Story + Structure + Strategy = Pragmatic Magic at #bea16

Working our plot whispering mojo in sunny LA

In Chicago for BookExpo, prepping to give a talk with Jerusha on the spooky art of Plot Whispering. If you're here, we'd love to see you at #UPubU Thursday at 2:00 PM. If you're not here, hop on the #ALLi podcast.

Here's the logline:
Fiction, memoirs, book proposals, screenplays—it all begins with story. But the road from great idea to a solidly marketable project presents a baffling number of detours. Plot Whispering is a radically sensible, step-by-step method for defining, refining, and executing your story. NYT bestselling ghostwriter Joni Rodgers and freelance editor Jerusha Rodger, dynamic mom-and-daughter duo, have worked their Plot Whispering mojo on bestselling books, high advance proposals, and an Oscar-nominated screenplay. Prepare to be wowed!

#NaNoWriMo #First50Words Contest!

Hey NaNoWriMo-ers!

Jerusha Rodgers from Rabid Bader Editing here, and I have a couple big things to let you in on!

First things first: Joni Rodgers and I put together a #NaNoWriMo book bundle just for you guys. It's Joni's book FIRST YOU WRITE: The Worst Way to Become an Almost Famous Author & the Best Advice I Got While Doing It, which is a hilarious and poignant book of essays that contain fantastic writing advice. There's even some pro tips from our League of Extraordinary Authors pals. It's also got my title, YOUR TITLE HERE: How To Craft a Killer Nonfiction Book Proposal, a step-by-step guide. Although it was written with (obviously) nonfiction book proposals in mind, it shows writers how to set out a clear path for their book complete with a deadline and marketing strategy. It's kind of like a mad lib for self-publishing, so if you're serious about taking your NaNoWriMo writing to the next level, this is for you.

This book bundle is a limited-time deal available only through Amazon for the next 90 days, so don't wait to grab it (or add it to your Christmas list if that's more your style)!

On to the contest: We loved the response we got when we ran a #First50Words contest a few years ago, and we wanted to bring that back--with a twist.

We want you to send us the first 50 words of your NaNoWriMo manuscript between now and November 30th.

On December 4th, I'll announce the six winners and five Honorable Mentions on Box Octo along with their 50 words!

One first place winner will receive 3 hours of editing from me.

Two second place winners will receive 2 hours of editing from me.

Three third place winners will receive 1 hour of editing from me.

Five Honorable Mentions will receive a free book bundle!

All six winners' edits will be accompanied by a letter that talks about how these edits can be extended throughout the work to improve it and why those changes elevate the work. They'll also receive a free copy of our book bundle to help them further their writing journey.

Come December 1st, you'll be one of two things: A) Ready to set your work aside and let it marinate for a bit before you edit, or B) On fire to get going on the next step and not lose your momentum. Both of these are good responses. And whatever you choose, I'll be right here to help. Editing is an incredibly important stage in writing because it asks you to look at your work and decide not what to take away but what to keep. What drives the story forward? What words earn their space on the page? Where can you reveal things more cleanly or deliver information more vividly? Did your character 'say' something or did they 'cackle' it? Is a particular passage process or product? Having an objective eye can be helpful in early editing phases and is, I think, necessary in the later ones (Our brains know how something is supposed to sound/what something should say, so often our eyes skip over mistakes that a less familiar eye would catch easily.). I'll be posting periodically throughout December on different topics in editing, so whenever you're ready for that next step, you'll have a helping hand with an eagle eye.


Boring Contest Rules That You Still Need to Read:
-Entries submitted in the comment section will not be considered (feel free to post 'em down there, but be sure you email us with the proper info so we can include you in the contest!)
-Email should have the subject line: #First50Words [name] [working title]
-Email body should include only your working title, genre, and your first 50 words
-Contest ends at 11:59pm central time on November 30th.
-You do NOT need to have a finished manuscript (but you DO need to know where the story is going)
-Please only submit your 2015 NaNoWriMo writing. This is totally on the honor system, but Santa sees what you're doing, so don't end up on the naughty list.
-Winners will be contacted via email on Dec. 4th with their place and asked to provide the following:
     -Manuscript in MS Word (edits and comments will only be done in Track Changes)
     -Short (no more than one page) synopsis of your story
-If a winner does not provide the manuscript and synopsis by December 11th, they forfeit their prize (editing hours and critique letter)
-Editing hours will be done during the month of December and returned to winner before December 31st at 11:59pm

Choosing Your Battles

Into every writer's life come edits. Revisions, copy-edits, and finally page proofs (sometimes known as galleys) have a way of showing up when we're at our busiest with other projects (day jobs and personal life included) but that doesn't make them any less important. On the contrary, we drop everything to take care of them because these are our last chances to straighten our literary's offspring's collar, brush the crumbs from his mouth, and send him out into the world to make a good impression.

As in the case of some over-eager parents, an author can get too controlling, too fixated on her vision for the book to listen to anybody else's well-meant guidance. And just as this hypothetical control freak parent can drive her child crazy (and eventually away with such behavior, so can the hyper-anal author drive her editors nuts (and eventually away) by donning full battle gear over every dash and colon or whether the publishing house's style guide dictates the use of "'til" or "till" in dialogue.

As you might need to remind yourself when your teenager comes home with blue hair, a lip piercing, or an oozing new tattoo, it's most important to keep in mind the big picture. Hair coloring grows out, piercings can be allowed to grow closed, tattoos have become more mainstream... And your reader is going to fall in love with your characters and their journeys rather than the choice of the word "effusive" rather than "fulsome" or your comma usage. (I've found copyeditors lean toward a cleaner looking page, sometimes removing my more formally correctly commas.)

By choosing your battles carefully, reserving them for those big-picture issues where the author really does know best, you avoid exhausting everyone and ensure that editors don't tune out your truly critical points - points that make the project stronger.

Important note: This balance isn't so hard to achieve when it concerns books. When you're dealing with teenagers, you all are on your own!