Becoming a Beginner Again

We all hated being a beginner, right? The thought we were just learning something and we wanted to just "move on to something bigger." But hey, we all have to start somewhere, right? The reality, however, is that being a beginner isn't that bad of a thing. Let's talk about this for a bit.

First of all, when you were a beginner, you had the drive and the desire to do more. You pushed yourself to try things that, in all likelihood, you would fail at at least one or two times. It didn't matter, you kept pushing. Watch that child trying to learn how to ride a bike. This is not an easy task considering you have to balance, steer, and keep peddling all while mom, dad, aunt, uncle or someone else is yelling at you to try something your brain just cannot comprehend. But the kid keeps going until the skill has been achieved.

Secondly, that beginner mentality opened your brain up to learning and possibilities. Your brain was a sponge that absorbed everything, while at the same time, was already thinking of ways to adapt, improve and change things to make the world (or that activity a better place). Consider this for example.

Brand new teachers are always spending far more than the required hours of work looking up new curriculum or activities to make the classroom a better place or to make the learning more successful for the students. 

And yet...

As we get older in our careers, we stop that learning. We stop that curiosity. 

I see so many authors, who, once they sell that first book settle in to a life of complacency. They quit going to workshops or trying new things. We see this in their writing. At a certain point, sure, they may be cranking out books left and right, but the spark that we saw early on in their career is simply not there any more.

I think it is so important that everyone, whether you are a writer or doing anything in a job or a hobby, stop and become a "beginner" again. Get that spark back. Take your inspiration from Figment in Disney's Epcot... 

"Sure, you can see with your eyes. But imagine what you could see if you used your imagination!"   

My book will appeal to readers... but why?

I understand you are all told to use comps in your query letter. Don't get me wrong. This is a great way to give an editor or an agent a feeling of what your book is like, without reading it, simply by connecting it to another book. There is a big problem that the majority of you, and I do mean the majority of you have, when it comes to comps.

You don't tell us why. 

Let's go back to writing 101 for a second. Remember the rule - SHOW DON'T TELL. You seem to have forgotten that. If all you do is tell me your book is similar to Julia London and Bronwyn Scott that means nothing that you throwing names around. 

"But Scott, I do tell the editors and agents which book so that counts, right?"

Absolutely not. Again, all you are doing is telling and not showing. It is your job to explain what it is about your voice or style that as similar to the other authors. Be specific here. If it is the layering of characters and subplots then go for it. If it is how you set your story in a small town and make it a character like Debbie Macomber then explain it. 

Right now, all of you are just wasting your time throwing these names and random titles at us. We want to know about how your book is truthfully, as the name suggests, COMPARABLE!

And by the way, if you don't have a comp or can't think of one, don't make it up!

Adults AND Kids - Get off your phones and get reading this summer

As many of you know, I am also in education and an English and Reading teacher. If you have kids in school you will have also seen the same thing as I have seen lately. Kids ARE NOT reading. 

Schools have really reduced how much reading kids are doing. When I first started teaching, I had students reading 8 novels a year. In my current district, kids at the middle school level are only reading 1 novel a year. What's worse is that in many of the cases, teachers are reading the novel to them, playing an audio version, or only having them read portions of the novel. 

But this gets worse. 

You adults are not helping the issue either. Kids are coming home and telling the kids to do their homework and you are on your phones.

Not exactly the best role models I would say.

Consider some of these numbers from The National Literacy Institute:

• 54% of adults have a literacy below a 6th-grade level (20% are below 5th-grade level).

• 44% of the American adults do not read a book in a year

Or consider these numbers from Literacy Inc.:

• 56% of young people claim they read fewer than 10 books a year.
• 50% of U.S. adults are unable to read an eighth grade level book.
• 33% of U.S. high school graduates never read a book after high school.
• 80% of U.S. families have not purchased a book this year.
• 50% of books started are never read to completion.
• 70% of adults have not been in a bookstore in the past five years.

Not exactly encouraging numbers, would you agree? And yet, what will we see this summer? Kids will leave school and head to their rooms. Dive on to video games or binge watch those things they were banned from watching at school. Honestly, you know this will happen! For many parents, this is an easy way to "keep them busy." Why fight getting them to read? 

My question is Why not get them to read? 

We have made so many excuses as to why we don't read. We claim we don't have time, but wow, we had time to watch that entire season of Stranger Things. We claim we are too tired to read at the end of the day, but staying up watching Netflix or playing the latest Grand Theft Auto. Or better yet, books are expensive, and yet within walking distance there is probably a public library. 

Look people, we know statistically that if we read 30 minutes a day, "outside of work" and that would also include school, we increase our vocabulary by 10,000 words a year. If you are also upset that maybe your student in school is not performing as well as you wanted, then maybe it is time to do something about it. 

I challenge all of you. Get off the computer. Get off the TV. Get off your phone and read a damn book. Be a model for your kids and read. Get them reading a book. And I would also encourage you to not get "graphic novels." Yes, I know some teachers say, "well, at least they are reading" but the reality is that graphic novels will not increase comprehension or reading speed. Let them pick books of their choosing and topics they want. 

I DARE YOU!!!!!!!

And please share this with everyone... If you care about America's future!

Find The Middle Ground Please - Writing Women's Fiction

This last weekend, I was reading submissions and there was a ton of women's fiction coming in. People, you have to find a happy medium here when it comes to plot lines. I literally saw two styles of writing. 

1) Totally depressing stories that would lead anyone who reads it to heavy drinking.

2) Ridiculous and stereotypical "rom-con" plot lines masquerading as women's fiction. 

And guess what? I pretty much rejected both types and the reason was simple. readers, in no way, would be able to connect with either of the plot lines as they should with a true women's fiction novel. Both concepts are simply too extreme.

I have talked about this before, but the thing that makes a women's fiction novel unique is the way it SHOULD connect with the reader. These stories need to have "a take away." That unique idea or concept that the reader walks away with, after reading the book saying "Now I get it. Now I understand X going on in my life, or in the world." These are stories about people, how they see the world and how they navigate issues going on around them. 

However, when writers, in an attempt to "stand out" or "make the story interesting" pile on so much extra stuff, no reader is going to be able to relate to all of it. 

• We can relate to a single divorce, but we can't relate to a divorce, and then pile on a personal disease, a parent who is also sick, a loss of a job and then a kid with a drug problem and then another who is pregnant. 
• We can relate to a funny situation of meeting up with the person you had a crush on in college again, but when we add in that each of you have 3 kids, a housekeeper, and two of the kids want to start dating each other, and you are in competition for the same job in a company, and you both have to relocate, and there is the crazy lady at church trying to get the characters together... too much.

Along the same lines, when it comes to women's fiction, there were a lot of you out there just writing your personal stories and then "fictionalizing" the stories. Honestly, my recommendation is to just write your story and don't try to change it. When authors fictionalize their story, they often add on all of that other "stuff" because they feel "their story" is not that exciting, and then they run into these same issues.