Excerpt from Chapter 7 of Eliza Knight's EDIT YOUR BOOK IN A MONTH..............GMC (Goals, Motivation & Conflict)

Welcome back!

Today is the final day of excerpts for EDIT YOUR BOOK IN A MONTH, that I’m posting on Chicks of Characterization. If you want to read more, take your chances on Friday, I will be giving away copies, or you can purchase the e-book on Amazon, and coming in the next week, the print copy.

Excerpt from Chapter Seven, Edit Your Book in a Month © Eliza Knight

GMC (Goals, Motivation, Conflict) is integral to each and every character of a story and without it can leave your story weak, your character’s without empathy from the reader, and can result in not only a rejection from an editor/agent, but bad reviews, and loss of an audience.

In order for your book to contain credibility and acceptance, your characters have to be well fleshed out. They have to pop, they have to be realistic and believable—even if you write paranormal/science fiction—your reader has to believe that the characters could be real in the world you’ve built. Without a goal, your character is going nowhere. Without motivation behind the goal, the goal is considered frivolous. Without conflict, there is nothing to inhibit your character from meeting out their goals, and hence not enough “meat” to sustain a story.
We’re going to break down each of the three mega parts of a character’s GMC.

Goal: What does the hero/heroine/villain/secondary character(s) want? What is the character striving for?

Example from my novella, Her Captain Returns:
Hero: Return to England to take his seat in parliament and beget an heir.

Heroine: To keep her heart from being broken by the man she married and hasn’t seen in eight years, whom she also happened to presume, was dead.

See you tomorrow!

Happy writing and editing!

Eliza

E-book buy link: Amazon
http://www.elizaknight.com/
http://www.authormichellebrandon.com/
http://historyundressed.blogspot.com/

Chapter 4 from EDIT YOUR BOOK IN A MONTH by Eliza Knight... How to avoid those pesky FILLER WORDS ...

Welcome back lovely readers and writers! Today, I’m giving you a taste of Chapter Four from EDIT YOUR BOOK IN A MONTH.

Excerpt from Chapter Four, Edit Your Book in a Month © Eliza Knight

Filler Words

Filler words are words we throw into our sentences to take up space. Just like fillers in food, we don’t need them. Your sentence won’t lose strength by deleting it. In fact, you may find your sentence is stronger without it. A lot of times these filler words can also become our favorites…but we’ll get to that section in a bit.

These are common filler words:

*Just
*That
*Had
*As
*Was
*Nearly
*Almost
*Only
*All
*Started
*So


Here is an example of how these offensive little fillers can end up crowding and contaminating our prose:

She just couldn’t stand it at all any longer. She started to push away her plate that was only filled with uneaten food as she sat forward. She had had enough. Her stomach was nearly rolling from nausea. Why couldn’t she just tell him? Was it just that she was a coward?

Can you see what’s wrong with the above? If we took out all the filler words, the paragraph would be so much tighter, more effective.

Here’s a look at the above paragraph, filler words highlighted:

She just couldn’t stand it at all any longer. She started to push away her plate that was only filled with uneaten food as she sat forward. She had had enough. Her stomach was nearly rolling from nausea. Why couldn’t she just tell him? Was it just that she was a coward?

Come back Thursday to read one more excerpt! If you want to read more, take your chances on Friday, I will be giving away copies, or you can purchase the e-book on Amazon, and coming in the next week, the print copy.

Happy Writing and Editing!

Eliza
http://www.elizaknight.com/
http://www.authormichellebrandon.com/
http://historyundressed.blogspot.com/

E-book buy link: Amazon

First GLIMPSE at chapter 1 of EDIT YOUR BOOK IN A MONTH by Eliza Knight ...

Welcome to the first excerpt day of EDIT YOUR BOOK IN A MONTH. Today, I’m going to give you a glimpse at Chapter One.

Excerpt from Chapter One, Edit Your Book in a Month © Eliza Knight

Have you ever read a book that had you rolling your eyes every few minutes at the broken grammar? Misspelled words? Repetitive words? Inner content changed and there were significant inconsistencies?

Chances are you have. And this is one of the major reasons that editing your work is so very important.

