How to incorporate Facial Expressions in Your Manuscript

I won't lie, this can be a struggle sometimes. Editors and Literary agents belabour the point of "showing not telling," and I think a big part of that involves being able to describe the character's emotion in the moment. The first time I heard this, I was like ... huh? Not only do I have to write a story, now I have to worry about facial expressions too?

However, if you really think about it, when we speak in real life, we hardly ever keep a straight face. In fact, our facial expressions often depict our mood or whatever sentiment we are trying to convey. As such our characters should do the same. I mean aside from the obvious I think this really helps to bring them alive.

Why Writers Should Read?

Picking up from last week's post where I spoke of the need to stop reading other people's work, I wanted to focus on why new writers should not only read, but read A LOT!

Stephen King put it best actually... if you don't read you won't have the tools needed to perfect your craft. But I get it, writing is hard, even painstaking at times, so how the heck are you to carve out another hour (or in my case precious minutes) to read when you could be using it to bang out that best seller? We are told to make the time. Several accomplished authors seem to agree you can't be a successful writer without being an avid reader:

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”
― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

"Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it.
Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out of the window.”
― William Faulkner

"Learn as much by writing as by reading."
 ― Lord Acton

First Drafts Sucks

  So after completing my very 1st draft of my first manuscript. I felt sooo good...like I had climbed Mount Everest or achieved something phenomenal.

I must have walked around the house the with a huge smile on my face. Nothing could get me down; I had just completed a manuscript of 82,000 words! and I felt pretty kick ass about it. You know like there was nothing I couldn't accomplish, like Mount Everest was next; oh the joy, rapture, elation (you get the drift)...

until a couple days later, I sat down, ready to begin my second draft and this happened!


via GIPHY

My balloon of happiness deflated immediately. No seriously, my 82,000 words of awesomeness morphed into work littered with grammatical errors and unfinished sentences.. half of which barely made sense. Needless to say, depression immediately followed and self-doubt reared its ugly head.


via GIPHY

"Maybe I can't write at all? Why am I doing this again? What happened to my masterpiece?" These are just few of  the questions that drive you INSANE! For newbies this can be especially disconcerting. Fact is my words were clearly lost in space or somewhere in my head and needed to make it to my manuscript.

You probably guessed but my second draft consisted of several re-writes, cuts, tweaks and lots more drafts.

If it weren't for the articles I came across supporting the idea that first drafts of anything are rarely ever good, I'm pretty sure my devastation would have lasted much longer than it did. So newbies, chin up and keep at it.

Why interacting with agents is important.

Last week, this time, I was participating in my first #askagent session on twitter! I really liked it and a few agents actually answered my questions.