Month: March 2013
photo by Xygp via Flickr
Today’s guest is Gabriela Pereira. Gabriela is the Creative Director and Founder of DIY MFA, the do-it-yourself alternative to a Masters Degree in writing. Gabriela creates tools and techniques for the serious writer so they can get the “knowledge without the college.” She earned an MFA in Writing from The New School and has taught at several organizations throughout New York City, including 826NYC, Everybody Wins and the East Harlem Tutorial Program.
Gabriela says, “The unfortunate reality is that most writers who want to do a traditional MFA, can’t. DIY MFA dedicated to helping these writers fit their writing into already busy lives. We develop tips and techniques to help ALL writers get the benefits of an MFA-style education without depending exclusively on school to get it.
We believe writing belongs to everyone–that every writer deserves the chance to learn the skills they need to tell their story and put their words on the page.”
To learn more, visit DIYMFA.com. You can follow DIYMFA on Twitter and their Facebook page.
Happy Easter, WU!
At some point in your life as a writer, you’ve probably had someone tell you to “kill your darlings.” In fact, this phrase is used so often in writing groups and workshops that—like its cousin “show, don’t tell”—”kill your darlings” has become one of the favorite clichés of the critique repertoire.
But do we really understand what “kill your darlings” means? As with most things in life, there’s an easy interpretation and we would all like that to be the end of the story. But if we look closely, we’ll find another interpretation lurking underneath, one that forces us to question who we are as writers.
The most obvious interpretation of kill your darlings is to consider it literally: you, the author, kill off a character who is particularly precious to you. On the other hand, some writers prefer to interpret “kill your darlings” a bit more loosely.
Rather than limiting the murder of darlings simply to beloved characters, a writer must also squelch all fancy turns of phrase and extricate every vanity moment from his or her story. The idea is that while creativity and stylistic exuberance might be great in the rough-draft stage, it’s not enough. For a work to reach its final glory, the writer must obliterate any part that is too fancy, too pretty or too clever for its own good.
Many scholars have been credited with the “kill your darlings” concept, but regardless of who said what and when, it’s all the same message. If you love something in your writing, it must go.
Killing Your Darlings is Not Enough
With all due respect to these brilliant literary minds, but I think their interpretation is shallow and lazy. They start out making a good point, but stop before getting to the emotional core. They say “kill your darlings” as though it’s supposed to be a statement about the writing. They tell us to rip out the over-sparkly words and phrases lest we blind our readers from the rest of the story.
Yet, by interpreting “kill your darlings” in this way, these scholars are actually treating the phrase as though it’s […]
Read MoreI think of books as sustenance. Words nourish an inner place the way a meal fortifies the body. There’s room at the table for all kinds of dishes: appetizers, hearty proteins, sides, desserts. All have a function and touch a particular organ the way all kinds of books fill our needs. Today I want to focus on the essential ingredients, the words, and emphasize the way they promote the health of our fiction, and thus the health of the reader, when they are nourishing.
The following three quotes provide a small flavor of the greater lyricism of the works from which they come. Choosing just one passage in each case was a challenge because I had so many sentences highlighted, underlined, or dog-eared. The words I’ve selected made me pause to consider a new idea, see an approach to a familiar subject in an original way, or absorb a deep realization. These authors remind us, as writers, not to forget the power of language to support character and story.
The Lost Wife, Alyson Richman
The Lost Wife begins at a wedding in the present day when an old man sees an old woman, and realizes she is the woman he married in WWII Prague, before the Nazis tore apart their lives. It shows with devastating contrast the time before and after the war for the Jewish families living in Europe, but also the incredible capacity humanity has for creativity, love, and resilience.
This quote highlights the way words can reveal character and relationships through specific vocabulary and nuance. It gives an alternative to back-story for a character who is an artist, and shows the reader important connections between a mother and a daughter.
“At night, I am tucked in by a mother who tells me to close my eyes. ‘Imagine the color of water,’ she whispers into my ear. Other nights, she suggests the color of ice. On another, the color of snow. I fall asleep to the thoughts of those shades shifting and turning in the light. I teach myself to imagine the varying degrees of blue, the delicate threads of lavender, or the palest dust of white. And in doing so, my dreams are seeded in the mystery of change.”
