December is YOUR month at WU
By Writer Unboxed | November 20, 2010 |
Kath here. In the spirit of holiday giving, Therese and I decided to turn over the month of December to WU readers. That’s right, you get to set the agenda at WU for a whole month. We’re going to let you ask YOUR burning question about the craft of writing fiction, queries, agent hunting, the industry, or any other aspect of this crazy profession that’s been tickling your brain. We’ll then offer them up to our esteemed contributors and let them answer YOU.
And because our readers like free stuff, especially of the bookish variety, our friends at Tin House Books have generously gifted us a basket of their most popular titles to give to you, just in time for the holidays. Simply leave your question in the comments below, and we’ll randomly draw a winner. Only residents of the continental U.S. are eligible for the drawing (sorry!). But anyone anywhere can ask a question.
Oh, and p.s.: Of COURSE we’ll link to your website, blog, Twitter, Facebook (etc…) if your question is chosen. But if anonymity is preferred, drop your question at writerunboxed@writerunboxed.com and we’ll add it to the mix.
Please leave your question by Thursday, Nov. 25. Good luck!
Writer Unboxed began as a collaboration between Kathleen Bolton and Therese Walsh in 2006. Since then, the site has grown to include ~50 regular contributors and a variety of guests on rotation throughout a given year.
In 2016, the Writer Unboxed team published a book with Writer’s Digest / Random House. AUTHOR IN PROGRESS: A No-Holds-Barred Guide to What It Really Takes to Get Published is a comprehensive guide focused on helping writers over/around/through hurdles faced at every stage of the novel-writing process. It’s received some ***** reviews; we hope you’ll check it out.
If you’d like to be among the first to know about the next Writer Unboxed UnConference, which will likely tie-in with WU’s 20th Anniversary celebration, please sign up for our mailing list!
Write on!
Hi! How’s everyone today? Thank you so much for posting this! I’m glad to leave you a few questions to answer for me. I am an unpublished author, I am writing a story for NaNoWriMo! My NaNo story is a romantic adventure set on a horse farm. What kinds of publishing companies should I pitch my idea to?
Also, is there a really good website that agents go to to look for manuscripts? I’m a member of inkpop.com (of Harper Collins) and I’ve received great feedback from other teens about the stories I’ve posted. I figured someone from HC peruses those kinds of sites for up and coming unpublished authors.
Any suggestions?
As a beginning writer what are the best kind of workshops to attend?
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Tracy Hahn-Burkett, Lydia Sharp and Jan O'Hara/Tartitude, SFWA authors. SFWA authors said: Juliet Marillier: December is YOUR month at WU https://bit.ly/9o9wyd […]
I’m working on a first draft of a manuscript that’s geared for middle aged/young adults; I’m wondering what are the more efficient ways of going about editing and revising a ms?
If you could go back, and deliver a message to yourself when you were writing your first book, what would it be?
When starting a brand new novel, what’s the biggest problem authors usually encounter when they’re trying to find their first page?
How much do you let the idea of audience shape your work? I lost my way on my book trying to get the first chapter written to kick off my story and hook an audience. I wound up writing stuff I’m not sure I’d want to read. So I’d love to hear different viewpoints on how to stay true to your story, your voice, your vision while also trying to produce something someone will want to publish.
I am also interested in process: how people deal with the different stages of a writing project, especially the ones that are least natural for them (which in my case is editing).
I don’t get writer’s block, but the thing that stalls my writing engine for hours is stopping to find the right metaphor when I need it. Do you have any brief exercise or mind game that will help me get rolling more quickly.
NB: Listing the characteristics and then unlike things that have the same characteristics doesn’t work for me. Got anything else? Thanks.
Say you are midway through your first draft that of a novel and all of the sudden it dawns on you that a major story element needs to be changed? What do you do? Why do you make that choice?
You could keep writing until the draft is finished and then change things in the second draft. Or you could stop, back up and rewrite what you have so far.
I’m imagining this occurring a significant way into the novel, not at the end of the first chapter. I guess I’m mostly curious if people have had this experience. And what they have done as a result.
What a wonderful idea! I’m very curious to know how you create new & realistic characters- especially when you have just switched from one project to the other? & does character development plans come before or after? Thank you!
From a loyal stalker,
Brooke
What are some tips for writing authentic and interesting dialogue? How can I make the voice of characters unique?
As a writer and reader of fantasy and historical fiction, what are some good books that I should read and authors I should learn from?
When starting a new novel, how do you turn your ideas (characters, images, phrases) into a coherent story? Any advice for us writers who want to find a balance between outlining and writing without any plans?
I’ve long considered getting an MFA in creative writing. But…will an MFA really make me a better writer? Or should I stay on my current path of writing and reading a ton? What are the pros/cons of getting an MFA? Thanks!
How do you pull a plot out of characters? All of my stories start with a handful of characters that have been developing in my imagination for awhile. By the time I start writing, they’ve become pretty round. But their interactions often lead to nothing more than taking a walk in the woods, making a batch of cookies, or maybe harvesting some hay. For every story with a plot arc I draw out of this morass, I will have a hundred plus pages of characters hanging out in someone’s living room and talking about music. So letting a plot flow from character is a scattershot and work intensive process for me, but I’m also not great at dreaming up plot as a starting point. Can you recommend other approaches, or exercises that develop the skill of eliciting plot from characters?
Kath, thank you for confirming my suspicions and calling writing a ‘crazy profession.’
My question is: how do you learn to ‘hold your horses’ and adjust to how long it takes from writing a MS to seeing it in book form (when I see how long the process takes it reminds me of Truman Capote’s description ‘the time it takes an elephant to move its bowels’ talking about how long Marylin Monroe liked to fuss in the bathroom but anyways).
How do we, in other words, ‘mind the gap’ between the time we’d LIKE it to take, and how long it actually takes?
Thank you!
How long do you let a manuscript “rest” before rewriting or revising? How many drafts do you do, and do you try to fix specific things with each separate draft, or just work on everything at the same time (e.g. is the second draft for dialogue, the third for description?).
I’d like to see an assessment from an agent, published author, and an editor about what happened in 2009-2010 in the publishing world. I’ve heard some amazing things (30% of employees laid off, advances down 50%, sales down a similar amount, publishing houses not buying books at all for months at a time, reprinting older books rather than buying new ones) and I’d like to know what’s true and what’s not.
Ooh, I like Jen Erickson’s question.
Are there any can’t miss conferences/workshops?
How to continue persevering through draft after draft?
What should an unpublished writer blog about? How should s/he build an audience?