Helen heads to the desert

Amazing craftsmanship. Miles and miles of dry rock walls.

Lovely old stone buildings. Inverleigh (Victoria).

Today's surprise. Wetlands Gardens, Penshurst (Victoria), and yes, it was raining there.

Next week, the real desert.
Have fun,
Helen

The ingredients for a good book

Characters. If the reader cannot relate to your characters she will not continue reading. She may love them or hate them, but the author has to draw the reader into their lives so she keeps reading. If a character is Too Stupid To Live (eg. walking alone into a possible murderer’s house) you will lose the reader right then and there.

These days, female characters are expected to make an effort to solve their own problems. The hero may still come riding up on his white horse to sweep her away, but she should have been endeavoring to solve her own problems, not crying in a corner and wringing her hands.

Plot. There must be a plot. It is through the plot the characters show their development. In an erotic romance the sex may be part of the plot, but there must be something else happening as well—a bad guy to defeat, the world to save, or whatever.

Resolution. Readers hate being left hanging. In a series, the overall plot arc can continue, but there must be some resolution of the main characters, such as a Happy For Now, or them working together toward saving the world. A cliffhanger is only good if the next book will be on the shelves very soon.

Fiction writing is a very tough, competitive world. Give yourself an edge toward success by ensuring your book has engaging characters, an intriguing plot and a professional appearance with a suitable, attractive cover, and that the story is consistent, and the text grammatically clean.

Helen Woodall

Helen visits historic Chiltern

Chiltern, close to the New South Wales/Victoria border, is an historic goldmining town. There are lots of fascinating old buildings to see:

An old shop, established 1875.

The old police lock-up.

Gilmour's store.


And beautiful Lake Anderson.

Helen Woodall

How to Write a Great Book Blurb

This is an excellent article on writing a good book blurb. My advice has always been to start with a hook, and not to give too much away. Both those points are covered here, along with several others that make good sense.

Book Daily’s keywords are: Engage, Allure, Honest, Quick, Intrigue.

The entire article is here: http://www.bookdaily.com/authorresource/blog/post/1924159

Helen Woodall

How to argue with your editor

As I've said before, the writer’s relationship with their editor should be a professional one. Your editor is neither your mother, nor your best friend. S/he is there to work with you to make your book the best it can be.

Therefore arguing with them about every comma and editing change is not a good idea. If your book is being published by a publishing house, there will be House Style which has to be followed. There will be set, unchangeable rules about things like semi colons and certain word choices. Arguing about these things is simply a waste of time, as the publisher will not suddenly rewrite their style manual for you.

Most publishers follow the Chicago Manual of Style. Again, if there is something you want changed that breaks the rules in CMOS, you can stamp your feet as much as you like, but your change is not going to happen.

Outside of these things though, if you explain to your editor why you want something expressed a certain way, s/he will listen to you. If it’s not possible s/he will tell you why. It may be that your sentence had simply been unclear and s/he’d misunderstood what you were trying to convey.

As long as you remain polite and professional, it’s perfectly fine to argue with your editor. Just understand there are some things out of their power to change.

Helen Woodall
Helen.woodall@gmail.com