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Show, don’t tell. Most writers have heard this maxim at some point, whether from a teacher, an editor or an agent. But what does this writing advice mean, in practical terms?

While a certain amount of exposition is unavoidable (and even useful) in your writing, it’s easy to “over-share” the minutiae of your story’s background and your characters’ lives. When writing a novel, keep these guidelines in mind to achieve a balance of showing and telling:

•  Be brief. Make sure that all of your “telling” details are actually necessary to advance the plot, either by developing backstory, establishing the mood/tone, or describing the setting.

•  Avoid the dreaded “info dump.” Don’t overwhelm your reader with information in your story’s first few pages. Focus on capturing her attention with a compelling character and an interesting situation, then fold in the details as the plot develops.

• Steer clear of cliches. Never start a story with a character waking up and starting his day—unless you want to put your reader to sleep.

Author and editor Jeff Gerke offers the following writing advice for balancing showing and telling from his book The First 50 Pages (Writer’s Digest Books):

 Showing vs. Telling in Your Writing: The Camera Test

I’ll give you a little tool here that could revolutionize your understanding of showing and telling in fiction. I may not be the first person to talk about it in these terms, but I know I’ve never heard it before I thought it up. So at least I’m its co-inventor.

Maybe you want to rid your fiction of telling but you simply can’t see it—not in other people’s fiction and certainly not in your own. So how can you delete something you can’t even see? There’s a question you can ask of any passage you feel may be telling. You ready? Get the passage in front of you and ask this of it: Can the camera see it?

There are exceptions, but Can the camera see it? is a terrific tool for helping you begin to see the telling in a manuscript. Let’s test it:

Urlandia was a peaceful realm. Peasants and nobles alike lived in harmony despite the occasional bout with famine or invaders from the neighboring kingdom of Dum. There were heroes and cads, pirates and tavern wenches, and in all, their lives were good.

Okay, aside from this being deadly dull, is it showing or telling? Let’s load up the testing gun and fire: Can the camera see it?

Your mind might have conjured up an image of a fantasy countryside with green meadows, vast forests, and castles with pennants flapping in the breeze, but how could you have seen “the occasional bouts with famine”? How could you see that their lives were good? You couldn’t. You weren’t shown any of this—you were simply told. And it probably left you feeling a little sleepy.

It would be quite possible to convert this telling to showing by depicting  things before the camera’s lens that suggest each of these elements. But right now it’s unconverted telling. I can’t tell you how many unpublished novels I’ve seen that start like this. And I’ve rejected every single one of them. You don’t want your book rejected, so don’t put telling anywhere in the first fifty pages.

One more:

Veronica shifted into park and got out of her VW bug. She shielded her eyes from the afternoon sun and stared at the house. It was smaller than she remembered. And had it always been this run-down, or had it fallen into disrepair only lately? It had once been white, but the siding slats desperately needed a new paint job.<

Self-publishing used to be a last resort for aspiring authors unable to break through the traditional publishing fortress. With the help of vanity presses, those writers took matters into their own hands and brought their books to market, for a fee.

These days, self-publishing has a newfound respect. The “guilt by association” connection to vanity publishing has largely disappeared, and even bestselling authors are opting to self-publish. Today’s e-book and print on demand (POD) technology enables authors to control the publishing process on their own terms, and based on the proliferation of self-publishing success stories, it’s safe to say the trend toward self-publishing is here to stay.

One of the most appealing aspects of self-publishing is that it isn’t one-size-fits-all. As your book’s publisher, you can choose just how many services and technologies you’ll utilize. Supported Self Publishing (SSP) provides you with nearly all services and resources in the publishing process, whereas with Do-It-Yourself Publishing (DIY), you are responsible for all aspects of publishing and marketing your book. (For a helpful breakdown of SSP and DIY publishing models, visit Abbott Press, a division of Writer’s Digest.)

Regardless of which model you choose, there are quantifiable benefits to self-publishing, as Marilyn Ross and Sue Collier illustrate in The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing. Following is some key advice for writers from the book:

7 Reasons to Self-Publish Your Book

 1. You Just Might Strike It Rich

Self-publishing offers the potential for huge profits. No longer do you have to be satisfied with the meager 5 to 15 percent royalty that commercial publishers dole out. For those who use creativity, persistence, and sound business sense, money is there to be made.

