August 1999

PAW PRINTS

The Professional and Amateur Writers' Society
Kelli McBride, Editor August 1999 Volume 5 Issue 8

GREETINGS!
Kelli McBride     First things first: we will hold an executive board meeting at 6:00 before the regular meeting. We encourage all PAWS' members to attend. We'll be focussing on the Conference and Contest. If you are on a committee for either of these, please join us.
    This month's Paw Prints sees the final article in Linda Goodnight's 3-Part "Under the Hood" series. I've also found articles on writing press releases, creating worlds in your fiction, writing for middle grade kids, generating ideas for feature articles, and jumpstarting your creative juices. There are some fantastic opportunities in Markets and Contests - including a greeting card company. And this month we have a profile of Mary Ellen Cooper, one of our speakers at this year's PAWS' Conference.
    Are you planning to attend the conference? Be sure to ask Pat Millette for some conference flyers to hand out and display at your job or local stores/libraries/schools. Let's pack the house this year!
    Officer elections are just around the corner. Have you considered how you might serve PAWS?
    Send any club information, articles, or ideas to my e-mail address (kellimcb@chickasaw.com) or snail mail me. Paw Prints articles are due September 5th.

Presidential Reflections
Linda Goodnight     I realize that PAWS is not affiliated with RWA, but since it is writing related, I thought you might be interested in hearing a bit about my experience in Chicago.
    Every writing conference provides a wealth of opportunity for networking and workshops, but I must say the RWA Convention really knocked my socks off. Two thousand writers, editors, and agents from all over the world converged on the enormous hotel-convention center for four days of non-stop activity, and I didn't want to miss one minute of it. With meetings, workshops, receptions, parties, and hospitality suites running until midnight every night, I can't remember ever working so hard or being so exhausted.   Nor have I ever learned so much so fast. I came away with a whole new prospective on the business of writing.
    As I was forewarned, the Golden Heart ribbon opened a lot of doors for me. Editors and agents stopped to chat. Writers whose books I'd read and admired made room for me at their tables. The pressure was enormous, but it was a "feel good" experience as well.    And though none of us Okie authors brought home the gold, we weren't devastated. Being there, seeing the highly professional, top-notch writers we were up against, made me realize that the old saying really is true. It was an honor - a huge honor - to have been nominated.
    Until the meeting, Linda

PAWS’ 1999 OFFICERS

President
Vice-President and Program Chair
Secretary
Treasurer
Historian/Reporter
Paw Prints Editor
OWFI Representatives
Librarian (Honorary postition)

Linda Goodnight
Pat Millette
Doris Novotny
Karen Anderson
Elaine Carmen Wells
Kelli McBride
Linda Goodnight and Kelli McBride
Lorraine Stone

Member News And Reminders

    Linda Goodnight did not win the Golden Heart at the RWA Conference, but just being nominated is a huge career boost. She did meet with many editors and agents eager to see her manuscripts.
     Kelli McBride is a finalist in the International Library of Poetry contest for her poem, "Medea." She's also a semi-finalist in the North American Open Poetry Contest for the same poem.
     Pat Millette is busy sending out articles to magazines. Go girl!
    Guinn Hodgson won the Jingleberries jingle contest.

Conference & Contest News

    The annual PAWS’ conference is just around the corner (October 16). To get us ready, each issue of Paw Prints for the next 3 months will have a biography of one of our speakers. This month, the spotlight is on Mary Ellen Cooper.
    Mary Ellen (M.E.) Cooper lives in Stillwater, Oklahoma. She has been married for forty-seven years, worked as a licensed beautician, owned her own insurance agency and run a motorcycle dealership in addition to rearing eight children. She started writing full time eleven years ago and has had over fifty articles and stories in magazines ranging from Byline to Whispering Willows. Her first book, UNLIKELY ASSASSINS was an alternate selection of the True Crime Book Club and optioned for a TV movie. BLOOD & PITY, another true crime book was followed by THE WRIGHT SPECIAL a cozy mystery. MURDER AT THE LOCKSMITH CONVENTION was self published this year. She's also a member of Sisters in Crime.
From Karen Anderson, Contest Chairperson:
    To everyone who entered I wish you the best of luck. I feel that our judges are well qualified and will do a good job for us.
    I want to take this time to thank the members of my committee for all their help. I could not have done this without the help of Kelli McBride, Pat Millette, and Elaine Wells. Other club members also gave their help and input and it is greatly appreciated. I will not go into detail naming each thing they did but I want to comment on the fact that this was a team effort.   Working together as a club we put together a successful contest. Thanks again everyone....
    I will have the final tally at the meeting....Karen Anderson

Program Notes
Pat Millette Ever wonder what it takes to be a fireman? How it feels to rescue someone from a burning building or car wreck? Well, my friends, this month you'll find out all that and more at our August meeting. John Pruitt, Doris Novotny's son-in-law, will be our speaker. He brings five years experience as a firefighter plus his years as an Emergency Medical Technician for us to learn from.

