For my fifth English Assignment, we were told by our professor Rick Metros to write a 500 Word Overview about our semester projects. According to him, this is supposed to be "the roughest rough draft ever" and I hope to accomplish that in this entry. I hope to not exceed 500 here, although 500 words is pretty much a full page on Word so I should be all right =].
Now, onto the overview. Remember, my project topic is how to write a novel...
We all have aspirations. Some want to become professional athletes in their favorite sports, some want to become fashion designers and some may want to be teachers someday. Whatever your goal is, whatever your dream may be, you need to learn about every nook and cranny about it to make it come true.
The same applies to me. My dream is to one day be an author and in order to do that, I have to write and publish a novel, which is what I am doing my project on this semester. Specifically, I'm going to be talking about getting started (coming up with ideas, etc.) and the process of publishing a book. Even if you're not planning to become a writer, it's possible that you may want to write a book about your current field of work (i.e., you're a scientist wanting to write a science book or something like that) and want to get something published so this is useful for those moments as well.
First, I am going to discuss coming up with ideas. If you have a knack for coming up with good ideas and have been writing for a long time this is usually not a hard step. If you're writing a book for the first time, however, this can be tricky. For starters, come up with a dramatic scene in your mind, as Deborah Owen suggests in an article she wrote called How to Write a Book: Generating Writing Ideas (read full article here). According to her, some ideas you could use are dramatic, such as two ice skaters are skating on a lake and one falls through the ice and drowns. Some ideas you could use are exciting, such as a school janitor winning a lottery ticket and wondering if he will keep his job or move forward to something exciting.
But one of the best things to do is to look for ideas in your everyday life. Read stories in newspapers and magazines and books to get ideas (this is also a good way to figure out your writing style). Something as simple as watching TV can help spark an idea. Many people write what's known as Fan Fiction and they use TV (or book) characters and write a story of their own using them. Situations in real life, whether they be good or bad, can also make good stories, just make sure you change the names of the people involved.
Once you have an idea, it's time to start writing. Patience is the key element here; it takes a very long time to get a book finished. Once you have the book written to your liking, it's time to get the book published.
According to an article written by Rob Parnell titled How to Get Published (read full article here), is to submit your book (in the publishing world, it is known as a manuscript) to numerous publishers and agents. To find publishers and agents according to Parnell, you can look them up in Writers Yearbooks, which can be bought at bookstores or checked out at your local library. If you're internet-savvy you can also look up publishers and see if they have a website. Once that is done, you look at their guidelines for publishing and you consider and follow them closely. According to Parnell, once you find the publisher/s that you want to send your work to, mail it off to them (using an envelope and stamps, not email), including a brief letter on why you think this manuscript should be considered for publication.
And that's my overview! =] I didn't include what comes after publication or a conclusion because I'm not sure what to write for those yet. Hope this works out for you, Mr. Metros!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Third Assignment
Instructions for my third English assignment...
"Locate two websites that provide a response to at least one question you posed about your topic. Provide a correct APA style bibliographic entry for each. Then using the guidelines in the tutorial for evaluating websites, determine whether or not those websites are valuable to your project. Explain your findings."
The question I'm going to use in this assignment is the first one I posed about how to get a novel published. Here are the two websites I found that answer my questions and they are cited in APA form.
Parnell, R. (August 25th 2009). How to Get Published. Write and Publish your Book. Retrieved September 20, 2009 from http://www.writeandpublishyourbook.com/publishing/working-with-publishers/how-to-get-published/
Lovas, M. (publishing date unknown). How to Get Your Book Published - a Step-by-Step Guide. The Publishing Law Center. Retrieved September 20, 2009 from http://www.publaw.com/book.html
I think both of these websites are ones that I can use in my paper. The second article I cited was written by an actual ghostwriter (i.e. someone who writes books for the actual author) and author so he knew the "ropes" about the whole process enough to write an article about it. He also listed the books he'd written, the companies he's done projects for and the articles he's written. This makes this article a valid source of information to include in my paper :).
