Tag Archives: Lillian Duncan

WRITING TIP WEDNESDAY–3 STEPS TO PUBLICATION!

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These 3 steps are guaranteed to bring you the brass ring you’ve been reaching for–publication! If you’re a fiction writer, sooner or later you are going to want people to read your stories. There are lots of options out there these days for getting published, thanks to the electronic revolution. But if you’re like me, you want to be published traditionally. Until I was published traditionally, I didn’t feel like a real writer! Don’t yell at me all you indie–pubbed writers. I didn’t say you weren’t real writers. I’m saying I needed to get a traditional publishing contract for me to feel like a real writer.

Anyway…it turns out it’s not all that easy getting a contract by a traditional publishing house. It took me 15 years of writing to get that! But I did and I’m glad I kept trying. Again…don’t yell at me!

Anyway, let’s get to the 3 steps to publication: As I’m sure you know all stories have a beginning, a middle, and end. If you want to get published you need to write the BEST BEGINNINGS, MARVELOUS MIDDLES, and EXPLOSIVE ENDINGS. Succeed with those three easy steps and you’ll have a contract before you know it.

So the perfect formula for  writing a great book, meaning publishable is: BEST BEGINNINGS + MARVELOUS MIDDLES + EXPLOSIVE ENDINGS = Great Story (and a book contract).

OK—maybe they aren’t all that easy. It took me years to learn the writing craft, and I’m still learning! It may take you longer than you wish as well, but if you keep learning, practicing and don’t quit you’ll get there!  Oops–I just added 3 more steps so…let’s try this again.

STEP 1–Learn about the craft of writing.

STEP 2-Practice  writing what you learn.

STEP 3–Learn and practice to write BEST BEGINNINGS.

STEP 4–Learn and practice to write MARVELOUS MIDDLES.

STEP 5–Learn and practice to write EXPLOSIVE ENDINGS.

STEP 6–DON’T QUIT! DON’T QUIT! DON’T QUIT!

 

Steps 1, 2, and 6 are self-explanatory so in the next few weeks we’ll take a closer look at Steps 3,4, and 5. Next week we’ll take a closer look at writing BEST BEGINNINGS. By the way, did I mention DON’T QUIT?

UNTIL NEXT TIME… GOD BLESS & GOOD READING…AND HAPPY WRITING!

PS. If you haven’t entered for a chance to win Deadly Communications, there’s still time. Skip down to the DEADLY COMMUNICATIONS post and leave a comment! Thanks.

 

 

 

 

 

Writing Tip Wednesday–Creating Characters

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Today we tackle the last of the BIG FIVE–creating characters.

There are books out there dedicated to the topic. So obviously I can’t do the topic justice in one short blog, and I’m not going to even try. But what I will do is tell you a bit about the process I use to develop my characters. But I’ve got a secret when it comes to creating great characters.

As a pantser, meaning I write by the seat of my pants instead of an outline, I don’t know much about my character when I first start writing. Sometimes I don’t even know their name!  I learn about the character as I write the first draft of my story. The first draft is always about the plot but the characters become more clearly defined as well.

For example in the story I’m writing now, one of the characters is an ex-FBI agent turned preacher. Yesterday as I was washing dishes, I was thinking about him and why he won’t be open to a romance with the other character. When you have romantic suspense, there always needs to be a subplot why the characters can’t be together at the beginning of the story.

Then it hit me–his wife was killed because of a case he was working on for the FBI. Now I didn’t know any of that before that very second. I didn’t know he was married. I didn’t know about the tragedy of his wife. I didn’t know why he gave up being an FBI agent.

Now I do, so as I go back to revise and edit as well as finish the story, that bit of information will add a new layer of depth to that character plus set up the reason why he doesn’t want to get romantically involved with the other main character.

So where do I get my characters? I admit that I might borrow a few characteristics from people I know or have known now and then. Sometimes they may be a composite of several different people. Other times, they may simply be created from my imagination.

