“It is impossible to sell animal stories in the U.S.A.”
Animal Farm by George Orwell

“Older children wouldn’t like it because its language is too difficult.”
Watership Down by Richard Adams

“The girl doesn’t, it seems to me, have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book above the ‘curiosity’ level.”
The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank

“It does not seem to us that you have been wholly successful in working out an admittedly promising idea.”
Lord of the Flies by William Golding

“For your own good do not publish this book.”
Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence

“A long, dull novel about an artist.”
Lust for Life by Irving Stone

“You have buried your novel underneath a heap of details which are well done but utterly superfluous.”
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

“Neither long enough for a serial, nor short enough for a single story.”
A Study in Scarlet (short story) by Arthur Conan Doyle

“It contains unpleasant elements.”
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

“A very bad book.”
The Bridge Over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle

“If you insist on rewriting this, get rid of the Indian stuff.”
The Blessing Way by Tony Hillerman

‘I’m sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don’t know how to use the English language.”
Unspecified manuscript by Rudyard Kipling

“…overwhelmingly nauseating, even to an enlightened Freudian…the whole thing is an unsure cross between hideous reality and improbable fantasy. It often becomes a wild, neurotic daydream. I recommend that it be buried under a stone for a thousand years.”
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

“I do not see anything in this to convince me you can write either narrative or fiction.”
one of Zane Grey’s early novels

“We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell.”
Carrie by Stephen King

So what’s the secret to rejection?

Don’t let rejections stop you from writing. And submitting.

Some people are just born to be writers. Or maybe they’ve just worked really, really hard at it. Either way, their skill with words comes through in their blogs. They write entertaining, interesting posts that I can’t wait to read.

Check them out for yourself:

Jason A. Myers – He shares things he’s learned about writing and is entertaining in the process.

How Not to Write by Jamie Grove – Always good for a kick in the motivational-seat-of-your-pants.

Ceiling Flickers by Sharon Pelletier – The graceful flow of her words instill awe in me.

What writers do you know that were born to write? Leave a comment with their website so I can add them to my favorites list.

There’s a saying floating around that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an “expert” at something. If you want to be a concert pianist, 10,000 hours of practice. A primadonna opera singer? 10,000 hours. A pro football player? 10,000 hours of practice.

So why is it that writers assume they can become published after writing just one novel? Oh sure, there are some writers that do strike it lucky on that first novel. But the majority of writers don’t.

For good reason.

Just because we all learn to write in kindergarten, that doesn’t mean that you can automatically turn out a bestseller. In reality, writing a bestseller usually means that you have to learn to balance character motivation and development, rising action, plot events and twists, evocative descriptions, worldbuilding, sentence structure, grammar, point of view, and theme… all while writing a really exciting story.

Writing is easy… writing a novel is not.

If you want to write a bestseller, you need to practice and study the craft of writing.

Read a novel multiple times and analyze how the author motivated their characters, used descriptions, created tension on the page, wrote subtext into the dialogue, and twisted the plot at the climax.

Practice the techniques you found in your daily writing.

Watch a movie and analyze how actors display emotions with expressions, gestures and actions.

Practice showing characters feeling strong emotions without words.

Get a book like Steering the Craft by Ursula K. LeGuin and do all of the exercises in the book. Five times.

Visit a writing prompt site on the Internet (Seventh Sanctum, Creative Writing Prompts) or get a book of writing prompts (A Picture is Worth 1000 Words, The Pocket Muse) and use a prompt every day in your daily writing practice.

Take the last novel you wrote and revise it into the best story you can write. Get help on how to revise from writing books or from a workshop like How to Revise Your Novel.

Write.

Figure out what didn’t work.

Fix it.

Write more.

Your 10,000 hours start today.

If you’re looking for more encouragement than an actual system for writing your novel, try out How to Write a Novel in 100 Days or Less.

Each day is on a separate page and contains a motivational message to keep you going along with occasional writing tips. Toward the end of the series, the tips change into revision advice along with instructions for finding an agent and preparing your manuscript for submission.

Office disasters happen. Usually at the most inconvenient time in your project. Good old Murphy of Murphy’s Law is waiting to trip us up.

This weekend my 7-year-old computer started sending me messages that it was lying on its death bed and I should call the funeral home to make arrangements real soon. It’s been complaining about its bad back and chest pain for a while now, but I’ve ignored it.

After the CD drive refused to recognize any disk and the computer spontaneously rebooted itself in the middle of my work, I decided maybe I should listen to the whining and do something about it before it croaked in the middle of a big project.

