Tuesday Tips: Do you have the right time?

(Repost from July 2018 because I am finding it relevant yet again for a handy tip)

Are you sure?  Because quite a number of manuscripts that cross my desk don't.

• Characters are noted as preparing for a birthday party in two weeks, but a month passes before the actual event happens.  
• A court date is set for Monday, but the characters meet to discuss it the next Thursday.
• The characters meet on Thanksgiving, kiss under the mistletoe on Christmas Eve, then sleep together a week before Christmas.  

Sure makes readers scratch their head and think, Huh?

One of the best things you can do for yourself and your manuscript is to print out a blank calendar page--weekly or monthly, even yearly depending on the time frame of your story--and keep it beside your keyboard as you write.  Jot down a quick reference note on the day the story opens and every time a day goes by or a time lapse such as "a few weeks later" are mentioned. Underlining, highlighting, or making main events bold also helps. (If you are anything like me, you'll have a cupful of colored pens beside your monitor, too 😍) 

Having a calendar to make notes on not only gives you a visual of the timeline and pacing of your story, but you will quickly find the holes that can happen, the gaps needing to be filled or validated to make the story flow appropriately.   As you revise, keep track again, maybe in a different color, to ensure new details, added scenes or pages, stay on target or show you where you need to revise again to ensure the timeline makes sense to your readers.

And if your story is to happen in a certain time frame, even better.  Jot down the start day and the end day, which now gives you a direct timeline to play with.  Fill in the main events, scratch them out, mark the days up again, and keep playing around with it until you find the natural flow of events necessary for an accurate time frame.

But what if I write by the seat of my pants, you ask?  Pansters unite--because having a calendar doesn't mean you have to know every detail right away, that's why you keep the page beside your computer, so as the creative juices flow and you twist and turn your plot and characters, you can make quick notes on the calendar page, too.  Then, when you look at it after the first draft, you have the perfect visual reference guide to assist you in making those decisions needed for revisions, those fine-tuning details that really bring your story to life...and on time.

A search on Google for free calendar pages will produce loads to choose from, or simply draw up a blank template of your own.

Whether you are a planner or a panster, it's a good idea to have blank calendar pages in your writer's toolkit to pull out before beginning each new manuscript.


©bystacydawn

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Are you ready to finally solve the mystery?

One of the biggest mysteries for writers is about to be solved in a four week blog series starting Halloween Day!  Why Halloween?  Because I am going to demystify the scariest words to writers....

I am so excited to put together this special event that I hope will help both new and established authors finally take the fear out of these obscure terms in order to create a manuscript screaming to be read!

Please feel free to tell your friends and fellow authors, critique partners and writing groups to join me on October 31st for the first installment.

The mystery will finally be solved, and I can assure you...

someone won't be getting out alive...

©bystacydawn

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☮ I'd love to have you visit me on social media and at my website! Links on the side ➹💟

Coming Soon...

I am very lucky to be doing just that!  I truly love working with authors and helping them bring their stories and their dreams to life.  

Many manuscripts have crossed my desk in the last twelve years, and the biggest thing I still see authors struggling with are the concepts of Telling versus Showing and Deeper Point of View...

I swear I just sensed a mass of writers inhale and cringe all at the same time LOL.  

Well, fear no more!  

I am currently working on a blog series that will break down these issues, show how to look for "buzz" words/phrases/paragraphs, and how to fix them.  I have helped a lot of authors understand these concepts and take their stories to the next level, and it is my dream to help a LOT more...maybe even my mission.

My goal is to have the first post up for this series by the end of October.  So if you or someone you know is confused with the concepts of Telling versus Showing and Deeper POV, please let them know and feel free to spread the word to keep on eye on this blog for explanations, understanding, and hopefully a little fun while we're at it. 😁

©bystacydawn

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☮ I'd love to have you visit me on social media and at my website! Links on the side ➹💟

Disco Angel

Vintage -1970's
Romance
Short Story
Rating: Sweet

Disco Angel

Bobby Hues has his eye on the Disco Angel jiving around Electric Nights Roller Disco. But what would Miss Spring Break 1976 and the foxiest chick he'd ever laid eyes on want with a lowly grease monkey like himself?