OK, here comes my secret strategy for creating great characters. are you ready? I believe the key to creating a believable and memorable character is that they must be real to the writer. That means they aren’t characters in a  book, they’re people–at least in my mind! Characters in a book are two-dimensional. The people I create in my mind are not!

If you asked me about a character from one of my past books, I could probably give you an update on their current  life right now. That’s how real the characters in my books are to me.

And that is what will make them real to your readers as well!

So, you writers out there, do you have any tricks of the trade you want to share about creating characters? Or tell us about one of your favorite characters.

UNTIL NEXT TIME…GOD BLESS & GOOD READING (AND HAPPY WRITING!)

My Writing Journey–Why Christian Fiction?

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I didn’t start out writing Christian fiction. My first bumbling efforts at writing novels were filled with all the things I now proudly tell people are NOT in my books–bad language and explicit sex scenes.  Anyway, I can tell you I am so thankful I wasn’t published until I made the switch to writing Christian Fiction.

So what exactly is Christian Fiction? The answer to that question is as varied as the books you’ll find when you search the genre Christian Fiction. A few years ago a preacher I was listening to gave this definition for a parable:

It’s an earthly story with a heavenly message.

As soon as I heard that definition, it resonated with me. That’s the way I view Christian fiction–an earthly story with a heavenly message. Or in the case of science fiction it might be an-out-of-this-world story but it still has that heavenly message!

So, what’s the heavenly message? Again, there are lots of choices. Most of my stories seem to focus on God’s love; forgiving others; and living out the Golden rule.  I don’t limit myself to those themes, it just seems to work out that way most of the time.

I’m not much for following rules, but I do have a few as I write. First absolutely NO bad language, NO explicit sex scenes; and NO premarital sex (though a character make reference to it but always as a regret or a mistake.) Most of my characters are Christians at various stages on their walk with God. Some may not be actively following their faith at the beginning of the story, but as the story progresses, so does their faith.

So, I’m not just a writer, I’m a Christian writer. And I’m not just a Christian writer, I’m a Christian Fiction writer, and for me that means something. Just as the title Christian means something.  Taking the title of Christian Fiction writer means I will write in such a way as to be God’s ambassador to my readers.

Sounds a bit lofty and even arrogant, doesn’t it?

As someone said (I think it was JFK) we’re either part of the problem or part of the solution. I choose to be part of the solution with the stories I write. There’s so much darkness in this world, I want to add some light. So even though I write mysteries and suspense stories, they have a message of faith, hope and love.

And that’s how I derived my tagline: Lillian Duncan…stories of faith mingled with murder & mayhem!

 

 

SUNDAY DEVOTIONS!

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For the past few years, I’ve had a devotional blog. But I’m taking a break from that for the time being. Instead, I’m going to add devotions to this blog–probably on Sundays but I might actually post them on Saturday sometimes. After all, we seem to have an extra minute or so on Saturdays. We’ll just have to see how it works out.  I hope you enjoy this one!

 

SEEKING GOOD!

1 Corinthians 10: 24

Nobody should seek his own good but the good of others.

Me! Me! Me! It’s all about me! We’ve become a self-absorbed society. I don’t think many of us could deny that fact, but our life shouldn’t just be about us and what we want!  The Bible tells us to seek good for others. Wow–what a novel concept!

As a writer, this verse convicts me. After all marketing our books and ourselves is as much a part of being a writer as writing stories. And in fact, I think I have an obligation to my publisher to do this as much as possible to the best of my ability. (Even if I don’t like it!)

So, how do we reconcile this Bible verse with the reality of marketing?

For me, it’s about giving back to the writing community that I’m a part of. I do that in a few different ways. First, I give other writers the opportunity to be a guest on my blog. When the opportunity comes up, I also share their information with my circle of  “friends.” I give advice when I think I can add something to the discussion along with encouragement.

In my “other” life, I have to admit I need to improve in this area. I’ve been struggling with serious health issues for more than two years. Believe me when I say there’s nothing like a serious illness to make us selfish. Notice I say us–I certainly include myself in that statement. And in truth, when a serious health issue arrives we do need to focus on ourselves.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t seek good for others as well.

