Why Should I Join a Writers' Group?

Writing is often a lonely effort. I believe writers at all stages of their careers need opportunities to interact with other writers. I am a member of Sisters in Crime (National, Central Virginia, and Guppies), James River Writers, and International Thriller Writers. These groups are invaluable for the education, support, ideas, and comradery. Here’s why I think you need a writers’ group…

1. You will find critique partners or beta readers. My Sisters in Crime chapter has a mystery critique group. This is a chance for me to get feedback from readers and writers in my genre. I have learned so much from my reviews and the discussions of others’ work. It is a time commitment, but it is well worth it when I’m trying to polish a manuscript.

2. You will learn about publishing opportunities. Many groups publish anthologies. This gives members an opportunity to gain publishing credits and learn about the process. These groups also share information about calls for submission and other opportunities for writers.

3. You will learn stuff. Many offer conferences like James River Writers. It’s a wonderful opportunity to attend panels, discussions, and workshops. They also have pitch opportunities with agents. Sisters in Crime and Guppies offer free or discounted online webinars (live and recorded) to its members. There are also scholarships available for other learning opportunities. Many also have local programs. My SinC-CV chapter has had programs recently on how authors and libraries can work together, crime reporting, and a tour of the courts with the Commonwealth’s Attorney.

4. You will meet readers and writers. These groups are great ways to network and meet others. Many have social events and programs. Some have casual meet ups. You’ll make contacts and have opportunities to share information. I call on my networks for things like blurbs and to fill guest blog posts. It’s also a way to share opportunities and ideas. My writer friends are wealth of information.

5. You will expand your social media following. When you meet people and network, you connect in person and on the web. I subscribe to lots of author newsletters because I want to keep up with their books. It’s a great way to stay connected. Plus, it will give you ideas for your website, newsletter, and social media platforms.

6. You will find volunteer opportunities. These groups are always looking for volunteers to help with a variety of events or projects. This is a great way to give back and to meet others.

7. You will learn about opportunities for writer appearances. My SinC-CV chapter keeps a speakers’ bureau list. Librarians and book clubs are always contacting us asking for a speaker for their group/event. Also, many of these groups host events where they need speakers/panelists. My SinC-CV group hosts Mysterypalooza which is a writers’ panel and book signing.

My memberships in writing groups are well worth it. I have met so many great writers (and readers) who share their time, energy, and ideas, and they have helped me tremendously get my start on the writing path.

What Have You Done for Your Writing Life Lately?

My work style is more productive with tasks, deadlines, and lists. I’m an IT manager (an ESTJ with Myers Briggs and Red/Dominance with the DISC). I have the same style and preferences in my writing life.

1. I am a list maker. There is a certain level of satisfaction with crossing off items when they’re done. I also like to see what was accomplished. I make lists to make sure I hit deadlines and keep promises.

2. Continuing education and training are important. There are always new things to learn. There are a lot of low cost/free courses on book marketing and the writing craft. Check out YouTube. Also a lot of writing groups offer courses and conferences. James River Writers offers a great conference in Richmond each year that covers all aspects of the writing life. My Sisters in Crime and Guppy chapters offer courses and stipends to promote learning.

3. Years ago when I decided that I wanted to write a novel, I bought or checked out every writing book I could get my hands on. Finally, I had to stop reading and start writing. You learn by writing, revising, and editing. The pile of how-to books went to the Friends of the Library book sale. (I did keep two. Stephen King’s ON WRITING and Janet Evanovich’s HOW I WRITE.) Just do it! Sit down and start writing (or outlining).

4. Find a critique partner, group, or beta readers in your genre to help you improve your writing. My critique group and beta readers are great for pointing out plot holes and inconsistencies. You agree to read their work, and they read yours. My Sisters in Crime - Central Virginia group just returned from summer hiatus, so I’m excited to get back in the swing of reviewing manuscripts.

