11 Things That Drive Readers and Editors Crazy (And Not in a Good Way)

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I’ve been doing a lot of self-editing lately. It’s funny how you can see problems in other peoples’ stories, but they’re not always apparent in your own. I appreciate feedback from editors, beta readers, and critique group members that help me catch some of the boo boos as I polish my WIPs. These pet peeves can be a turn off for readers.

  1. Editors always warn writers about “showing” not “telling.” They’re right. Readers prefer to see and interpret narrative and dialogue and not to get a play-by-play report like a newscast.

  2. Backstory is good and helpful in small doses. Please sprinkle it in throughout the work. Don’t do paragraph after paragraph of data dumps about a character’s past. Too much information!

  3. Sometimes, it’s necessary to have different points of view, and skilled authors do this very well. (Thriller/suspense writers are really good at this.) Typically in mysteries, the story is told from one point of view. When you hop around from different characters, it confuses the reader and breaks the flow of the story. And beginning writers who write in first person (I/me), often switch to another character or show something that happens that the protagonist isn’t privy too. That doesn’t work with first person.

  4. Introduce your characters and mix in what they look like. I’ve found that new writers tend to do a dump of several paragraphs of description every time there is a new character. Your writing reads like a police report or a list of facts when you do this.

  5. Not every piece of dialogue needs a tag or attribute (e.g. “he said,” “she said). One of my editors calls this “talking head syndrome.” If you’ve made it clear in the paragraph who is speaking, you don’t need the tag.

  6. While not every piece of dialogue needs a tag/attribute, make sure that you don’t go for pages and not identify any of the speakers. If there are only two people, the reader assumes that it’s a back and forth, but if you have multiples, you need to give the reader clues. The reader wants to know who is speaking.

  7. Read your dialogue out loud. Delete all the chitchat that doesn’t move your story forward. I know; it’s hard. I’m southern, and I like to say please and thank you a lot. The mundane needs to go.

  8. People do not talk in complete or formal sentences. It’s okay to have phrases and slang in dialogue. That’s the way people communicate. (I had a person in my critique group once who wanted all the sentences to be complete and proper. This doesn’t always work for the speaking parts.)

  9. Writers often want to make sure that the reader understands what’s mentioned in dialogue by adding details about the characters, but sometimes this leads to you stating the obvious. Example: If two sisters were talking, and you bring up another character in dialogue that they both know from childhood, you don’t have to put in all the details to explain who the person is. You can sprinkle in facts in the conversation. The characters should know that Bob is their uncle.

  10. When you are at the editing/revising stage of your project, go back and look at the closing sentence of each chapter. Make sure they are compelling enough to keep the reader reading. Beginning writers like to wrap up things neatly at the end of the chapter. You want your reader to read past her bedtime. Don’t give the reader a convenient place to put a bookmark.

  11. Know what your crutch words are. These are the words and phrases that you use over and over, and often you don’t realize it. I make a list, and then when I’m editing, I go through in search and destroy mode to get rid of them.

What else would you add to my list? What drives you crazy as a reader?

#ThisorThatThursday Interview with Author Amy Reade

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I’d like to welcome author Amy Reade to the blog this week, and I’m so excited that I get to see her in person at the Suffolk Mystery Authors Festival this weekend!

Here’s Amy’s interview…

A few of your favorite things: Cheese, wine, and maple syrup.

Things you need to throw out: So. Much. Stuff…in my attic, from the antique child’s potty chair I planned to use as a planter to the eleven hundred charging cords that don’t match any electronics we have.

Things you need for your writing sessions: Either silence or instrumental music/ambient sounds, depending on what I’m writing.

Things that hamper your writing: Noise and being exhausted.

Hardest thing about being a writer: The soggy middle.
Easiest thing about being a writer: The beginning and the end.

Things you never want to run out of: Enthusiasm and books.

Things you wish you’d never bought: A Hawaiian blouse reminiscent of Carmen Miranda.

Favorite music or song: At the moment, Vintage Italia by Putumayo and the soundtrack to “Outlander.”

Music that drives you crazy: Rap and hip-hop.

Last best thing you ate: A cheese stick.
Last thing you regret eating: The carrot cake at a restaurant last night. They didn’t even use cream cheese frosting. Who does that??

Things you’d walk a mile for: My dog.

Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: Rap and hip-hop.