So, with the above verse in mind, I’m issuing a challenge. Find a way this week to do good for someone else and expect nothing back–not even a thank you. Or better yet, do something good for someone anonymously! How about it? Are you up for the challenge?

Once you’ve done it, come back and share your act of goodness with my readers and myself in the comment section. I’ll share mine after I’ve done it as well! Have a blessed week!

UNTIL NEXT TIME…GOD BLESS & GOOD READING!

My Writing Journey–Life After My First Contract!

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In the past few weeks, I’ve talked about the moment I decided to start writing, the first novel I ever wrote, and shared some of the joys of submitting in the “old days!” Today, I’ll share a little about the life of a writer. And yes, I do call myself a writer now! It took awhile for me to get used to saying that but that’s the way I think of myself now.

Anyway–it took 15 long, long, very long years to get my first traditional contract. Along the way, I did self-publish a book and then did two more with what was called Print On Demand (POD) back then. I self-published in 2004 when self-publishing was still considered a big no-no. I suppose some people still think that way but more and more self-publishing or as it’s called now indie publishing is becoming more acceptable day by day.

Of course, there have been many great writers and books that were self-publshed, such as Charles Dickens and John Grisham. So, why there is–oops, I mean was such a stigma associated with self-publishing is a puzzlement. Actually, it’s not that big of a puzzlement. The reason is that, like myself, many authors self-publish before they actually should!  That’s hard to admit, but I wasn’t ready to publish when I did. The stories themselves were pretty good, but I still had a few things to learn about the writing craft itself.

I’ve re-published two of the three books I published before I got my traditional contract. And I plan to republish the third one next year–if I have time. I consider myself a hybrid author. If you don’t know that term, it’s not surprising. It’s a fairly new term. It simply means that some of my books are published by a traditional publisher and some are indie published my me.

Anyway back to the topic at hand–life after my first contract. As you can imagine, I was thrilled when I received my first contract with a traditional publisher. And to this day, I still tear up when I think about the day I received the news. I actually received a second contract within a week or so of the first contract.

What a blessing from God!

So how has my life changed since those first contracts? A lot and not at all! How’s that for an answer.

It’s changed a lot in that I now consider myself a writer. In spite of all my health issues and being retired, I still have a purpose.  Another thing that’s changed is along wtih the writing of stories, I now have other writing obligations. Meaning marketing books, marketing myself, working on my own blog as well as guesting on others. Not to mention social media! Those are a few of the activities that keeps me busy during my writing time.

What hasn’t changed is that I still devote a great deal of time to my writing. Iwrite most every day. I don’t feel “right” if I’m not working on a new story. I usually work on one new story at a time while polishing and editing other stories that the first draft has been completed but hasn’t been submitted. When my publisher sends me edits for a contracted book, all the other writing stops while I complete the next round of edits.

Sometimes, people will ask me how many times I have to read my own story as I work on it. They are shocked when I tell them it’s at least five times, and usually many more than that. They ask me if I don’t get bored or tired of it after reading it so many times. I simply smile and tell them…

“No way!  I love being a writer!”

What a blessing from God has given me my heart’s desire! I truly feel blessed even in the midst of  dealing with my brain tumors and the effect it’s had on my life. How about you? Has God given you your heart’s desire? If so, please share it with us. If you’re still waiting on it, tell us about it.

UNTIL NEXT TIME…GOD BLESS & GOOD READING!

 

 

 

Writing Tip Wednesday–Dialogue

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It’s Writing Tip Wednesday again and today we tackle nother one of the big five. dialogue is considered to be one of the big five when it comes to writing. So far we’ve talked about two others of the BIG FIVE, showing not telling and point of view. So today we are going to “talk about talking.” Get it? Okay, it wasn’t that funny. But maybe a small smile at least.

Anyway, not to toot my own horn, I think I’m pretty good at dialogue. Or at least I hope I am. After more than thirty years as a speech pathologist, I know a thing or two about talking. Here’s a few dialogue dos”

1. There must be a purpose to why the dialogue is happening. It must be relevant to the story and the scene. It must move the story forward.

