See Jane Write.See Jane Write Sarah Mlynowski & Farrin Jacobs Quirk quirk n. 1. A peculiarity of behavior; an idiosyncrasy: "Every man had his own quirks and twists" Harriet Beecher Stowe. 2. Books 215 Church St., Philadelphia, PA 19106 1594741158 $14.95 quirkbooks.com See Jane Write: A Girl's Guide To Writing Chick Lit "Chick lit" is a term used to denote genre fiction written for and marketed to young women, especially single, working women in their twenties and thirties. The genre's creation was spurred on, if not exactly created, by Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole diaries which inspired Adele is a fabulously entertaining, wickedly practical, 192-page beginner's manual for the chick lit bestselling authors of next year, and the year after that, and maybe the year after that. A first of its kind to focus only on chick lit, See Jane Write is hilariously witty, incredibly compact, and begins with a peppy, condensed con·dense v. con·densed, con·dens·ing, con·dens·es v.tr. 1. To reduce the volume or compass of. 2. To make more concise; abridge or shorten. 3. Physics a. definition and history of chick lit. Because of that very important introduction, I now know that a) Chick lit started in Ireland, in the mid 90's, and b) All of Part One, The Big Picture is designed to inform, educate, and motivate the next group of wannabe chick lit authors. I particularly liked chapter four, How Writing Chick Lit Is Like Dating: "Think about it: What do you want to achieve with your novel (besides fame, fortune, and an addiction to checking your sales ranking on Amazon.com)? (p. 39)." The fantastic intimate stream of idea-framing consciousness continues at a merry pace. Are you getting how much fun See Jane Write is? That, by the way, is one of the reasons why a sense of humour Noun 1. sense of humour - the trait of appreciating (and being able to express) the humorous; "she didn't appreciate my humor"; "you can't survive in the army without a sense of humor" sense of humor, humor, humour is essential to the successful chick lit author (See Rule #2: Always have your wit about you. p.41). This rule ends with the key statement "... it was never a chore to read it (p.42)." See Jane Write continues on to Part Two, The Details. In eight sizzling siz·zle intr.v. siz·zled, siz·zling, siz·zles 1. To make the hissing sound characteristic of frying fat. 2. To seethe with anger or indignation. 3. chapters, the authors teach the basics of style, creating primary and secondary characters, structure, pacing, and piecing, grammar and punctuation punctuation [Lat.,=point], the use of special signs in writing to clarify how words are used; the term also refers to the signs themselves. In every language, besides the sounds of the words that are strung together there are other features, such as tone, accent, and , and revising and revisiting. Not only that, the last chapter is devoted to extremely savvy pointers on packaging and selling the manuscript, choosing an agent (and why you should), and dealing with rejection. Somehow I have forgotten to mention the very talented and wise coauthors of See Jane Write, you see what insouciance in·sou·ci·ance n. Blithe lack of concern; nonchalance. insouciance lack of care or concern; a lighthearted attitude. — insouciant, adj. See also: Attitudes Noun 1. does to the reader? Co-authors Mlynowski and Jacobs added in Appendix 1 (p. 182) a list of "Books That Will Help You, Really." In summary, if you think you are a potential chick lit writer, this is definitely a must read for you. Additionally, if you are bored, lonely, and tired of "stuffed shirt stuffed shirt n. Informal A person regarded as pompous or stiff. stuffed shirt Noun Informal a pompous or old-fashioned person Noun 1. lit", See Jane Write is even more definitively required reading for aspiring "chick lit" authors. When you are all through reading and laughing, you may be surprised how much you have learned about writing. |
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