Teresa Jade LeYung's BLOG

Posts Tagged ‘authors’

Writers of Fiction and Narrative Nonfiction,

I gave this assignment to a hardworking client who had trouble describing what his protagonist wants.

“Do I Know What My Protagonist Wants?”

The assignment was to watch three movies and write a one-paragraph description on each.  My client had chosen movies I hadn’t seen (which made the assignment a perfect exercise)–his summaries/teasers had to “sell” (make me want to see the movies).

Below each summary written by my client are my comments/suggestions.

D,

I am so proud of you.

Your summary of Black Swan is the way to write a pitch / a book jacket / and what I’d call “author’s story-track for self.”  Bravo!

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest: Hacker Lisbeth Salander has been hospitalized as a child for trying to kill her abusive father, Victor. Ultimately, she kills him and stands trial for murder in Sweden. Her protector and advocate is investigation journalist Michael Blomquist, who runs down a string of corrupt government employees and criminals who have created and allowed a string of child prostitution and sex trafficking rings. Salander is acquitted because of her intrepid physical and hacker skills and moves on to help jail those guilty for the sex crimes.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest: Hacker (replace “Hacker” with “Friendless” or an adjective that signals her emotional-state) Lisbeth Salander has? or had? been hospitalized as a child for trying (replace “trying” with “attempt-to-kill” her father. Ultimately (“ultimately” is vague; also need transition–how many weeks, months or years later; what inciting-incident compelled her to “not fail” in her attempt this time), she kills him and stands trial for murder in Sweden. Her one? protector and advocate is investigation journalist Michael Blomquist, who runs down a string of corrupt government employees and criminals who have created (delete: and allowed a string of)  an empire of child prostitution and sex trafficking (delete: rings). Salander is acquitted because of her intrepid physical and hacker skills (doesn’t make sense–she’s acquitted because of her skills? what’s her journey in prison?) and moves on to help jail those guilty for the sex crimes (would be even more compelling to add what she does for victims).

* * * * * * * * * * *

Black Swan: Ballerina Nina wants to be chosen as the greatest ballerina in New York most prestigious company, but is driven to perfection and to not only fulfill the role of the pure, virginal white swan but also the sensual, critical black swan while trying to please her obsessive stage mother and sexual predator director. When the director challenges Nina to lose control to play the Black Swan with the same ease as her rival, Nina’s self-destructive impulses take over with devastating consequences.

Black Swan: Ballerina Nina Sayers wants to be chosen as the (delete: greatest) principal dancer (delete: ballerina) in New York’s most prestigious company. She is driven by her stage-mother’s demand for perfection and the sexual-predator director’s bait to choose her over her rival . The message: “Not only fulfill the role of the sensual, (delete: pure), virginal white swan but also the  (what’s the opposite of virginal?) delete: critical _________” leads to Nina’s letting her self-destructive impulses take over with devastating consequences.

* * * * * * * * * * *

The Social Network: Mark  Zuckerberg is obsessed with being invited to the right finals club at Harvard, but since he is Jewish and a nerd he has no chance. The hacker genius piggybacks off the ideas of two other Harvard students to build Facebook as a way to meet and critique girls, and is sued by them and his best friend. Ultimately he realizes that people are addicted to the darker and lighter motives of his site and moves to Silicon Valley to build the greatest social network device ever.

The Social Network: Mark  Zuckerberg is obsessed with being invited to the right finals club at Harvard, but since he is a nerd and because he’s Jewish he has no chance. The hacker genius piggybacks off the ideas of two other Harvard students to build Facebook as a way to meet and critique girls, and is sued by them and his best friend. Ultimately (the word “ultimately” doesn’t replace the transitional-sentence to show what he does during the journey of being sued) he realizes that people are addicted to the darker and lighter motives of his site and moves to Silicon Valley to build the greatest social network device ever.

You used the word “ultimately” in the first and third summaries instead of using words to show what the Hero wants or his/her obstacles along the journey.  Your write-up of Black Swan is best because you tell us who the protagonist is, what she wants, who/what the antagonists are, and the hook–she’s an active main character. You used action-verbs.

Starting today, I’m going to be a tougher coach. You’ve proven to me that you can write dramatic sentences/summaries. I want a new summary (one paragraph) of your novel by tomorrow. Write it the way you wrote Black Swan‘s summary.

Also, I suggest your changing the working-title of your novel. Often a new working-title gives new energy to the writing.

Cheers!

