HOT OFF THE PRESS! We love to share our information with writers, and we’re happy to pass some of our INSIDER’S SECRETS along to you. Feel free to print these posts to use as a reference. Pass the links along to your writer friends. It’s packed with great information this month. DEADLINE-DATED lists of anthologies, theme issues, and contests are included at no charge!

In This Issue:

* * GET YOUR WRITING OUT IN THREE DAYS! Fast and affordable! We can help. 

* * We'll help you develop a believable character for your story in CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.

* * SPLITTING INFINITIVES—bad grammar or not?

* * We’re giving away a FREE REPORT that outlines industry-standard Manuscript FORMAT Guidelines when you order our E-book entitled REJOICE IN REJECTION. 

* * LOTS OF HELP for CHILDREN’S BOOK AUTHORS—100 CONTACTS and Everything You Need To Know To Submit Your Children’s Book. 

* * Learn how to PUBLISH YOUR SHORT STORIES. 

* * You won’t find a better list anywhere (AND IT’S FREE!) of upcoming ANTHOLOGIES, SPECIAL-THEMED JOURNALS, and WRITING CONTESTS. 

↓ Scroll Down to Read These Exciting and Useful Articles!! ↓   

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We’re looking forward to hearing from you.

It’s not always easy for creative writers to develop believable characters for their short stories or novels. Most of us don’t have close relationships with dashing heroes named Buck or brilliant, beautiful medical examiners named Desiree—which makes it tempting to take inspiration from people we actually know. But too often the resulting characters are thinly disguised versions of ourselves, our friends, and relatives. These protagonists can fall flat in fiction. So how do writers develop interesting and intriguing yet believable characters?

Your wacky aunt Mabel may be a hoot at holiday get-togethers, but as anything more than a minor comic relief character, Aunt Mabel is going to be an unlikely heroine. It might be better to enlist the scary guy who lives down the street and develop a villain (or an unlikely hero) based on him. Sure, all you know about him is that he rides a loud motorcycle, and his biceps are frighteningly large and tattooed, but boring he’s not!

For the purposes of character development, you can safely assume that Biker Dude isn’t the son of two college professors, he probably doesn’t attend the opera on a regular basis, and he isn’t likely to be shy. It’s more realistic to assume he’s the son of working-class parents, prefers football to the opera, and is pretty tough. And if we’re working on avoiding stereotypes (which is usually our goal), this character could surprise us and become an unlikely hero, despite the prison tats.

The personality needs to fit the fiction. If you’re looking for a hero to save the world from destruction, you can choose the dashing and dapper John Q. College Graduate with broad shoulders and a deep, calm voice, or the scruffy biker dude, who saves the day despite his looks. If you want Aunt Mabel to be the heroine of your novel, you better develop some interesting traits that would support her superhero ways—perhaps she’s not as frail and wobbly as she looks! Just don’t leave Aunt Mabel exactly the way she is in real life, or her character may fail to deliver.

Get to know your characters and make them three-dimensional. Be familiar enough to be able to predict what each character would do if he or she were faced with a certain choice or put into a certain situation. Every person has a darker side or a secret. Give the warmhearted schoolteacher a secret vice, a bit of a temper, or a scandalous past. When you’re sketching your character, include a basic history, his/her dreams and ambitions, obstacles and hurdles, social status, and sexual and economic power. Also include physical characteristics so that you can make sure Desiree stays a redhead throughout her adventures and Biker Dude’s tattoos stay on the correct shoulder.

The short story presents a different problem. There simply isn’t time or space to let the reader get to know your main character, so you have to present as much information as the reader needs to know, succinctly and subtly (show, don’t tell!). If it’s not relevant to the plot, we don’t need to know that the schoolteacher is allergic to shellfish or has a degree in Russian literature. We might, however, need to know that she’s a closet smoker, addicted to chocolate truffles, and harbors a long-standing grudge with her sister. For the short story writer, it’s essential to have a fully developed character in mind; but rather than giving us a bulleted list of traits, let your character’s actions demonstrate who she is. Hold back a secret or two and surprise the reader.

As writers, we are asking our readers to visualize our characters and relate to them. We want our characters to be realistic so that our audience can connect to them—we want the reader to cheer them on as they surmount obstacles and shed a tear when they fall. Readers care about people, and a fantastic plot populated with bland or one-dimensional characters isn’t enough to hold their interest. Your audience should feel involved with your characters so that they become vivid and real people. And this isn't easy. If you can get your readers to fall in love with the scary biker dude, you can consider him a successful character.

For more tips on character development, read What Is Your Character Thinking? from the Writer’s Relief Newsflash.

