Month: April 2013
Is everyone sick of talking about the piece in the New York Times on David Mamet and his decision to self-publish? I hope not, because I’m dying to talk about it. So I’m going to…I hope you’re not already bored. If you haven’t read it, you should, especially if you’re a traditionally published author, but here’s a quick synopsis: Mamet is tired of feeling like he’s been kicked around by traditional publishers, so he’s self-publishing his next book. That’s it in a nutshell.
I read this piece and felt my pulse accelerate because, I, too, have been toying with the idea of doing my next book myself. The last time I was at Writer Unboxed, I talked about how demoralized I had felt by my experiences with my most recent novel, The Song Remains the Same, and how it nearly permanently derailed my interest in pursuing fiction. I managed to rediscover my love of writing but also swore that I would write my new novel – which is now finished – only for the pure joy of doing it…and I wouldn’t allow the system and the politics and the ever-shifting uncertainty within the industry to beat me down. So…it was (and is) with this in mind that my agent and I began chatting last month about the idea of publishing the book on my own. I resisted immediately and forcefully until I started reading up on how to do it and how to do it well. And then…the seed was planted and has started to grow. BUT. But. But. But look, I was/am nervous about the idea. And full disclosure, because my career was born and raised within the framework of traditional publishers, I have never been a big fan of self-publishing. But times are changing, and I don’t like to think of myself as someone who can’t and won’t acknowledge that things need to be shaken up. So this Mamet piece couldn’t have come at a better time for me. Maybe it is time for a change. And if it is, I’d like to think that I’m the type of person who would embrace that change rather than dig my heels in deeper.
A few things, before we go further:
1) I am exploring all options now. Talking with traditional publishers but also doing my own research on how to best go about indie publishing. It is DAUNTING, and I have yet to see a lot of people do it WELL. There is a very big difference between self-publishing and self-publishing well. Also, this post is not meant to take away from the fact that I have a lot of respect for many of the people I’ve worked with and many others with whom I hope to work with within the industry. There are some amazing, amazing minds at traditional houses, and that needs to be said and acknowledged.
2) David Mamet has a platform. I think readers would be imprudent to ignore this. He can self-publish because he has built-in readers. Self-publishing as a debut/untested/unknown author is very, very different experience (I would guess), than self-publishing as an author who already has a following. I have long maintained that the marketing and publicity angle of publishing is the […]
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Today’s guest is award-winning humor blogger Leanne Shirtliffe. Leanne is the author of DON’T LICK THE MINIVAN: And Other Things I Never Thought I’d Say to my Kids. She writes funny stuff for the Huffington Post and Nickelodeon’s NickMom.com. When she’s not stopping her twins from licking frozen flagpoles, she teaches English to teenagers who are slightly less hormonal than she is.
“Leanne Shirtliffe writes with hilarity and poignancy as to the trials and pains (literally) of motherhood. She is our new Erma Bombeck!”
–Elizabeth Boyle, New York Times best-selling author
Follow Leanne on Twitter and her Facebook page to learn more.
Take it away, Leanne!
I like to think that writers have an affinity for oxymorons, for putting two seemingly opposite ideas together and watching them dance and stumble with the same awkwardness of a young man rushing to undo a bra clasp one-handed.
Maybe I’m just putting the “moron” in oxymoronic, but when I was completing…and completing again… and completing yet again my manuscript, I thought about my “finished draft.” This phrase is Prince Oxymoron in the world of words. Finished draft? By the time my editor and I were on the fourth pass of my already typeset book, she advised me to “look for only major, glaring errors.” And so I learned that a manuscript is never finished, only submitted.
Even many genres are oxymoronic. Science fiction? Realistic fantasy? Young Adult? Creative nonfiction? Erotic nonfiction? (Kidding on that last one. Maybe.)
Perhaps most writing oxymorons are present in the drafting process, in those moments when your thoughts swirl, and you try to assemble some sort of organized chaos as you put pen to paper.
Here then are nine funny oxymorons for writers:
Read MoreWhen I first started writing seriously, all I wanted was to publish a novel.
