Writing for Profits

By A. Ellsworth

This Ebook was written by my Grandmother, she was a mystery writer. She felt is was important to share her knowledge with other young hopefuls. This is ebook is well writen. All the contents has excellent value to be put into new books for years to come.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joe Rector
• Release date: Jun 21, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393618003

Book preview

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

THE BIG QUESTION

YOUR THEME

CONSTRUCTION

THE HOOK

.CONFLICT

POINTS OF VIEW

YOUR SETTING

ACTION

BE LOGICAL

PLANTS

THE CLIMAX

CHARACTERS

CONTROL YOUR CHARACTERS

MAKE YOUR CHARACTER FIT YOUR STORY

CHARACTERIZING

PLOTTING

OUTLINE

A WORD ABOUT PACE

STAY OUT OF YOUR STORY

A TOUCH ON TITLES

THE SEVEN SINS

EMOTIONS AND WORDS

A WORD ABOUT WORDS

WORDS

NOTES ON PARTICIPLES

PUNCTUATION

ABOUT SENTENCES

PADDED SENTENCES

ABOUT DIALOGUE

PARAGRAPHING DIALOGUE

PARAGRAPHING

TYPES OF SHORT STORIES

KINDS OF STORIES

STYLES OF WRITING

STUDY THE VERNACULAR

TIGHTENING YOUR WRITING

SLANTING

WORK HABITS

METHODS OF WRITING

REVISING - REWRITING YOUR STORY

CHAPTERING

SLUSH PILE

MAKE A CARD FILE

ROYALTIES

COPYRIGHTS

EXERCISES

HOW TO TYPE YOUR MANUSCRIPT  FOR SUBMISSION TO PUBLISHERS

HOW TO SUBMIT

HOW TO FIND A MARKET

INTRODUCTION

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This is an abbreviated course and is not meant to give every detail that is contained in the more intensive and longer courses. In those you will be taught more of the intricacies of good writing, but less of the things that make for good selling. I know you want to write to sell. So, I will tell you what you need to know. It's not a secret, but learning the hard way takes far longer.

Contained here are the barest essentials, and the most important and basic fundamentals, that you must know if you are going to write marketable stories, books, articles, or copy.

I will tell you how to get your ideas down on paper in a marketable form.

But, be advised, that unless you are a genius your first efforts will not sell anyway, no matter what course you take. Good writing has to be learned. It takes time, study, and practice.

But, what good is good writing if it never sees the light of a printing press?

I will not go into the depths of conflict, psychology of human behavior, and many other things you will need to study and know about. Take long, expensive courses that go into them, or read books about these things. I cannot do it here. I will only go into the barest necessities.

I will give you tips, hints, pointers, and some basic instructions. Many of these are not mentioned in any other course, and some are, but to gather them from their various sources would take you half a lifetime. Some courses do not consider them important, but they are the hardest to learn by trial and error, and by experience.

Perhaps my work in counseling writers has enabled me to read more amateur manuscripts than most writers ever do, and this may be to my advantage in helping some amateurs to hurdle what could seem high, or almost impossible, barriers to selling.

One of the basic things missing in amateur writing is conflict. We need conflict in any story. Without it we have monotony.

Conflict is everywhere, in endless varieties. Conflict is nothing more than opposing desires, opposing interests, difficulties solved. Life is composed of them. You even encounter them within yourself. Haven't you argued yourself into doing something you really did not wish to do? That's conflict. So is arguing with other people, to make your point.

Conflict is what makes stories, and without conflict, where is your story? If things are going smoothly you can't even write an interesting letter. You say, We are all fine, and hope you are the same. Well, there's not much to say.

But, if you can write and say, Uncle Charley shot Aunt Emma, and the house burned down, and our neighbor was killed in a car wreck - you have something to write about. It's the same with a story. You need to have things happen, whether your story is long or short. If you don't know of things really happening, you have to be able to make them up, imagine them. Make them interesting. If you can afford the time and money to take an expensive course, take it. But if you can't, don't weep. Write.

TV and movies have carried conflict to the nth degree and are crying for more, because people want more. It makes the conflicts that bedevil our own small lives seem like nothing in comparison. That's why we like it. That's why we read books like AIRPORT and GODFATHER and all the others in between. We like to see how the characters handled their conflict. If they had none, where would the story be?

So, if you want to write, study the TV, not entirely for entertainment, but to see how a story is put together. Use what you can learn, in your own writing. Study the popular books.  Read them over, and then plot them for yourself. You can learn from others. The better the book- and don't kid yourself that popular books are not always good books, they usually are - the better the author was at plotting, outline, and construction. It's not all in description, imagination, and just sitting down and writing a wonderful story. It's knowing what a wonderful story consists of. And that's what amateurs don't know. A course won't teach you that.

But you do have to learn it. You learn it by looking for the qualities that make a good book, good.

And, it isn't easy.

Outline a TV story you have just watched. Outline a good book you have just read. Can you see a pattern? Read a short story and outline it. Just tell the main details. Was there any conflict? How did it end? Or - in the writer's favorite vernacular, how was the conflict resolved?

This may seem like working backwards, when you want to write your own, and are sure you can do a better job than what you just saw, or read. But, I guarantee, it's a lot faster to learn this way than by a long course, or stumbling about in the dark.

When it finally dawns on you what was done, to make the story tick; then, you can try to do better. But save your effort if you don't know what the author did, or why he did it.

Before you can write, you have to be able to think, long and hard. If you can't concentrate, can't figure things out, can't solve problems, can't be curious

enough to fathom why a thing was done, and how the author did it, then seven courses at $7,000 apiece will not help you.

Study what interests you to read, but study the classics, too, because they are examples of the best writing. That's why they are classics.

But don't try to write classics. Just use their methods. Write about what you know, intimately. If you are a housewife, don't try to write about the jet set. If you are one of the jet set, don't make your heroine a