 2. You Can Be Your Own Boss

Self-publishing can be the road to independence. What motivates entrepreneurs to launch their own businesses? Most want to be their own bosses. More personal freedom is the second most important reason. Some do it out of necessity in tough economic times. But most dream of becoming self-employed. You can turn that dream into reality. Here is a dynamic, proven way to shape your own destiny. It is an answer not only for city folks but also for urban escapees seeking to prosper in paradise. (Does Marilyn ever know about prospering in paradise, living and working in a lovely Colorado mountain town of only two thousand …)

 3. You Can Create a Tax Haven

Becoming a self-publisher also provides a helpful tax shelter. After forming your own company and meeting certain requirements, you can write off a portion of your home and deduct some expenses related to writing and to marketing, such as automobile, travel, and entertainment costs. Always check current tax regulations and restrictions.

 4. You Get to Move at Your Own Pace

Another advantage is that you can begin your business on a part-time basis while keeping your day job. Why risk your livelihood until you’ve refined your publishing activities and worked out any bugs?

 5. You Maintain Control of Your Work

In self-publishing, you guide every step. You’ll have the cover you like, the typeface you choose, the title you want, and the ads you decide to place. You

In the search for story-worthy ideas, most writers are sidelined by occasional bouts of creative myopia. When it sets in—when your field of inspiration narrows—it’s easy to convince yourself that your luck has run out and all the good ideas are taken. But finding exceptional writing ideas isn’t a matter of luck. Waiting passively for creativity to strike won’t put words on the page, either. The secret to cultivating writing inspiration is to go out and hunt it down—in unexpected places.

“Curiosity, attention, a little bravado, and a willingness to break routines lead to great writing ideas,” says writing coach Don Fry. “You lurk, listen, ask questions, and find experts. You can prowl the Internet, but the best writing ideas come from face to face interaction with people.”

He offers these great writing tips and more from his new book Writing Your Way (Writer’s Digest Books):

 6 Surprising Ways to Find Writing Ideas

“The best ideas are subjects that other writers haven’t written about, or haven’t noticed. The following writing techniques work because they dynamite you out of your routine ways of thinking and dealing with the world. They make the world ‘strange’ so you can see it fresh.

 1. Explain Common Things

Ask experts to explain how ordinary things work, preferably things invisible to the public. For example, how does your town’s water-purification system work? What happens to recycled plastic? How do wine aerators work? What do lifeguards look for? What makes chocolate taste good?

 2. Mine Your Emotions

If something bothers or puzzles you, find out why by interviewing people with similar reactions. You’ll discover you’re not alone in never changing your passwords, buying lottery tickets, or your fear of high bridges. I’ve always wondered if my parents are really my parents, which turns out to be a fairly common doubt.

 3. Follow Alternative Paths

Take alternate routes to your normal destinations, and try out different types of transportation, especially slower ones that let you see more. Leave your car at home and walk to work, or ride a bike. Climb stairs instead of taking elevators, take the service elevator, or enter through back doors.

 4. Cultivate Weirdos

Your mother taught you never to talk with strangers. Good advice for children, bad advice for writers. Strike up conversations with people you don’t know, even cultivating weirdos. Introduce yourself to airplane seatmates, to people carrying a sign or wearing a name tag.

 5. Lower Your Standards

Accept any piece of paper handed to you on the street. Read junk mail. Watch awful TV shows and ask why they appeal to anyone. Buy TV gadget offers, test them, and try to get your money back.

 6. Make Yourself Into Somebody Else

Role-play the lives of people with viewpoints different from yours or your readers’. I once spent half a day in a wheelchair and learned about hazards I never imagined. Bob Graham, the former governor of Florida, did manual labor one day a month to understand the public.

All of these writing techniques jar you out of your normal vision, because that’s where the writing ideas are, invisible in plain sight.”

Purchase a copy of Writing Your Way from WritersDigestShop.com

Thinking of self-publishing? Find out how Abbott Press (a division of Writer’s Digest) can help you achieve your goals.

Find more writing inspiration and ideas in

If you’d like to quickly amass content for a book—without the pressure of actually having to work on one—consider blogging a book. Blogging is a fast and simple way to generate a body of targeted content and build your platform, which are key components of landing a book deal in today’s competitive marketplace.

When writing blog posts with the intention of creating a blogged book, be sure to:

• Develop each post as a stand-alone unit with a beginning, middle and end so readers can “pick up” your book at any point;
• Create flow from one post to the next by teasing readers to keep “turning pages”;
• Link related posts to form a cohesive body of work.