So I bought a new computer. A cheap one, mind you, but it is still years beyond my old computer in technology. And then the fun started.

Since my old computer is still working I figured it wouldn’t be a big deal to transfer files from it to the new one. And yes, that has gone well, overall. Thank goodness for memory sticks.

But then we get to the things that don’t transfer well.

Install Disks for Everything

Do you think I can find my copy of Microsoft Office? Of course not. So I loaded up the trial copy for now while I hunt down my disks. I have 60 days to find them before the trial expires. I hope it’s long enough.

I did manage to find the CDs for my printer and cable modem. Big sigh of relief or I wouldn’t be here right now.

Email CDs, Settings and Files

The new computer wants me to use something called Windows Mail. But all of my contacts and a HUGE number of archived emails are in Outlook format. I transferred the Outlook databases over, but I have to find a copy of Outlook to install so I can use them. Then I have not remember the settings to connect to my account at my ISP. So for now, no email. I cringe at the hundreds I may have waiting when I finally get back in.

Feed Reader Software and Subscriptions

I use the Sweetie Reader from Alice at www.internetmarketingsweetie.com and I love it. I have around a hundred blog subscriptions in there and quite a few posts marked for follow-up, like a companion post on my blog. I can re-download the software from internetmarketingsweetie.com, but I need an export of my existing subscriptions. I pray it has that capability.

So, what’s the moral of the story?

When is the last time you backed up your documents? Do you know where your install CDs are? Do you know how to export contacts or feed subscriptions? Do you know email account info, in case you had to set it up in a different email program?

If your computer broke tomorrow, would you be able to recover in a short amount of time or would you be crying as you tried to remember obscure settings and rebuild everything from scratch?

Don’t be like me. Get prepared today just in case Murphy comes knocking!

What do you call your writing stoppages? You know, those times when you just don’t feel like working on your novel? When you find yourself wondering what’s the point of writing a novel anyway?

It’s common for writers to experience this feeling in the middle of their novel. Middles… when you’re too far past the first blush of novel excitement and too far away from the adrenaline rush of the end. And you find yourself avoiding your novel for one day, then two, then it’s a week and your unfinished manuscript is just a distant nagging whisper that is easy to ignore.

I call that a slump as opposed to a block. It’s not that I’ve lost the words and don’t know what to write. It’s that I don’t care about writing. It seems pointless.

I’m in one of those myself. Been in this slump for a few months now. I’m still getting some things done, like this blog, but if you’ve been watching you’ve seen the posts get further apart as time went by. Because even blog writing is writing. And I just haven’t cared.

So how do you get out of a slump?

I’ve been turning over ideas in my head, trying to find something that would work. There are the standard things to try:

• Commit to writing only a paragraph (because it’s something down on paper, even if only a paragraph and you might catch fire and write more, if you’re lucky)
• Apply motivational tools like rewards and punishments – a good idea, if you will actually apply the rewards and punishments to yourself (something I have trouble with)
• Apply the Nike slogan and Just Do It – force yourself to start writing no matter how much you don’t want to (which I’m doing right now)

These haven’t really worked for me so far (other than I got a blog post out of my slumpiness).

So who’s got some suggestions? What do you do to get out of a slump?

Sometimes you’ll find it necessary to take a break from writing your novel. Most people don’t realize that writing a novel is essentially another job. If you already have a job outside the home, are going to school, or are a full-time homemaker, writing a novel is like having a second job. And that job can be physically, mentally and emotionally draining.

Physical Exhaustion

Who would have thought that sitting at a desk, typing for a couple hours could be so tiring? We writers know this kind of tired first hand. Your hands cramp up, your back aches, your eyes feel dry and scratchy for staring at that darn screen for too long.

To keep yourself fit and ready to write your next ten novels try these steps to take care of your body:

• Take a stretch break every 30 minutes or so. This means getting up from your chair, so don’t just sit there.
• Focus your eyes on something in the distance periodically.
• Remember to breathe deeply. Oxygen does your brain good.
• Get some kind of physical exercise each day. Even taking a short walk around the block is good for you.

Mental Exhaustion

Trying to wring the perfect words out of your brain can also be exhausting. Pulling from your creative well day after day can run that well dry after a while. Restock it with these activities:

• Take a walk and try NOT to think about your novel. Immerse yourself in the sensory experience of your environment. Any physical activity will work for this, even cleaning the house or washing your car.
• Go to a play, visit a museum, or listen to a concert. Activities that stimulate your creativeness with things other than words are helpful.
• Be creative with something other than words, like coloring a picture, painting, scrapbooking (those this uses some words), woodworking, or knitting.
• Goof off. One of my favorite break activities is playing online role-playing games (MMORPGs). Interacting in a different world gives a much needed break from my story world.