I thought my intentions were honourable—that I wasn’t just another wannabe with dreams of making it big—but there was always that little part of me that still wasn’t ready to put in my dues.
I wanted it all, and I wanted it right away.
Then, something life-changing happened. An opportunity fell into my lap. I was asked by the publisher of a print magazine (who had been following my blog) if I would consider submitting a short story to their next issue. I hadn’t had much luck with my previous attempts at publishing short fiction, but I thought I’d give it a try.
A Writing Revelation
In order to be sure I was writing something that wouldn’t be rejected, I read and deconstructed a lot of short stories, listened to them on podcasts, and spent a painfully long period of time perfecting my piece. I really began to appreciate the things that short stories do best, and in the process of writing that story, I fell in love with short fiction.
My piece was accepted. It was then nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and later it was included in an anthology.
All of this changed the course of my writing forever. I put the novel aside for a while and focused more on short fiction. I still received plenty of rejections, but the acceptances became more and more frequent. Now that I’ve tackled some of the smaller indie mags and mid-range university journals, I have a much better chance of breaking in to some of the larger, more well-known publications.
And that could have a huge impact on my ability to write, sell, and market a novel.
If you consider yourself strictly a novelist, have you given some thought to whether short fiction can help you achieve your goals? Or, have you dismissed it as something that’s ‘just not for you’?
Consider:
1. Reading short fiction can make you a more knowledgeable writer.
You know how sometimes you hear the same authors’ names over and over, but have no real concept of who they are or what they write?
Short fiction gives you the opportunity to experience the work of some great writers without the commitment of reading through weighty novels each time. You might yawn at the prospect of reading Freedom by Jonathan Franzen, but you can still get to know his work by reading the short piece “Agreeable” (which is actually an excerpt from the novel, but it stands on its own). You have no time or inclination to push through Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace or The Handmaid’s Tale, but in half an hour you can read “Stone Mattress.”
Reading short fiction offers an opportunity to become more widely read in less time. There are plenty of short fiction collections at your local library, and thousands upon thousands of stories available free online.
Start today: For one week, read a short story per day. You might do this during your lunch break or before bed, or you can even download an audio recording and listen to it while you exercise or commute to work.
Here are some stories I’ve enjoyed […]
Read More“People will do anything to alleviate their anxiety.”
This is a quote from a recent episode of Mad Men, that to me, underscores the everyday context that no one talks about publicly.
I work with writers, and find that anxiety is a very real and very constant part of their lives. Why? Just a few reasons:
This is, of course, not exclusive to writers.
But what I find again and again is that we don’t talk about our anxiety. We don’t admit that we have anxiety. We don’t talk about how crippling it feels. That it can bathe one’s days and nights in a foggy cloud of uncertainty and panic. That we make decisions out of fear that stems from anxiety, not because they are the best things for us.
Our anxiety is often hidden, masked behind common expressions, and simplistic answers to the question, “How are you doing?!” And when we express the anxiety to friends or colleagues, it is often explained away with simple solutions to complex problems. You get responses such as “Ah, don’t worry about it,” or “You are doing great, you worry too much!”
Our anxiety is always relative, and truth be told, sometimes other people’s anxiety can seem insignificant on the surface. When someone expresses that they don’t know whether to self-publish or not, or they are nervous about a book reading, you rarely feel the depth of their anxiety. To you, it is a logical decision, and one that likely won’t have crushing ramifications one way or another. But to the person with the question, they can get lost in the internal debate in their head, where all potential success as writer hangs in the balance.
Read MoreAs those of you who follow my work know, I’m dead keen on process. I think it’s important for writers not just to write, but to watch themselves writing and observe their evolving approach to their craft. That, I believe, is how a writer goes about growing. So with every new novel I write, I ask myself, “What am I learning from this one?”
