Great Writing Tips from a 25-Year Veteran of the Writing World

I’m thrilled to have Joanna on Writing and Wellness again. She’s been in the writing business for a long time and she knows her stuff. Enjoy her great tips!

by Joanna Elm

So, an author was pretty much at the mercy of what a publisher could do for him/her in publicity and sales. Today, an author can view social media as a necessary evil — or as a great opportunity to market yourself without waiting for your publisher to do something.

I’m actually amazed at the number of bestselling authors, whom I read, who really work hard at marketing themselves and their books on Twitter and Instagram. I’m not an avid Tweeter or Instagrammer but I do enjoy blogging on my self- hosted website. It’s my little corner of the internet which no-one can take away from me or ban me from!

The trouble with social media sites is that as soon as you’ve mastered one, like Twitter or Instagram, a new one comes along like Tik Tok which then becomes all the rage. The best advice I’ve heard about social media is: Choose one, maybe two sites and focus on building your platform around those.

Second, There’s a tsunami of information and how-to blogs for authors and writers on hundreds of websites.

When I started writing my first two thrillers, those didn’t exist. There were how-to books from reputable publishers (Writers Digest) and from reputable, established editors like Sol Stein. I bought many of them and took their advice on how to write/publish a novel, and it worked for me.

Now, it’s almost impossible to decide whom to follow, and whose advice to take. Over the last six years however I’ve narrowed down the contenders to a handful who include Jane Friedman, Anne R. Allen, K.M Weiland and Colleen Story. I found these websites early on and have stuck with them for solid, consistent good advice and information.

Third, one of the best changes I found is software that’s specifically for writers.

For example, I used Scrivener for my latest thriller. Back in the old days you used Microsoft Word and it was laborious and not particularly user-friendly.

With Scrivener, you can move chapters around, view them on a cork board as if you were pinning up index cards on your wall; you can get an instant word count, write character profiles; import your research and photos into your manuscript folder; and compile your entire manuscript into a Word document or publish it as an e-book.

Scrivener has so many features, it’s almost impossible to master them all first time around, but if you get a handle on the basic ones, it’ll make your life as an author sing!!

What Drew Me to Writing Mysteries/Thrillers

I always loved reading mysteries and thrillers.

The page-turning aspect of a mystery/thriller made me read about three mysteries a day when I was in grade school. My best summer vacations were spent in my backyard in London, reading. I couldn’t turn pages fast enough with Enid Blyton mysteries and thrillers.

I could only imagine how satisfying it must be to have readers waiting for your next mystery to be published.

3 Elements that MUST Be In a Good Thriller

You MUST, MUST, MUST have a truly, intelligent, devious antagonist.

An antagonist drives a thriller. If you have an antagonist who is pure evil with no redeeming features, then you have a cartoon character. Think Hannibal Lecter. He was a brutal, terrifying serial killer but there was something empathetic in his relationship with FBI agent Clarice Starling, and we liked him despite our revulsion for what he’d done.

You must also have a very determined, equally intelligent protagonist.

And, you must get the feeling that the protagonist is running out of time in the plot that the antagonist has hatched for her/him.

I should add that I don’t like many of the current crop of thrillers where the female protagonist is an unreliable narrator because she’s drinking and pill- popping. I think that dilutes the protagonist’s character and makes her appear weak when drinking and pill-popping are used to explain some stupid things she’s done.

How I Managed to Get Blurbs for My Latest Novel

The blurbs I got were from authors and journalists whom I’ve known for a long time.

I’m very fortunate because journalists I met and worked with also went on to write books. For example, R.G. Belsky writes the Clare Carlson mystery series ( which I love because Clare is a real, hard-bitten New York journalist) and R.G.(Dick) is somebody I was acquainted with because we both worked for the same news organizations.

I went to his book signings and virtual launches and blogged about them, so I felt I could throw out a request to him. He was the very first author I approached and he agreed immediately to read and blurb Fool Her Once when it was still a manuscript and not even an ARC.

Barry Levine was another tabloid journalist, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated investigative reporter and editor and author of The Spider (a non-fiction book about sexual predator, Jeffrey Epstein) whom I knew from my days as a tabloid journalist. He and Dick were perfect blurb writers for Fool Her Once because my female protagonist is an investigative journalist and tabloid reporter.