Coach Teresa LeYung-Ryan

Build Your Writer’s Platform & Fanbase In 22 Days: Attract Agents, Editors, Publishers, Readers, and Media Attention NOW Available through Amazon.com   Check out the reviews!   Coach Teresa created the fun workbook to help fiction and nonfiction authors gain a competitive edge.  Whether you want to be your own publisher or sell rights to another publisher, attract readers and more readers now!   After you order Coach Teresa’s workbook, email her to receive an exclusive bonus on platform-building. Teresa’s email address is on her website WritingCoachTeresa.com

Need a model that demonstrates page-turning techniques? Order/click here:  Love Made of Heart through Kensington Publishing Corp. New York.  Reviews on Teresa’s book on Amazon.com  After you read Love Made of Heart, email Teresa and she’ll send you her “page-turning secrets.”  The document is only useful if you’ve read the book and can refer to pages. Coach Teresa’s email address is on her website WritingCoachTeresa.com

What does protagonist Ruby Lin want?

#####

Hello Writers,

I am Teresa LeYung Ryan. My clients call me Writing Career Coach Teresa. Who are my clients? They are writers just like you:

• authors who have invested years writing their projects and needed to hook agents with a marketing pitch in their query letters.

• authors who have self-published their books, and deserve more readers.

• writers of fiction and nonfiction, tired of rejections, tired of publishers telling them that they don’t have a platform or fanbase.

What is a platform anyway?

Making your name stand for something—to attract targeted consumers who are likely to buy what you have to sell. Let’s hear that again.

Making your name stand for something (the themes/the subject matters/the issues in your writing)—to attract targeted consumers (people who buy the kinds of books you create ) who are likely to buy what you have to sell (your literary works).

Join the community of authors who write fiction (novels, short stories, graphic novels, novellas), narrative and creative nonfiction (autobiographies, biographies, memoirs, essays), prescriptive nonfiction (how-to books), poetry, speeches, and other genres . . .  and have gained a competitive edge with my workbook: Build Your Writer’s Platform & Fanbase In 22 Days: Attract Agents, Editors, Publishers, Readers, and Media Attention NOW

What these authors have to say:

Ruth Silnes is a published author of three books, one of them a how-to book. Ruth says: “Thanks to Coach Teresa’s workbook I learned how to contact a star. Carol Channing wrote a review for my latest book.”

Kate Britton is looking for an agent for her novel; she’s also considering self-publishing.  She says: “Through Build Your Writer’s Platform & Fanbase In 22 Days . . . you’ll find out some pretty interesting things about yourself and what your platform is really all about.”

Margaret Davis, a published novelist, says: “Instead of the usual pep talks, Coach Teresa’s workbook consists of a series of exercises which are thought-provoking, and always fun.”

Lynn Scott, author of narrative non-fiction (memoirs), says: “Coach Teresa is a whiz in the ways a writer can get noticed.”

Join these successful authors today!

Go to Amazon and search for Build Your Writer’s Platform & Fanbase In 22 Days.  After you order my book, contact me through this blog post (click on the title bar of this post scroll down to get boxes, filled in the boxes, and click the “submit comment” button) and you will receive a free tip on platform building.

In the meantime, check out the resources at my website http://WritingCoachTeresa.com

I’ll see there!

And remember, “Reach out, not stress out.  Help your readers find you!” with Build Your Writer’s Platform & Fanbase In 22 Days

Sincerely,

Writing Career Coach Teresa 

Women in Women’s National Book Association have related news.

The Women’s National Book Association announces that Masha Hamilton has been chosen the winner of the 2010 WNBA Award. The award is presented by WNBA to a living American woman who derives part or all of her income from books and allied arts, and who has done meritorious work in the world of books beyond the duties or responsibilities of her profession or occupation.

Ms. Hamilton also established the Afghan Women’s Writing Project in 2009 “to foster creative and intellectual exchange between Afghan women writers and American women authors and teachers.” The website publishes the work of Afghan writers under the mentorship of AWWP participants, including authors, poets, essayists, memoirists, and others.

Previous winners of the WNBA award included Kathi Kamen Goldmark and Dr. Perri Klaas. NEW YORK  www.wnba-books.org

Thank you, Joan Gelfand, immediate-past president (and poet extraordinaire), for the news.