Writers have been told not to split infinitives (or to not split them!) ever since grade school, and the reason goes way back. In Latin the infinitive form of a verb is one word, and as 19th-century grammarians were big Latin fans, they decided that the rules of English should conform to those of Latin. Hence, splitting an infinitive would be akin to splitting a word in half. But in modern times, unless we are translating Latin, splitting an infinitive is not necessarily bad grammar.

What is an infinitive? It’s the verb form using “to,” as in “to write” or “to publish.” It becomes a split infinitive by inserting a word after “to”: “to quickly write” or “to successfully publish.”

Here are some examples of using split infinitives:

Before it careened out of sight, the car managed to just make the corner.

In this sentence the infinitive is "to make," and inserting "just" between the infinitive puts the emphasis on the fact that it was a near thing.

Another example:

Our goal is to further cement relations between the two countries. Here the infinitive is split to emphasize "further."

The more "correct" form changes the meaning of the sentence: Our goal is to cement further relations between the two countries.

Or: Our goal is further to cement relations between the two countries. In this case, not splitting the infinitive leads to awkward phrasing and a clumsier sentence.

Another example is the famous Star Trek title sequence: To boldly go where no man has gone before!

Again, this phrase loses strength when the infinitive is not split. To go boldly where no man has gone before just doesn’t pack the same punch.

Most writers strive to keep their infinitives cozily joined together out of fear of looking ignorant of basic grammar. And it’s true that, most of the time, the infinitive functions best as a whole unit. However, the writer should always err on the side of comprehension and flow rather than the conventions of 19th-century Latin aficionados. George Bernard Shaw said it best when he wrote to The London Times:

"There is a busybody on your staff who devotes a lot of time to chasing split infinitives: I call for the immediate dismissal of this pedant. It is of no consequence whether he decides to go quickly or to quickly go or quickly to go. The important thing is that he should go at once."

The staff at Writer’s Relief knows that a writer’s job is to write. We can help with the non-creative aspects of writing and publishing, and our submission specialists have been helping writers connect with editors and literary agents since 1994. And our proofreaders are trained to look for grammatical issues like split infinitives and to deal with them sensitively. Give us a call if you’re looking for help!

Wondering how or where to get a short story published? Although short stories may not be as widely read as novels and memoirs, there is a strong market for short story writers in the form of literary magazines. If you want to publish a short story, use this step-by-step guide to help!

1. Write well.

2. Know the market. Be sure you know the proper word count for short stories. Also, you’ll want to choose a great opening line for your story. And use our fantastic short story checklist to be sure that your prose is up to par.

3. Proofread and format. Does your manuscript meet industry standards? Is it error-free? If you doubt the perfection of your grammar and usage, Writer’s Relief proofreaders can help.

4. Research, research, research. There are thousands of literary magazines publishing creative writing today, and they actively read and acquire short stories. But you’ve got to know which literary journals are right for you (as well as which journals are wrong for you). Researching can take countless hours, but it’s a vital and necessary part of making submissions that get results. If you don’t want to do the research on your own, Writer’s Relief, an author’s submission service, can help.

Bonus tip: If you don’t have any publishing credentials and are trying to break into the market, submitting your work to online literary journals can be a great place to start. Online journals are publishing some of the best writing around, and they’re quickly taking the place of print journals.

5. Write your cover letter. To write a good cover letter for a short story, stick to the basics. Skip the clever intros and silly bios. When you’re submitting to a literary agent, the query letter matters lots. But when you’re submitting to a literary journal, emphasis isn’t on the query as much as the manuscript itself. At Writer’s Relief, we write our client’s cover letters for short stories.

6. Mail or email your submissions.

7. Track your responses. Keep track of who you sent your story to (so that you don’t inadvertently send more than one story at once). Also, keep track of who has rejected or accepted your story—as well as any personal notes that may be helpful in the future when you submit again.

8. Wait. Sometimes it can take a long time to hear back from literary journals.

9. Rinse and repeat!

Additional reading:

How To Write A Query Letter For A Short Story Collection

How Much Money Can I Make Writing Poems, Short Stories, And Books?

Short Story Or Novella? What’s The Difference And Where To Publish Shorter Fiction

Once you’ve got a significant number of short stories published, you may want to consider publishing a collection: How To Publish A Short Story Collection: Tips For Getting Agents' And Editors' Attention For Your Short Stories

If you don’t want to go through the hassle of researching markets and submitting your short story on your own, Writer’s Relief can lift the stress and anxiety of making submissions. We’ve been working with short story authors since 1994, successfully helping writers place their stories in literary magazines. Lean how Writer’s Relief can help you submit your work today!

REMEMBER TO CHECK OUT OUR LIST OF WRITING CONTESTS and ANTHOLOGIES! You won’t find a better list anywhere (AND IT’S FREE!) of upcoming anthologies, special-themed journals, and contests. Publish your short story in a reputable publication today!