The first website I cited was more of a writer's community; there is a forum that fellow authors can go to when they're trying to get published for tips and there's articles written by numerous people in the community, many of them authors themselves, to help people out with whatever they need to do to get that book published. The author of the article I cited, Rob Parnell, has his own website here and it explains a bit about him and all of the work he has done, making this article a valid source of information to include in my paper :).
"Locate two websites that provide a response to at least one question you posed about your topic. Provide a correct APA style bibliographic entry for each. Then using the guidelines in the tutorial for evaluating websites, determine whether or not those websites are valuable to your project. Explain your findings."
The question I'm going to use in this assignment is the first one I posed about how to get a novel published. Here are the two websites I found that answer my questions and they are cited in APA form.
Parnell, R. (August 25th 2009). How to Get Published. Write and Publish your Book. Retrieved September 20, 2009 from http://www.writeandpublishyourbook.com/publishing/working-with-publishers/how-to-get-published/
Lovas, M. (publishing date unknown). How to Get Your Book Published - a Step-by-Step Guide. The Publishing Law Center. Retrieved September 20, 2009 from http://www.publaw.com/book.html
I think both of these websites are ones that I can use in my paper. The second article I cited was written by an actual ghostwriter (i.e. someone who writes books for the actual author) and author so he knew the "ropes" about the whole process enough to write an article about it. He also listed the books he'd written, the companies he's done projects for and the articles he's written. This makes this article a valid source of information to include in my paper :).
The first website I cited was more of a writer's community; there is a forum that fellow authors can go to when they're trying to get published for tips and there's articles written by numerous people in the community, many of them authors themselves, to help people out with whatever they need to do to get that book published. The author of the article I cited, Rob Parnell, has his own website here and it explains a bit about him and all of the work he has done, making this article a valid source of information to include in my paper :).
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Second Assignment
Just got my second English assignment via Facebook (isn't technology exciting? :)) and am going to spend some time here dabbling about it. Here's the instructions...
"In the subject area you identified in last week’s entry, state three topics in which you have an interest that you would like to write about this semester. What is it about these topics you find interesting? What is your connection to these topics?"
Here are my three topics within my subject area and what I'd like to write about this semester. For a quick recap, the topic I wanted to pursue and do more research on was how to write a novel :).
"In the subject area you identified in last week’s entry, state three topics in which you have an interest that you would like to write about this semester. What is it about these topics you find interesting? What is your connection to these topics?"
Here are my three topics within my subject area and what I'd like to write about this semester. For a quick recap, the topic I wanted to pursue and do more research on was how to write a novel :).
- How to get a novel published.
- How to get an updated issue on publishing markets for books in my chosen age category.
- How to find a publisher you can send your novel to for them to look over.
I know it looks like a bit of a rehash from my first entry/assignment but these topics have currently become of interest to me. My connection to these topics is quite simple to figure out; because I love writing stories and someday want to get something of my own published. Ever since I was a small child, I was curious to see what authors had to do to get their work out there for people to see. Me being naive thought it was the easiest thing to do. After doing a bit of research I realized that it isn't and that I have a lot of work ahead of me to even get one good piece of my work published. I hope with more research that I will not only have more "meat" added to my final project but that I will have more knowledge of what I will most likely want to do for the rest of my life :).
Edit: Just so this is all in one place...
My official topic: How to write and publish a novel.
Some websites that will become of interest when I begin researching...
How to Write a Book: Generating Writing Ideas
All of these articles are from this site, I'm sure I'll have more after I continue researching! :)
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
The Subject Area I'm Interested in Researching This Semester...
This is my first entry in this particular blog and as the assignment says, we are to pick out a subject area that we would be interested in researching this semester. I have chosen a subject area that is sort of relevant to my journalism major but at the same time it isn't relevant at all.
The topic I have chosen to research is how to write a novel and most importantly, getting a novel published. I have chosen this because I have always had a love for writing stories, ever since I was in third grade. I loved writing stories just as much as I loved reading stories, probably a little more, because I was able to put my own creative touches to what I was writing. Since I have gotten into news writing and I am working my way to receiving a journalism degree, my creative writing has kind of taken a backseat, but not so much that I'm no longer interested in doing it. In fact, I want to write books of my own in addition to becoming a journalist.
