About The Book

The next exercise in the writing.com Form is about the "Code of Honor" of the main character.  Something that they live and die for.  We were told to pick one thing they feel strongly about and spend a few minutes describing their passion.  This is supposed to give the writer something to oppose- a villain or such.  

My main character is Agatha Remington.  She is a 30yr old Captain in the US Army and she credits no one but herself for the position in life she has worked so hard to achieve. Her passion is the quest for independence.  Her mother left when she was young and her father was very passive.  Other than providing a roof and a basic sustenance, her father labored at his job and then slept the remainder of his life away; meanwhile, the children raised themselves.  She is a self-made woman who joined the Army as a means to create her own independence. Upon her first deployment, she learned firsthand the importance of American freedoms. She now continues to serve, so that others may enjoy their own free will.  The plot of this novel centers around her being captured and tortured in the same country that she loves and has fought so hard for.  She realizes that a person can be fiercely strong and independent, but like it or not, outside influences will force us to rely on other humans.  For the first time in her life, the war hero finds herself completely helpless and she will eventually be killed unless someone else cares enough about her to fight for her rescue.

Next, we were to write about the "Dilemma at the Heart of the Story". Problems are solved while dilemmas are resolved through a shift in perception.  Much to my surprise, many of these sentences read like the back of a book jacket....

The dilemma at the heart of the story is acting on what is right versus following the law.  The day before she is captured, Remington reconnects with an old friend, Marek Hawke.  While she is debating on giving up her independence for a relationship, her old friend Hawke finds that he has fallen in love with her.  After Hawke discovers that she is missing, he does everything he can to become involved in the investigation and he also attempts to help the police with her rescue.  Adrian Torres, one of Remington’s steadfast Army buddies, becomes frustrated with the slow pace of the investigation and he eventually decides to take matters into his own hands.  Torres organizes Remington’s old team and with their help, he plans his own rescue mission. Hawke initially reprimands Torres for choosing vigilante justice, but when he discovers that an untrustworthy cop is working on the case, Hawke decides to risk his personal freedom for the life of another.  It is a commitment he has acted on many times overseas, on behalf of his country, yet to do so in this instance would only result in certain punishment. 

Remington’s captors believe that they are acting on what is right, regardless of the law.  After spoiling his daughter at an early age, Wylie Jenkins, became obsessed with his little girl and he eventually takes both of their lives. The mother, Martha, blames herself for the death of her only daughter.  She and her two sons, Wyatt and Johnny, believe that God revealed himself through the tragedy and that they were then instructed by God to carry out His work through the cleansing of souls.  Following the bible’s story of the Days of Creation, the Jenkins family proceeds to kidnap randomly selected women and then torture and kill the women by subjecting them to purifying rituals that imitate the Days of Creation.

So, now you have an idea of this novel is about.  I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy creating it.

S.C. Rood

How To Get Published

Yes, I want to be a published author.  So...what now?

After some research, I discovered that it works like this.  For any type of book, you need a Literary Agent.  They're basically a person who you pay to represent your work to the publishing companies.  Yes, I think you really do need this middleman- most publishing companies won't even accept manuscripts unless they come from an Agent.

Next, there's a big difference between Fiction and Nonfiction writers.  Fiction writers (that's me) should complete *this checklist before submitting for publication.  Non-fiction writers have an entirely different checklist- I suggest researching those steps through www.writersdigest.com.

*Complete these steps before submitting your Fiction book:
1. Finish your novel.  Never query with an unfinished product.
2. Revise your manuscript.  Seek other writers/readers and polish, polish, polish.
3. Proofread for grammatical errors.
4. Publish short stories or novel excerpts in literary journals.
5. Research to find Agents of known published authors in the genre you are writing.
6. Construct a list of Agents looking for new authors.
7. Rank your Agents list according to suitability with you and your work.
8. Write your novel synopsis.
9. Write your query letter (this is important!  Look for follow-up posts on this topic).
10. Educate yourself about the business of Agents, should you get an offer.

The above checklist is paraphrased from the *Writer's Digest 2013 Guide to Literary Agents.  I suggest you buy this book.  It helps with the last 5 checklist items.

