I’m a novice writer and I don’t claim to be an authority. This post, along with others, are my observations and reiterations of professional writers. I point out these pieces of information for other writers at my level to learn from my experiences and often errors.
I’m writing my first fiction manuscript. Creative writing has a diverse set of demands, just as non-fiction has. If we don’t meet these essential elements, our readers may quit after the first chapter. Many key areas in non-fiction, if included in fiction, turn off our audience.
For example, my first three books were memoirs. Providing my reader with basic information about myself is a requirement. They need to know my age, the topography and/or location where the events occur, and other details that support my story. This same information with fiction may not be relevant or may be too much (e.g., information dump).
For the last three years, I’ve worked on my first attempt at writing a fictional novel. In January 2019, I completed the first draft. Two friends volunteered to read it, and they both had similar opinions.
They liked the overall theme, but they stated it lacked character development and world-building. One said I didn’t give him a reason to follow the protagonist beyond the first chapter. Ouch! The other remarked that chapters got bogged down with detail, and it lost any identifying storyline. Double Ouch!
I put the manuscript on the virtual shelf and attempted to refocus my writing. About the same time, a critique writing group invited me to join. (If you never took part in a critique group, I highly recommend them.) Rather than tackle the fiction manuscript, I rewrote my first book, One Month, 20 Days, and a Wake Up. Once I finished that project, I came back to tackle the fiction manuscript.
After three chapters with the group, I was getting the same response as I had back in 2019. One individual referred to my chapters as nothing but an ‘information dump.’ Information dump! What is that?Then I read a blog post by K.M. Allan entitled “5 Ways to Avoid Information Dumping.” https://kmallan.com/2021/02/19/5-ways-to-avoid-info-dumping/Ah, huh, the light bulb came on.
Christopher Cervelloni, my editor with Blue Square Writer’s Group, didn’t call it ‘information dump.’ His classic example: “Sam drove home, got out of his car, walked to the front porch, unlocked the door, and entered the house.” He said, the reader can figure it out if you write, “Sam returned home.” I realize this is an overly simplified example. But it points out that as writers, we insult our readers when we overtly give them unsolicited detail (information dump).
Please use the link above to read the full post of Ms. Allan. In summary, she states the five most common mistakes and how to recognize the ‘info. dump.’:
Check the Starts
Manage the Monologuing
Drip It In and Stretch It Out
Fine-Tune the Dialogue
Make It Relevant
To show (hopefully) that I understand and have corrected my ‘info. Dump’ here is an example from my text; before and after.
Before:
“It was typical for funeral homes to have an apartment attached somewhere. Someone had to answer the phones twenty-four – seven. For our place, we lived in the apartment on the second floor. Our apartment was a two-bedrooms, one bath, a small living room/dining room combination. The kitchen was barely a kitchen, but Mom made use of what she had.
It was common for the funeral homes to resemble a southern colonial mansion. Ours was a white colonial with two-story pillars on either side of the entrance. The downstairs was larger than the upstairs. As you entered the main foyer…”
Previous Welch Funeral Home, Longview Texas
“The Chapel was located off to the right of the reception area and would seat one-hundred comfortably….”
“Off the foyer in the opposite direction of the chapel were two offices. One we used as our business office and Dad used the other as his office and where he brought families to make their arrangements….”
“Growing up, I had several classmates who had a morbid curiosity. To stop their stupid questions, I would tell them about the ghost or the dead bodies who walked around at night. Most the time that prevented them from bugging me…”
Even with the above, there was more detail that I spared you from reading. It is so obvious now, but when I wrote it, I thought most people knew nothing about the funeral homes and it was my job to educate them. Mm, something wrong with this picture.
After:
“I grew up living above the funeral home. I never thought it was odd living where I did. Several of my friends lived in the same building as their family-owned business. But there were those classmates who had a morbid curiosity. When they bothered me too much, I’d whisper in their ear, “The other night, I saw a ghost crawl out of the casket and walked out the front door.” Their eyes would get big, and their mouth hung open. It usually shut them up when they realized I was pulling their leg…”
I’m apprehensive to read the new chapters to my critique group. Hopefully, they will approve of the changes. Leave me a comment if you think I’ve got it. Don’t be shy telling me I still need to work on it.
I found this post from someone I recently started following. We hear similar messages, but do we ever listen. This one comes with a great slogan, one that should pop into our head every time we hear the bigotry and partisanship that is so prevalent today.
If you are an Indie author or novice author like I am, having your writing and name promoted is a boost we don’t want to overlook. There are many ways to gain personal exposure. Having a blog website and posting regularly is one way. Reading and commenting on peer blog sites gains recognition and reader following. Promoting another Indie author on your website often leads to reciprocation. The professionals have a ton of suggestions, advice, and techniques to meet our objectives.
