Posts by Allison Winn Scotch
Please welcome back today’s guest: former regular contributor Allison Winn Scotch!
I’m going to get to this straight away: I have had a really difficult time writing for the past year or so. Probably longer if I’m being truthful. Two years, maybe more. This hasn’t been a case of your typical writer’s block – the “I can’t write because I’m out of ideas or I don’t know how to put figurative pen to page.” This was writer’s agony borne from the chaos of our country, the endless news cycle, the anxiety that it bred in me. Since mid-2016, I’ve been tied to Twitter; I flip on CNN every night; I’ve walked through my days with a foreboding sense of both outrage and despair. And my writing has paid the price.
I don’t mean to sound melodramatic. And I don’t mean to be political – I know we get enough of that everywhere these days, and no one logs onto Writer Unboxed to hear more of the same. And truly, it’s not about politics. It’s about writing and creativity and the toll that our unrelenting news cycle has taken out of me. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to write – though maybe I didn’t – it’s that I couldn’t focus on anything inspiring, anything that felt more important than the reality of our lives. Who cared about fiction when true life was draining enough? My brain was a sieve, nothing could be retained. Not to mention that my last book, BETWEEN ME AND YOU, was so arduous to write that I was depleted when I finally finished it. Emptied, tapped dry. In the whirlwind of everything, I couldn’t even imagine opening up Word and staring at a blank page again.
I tried. I really did.
I started one manuscript, then set it aside. I started another and wrote 100 pages, then rewrote them three times, and set that one aside. In between, I kept busy with other side projects, but I found myself saying things like, “Who says I have to write novels forever,” and “I don’t know if I have another one in me.” In an atmosphere marked with so much pessimism, I felt myself succumbing to its weight.
However, for my mental health, not even specifically for my writing, I started some new practices. I had to. What I was doing simply wasn’t sustainable. So:
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Hi. I’m Allison. I’m introducing myself. I’m a writer.
It’s an odd choice for the title of this blog and the intro because, well, I’ve been writing here for a while, and a few of you may know me. Also because this is actually my final post here on Writer Unboxed. But it’s also not so odd because this was the title of my very first post, written seven and a half years ago here on Writer Unboxed. Yes, after a very, very long time (ions in our industry), I’m hanging up my blogging hat. I’ve already done so on my website, and after much thought, I’m doing so here.
Why stop now?
Well, though it feels impossible, I’ve run out of things to say. These days, there are so many wise voices out there imparting excellent advice and experience that I trust that readers are in great hands. Since my first post here, I’ve written five books, published at three different houses, had four different editors, and ultimately, opted to self-publish. I’ve shared the roller-coaster and when I could, offered ways that readers could do as I had (or in a few cases, not do as I had!). But sometimes, as in all things in life, it’s best to know when it’s time to shut up and reflect, and I guess I’ve reached that point. That point where I’m ready to be a listener and apply this quiet space to my writing. I’d never have imagined it but the quiet space is comforting now: I gravitate less to Twitter, away from chatter and blogs and comment sections, totally content not to document every last thing. (When and why have we become a society who documents every last thing? As if we don’t document it, it didn’t actually happen.) To instead, save some of that for me. My characters. My writing. My home life.
Which is why I started this post with the same way that I started my very first post: introducing myself.
Read MoreI was sitting at my desk last Monday, working on my new manuscript (okay, kind-of working, kind-of surfing the internet) when Tweetdeck alerted me to the fact that Random House was offering my second novel, Time of My Life, at a promotional price of $1.99. I was as surprised as I was elated: namely, very. Surprised because I parted ways with Random House (amicably) when my imprint was shuttered (R.I.P. Shaye Areheart Books – I still love you!), and these days, they have no further obligation to boost any of my books. And elated for this very same reason: I’ll repeat – we had parted ways, and frankly, since then, I’ve gone indie. A move which doesn’t always endear you to your former colleagues at the Big Six. (I guess it’s the Big Five now?)
But their willingness to promote a backlist book of mine is one reason that I frequently ask myself, while reading the latest industry news or Twitter skirmishes between factions or Amazon-demonizing from just about everyone: why can’t we all just find a way to work together? I don’t mean to sound Pollyanna-ish, and I don’t mean to imply that, like, we should all return to our Montessori roots (though my mom was a Montessori teacher, and actually, maybe we should). But what I really mean to say is that I truly believe – having published four books at the big houses and one on my own – and having managed to maintain good relationships with many of my former editors or colleagues – is that these days, it doesn’t have to be an either/or. Or perhaps better said: it shouldn’t have to be an either/or. You shouldn’t have to be exclusively indie. You shouldn’t have to sneer at the traditionals and tell them they’re old dinosaurs. And you shouldn’t have to go traditional or bust. While I’m sure that some will (and can) argue with me, I honestly believe that flexibility and creative thinking on both sides could go a long way in changing the industry for the better. Here’s why and this is what I know:
Read MoreI recently got the writing itch again, the one where characters start to pop up in my brain uninvited, where themes and plots replace sleep, where my fingers felt antsy and wanted to tap at the keyboard once more. It had been about nine months since I’d wrapped The Theory of Opposites, and well, I guess it felt like time.