This blog post was one of the first I read about getting published- great site and author:
http://www.rachellegardner.com/2011/02/how-to-get-published/

I'm still on Step 1.
S.C. Rood

Starting the 90 Day Novel

As mentioned, I am part of a forum on writing.com that loosely follows the advice from a book, "The 90 Day Novel" by Alan Watt.  I'm about a week in and the forum is great, though I don't actually own the book.  The tasks assigned by the forum are similar to the book but I believe follow a different structure.  Since my novel is already 1/3 written, I use it to make sure i'm hitting the key points a good novel should.

The first thing we were asked to write is an answer to this question.  I'll admit, I felt like a student again (blah!), but here goes:

"I am afraid to write this novel because..."

There is the fear of not being published.  I think that every author has that fear.  My spouse is managing all of our household finances while I spend my days searching for work and writing; I don’t want to let us down.  After being let go from a job, I already come to the table with a good dose of humility.  I have spent many years writing in conversational style and worry that this will not translate well into written form.  There is a small part that worries about the critiquing of my work.  I believe that once a publisher picks you up, it’s proof you’re worth something but in the mean time, every reader seems to have opposing opinions.  It’s difficult to solicit and hear the feedback while still keeping true to one’s creative voice.

S.C. Rood

Finding more readers

One of the great things I learned at my first writer group was the website www.writing.com.  It's a free, online community of writers and readers who post and review work.  It's legit.  There are basically 5,000+ on it at any given time.  This is a great place to keep snipits of work that you're looking for feedback on.

Say you write a short story/chapter/piece.  It's in the final stage but you're toying between two paragraphs.  Put both in the post and ask the readers which they like better.  Sure, you could stand outside the grocery store and accomplish the same thing- but this way, you'll be warmer and these are people who actually want to read your work.

When I first joined, I was getting 2-3 reviews a day.  It slows over time, but if you network and write a few quick reviews for others, your reviews will keep coming in.  You can also see how others of your genre depict phrases and scenes you might be struggling with.

There are also some pretty good forums on there for odd writing questions- such as, using a nom de plum, or, building strong characters.  Personally, I'm following the forum that supports the 90-Day Novel theory, which most of these blog posts will center around.  I enjoy having a little external direction on such an expansive project.

So, my advice- sign up for www.writing.com.  Sure, there's other site out there, but this is the one I vouch for at this stage in the game.

S.C. Rood

Finding Readers

I won't bore you with the inspiration for this story; you only need to know that it exists.  I am five months into this journey and learned many helpful tips along the way from other writers.  I have only just started blogging the progress because we are getting closer to the *fingers crossed* time of publication and I want to be able to show a publisher some online guerrilla marketing.

After writing in solitaire for a few weeks, I had this dreadful doubt that perhaps I'm wasting my time.  I have been writing in conversational style for such a long time and  I found myself getting hung up on the basics of decent, long-form writing.  The Rules of Grammar, per se.

I haven't lived with my parents for years (many, many years) so my mother, the cheerleader, is now far away.  Plus, I'm a realist.  I'm not like that guy on American Idol who knows he is destined to become a singer, despite monkeys in the crowd flinging poo at him.  I know I'm a writer, but if no one publishes my work, what does it matter?  I'm not trying to be a millionaire (though that would be nice).  I've read plenty of crappy books; surely my words are worth something.  So, I needed feedback.  Quickly.

A few books I have read over the years have mentioned "writer groups".  I wasn't sure how to find one, so I did what any good American would- I googled it.  I found a website, www.meetup.com, that has meeting info for various groups of people based on location and interest.  It was a gold mine.  I found a local group and they were meeting that Saturday at a coffee shop (how cliche).

I loved it.  What wonderful souls- a small group of ten that meets monthly.  I had been working in the cold-blooded business world for so long I forgot how truly wonderful people can be.  They encouraged each other, offered great advice and even good criticism.  I'm a "choose a handshake over a hug" kind of person, and it was great.  I brought something to read and to my surprise found the encouragement to do so, and to continue moving forward with my dream to write.

So my advice- find a writer group near you.  Google it.  Try meetup.com.  Just find others to read your work who won't say they love it despite the fork in their eye.  Even if you don't read your work at first, keep going.  You'll be surrounded by like-minded writers and will make some great contacts.

S.C. Rood