What is on-the-nose writing?  It’s prose that mirrors real life without advancing your story. No one chooses to write this way. It has nothing to do with your ability to put together a sentence, paragraph, or scene. Even pros have a hard time with it.

I’m a big fan of Jerry Jenkins and recommend his blog to anyone reading my posts. I have gained so much useful information from him and he writes in a way that anybody can understand. He’s a great teacher.  With this being said, I’m using an example that he gave to help you understand on-the-nose writing.

Paige’s phone chirped, telling her she had a call. She slid her bag off her shoulder, opened it, pulled out her cell, hit the Accept Call button and put it to her ear.       

“This is Paige,” she said.

“Hey, Paige.”

She recognized her fiancé’s voice. “Jim, darling! Hello!”

“Where are you, Babe?”

“Just got to the parking garage.”

“No more problems with the car then?”

“Oh, the guy at the gas station said he thinks it needs a wheel alignment.”

“Good. We still on for tonight?”

“Looking forward to it, Sweetie.”

“Did you hear about Alyson?”

“No, what about her?”

“Cancer.”

“What?”

Here’s a good example of how that scene should be rendered:

Paige’s phone chirped. It was her fiancé, Jim, and he told her something about one of their best friends that made her forget where she was.

“Cancer?” she whispered, barely able to speak. “I didn’t even know Alyson was sick. Did you?”

We don’t need to be told that the chirp told her she had a call, that her phone is in her purse, that her purse is over her shoulder, that she has to open it to get her phone, push a button to take the call, identify herself to the caller, be informed who it is.  I think you’re getting the point.

This is a good example of dragging dialogue as well.  It’s not necessary and adds fluff without any real purpose. Don’t distract with minutia. Give the reader the adventure they signed up for when they chose to purchase your book. Take the reader with Paige when she says:

“I need to call her, Jim. I’ve got to cancel my meeting. And I don’t know about tonight…”

Remember show don’t tell is one of the most important aphorisms of the writing life.

Something to think about.

-Jan R

You may be a natural.  Maybe you studied Creative Writing or English Composition in College, but don’t use that degree as a crutch or allow it to lull you into a false sense of security.

Competition is fierce.  Just because you know the mechanics or can put words together to form a grammatically and structurally sound sentence, doesn’t mean you can write a novel. Just because it sounds good to you, doesn’t make it a publishable piece of work, and remember, Grammar Is A Must-But Lose That English Teacher Writing!

If you’ve already started writing that number one best-seller, consider a pause to backtrack and gather the tools necessary to complete your task in a satisfactory manner.

You don’t have to put a lot of money into writing if you have a computer and the internet.  There’s a world of information right at your fingertips. I follow sites of successful-published authors, publishing agencies, and fellow bloggers.

I have also taken courses online from Udemy and Great Courses. They were all less than Twenty dollars and offered invaluable information.

One of the most recommended books out there for writers, new and published, is “The Element of Style” by William Shrunk and E.B. White. I was able to get this book through ebooks on Amazon for free. It’s an excellent resource providing information on how to use punctuation in novels, words and expressions commonly misused, frequently misspelled words, elementary principles of composition, and much more. There is a newer revised version available for purchase, but I don’t think that’s necessary.  That would be your call.

You can also get samples of many of the books relevant to what you are doing through Amazon at no cost.  These sample books range from 25-50 pages and are packed with very useful information.  I have gotten several on creative writing – a weakness of mine. Last but not least, check out your local library.

Conferences for your specific genre would be the ultimate goal, but many people don’t have the time/money for the luxuries of attending conferences, meeting publishers, or taking a writing course at the local community college, but you can still pursue your dream.  Maybe these could be future goals.

Hope this helped.

-Jan R

You ever wonder how many words you need to have an acceptable novel? Well, it varies depending on the genre. I pulled the following list from Writer’s Digest and The Manuscript Appraisal Agency. There are slight differences in their numbers, but they are within the following range.

 

•  Flash Fiction                                                   500
•  Novella                                                             10,000 – 40,000
• Adult Mainstream Novels                              80,000 – 100,000
• Adult Mainstream Novel Deal Breakers     fewer than 70,000 and more than 110,000
•  Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy              90,000 – 120,000
•  Romance                                                           50,000 – 100,000
•  Mystery/ Crime/ Horror                                 70,000 – 90,000
•  Historical Fiction                                             100,000 +
•  Young Adult                                                      50,000 – 80,000
•  Upper Middle Grade                                       40,000 – 55,000
•  Middle Grade                                                    20,000 – 55,000
•  Picture Books                                                    32 pages; 500 – 600 words

Hope this helped.

– Jan R