Here’s something that’s not news: I have to keep writing. I have to keep working, for I self-define as a person of doing, not being. Persons of being, those lucky Buddhists, get to relax and chill and feel okay. Not me. I’m relentless – driven – and not necessarily in a good way. I would say that my compulsion to write is almost unhealthy, at least as it manifests itself in the worried lament, “I’m falling behind in my existence!” Well, healthy or not, I will write more words, even these words here – in fact exactly these words here – because my active practice of writing demands it. So I write for compulsion, and that’s me, but whatever: I write for utility, too. I write to get immersed in the worlds of my stories. I pile on the words because they take me to the places I want to go most. The math of this has been irreducible since my writing career began: The more words I write, the better I get at writing more words.
In this new novel (The Seattle Straddle, sequel to The Texas Twist, which is due out in June from Prospect Park Books) I’ve taken on the challenge of telling five or six stories at once. I’ve never done this before, yet I feel completely in control. I don’t know where all the stories are going, but I do know that they’re guided by my professional understanding of such things as conflict, passion, and legitimate storytelling choices. My stories will be tight, rigorous, because that’s what my craft demands of me, and that’s what I’m now prepared to deliver: the serious-minded work of a practiced craftsman. This is new for me, this sense of looking at the page and thinking, “Well, I have this all under control.” Trust me, campers, I have not spent my writing life thinking I had things under control. So, yeah, this is new, but I feel like it won’t go away. With this novel I’ve completely stopped fearing the blank page or doubting my storytelling choices. After a lifetime as a working writer, I’ve finally arrived at my job.
Here’s what else is new:
Read MoreMy writing workshop students and I were having a lively discussion recently about the pros and cons of using real life in our work. Half of the class is trying to figure out if they want to tell their stories via memoir or novel. One woman had turned in pages for critique about her relationship with her adult daughter. It was good writing—the beginnings of something I could see going either into memoir or fiction.
One of the considerations I wanted to broach for my students was the ethics involved in using real life. Writers will inevitably involve other people in our work. But what’s right and fair when we tell “our” stories? I wanted to caution this new writer that maybe she was stepping too far over the line. (The line that like the judge said about porn no one can say where it is, but we know it when we see it.) I can’t draw the line for her. There’s not a clear-cut rule. Legally, she was probably safe. (A couple of great overviews about libel, defamation and invasion of privacy here and here.) But I felt like the family member she was writing about, with whom she already has a difficult relationship, may not enjoy seeing all that information go public. I wanted her to know that while telling the truth is an admirable goal for a writer, there might be consequences from it that she may not like.
A question writers need to ask ourselves: Is good writing worth causing a rift with loved ones?
Read More GIVEAWAY: I am very excited to again give away a free book to a random commenter. The winner can choose either CREATE YOUR WRITER PLATFORM or the 2013 GUIDE TO LITERARY AGENTS. Commenters must live in the US/Canada; comment within one week to win. Good luck! (Update: Anita Hayes won.)
In a previous Writer Unboxed column, I discussed the value of starting your story strong and how an “inside-out” approach to narrative action can help your case. But just as important as knowing what to do when beginning your novel is knowing what not to do.
No one reads more prospective novel beginnings than literary agents. They’re the ones on the front lines — sifting through inboxes and slush piles. And they’re the ones who can tell us which Chapter 1 approaches are overused and cliche, as well as which techniques just plain don’t work. Below find a smattering of feedback from experienced literary agents on what they hate to see the first pages of a writer’s submission. Avoid these problems and tighten your submission!
FALSE BEGINNINGS
“I don’t like it when the main character dies at the end of Chapter 1. Why did I just spend all this time with this character? I feel cheated.”
– Cricket Freeman, The August Agency
“I dislike opening scenes that you think are real, then the protagonist wakes up. It makes me feel cheated.”
– Laurie McLean, Foreword Literary
IN SCIENCE FICTION
“A sci-fi novel that spends the first two pages describing the strange landscape.”
– Chip MacGregor, MacGregor Literary
PROLOGUES
“I’m not a fan of prologues, preferring to find myself in the midst of a moving plot on page 1 rather than being kept outside of it, or eased into it.”
– Michelle Andelman, Regal Literary
“Most agents hate prologues. Just make the first chapter relevant and well written.”