4. Dialogue can be used to give crucial information to the reader. But it must be done in a way that makes sense. In real life and in fiction, the talker wouldn’t give information to a conversation partner who already knows the information. Meaning you can’t have your character give her background information to her mother. Because her mother already knows it. (That’s just one example.{ 

5. Dialogue can add to character development. If your character is illiterate then they shouldn’t talk like a college professor and vice-versa.

6. Dialogue can add to tension. One way to do this is to remember that people lie to each other, avoid answering what the other person is really asking, people mislead other people.

7. Dialogue must be believable. People don’t talk perfectly all the time and the dialogue you write shouldn’t be  perfect either. We don’t talk in complete sentences all the time. Don’t be too formal. Don’t be to polite.

8. Cut the small talk. Readers want action, not small talk. Save the small talk for your real life. When you write dialogue keep it interesting.

So, that’s a few pointers now let me give you an example:

The phone rang. Lil answered, “Hello.”

“Hi, Lil. This is Ronny. What are you doing?”

“Nothing. What are you doing?”

“Nothing. Okay, see you tomorrow.”

Now, that’s a riveting conversation–NOT. Let’s try again. We’re going to add in some of Mary’s thoughts and spice up the conversation a bit.

Lil stared at the ringing phone. That better not be Ronny. After what he’d done, she never wanted to speak to him again. She picked up the phone.

“You’ve got a lot of nerve calling me.”

“What…what  do you mean? What’s wrong?”

“You know exactly what’s wrong.” She should just hang up the phone. That would teach him a lesson.

“I…I don’t know. I was just calling to make sure our date’s still on. You know for tomorrow night.”

The homecoming dance was tomorrow night.  If she refused to go, that would really teach him a lesson. “Sure, I’ll see you tomorrow night.

I’m not saying that’s a perfect example but it does move the story forward and it adds tension along with some worry about what was she angry about and what might happen tomorrow night at the dance.

One last comment about dialogue To say or not to say! That is the question. This is a debate that never seems to stop.

You have some experts that believe “said” is the way to go. Their reasoning is that it’s basically invisible to the reader and allows the flow of the dialogue to go unhampered without author intrusion. On the other hand you have all these writes that want to show how creative they are and use a myriad of other terms. Sometimes to the point of being ridiculous.

Examples: He snarled, He barked; He shrilled; He lamented; He moaned; He …..on and on and on.

What’s my stance? I fall on the side of said–most of the time–but sometimes I can’t help myself and throw in a snarl or a whisper now and then!

Got any questions about dialogue? What’s your opinion about said versus more interesting terms?

UNTIL NEXT TIME…GOD BLESS & GOOD READING (AND WRITING!)

 

My Writing Journey–Time To Submit!

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After writing and rewriting several novels, I thought it was time to try to become a “real writer.”

Back then, I was under the very mistaken belief that to be a real writer you had to be published by one of the big publishing houses. So much has changed in the past decade with publishing but that attitude may be one of the biggest changes–ever. That and the Internet.

I didn’t have a clue as to how to submit a manuscript back then.  As with everything in my writing career, I figured it out as I went. This would have been in the mid 90s. The Internet existed back then, but it had little to do with our daily lives. Boy, that was about to change! Anyway, all submissions were done by snail mail. Actually that term didn’t even exist back then.

Anyway, I bought a copy of The Writer’s Market and lucky for me, it explained step by step on how to query and submit to agents and editors. I became an expert on the process. For the next ten to twelve years I queried and queried and…. Well, you get the idea. Lots of queries but no luck.

Anyway, let’s take a little break while I tell you about the querying process back then.

But before I start, let me apologize to all the trees I killed in the process.

A few words come to mind as I think back to those days– lots of paper and lots of time!

Just as now, I would start with a query letter. But it could be up to six weeks or more before they responded. Now, it’s usually within a few days. So, I’d make a trip to the Post Office and send out my letters.

After that it was time to send a synopsis. Some kind agents/editors would let you do the query and the synopsis at the same time, but not all of them. Another trip to the Post Office.