In The Library Doris Novotny graciously houses the PAWS' library in her home. We have some great titles for your use. To check out one, contact Doris. She can either bring what you want to the next meeting, or you can arrange to stop by her house and check it out.

'96 & '97 Writers Market
McGraw-Hill Author Guide
Find It Fast (Berkman)
'95 Novel & Short Story Writers Market
Religious Writers Market Place (Gentz)
Various issues, Writers' Digest

Everyday Life in the 1800's (McCutcheon)
The Creative Writer's Handbook (Ziegler)
Write Your Life Story (Speer)
How To Format Your Manuscripts (Greene)
"If You Want To Write" (Ueland - tape series)

Under the Hood
Linda Goodnight     I recently received a revision request from an agent. Along with her letter came a list of structural elements that agents and editors look for in a polished manuscript. Some of them will be familiar while others will be new. All will help you fine tune.
    Paragraphs and sentences that start the same too often. Rule of thumb: Never have more than 2 paragraphs per page nor 2 sentences per paragraph that start with the same word, phrase or character’s name unless you are stressing.
    Unnecessary saidism. Ask yourself if said is necessary. If you can write the narrative that precedes or follows dialogue without using it, and instead give a strong, declarative sentence by using picture tags, then your writing will be much stronger for it. You don’t have to delete every said, but use picture tags instead where possible. (Picture tags = gesture, expression, body language, or character action.)
    Paragraph too dense. Break into 2-3 paragraphs or the reader will skip ahead and hunt for dialogue. Long sentences are the same way. Reader gets too involved keeping up with the sentence meaning and can’t follow the storyline.
    Never use double punctuation. Let the words express the emotion. Look out!! Should be Look out!
    Watch out for physical improbabilities, particularly with the eyes. Eyes darted, eyes fell.
    Point of view: One character’s pov cannot be in the same paragraph with another characters pov. Nor can it be in the same paragraph with another character’s dialogue.
    Use active rather than passive voice. (Boy, have we heard this one!) If a sentence begins with: It was, There were, etc. most of the time you’ve written it passively.
    Look for redundancies: Stood is a motion going up. Sat is a motion going down. “Nodded her head.” When a character nods, it is always with her head. It is redundant to say “her head.”
    Cliches. These are descriptions or sayings you’ve heard all your life. Write something uniquely you. Big as a barn, can’t teach an old dog new tricks, couldn’t believe his ears.
    Show/don’t tell. If you say he felt/she felt, you’re telling. Show us. Telling takes the reader out of the character’s body. Showing puts the reader inside so that she feels it happen when it happens to the character.
    Use indirect quotes around dialogue when repeating or recalling what has already been said.
    Flashback rule: one “had” going in. Past tense verbs while in. One “had” coming out.
Example: Mary had known John would one day disappear. He had admitted it less than a month after they had met. He had said that he wasn’t the kind of man who planted roots. He had always ridden the rails for adventure. Wanderlust had guided him for all his fifty years, and he was too old to change.
    Corrected Example: Mary had known John (we’re going into flashback) would one day disappear without a trace. He admitted it less than a month after they met. He said he wasn’t the kind of man who planted roots. He always rode the rails for adventure. Wanderlust had guided him (we’re coming out of the flashback) for all his fifty years, and he was too old to change.
    Never bind, staple or clip a manuscript for a publisher. Never italicize. If you want your words italicized, underline them. Underline foreign words.
    Standard manuscript format is 25 double-spaced lines per page with 10-12 words per line. Every page should have standard header with title, author’s last name, and page number. From the header space 1/3 way down page to begin typing. (Since manuscript format seems to vary slightly with different publishers, that is all I will say on the that subject.)
    Ellipses. Us three dots...when pausing in the middle. Use four dots when pausing at the end of a declarative sentence or paragraph. (The last dot is actually a period.) Use three dots and a question mark when pausing at the end of a question. Us two dashes at the end of one character’s dialogue that is being interrupted by another charac—“ If using ellipses, make sure you remain consistent in spacing them the same way throughout the manuscript.
    There you have it. Advice from the pros. If you’re like me, you’ll run this off and tack it over the computer to refer to again and again.