Meanwhile, WNBA member Diane LeBow has this new:

March 30, 2011  11:30am-1:00pm  Kabul Restaurant in Burlingame, California

The Afghan Friends Network  is holding a benefit lunch on March 30, 2011 at Kabul Restaurant in Burlingame: “Connections: Joining Hands and Hearts for Afghanistan” Guest speaker is Fariba Nawa, an award-winning Afghan-American journalist.  Join us in a traditional, celebratory Afghan luncheon. More info:  http://afghanfriends.net/

Thank you, award winning writer and photojournalist Diane LeBow, for telling me about this benefit luncheon. Recently Dr. LeBow read from her Afghan stories for Left Coast Writers at Book Passage in the Ferry Building, San Francisco.  There were about 50 in the audience.

* * * * *

In San Francisco, we have 2 events to cheer for:

Saturday, March 26th, 2011

Meet-the-Agents Live. Writers Speed-Date to success. Only 15 spaces left. Click here http://www.wnba-sfchapter.org for agent and
editor bios, the scoop on the keynote lunch with Zoe Fitzgerald Carter, and to register.

* * * * *

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

The 15th Annual Effie Lee Morris Lecture: TRICKSTERS!
Guest lecturer: Gerald McDermott – the Art of the Folktale
San Francisco Public Library, Lower Level, 100 Larkin Street (at Grove), SF, CA www.sfpl.org

5:00pm Reception & Book Signing; 6:00pm Lecture presented FREE by
Children & Youth Services and the Fisher Children’s Center of the
San Francisco Public Library and Women’s National Book Assoc-SF
Chapter.  Board members of WNBA (a co-sponsor of this lecture)
encourage all members (especially authors of children’s literature)
to attend this event… a tradition in San Francisco. Effie Lee Morris
founded the San Francisco Chapter of Women’s National Book
Association. This annual lecture is just one of the many legacies
Effie Lee Morris left for readers and writers.

My best wishes to everyone !  See you at the San Francisco events,

Teresa LeYung Ryan, author of Love Made of Heart, cheers for brave immigrants.

22-Day Coach Teresa

Build Your Writer’s Platform & Fanbase In 22 Days: Attract Agents, Editors, Publishers, Readers, and Media Attention NOW is available through Amazon.  Read success stories (on Amazon) from writers who have finished the 22-day workbook I created to help fiction and nonfiction authors gain a competitive edge.  Whether you want to be your own publisher or sell rights to another publisher, attract readers and more readers now!  http://writingcoachteresa.com

http://lovemadeofheart.com/blog/is-there-a-book-to-help-a-writer-build-platform-and-fanbase/

What’s Happening with Borders Books & Music?

Literary agent Andy Ross, former owner of Cody’s Books, has written an informative blog post about Borders Books & Music and consequences on publishers and authors.

http://andyrossagency.wordpress.com/2011/01/17/whats-the-matter-with-borders/

In Andy’s post, he refers to Peter Osnos’s article in the Atlantic January 11, 2011

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/01/what-went-wrong-at-borders/69310/

I am sad for everyone, especially for employees who have lost or will lose their jobs.

Sincerely,

Teresa LeYung Ryan

Manuscript Consultant / Writing Career Coach / Author / Publisher

http://WritingCoachTeresa.com

Where’s the Sonoma County Book Festival?  At Old Courthouse Square in Downtown Santa Rosa, California

Saturday, September 25th, 2010, 10:00am – 4:00pm

Redwood Writers Reading Circle – Come listen to over 50 readers from all across the community read from their works.   http://redwoodwriters.org/events-and-activities/readings/

Redwood Writers Village – Redwood Writers want to make a splash. Come to the Redwood Writers Village and get your member badge so that as you walk around the Festival, RWs are everywhere!

www.socobookfest.org

A day filled with literary delights!  www.socobookfest.org now presents complete information about the Book Festival schedule, authors, poets, children’s activities and more.

“Look for Writing Career Coach Teresa’s friends at the book festival, especially at the Redwood Writers Village and the Redwood Writers Reading Circle http://redwoodwriters.org/ Last year I was there http://lovemadeofheart.com/blog/no-writer-is-an-island/ .  Writers and Readers, have fun!”

Sincerely,
Teresa LeYung Ryan, author, writing-career coach, founder of GraceArt Publishing

Build My Writer’s Name and Platform: Attract Agents, Acquisition Editors, Publishers, Readers, and Media Attention
is the 22 minutes for 22 days workbook.
“Reach out, not stress out, when building your writer’s name.”

http://lovemadeofheart.com/blog/

Writers, Go & Enjoy a Day in Wine Country at Redwood Writers 2010 Conference

Saturday, October 30th, 7:30 am – 6:30 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdmhXqDaYTA

Redwood Writers, a branch of the California Writers Club, is producing its second annual writing conference, set in the beautiful city of Santa Rosa, CA.

