you want to share with the world. (We are always available for those tasks!)

Grammar Checkers

Besides the built-in spell and grammar checkers in most word processing programs, there are sites that are dedicated to checking your spelling, grammar, and style. Four big ones seem to come up in most lists: Hemingway, ProWritingAid, Readable, and Grammarly. Each has their high and low points, all come with both a free and a paid version, and some don’t even require that you have an account or a log in if all you need is a quick check via the web.

We recommend taking a few paragraphs of some of your writing and run them through all of them, just to get a feel for what they can do.

  • Hemingway is easy and straightforward…no fluff here.
  • ProWritingAid is a bit more exhaustive and comprehensive (though it takes a bit of sleuthing to find the free, web-based version).
  • Readable has a quick-check site that is easy to access, though they push the paid version quite thoroughly.
  • Grammarly is rather involved and complicated (and the only one that requires you to have an account and log in…even to use the free version).

Once you’ve tested them out and found your favourite, stick with it. Switching back and forth from one to another will just serve to drive you crazy as one will suggest changing A to B and the next will say to swap B to A. The bottom line is always your Target Reader, so keep in mind that these programs just give suggestions. If all they do is help you find places where you can improve your writing in general, then they’ve done their job well.

Readability Scoring

When it comes to getting an opinion on how readable your text is, the jury is still out. Apparently, every new study has created their own way to measure readability…including measuring sentence length, determining word complexity, and counting syllables. Some methods return a grade level…others a numeric score. Grade levels range from 5th grade (very easy for an 11 year old to understand) up to professional (difficult for university graduates to comprehend). Some of the numeric scores roughly correspond to a percent of the mainstream audience who will grasp the concepts involved…others are based on a different scale.

Generally, we want our writing to fall into the 7th to 9th grade level or 60–80 on the percentage scale. Anything more difficult than that may put off some readers…especially the ones who are reading as an escape from having to think. If they want to read something that is more challenging, there are plenty of text books available to them.

Here are some example scoring systems in use:

  • Grade Level (lower=easier)
    • Flesch-Kincaid
    • Gunning fog
    • Coleman-Liau
    • SMOG
    • Automated Readability
    • Fry
    • FORCAST
    • Powers Sumner Kearl
    • Rix
    • Raygor
    • CEFR
    • Spache
    • New Dale-Chall
  • Numeric Score (higher=easier)
    • Flesch Reading Ease
    • IELTS
    • Lix
    • Lensear

As you can see, there are way too many options out there, but most readability calculators include either or both of the Flesch scores, so that’s a good place to start.

What are Weasel Words?

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Some sites suggest that you avoid Weasel Words, but how can you steer clear of them if you don’t know what they are? That’s why we are going to consider them in this post. By definition, weasel words “suck the life” out of the words they are near, rendering them weak and lifeless…similar to the eggs left after the weasel has had dinner. (Apparently weasels don’t actually suck the eggs out, but they do tend to leave empty shells behind.) In trying to keep your piece strong, you certainly don’t want any dull or boring, lifeless words, so it might be a good idea to at least be aware of weasel words.

Why Weasel?

A multitude of explanations exist for why the term ‘weasel’ is used, but none of them are accepted as the true and correct account. In addition to Shakespeare’s mentioning the habit of weasels sucking eggs (twice), both Theodore Roosevelt and Stewart Chaplin used similar phrasings in the early 1900s when they described ‘weasel words’ in relation to political posturing. Roosevelt said that he preferred a particular platform because it contained no weasel words, and Chaplin wrote a short story where a politician said that his platform, as most, was full of weasel words. In both cases they were referring to positions that had lost their potency because of these weasel words.

An earlier tale referencing weasels is when Hercules was born. As his mother was about to give birth, her servant Galanthis announced his birth early…foiling the conspiracy of the goddess Lucina to prevent his birth. In retribution, Lucina transformed Galanthis into a weasel, because “her lying mouth helped in childbirth”. From that we get the idea that weasels are tricky, dishonest, or deceitful. Weasel words are also misleading, giving meaning where none should be.

Whatever the source, and despite the fact that weasels don’t actually suck eggs, the term seems to have stuck, so we’ll deal with it when we see it.