What I know about this topic is enormous. I could go on all day about what I know about it but I am going to give out the condensed version. I will be the first to admit, I have not had any sort of formal class or training about writing creative novels, nor have I had any of my own creative works published, save for the numerous news articles I've done for my high school and college newspapers and a poem I wrote in sixth grade about Halloween that was published in a poetry book. Most of what I know about novel writing has come from reading other books and seeing the author's style and how to use some of that style in my own stories (i.e. like the first-person narrative, I use that in all of my stories if I can). English classes have also helped me because spelling and grammar helps to make a good story (you can't write a novel if you can't spell or don't have good grammar in my opinion and no, spell check on Word doesn't count!). The rest of my knowledge comes from my own brain and common sense. For example, I know that you have to write down your story ideas right away before you forget about them, that any plot, good or bad, can be turned into a best-selling novel if done right and that writing a novel of your own takes time, dedication and patience.
However, upon doing some research on how to write a novel, I have realized that while there is a lot I know about novel-writing there is a lot that I don't know, specifically about getting a novel published. I came to this realization while looking at this website.
As a kid, my dream was to have my own publishing company, but while reading this article I realize that for at least the first 2-3 books this won't be a reality and I am now going to ask my first out of three questions that I am supposed to search for: How to find a publisher that you can send your novel to for them to look over? Another question is how to get an updated issue on publishing markets for books in my chosen age category? And most importantly, how to copyright my novel so that others don't "steal" my own ideas? These are just three of the many questions I have about getting a novel published and I hope to get these questions and more answered as I continue to research on this topic.
Hope this first assingment is along the lines of what you want Professor Metros! Comment if you have anything to say on it =].
The topic I have chosen to research is how to write a novel and most importantly, getting a novel published. I have chosen this because I have always had a love for writing stories, ever since I was in third grade. I loved writing stories just as much as I loved reading stories, probably a little more, because I was able to put my own creative touches to what I was writing. Since I have gotten into news writing and I am working my way to receiving a journalism degree, my creative writing has kind of taken a backseat, but not so much that I'm no longer interested in doing it. In fact, I want to write books of my own in addition to becoming a journalist.
What I know about this topic is enormous. I could go on all day about what I know about it but I am going to give out the condensed version. I will be the first to admit, I have not had any sort of formal class or training about writing creative novels, nor have I had any of my own creative works published, save for the numerous news articles I've done for my high school and college newspapers and a poem I wrote in sixth grade about Halloween that was published in a poetry book. Most of what I know about novel writing has come from reading other books and seeing the author's style and how to use some of that style in my own stories (i.e. like the first-person narrative, I use that in all of my stories if I can). English classes have also helped me because spelling and grammar helps to make a good story (you can't write a novel if you can't spell or don't have good grammar in my opinion and no, spell check on Word doesn't count!). The rest of my knowledge comes from my own brain and common sense. For example, I know that you have to write down your story ideas right away before you forget about them, that any plot, good or bad, can be turned into a best-selling novel if done right and that writing a novel of your own takes time, dedication and patience.
However, upon doing some research on how to write a novel, I have realized that while there is a lot I know about novel-writing there is a lot that I don't know, specifically about getting a novel published. I came to this realization while looking at this website.
As a kid, my dream was to have my own publishing company, but while reading this article I realize that for at least the first 2-3 books this won't be a reality and I am now going to ask my first out of three questions that I am supposed to search for: How to find a publisher that you can send your novel to for them to look over? Another question is how to get an updated issue on publishing markets for books in my chosen age category? And most importantly, how to copyright my novel so that others don't "steal" my own ideas? These are just three of the many questions I have about getting a novel published and I hope to get these questions and more answered as I continue to research on this topic.
Hope this first assingment is along the lines of what you want Professor Metros! Comment if you have anything to say on it =].
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