Summer Benton's heart started racing the minute she rolled her broken down ride into Bobby's garage. When he gets a gig working at her favorite hang out, she thinks she has it made—but the quiet hunk still isn't talking. A little push on her part starts the wheels rolling—in the wrong direction. Now she has to figure out how to lose the wrong guy, and convince the right one she digs him enough to be his Disco Angel, forever.




REVIEWS:

Do you miss the seventies? Step back in time with Stacy Dawn and relive the days of disco, mirrored balls, Afros, and cheese weasels. Ms. Dawn captures the feeling of the times with a cute story of two individuals who have a hard time getting together. Take a few minutes, get back to disco fever with Summer and Bobby, and find out how a soft-spoken man can finally tell the girl of his dreams how he feels.
~Reviewed by Judy Thomas, The Long and The Short of It


All my titles are available in multiple locations:

The Wild Rose Press
Amazon.com
Amazon.ca
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

©bystacydawn 2018

Time for a trim?

Shaping is crucial to a story, and trimming extra words or cutting lines, paragraphs, or scenes that slow down the pace can make your manuscript that much tighter, brighter, and engaging.

No, I admit, it’s not easy at all. Sort of like having long hair and deciding to cut it short. Not an easy decision, and it usually sits with you for a while as you debate back and forth with yourself if you REALLY want to do that. Similar to scenes that you really like--maybe with clever dialogue or some funny incident. It is a debate back and forth, almost a fight with yourself because you know it would be better for the book, BUT you feel it is such a good piece of writing, too, that you don't want to get rid of it. Yet, if those paragraphs/scenes stall the pace, you are doing more of an injustice to your story and especially to your reader by giving them a chance to stall, pause, a reason to close the book and go wash their sink-full of dishes.

You want your readers to HAVE to keep turning the pages and let those dishes sit for another hour while they finish your book.

Think of it kind of like a trip to the hairdresser--maybe you did decide to cut your long hair or simply have it styled, and more often than not you come out feeling better about yourself, confident, beautiful.  No, it’s not an easy decision to cut parts of your story you think clever and witty, but like getting a fresh haircut, your confidence in your story will raise tenfold when you chop off the unnecessary lose ends and see how much you gain in forward momentum.

And remember, always save those witty, funny, dramatic scenes or pieces of dialogue you loved in a miscellaneous file. Just because they didn’t fit this manuscript, doesn’t mean they can’t wholeheartedly benefit another in the future.😉

© bystacydawn 2018

Check your Format

Every publisher has their preference, so it is very important that you do your homework and read the submission page of the publisher(s) where you are interested in submitting.

Though it might look cool and impressive to you, most publishers don’t like fancy fonts, spaces between paragraphs, extra wide margins or fancy header/footer or chapter sections.

If you cannot find specific instructions from the publisher, best to go with the general industry standard:

Double spaced
One inch margins
Times New Roman 12 font
Paragraphs beginning .5 indent in
Each chapter beginning on a new page

Most important: Use your computer program to format! 

When you use the Tab key to indent every single paragraph or space down to a new page after the end of each chapter, it can be a nightmare to fix everything for publication formatting purposes. Most programs have a Help section, or simply Google instructions to format per your specific program.

One more good tip...make sure the partial and or full manuscript is all in one file. The only thing worse than getting a partial submission with each of the three chapters (and sometimes prologue) in three or four different files attached to an email, is fifteen or more chapters of a full manuscript in fifteen or more individual files attached to an email.

So once again, I repeat one of my favorite writing tips: Do your homework...both in learning your program's formatting features AND publisher requirements.



©bystacydawn 2018