Emotional Exhaustion

The third kind of exhuastion that can strike a writer is emotional. You live your characters’ lives with each word you type. That includes their emotional ups and downs. Riding that rollercoaster with them can drain you of energy.

Try these activities to get yourself back on an even footing:

• Meditate. You can use a specific meditation practice or just sit quietly by yourself and endeavor not to think. I like to do this outside in the sunshine.
• Get into your car, shut the doors and scream. Or cry. Or yell. Express the emotions that may be surging inside you.
• Take a nap. They aren’t just for small children anymore. A power nap or a long afternoon snooze can help restore your equilibrium.

Writing can be a lot more tiring than most people imagine, but using some of these suggestions you can help get yourself back into writing shape quickly.

What do you use to recharge physically, mentally or emotionally?

Continuing the series on Where, When and What Tools, here’s the third entry–What tools do you use to write?

While it might seem like a simple question… you’re either writing by hand or writing with equipment (like a computer), there are many more choices available to you than just those two.

The Instrument

• a pen–roller ball, gel, thin-line marker
• a pencil–standard #2 or mechanical
• fountain pen complete with ink well
• calligraphy pen–to give your writing some flair
• colored pencils–useful for marking different kinds of text in different colors, like blue for vision sentences, green for taste, etc.

The Paper

• loose-leaf paper, lined or unlined
• notebook–the Mead notebooks you used in school, $1 specials from the bargain bin (I can’t resist these)
• journal–I love the fancy leather-bound journals with the gilded edges
• the backside of previously used paper–nice for drafts of your novel and for being eco-friendly
• oversized newsprint
• napkins–usually handy in a pinch
• sketch pads
• graph paper

Technology Alternatives

• a computer–desktop, laptop, or palmtop
• PDA (personal digital assistant)
• cell phone or smartphone
• Alphasmart
• dictation machine–if you have an actual person to type for you
• voice recognition software–if you don’t have an actual person to type for you
• typewriter–if you can still find one, maybe in a thrift shop or antique store

What tools do you use to write?

Part of a series…
Where Do You Write?
When Do You Write?
What Tools Do You Use to Write?

Continuing the series on
Where, When and What Tools, here’s the second entry on When to Write. Finding the right time to write can be challenging. Try this list to get you started.

When to Write

• get up an hour earlier in the morning
• go to bed an hour later
• on your lunch break
• on your smoke break (who says you have to smoke to take a five minute break?)
• right before leaving work to go home
• right when you arrive home from work
• before you leave for work
• during a boring meeting (only recommended if no one will notice your inattention)
• while cooking dinner
• while eating (any meal will do)
• while commuting (use a voice recorder if you’re driving – Safety First!)
• while walking the dog
• while walking on the treadmill
• in the afternoon
• when it rains
• when the sun shines
• during an appointment you made with yourself
• while standing in line
• while “on hold”
• during TV commercials
• in the drive-thru line
• during a sporting event
• while waiting for the laundry to get done
• while the children nap
• while the children are at school
• during your spouse’s favorite TV show (you know… the one you hate)

When do you write?

Part of a series…
Where Do You Write?
When Do You Write?
What Tools Do You Write With?

Having the right combination of place, time and tools will help a writer in three ways:

1. It will help him get more writing done, because everything feels right.
2. It will help him feel good about writing… which will keep him coming back to the story.
3. It will help him have more good days than bad days. (Yes, there are bad writing days. We’ve all been there.)

So how do you find the right combination of these three elements for yourself? Trial and error is the best way to find what works for you. Here’s a list of places to get you started on finding the right place for you.

Where to Write

• at a desk
• on the couch
• under a tree
• in a museum
• in a coffee shop or cafe
• in a parked car
• in the library
• at a bus station
• at your grandma’s house during a family gathering
• at an airport
• in a park
• on a bus
• at the kitchen table
• in a shopping mall’s food court
• on a plane
• in the bathtub
• in a hotel lobby
• in a bookstore with comfy chairs
• on a train
• in the school or office cafeteria
• on a ferry
• in a shed made over into an office
• in a room with no view
• in a room with a great view
• in a hotel room
• standing up
• lying down
• in a closet
• in an art gallery
• on the floor
• in a doctor’s waiting room (change the ‘a’ to an ‘r’ and it becomes “writing room”)

Where do you write?

Part of a series…
Where Do You Write?
When Do You Write?
What Tools Do You Write With?