– Andrea Brown, Andrea Brown Literary Agency
“Prologues are usually a lazy way to give back-story chunks to the reader and can be handled with more finesse throughout the story. Damn the prologue, full speed ahead!”
– Laurie McLean, Foreword Literary
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We are so pleased that today’s guest is Heather Reid. You may know Heather from her role as a member of the fearsome Mod Squad for WU’s Facebook community. What you may not know is that Heather is both American and British and has called six different cities in three different countries, home. Her strong sense of wanderlust and craving for a new adventure mean you might find her wandering the moors of her beloved Scotland, exploring haunted castles, or hiking through a magical forest in search of fairies and sprites. When she’s not venturing into the unknown in her real life, she loves getting lost in the worlds of video games or curling up by the fire with good story. For now, this native Texan is back in the Lone Star State, settling down with her Scottish husband and dreaming up new novels to write.
Her debut young adult paranormal novel, PRETTY DARK NOTHING, releases April 23 by Month 9 Books. Please follow Heather on Twitter and on her Facebook page to learn more. We are excited to support Heather’s debut.
Take it away, Heather!
We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter’s evening. Some of us let these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who sincerely hope that their dreams will come true.” – Woodrow Wilson
Should I hold or should I fold? A lot of writers wonder when enough is enough, especially when it comes to selling their first novel. How do you know if it’s time to give up on a manuscript and move on or keep striving to find a home for it? Most of us are all too familiar with that feeling of pouring our hearts out on the page only to hit a wall when it comes time to release our first baby into the world. Rejections come hard and fast. They hurt, and we begin to believe the age-old tale that our first book will never sell.
That’s exactly where I found myself seven years ago. After three long years of drafting, revising, and polishing the YA paranormal novel that would later become my debut, Pretty Dark Nothing, I took a leap of faith and sent it out into the world. After several rejections, I got what I thought was my golden ticket. An editor from one of the Big Six asked for a full. I could hardly contain myself. She was excited about the project and gushed enthusiastically about the first thirty pages. This was it. It had to be. So I submitted and waited. Nine months later I received a nice ‘thanks but no thanks’ letter. Devastated, I convinced myself that if this editor didn’t want it, nobody else would either. It was time to give up. I threw the manuscript in a box and tried to forget about it, move on, write something new.
But what if you can’t? How do you know your first novel is worth fighting for?
Read MoreThis past month, Kitty Bennet’s Diary, the third book in my Pride and Prejudice Chronicles, released. Thanks so much to everyone here at WU for letting me share a bit about the book here!
Q: What’s the premise of your novel? Kitty Bennet’s Diary is the third of my diary-format imagined sequels to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The story focuses on Kitty Bennet, younger sister to Elizabeth Bennet. To quote the back cover copy:
Kitty Bennet is finished with love and romance. She lost her one-time fiance in the Battle of Waterloo, and in the battle’s aftermath saw more ugliness and suffering than she could bear. Staying with her Aunt and Uncle Gardiner in London for the winter, Kitty throws her energies into finding a husband for her hopelessly bookish sister Mary, and discovering whatever mysterious trouble is worrying her sister Jane. But then she meets Mr. Lancelot Dalton, a handsome clergyman with a shadowed past–and discovers that though she may be finished with love, love may not be at all finished with her.
Q: What would you like people to know about the story itself? A little-known bit of Jane Austen lore is that according to accounts by Austen’s brother, she actually shared with her family a bit about what she imagined for the cast of characters in Pride and Prejudice after the official close of the novel. The basis for Kitty Bennet’s Diary was in fact the details Jane Austen shared with her family about Kitty and Mary Bennet’s eventual fates. It tremendously fun– and a tremendous privilege, too– to get to write both Kitty and Mary towards the endings that Jane Austen herself imagined for them. I hope Austen would approve of the road I had them travel to get there!
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Trained by reading hundreds of submissions, editors and literary agents often make their read/not-read decision on the first page. 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) has 16 or 17 lines on the first page.
