GETTING PAST THE GATEKEEPER

By Ruth Hutson
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I’m usually the “silent” partner for WordWise Media. But today, I’m the guest blogger. My job normally includes helping our fiction clients polish their novels before Steve works his magic pitching them to publishers. However, I’m also a gatekeeper. While Steve always gets the email submissions first (please don’t send them to me; I’ll just forward them to Steve or put them in the virtual round file), he sends interesting fiction to me for further evaluation. Unfortunately, most of those end up getting a thumbs down. Sometimes two thumbs down. There are a lot of reasons for this, but there are some issues I see over and over. Avoiding them will help aspiring writers get past the gatekeeper, whether it is at an agency or publisher.

The most basic thing to remember is that publishing is a business. And like any business, there are rules and standards that you’ll need to follow in order to succeed. You may have written the next Great American Novel; but if you think you don’t have to make sure your manuscript is polished or if you’re not willing to follow submission guidelines, it’s very unlikely your book will ever be read. You need to appear professional. This is the only way to convince someone to take a chance, put up a large amount of money  (or in the case of an agent, a great deal of time) to publish your book and risk not making a profit—or even making back the investment. And that means putting in the work to educate yourself, by avoiding things such as:
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Writing about a scene rather than writing the scene.

A trend I’m seeing more and more is telling about an event rather than showing the event. Often the missing scene is one that is pivotal to the plot and/or development of a character. There may be scenes leading up to the event, followed by a scene where the character explains the event to another character or simply thinks about it. This is a huge let-down for the reader, who is looking forward to experiencing the event through the writer’s eyes. It also violates one of the primary rules of fiction: show, don’t tell.

Though it’s easier for the writer to write about the scene, it’s much more interesting for the reader to “see” what’s happening as it happens. This also can mark you, the author, as a novice and unprofessional because you appear to have taken the easy way rather than taking the time to create a vivid and imaginative scene. If you want to sell your story, then you are not writing for yourself but for others. You need to put your best foot forward and make your story interesting and fun to read; otherwise, it will end up in the virtual round file.

Sometimes I see dialogue used instead of describing a scene. Again, this may be easier and faster than writing the scene; but frankly, it’s boring. Which of these two is more interesting to read? “Oh, look, that man is hitting that woman!” Or “The quiet was shattered by a sudden high-pitched shriek. Spinning around, he stared in horror as a man bent over a terrified woman who was crouched down, hands over her head. Trying to figure out what to do, he saw the man raise his fist…”

But what about so-and-so, you might say. That person is on the New York Times bestseller list and does the same thing. There are always exceptions, but usually those exceptions are writers who are already known commodities, so they can get away with something different. On rare occasions, a new writer may get away with something out of the norm, but chances are, you will not be that fortunate. It’s much better to learn the rules of the craft and follow them until you are established. Then perhaps you can experiment.

Unformed characters and settings

It can be hard to take what’s in your head and put it on paper in such a way that your reader can easily visualize. But it surprises me how many times I read a manuscript and after a few pages, I realize I have no idea what the characters look like. And maybe only a rudimentary idea of the settings.

This is another example of showing and can be very fun to play with. The details of a room can show a lot about someone before the reader even meets the character. A fun exercise to practice this skill is to take your own living room and describe it in such a way as to reveal some things about the people who live there. For instance, if a lampshade still has the plastic on it, that can mean that whoever lives there is fastidious and does not want the shade to get dusty or damaged.

When describing people and things, be creative. Anyone can label someone as blonde and blue-eyed. But what shade of blue? Does the hair have dark roots? Does the person have a tattoo or a scar or a beauty mark? Don’t be afraid to use all your senses. Instead of the proverbial “dark and stormy night,” how does the air smell? Is there static electricity in it? Wind, thunder? An enjoyable exercise I did once in a writing class was to take an orange, close my eyes, and use my other senses. Then describe the orange using those other senses. How did it feel? How did it smell? We live in a world with a variety of experiences and senses. Play with that and make your words vivid so your readers experience the story rather than just reading it.

Being in everybody’s head at once

This is a legitimate choice. It’s called omniscient POV (Point Of View). But being in everybody’s head at the same time can be confusing, especially if you change POV back and forth in the same paragraph, which I see often. Though it can work, most authors aren’t skilled enough for it to it make sense. And most publishers don’t like it. I see this a lot with novice writers, probably because they feel they need to “tell” their readers what all their characters are thinking for the scene to be understandable.

But this is where “show” comes in. For beginners, it’s much better to stick with just one POV in your story. Then “show” what is going on with your other characters through body language, tone of voice, actions, etc. A lot can be “said” with an eye roll or a sigh. And if your main character is about to get into a fight and his friends hold him back, you don’t have to be in their heads to know what they’re thinking.

If you’re going to use multiple POVs in your novel, make sure you stick with just one at a time. If you want to change POV, create a break in the text or start a new chapter. If you write from a different POV in each chapter, make sure you label which character you’re focusing on so your reader doesn’t get confused.

These are the mistakes I see the most. I often suggest to authors whose works I feel have potential to take time to read books on storytelling, take a class at the local college, go to a conference, get involved in a critique group—or even better, all of the above. Then when you finally finish your masterpiece, you will be much more likely to get past the gatekeeper.

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