CornerScribe

Archive for July, 2008

First off, here are some great examples of opening lines that you might want to review. While you’re at it, there are some terrific scifi novels listed here.

Here are some things I do to try to get a good opening line for my novels and short stories.

1. I start in the middle of some action or conversation. I know some people like to start off with some description or back story, but I like to get right into the middle of things.
2. I don’t read other people’s openers when I’m trying to work one out of my own. It’s too easy to copy the tone and style of someone else’s work.
3. I cut as ruthlessly as I can bring myself to. I prefer sparse language for an opener, so no flowery adjectives or adverbs for me.
4. I try to set the tone. If the piece is dark, then the opening should hint at that. Same for humor, horror, etc. This doesn’t have to go overboard, just give the reader a hint at what’s coming.
5. I make it involve the main character, or one of them. I think you might as well get the reader involved immediately with the person/people he’ll be rooting for for the next few hundred pages.

And here’s what I think is the best tip of all…

Don’t sweat it early on.

I’ve done it, and I know other people do too. You work and worry and fiddle with the opener when you haven’t told the story yet. For me, it’s too easy to get bogged down on page one and get frustrated. Instead, I put down whatever for the opening line, no
matter how crappy it happens to be. I know that as I work, I’ll revise
anyway. Sometimes great openers just grow organically out of what I’m
doing, and if they don’t, I’ve got the whole time I’m writing to mull it over and see what I come up with.

Finding balance, wouldn’t that be nice?

I’ve been feeling guilty lately for neglecting my fiction in favor of my non-fiction work. Unfortunately, the non-fiction is what’s paying right now, so it tends to stand up and demand attention. I’ve got a freelance contract now I’m working on, which I plan to have finished in about a week.

I try to divide my time between my fiction and non-fiction, but that’s often hard to do. Any money that the fiction might bring in is sometime in the future. Since one of my goals is to freelance full-time, I’m in no position to neglect the paid writing gigs.

Luckily, what I’m working on now is a knitting-related project, so it’s something I enjoy writing about. Yes, I’m actually getting paid to knit and write about it. Amazing.

What are your villains like? Who’s your favorite fictional villain?

In my opinion, the best villains are the ones that are at least partially sympathetic. He’s a bad guy, but there’s something about him that you’re drawn to. Maybe he’s physically attractive, or he likes children, or he’s good to his dog. Maybe you get a glimpse into his life, and you see why he’s turned bad, and you’re rooting for him to come around before the end.

No matter what the reason, this villain is two-dimensional. Rarely do you run across someone who’s arguably all bad or all good. Have you met someone like that? So why should your characters fall into that trap. Your main character should seem real, faults and all. Balance that with a villain who seems real too.

Here are some ideas that might get you started.

• Have your villain and main character complement each other in their traits. For example, your villain may have a good quality that your main character lacks.
• Your main character might be attracted to the villain because of the good traits he has.
• Their personality difference might be the source of their conflict.
• Think about why your villain has turned bad. This can often advance the story and give you insight into how he’ll act throughout your plot.
• If you can’t understand why your villain does what he does, then your readers won’t understand it either. If they don’t understand it, the story will suffer.

Read More

Characters

Character Creation Worksheets

Creating Villains People Love to Hate

How to Create a Character

I love this post. Here is some great writing advice to tighten up your work and say something that others will find it worth their time to read.

EnjoyTechnorati Tags: writing advice

Okay, so maybe this isn’t your traditional summer reading material, but these are some interesting books, and I’m betting you haven’t heard of most of them.

Feeling adventurous? Check out one or two of these.

The 50 outstanding literary translations from the last 50 years - Times Online

Trying scribefire.

First off, I want to be clear that I’m in no way an “expert” on selling services through elance. I have, however, gotten a few contracts and made a few thousand there, so I feel qualified to give some tips to help you do the same.

What is elance?

Elance is a site where freelancers and those needing work can find each other. Elance provides message boards, escrow services, rating systems, etc. and take a percentage of the project’s fees in payment. As a freelancer, you’ll bid for projects and buyers will choose who they want. If the two of you can come to an agreement on payment and terms, you’ll be awarded the contract.

Tips to succeed

1. You’ll need to put together your portfolio, but don’t spend weeks perfecting it. It’s all too easy to get bogged down in that process and never get on to bidding for projects.
2. Low bid doesn’t always win! Some projects have private bidding and others are public. You’ll soon find that some projects will attract dozens of extremely low bids. What you’d ask $500 to do, many will do for $50. Don’t get discouraged, and don’t relent and underbid what you’d need to make the project profitable.
3. I’ll say that again, because I know that most people will be tempted to bid next to nothing for jobs in order to get a contract. Don’t. It doesn’t work that way.In my experience, I usually get projects when I’m not the low bidder.
4. Emphasize the fact that you don’t subcontract the work. Many of the low-bidders you see are actually outsourcing the work for even less money and skimming a bit off the top as profit. That may sound great, but the reality is that the quality of the work is poor.
5. If you don’t have an elance portfolio, don’t worry. Use your sites outside elance as examples of your work. Your blog can be excellent for this if it’s well written and appropriate to what you’re bidding on.
6. Be selective in your bids. Bidding on dozens of projects that are only remotely related to your abilities is a waste of time. Instead, focus on putting together great bids for projects that you’re perfect for.
7. Use a custom bid. I’ve seen providers copy/paste the same text into dozens of projects. If you can’t give the time to write a custom bid, then why would the buyer think you’ll take time to do a good job once you have the bid?
8. Be generic in your bid; clarify in private discussion afterward. For example, someone may ask for five articles, and you bid $200 for the project. If the provider contacts you, then you can specify how much research you’ll do, word count, etc.
9. Be honest! Don’t try to sneak in extra charges or change the terms of the contract after the fact. You’ll just earn a bad reputation.