Examples of Weasel Words

Weasel words can be grouped into a few main types: numerical, passive, or adverbs that weaken. All of these often appear in copy that is intended to influence decision making, such as adverts and political rhetoric. Frequently you’ll hear about “some people” who believe or support something…but who are they? Do you trust them? Just how many of them are there?? What about claims that “many experts recommend” this item? Does that have any power to influence you? Again, how many, who are they, and what exactly do they recommend? Consider something that is “up to 50% off”…well, if it is only ONE percent off, then it is “up to” 50%, so that phrase doesn’t really mean much, yet it may cause you to consider a purchase.

We’ve seen Passive Voice being used when we don’t know who the actor in a statement is, but it is also used to avoid responsibility. Instead of saying, “We made a mistake”, you’ll hear, “A mistake was made.” No one is admitting fault, so there can be no punishment. Would you buy something that “experience shows that” it is good? Whose experience? What did they experience? How does their experience connect to the product? And if “common sense insists” you should do it, should you? Are we to make decisions based on what “everyone else” thinks or does? “No product is better” would be true even if no product were worse.

Good Claims Don’t Have Weasel Words

Now that you know what weasel words are, you can strengthen your assertions as you write. Say what you mean, and say it with conviction. Don’t be wishy-washy or wimpy. State your case and stand behind it.

First Steps to Marketing (Mailing Lists and Author Profiles)

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Marketing is not one of the things most authors look forward to doing…after all, if they really enjoyed marketing, then they’d probably be doing that instead of writing. Everyone says that the first thing a new author needs is a website, but creating a good one can be a daunting task. Once you’ve started on that task, is there anything else you can be doing? Of course, but be warned…it’s going to take some time…expect to work on marketing your book for a few months before it is released…at least four to six months ahead, so don’t wait too long to start.

It’s also going to take time away from your writing, so you have a choice…either write another book or publicise the one you have out. Both are important, so we recommend that you split your time, devoting equal amounts to writing and marketing. It has been said that the best way to get your book to sell is to write another one, so don’t stop writing.

Mailing Lists

We’ll go into more detail about to create and work with Mailing Lists in a later post, but what you need to know now is that they are an important part of your marketing strategy. Collecting contact info from loyal fans gives you opportunities to let the faithful know about your doings, whether it be a new book being released soon, a signing, or just a visit to another town. They want to know these things.

What you need to know now is that it takes time to build up a proper list, so you should start working on it as soon as possible…even if your book isn’t quite finished yet. The best way is to include a Sign Up button in whatever marketing plan you use. Give readers an opportunity…but don’t make it bigger than the message. You can include some kind of gift for signing up…such as an unpublished short story that ties into your next novel or a worksheet for your non-fiction book. Include the links in a variety of places, so readers can easily sign up: your About the Author pages, your business cards and bookmarks, any fliers you’ve created, etc. The more you spread it around, the better.

Once you have a decent list built up, use it only a few times a year. You want to keep your Target Readers active and interested…not annoyed. These folks have an exclusive connection with you, so use it to share exclusive deals, such as specials on your books (a temporary low price on a new release or a boxed set). You can even share with them new short stories related to your next upcoming novel.

Author Profiles

An easy option is to create profiles on multiple sites. You create them, then ignore them, updating them only when a new book is about to be released. Besides Amazon and Goodreads, author pages are available on a variety of sites such as Smashwords, Author’s Den, Authorsdb, and Poets&Writers.

Be certain to use a professional-looking photo…no outdoor pictures with your dog…unless your books are about dogs, of course! Fill in your bio with relevant info that will attract readers. Including references to other authors that you admire in your genre will make connections for the readers. You can also use LinkedIn to connect to those other authors.

Once your profiles are set up, move on. Advertising on these sites isn’t often worth the effort (or money), so just get your name out there…then wait. Revisit them occasionally to respond to comments, but don’t waste too much of your writing time there.

Many of these sites will allow you to link your blog (from your personal website), so when you make a new posting, it will be automatically posted there, too. Trying to maintain multiple sites separately will drain too much of your writing time, so don’t spend too much time figuring it out. It’s fine if you’re not certain how to link your blog…you’re an author, not an IT geek. Just as you would seek the expertise of an editor, find a techie who will work with you to automate your postings. Don’t forget to mention (and link) to your various profiles from your personal website for more exposure.