The challenge: does this narrative compel you to turn the page?
[pullquote]Storytelling Checklist
Evaluate this opening page for how well it executes the following 6 vital storytelling elements. While it’s not a requirement that all of them must be on the first page, I think writers have the best chance of hooking a reader if they are. The one vital ingredient not listed is professional-caliber writing, a given for every page.
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Let’s Flog 50 Shades of Grey by E L James
Following is what would be the first manuscript page (17 lines) of 50 Shades of Grey, a global bestseller.
I scowl with frustration at myself in the mirror. Damn my hair—it just won’t behave, and damn Katherine Kavanagh for being ill and subjecting me to this ordeal. I should be studying for my final exams, which are next week, yet here I am trying to brush my hair into submission. I must not sleep with it wet. I must not sleep with it wet. Reciting this mantra several times, I attempt, once more, to bring it under control with the brush. I roll my eyes in exasperation and gaze at the pale, brown-haired girl with blue eyes too big for her face staring back at me, and give up. My only option is to restrain my wayward hair in a ponytail and hope that I look semi-presentable.
Kate is my roommate, and she has chosen today of all days to succumb to the flu. Therefore, she cannot attend the interview she’d arranged to do, with some mega-industrialist tycoon I’ve never hear of, for the student newspaper. So I have volunteered. I have final exams to cram for and one essay to finish, and I’m supposed to be working this afternoon, but no—today I have to drive 165 miles to downtown Seattle in order to meet the enigmatic CEO of Grey Enterprises Holdings, Inc. As an exceptional entrepreneur and major benefactor of our university, his time is extraordinarily precious—much more precious than mine—but he has granted Kate an interview. A real coup, she tells me. Damn her extracurricular activities.
Kate is huddled on the couch in the living room.
Would you turn this pro’s first page?
My vote and editorial notes after the fold.
I should subtitle that at once: when good titles don’t find you! Because that’s the heart of the matter.
There are two main ways good book titles come about:
1. We have a plodding workaday title attached to our manuscript, a title we know instinctively—or are told!–will have to be changed.
2. The title comes fresh-faced, newly-minted, manifesting of its own sweet accord in the mind of the writer, right from the start.
The second variety is usually a blessing, because it acts like a trigger to the writing process, infusing inspiration and atmosphere pretty much immediately. I say usually because occasionally the beautiful title is like a firework, blooming in imagination’s sky for an instant with bright blossoms of stars, only to die away and turn dark once more. That makes for a false start, and one that can be hard to recover from, if the title has stuck in your head like a plaintive tune you can’t get rid of. But usually, as I say, the second variety is a gift.
I think of some of the titles that came to me like that, which miraculously brought into being immediately the first draft of a new story-world. And what I notice, when I look at such titles–for example, that of my forthcoming novel Scarlet in the Snow, whose alliterative harmony came fully-formed to me one long winter’s train journey back to my highlands home from Sydney–is that very often those titles have alighted on stories that mix magic and reality. Again and again I’ve had that experience: novels that are inspired by fairytale, myth, legend or folk belief often seem to call out the Muse of Titles much more successfully than novels set entirely in the everyday world. It’s not a hard and fast rule, and I can certainly point to some ‘realistic’ novels that came fully named with great titles that felt right at once, and maybe two or three fantastical novels that had to have their titles changed, mostly for the better, though in at least one example I can think of, 1992’s A Blaze of Summer—originally titled The Glade of the Wolf–this was something I agreed to reluctantly—and I still think did the book no favours. But I was a fairly new author at the time, and not sure of my ground. Things have changed!
Anyway—no hard and fast rules, but a definite trend. For me, magical worlds call out magical titles—or the reverse. And there’s no formula for that I can come up with! It just happens. But some titles I’ve had to work much harder for, in order to coax them out from behind the bland, misdirected, or flat monikers that were all I could think of at the time. It helped, by the way, to know that writers have always struggled with this process. Just consider what some classic novels were called before their authors reconsidered (or their publishers threw up their hands in horror!)
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