I have often seen promotions for a writing contest. There seems to be a proliferation of them covering every genre of writing. Daily, when I’m scanning the many blog post that I follow, I see their announcements. I frequently wish I had the time needed to write something original or unique to submit. But I’ve learned if you will invest the time in a contest that fits your style, you can get the recognition you seek. The ones that catch my attention aren’t the ones that offer only cash prizes; although, I wouldn’t refuse the money. I notice the ones that provide their anthology to include my writing.
If you win a cash prize only contest, after they make the announcement on the host site, and you spend the cash prize, that ends the acclamation. What does an anthology offer? An anthology doesn’t stop at the communique. Every time a reader sees and hopefully purchases the book, you get the desired effect.
If we have or we are considering self-publishing a book, we know there’s more than writing the manuscript. With self-publishing, we do everything that a publishing company would do to market our book. With thousands of titles just on Amazon alone, it’s all about catching the reader’s attention.
If we are lucky to have our book placed in a prominent page within its genre, we still need that something special to shout at the reader, Read Me! A book cover can be synonymous with the retailer’s signs or logos. It is the first and perhaps the only thing a reader sees when they are selecting their next read. If our cover doesn’t grab them, the reader moves on. Experts tell us we have less than five seconds to gain the initial recognition.
If our covers catch their attention, the next essential criterion is our book blurb. We have a few more seconds or our first sentence of the blurb to tell the reader again, Read Me! If we have their interest raised, we need to hold it and continue to convince them they should read our book.
There are many do’s, and don’ts and I’ve found many blogs explaining the successful blurb. I’m not an expert, and I’m not writing this post to advise or instruct. I’m sharing my experience that a book blurb can make or break the marketability of our book. We spend our sweat, blood, and tears, getting the manuscript written. Potentially we can lose all those efforts if we write a weak blurb.
I want to continue the discussion on the importance of having your manuscript edited by a professional. Reviewers of your work, especially those who have no invested friendship, can and will be brutally honest. You should value their input even when you don’t agree with their opinion.
In my case, some of the reviewers took issue with the accuracy of the events I depicted. Even when the book was classified as fiction based on actual events, the individuals felt it should be factual.
Example:
“A lot of inaccuracies aside from what … pointed out. There are many Special Forces guys who would take issue with classifying PJ’s as Special Forces. SF is technically reserved for counter insurgents known as Green Berets. A more apt term for PJ’s would be Special Operations where they were assigned specifically to in Vietnam…”
I agree with this reviewer the Air Force classified PJs as “Special Operations” Combat Controllers were part of the Air Force’s Special Operations. They trained at some of the same Special Forces training schools as Pararescue. During Vietnam, Combat Controllers were identified by the blue beret they wore. The 37th ARRS depicted was a squadron assigned under Air Combat Command 23rd Air Force Headquarters.
I complained that my second book (What Did I Do?) was selling while my first (One Month, 20 Days, and a Wake UP) was. I revealed that with the first, I hadn’t used an editor. I had received negative reviews. Rather than send the book to an editor, I tried using editing software, specifically ProWritingAid.
Fast forward to 2019, where I joined a writer’s critique group. I was hesitant to join, but told the group, if they helped me rewrite my first book, I would join. Not only did the group agree, but they challenged me to finish the rewrite using their input.
When I joined the group, we would average four or five attendees. We could go over a chapter in two meetings. As months passed, the group expanded to where we had over ten individuals come. To allow everyone to present their material, we had to shorten our pages we shared to four or five. Now it was taking me two or more months to complete a chapter.
As writers, when we post something, we hope someone takes the time to read it. Good bloggers draw attention to their work, and they have hundreds of followers. Those prominent individuals didn’t get there overnight. It took months, if not years, to gain their notoriety and followings.
Some professionals market their services, helping us compete with setting up our website, and enhancing our Click Through Rate (CTR). It’s a numbers game on the internet, and to be competitive, we need to pay attention to the algorithms that drive it. The average CTR for search networks (engines) is 1.91%, while for display ads, it’s 0.35%. The individuals that track blog CTR say if we can obtain 1.0%, we are doing great and above average.
Writing for me is a hobby, and I’m not interested in competing with successful bloggers. I am interested in improving my writing and having peers comment on my posts. To get individuals to come and read my work, I need to gain their attention.
In the last 25 years of my career, I was the Budget Manager for a division of my county in SE, Florida. Every year I produced a budget document that explained to the public our mission and showed how we used the taxpayers’ money. Financial documents aren’t something the average person wants to read. But I learned tricks of the trade to make my material more attractive and I won awards from government financial associations