If they were interested, it was time to send them a sample. Usually, three sample chapters, ten pages or fifty pages. So my office would be littered with piles of  paper.  First the query letters, then ten pages, then three chapters, then fifty pages. Another trip to the Post Office.

And I’m not very good at organizing so all the piles seemed to somehow get mixed up and I would spend even more time trying to figure out what went where!  So the second step was to send out the requested sample.  At this point a lot of agents required exclusivity as they evaluated the submission.

So one submission at a time except for the few that didn’t require it.  Another trip to the Post Office.

Now it was time to wait again. This time it could be up to three months but sometimes it would take even longer.

And finally they would request the full manuscript and almost always by this time it would be exclusive.

Back to the Post Office and more waiting and waiting only to be told no thank you.

Now it was time to send to another agent/editor who’d expressed interest.

And so it went.

Like I said, a lot of paper and a lot of time! Again, my apologies to the trees that I killed!

Sometimes it could take the better part of a year for querying and moving through the required steps. But that’s the way it had to be done if you wanted to get a traditional contract from a traditional publishing company. And at that time, that was the only option I wanted to pursue.

How about you? Are you old enough to remember this time-consuming process or have you been blessed to only deal with email queries?

 

UNTIL NEXT TIME…GOD BLESS & GOOD READING!

 

Writing Tips–Show Don’t Tell

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It’s Writing Tip Wednesday so here goes…

Show don’t tell is the first rule of fiction writing! So, why wasn’t it my first writing tip instead of second? I haven’t got a clue other than POV was on my mind. Anyway…show don’t tell is what will bring your story alive for your readers. It will put them in the middle of the story so they are experiencing the story rather than have someone telling them the story.

Showing:  Brings the reader into the action. They experience what the character is experiencing

Telling:  Telling is a summary of the event. It’s the way you tell someone about a movie or something that happened to you.

A good writer uses both showing and telling.

A great writer knows when to use showing and when to use telling.

One of the things I noticed with novice writers is that they often bring the reader to the point of a crisis, then suddenly transport the reader to an innocuous scene, such as at the kitchen table sipping coffee. Then the character thinks back to the crisis event and what happened.

Wrong!

That robs the reader of all the emotions of the scene. You never, never, never want to use telling during the pivotal action scenes. That’s when you want to stretch out each agonizing detail. Bring in all the senses, not just hearing and seeing. Try to include smell, touch, and taste. And don’t forget to add in emotions as well.

One clue that you might be telling when you should be showing is if you find yourself writing a flashback to an earlier scene so the reader knows what happened. Chances are you should go back to that scene and show it not tell about it later.

NO-NO: Telling: Her wedding was story book perfect except for the fact that her husband-to be-passed out before they could be wed.
YES-YES: Showing: Her little sister tossed the rose petals from side to side. When she reached the front she turned and waved. This was the moment that Allie had been waiting for her whole life. She tightened her grip on her father’s arm and slowly proceeded down the aisle. Tears filled her eyes as she saw all her family and friends watching her and smiling.

She looked up to the front of the church. She smiled at her handsome husband-to-be. He smiled back but then swayed. In slow motion, he crumpled to the floor.

The key to good writing is to find the balance between showing and telling. Too much showing makes the book too boring. Not enough showing makes the book too boring. And the way to find the balance is….practice–practice–practice.

Hope this helps!

Please share with the rest of us if you have a question or want to share your own examples of showing and telling!

UNTIL NEXT TIME…GOD BLESS  & GOOD READING! (AND GOOD WRITING!)

 

 

 

 

 

My Writing Journey–Writing My First Novel

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Last week I brought you up to my light bulb moment of deciding I should try to write a novel.  (If you missed it, check it out in the archives.) I knew nothing about writing books except what I knew from reading books all my life soooo….I sat down at my computer. Yes, we really did have computers back then!

And I wrote my story. I didn’t tell anyone I was writing a novel, I just did it! It took me a full year to complete that first draft of my first novel–Stolen Memories.