Lois Cahall, the founder of the Palm Beach Book Festival and also an author is someone I’ve gotten to know over the years through the Book Festival which I’ve attended and supported since it started eight years ago. Meanwhile, Gregory Renz (Beneath The Flames) is an author I met at a writers’ workshop. We’ve stayed in touch for the five years since that workshop. And, Susan Ouellette, is an award-winning author of The Wayward series whom I’ve gotten to know since she is published by my publisher, CamCat Books.

The Key to Getting Blurbs for Your Book

Personal connection is key to getting blurbs.

I’ve always thought the very best way to get blurbs is from authors who are in the same publishing family or with whom you share an agent or editor. And, then, your agent or editor can make the initial approach.

But you could also approach authors whom you’ve met and engaged with at conferences and workshops, and with whom you’ve stayed in touch with emails.

Otherwise, I would say don’t expect positive responses from “cold calling” best-selling authors in your genre. I emailed a handful of authors who write in the same genre as I do, and whose books I had loved and reviewed positively and blogged about. But none of them, for various reasons which they explained in their replies, agreed to read an ARC and provide a blurb for Fool Her Once.

The Secret to Landing a Traditional Publisher for Your Novel

If I’m going to give advice based on my own experience, then I’ll have to point out that on all three occasions of getting traditionally published it was a situation of “who you know.”

For my first two thrillers, my husband found me an agent with whom he was friends (they’d both worked in the publishing business together.) The agent who was well connected in the industry then submitted my manuscript to a publisher he’d known for years.

That was lucky to a certain extent, but obviously my first thriller was not without its merits. Scandal, a paperback original, did sell 70,000 copies. So, you do have to produce a solid, readable manuscript in the first place!

Most recently, after I parted company with my new agent, I submitted my manuscript to CamCat Books, a start up publishing company which my freelance editor joined as the Editorial Director while we were working on my thriller. I still had to submit Fool Her Once through the regular process, but knowing that the Editorial Director loved my book was a big plus.

Knowing what I know today, the most important piece of advice I have is sign with an agent who has ins with editors and publishers in your genre; that is, the editors and publishers who publish the bestsellers in your genre. Start at the top and work your way down.

That means investing in a subscription to Publishers Marketplace, and working backwards. Look for the bestsellers that are most like the novel you’re writing. You’ve bought them, you’ve read them so you know to go to the acknowledgments at the back of the book to see who was the editor of the book. Then you can look up those editors on PM and find out which agents sold to those editors and the publishers they work for. Everything is an open book these days in publishing. Target those agents by using Query Tracker.

I must confess I didn’t follow my own advice here because I took the easy way out and seriously queried only one agent — someone I’d met at a workshop. An agent is still the best way to find a traditional publisher — even though today there are also a number of well-established traditional indie publishers who will look at your manuscript without requiring submission by an agent.

Advice for Writers Getting Back Into Writing After Being Away

If you’re considering getting back to it, it’s probably because the writing bug has struck you again; you’ve either read a novel that’s inspired you (like I was inspired by Gone Girl) or you’ve read a novel that’s utterly atrocious and you say to yourself “I could do better.”

Carry that thought with you. Sit down and start writing. One sentence at a time. Enjoy putting those words on the page. Get back into writing slowly, gradually.

The best advice I heard recently was from R.G. Belsky, (whom I’ve mentioned above). He recommended setting aside a specific time during the day (it could be an hour, or a half-hour or two hours) when you sit in front of your computer or with a notepad and pen. That is the time you’ve set aside to write. If you don’t write anything, so be it, BUT you absolutely cannot do anything else in that time. You cannot read or answer emails, read your Twitter or Instagram feed or read the newspapers, or bake cookies.

If you are determined to be an author, selling to a traditional publisher, then read in the genre in which you want to write. See what’s selling right now; what readers are dying to read. Subscribe to Publishers Marketplace to find out what’s happened in publishing while you’ve been away.

If you’ve been away from writing for a long time, give yourself room and space to get back into it. Just because you had a short story or novel published a while back doesn’t mean anything today. It’s a different world today. Get into that world by opening a Twitter account, Instagram account, follow authors whom you admire and/or whose novels you want to emulate; and sign up for newsletters with accredited, acknowledged gurus like Jane Friedman who also offers webinars on all aspects of writing.

How a Journalism Background Benefits a Novelist

The staple five questions you have to answer for any news article—Who, What, Why, When, and Where—you have to answer in most novels too. It’s basic when you think about it. Every news article essentially tells a complete little story, and if it doesn’t, it will tell you the questions that remain to be answered.