Pre-conference Poetry Evening, Friday, October 29th

Flamingo Hotel and Resort, 2777 Fourth St., Santa Rosa, CA

Theme:  Celebration of the Written Word

This one-day conference will feature agents, editors, and writers from all genres. They will offer their insights and experiences in the craft of writing at beginning through advanced levels, as well as the encouragement of fellow writers in a relaxed and friendly, wine-country setting.

Saturday Conference – All Day – October 30, 2010 7:30 am to 6:30 pm

7:30 – 8:15 am – Check-in

8:30 – 9:15 am – Morning Keynote Address by Elisa Southard

9:30 – 4:15 pm – Twelve Sessions available (including “Build Your Name, Beat the Game: Be Happily Published” with Writing Career Coach & Author Teresa LeYung Ryan at 9:30-10:30am)

12:30 – 1:15 pm – Luncheon Keynote Address by Sheldon Siegel

Recognition: Winners of the Prose contest

5:00 – 6:30 pm – Networking Session, hosted by your CWC – Redwood Branch Board

If you would like to enter the conference contests, go to http://redwoodwriters.org/redwood-conference/ then click on Poetry Contest and Prose Contest pages for fees and entry forms to be sent snail mail. The poetry contest is open to the public. The prose contest is open to conference registrants only.  All contest entries and fees must be sent via snail mail to: P.O. Box 4687, Santa Rosa, CA 95402

Special thanks go to Marlene Cullen, Tricia McWhorter, Elizabeth Beechwood, Kate Farrell, and Redwood Writers  http://redwoodwriters.org/redwood-conference/

Sincerely,

Teresa LeYung Ryan

To comment on any of my columns (blog posts), just click on the blue title bar of the post, fill in the boxes and press “submit.”  Please click here for my blog http://lovemadeofheart.com/blog/

Thank you NCPA Board Members, Conference Director Rosa Umbach, MargieYee Webb and CWC Members involved in planning the NCPA Conference of April 24, 2010

some happy NCPA Conference authors & publishers, with Rosa Umbach, Linda Lee, Kimberly Edwards & Writing Career Coach Teresa (right, standing)

Carol Schroder purchases Writing Career Coach Teresa's Build Your Name Beat the Game workbook from Mazelle at NCPA Conference

Authors Who Are Publishers; publishers who are authors   http://www.norcalpa.org/

Always fun helping writers, authors, publishers build their names, beat the game, and be happily published.

 Sincerely,

Writing Career Coach Teresa

http://WritingCoachTeresa.com

Let's Bring Back Oakland Bookmobile

While rewriting the section in my new guide…the section on how to use words (tags) to find information on the World Wide Web, and, using “library advocacy” as an example, I came upon this blog post (about creating National Bookmobile Day during National Library Week 2010):  http://olos.ala.org/columns/?p=17

So, I submitted the following comment to that blog:

Mr. Swendroswki,

Your post regarding the proposal from ALA Subcommittee on Bookmobiles and the approval from ALA Public Awareness Committee to designate April 14, 2010 as National Bookmobile Day brings me joy.  I will share this news with fellow authors and “Save the Libraries” advocates.

In Oakland, CA, we have lost our bookmobile (and other library resources) when City officials passed the budget last year 2009.  Eliminating the Bookmobile has created a huge loss for library patrons, especially kids and seniors.  I invite all Bookmobile lovers/patrons to help by sharing their opinions on http://savethelibraries.spaces.live.com.  Please click on” YOUR Bookmobile Story” and share yours. Or email your story to save-the-libraries@live.com.

Thank you, ALA Subcommittee on Bookmobiles and ALA Public Awareness Committee!  I will celebrate all Bookmobiles during National Library Week 2010.

American Library Association http://www.ala.org/
California Library Association http://www.cla-net.org/
Oakland Public Library http://www.oaklandlibrary.org/

Sincerely,
Teresa LeYung Ryan “Let’s use our mighty voices to speak out for libraries!”
Library Advocate, author, writing-career coach
http://www.WritingCoachTeresa.com

Click on “Teresa’s Blog”

Or visit: http://writingcoachteresa.wordpress.com