All Write - Fiction Advice

Last week we looked at the types of rejection and understanding what a rejection really means as opposed to what writers interpret them to mean. In this second part we’ll look at what to do if you receive a rejection – whether that’s the first one or the hundredth one – and how to deal with it positively. So, if you’ve received a rejection, the first emotion you’ll encounter is...rejection. Emotional rejection, that is; the idea that you as a writer must be rubbish and your work must be rubbish and no one wants you. And it feels like a punch to the guts. But this isn’t the case, as we’ve looked at in Part 1. This emotional response is normal, because we feel hurt, but it’s how we deal with it that helps us to remain confident and focused. Rejection = Improvement Writers rarely realise that rejections are actually a good thing. Why? Because with the rejection there may be a few brief notes from the agent or publisher to say why the manuscript failed. This is a positive thing....

For those who still wish to pursue the traditional publishing route, rather than self-publishing, then rejections are something of a rite of passage; something we all experience at some point in our writing careers and something we all have to get over. Many writers dread it. Some fear it. Some, on the other hand, take it in their stride. We all react differently to it because it’s seen not just as a rejection of the work, but a rejection of you as a person. But that’s not actually true. The one thing that agents and publishers will say is that it’s nothing personal. And it really isn’t. A rejected book is not a rejection of you – the agent or publisher doesn’t even know you. Rejections happen for all manner of reasons. It could be that some agents and publishers are not looking for new authors. Sometimes it’s down to the writer not submitting to the right agent or publisher for his or her genre, for instance a science fiction story won’t warrant interest from an agent who de...

Following on from last time with the most common writing mistakes that writers fall foul, here are a few more that are common among writers, especially those new to writing: Lack of conflict Lots of writers don’t pay attention to this. In every story there must be conflict. That conflict comes in many ways – from other characters, from outside influences or it comes from within the main character. These incidents and obstacles all demand reaction and resolution, and often escalate towards the denouement, so without all this, the story will fall flat. Think of it this way – your main character needs purpose, which means there is a story, but people (and other things) get in the way of that and often cause problems. And with problems there is often some kind of conflict. The main character has to overcome all this to get to the end of the story. The outcome of all this? The conflict advances the story. Run-on sentences/Comma splices Everyone does it, no matter their exper...