GENERATING STORY IDEAS
Silja J.A. Talvi

If you feel like you're getting stuck in one particular non-fiction magazine genre, or if you're lacking for story ideas, try the following four techniques to boost the variety and frequency of your pitches and submissions:

For the rest of this article, click here.

Ask the Children's Book Author
Lee Wardlaw Q: I've had several short non-fiction articles published in children's magazines, and would now like to try writing a trade non-fiction book geared for kids ages 8-12. What subject areas or topics would work best for this age group?

For the rest of this article, click here.

"What's in a World?"
Susan Sizemore

I just finished writing a romance novel. It's a contemporary suspense story, and you might think my mentioning it has nothing to do with an article on fantasy world building. In fact, this book (out from Silhouette Intimate Moments in January 2000) was what got me to thinking about world building. You see, it came to me that writers build a fantasy world in each book, no matter what genre they're writing in. You create the world, you set the rules, and you make the reader believe in it.

For the rest of this article, click here.

Getting Those Creative Juices Flowing (Again)
Karen L. Oberst You have written a well-done and useful article about a person or a company, finishing it shortly before deadline. You give the person or company a final look at the article just before sending it in, and they say "No." For at least a moment, your mind falters, and goes blank. After days of trying to arrange your schedule, you finally have time to spend on your great American novel. You sit down at the computer and stare at the blank screen, your mind as blank as it.
You have a great idea for an article and query your editor about it. He says, "Sorry, we already have two articles on that topic coming up." Suddenly you need to come up with a new idea on the spur of the moment.
How can you get your creative juices flowing either after a rejection, or when you need to be getting words down on paper? Here are a few ideas for those dry times to jump-start your writing mode.

For the rest of this article, click here.

WelcomeNewPAWS'Members!!

GuinnHodgson
RobertKunze
DonnaAustin

On The Job Tips
Kelli McBride

Writing press releases is a skill you may need to exercise in a variety of settings. Whether in a volunteer organization or at your paying job, your boss may ask you to send info to a newspaper or media outlet. Here are some formatting tips to help prepare you for that task.

Press Release Content Basics

Every release has 7 basic elements in terms of content & appearance:
1.    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: These words should appear in the upper left margin, just
        under letterhead. Capitalize every letter.
2.    Contact Information: Skip 1-2 after release statement; list name, title, phone & fax #s of
        your company spokesperson (the person with the most information). Give your home
        number since reporters often work on deadlines and may not be available until after hours.
3.    Headline Skip 2 lines after your contact info; use a bold type.
4.    Dateline: City press release is issued from and date you're mailing your release.
5.    Lead Paragraph: 1st paragraph needs to grasp reader's attention & should contain
        relevant info to your message (e.g., the five W's - who, what, when, where, why).
6.    Text: Press release's main body where message fully develops
7.    Recap: At lower left corner of last page restate product's specifications, highlight a
        product release date.

Don'tforgettosignuptohelpandattendtheconference!!AnyPAWS'functionisonlyasgoodasitsmemberparticipation.Ifour ownpeopledon'tattend,thenhowcanweexpectanyoneelseto?Don'tmissout!!

Press Release Formatting Suggestions

    Use 8 ½ x 11 paper. Use a minimum of 1" margins
    Use 1.5 or double spacing for maximum legibility. Use a Bold typeface for the headlines to    draw attention.
    Complete the paragraph on one page instead of carrying it over onto the next page. Use only 1 side of paper.
    Type "– more –" at bottom center of the page to let reporters know that another page follows.
    Type "# # #" immediately following the last paragraph to indicate the end of the press release.
    Capitalize the 1st letter words in the headline (except: "a,” "an," "the," or prepositions such as: "of," "to," or "from"). The combination of upper and lower case makes it easier to read.

10 Essential Tips to Insure Your Press Release Makes the News.

1.    Make sure the information is newsworthy.
2.    Avoid excessive use of adjectives and fancy language.
3.    Tell the audience that the information is intended for them and why they should continue to
        read it.
4.    Start with a brief description of the news, then distinguish who announced it, and not the
        other way around.
5.    Deal with the facts.
6.    Provide as much contact info as possible: Individual to contact, address, phone, fax, email,
        Web site address.
7.    Ask yourself, "How are people going to relate to this and will they be able to connect?"
8.    Make sure you wait until you have something with enough substance to issue a release.
9.    Make sure the first 10 words of your release are effective, as they are the most important. 10. Make it as easy as possible for media representatives to do their jobs.

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