Category: Magical Words

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words 2/15/2011

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

One challenge as an author is you want people to leave book reviews for you, but the general advice to authors is don’t review other people’s books. How do you help your friends and follow this advice?

Well, the obvious way is leave reviews only for good books.

Me, I don’t follow this very good advice. When I first SERIOUSLY started this journey of editing and writing, I decided to review every book I read. By pulling apart other people’s work, I could figure out what went right and what went wrong – why I liked a book and why I didn’t. And I wanted to go through the process of organizing the thoughts and writing them out, thereby keeping a journal of my learning process. 

I broke 800 reviews this month on GoodReads.

And not all of them are “nice” reviews. But when I write one-star reviews, I write specifics and how I think that they could be fixed. I’m not nasty – I do my best to keep emotions out and state this is the problem with the Manuscript, not the author. If I can’t keep emotions out because the reaction creating the reason for the bad review was emotional, then I clearly state it is my emotions and someone else might react different.

Still giving low grades is a risk.

I really, really wish I could follow Misty Massey’s advice of “Saying Something Nice” at all times. Her advice back in 2011 is the easier path, and the generally accepted path for authors leaving book reviews.

Again, the blog – with quite a few comments – is on Magical Words 2/15/2011.

Do you have an opinion? Share below.

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words 10/6/2008

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of Phil_Bird at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A Post About Anachronism by David B. Coe is over at Magical Words. You know I had to be all over that one.

Anachronism is something out of time, such as my linen aprons with drawn thread embroidery circa 1530 being worked on 2019.

Mr. Coe warns about bringing anachronisms into a fantasy piece, which will throw a reader out of the story. The areas he focused on are worldbuilding, language, and dialogue. I’ve talked about this sort of thing before, mainly in Editing Rants complaining about fact-checking; Mr. Coe discusses it from the creative standpoint from inconsistent technology levels and POV observational limitations. Take a gander at it.  (“Take a gander” being an early 20th century phrase and should not be in a fantasy, an example of anachronistic language.)

Again, the link is:

This post can also be found at Mr. Coe’s website: https://davidbcoe.wordpress.com/2008/10/06/a-post-about-anachronism/

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words 3/11/2008

Erin Penn 1 Comment

Image courtesy of pixtawan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Picture a hand pointing a finger out in front of you, the rest of the fingers curling into the palm of the hand. Which finger is pointing out? Now rotate the hand so it is pointing to the right side, is the front or back of the hand facing you?

Were you able to do that?

Congratulations, you are the part of humanity which can visualize in pictures. Not everyone can, and that can make writing descriptions very difficult. I never realized people can’t see in pictures. Find out more about that in Visualization, a blog post Catie Murphy created for Magical Words, the full post is here:

WRITING EXERCISE: Do you Visualize and to what level do you visualize? Is it full color? Can you hear noises? Is music playing? Can you smell anything? Can you backup the action of the scene? How about rotate the camera angle or focus in on features? How can you use this in your writing?

If you don’t visualize, how do you create a scene? Do you build from the characters out? Do you start at the walls and work your way in? If you don’t see inside your head, can you smell, taste, or hear anything? Is there any advice in the Magical Word post that helps you?

Now, create a scene. Just pop one into your head (if visual) or figure out one you want to describe (if not visual). It needs to be a location that doesn’t actually exist for this exercise, think science fiction or fantasy. Now write out the description, include at least two senses to describe the scene.

READING EXERCISE: What books have provided the best visuals (or other scenes) for you? In your current read, is there a particular scene standing out? Why is it effective?

***

I’m a visual person. Sometimes when I am writing, I close my eyes and see the scene and put my characters in the scene. Strangely the people are darkened out – them I don’t see clearly, but the room and pieces, I can focus in on. Usually I have some sort of music playing too, not necessarily the noises related to the scene.

For Roulette Leadership, I can clearly picture the trench area the men are huddle in. Dirt and grime clings to them, blood splotches, sweat stains, smell of men hard-pressed. Broken green light and shadow flickers across the faces. If I ever expand the flash, I need to add a lot more description.

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words 7/2/2010

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of toonsteb at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

To a Bookstore We Go

Back in 2010, Stuart Jaffe wrote a great blog for Magical Words on how to use a visit to the bookstore to understand the publishing industry and marketing strategy by the publishers and the bookstores. Lots of great questions – I recommend to cut and paste and save. The full blog is here under the title Publishing – Learning at the Bookstore: http://www.magicalwords.net/really-i-mean-it/publishing-learning-at-the-bookstore/

The problem of implementing this strategy in 2019 is finding a bookstore. (sad face)

Instead, go to various eBook locations and see what they are doing in your genre section (and nearby sections). How are “also reads” being linked, do they show series for both novels and novellas, what shows up on your recommends when you first log in, etc? See if you can get a friend or even con someone at a Starbucks to help you do the research and set up your laptops side-by-side and see what different things show up. Can you get someone of a different gender, melanin level, or income strata to help you? What book recommends show up in your Facebook feed or social media sites and do they impact yours (and those helping you) purchases? 

Ask around, how does the casual reader find information versus a veracious reader versus someone connected to the industry?

Does being city or suburbia affect what they look at – and how their market share is reached?

As a writer, editor, or someone in the industry, you might want to do this exercise every year or two – since technology is changing that fast.

WRITING EXERCISE: Do a Market search and get a general feel. Next, guess based on the past, what changes you think you will see in two years? What techniques are equivalent to “book cover out” and “end display” within a bookstore and within eBook book websites, and what do you think they will become? Record your findings and guesses somewhere so you can track changes over time. Repeat in 2021.

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words 5/17/2011

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Circling back to April’s posting on voice, Misty Massey had an excellent followup in Letting Your Voice Be Heard about her struggles to find her voice. Initially, she was scared of its formality, and her agent confirmed her worst fears. She fought with her writer’s voice, afraid to let it shine, to let others see it.

Then she found it.

That is the thing, unlike everything else a writer has to develop, skills which need to be gained – voice is always there. It needs to be uncovered, lifted above all the formal learning and how one “should” sound. It just is.

Once found, it can be sharpened and polished.

As always read the comments, each shows a different author’s approach to voice. And there is an additional commentary about how voices can be influenced by gatekeepers such as your editor.

Again the post is: http://www.magicalwords.net/misty-massey/letting-your-voice-be-heard/

Other Magical Words posts on Voice can be found here:

(6/16/2008) Finding Your Writing Voice by David B. Coe –

(1/18/2010) Writing Your Book, part II: Finding Your Voice by David B. Coe –