Blog Tour: Love Starts With Elle by Rachel Hauck

**Win a copy of Love Starts With Elle by leaving a comment on Rachel’s blog tour post. **

I enjoyed reading Love Starts With Elle. Rachel Hauck develops strong characters with believable conflict who don't always make predictable choices. I've come to look forward to my "visits" to the South Carolina low country.

Rachel is the author of ten, going on eleven novels, and has recently become an "acclaimed" author. (Yeah, funny how that happened. Some dude found her lottery stub stuck to the bottom of his shoe and tried to "acclaim" her. But her husband refused to pay out.)
Since then, she's gone on to become a best selling author of Sweet Caroline.
Living in central Florida with her husband of sixteen and a half years, one sweet little dog and one ornery cat, Rachel is a graduate of Ohio State University and a huge Buckeye football fan. One day she hopes to stand on the sidelines next to Coach Tressel as a famed, acclaimed best selling OSU alumni, beloved for her work in literature and letters. (She's written at least a couple hundred letters in her life time.)
Love Starts With Elle (July 2008, Thomas Nelson) is set in the South Carolina lowcountry, and earned 4.5 Stars and Top Pick from Romantic Times Book Club.
Look for her next release next spring, The Sweet By and By, the first book in the Born To Fly series with award winning country artist, Sara Evans.
Of the writing journey, Rachel says, "I'm humbled by the amazing things God is doing in my life. I love what I do, and am so privileged to work with Thomas Nelson fiction and am excited to see what God has in store for all of His authors and writers. Just keep praying and writing!"
Visit her blog and website at http://www.rachelhauck.com.

To visit other blogs hosting Rachel's blog tour, go here.

Passion or Imitation?

"Find a subject you care about and which in your heart you feel others should care about. It is the genuine caring, and not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style." ~ Kurt Vonnegut

I never planned on writing a book.

I was quite content writing magazine articles, contending with 800 to 2200 word counts and fairly quick deadlines.

I wrote about issues that burned in my heart and spilled out onto the page as words that became sentences ... paragraphs ... articles.

I didn't necessarily write as much as other writers that I knew--but I was writing regularly and submitting regularly.

And then I became a late-in-life mom at 41. Motherhood over 35 became something I cared deeply about because I was living the experience up close and personal--and looking for answers. And I knew I needed to write about it. I also knew the multi-faceted topic couldn't be adequately tackled in a single magazine article.

And so I found myself working on a book proposal and 3 sample chapters and pitching the idea to an editor.

Baby Changes Everything: Embracing and Preparing for Motherhood over 35 was published a year ago. I've kept my first author copy on my desk.

Will I write another book?

Maybe.

If I am passionate about a topic that warrants being pitched as a book.

Writing a book is hard, hard work. I run into people all the time who say, "Oh,yeah. I want to write a book too someday."

I smile and nod and think, "Good luck with that. You have no idea."

And more importantly, they have no passion for writing.

One of the most-oft repeated axioms about writing is "Write what you know."

I agree.

But, even more important than writing what you know is write what you care about. Write what you are passionate about. Write your heartbeat.

No one else can write that.

When you write from your heart, you are sure to find your true writer's voice rather than imitating someone else's.

Seat-of-the-Pants V. Plotster?

Generally, writers fall into two camps: those who plot every detail before writing the book, and those who write by the seat-of-their-pants, never knowing how the story will unfold until events happen to the characters.

Plotsters may start with a single concept, building on an idea until they know everything that will happen in each scene and chapter.

Good resources:
Randy Ingermanson's website for the Snowflake Method
First Draft in 30 Days by Karen S. Weisner

Authors may answer dozens--even hundreds--of questions to create elaborate character sketches, so they know every detail about each person in the book.

Books with Questionaires:
The Plot Thickens: 8 Ways to Bring Fiction to Life by Noah Lukeman
Building Believable Characters by Marc McCutcheon

You’d think that every writer of suspense or mystery would be a plotster. Most are. They have to know who is the killer, who are the suspects, which red herrings to plant as false clues. But that’s not always the case. Some actually write by the seat-of-their-pants and don’t know who the killer is at the start of the novel. I’ve heard of novelists who think they know, only the killer changes as the story develops.

Writing by the seat-of-the-pants takes just as much thought as it does for someone who plots first. It’s just that the thinking is done in discovery as the story is written, rather than before. Unfortunately, it sometimes means unnecessary blind alleys and dead ends.