I’m not one of those writers who can juggle multiple manuscripts at once, and I’m also not the type of writer who can back into a book…meaning, I have to have an enormous lightening bolt of an idea before I feel that tug toward writing. I’ve written a book (just one) before when I didn’t feel that incredible urgency, that “aha” moment, and that book remains very firmly my least favorite of my work. Not coincidentally. Thus, when the writing itch started to worm its way into me, I waited and waited for the idea to come to me, and when I thought I had a pretty strong (albeit not earth-shaking) lightning bolt of an idea, I opened up Word and set out on my way. When I’m working on a manuscript, I insist that I write 1-2k words a day. And so, after a few weeks, I had fifty pages, and I sent them off to my agent for a read. I liked the pages, almost loved them, and she did too.
Then…life got busy. I got inspired to start a kids’ book website (if you have kids who love to read…or even who don’t, swing by Parents Read Best – it’s a forum/site for parents to share book ideas with other parents — we are having a lot of fun with it), and that took up a lot of energy and time. I had a few semi-emergencies at home (all fine now); I had to fly unexpectedly back east for a few days; we had relatives visit, then more relatives visit…you get it. Basically, life got busy, and I lost track of my idea and my characters and my passion for the book. (Which I usually don’t allow for. I’m usually super-diligent about my writing when I’m in the thick of a book, so my break, in and of itself, was a little worrisome too.)
And now that I have the time to get back to it, I’m wondering if, indeed, I should. Should I pick this book back up? Or should I consider another germ of an idea that has planted roots in my brain over the past few weeks and started to crop up instead.
Read MoreSo it couldn’t have been more fitting that this month at WU, we’re chatting about just what the heck to do when the publishing industry throws you a curveball. Because if you’ve read any of my past posts here, you know that I’ve been thrown a few curveballs myself as of late. Indeed, the last time I was here, I announced that after four books within the traditional system (I’ve been at HarperCollins, Random House and Penguin), I was opting to take the leap and go indie with my fifth book, THE THEORY OF OPPOSITES. So I know from curveballs. And that’s not even the first screwy pitch I’ve been thrown in my eight years of writing fiction. So today, I thought we would talk about Plan B. And what to do to come up with it, and how to implement it when the time has come to accept that Plan A just isn’t going to cut it, even if you desperately hoped it would.
In case you’re doubting that I’m an expert in Plan Bs, here’s a short run-down on my own publishing hiccups:
Many, many moons ago, I wrote a post on Writer Unboxed, contemplating the pros and cons of going indie with my next book. I wasn’t just contemplating it online, I was contemplating it with my agent, with my husband, with myself. As someone who had come up in the “traditional” system – I started at HarperCollins, published my next two books at Random House (and would have happily stayed there forever had my imprint not folded and the entire team dismantled), and completed my run at Penguin – it was a difficult notion to swallow: could I do this on my own? Should I do this on my own? After a terribly discouraging experience with my fourth book, based not on the book (which I loved) or the reviews (which were the strongest of my career) but things totally outside of my control, I knew I had to change something. But how big of a change and what that change had to be was exhausting to consider…but too important not to. So I wrestled with it for a long, long time. And I nearly quit writing novels along the way.
Well…drumrolll…I made my decision shortly after posting here on Writer Unboxed. I went indie. And the book, THE THEORY OF OPPOSITES, is out tomorrow! And I am so very, very, very thrilled at my decision. Making the choice to take this leap was the hardest part, everything else has been exhilarating. Revolutionary. Eye-opening. I can’t imagine I will ever go back.
One of my biggest concerns was: “Will people take me seriously?” I had worked for years building my reputation and establishing my readership; I didn’t want to erase this, well, “street cred,” by taking what some (many within the industry) consider to be a more amateurish route. Well, the answers came in quickly and resoundingly. Not only did people not hold it against me, many of them were and are intrigued by the decision. We sold audio rights, we sold large print rights, we just announced a mind-blowing film deal – Jennifer Garner is producing! Foreign rights are being negotiated as we speak. So far, I have seen no downside. In fact, rather than feeling like I am banging my head against the wall, frantic and worried that x, y, and z, aren’t happening in my pre-launch phase, I am not stressed at all. (Okay, maybe a little. To be stressed is human. :) But it’s not as if I’m staring at the ceiling in the wee hours of the night, agonizing over all of the things that are out of my control. The emails I’ve sent trying to get someone somewhere to fix something, to tweak something, to ask about co-op and sales and marketing and all of that.) Nope. With one day until the book is officially out into the world, I’m (almost) cool as a cucumber.