Read Morephoto credit: Deborah Feingold
Best-selling author Alice Hoffman published her first novel at the age of twenty-one, and has since written over 30 books, several of which have been turned into movies. Her most recent story, The Dovekeepers, has been called a masterpiece. Set in ancient Israel and based on the siege of the Masada, it took her over five years to write. The story, which follows four women’s lives during the time of the siege, is both intensely personal and grand in scope. It’s the story of four fierce and complicated women whose lives merge during the final days of the siege. Here’s what’s been said about it:
Beautiful, harrowing, a major contribution to twenty-first century literature.” —Toni Morrison, Nobel Laureate in Literature
In her remarkable new novel, Alice Hoffman holds a mirror to our ancient past as she explores the contemporary themes of sexual desire, women’s solidarity in the face of strife, and the magic that’s quietly present in our day-to-day living. Put The Dovekeepers at the pinnacle of Hoffman’s extraordinary body of work. I was blown away.” —Wally Lamb, author of The Hour I First Believed
Hoffman makes ancient history live and breathe in this compelling story… This is both a feminist manifesto and a deeply felt tribute to courageous men and women of faith, told with the cadence and imagery of a biblical passage.” —Booklist
As a reader, I’ve loved Alice Hoffman since my twenties, when a librarian handed me a copy of Illumination Night. Finding everyday magic in a book for adults was a delight for someone who had spent her childhood reading sagas like The Chronicles of Narnia and The Dark is Rising.
As an author, I love how she handles character development and voice. I’ve pored over her novels Practical Magic and Turtle Moon time and time again, trying to learn exactly how to make that seamless transition from one point of view to the next.
So I’m thrilled that Alice took time out of her busy schedule to talk with us here. Enjoy!
Interview with Alice Hoffman
Q: Your stories often contain truly horrific events — murder, terrible freak accidents, abuse — and yet your writing is so lovely that often, when I go to reread one of your novels, it’s not what I recall at all. Your characters and settings have stayed with me but the main event has faded and I’m shocked all over again. Would you talk a bit about how you balance that driving plot event with character development and voice?
AH: I think all of my work is character-driven, and I am a huge fan of ‘plot’ — in that there is a story to follow, a reason to turn the page. But if I had to say what I think is most important for a writer, I would have to say Voice. My mentor, Albert Guerard, the greatest writing teacher of the 20th century, believed that every writer had a voice that was like a fingerprint — one of a kind — and that in order to become a writer one must find his or her voice.
Q: I’ve seen your work described as fairytales for grown-ups –an echo of a story we’ve all been told and have forgotten. Yet the magic is so […]
Read MoreIn my youth I papered the walls of my studio apartment’s bathroom with rejection letters. Sure it hurt to receive them – and man did I receive them, in swarms of Biblical-plague proportion. But at least as wallpaper they gave me some utility, in terms of covering up holes and mold. They made a fair conversation piece, too. Mostly, as wallpaper, they made a mockery of the bad news they contained, at a time when I really needed a strategy for holding bad news at bay. I won’t say that I said, while urinating, “I pee on you, rejection!” but okay maybe I did.
Of course, my rejecters weren’t always wrong. Some of my pitches were just downright stupid. No publisher should ever say yes to something like Bad Ideas for Children (where “running with scissors is scary fun!”) – but they’re not infallible, these guardians of the gate. They, like us, are only human, a point worth keeping in mind when the burden of rejection becomes great to bear. Multiple cases in point flow from the book Rotten Rejections, edited by André Bernard in 1990 and recently unearthed by me.
Oh, where to begin, where to begin…
Read MoreMany meditation disciplines are meant to help the practitioner develop awareness by cultivating The Observer. The observer is a part of the self, but stands a little apart, noticing everything, judging nothing, only seeing, paying attention. It is the observer self that notices you are unhappy with a person and eventually helps you to see that’s why you’re a grouch when you come home. The observer stands apart from family arguments and traffic accidents and weddings and swimming, noticing noticing noticing.
Everything. In the traditional practices, one hopes to achieve peace or spiritual enlightenment.
For writers, cultivating The Observer serves a different purpose, that of enriching and enlivening and deepening our work in a thousand different ways. The Observer collects everything and tucks it away for us, making sure there is plenty of material for our work at every moment.
This works in large and small ways.