When we’re in school, it is drilled into our heads that we must double-check our work. Why is it that as adults, we don’t still see the importance in this? We edit our work so our readers don’t roll their eyes at us. So that our readers will come back to buy book numbers two, three, four and so on.

Another, and perhaps more moving reason why your work should be edited is because competition is fierce in the publishing world—the number of submissions accepted is quite small. Unless you are publishing yourself (which almost certainly gives you more push to edit your work perfectly since you won’t have an actual editor!), in that case you don’t have to worry about getting an editor’s attention—but you will have to work even harder on your finished product.

The average number of books accepted by publishers for publication from submissions is around 2-4%. That is not very high. For every one-hundred manuscripts they receive only two or maybe four on a good day, will be offered a contract. Not very good odds—which is why some people choose to take their work elsewhere. But that is another topic altogether.

Come back Wednesday and Thursday to read excerpts of the book! On Friday, I will be giving away copies.

Happy Writing and Editing!

Eliza



E-book buy link: Amazon

Visit Eliza on the web-
http://www.elizaknight.com/
http://www.authormichellebrandon.com/
http://historyundressed.blogspot.com/

Our SPOTLIGHT is on Eliza Knight's EDIT YOUR BOOK IN A MONTH ...

Hello Chicks and Readers of Chicks!

Thank you so much for having me on your blog this week. I’m extremely excited to announce the e-book release of EDIT YOUR BOOK IN A MONTH. The print version will be available in mid-March.

Here is the book blurb:

Have you finished a manuscript? Want to submit your novel to editors or agents, maybe even self-publish? You need to edit first! First impressions are important and the stronger your book is, the better presentation it will make. This book presents tips on editing, most common mistakes made in manuscripts, show vs. tell, plotting, dialogue, story development, inconsistencies, tightening up your sentences, weak words/verbs, overused words, filler words, formatting and so much more! Get your manuscript ready for its grand debut!

And here is the Table of Contents:

1. Why should I edit my book?

2. How to use the Edit Your Book in a Month method

3. Format

4. Filler words, Weak words, Weak Verbs, Favorite overused words

5. Repetitive Writing & Leading the Reader

6. Hooks: Beginning and End

7. GMC / Character Arc

8. Story Development / Plot / Characterization / Setting

9. Inconsistencies

10. Scene Development

11. Point-of-view

12. Using the 5 senses

13. Active vs. Passive

14. Show vs. Tell

15. Dialogue

16. Putting it all together & Extras
(Extras: Writing Lingo; Writer’s Organizations & Resources; Critique Partners/Groups & Readers; Conferences)

I wrote this book based on my workshop entitled the same, as well as using my experience in freelance copy-editing, and critiquing. But also from experience as a published author.

Here is what some people are saying about EDIT YOUR BOOK IN A MONTH:

“Edit Your Book in a Month is loaded with great information and excellent examples. Every writer—both new and old—can benefit from this how-to book. If you’re ready to polish your manuscript in record time, then this is the book for you.” Kimberly Killion, RITA®-nominated and award-winning author.

“Eliza Knight's "Edit Your Book in a Month" method made the difference between my manuscript being passed over in the slush pile and getting requested, and eventually published.” Rebecca Lynn, award-winning author.

“Solid craft assistance from multi-published writer Eliza Knight. Her Edit Your Book in a Month workshops are always filled, yet she encourages class participation and manages to give each participate the individual attention they need. Now with a high demand for her workshop materials, Eliza Knight has done what she does best, put it all in a book! I attended Eliza’s Edit Your Book in a Month workshop. She provided me with a writer’s tool kit that will serve me well throughout my writing. Her clear presentation lays out a plan that is easy to follow. The results? After working with Eliza I submitted my manuscript and got THE call within a month.” Ruth A. Casie, award-winning author.

I have a lot of things lined up this week with Chicks of Characterization. Come back Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to read excerpts of the book! On Friday, I will be giving away copies.

Happy Writing and Editing!

E-book buy link: Amazon

Eliza
http://www.elizaknight.com/
http://www.authormichellebrandon.com/
http://historyundressed.blogspot.com/