SHALLA TALKS: Writing the Selling Synopsis

"Tips From Madison Avenue: The Selling Synopsis"

by Laurie Schnebly Campbell

Registration $25 at

www.WriterUniv.com/

No wonder so many great novelists have a tough time writing a synopsis -- the two jobs require completely different skills! Advertising copywriters have discovered a variety of techniques that make people want to buy a specific product, whether it's a bike or a burger or a book. So this hands-on workshop teaches those same techniques, including:

* Finding your unique selling points

* Headlines (or openings) that grab a buyer

* Identifying your target market

* When details matter, and when they don't

* Brainstorming a creative plot strategy

* Highlights that sell your product

* Changing format, emphasis or both

An advertising copywriter for 25 years, Laurie Schnebly Campbell was amazed when she realized her day job made it easier to "sell" editors on her books. So far she's sold six to Silhouette, including one that beat out Nora Roberts for Best Special Edition of the Year, and loves sharing marketing techniques with people who DON'T work on Madison Avenue.

***********

BTW: Shalla de Guzman in on Amazon, see all of Shalla's Reviews.

What books does Shalla read? Find out :)

***********

Yes, I'm editing my super duper novel and here are some things I found.

For info on interesting furniture like Queen Anne Barstools and Louis Philippe (who knew); Art Deco?

Need British Cuss Words

I personally feel repelled by cussing--get articulate!--so, here are:

Vulgar Terminology
four-letter words, swear words, cuss words
and the Alternative Euphemisms

AMERICAN-ENGLISH/ENGLISH-AMERICAN TRANSLATION GUIDE

Here are a few of the more common words which are different in American and British English.

Info on Skydiving, I love skydiving

How to swear, insult, cuss and curse in Lowland Scots!
Lowland Scots (A Scottish dialect) Language Swearing & English Translation.

I'm studying fashion design for the novel

art education

Pretty Swimwear

Vietnam War Forum

Philippine Food

Martial Arts Glossary

Selected Stories and Articles
by Rebecca Goldstein

Bar Stools

Gorrel Windows

Bar Glasses

Piazza della Spagna

High Fashion of the 1970's

where to see exhibitions in Rome

Adobe Premiere

Anna Nicole Smith

wow, and that's just for one chapter--I LOVE WRITING--I enjoy researching stuff soooo much! The world is my play place... so many toys...

Description (Elements of Fiction Writing)

Are you an Advanced Writer?
*
Polishing your craft?
*
Like to learn how to seamlessly write flashbacks?
*
(flashbacks are used in well-written literary fiction)
*
*
Description (Elements of Fiction Writing) (Paperback) by Monica Wood

From the Back Cover

Description is most powerful when it's visible, aural, tactile. Make your descriptions fresh and they'll move your story forward, imbue your work with atmosphere, create that tang of feeling that editors cry for and readers crave.

Monica Wood helps you squeeze the greatest flavor from the language. She segments description like an orange, separating its slices to let you sample each one.

You'll learn about:

- Detail, and how you can use description to awaken the reader's senses of touch, taste, hearing, smell and sight

- Advancing story using only relevant description--and how to edit out sluggish, reader-stopping writing

- Style, and the use of description to create a mood that matches your story's content

- Point of view --how selecting omniscient, first person or third person limited narrative influences the descriptive freedom you have

- Creating original word depictions of people, animals, places, weather and movement

Wood teaches by example, developing stories with characters in various situations, to show you how you can apply description techniques.
You'll also see samples of work by such noted writers as Mark Helprin, Anne Tyler and Raymond Carver. And you'll find the dos and don'ts, lists and descriptive alternatives to common verbs and nouns, and tips for editing your work.

*for more on Let's Shalla Blog

How to Read a Poem?

Here are tips on How to Read a Poem from Michael McDowell's Home Page

This is general advice on how to experience poetry. The more you read, the easier reading poetry should become.

1. Read through the poem in its entirety without stopping, whether you understand or not.

The problems most people have with poetry, especially with modern poetry, come from thinking they must understand the poem immediately and in its entirety.

They puzzle over words, syntax, allusions, and then give up and conclude that, as they expected, poetry isn't for them.

The essence of a poem is in its whole, and often poets will be giving you only hints as to their meaning, which will become clearer further along, or when reread, with the ending in mind.

2. Read the poem aloud the second time.

You usually understand better when you hear the words pronounced. Remember that poetry isn't meant to be speed-read; it should be read the way more primitive eras used to read: slowly, word by word, line by line, savoring each sound.

Reading aloud helps correct misplaced emphasis, helps prevent you from skipping over misunderstood phrases, and helps you recognize words you might otherwise not register if read silently.

3. Read word by word after reading to get the whole idea.Look up words you donít know, in dictionaries or encyclopedias or other reference books. Bother librarians. Keep a college or unabridged dictionary nearby. Often a poem will be built around one seldom-used definition of a word.

Usually every unnecessary word has been pared from a poem, and each word remaining is there for two or three good reasons; not finding out what such words mean makes reading the poem as much fun as playing tennis without a ball.

4. Read for imagery.This is probably the most pleasurable step. Cast off your familiar way of looking at the world. Leave your platitudes and clichés at the door. Prepare yourself for a novel look at reality; let the poem affect you. Create pictures in your head. Be an active reader.

5. Read for organization.Start with finding out who the person is who is speaking.

Then ask who the poem is addressing: what kind of person is being spoken to?
What kind of pattern is there?
Does the pattern have anything to do with the meaning of the poem? What's the tone?

6. Read for technique.This is where you walk behind the scenes and understand why the poem does or doesn't work.

Look for metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy, meter, rhyme scheme, adaption of sound to sense, and use of symbols.

7. Read as a synthesis of all the above.Often a poet will go through a dozen or so drafts of a poem before allowing it to be read by anyone else, much less published.

Dylan Thomas often went through 80 or 100 drafts. You can be assured that, if you're alert, you'll gain more from another reading. Poems aren't like newspapers, to be read once and then tossed into the recycling bin.

Each year you're a different person; you'll find that when you return to poems read years before, the good poems will seem to be telling you exactly those things you learned in the interim; they'll seem like different poems. Every poet, every age, every country, every emotion, every climate, every language, every temperament produces different types of poetry. If you don't like a poem, do it the justice to find out what about it you don't like, and then move on to a different kind of poem.

For more on Michael J. McDowell