Things you always put in your books: Mystery.
Things you never put in your books: Sex.

 Things to say to an author: “We’d like to put your book on the big screen.”

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: “I don’t read genre fiction.”

Favorite places you’ve been: Scotland, Hawaii, and the Thousand Islands.
Places you never want to go to again: A rib joint in New York City where the waiter was drunk and ate our onion appetizer on the way to the table.

Favorite books (or genre): Mysteries
Books you wouldn’t buy: There are no books I would categorically not buy, but I will say this—I haven’t bought Marie Kondo’s book about sparking joy.

The nicest thing a reader said to you: “You write just like Victoria Holt.”

The craziest thing a reader said to you: “I killed someone and I think you and I should write a book about it.” This person showed up at my front door after finding my address in a local business’s client database (his wife worked for the business; we don’t use them anymore). This is why I have a big dog

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About Amy:

Amy M. Reade is a recovering attorney who discovered, quite by accident, a passion for fiction writing. She has penned nine mysteries and is working on two more, plus a Cape May County historical mystery series. She writes in the Gothic, traditional, contemporary, and cozy mystery subgenres and looks forward to continuing the two series she has begun since December, 2018. She also loves to read, cook, and travel. 

She is the USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Secrets of Hallstead House, The Ghosts of Peppernell Manor, House of the Hanging Jade, the Malice series, the Juniper Junction Holiday Mystery series, and the Libraries of the World Mystery series.

Her most recent work is Dead, White, and Blue, Book Two in the Juniper Junction Holiday Mystery series.

Let’s Be Social:

Website: www.amymreade.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/amreadeauthor

Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/AmyMReadesGothicFictionFans

Twitter: www.twitter.com/readeandwrite

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/amreade

Instagram: www.instagram.com/amymreade

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Amy-M.-Reade/e/B00LX6ASF2/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Goodreads Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8189243.Amy_M_Reade

BookBub Page: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/amy-m-reade

When Fiction Becomes Reality...

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I’m often asked by readers if I base my stories or characters on real events or people. I do. I write where I know. All of my stories are set in Virginia. I’ve lived in the Commonwealth all my life, and I want to share it’s beauty and history.

My characters that are based on real people tend to be mash ups of several different people. My friends and coworkers often find things they’ve said in a book or story. I’m always taking notes. I never base villains or killers on real people. I don’t use real places if a horrible crime takes place there.

But, I’ve also had the opposite happen, and it’s very interesting and often surprising. I’ve written about characters and situations that have come true or that turned out to be real. And I didn’t know they were real. We just finished watching the three seasons of “Stranger Things,” and when I found out about these surprises, I felt like I was in the UpsideDown.

In my Delanie Fitzgerald mysteries, Chaz Smith’s lawyer is named Rick Dixon. One morning, I was driving down the road, and a local business owner came on the radio with an advertisement for his services. I did a doubletake when I heard the name.

I also had a reader contact me about one of my characters in “Washed up” in Virginia is for Mysteries. The character was named Roy Brown. She said she had to tell me that that was her husband’s name.

Also in “Washed up,” I loosely based the restaurant/bar on one that was at Chicks Beach at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia Beach. When I used to hang out there in the 70s and 80s, it was a snack bar with a deck. Later it became a restaurant. In the story, the characters create a mystery to help save the financially strapped business from going under. The story was published in 2014, and I found out shortly after that that the real restaurant had closed because of bankruptcy.

In “Diggin’ up Dirt” in To Fetch a Thief, I wrote about a couple who moved into their new house and found all kinds of things that had been left in strange places. We recently moved, and we found some interesting things that had been left (most were DIY projects gone bad). Thankfully, we didn’t find what the characters in “Diggin’ up Dirt” found in their backyard. The little dog Darby is based in my Jack Russell Terrier, Disney.

I got an odd, woo-woo feeling when I found out about the real situations, but it’s fun to find out fiction isn’t that far from reality.

What Did You Do for Your Writing Journey This Week?

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We moved in May, so we’ve been doing a lot of unpacking, rearranging, and house projects lately. (That seems to be all that we do lately.) My work life is in software testing and IT governance. I’m a list maker, and I like to see milestones and progress in all kinds of projects, including my writing. Sometimes, it feels like little or no forward motion has been made. I was thinking about it last week, so I decided to make a list to see what I had actually been working on.