In January, we traveled to New Zealand to see family and explore the country. It was a long trip and it’s hard to stay completely awake to everything that’s happening when you’re on the road for a while, but I tried to let The Observer gather everything all the time. Not just the beauties, but everything. That unpleasantly blustery day on a beach in Nelson, when sand peppered my neck and face and arms, driving us back inside. The grim reality of shattered Christchurch. The astonishment of a school of dolphins swimming and dancing and leaping in the sea. The color of the sea, for that matter. Water, water, water, everywhere. So right for me.
One afternoon was quite ordinary. We were resting, just CR and I, in Rotorua, a town of mud vents and sulphur springs. He needed to get a swim in because he was in training for an open ocean race a few days down the road. There was an old touristy pool a couple of blocks away, and we headed over there in spite of the rain that kept showing up. I didn’t see how we’d manage to swim in all that rain, but the girl at the desk waved us in—and I realized that the lightning that closes pools in Colorado was nowhere in sight.
So we swam. In the hard-falling rain, in a turquoise pool with only two local women also doing laps. I felt like a dolphin myself, swirling and lapping, opening my arms up to the rain, diving down back under the water. It was utterly magical, and while I was immersed in pleasure, The Observer was taking notes. Tiles, bricks, hot springs, rusted leaking shower, very shallow shallow end. Girl in red suit looks like an actor. Friend is fit and lean and gray haired, swimming with purpose. The sound of the rain pounding like a thousand drums on the roof and the water and the concrete. The color of the sky. The color of the water.
A trip to a far away land is bound to net a few magical moments. But here is an ordinary one.
Read MoreTomorrow, I go back to full-time employment. I got a new job I’m very psyched about. I’m also teaching a writing workshop on Saturdays for eight weeks. So I’ll be busy, and I need to write. I’m a little concerned about getting back in the habit of using my time wisely (no more Real Housewives for me!), but because I wrote my first novel while working full-time I know something important: it’s not really how much time we have, it’s what we do with it. I wasted a lot of time these last few years. Happily. Good on me. It’s my time and I got to spend it napping, reading, daydreaming, watching basketball and goofing around on the Internet. But I won’t have the luxury of goofing off anymore (Jezebel and Gawker be gone!), which is okay.
I’ve been thinking about how to plan my time better and got some good advice from a few writer pals, which I decided to share here. There seem to be at least two schools of thought about how to motivate yourself (with regards to doing anything, including exercise). One relies on getting yourself in the mood and the other says, mood schmood–just do it.
Rise and Write
Lisa Brackmann, author of Rock Paper Tiger, says: “Having done this for a number of years — setting a schedule was the most helpful thing for me. A schedule and a rough goal per session.”
Eisa Ulen Richardson, author of Crystelle Mourning says: “My advice is to get up early and write before you do anything else. No email, no online bill pay, no CNN or NPR. Just rise and write – every morning.”
[pullquote]”I’m a bit anal when it comes to scheduling. My life is color coded.” – Michele Grant, contemporary women’s fiction author [/pullquote]
Michele Grant, blogger and author of Pretty Boy Problems, recommends getting organized with your work and your writing:
“I’m fortunate in that I work from home so I can divide my time fairly easily and still stay on top of work, personal and author email. (Assuming of course I give up sleep and social life… I’m joking. Sort of.) The creative process of writing means that sometimes I get a brilliant idea to finish a chapter at two p.m., right when a conference call for work is scheduled. It’s difficult to switch my brain from free-flowing fictional worlds to how I’m going to hire twelve software developers in New Jersey. I keep two separate old school spiral notebooks at the ready. One for my work ideas and one for my writing breakthroughs. I’m a bit anal when it comes to scheduling. My life is color coded. Everything pertaining to writing is in purple and filed on one side of the room, everything pertaining to [my job] is in green and on the other side. And ne’er the twain shall meet…”
Drink the Kool-Aid
On the other side is the school of thought which says psych yourself up to keep motivated. Not necessarily that you need the muse to write, but it’s sure easier to get going when you feel enthusiastic about your work.
Read MoreGIVEAWAY: I am very excited to again give away a copy of my newest book, CREATE YOUR WRITER PLATFORM. It’s a book all about how to build your visibility, brand, network and discoverability so you can better market yourself and your books. I’m giving away 1 copy to a random commenter based in the U.S. or Canada; comment within one week to win. Good luck! (Update: Louis won.)