When I was finished, I shared it with my Book Club. Mostly they were excited that I wrote it and had positive things to say. And a few pointed out ways for me to improve it. All in all, it was a positive experience, but I wanted to learn more about writing. That meant finding books about writing.

For the next few years, I read books and learned about writing techniques and I wrote and I wrote.. and I…you get my point.  Somewhere in that time I got bitten by the writing bug.  I loved creating stories and characters. At this point it never occurred to me to try to get the books I was wring  published. I simply enjoyed the writing and wanted to be good at it.

Now after writing for 19 years and having 9 books published, I look back at that first novel….and cringe! There were so many things I did wrong in that book. Here’s a few:

Started with a dream sequence. I’ve since learned this a BIG pet peeve of many agents and editors.

The main character had amnesia-another pet peeve of a lot of agents/editors.

I had no idea what POV was so head hopping was plentiful! (If you don’t know what this is check last week’s writing tips.)

As far as the quality of writing, I can’t really say since I haven’t read any of my early manuscripts since becoming a better writer. But I suspect that wasn’t all that good either. But I kept writing and kept studying books about writing. I wrote at least three more novels (all about the same character) and probably a few others.

One day as I was sitting at my computer, I had a thought–a very scary thought.

Maybe other people would like to read my stories!

Wow, I had no idea how scary that thought really was!

Writers, share one of your mistakes you made as you wrote your first novel.

Readers, tell us the truth now, would you like to be a writer? If so, why?

UNTIL NEXT TIME…GOD BLESS & GOOD READING!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Writing Journey–How I Started Writing?

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OK, I admit I don’t really like talking about myself all the time. And that’s part of the reason I struggle to find things to put on this blog. I asked for advice over the weekend on Facebook about what my friends would like to see on any writer’s blog. And one of the answers was to write more about my own writing life.

DUH!  That makes a lot of sense. Why didn’t I think of it. So over the next few weeks or however long it takes,  I’ll share a little about my writing journey. PART ONE is today–How I Started Writing:

I’ve always loved books. Once I learned to read, I carried a book with me everywhere I went. And I do mean everywhere. To my aunt’s and uncle’s. To the doctor’s office. In the car when we were going some place. Even to the creeks and lakes where we went to fish. Of course, I didn’t fish. I read my books instead.

And yes, I was one of those kids who  tried to get away with  reading in class or even after I went to bed.

So the first step in my journey to become a writer was to read, read, and read some more!

As much as I loved books, it never really occurred to me to write books.

But I was a life-long fantasizer. And no I don’t mean sex fantasies!

As a child, I would make up characters in my head and create little lives for them. I would act them out with Barbie and Ken or Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head.

Even as an adult, I continued this little quirk.

Perhaps, the first inkling that I was meant to be a writer came when a friend of mine named Mary and I would read the same books and then critique them. And discuss how we could have made the book better by doing this or that.

The lightbulb moment came soon after I celebrated my 40th birthday. As many 40 year olds are prone to do I was searching for….something more in my life. (And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that my spiritual journey to reunite with God started at about the same time.)

Anyway…I was watching some TV show. I think it was Oprah. That talked about writing your own obituary. Not just any obituary but one that included all sorts of “fantastic” things that you hadn’t done. It seemed a little silly, but…I did it anyway!

At the same time, I was reading a book called SIMPLE ABUNDANCE. One segment of the book was about creativity and how we all yearn for creating something in our life. Made sense, but I didn’t consider myself creative.

Anyway…back to my obituary. In it, I wrote that I was a bestselling novelist!

Really? I had never written anything creatively but a few poems and hadn’t even done that for many years.

But as I read the words I’d written in that obituary something sparked inside me.

And a writer was born!

More about my writing journey next week.

HOW ABOUT YOU? HAVE YOU EVER WRITTEN YOUR OWN OBITUARY? WHAT CRAZY THINGS DID YOU PUT IN IT? DID IT CHANGE YOUR LIFE THE WAY IT DID MINE?

 

UNTIL NEXT TIME…GOD BLESS & GOOD READING!