If you’re writing about a body discovered in an alley, you’ll have the when and where and maybe the how, but you’ll have to say: we don’t know yet who did it or why. In fiction, you can answer those questions! And, as the author, you’ll always have the answer to these questions.

Also, you rarely get writer’s block if you’ve worked as a journalist. It’s one affliction you can’t afford when you’re writing on deadline.

Unfortunately, today a lot of journalism/reporting includes opinion. I can’t tell you how many news stories I’ve read where the reporter injects his/her opinion into the first paragraph. It used to be: Just the facts ma’am for news stories. That made reporting really easy!

Advice for Someone Wanting to Make a Career Out of Writing

First, I would suggest that they find a job that pays for writing, but today that’s really tough.

I think there’s so much writing (and dreck) out there, it’s difficult for anyone to get past the gatekeepers of any of the mainstream media. The avenues that were open to me when I wanted to be a writer are really not there anymore.

I went into newspapers first, then magazines and I got a job on my first newspaper by “worming” my way into seeing the executive editor of the newspaper. That’s not open today to writers. You can’t “worm” your way through security onto the 22nd floor of the New York Times or Vogue Magazine.

BUT BUT BUT you can establish your own little corner on the internet; your little piece of internet real estate. Then, you can write articles you can use as part of your resume. Pick a platform that’s yours so it can’t be demolished or taken away from you. And, write your heart out.

Take courses and workshops to learn the craft. If you want to write a thriller, you couldn’t do any better than taking a Robert McKee seminar on Planning The perfect Thriller.

And, if you really want to be a journalist, interview people the old fashioned away. Research them and don’t necessarily stick to a Q&A. Set up an appointment to speak to them in person, or on the phone; that way you can pick up on interesting threads that arise as the interview progresses. (“Oh, you just said this and this, but 20 years ago you said…?”)

But the advice I would give is always the same: Keep writing; honing your craft. Go back to what you wrote six months before or a year before and if you don’t see ways to edit/improve what you wrote, then you’re not really trying!!!!

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See Joanna’s previous post on Writing and Wellness here.

Joanna Elm is an author, journalist, blogger and an attorney. She has been married to husband, Joe, for 35 years, and they have one son, Daniel. She divides her time between Palm Beach and the East End of Long Island.

Joanna worked as an investigative reporter on Fleet Street, in London, England before finding work as a tabloid reporter on Star magazine in New York. She also worked in television as a writer and associate producer on Channel 5’s The Ten O’Clock News and the tabloid newsmagazine, A Current Affair.

Subsequently, she attended law school, graduated summa cum laude and passed the New York Bar before working for an appellate division justice as his principal law clerk.

You can find her blogs on her website and connect with her on Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, and BookBub.

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Fool Her Once (CamCat Books, 2022):

Some killers are born. Others are made.

As a rookie tabloid reporter, Jenna Sinclair made a tragic mistake when she outed Denny Dennison, the illegitimate son of an executed serial killer. So she hid behind her marriage and motherhood. Now, decades later, betrayed by her husband and resented by her teenage daughter, Jenna decides to resurrect her career—and returns to the city she loves.

When her former lover is brutally assaulted outside Jenna’s NYC apartment building, Jenna suspects that Denny has inherited his father’s psychopath gene and is out for revenge. She knows she must track him down before he can harm his next target, her daughter.

Meanwhile, her estranged husband, Zack, fears that her investigative reporting skills will unearth his own devastating secret he’d kept buried in the past.

From New York City to the remote North Fork of Long Island and the murky waters surrounding it, Jenna rushes to uncover the terrible truth about a psychopath and realizes her own investigation may save or destroy her family.

Available at CamCat Books, Amazon, and wherever books are sold.

Delusion (Tor/Forge 1997):

When Emma Kane turns up dead in her Main Line mansion, no one is free from suspicion, least of all her husband of twenty-five years, New York media mogul Jack Kane. Too many people would love to see Jack Kane out of biusiness permanently, including a nemesis whose dealings with Kane rival the Murdoch-Turner conflict.

Bestselling true-crime writer Kate McCusker arrives on the scene to help uncover Emma’s murderer. As Kate finds herself the center of opposing attention between suspect Kane and Philadelphia cop Mike Travis, she is caught up in an all-consuming web of intrigue even she couldn’t have imagined–and only a high-tech Peeping Tom is tapped into the truth.

Available at Amazon.