Plenty of times, writers come up with an idea for a novel that could translate visually to film. The good news is that if you want to see your manuscript converted into a screenplay, there are two different routes that would make an adaptation possible.
Most books that get released by a major publisher or are repped by an established agency get passed to an agent who tries to drum up interest in film/TV rights for a project. This makes total sense. A writer creates a good story, so the obvious goal is to sell it through every means possible — be that print books, e-books, foreign rights translations, serial excerpts, audio books, and, yes, movies/TV. If your new book-to-film agent (usually brought onboard by your book agent) can generate adaptation interest from producers, your work gets bought/optioned by Hollywood, and you’re off and running. This exact thing happened to my humor book, How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack. Sony optioned the book and hired a screenwriter to adapt the work.
But what if you want to see your work adapted into a screenplay, but are either indie-publishing it or the work hasn’t sold yet? The obvious option is to —
ADAPT IT YOURSELF: 7 IMPORTANT TIPS FOR BEGINNERS
You can always just take matters into your own hands and compose the script yourself on spec. But the truth is that writing a screenplay is a completely different monster than tackling a novel or memoir. If your finished product doesn’t fit the usual mold of what a screenplay should look like, then a producer or agent won’t even consider it, and your time was wasted. So with that in mind, I wanted to lay out several simple-yet-important tips on how to write a script for any persons considering adapting their own book into a screenplay. Keeping in mind there is still much more to learn beyond this post, here are 7 basic pieces of advice to get you started if the concept of scriptwriting is new to you.
1. Watch your length.
Just as books have typical word count ranges, screenplays have length requirements, too — and the recommended length for a beginner’s screenplay is 90-109 pages. Since each page represents one minute of screentime, that sets up your movie to be 90-109 minutes. Most writers go wrong in this arena by trending long.
2. Screenplays thrive on minimalism.
Always be thinking about how to cut, cut, cut. Screenplays rely on brevity. When characters have to say something, the best value you can provide is getting your point across in as few words of dialogue as possible. When you have to describe a scene or explain that a helicopter explodes, the quicker you can properly convey […]
Read MoreToday’s guest is Kimberly Brock. We asked Kim to guest with us today to share information about She Reads, a national online book club that advocates women’s literacy. When not at work on her next novel, Kimberly volunteers her time as the Blog Network Coordinator for She Reads.
Kim says,
After publishing my first novel I found myself compelled to find ways to give back and specifically became involved with She Reads national online book club. I have worked with our network of book bloggers and publishers to begin a literacy program that provides books each month for a homeless women’s book club out of Denver, CO. I’m very honored to be a part of this effort and others that bring hope to women who may feel they are without a voice. I hope to inspire others to seek out opportunities (or create them) to promote literacy within their own communities.”
Kim is a former actor and special needs educator, and is a Georgia Author of the Year 2013 nominee. Her debut novel, The River Witch, is a southern mystical work which has been featured on numerous reading lists and chosen by two national book clubs. More information about She Reads is available at the end of this post. Follow Kim on Twitter and at her Facebook page.
When I was a kid I gave everything away. Jackets, socks, watches, they all disappeared within weeks of my grandmother or mother bringing them in new, popping the tags off and lecturing me about responsibility. Once, I came home like a clown with a pair of shoes three sizes too large on my feet. My shoes were on the feet of a girl who must have gone through her day with her toes folded under, blissful to be in name-brand sneakers. In middle school, it was jewelry. In high school, it was friendship offered to those on the fringes.
I have a clear memory of a pale girl, the kind who existed in such a state of poverty that she was invisible to us, stumbling and dropping an armload of books on the sidewalk beside the buses. The kids on the bus laughed as she lay sprawled. I was appalled and embarrassed because some of them were my friends. I helped her gather her books. I don’t think we ever spoke. I didn’t know what happened to her after that day or if she graduated with my class. But I remembered her cornflower blue eyes. They really were cornflower blue. I’ve never seen eyes like that since. I wondered about her. I wished I’d had some sense of the life she was leading and the courage to do more than lift her off the ground and go on with my day, slightly uncomfortable in my skin.
