» new

Writing Plot Summaries

Jimmy Ng — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 06:55:17 +0000

New York Times Best selling author Mary Mackey wrote The Notorious Mrs. Winston. She talked about writing plot summaries, which can be difficult for writers. As writers we tend to love details. Makes sense, right? It’s the turning points that readers devour when reading books. It’s what were taught. If you’ve read my post on Selling Out, you’ll get a glimpse on how I got it done. I’d hired Michael Hauge, a story consultant, who lives and works in Los Angeles, to help me out.

She reads several examples for her own books that’ll hopeful help you how to write your own plot summaries. She explains when you’ll need them and who to send them to. And she has a Q&A. Please enjoy and feel free to download them.

plot-summary-part-1

plot-summary-part-2

plot-summary-part-3

Update: Part 3 is up. I uploaded the wrong one. Sorry about that.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

San Francisco Writer’s Conference

Jimmy Ng — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 06:21:34 +0000

The San Francisco Writer’s Conference was my first writer’s conference. I didn’t know how things worked, but the conference was held over three days full of lectures. The crappy thing about it was several lectures were going on within each hour session. So I had to make a decision on which lecture to attend. Because this was my first conference, I really wanted to focus on the business aspect of publishing.

Over the next week or so, I’m going to post a lecture for you to listen everyday. So come back and check on what I’ve uploaded. Each one is about 45 minutes long, giving the attendees enough time to go to the next lecture.

The first one I’m going to upload is a lecture by best selling suspense romance novelist Brenda Novak. Her trilogy, The Last Stand: Trust Me, Stop Me, Watch Me, has become New York Time Bestsellers. She talks about strategies she’s used to make her more visible and credible before her first book was published.

Please feel free to download these. I apologize for the quality of the audio, but there was a lot of ambient noise. The format of the file is .caf, but you should be able to play them using Windows Media Player or Quicktime. Tell me what you think, and come back as I will upload others.

brenda_novak-1

brenda_novak-2

What you can expect in future audio uploads from the conference:

Key Note speeches from best selling authors

Body Language

How to write plot summaries

Self-publishing

Branding tactics

Q&A with Agent panels for both fiction and non-fiction

Lecture from a top agent, Donal Maass

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Beginning of a New World

Jimmy Ng — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 21:38:43 +0000

I was around 14 or 15 years old. I had a good friend who drew well, and it seemed the pencil, pen, or paint brush did as he pleased. It was effortless for him. One day he drew a picture that I just couldn’t take my eyes off of. He gave me the picture of the creature, and I put a human face on it.

My hero for my first completed book was born.

I didn’t know it at the time. I was facinated by this person. I imagined a whole race of these creatures. I wondered who he was, the culture he lived in, the environment he’d made his life in, his profession, his character traits, etc. I couldn’t, and wouldn’t, take my mind off of him. I was obsessed.

I wanted to somehow make a story from this character. I wanted to express my inherent love and affection this creature that inspired me. But I was in junior high school. What did I know about anything?

Little did I know this person would follow me over the next 20 years to inspire the first book that I’ve completed. Little did I know I found something that would drive me to no end to get this out into the world.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.