Telling Detail

Read 2 Corinthians 1-3

2 Corinthians 3:13 "And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:"

We can get carried away trying to describe what we see in our imaginations for our readers. We want them to be able to picture our scene in their minds, whether we’re writing fiction or nonfiction.

But if we overload with too much detail, our readers will likely skip over all our hard work in order to get to the action. So we want to give our readers the telling detail.

The telling detail is what creates character in our settings. It’s the thing that makes this one different from what the reader is already familiar with—for instance a canopy bed vs. a twig bed.

Target Market

Read 1 Corinthians 7-9

1 Corinthians 9:20 "And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;"

The target market is the readership we are writing for. We can take an idea and slant it for several audiences as different as children and winery growers and expand our potential for selling a manuscript.

Guidelines help us slant an idea for the editor’s readers. Studying the publication is another step—we can get a feel for what kinds of articles and what kind of tone the target market is looking for.

It’s even necessary to research the target markets for book projects. Different publishers appeal to different sections of readers and those will be the kinds of projects they will say yes to.

Relationships

Read 1 Corinthians 4-6

1 Corinthians 6:19 "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?"

Stories are about relationships. Nonfiction articles and essays are about the readers’ relationship to the subject—why they should bother to read our piece and what’s in it for them.

Fiction is defined by relationships. Romances are stories about a man and a woman falling in love, science fiction is about humans and their relationships to science and machines.

Even the starkest adventure story about one person surviving against nature is about the relationship of the main character with herself and her enemy, whatever she is up against and must survive. Relationships must exist to move a story forward as protagonist, allies, mentors, and love interest confront the antagonist and the danger represented.

Sitcoms

Read 1 Corinthians 1-3

1 Corinthians 3:6 "I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase."

Television’s situation comedies are a staple of stations. It may not be an easy market to break into, but it is not impossible.

A show may begin with a very short scene that introduces the show, but does not introduce the story problem. Other times the first scene is the one that introduces the story problem.

The rest of the show involves the characters failing to meet the story problem, but the results are humorous and eventually the issue is resolved. Be sure to study the show as different shows use different means for story resolution.

Letters

Read Romans 13-16

Romans 16:15 "Salute Philologus, and Julia, Nereus, and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints which are with them."

With the ease of emails, phone calls, and text messages, letters seem like a clumsy way of communicating. But those who receive a hand written letter of substance may cherish it for years.

The trick is to have something noteworthy to say. We might thank someone for the things they have done for us and for what they have meant to us—a parent, a teacher, a mentor.

Businesses also use letters to communicate with their customers and clients and may be looking for writers who can effectively reach them with the company’s message. Businesses may also be looking for newsletter and sales letter writers.

Genres

Read Romans 10-12

Romans 12:4 "For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:"

Genres are the parameters of stories marketed to appeal to a specific group of readers. Any story we might want to tell will appeal to certain readers and not interest others.

From romance to mystery, science fiction to westerns, genres have defined what their readers’ expectations of a story will be. Writers will want to get the guidelines for the market we are targeting.

There are differences within the genres themselves. For instance, one romance market may look for a steamy story and another look for relationships rather than sex scenes.

Computers

Read Romans 7-9

Romans 9:20 "Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?"

Computers have made writing so much easier. When we make a mistake, we don’t have to start the page over, we can just make the correction.

If we want to add something in, we can just insert the new information and let the computer adjust the rest of the manuscript accordingly. Fiction writers can write our story in any order it comes to us, knowing we can make any switches we need to at any time, without having to retype the whole story all over again.

Computers also frustrate us. If we are not vigilant about backing up our work regularly, we can lose hours, days, even weeks of work in one moment of computer failure.