  1. Sent the next Mutt Mystery novella to the last beta reader in the collection.

  2. Edited a short story for a future anthology submission.

  3. Took Tiffany Yates Martin’s “The Biggest Mistakes Writers Make” webinar.

  4. Added a new feature to the blog that will start July 17. It’s called #ThisorThatThursday. It will be a fun way to showcase some really cool authors. (I sent them a list of pairs of things, and they have to tell us about each one. Check it out next week.)

  5. Sent my cozy WIP to a fabulous editor and beta reader.

  6. Am editing my third Delanie novel in hopes of sending that to the editor next week.

  7. Read the first 50 pages of a friend’s manuscript and sent comments. I’m excited about her progress on her novel!

  8. Learned how to use Hootsuite to schedule Instagram and Facebook posts.

  9. Added new folks to my street team and newsletter lists.

So even though I didn’t write 4,000 words a day, I did make some progress this week. What would you add to your list? And if you find yourself off track (or just enjoying the summer), don’t beat yourself up. Figure out a plan and start.

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Feedback - Gift? or Something Else?

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Through the years at work, we’ve done dozens of 360-degree evaluations and feedback surveys. When I taught, the college did professor reviews at the end of each semester. I used to get butterflies (or bats) in my stomach before I had to read them. (One student didn’t like my red shoes.)

One of our HR folks once said that feedback wasn’t something to dread — but a gift. I valued the comments more when I thought about them in those terms.

It’s hard as a writer to hand over your work. You know the one that you sweated over, nurtured, and loved for months or years. You created it, and it’s part of you. And someone is going to call your baby ugly or poke holes in your plot.

I think beta readers and critique groups are invaluable. You want to catch errors (preferably while you can still change them). You also want to catch story problems before an agent, editor, or publisher sees it and rejects your submission.

I tend to make boo boos when I’m making edits. I try to be super careful, but it’s always good to have another set of eyes go through your draft. I’m notorious for leaving off the second quotation mark.

My critique group reads fifty pages from each submitter a month, and sometimes, it’s hard for them to remember scenes, clues, or red herrings after several months pass. I always find a beta reader or two to read the entire draft like a reader. Family members are great, but they often don’t give you the nitty gritty feedback that you need.

It took me a while to get used to critique group. All of the feedback and suggestions were overwhelming at first. Sometimes, I’d get notes and suggestions from nine different people with nine sets of different ideas. I took notes while they talked about my submission, and then I’d wait a day or two to go through all of it. I print off a copy of the submission and make all the notes on that copy. It’s easier to see contradictions in the suggestions. And just because someone suggested something, doesn’t mean you have to change it.

When you look for a critique group or beta readers, make sure they are made up of people who are familiar with your genre or subgenre. They will know the conventions and preferences of the readers. You can get value from readers of other genres, but you have to be careful. Most of their feedback is centered around what they know, and conventions for a cozy mystery aren’t the same for a romance novel or a spy thriller.

A good critique or beta reader will point out typos, plot holes, confusing items, and inconsistencies like a name that didn’t get changed in all instances or the fact that your character ate lunch twice in one chapter.

I have certain phrases or words that I tend to overuse. I make a list, and I search for them when I’m editing. But readers are great for circling over-used words. Somethings are spotted better by others who aren’t as close to your manuscript.

Writing is hard work. You’re putting your creation out there, and you don’t know how readers will react. I love my early readers and value their comments and ideas. And they help me deliver a better book.

Writing (and Life) Advice from the Fuzzy Muses

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My two crazy Jack Russell Terriers (Terrors) are great companions and guard dogs. They protect us from countless squirrels, birds, and joggers. Each has a bed in my office, and they help me plot mysteries and listen while I talk through dialogue (if they’re not napping).

Here are some things I’ve learned from them.

1.    Enjoy what you do. If not, find something else to spend your time on. There are way too many interesting things to see, eat, sniff, or bark at.

2.    Don’t waste a beautiful day inside. Go outside and have some fun.

3.    Wag and make friends. Relationships are important.

4.    Don’t sit at your desk too long. Everybody needs a break.

5.    Just go for it. If you want something, grab it. They don’t waste time over-analyzing things.

6.    Bark if you really need to, but not too much.

7.    Make sure you nap when you need to. You need to recharge.

8.    Live in the moment. Don’t stress about what has happened or what might happen.

9.    Play hard. Life shouldn’t be all work. EVERYTHING is a game to a Jack Russell.

Need Something? Make It Easy...