I wish I’d think of a high concept story, then plot in rich, glorious detail before I started writing. But my mind’s not wired that way. When I’ve tried to plot, I put myself into a box and all my creativity fled. So I’ll stick with what works, Creating memorable, three-dimensional characters. Using the following books:

Books to develop characters:
Goal, Motivation & Conflict by Debra Dixon
The Complete Writer's Guide to Heroes & Heroines by Cowden, LaFever and Viders.

Without serious plotting, I know that I’m doomed to rewrite. But each time I rewrite a scene, I get closer to the book I’d have written if I’d planned it that way.

It takes a lot of thought to plot before writing. But I wouldn’t know the characters, so I wouldn’t think of how they’d react in a given situation. From the start, I knew Stephanie didn’t want to marry Sam, but why not? Hadn’t I created a wonderful hero just for her? I had to work with her for a while to know why. I knew Drew had injured his ankle, but I didn’t know how until he jumped off a balcony. An emergency room visit, then the accident?

Yeah, not only do I write by the seat-of-my-pants, I don’t even write scenes in order. I write whatever scene I can picture most vividly in my mind. For my current wip (work-in-progress), I wrote the ending about three months into what’s turned into a five-year project. I needed to write the destination, so I’d know where my characters were heading. I’ve actually met several authors—some are even successful—who create through this fashion.

In the end, it’s the final manuscript that matters, not the process used to create it. Do you plot first or write by the seat of your pants?

~Roxanne Sherwood~

Too Tired to Edit

"You're through. Finished. Burned out. Used up. You've been replaced. . . forgotten. That's a lie!" —Charles Swindoll

My computer screen stared back at me as blank as my grey matter.

No ideas.

No motivation.

No words.

Nothing flowed. All I felt was drained. What will I blog? I riffled through my blog ideas writing file. Nothing. Everything required too much revision. Then I wondered, Am I burned out? Aha…my topic.

I didn't mind writing, but the thought of rewriting until my article sparkled held no appeal. Cleaning the toilet until it sparkled seemed more inviting than editing. And it was too late to eat chocolate. Caffeine would wreck another night's sleep.

This last week the economic news tapped into the financial nightmares I experienced solo parenting. I want security, peace and publishing opportunities. Every night was also Sleepless in Colorado Springs. Sleep deprivation left me feeling discouraged. Exhaustion dampened optimism. I wondered, Will my passion for writing, plus the commitment and hard work, ever be given the opportunity to impact the lives of others?

Tomorrow I will—

1. Acknowledge my feelings and the lies I'm telling myself that drain my joy.
   
2. Take better care of myself.
   
3. Go to bed earlier and get more sleep.
   
4. Renew my soul.
   
5. Take a day off.
   
6. Soak in a hot, luxurious bath.
   
7. Eat rich, dark chocolate.
   
8. Meet an upbeat friend for coffee or tea.
   
9. Say "no" to draining people.
   
10. Finish some remodeling projects around my house.
    
11. Refill my creative well.
    
12. Take a walk, enjoy the sunshine and the scenery.
    
13. Grab my camera and capture the beauty of God's creation.
    
14. Sing or listen to uplifting music.
    
15. Let go of perfection and expectations.

Writing Math

I am the original carrier of math anxiety.
I am thankful the writing life doesn't involve equations and angles and computations. The only thing I learned from my math classes is how to spell math words.
One numerical function I can't get away from as both a writer and an editor? The oh-so dreaded word count.
After traveling the writing road for so many years, I don't mind a word count. As an editor, I live by a word count. I only have so many pages, so much space in Connections, the MOPS leadership magazine I edit. And some of that space has to be handed over to the graphic designer.
Earlier this week I helped a friend of mine write her very first magazine article. She's a funny, articulate writer. I showed her the writers guidelines for the magazine she wanted to submit to--complete with article word count. She sent me an article 100+ words over the limit. I then told her to cut the article by 250 words.
I could hear her gasp of shock across the internet.
She began bartering with me back and forth, begging for extra words. I gently, but firmly, told her that she could do it, admitting that I was an Evil Editor.
And you know what?
She did it.
And you can too.
Word counts in writers guidelines aren't optional-if-you-feel-like-it-submit-an-article-with-this-many-words limits. Word counts exist because magazines are made up of pages and columns and photos and ads. There is only so much space. Want your article to have a better chance of getting accepted by an editor? Write well and hit the word count. Don't make an editor do your work for you.

Here's a few tips for hitting your word count:

1. Know what your word count is. I know, sounds obvious. Some writers don't check a magazine's writers guidelines online or in Writers Market or Sally Stuart's Christian Writers' Market Guide.
2. Here's a rule I live by: No sentence longer than 20 words. Any sentence longer than 20 words can usually be broken down into two sentences or it has unneeded words in it. Okay--that last sentence has 22 words. I'll rewrite it: If a sentence has more than 20 words, break it into two sentences. Cut unneeded words. Ta Da!
3. Start by cutting out small words like "but" and "that" and all "-ly" like "really" and "actually."
4. Look for redundant ideas. If you're writing an 800 word article, you don't have the word count to say the same thing three times.

