The Motivational Editor

Helping Writers Go from Unpublished to Published

Writing Skills

5 Ways to Grow as a Writer While You Wait for an Editor’s Response

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Wait for the sunrise.Recently I had more than one person comment about their struggle with waiting. I’m talking about the wait between when you submit (or pitch) your work and when you hear back from the editor (or publisher).

We all have a different tolerance level for waiting, and the instant society we live in compounds the problem. But we can stay encouraged and productive while we wait.

What to Do While You Wait

  • Enter your article on your submission tracker, and start on the next project.
  • Develop/tweak your author website.
  • Read a book on writing craft and work to improve.
  • Learn the ins and outs of your favorite social media network(s) and use it to build your platform.
  • Most publications give a “will respond in” period of time. It can be several weeks to several months. List this on your submission tracker, schedule a reminder task in your calendar (I use Outlook) and follow up with an email to the editor when it is appropriate.

I think Kathy Carlton Willis offers the best advice with this quote from her upcoming book Your Life on Hold: Don’t Hate the Wait! “Sometimes between the ‘wait’ and the ‘yes’ we need to fall at Jesus’ feet and be caught up in total adoration of the Savior.”

We may not get a “yes” when the answer comes, but keeping our focus on the Savior provides us the peace and strength for every moment of the day, no matter what we face.

How about it readers? Add to the list the things that work for you. Leave your answer in the comments.

Debra L. Butterfield © 2013

Improve Your Writing and Marketing Through These 11 Blogs

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Platform, audience, tribe, fans, followers. Call it what you will, today’s writers must market themselves much more than in years past. In fact, there are many aspects of the writing world we must learn—unless you have a budget that allows you to hire someone to handle it.

In no special order, here are 11 blogs I follow that offer a tremendous amount of valuable free advice. (Like all businesses, several of these sites also offer their products for sale.)

Do you have blogs you follow that have been particularly helpful? Tell us about them in the comments.

How to Track Your Article Submissions

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Whether you submit with regularity or not, it’s important to track your submissions. How else will you follow up if you have no record of the magazines and editors (or agents/publishing houses) to whom you have submitted your work?

I keep a simple Excel file with the following info:

  • Date submitted
  • Magazine name
  • Editor’s name
  • Editor’s email
  • Editor’s phone number
  • Name of article submitted
  • Date to follow up. Most publications state a period of time to allow for review of your submission. Follow up with an email to the editor only after the stated time for review has passed.
  • Status (accepted or rejected)
  • Payment due. If accepted you need to know when your payment is due because some publications pay on acceptance and some on publication.
  • Payment rec’d date.  If you record this date as soon as the payment comes in, you won’t be left wondering later on if you got paid.

Not all of us are uber organized. I take advantage of the tools someone else has designed to help me. I just adjust them to suit my needs and circumstances.

Design whatever works for you, and be diligent to use it.

5 Ways to Improve Your Writing Skills

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As writers, we must continually seek to improve our writing skills. It is an ongoing process that can be accomplished in a number of ways to fit anyone’s budget.

Here are several options:

Participate in a critique group—it’s much easier to see someone else’s weak spots than your own.

Read writer blogs and the many free products they offer

Subscribe to writer magazines or read them at the library. Writer’s Digest and The Writer are two I recommend, but I’m sure there are others. 

Read books on writing. Find them at the library. Be sure to ask about inter-library loan or for your library to purchase the book if they don’t have it. I recommend:

  • Scene and Structure by Jack Bickham
  • Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint by Nancy Kress

by James Scott Bell

  • Plot and Structure
  • The Art of War for Writers
  • Conflict and Suspense

The Writer’s Little Helper by James V. Smith, Jr.

Take a writing course.

What have you done to improve your writing skills? Do you have a book, course, or professional organization you recommend?

Build Your Platform with Your Free Products

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Congratulations go to Amy Bovaird, our contest winner. She’ll receive a copy of Jeff Goins’ brand new book The In-Between. Email me at Deb@DebraLButterfield.com with your address and I’ll get it sent right out.

As you can see, I spent my weekend, redesigning, and I hope, making improvements to my website. I still have some work to do, but I’m learning CSS code as I go. We are all on this journey together, learning our craft and the tidbits of everything else that go with being a freelance writer.

Now, let’s move on to today’s marketing tip.

Market Yourself with Free Products

Whether it’s a tight economy or not, people like to get free stuff.

While you build your publishing credits and platform, you can market yourself (and any products you may have) by offering your readers a free eBook you’ve written, or a simple pdf document that focuses on your niche area of expertise (generally in exchange for their email address). Createspace has an eBook option, and I’ve done some research on Smashwords.com as well.

(I’m accepting guest blogs. Do you know about creating eBooks.)

A pdf is easily created on your computer and can be distributed to your readers directly via email, as a download on your website, or even through a mail service such as MailChimp.

Offering these items will build your mailing list, get your name out there, and give your readers a taste of your work (and ready for more). So make sure whatever you offer is the best you have to offer at that time.

Debra L. Butterfield © 2013

Writer Website a Must

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Tuesday tip from writer editor Debra L. ButterfieldGet past your fears, your doubts, your lack of expertise, your (you fill in the blank), about creating a writer/author website for yourself.

As a writer you want to give readers and potential publishers and magazine editors a place to go and find out more about yourself. In fact, it’s a must.

Your website is the answer. Here you can let them know who you are, what you have to offer, and list your publication credits. No credits yet, then wow visitors with your sparkling web copy.

What’s keeping you from starting a website? 

9 Aspects of Dialog, from Author Cecil Murphey

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When I heard New York Times best-selling author Cecil Murphey (90 Minutes in Heaven) was doing a workshop for the writers group I belong to, I wasted no time in signing up.

How better to learn about writing than to be taught by a multiple, best-selling author? During the day, he taught on dialog. Here’s part of what he shared.

In all novels, dialog must accomplish 1 or more of the following tasks.

Dialog:

  1. Must have a purpose.
  2. Advances the story, furthers the action.
  3. Develops/shows the character.
  4. Shows emotional state of speaker.
  5. Conveys needed info succinctly.
  6. Brings immediacy to prose. Makes readers feel they are part of the scene. They “hear” the dialog with the character.
  7. Builds suspense and intensifies plot.
  8. Controls the pace of your story. It’s a speed control device.
  9. Can sum up: a character can explain in a few sentences to another person who wasn’t present during the action.

Thank you, Cec Murphey, for your permission to share these 9 aspects about dialog! 

In the coming days, I’ll be diving deeper into writing dialog. In the meantime, how do you feel about dialog? Love it, hate it, dread it? Leave your comments below.

 

Get Rid of Superfluous Characters

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boxing knock out, get rid of superfluous characters

In his book The Art of War for Writers, James Scott Bell says,

[E]very character in every scene must have an objective, otherwise he shouldn’t be there. Replace him with a chair.

Review your WIP. If you find a character(s) who is superfluous? Do as Bell suggests, rewrite the scene and cut the character.

Now reread the scene. Is it stronger, weaker, mediocre? Revise until you are satisfied. It may mean putting the character back in, but do that only after you’ve determined his/her objective.