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My boss at my day situation loves his “Easy” button. There’s something to that. People are bombarded with things, and life is crazy. Recently, I was on a team reading and ranking submissions that were applications to do something for us. Some were a joy to read; all the information was organized and ordered. But there were others that we really had to dig to find the information or the proposal was incomplete.

I heard the fabulous Jane Friedman talk about this. If you want someone to help you with a writing or marketing task, make it easy for them. She’s right. Always provide the person with context and enough information to complete the task.

Blurbs - If you’re asking for a blurb, send the person a synopsis of your book and your biography.

References - When you ask for a reference or a nomination, send them a SHORT copy of your biography and other pertinent information.

Time - Give the person as much time as possible. I had a publisher once who sent out book blurb requests with a short deadline. It didn’t give busy people enough time to read enough of the book.

Pay it Forward - Make sure you’re willing to help others too. You can’t always be on the asking end.

Give Them an Off Ramp - Give the person an exit that doesn’t cause hard feelings. Everyone is busy, and your timing may not be right. When you call or write your introductory email request, acknowledge that they’re busy and that you understand if they’re unable to help right now.

By providing enough information and time, usually people are more than wiling to help.

What would you add to my list?

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Do You Treat Your Writing as a Business?

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For many years, my writing was a hobby for me. I did it for fun and without much thought as to what I would do with the end product once it was finished. I had no deadlines, and I could work on projects at my leisure.

When I decided I wanted to a published author, I realized that it was a business and that I needed to treat it that way. That meant being more organized and structured.

Writing Time/Scheduling - I don’t write every day. Life gets in the way some times. But I do try to write or edit regularly, and I track my word count to see progress.

Try to protect your writing time. It’s so easy to get distracted or involved in other activities. I try to honor the time I reserved for writing. And I do make much more progress when I keep to my schedule (and track my word count progress).

The Business Part - Talk with your legal and/or tax advisors to make sure that you’re compliant with the laws, regulations, and rules in your area. Do you need a tax ID number, what can you claim on your taxes, do you need to collect sales tax, and do you need a business license? I now have a new drawer in my office filing cabinet for book-related documents.

If you’re required to keep receipts, work out a system to collect/organize them for your taxes. Some use a file folder and spreadsheet, and others use an app for tracking expenses and deductions. You’ll need to figure out what works with your style and what provides you the right information when you have to file documents.

If you sell books, you’ll need to decide what you’ll accept (e.g. cash, credit card, debit card, check). I accept all, and I use a Square for the credit/debit cards.

I have to track mileage, sales, and expenditures. I do this faithfully after an event to ensure that it’s current. It is too hard to remember or recreate what I did at an event three months ago. Figure out what works best for you (e.g. file folders, spreadsheets, mobile app, accounting software packages, a personal assistant).

Events - I like to go places and talk with readers, so I like to do a lot of events. I tend to attend the ones where I can talk to readers and do presentations (and have books available for sale). I don’t base my decisions on book sales alone. Sometimes, you make contacts or build relationships that could be worth more in the long run than a sale. Networking is an important component of the writing life.

Your time is valuable, so you need to make sure that book marketing and events don’t overwhelm your writing time.

Your Time - Your time is limited and valuable. Figure out what tasks you can do yourself and what others your budget will allow you to outsource.

I like to do my blog, websites, and social media work. In the past, I have hired a line editor and someone to do specialized graphics for me. I know several authors who have hired digital or personal assistants to do administrative tasks. I also have friends who have hired folks to manage their social media accounts and publicists to coordinate marketing campaigns. Figure out what you do best and focus on those items. One of my author friends hired her granddaughter to help her with her social media. She gets the tasks done, and her granddaughter get spending money and work to show on her resume.

Your Investments - You need to decide what you can budget in terms of your time and money for your writing projects. It can be time consuming and costly if you don’t monitor where you’re spending your resources. I track this and compare it to my sales.

Writing is a business. It’s filled with contract, invoices, sales tax, and tax forms. But the writing is fun, and there is no feeling like opening that box of books and seeing your name on the cover. What else have you encountered in the business world of writing?

Happy writing!

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