So here’s the thing I’m getting at, and I’m not preaching, I promise. It’s just, I’ve published a book. It’s been almost a year since it was released and believe me it’s been dreamy. Anyone who tells you they don’t find satisfaction in having their hard work recognized and earning a place at the author table, is a liar. The support and […]
Read MorePhoto courtesy Wikimedia Commons
(This graphic shows the lyrics to a classic Disney Song. Can you read it?)
Whether on a book cover, a website design, an ad, or even a whole marketing barrage, graphic design can either materially increase your book’s chances of getting attention or can leave it unrecognized in the mountain of competitors. This goes for the self-published as well as for the commercially published.
While it is certainly possible for you to do your own graphics, or rely on your publisher, there are also very good reasons for writers to hire a professional graphic artist. Without elaborating on those reasons, in this post I’ll give you some brief insight into the working process of a graphic designer, and give you some pointers on how you as a client can increase the chances that your designer will give you exactly the fabulously stunning image that you wanted on time, under budget, and with a minimum of frustration and drama. There are a number of other websites that discuss graphic design, but I approach this topic from the viewpoint of a writer.
This will be the first of a two-part post. Today’s post will cover Knowing What you Want, Finding the Right Graphic Artist, and The Basic Graphic Design Process. The next post will discuss Money Matters, Tips to Getting the Right ‘Look’ and Avoiding Graphic Design Landmines.
First, Know What You Want.
Knowing what you want doesn’t mean that you can ‘see’ the exact image in your head down to the Art Nouveau font and the impressionist landscape detail background. (If you can ‘see’ the exact image you want in that much detail in your head, then DIY graphic design might be for you.)
Knowing what you want means you know what kind of graphic product you want to produce and what format that product will take. This involves far more than ‘style,’ it involves knowing the nitty gritty of the final product, how big it needs to be, what text it will include, what images it will include. For example:
Read MoreI’ve been thinking
a lot
about
how we judge
and filter
and decide
who
what
where
is good
online.
Seth Godin recently talked about how what you share online becomes your own personal “backlist” as a person. And that, as the years go by, your backlist should help support you, instead of being something that closes doors.
But one example he used was jarring to me:
“I almost hired someone a few years ago–until I googled her and discovered that the first two matches were pictures of her drinking beer from a funnel, and her listed hobby was, “binge drinking.” Backlist!”
This terrified me.
That as we, creators.
We writers.
We artists.
We musicians.
We… human beings…
Can be judged
So quickly
So completely
For a moment
An expression
Even one that may be ill-advised (yet entirely legal.)
It seems unfair
To need to craft one simplistic narrative
Of one’s work
Of one’s life.
Read MoreRecently here on Writer Unboxed, the lovely Sharon Bially wrote about The Bad PR Hangover (and how to avoid it). A fabulous post – if you have not read it, read it too. You see, I’ve also had a handful of authors recently who have found me and relayed terrible and unfavorable stories of working with a book publicist or publicity firm (or other outside/freelance help) with an unhappy or very unfavorable outcome, similar to what Sharon wrote about. I hear these stories from time to time, but lately the number is on the rise and now that I know other publicity and marketing pros are also hearing these situations too, I think it’s even more important to equip authors with as much info as possible to avoid these situations. The tips Sharon shared in her post, and mine below, can also be applied toward any help an author hires – from a publicist to a website designer, from an editor to a cover designer and so on.
Perhaps it’s just another side effect of a crazy publishing market where things are being shaken up. When things are shaken up, growing and changing so quickly, well, there are things that are “unknown”, that is when some people take advantage. I have heard some mind-blowing, heart-wrenching stories just like the two Sharon mentioned. Whatever the reason for the increased instances of bad experiences or being taken advantage of, it should not happen that way, does not have to happen that way and there are things you can do to prevent – or recover – from a situation like that.
One author who called me even called it PTPD – Post-traumatic publicity disorder. Sharon’s author called it a bad PR hangover.
Regardless, here are 5 Additional Tips to Avoid a Bad PR Hangover/Experience/ PTPD (or whatever you want to call it!). Sharon’s great advice included things like setting reasonable expectations up front, getting a detailed work plan in place, having a publicist who is accessible and communicative on a regular basis and who offers you general guidance – all great tips!