In addition to creating cohesive and relevant content (as noted above), optimizing your blog, and utilizing best SEO practices, it’s important to write with passion in an authentic voice, says author and expert blogger Nina Amir in How to Blog a Book (Writer’s Digest Books, 2012):

“Successful blogs have at their helms bloggers who write with passion and purpose, who feel inspired and who every day show up as nothing less than their true selves with all their colors flying,” says Amir. “Almost every blogger I interviewed (for the book) who landed a book deal attributed his or her success to feeling passionate about the subject of the blog and being authentic while blogging. If you feel the need for inspiration, read their blogs.”

Here are more blogging tips from the book to inspire you:

 Top 10 Blogging Tips for Blogging a Book

1. Read other blogs on your topic—and comment on them.
2. Get involved in groups and forums on your subject.
3. Read books on your topic.
4. Set up Google Alerts on your topic or on additional keywords related to your topic (and be sure to open the alerts and read the pertinent posts).
5. Ask some experts to write guest blog posts for you so you get a break.
6. Take a brief blogging vacation (tell your readers you are, in fact, on vacation for two or three days).
7. Do research on your topic.
8. Talk to other people who are interested in your topic or who are experts in your subject area.
9. Explore the possibility of using multimedia on your blog—audio and video.
10. Interview experts in your subject area and post the information or the interview; you can even post it as an audio clip, podcast, or video.

Purchase How to Blog a Book.

Purchase the “Creating an Author Blog” on-demand webinar taught by literary agent Meredith Barnes.

Learn how to start a blog. Register for Blogging 101 workshop with Dan Blank.

Completing your novel is a momentous achievement. After months (or years) of hard work and sacrifice, your first impulse might be to start submitting it willy-nilly—time is of the essence, right? In reality, you shouldn’t even think about sending your novel to an agent or publisher (or publishing it yourself) before you’ve put it through the vetting process multiple times.

These guidelines from The Beginning Writer’s Answer Book will help you revise your novel and prepare it for publication:

 How to Edit Your Novel

The process of editing is one each writer develops on his own, through experience, trial and error. There is no definite number of drafts you should write before you can consider the manuscript finished. There are, however, some techniques that will probably prove helpful.

First of all, if your schedule allows it, set the work aside for a few days. After the writing has had a chance to cool, errors and awkward phrases will jump out. Once you do look at the work, try to cut it. Eliminate anything that isn’t essential, as well as redundancies, irrelevancies, statements that are too obvious, unnecessary words, and circumlocutions. (Don’t worry about being too brutal; you can always put material back.)

Let the material rest again (for at least an hour or two), then read it aloud. This is probably the best way to discover awkward phrasings. If you stumble over something, fix it. Reading aloud also can tell you where you’ve cut too drastically, damaging the rhythm of the piece.

Assess the logical order of the remaining elements. Some writers use highlighters or colored pens to color-code the work’s major elements to make sure the structure best suits the point they’re trying to make. Next, check your word choices. Look for imprecise verbs and weak nouns that require too many modifiers. Finally, check for consistency of verb tense, verb agreement, punctuation errors, and misspellings.

It is possible to overedit. If, for example, you find yourself rewriting everything over and over (and never actually submitting your work), you might be using editing as a means of avoiding potential rejection. Most writers, though, are far more likely to be hurt by too little editing than too much.

 Tips for Avoiding Rejection

As you edit your novel, look for the weaknesses that most often cause rejection: unsympathetic or flat characters, unrealistic dialogue, slow pacing, a boring beginning, lack of voice, and bad or clichéd writing. You’re probably wondering: How do I know if I have flat characters or a slow pace or any of these weaknesses? Show your manuscript to people you can trust to give their honest opinion, and if they all give you the same criticism, that’s a red flag.

One last option is to attend a writing conference or workshop that offers a session or course on revision. Sometimes these sessions are very interactive and feature hands-on editing; other times they’re lecture-based. Either way, they can help you spot and understand your weaknesses in a fraction of the time it would take you working alone.

