TECH: 101 Tips (60)

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting 5 Jan 2010

Writers' Digest, October 2004, pages 26 to 33, has a collection of short "nuggets of wisdom" related to getting published. Maria Schneider is the author of the compilation. Take a deep breath, and here we go:

"Try narrowing your focus or offering a unique point of view, then offer as much detail as you can about how you'd organize the piece and whom you'd interview. List actual names you know you can get, instead of vaguely referencing 'experts in the field.' Then tell the editor why you're just the writer to do it." Kristin D. Godsey

Another quote that seems to be aimed at the nonfiction side of the house -- although it's probably good advice for fiction writers too. Instead of telling us the history of the universe in three pages or similar wide views of the world, focus on a human-size story. Tell us about someone that we can identify with, doing something that is believable. In a particular place, with very real surroundings and characters. If your little town is in Kansas, we may not be able to find it on Google maps, but we should have the feeling that is an error in the maps -- that is just in between those other three little towns, and it's got that willow tree on the bank of the stream, and the ice cream shop on the main street. Avoid generics -- there may be cheaper, but you want reader recognition. Which means details, specifics, someplace that is waiting just around the edge of your page.

OK? Not a big city, but New York City, Milwaukee, Chicago, San Francisco, or some other particular place. Small towns -- make us feel as if we would recognize it, if we drove through it. And make the people live and breathe.