I’ve gotten a lot of emails from fellow writers who are intrigued and re-assessing their own stakes and situations and pros and cons. So here is what I’ve learned, and here’s what I’d tell anyone else who was or is considering leaving the traditional model behind.
Read MoreEveryone always says that writing is a solitary endeavor, but I’m here to tell you that this notion couldn’t be more wrong: in fact, the success of a writer is often due to a supportive group of surrounding players. Your name may be on the spine of the book, but so many other people come into play to help get you there. It’s teamwork. And I’ve been fortunate enough to make this discovery over the past year.
As I’ve previously written about on Writer Unboxed, this past year was one of soul-searching for me, one of honest consideration as to what I really wanted to do with my career, what I wanted to do with my life, what I found satisfying, what I found unsatisfying, what I was unwilling to tolerate, what and how much I was willing to bend. (If anything. If at all.) Indeed, a lot of what I contemplated had very little to do with the words I am lucky enough to put onto a page. Actually, my thoughts had to do with just about everything other than that. The writing I enjoy; the other stuff….less son. Because let’s be clear here: much of a writer’s career isn’t about the writing. No, a writer’s career is about many, many things more than writing – it’s about negotiation, it’s about compromise, it’s about self-advocacy, it’s about business sense, it’s about trust. And it’s about surrounding yourself with the very best people you can. And that’s what I’m going to talk about today. How critical the people in your life are to your success. How building your team is one of the best things you can do for yourself as a writer.
Because you might produce the words, but so many other people help you get where you need to go.
Here, in my opinion, are a few folks (and tactics) who can guide you on your way:
Read MoreIs 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 […]
Read MoreI have finally started a new book.
Phew.
It took me over two years to get up the gumption to do so. Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t been sitting around staring off into space for the past two years, but I haven’t had the stomach (or heart) to start a new novel. I’ve used this space (and my own blog) to discuss why in the past, so I won’t linger on that for too long. But after my last book came out, I felt…well, it’s complicated. I felt enormously proud of what I thought was my best book, my best writing, but I also felt incredibly demoralized about the state of the publishing industry and what is now asked of authors and what authors then have to ask of readers. (It goes something like this: “Please, please, pleeeeeeease, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease buy my book.”)
So. I took a break. I wrote screenplays and moved my family across the country and took on celeb interviews, and I vowed (to myself) that I wasn’t going to write another novel because it took too much out of me. Certainly, some of this pressure was pressure that I placed on myself. I wasn’t sure that I could write a better book than the one I just had, and to me (because maybe I’m a little crazy), I didn’t know what the point was of writing if I couldn’t write well. But it was also more than that too – that if the process was so tangled and confusing and a little bit depressing when I wrote such a well-reviewed book, what else was there for me to do?? Write a terrible book? Would I feel less let down and see better sales in that case?
Read MoreOne of the most difficult – and most unexpectedly difficult – aspects of being a writer is the waiting game. It doesn’t matter if you’ve published four books, as I have, or are querying your first: there will always and inevitably be a lag time, sometimes a very long lag time, between when you want news or answers on a project and when you actually get them. Right now, I am stuck in an endless cycle of this waiting game: I have four projects out in the world, and it feels as if I spend my life staring at a metaphorical “hold” button – it is flashing and flashing and flashing, and all I am doing is willing someone to pick up. In a less metaphorical sense, this means that in reality, I spend a lot of time staring at my inbox with absolutely no emails coming in (barring spam and FWs from my mom).
I remember this feeling back when I first queried, and I’m sure that many of you remember it (or are experiencing it right now) as well. That excruciating time when you didn’t know if an agent would say “yes” to your manuscript, and then, once you landed an agent, when you didn’t know if a publisher would say “yes” to your manuscript. I not only went through this waiting game in my agent search and initial publisher search, I went through this a second time when I switched publishers, and my agent and I sweated and sweated (and then agonized some more) over getting an offer at a different publishing house. And then I went through this again when said imprint collapsed, and I was forced to switch publishers yet again for my fourth novel. (I’ve been published at three different houses over the years.)
You’d think that it would get easier, and yet, here I am again.
