Monthly Archives: October 2012

Missouri Writers Gather to Take the Next Step Nov. 10

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

Whether you’ve been published for years or want to expand beyond Twitter, the Columbia Chapter of the Missouri Writers’ Guild’s annual conference offers tips and tactics to help you improve your writing.

The conference, The Write Direction: Taking the Next Step, meets 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.  November 10 at the Unity Center, 1600 West Broadway, Columbia.

Award-winning writers will share their special skills and small publishers will tell how and why they select manuscripts. The sessions include

* Novelist Bridget Bufford on creating characters through archetypes,

* Nonfiction children’s author Matthew Murrie on finding your perfect pitch,

* Missouri poet laureate William Trowbridge on humor in serious poetry,

* Short story writer Donna Volkenannt on structuring stories for passion and profit.

Editors from Mozark Press, AKA-Publishing, and High Hill Press will explain their operations and, in a separate session, evaluate the first page of manuscripts submitted anonymously by conference participants.

To read the schedule and session descriptions and to register, visit the Conference page at http://www. ccmwg.org. Warning: Registration fees (members, $40; nonmembers, $45; students, $25) go up November 6.

Full disclosure: I helped organize the conference and will moderate the publishers’ sessions.

Finding Overused Words Helps Us Rewrite

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

In a first draft, most of us fall back on tip-of-the-tongue words rather than rummage through our brains or the thesaurus for the best ones.

Those overused words attract our attention when we polish a short piece—a poem, an article, a short story. In a long manuscript, one we write and rewrite for months, our favorite crutches may not stand out.

The computer’s Find can help us check an entire manuscript, but we need to tell it what words to search for. These searches not only guide us in improving our word choice but also show us where we need to make other changes.

Here’s a basic strategy to follow in your discovering your own words to avoid.

Start with to be verbs and their surrogates, particularly seem and feel.   Don’t contort sentences to eliminate an occasional is or were, but rewrite if to be  verbs outnumber active ones on any page.

Check common active verbs. My list includes look, watch, stare, glance, study, walk, run, hurry, turn, smile, grin, glare, and shrug, Any one of these may pop up dozens of time in a first draft. How many glances or shrugs constitute overuse? No one can say. I’d advise against using more than one per fifty pages.

Know thy nouns. If you don’t know what you overuse, skim a couple of chapters focusing on the nouns, particularly common objects, emotions, and actions. My list includes tea, Glock, interrogation, smile, and anger. Frequent use of a noun may indicate problems with plot or setting as well as word choice.

Certain adverbs reveal syntactical problems. If Find turns up numerous whens or wheres or whiles, the manuscript contains excessive complex sentences and, quite possibly, ineffective transitions. Frequent use of then and now also signals poor transitions. If ly adverbs flourish, come up with verbs that don’t need modifying. Strong verbs empower to your sentences.

Repeated use of certain adjectives points to poor descriptions. How many of your men are tall or rugged or muscular? How many of your women are slim or anxious or vivacious? How many of your rooms are elegant or messy or spacious? To make sure unique adjectives distinguish every character or setting, compare your word choices in each introduction.

The more you search for overused words, the less you need to. You come to recognize more and more ineffective words (and their attendant problems) and omit them during your first draft.

 

The Coming, and Going, of Egg-sucking Dogs

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

Recently a TV commercial included a line from an old country song about an egg-suckin’ dog. It reminded me of what trouble egg-sucking dogs caused when most farmers, and some town dwellers, had a flock of hens.

Our farmhouse stood an eighth of a mile from a crossroads hidden by a small hill, a choice location for dumping off an unwanted dog. It would show up at our back steps, where we put out scraps for our dog and cats, or down at the barn, where my father poured milk into the cats’ pan after milking each evening.

Over the years a few dogs made it through the probation period and stayed with us. Several turned out to be egg-suckers. They would sneak into the hen house, chase a hen from a nest, and break the eggshell enough to suck out the contents. That may not sound like a problem to people used to buying eggs by the dozen in stories, but farm women counted on eggs for feeding the family and for selling in town.

An egg-suckin’ dog wore out its welcome overnight. Once a dog had the habit, you couldn’t break it. The dog had to go. The tough part was figuring out where. You couldn’t take a dog to the pound in those days, and no one wanted an egg-sucker.

We had several strategies, the preferred one being returning it to whoever had dumped it on us. My father worked as a substitute rural mail carrier and knew the county well. Sometimes he’d seen the dog on a farm. We’d drop the animal off close to home. No one ever had the nerve to bring it back.