5. If you’re getting ready to query a manuscript to an agent or editor, make sure you have everything ready to go. You may not need all of this to send out the query letter, but if you get a request for follow up information, you’ll need to have it. I build out a file for each book. Include:

• A Professional Headshot

• Summary of Your Story

• An Elevator Pitch for Your Story

• Your Author Biography

• A List of Links for All Your Social Media Sites

• A Synopsis (with the Ending)

• A Character List

My News from Last Week…

Last week was full of news. I found out that the Library of Virginia added my Delanie Fitzgerald books to their permanent, Virginia Writers’ collection. That is exciting. I love the LoV. If you’re in #RVA, you have to stop and see it. It’s part library, museum, and historical archives.

I was also very fortunate last week to sign with a literary agent for my cozy series set in Charlottesville. I am very excited to work with her team, and her stable of authors have been so welcoming and encouraging!

I also passed my Professional Scrum Master exam last week. Look out IT world!

What things have you done this week for your writing life?

It's Okay to Say No...

It’s okay to say no. I’m southern and a person who likes harmony, so it took me a long time to realize that there are times when you can say no to requests.

You cannot do everything. As an author, you will get a lot of requests for your time (often from complete strangers). Your job is to write your next book, and you have to balance that with all the other obligations you have. I like to support other writers, but unfortunately, I can’t do every event or read every manuscript.

Guard your writing time. It is too easy to get involved in other activities. Even internet-surfing and tv-watching are big time sucks.

I love helping other authors and sharing their celebrations on social media. I just don’t have the time to read or edit every request I get. I’ve committed to my author early readers and my critique group to read and comment on their submissions. If you’re looking for feedback, find a writers’ group, a critique group, or a writing partner. You read their work, and they read yours.

I volunteer for a variety of causes. I have had to scale some of this back over the years to give myself time to write and edit. But you can support causes in a variety of ways. Your social media platform is powerful, and you can reach a lot of people.

As soon as you put yourself out there, you will be bombarded with all kinds of companies and service requests. Many are worthwhile and are opportunities to network. If you want to hire them, do your homework and get references.

Be careful on social media. You do not have to accept every friend or message request. There are a lot of book marketing, lonely hearts scammers, and bots out there. There are also people who friend you and then drop you when you reciprocate. They are just trying to build up a following.

You need to make sure that you are working on your next project.

Great Advice That I've Learned from Other Authors on My Writing Journey

I am extremely grateful for all the authors who have shared their ideas, advice, and successes with me through the years. It is so helpful as you begin or move along your writing journey. Here are some key items that I’ve learned.

When I’m working on a new novel, I plot out a simple outline. I learned from Donna Andrews to color-code the different kinds of action in your outline, so you can see it over the course of the book. For example, I mark all romantic elements with pink, humorous items are orange, clues are green, etc.

I learned from Mary Burton to keep a running list of over-used words. Add to it as you write, and then at the end of each revision cycle, search your document and remove the culprits. She also calls your first draft the “sloppy copy.” This isn’t “the end” of your project. It’s the beginning of the revision cycle.

I learned from the late Kathy Mix to keep a list of character names for each book. Her rule was to name each character with a different letter of the alphabet. If she already had a Krissy, then she couldn’t have another character whose first name started with a “K.” I build a chart of characters for my books in a series. I create a column for each book and update where the characters appear. I also create a list of key locations. I enter all the important facts, so I can keep track of the details.

Mary Miley gave me some great advice about honing dialogue. She recommends cutting out the unnecessary pleasantries and chitchat that don’t move your story forward.

Elaine Viets said to know your genre and who is publishing in it. Do your research and know the conventions.

Lynda Bishop, my long-term editor, recommends that authors keep a timeline for each book to make sure all events are in order and make sense. This helps with pacing.

In one of her talks, Tina Glasneck told the group to create a calendar for each book launch. Mine starts three months before the launch and runs three months after. Plan all events, interviews, blogs, and media campaigns.

Jane Friedman tells writers that their platform grows from their body of work. An author’s website and blog should be at the center of this. Also, the website and blog should be on the same site.

Frances Aylor and Alan Orloff gave me the best advice for writing. Butt glue (Frances) or BICFOK (Alan). They’re essentially the same. If you want to be a writer, put your Butt in the Chair and Fingers on the Keyboard.

What would you add to my list?

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

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

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

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...

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?

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.