Read MoreQuestion of the day: My debut novel did okay, not great, and now my publisher is being slightly less than enthusiastic about my follow-up. They aren’t excited about the book I’m working on, even though I love it, and have encouraged me to try to write something different. I’m torn – on one hand, I love this book but on the other hand, I need their support. What would you do?
I thought this was a perfect discussion for Writer Unboxed because I’m certain that I can’t be the only one who has been in this position, and indeed, I was in this EXACT position. And I feel for this writer because, well, there is little more demoralizing than pouring your heart into a book, having it only do so-so, and then feeling like the rest of your career will be determined by those initial sales figures. What I mean by that is that publishers base their next offer (and their future enthusiasm) on your prior sales, so if a book didn’t meet expectations, or even if it did but those expectations were low, you’re kind of screwed. Or at least you’re not going to keep ascending the publishing ranks to really have your books go gang-busters. But that isn’t to say that you’re always screwed. Sometimes – and really, I mean only SOMETIMES – you can gamble and win big. That’s what happened to me.
My story is this:
Read MoreConfession: I was shoulder-deep into the manuscript revision of my fourth book, which has a deadline of, oh, one week from now, when I realized I had to write this blog post. And for the life of me, I could NOT come up with something to discuss. That tends to happen when I fully immerse myself into a book – all other aspects of my brain shut off. So I asked some writer friends if they had any subjects they wanted me to cover, and the wonderful Kris Riggle, who has a new book out next week called The Life You Imagined (and who DID NOT, I promise, ask me to say that for her!), asked me how I ensure that I don’t plagiarize myself, how I ensure that I don’t write the same thing book after book.
And I thought – what a great freaking question! Because now, on my fourth book, this is a huge concern of mine, and something that I am taking very strong steps to protect myself against. But at the same time, I’m also aware of the fact that quite simply, this is also who I am as a writer: I have a voice, a way of writing, a tone that is present in all of my books, and I think that readers have come to expect that from me…so I’m trying to toe this line, to figure out the balance between recreating my work and challenging myself and not, say, offering a work so different that no one recognizes the threads that tie all of my books together.
So. This is what I’m doing.
Read MoreSo my new book, The One That I Want, has been out in the world for a month now, and just like a new parent who has realized that it’s time to take a night or two away from her little one, I’ve started to move on from the hovering, the worrying, the frantic roller-coaster of emotions that inevitably come with a book release. And then, this weekend, I got an email from a reader that really and truly gave me perspective on this process – which is NOT an easy thing to have. In fact, it’s easier, in many ways, to think that you may very well live and die by the success of your book until you realize just how ridiculous that sounds because, of course, life will move on whether or not you sell thousands upon thousands of copies or if people give you 1-star or 5-star reviews.
But on to this email. The underlying message of The One is one of hope, of possibility, of reaching for something even when you think that it might be too late to reach for it, and thus, when a 52-year old woman wrote me on Sunday that upon finishing the book, she decided to renew her vow to enroll in college and seek out her dream of landing a degree (she’s starting this fall!), I was beyond moved. Over the years, as many writers I’m sure do, I’ve gotten a lot of emails along these lines: people who have been touched by cancer who found a bit of solace in my debut novel; women who reassessed their marriages after reading Time of My Life, but you always kind of forget. You always forget that you’re putting out words into the world and that the power behind these words can be, well, life-changing.
This isn’t a horn toot. This isn’t me patting myself on the back and saying, “Bravo, Allison, you’re such a compelling writer that you got someone to go back to college and empower herself!” In fact, it’s almost the opposite.
Read MoreSo I know that it’s craft month here at WU, and thus, I’m going to discuss craft, but part of me shudders at the thought of opining on the subject because, well, I’ll be honest, four books into this shindig, and I’m still not sure that I’m one to be giving advice on craft! Why? Because I know – 100% that my pantsing methods – absolutely won’t work for everyone, and in fact, sometimes don’t even work for me. What I mean by that is that there inevitably comes a point in my writing process when I want to bang my head against the wall and wish that I were an outliner, that I didn’t have to struggle through the difficult process of letting my characters take the lead rather than figuring it out in advance. But I know that outlining also wouldn’t work for me, so I stick to what I know, and what ultimately produces the best book, as frustrating as it might be at times.
But one aspect of craft that I DO feel well-versed in is the revision process. Because I AM a pantser, I think the real work of crafting my books, of taking them from good to (ideally) great, comes in the second round of writing, not the first. With the first draft, I’m so busy figuring out what happens next that I sometimes (okay, often) don’t realize where I’ve veered off-course. And, let’s be honest, it’s also often not until the last third of the book that I realize what exactly the entire book is about. So it’s in the second draft (and third and fourth), where I really roll up my sleeves and start shaping the book.
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