You’re interested in selling some writing, maybe even starting to “freelance,” but where do you go to SELL your work? Here are some of the most popular sites and the pros and cons of using each.

Constant Content

After registering, you’ll submit your work for approval. You can submit content that matches up to a previous request, or you can write whatever you like. After the content is approved, it’s up for sale.

Pros: You can write about what you want and charge what you want. Writers can typically get more from Constant Content than from other sites.

Cons: Your writing skills need to be a bit more polished than other sites might require; otherwise, your content is likely to be rejected. Your content may not sell for quite some time, or ever. In my experience, most of the content sold here will sell for full rights, meaning that the writer gets no byline or credit for the piece. Writers will need to accumulate $50 in earnings before being paid.

Associated Content

Associated Content is similar to Constant Content. Associated Content has different payment categories, some of which pay up-front and others don’t.

Pros: You can get paid something for just about anything you’ve written. Even if they offer no up-front payment, you’ll get paid a small amount for each article based on its page views, so your articles can continue to earn for months or even more. Even better, Associated Content will begin paying you about a week after your first article is bought. Beginning writers will find their work more readily accepted here. Because writers can claim their works publicly, Associated Content also makes a much better portfolio than Constant Content does.

Cons: The pay is pretty low, sometimes only $3-7 per article. Priority is given to content that is unique to the site.

Helium

Helium allows you to post whatever content you want, like Associated Content. However, Helium is unique in that members rate articles, and those ratings determine which articles move to the top of their categories and get the most page views.

Pros: You get paid something for your work, but it may be a small amount since Helium pays a percentage of the advertising revenue the article earns. Helium also has a marketplace where buyers can ask for particular articles, but in my experience there are usually few options there.

Cons: The pay is low. You’ll need to accumulate $25 or more before you get paid.

Suite 101

I can’t speak to the pros and cons of this site since I’m not a member. Unlike the other sites listed here, Suite 101 requires writers to apply to write for them. From that point, they sound a lot like Helium; they pay a percentage of the ad revenue your articles earn.

Xomba is another site that works very much like Helium or Suite 101.  The revenue model for many of these is the same, you earn a share of adsense revenue.

You may be asking, why would I use any of these sites that share their ad revenue when I can write for myself and get all the ad revenue? That’s a good question, and I think it depends on what your ultimate goal is. Writing for your own site will build your blog or website and, over time, increase its traffic. However, you’re likely to earn very little if anything in ad revenue for some time. Sites like Helium can provide you with better initial traffic, and higher earnings. If you’re allowed to put links back to your own site, you can also drive some traffic as well (check the TOS first).

This is what I do. If the content would work well on one of my blogs, that’s where I put it. If it’s an article that I’m interested in writing but that doesn’t fit with my blogs, then I sell it.

Note that I’ve deliberately eliminated sites that pay you to write advertisements and reviews on your own site. Those are a bit of a different animal. I also didn’t include article directories that don’t pay but that drive traffic back to your site. I also didn’t include freelancing sites like elance or guru.  All those are for a future post.

My best advice is to experiment with different sites. Join, write an article or two and see what happens. You may find some easier to work with than others. I tend to post most of my work to Constant Content. If an article doesn’t sell after several weeks, then I might consider placing it on Associated Content or even Helium. In short, try for the biggest payout first, and only later settle for one of the lower paying options.

Setting and trying to meet these goals has been a great motivator. I’m getting a lot more accomplished than I would have otherwise.

1. Spend one hour writing every morning before work (see my post on Rising Early to Write) I’m going to count this a success. I hit the snooze button a couple times, and I missed two mornings, but the habit is definitely settling in. I feel much better about myself and my work when I begin the day knowing some of my writing is already done.
2. Write 11 blog entries for my three blogs Done
3. Spend two hours EDITING the novel (in addition to the time I spend writing) I didn’t get to this one
4. Spend two hours networking and promoting the blogs Done
5. Write two articles to sell on Constant Content Done
6. Work on the Zombie short story I started a few months ago I didn’t get to this one
7. Go through my e-mail Done

Not bad, huh?

Goals for the coming week

1. Spend one hour writing before work, and use this time exclusively for the novel
2. Write 11 blog entries for my three blogs
3. Spend two hours networking and promoting the blogs
4. Go through my email
5. Write three articles and sell them online
6. Work on the Zombie short story

What are your writing or blogging goals for the week?

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