These resources from Writer’s Digest  will help you polish your manuscript to perfection:

Workshop: 

In anticipation of St. Patrick’s Day, I thought it might be fun to tap into the wit and wisdom of a few famous Irish and Anglo-Irish writers. While March 17 seems like a logical time to celebrate all things Irish, Ireland’s contributions to literature are worth noting anytime. From the Middle Ages to the present, Irish poets, novelists and playwrights (writing in both Irish and English) have deftly matched matters of art and identity with distinctive voice, experimentation and wit.

Maybe in your own explorations as a writer and reader you’ve encountered the drama of the medieval Tain Bo Cuilange sagas, the satire of eighteenth-century author Jonathan Swift, the romance of the Gaelic Revival via William Butler Yeats, or James Joyce’s “stream of consciousness” writings. Or perhaps you’ve read a bit of Maria Edgeworth, Elizabeth Bowen, Eavan Boland or (if you’re a fan of chick lit) Marian Keyes. I could probably add to this list until next St. Patrick’s Day … . For today, I’ve selected these five tidbits of writing advice from famous Irish authors:

Being a Writer:

“The intellect is forced to choose: perfection of the life, or of the work.” –William Butler Yeats

Finding Your Voice:

“Write as you speak.” –Maeve Binchy

Writing Fiction:

“The good end happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means.” –Oscar Wilde

Creativity:

“No pen, no ink, no table, no room, no time, no quiet, no inclination.”  –James Joyce

The Genius of James Joyce:

“His writing is not about something. It is the thing itself.”  –Samuel Beckett

Read a Writer’s Digest Interview with Emma Donaghue, Irish author of the bestselling novel Room:

For more writing advice from a contemporary Irish author, check out Writer With a Day Job by Aine Greaney, published by Writer’s Digest Books.

Calling all authors! Perfect plot, characterization, & more w/50-80% savings on @WritersDigest books thru 3/18!

 
March seems like a good checkpoint for New Year’s writing goals: Two months into the New Year, you probably have a sense of whether a resolution made in January will become a reality by December.

If “start a book” was on your January to-do list, how’s it coming? If you hit the ground running and are well into your first draft, congratulations! But if you feel overwhelmed by the scope of the project, and are questioning why you thought you could write a book in the first place, consider this: The problem may be as simple as setting vague (and therefore unreachable) goals.

As with any long-term project, a book project becomes achievable when you break it into segments. These writing tips can help you start a book:

• Think in terms of weeks and chapters, versus months and final word counts.
• Reduce each chapter into components, and each week into days.
• Turn these mileposts into mini-deadlines, and reward yourself every time you meet one.

Now you’re on your way to completing a first draft.

Ready to start a book? Try these writing tips from Crafting Novels & Short Stories, published by Writer’s Digest Books:

Start a Book Project in 5 Easy Steps

1. Set Reasonable, Measurable Goals. Even if you’re not writing to someone else’s external deadline, give yourself your own deadline and treat it seriously. Because you understand the power of the written word, write down a specific goal, with a due date: “Finish chapter by [whatever date].” Some people even establish a punishment and/or reward if they meet or don’t meet their self-imposed deadlines: “If I complete chapter five by Friday, I can go to see a movie; if I don’t finish on time, I will force myself to scrub toilets as penance.” Well, you don’t have to clean the toilets, but a little self-flagellation is probably good for you.

 2. Divide and Conquer. View your writing project not as an overwhelming monolith, but a compilation of many smaller items. The reason hard jobs get bypassed is that they often seem too daunting if they’re written as one entry on your list of goals. For example, “Write a book in the next year” can be overwhelming. The scope of the project is so big, and the deadline so far away, that achieving the goal seems impossible. Instead, focus on smaller tasks to do today, tomorrow, this week, and this month to help you reach that goal.

3. Create a Plan of Ordered Tasks. Writing down tasks in the order in which they should be done keeps you focused, as well as frees your mind to concentrate on the important things—rather than wasting mental energy trying to remember all the details that must be done each day. Break the task down into manageable steps.

4. Select Dates and Stick to Them. “Someday I’m going to write a book.” How many times have we all thought this? Turn your lofty dream into an actual accomplishment by adopting a workable schedule. For example, choose a date on your calendar for beginning your writing project. Make it today. You’ll be surprised by how much more quickly you’ll work with deadlines, especially if they come with positive and negative consequences. For example, if you miss your deadline at a major magazine, you may never be hired again and may in fact not see your piece in print, which are both negative consequences. But if you make your deadline, determine that you will give yourself a real day off, a massage, chocolate cake, or what have you.

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