What's in a Submission (And, No, Sorry, I'm Not Talking About BDSM.)

I figure there might be 1 or 2 fans of some of my authors, maybe even an aspiring writer between them, who will actually see this blog, so I thought I'd mention a few things that might be helpful...for all of us. :-D

Some common things that turn up in submissions are, in no particular order, mechanics (grammar, spelling, etc), use of the passive voice vs active, and Point of View [POV] issues. If you try to take care of at least these 3 issues in your manuscripts, you will already be ahead of the game...and your editor will be everlastingly grateful. :-)

I know you won't believe it but of the 3 things above, the easiest is probably the mechanics issue. If you do at least a spell check and have someone else, not necessarily a critique partner, read your story from beginning to end, you will eliminate a lot of misspellings and grammar type issues, and maybe even turn up some plotholes. Things that could lead to a brainstorm and other ideas! :0) Of course, spell check isn't infallible, but it's a good start.

Passive voice is where something is being done to something or someone, rather than someone or something actually doing an action. Why is this important? Primarily because the passive voice is exactly that: passive. It's not as interesting or exciting as something actually happening. Books and stories that people enjoy will have action taking place rather than characters being passive and having things happen to them. Think Princess Leia in Star Wars. Would she have been as interesting a character if she just sat back and waited to be rescued (passive), or wasn't she really interesting as the princess who could kick ass and turn Chewbacca and Han Solo into petulant boys with her take-charge attitude? (active)

One of the things a lot of writers will gripe about, at least initially, is about POV. I'm going to talk about two things here: narrative/omniscient POV and general head-hopping.

In science fiction and other genres, the narrative or omniscient POV (also known as 3rd person narrative -- omniscient) is often used and to great effect. In romance stories, however, the idea is to grab the reader and make them become your characters. Omniscient POV distances the reader because it in effect helps the reader to know things the characters don't...therefore, the reader is outside the characters' heads. You know you have omniscient POV when you can see, feel, hear, or know things that the characters don't or can't know.

General head-hopping is when the point of view shifts between characters in a scene. This is rather like someone watching a tennis match: the effect is of the swiveling brain in trying to figure out who's saying what and where the reader should be in relation to the characters. Multiple shifting of POV can be very distracting and make the reader lose track of what is going on and with whom.

These sound a little complicated, but like everything else, once you know what to look for, I can guarantee you'll start to notice these things in other authors' writings, as well as your own.