Is My Manuscript Ready to Submit?

Yesterday, I had a writer ask me how I could tell if my manuscript was ready for submission. Excellent question.

I always want to present my best work to editors and to help do so, I follow a checklist. Here are the basic checkpoints I use before I ship a manuscript to potential publishers, although there may be some points you want to consider for certain genres, such as mysteries, that are not covered here.

Does the manuscript begin with a great hook? A hook is a literary technique that is used at the beginning of a story to “hook” the reader’s attention so s/he will keep reading.

Does the story have an arc? Is there a beginning/middle/ending?

Does the character show growth? Occasionally, fictional picture books (I WANT MY HAT BACK) are published with no character growth, but most have characters that learn a lesson or show some type of growth by the ending. I would urge new writers to aim toward the type of story that develops character growth because editors are more likely to offer contracts for those.

Did you introduce a problem for the character and allow the character to solve the problem? The character with the problem should solve it.

Are sensory descriptors used? Writers tend to focus on the visual, but don’t neglect touch, taste, smell and hearing. Using these descriptions allows the reader to feel as if they are taking a journey with the characters.

Next week, I’ll continue with more checkpoints.

Call for submissions for Young Writers:

The Writer’s Slate publishes poetry and prose from students enrolled in kindergarten through twelfth grade, as well as creative writing by teachers. Publishes three times per year, with one issue completely dedicated toward publishing writing contest winners. Send work to: Shelly McNerney, 7619 Hemlock Street, Overland Park, KS, 66024. Teacher’s name must be included with all submissions.

Submission guidelines at http://www.writingconference.com/writer%27s.htm

Call for Submissions for Adult Writers:

Highlights High Five. For ages 2 to 6, created by the publishers ofHighlights for Children to help encourage the development of young children and have fun at the same time. Fiction should have an engaging plot, strong characterization, and lively language. Stories that teach by positive example, rather than preach, are preferred. Suggestions of crime and violence are taboo. 500 words or less. Rhyming stories are seldom purchased. Pays $150+ on acceptance. Editor, Christine French Clark; Senior Editor, Marileta Robinson. To: Highlights High Five, Editorial Department, 807 Church Street, Honesdale, PA 18431.

Submission guidelines at https://www.highlights.com/contributor-guidelines

Writing a Middle Grade Novel/Call for Submissions

Today, I’m continuing the series, Writing a Middle Grade Novel.

We want our readers to be “there.” To feel the excitement, the wind, the joy, the fear, and more in the journey of the character.  Descriptive passages create an illusion. The illusion of reality pulls the reader into the middle of the action and holds the reader there through the last page. Description is the image-making power of the story. It engages the reader by making the characters and action seem real.

The setting may seem unimportant compared to character, plot, and voice, but descriptive setting enhance the realism. In mysteries, frightful settings play a critical role if sights, sounds, smells, taste, and touch are conveyed through sensory details. Touch can send goosebumps down a reader’s spine if the character is in a scary setting and something bumps him. Fog or smoke can blur the character’s vision and make the setting creepier or seem more dangerous. Portraying a specific locale with sensory descriptors allows the writer to make a setting appear so real the reader can almost step into the pages of the book.

In Amazing Grace, I wrote:

Riding shotgun suited me fine. I loved to perch in the front seat by the driver. Besides, I was on the lookout for something. As we rounded a curve on Route 23 past Louisa, a row of Burma Shave signs popped into view. I read the signs to Johnny:

Don’t stick

Your elbow

Out so far

It might go home

In another car.

In writing this scene, my goal was to transport the reader back in time to some of America’s first roadside billboards, the Burma Shave signs. 

Next week, I’ll give more tips on writing descriptive passages. 

[I will resume Call for Submissions for Young Writers in September.] 

Call for Submissions for Adult Writers:

The Wolfe Pack's Black Orchid Novella Award. Recommended free contest gives $1,000 and publication in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine for the best traditional mystery novella. Contest sponsor The Wolfe Pack is the official fan club for Nero Wolfe, a legendary fictional sleuth created by Rex Stout in a series of mystery novels published from 1934 to 1975. Entries should be 15,000-20,000 words. See website for thematic and stylistic restrictions. Essentially, they are looking for an old-fashioned story of deduction, with a witty style and an engaging relationship between the characters, and no explicit sex or violence.

Deadline May 31

Guidelines at http://www.nerowolfe.org/htm/literary_awards/black_orchid_award/Black_Orchid_award_proc.htm

Writing a Middle Grade Novel, part 11/Calls for Submissions

Tips for writing a middle grade novel:

Powerful sensory description evokes images that take the reader into the action of the story. When the reader is engaged in the character’s plight, the story seems more real.

See: Providing visual details about how a character looks and acts bring him/her to life. Some authors are reluctant to describe details, such as long, brown hair. Instead, they choose other specifics: a cross tattoo on an arm or a face roadmapped with wrinkles.

Hear: Almost no setting is completely void of sound. Ducks quack, thunder booms, and wind whistles.  Sounds are the second most frequently used sensory descriptor, following visual. Certain sounds trigger personal memories. Fingernails on a chalkboard still send shivers down my spine.

Touch: Allow the reader to feel the damp morning mist as a character walks down the street. Make it pleasurable with the feel of a dog’s soft fur or painful with the door slamming on a hand. The tactile experience allows the character to explore the world and its many textures, shapes, and sizes.

Smell: This sense is used less often in writing. The delectable aroma of cornbread baking fills grandma’s kitchen. The scent drifts through the house to the bedroom where the character is holed up. This sense has the power over our thoughts and emotions to transport us through time. The tangy scent of oranges reminds me of the Christmas season.

Taste: One whiff of chocolate cake and her mouth waters for a taste, a bite, a morsel. These vivid descriptions resonate with readers, especially when we define a particular sweet, sour, salty, or bitter palate.  

Look for opportunities to add smell and taste sensory descriptors to your writing. Those are the most difficult to incorporate. You certainly don’t have to use all five senses in every scene. That would be overkill. But used effectively, sensory writing will connect your readers to your fictional world. 

I have a guest author/editor who will visit the next two weeks. 

Call for submissions for young writers:

The KET Young Writers Contest is a terrific opportunity for young children to express their creativity by writing for an authentic audience beyond the walls of their school or home. Students in kindergarten through the 5th grade are invited to send in their illustrated stories and, for the first time, students in the 3rd through 5th grades can choose to enter a 400-600 word short story without illustrations instead.

The contest runs until April 15, 2014 and winners will be notified in May. You can visit the Young Writers Contest website, which has links to the rules, scoring rubrics, and entry forms.

Submission guidelines at http://www.ket.org/writerscontest/

Call for submissions for adult writers:

Hay House Publishing is reviewing full-length nonfiction manuscripts for this year’s Hay House Insights Nonfiction Writing Contest, which will award an author a publishing contract and a $5,000 advance under its self-help imprint Balboa Press.

This contest is open to any subject, topic, or theme, as long as it is nonfiction. Submit only unpublished, full-length works.

The judges will evaluate manuscripts on creativity, story structure, expertise of the subject, writing style, and obedience to the publisher’s editorial values.

Hay House Publishing, along with its imprint Balboa Press, specialize in self-help and inspirational books. The company also publishes a wide range of other subjects, including children’s books, cookbooks, fiction, and poetry.

Deadline: May 1, 2013.  On June 3, 2013, the winners will be announced. All prize winners will be notified and posted on www.balboapress.com and the Hay House Facebook page, www.facebook.com/hayhouse.

Submission guidelines at http://www.freelancewriting.com/freewritingcontests/FWC-hay-house-insights-nonfiction-writing-contest.php