To take this a few steps further, authors should:
#1 Get referrals
Do your research and make sure you get referrals – past and present clients – who have worked with the publicist. Ask for their favorite clients/campaigns but also ask for referrals for their most challenging (even if they don’t want to give those out, ask and make sure it’s not just the ones they know will rave). Ask those referrals as many questions about your potential new publicist as you can. Questions like: what are their strengths, what are their weaknesses, how often did they communicate/update, what were their biggest wins and biggest challenges. Also, ask for non-author referrals – like an internal publicist at a publisher they worked with. It’s always good to know how your potential outside publicist will be received and interact with your publisher (if you have one). Do not ever hire a person without talking to multiple referrals and asking the tough questions. And they should not be afraid to talk about those challenging clients or projects they might not be as proud of. I had a client once who signed up with me and, within […]
On my blog, Flogging the Quill, I critique (“flog”) the opening pages of novels submitted by wannabe novelists. I think it’s equally instructive to flog the pros. Fifty Shades of Grey was suggested, but I can’t find an ebook sample to download to extract the first page. So we turn to the second novel suggested.
The challenge: does the first page compel you to turn the page?
[pullquote]Storytelling Checklist
When you critique this opening page, consider these 6 vital storytelling elements. While it’s not a requirement that all of them must be on the first page, they can be, and I think writers have the best chance of hooking a reader if they are.
Evaluate the opening narrative in terms of how well it executes the elements. The one vital ingredient not listed is professional-caliber writing because that is a given for every page.
[/pullquote]
Editors and literary agents see so many submissions from “new” writers that they often make their read/not-read decision on the first page. In a customarily formatted book manuscript with chapters starting about 1/3 of the way down the page (double-spaced, 1-inch margins, 12-point type), there are 16 or 17 lines on the first page.
Let’s Flog The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown
Following is what would be the first manuscript page of The DaVinci Code I don’t have to tell you what a gigantic seller it was.
Louvre Museum, Paris
10:46 P.M.
Renowned curator Jacques Saunière staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum’s Grand Gallery. He lunged for the nearest painting he could see, a Caravaggio. Grabbing the gilded frame, the seventy-six-year-old man heaved the masterpiece toward himself until it tore from the wall and Saunière collapsed backward in a heap beneath the canvas.
As he had anticipated, a thundering iron gate fell nearby, barricading the entrance to the suite. The parquet floor shook. Far off, an alarm began to ring.
The curator lay a moment, gasping for breath, taking stock. I am still alive. He crawled out from under the canvas and scanned the cavernous space for someplace to hide.
A voice spoke, chillingly close. “Do not move.”
On his hands and knees, the curator froze, turning his head slowly.
Only fifteen feet away, outside the sealed gate, the mountainous silhouette of his attacker stared through the iron bars. He was broad and tall, with ghost-pale skin and thinning white hair. His irises were pink with dark red pupils. The albino drew a pistol from his coat and aimed the barrel through the bars, directly at the curator. “You should not have run.” His accent was not easy to place. “Now tell me where it is.”
“I told you already,” the curator stammered, kneeling defenseless on the floor of the (snip)
Read MoreWe’re so glad that former WU contributor Jane Friedman agreed to visit today as a guest, to give us some updates on the state of the ever-changing publishing industry.
Most writers are aware that the publishing industry is undergoing a range of transformations, new beginnings, failures, and consolidations. But there’s so much change it can be difficult to weed out and understand the most relevant and important changes—especially when hundreds of opinions seem to surround the smallest change.
Based on industry conversations I’ve had in the last six months, as well as reports I’ve read by people I trust, here are five trends that writers should keep a close eye on.
1. Publishing Contracts
When I started working in trade publishing (1998), it was very rare that the company’s boilerplate contract would change. Obviously it was negotiated in minute detail by every agent that came into contact with it—so contracts differed from author to author—but the process always played out by a certain set of expectations or guidelines.
By the time I left trade publishing (2010), the contracts were being tweaked every 6 months to reflect a changing business environment and new opportunities in digital and multimedia publishing. I’m starting to wonder if there will ever be a “typical” contract again, given the increasing number of variables. Consider:
Unfortunately, most publishing contracts are closely guarded and not available for public review. So what is an author to do? Here’s my advice.
Read More
