Marilyn's Musings

This is something I do a couple of times a year for various organizations. I'm in the midst of reading and commenting on some at the moment. For this particular contest I have a rather comprehensive guide to use--which is helpful. Though I certainly mark down for problems, I also find the good things to mention. I am well aware that we all begin at the bottom and I'd never want to be guilty of discouraging a budding writer. In my career as a writer, I've had many who helped me along the way with gentle criticism and wonderful suggestions. Frankly, I learned more about writing from various members of my critique group than from any other source. What I look for: First off, does the person know how to format a manuscript--or if it's already in book form, know what the inside of a book is supposed to look like. An engaging first line and paragraph. Letting me know who the main character is right away. Not an information dump, but enough for me to wa...

The only reason I'm bringing this up is because I made a comment on someone else's blog that was responded to in such a manner that I don't think the commenter quite understood the difference. I use multiple points-of-view in my Rocky Bluff P. D. series. The main reason I do this is because there is a large case of characters in these crime novels and the only way to really show what happens with each person when he or she is on the job and when they are dealing with what's going on at home is to use multiple points of view. I do this by only using one person's view point per scene--and when I switch the viewpoint character there is a space break. Most thrillers are written from multiple points of view because there are many characters working toward the same goal--usually  to save the world from some catastrophe or to make the catastrophe happen. My Rocky Bluff series is far from a thriller--it has many of the components of a mystery, but it is more than...

Yes, I know I've written about POV before. Because I've been reading books with point-of-view problems, just thought I'd tackle the subject once more. One of the books with the problem is an old one of mine--long before I really understood what the phrase meant. And believe it or not, it was the first book of mine that was published. And yes, It was published by a New York publisher. If there was an editor, she wasn't paying much attention because I found other problems too.  My book was published in 1982 and was an historical family saga. I'd been reading many romances and romance writers--at least at that time period--jumped from one person's point of view and into another and sometimes back again.  What any writers wants to do is make it as easy as possible for the reader to follow the story. The POV character is the one from whom the story is coming. It should be he character who is most important, at least in that particular scene. The write...

It was through writing critique groups that I learned about POV--probably one of the most difficult concepts in all of the craft of writing. The only thing I knew about point-of-view when I began was that everyone had one. In writing, everyone has one too, but it's far better if you as the author decide ahead of time through whose point-of-view are you going to be telling the story. Of course it could be the narrator's point-of-view but then you are distancing the main character(s) from the reader. Using first person is the easiest POV to use, but even that can be tricky. The main thing to remember is you need to establish who that "I" person is right away; from whose eyes are we seeing this story through. My favorite is close third person. In my Deputy Tempe Crabtree mysteries, the story is always viewed through her. She's the one who is experiencing everything that's going on. In the narration, everything is what she's doing, seeing, hearing, smell...

I've spent several days reading and writing reviews for books. Unfortunately there are only a few gems among them. A couple good enough I was sad to see that the author had chosen to publish with iUniverse or Publish America. Don't get me wrong, I have friends who have been published by similar type publishers because they got tired of rejections. Because so many books that are published by these type of publishers haven't been edited bookstores won't order them nor will libraries. Even if the book was edited, it is almost impossible for the author to be asked to participate in a panel at a writing conference. I just finished reading two romances that fell into this category. The plots of the stories were okay, but it was obvious the author hadn't taken any writing classes or learned some of the basics. Nearly every sentence in the dialogue throughout the book ended with an exclamation point. As most of us know, most of the time, if we've written the dialogue we...