The Synopsis -- Your Sales Pitch.

I’m a member of the I-Hate-Writing-Synopsis club. Heck, I don’t even like the sound of the word. Synopsis. I think it’s the “nop” in the middle that bothers me most. My mother used to wave a white tissue in my preschool face, asking just before her attack, “Do you have a noppy nose?” I shudder at the memory.

An unpublished novelist complained, “If I could have told the story in five concise pages, then I wouldn’t have wasted 100,000 words.“

You can view the synopsis as a necessary evil or as a wonderful marketing tool. It doesn’t really matter. The truth is if you want to sell your manuscript, you’re going to have to write one. A published author writes a synopsis. If an editor doesn’t like it, then the author doesn’t bother writing a manuscript that won’t sell.

Like any daunting task, whether you’re writing a synopsis or eating an elephant, it’s best to break the chore into manageable pieces.

1. Go through your manuscript chapter by chapter and write down the important plot points (the events and motivations that move the story forward), which happen to the POV characters in your story. This is generally very boring. Don’t worry about it now.
2. Don’t ask questions in hopes of hooking a reader. Editors don’t want to read the manuscript to find out how Penelope escapes the villain. Tell them.
3. Contrary to basic fiction writing, you are encouraged to tell not show.
4. Keep the name of the POV character consistent. Call him Jefferson Smith (not Senator Smith, then Jefferson, then the senator).
5. Only name the POV characters. In a romance, only the hero and heroine need names. Call other characters by their function: the neighbor, boss, son.
6. Limit the use of adjectives or dialog. This is only a summary of the story.
7. Length: varies. Find out what your publisher/editor wants. If you’re uncertain, limit your synopsis to five to ten double-spaced pages, max. Some say one-page/10,000 words. Others can summarize their novel in a snappy two pages.
8. Write in present tense, even if your manuscript isn’t. Jefferson goes to Washington.
9. Reveal your POV characters’ goals, motivations, conflicts, desires and flaws.
10. Highlight the theme, symbolism, and one-line marketing tags.
11. In a romance include: inciting incident, conflict that keeps hero and heroine apart, interest that draws them together, dark moment, and resolution.
12. Go back to step one. Edit the plot summary, only try to sprinkle a little pizzazz. Choose strong nouns and verbs. Make the tone of your synopsis match your writing. A light-hearted romantic comedy? Keep the tone in your synopsis light hearted too. Make the writing shine to entice an editor into reading your first three chapters and to provide your future marketing team with a hot tool they can use to sell your terrific book.
13. If your editor doesn’t require a chapter-by-chapter synopsis, and most don’t, then drop the plot points that aren’t essential to moving the story forward. Concentrate on writing dazzling details of the main events. In a romance, stick to details of the romantic plot, not the subplots.

Once you get the hang of it, you may find that you actually like writing a synopsis. Hard to believe, (yeah, I don’t believe it yet either) but some authors say they do.

~Roxanne Sherwood~

Tools You Can Use: Improve Grammar, Punctuation and Vocabulary Skills

"My vocabulary dwells deep in my mind and needs paper to wriggle out into the physical zone. Spontaneous eloquence seems to me a miracle. I have rewritten—often several times—every word I have ever published." —Vladimir Nabokov

When you read the Chicago Manual of Style do their complex examples leave you saying, "Whaaaaaht? I'm confused. I don't understand." If you want to write faster and cleaner, here are websites that can help you learn grammar and punctuation rules.

The Purdue Online Writing Lab offers FREE handouts and exercises on grammar, spelling and punctuation.

HyperGrammar is a FREE electronic writing course that approximates the same information covered in the University of Ottawa's ENG 1320 Grammar course. If you don't understand or remember what a grammatical term means, grammatical terms link to their definition. From punctuation to building sentences and paragraphs to frequently confused verbs, every lesson includes a review.

Vocab Test.com offers FREE vocabulary tests ranging from sixth grade to advanced senior levels. Whether you are a writer, a homeschooling parent or work with the public, a strong vocabulary increases your skill to teach and communicate.

"Devotees of grammatical studies have not been distinguished for any very remarkable felicities of expression." This quote by Bronson Alcott illustrates the importance of understanding your audience reading level. Use words creatively that are clear, simple, active, colorful, and powerful.