Another favorite strategy was to leave the animal at the home of someone we knew dumped animals or trash on our or other farms.

The least favorite alternative was to choose a farm with no chickens so the dog wouldn’t be a costly pest. If no dog ran out to bark at my father when he stopped at the mailbox, that improved the chances people would take in a stray.

Even an egg-suckin’ dog has the right to a decent home.

The Publishing Process Nears the Final Stage

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

The Publishing Process Nears the Final Stage

My heart rate jumped last week when I received two boxes of advance readers’ copies, uncorrected page proofs of Show Me the Murder. Nine years after a news story sparked the idea for my protagonist and thirteen months after I submitted the manuscript to the publisher, the final product is only four more months away.

I will read (aloud) one last time for typos and begin sending out copies to local, regional, and special-interest reviewers. The publisher will send out review copies to national publications, correct any typos, and print books for release in late February.

A year and a half is a long time in this age of instant communication, but that’s standard in traditional publishing. Here’s the basic process.

The pitch: I described the book to an editor at Killer Nashville in August 2011. She invited me to submit it. 

Submission: I submitted the manuscript in September 2011. A few weeks later the editor told me she liked it and had sent it up the line.

Acceptance: The publisher offered me a contract in December 2011. The legal department asked for details on what real places, people, and products appeared in the book. My interpretation: The lawyers wanted to be sure I hadn’t libeled anyone.

Contract signed: January 2012.

Developmental editing: This step typically focuses on big-picture issues, but in February 2012 the editor and I spent more time (roughly two weeks) working on style questions. (Most publishers have their own style manual, usually a variation of the Chicago Manual of Style.)

Copyediting: This step focuses on consistency of style, but in May 2012  the editor also caught a couple of content errors (e.g., a person in the wrong room).

Proofing: I read the entire manuscript aloud to catch typos, missing words, and similar errors in July 2012.

Cover: An editor emailed me the image in September 2012.

Final proof/review copies: My copies arrived in October 2012. I hope to find no typos. Why send out uncorrected review copies? Because magazines operate with a three- or four-month lead time.

Release: February 2013.

Ten Reasons for Attending Your High School Reunion

Carolyn Mulford Posted on by

The older I get, the more important and pleasant I find reunions. Asked to speak (briefly) at my Kirksville, Missouri, High School reunion, I listed our top ten reasons for coming.

10. Because we can.  We’re still walking, even if it’s with a knee or hip replacement.  We’re still social, even if we don’t know to whom we’re talking.  We’re still able to find our way here, once we find our car keys.
9. Because we enjoy talking to people for whom history begins  before WW II rather than before 9/11.  People for whom fast food used to mean a bologna sandwich.  People who don’t say huh when you mention Roy Rogers, Doris Day, Baby Snooks, Ma and Pa Kettle, or Jack Benny.  People who can at least hum “You Ain’t Nothin’ but a Hound Dog” and  “How Much Is That Doggie in the Window.”
8. Because we’re curious.  What do our former classmates look like? Sound like?  What are we doing?  How much have we changed?
7. Because we value old friends.  People we knew during a vulnerable period.  People who don’t ask what our hometown is near.  People who share some of our most vivid memories.
6.  Because old friends value us.  They remember us when we were energetic, smart, athletic.  They remember our first triumphs.  They really want to know what we think.
5. Because they listen to old stories no one else will.  All the guys’ ears perk up when anyone mentions Coach Spainhower.  Remember when Miss Kallenbach raved about the young senator and war hero who wrote Profiles in Courage?  Can you name the two poems Mrs. Bailey assigned you to read aloud for a tape recording? One of mine had a refrain: “Let me live in a house by the side of the road/And be a friend to man.”
4. Because the reunion is the easiest item on our bucket lists.  Less risky than skydiving, exploring the Amazon, or driving to Alaska.  Less annoying than mastering social media.  Less frustrating than finding a job for a boomerang relative.
3. Because we’ll celebrate any occasion with a big number in it.  A wedding anniversary, an offspring’s birthday, an organization’s founding.  Earning a master’s, being drafted, joining the Peace Corps.
2. Because I never get everything on my to-do list done anymore, I skipped 2.
1. Because sharing those days made us part of each other. In high school we explored the adult world and discovered ourselves. Our experiences—those we shared and those we kept secret—bind us together.