Posts by Ann Aguirre
I know some people can’t listen to music while they write. If that’s the case for you, then I fear there’s nothing for you here today. Sorry! As for the rest of you, settle in. We’re going to talk about tunes.
Sometimes you’re not feeling it, right? But you need to write, otherwise you’ll get out of practice. You’ll lose the momentum you’ve been building. I’ve found a great way to set the mood is to find music that transports you. There are classical pieces by Chopin that when I close my eyes, listening to them, I can see the couples twirling, the men in their black formalwear and the women in ornate gowns. I couldn’t write an action scene, listening to Chopin.
This may seem like pretty basic advice, but I’ve discovered how powerful music can be all over, writing this new YA project. I’m doing it for my daughter, but it has taught me a great deal. I spent an afternoon putting together a playlist for the hero, who’s a musician, and his choices speak volumes on what kind of person he is, his current state of mind, and how he’s dealing with adversity. Furthermore, when I listen to those songs — his music– I get to know him even better.
Music, when it’s properly played, should make us ache. It should move us, make us angry, or make us think. And that’s what we want our books to do as well. Auditory and olfactory memories are powerful things, you know? If you smell a pumpkin pie baking, maybe it takes you back to grandma’s house. And if you hear Born in the USA, you remember a hot summer night, getting up to no good in the back of somebody’s car. (For me, it’s not Springsteen, but John Mellencamp, though he was John Cougar back then. Hey, I grew up in Indiana! And the song is Jack & Diane.)
I’ve actually found that listening to music can help me get past something that’s bothering me in the book. Sometimes, songs tell a story. So if you listen, they can help you with yours. I’ll start searching for songs with symbolism similar to what I’m working with, and occasionally, just listening to them pushes me to some epiphany, then once I identify the problem, I can keep writing.
There’s a song for every book, a melody for each mood. For example, Bodies by Drowning Pool gets played pretty much everytime I write an action scene. (Along with others).
What are some of your favorite bands / songs, and what moods do they set of you?
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No matter where you are in your career, this is good advice. If you’re querying a novel, you think maybe if you compare your book / voice / appeal to a certain bestselling author, this will make you more appealing to agents. Then, down the line, you start lining up your accomplishments alongside someone who debuted around the same time you did. This is a dark road, my friends, and I recommend steering away.
See, nobody comes out of that a winner. The agent who reads the query that says, “This book is the next Twilight,” (or whatever the current hot title is), has probably seen that a thousand times. It doesn’t make your work standout. And then, once you do sell a book and you’re conditioned to compare your career trajectory to others, you can’t stop looking at what other people are doing instead of taking pride in your own achievements. Granted, it’s not an instant transformation, but I know writers who would be considered wildly successful, and yet they’re incapable of being pleased by anything they accomplish.
Why?
Read MoreI’ve been asked repeatedly about how I stay so productive, about how I changed my process and my work habits, usually on Twitter. It’s an impossible subject to cover in 140 characters, so I decided to do that here. Since lots of people are writing like busy bees this month, it seems like the perfect time to articulate my thoughts.
First, let me dispel one myth. Process is not a permanent, indelible thing. People say, “I can’t do that. My process dictates that I…” Well, no. You control your work habits and your brain. Maybe it turns out that you did most of your “good” writing on the hood of a car. Does that mean you can only write that way? No. You’ve trained yourself into a dysfunctional style, and it’s possible to rewrite the way you work, just as you can revise a novel.
My process used to be this:
1) Come up with shiny new idea.
2) Write furiously.
3) Lose faith.
4) Spend 9 months rewriting the first half of the book.
5) Lose heart.
6) Come up with shiny new idea.
7) Repeat.
That was my process. And I hated it. Some people can finish books while tinkering with them. I’m not one of them. I find it to be a really inefficient way to work. HOW can you perfect the first chapters until you finish the draft and you’ve seen the big picture? It seems to me that it makes sense to hold all your revisions until the end. It can be hard to keep that internal editor in check; that jerk wants you to be perfect out of the gate and won’t shut up until you address the issues. I’ve found that making a list as I write of things I know I need to address in the first revision or the second keeps me focused enough to continue writing. And then at the end, I have a checklist of issues to tackle.
At this point, you might be saying, I can’t do that. I’ve always written this way. Well, that’s just wrong. You can do anything you want to, anything you set your mind to. If you don’t really want to change your process, then stop reading.
The rest of you? You can do this. But you have to believe you can, just like a person has to believe he can stick to a fitness regimen or a healthier style of living. Read this if you have any doubts. Back now? See? Roxanne St. Clair wrote 30 books my old way, the slow, tinkering way. And now she’s a convert. This really works.
Read MoreOkay, that’s a lie. Puppies are not evil. They’re adorable. But they’re also a massive time-suck. And I have a brand new one. This is super ironic, as I’m not even a dog person, but my husband fell in love with her and he asks for so few things that I didn’t have the heart to say no. I wish I had, a little bit. See, in the past six months, I’ve written three books, gone on tour, gotten very ill, and moved. Now I have a new puppy, am still recovering, trying to settle in, furnish and decorate a new house. While writing another book.
I imagine most of you could list a similar collection of events that are impairing your creativity, eating into your time. Many of my posts are advice-driven. I tell you what’s worked for me, and you go away thinking, “Hey, that’s not bad, maybe I’ll try it,” or possibly, “Wow, that’s incredibly stupid. Only a polar bear would fall for that.” (It’s a well known fact that polar bears are far more gullible than pandas.)
This time, however, the post is different. You see, WU has assembled an amazing panel of experts and a great audience who checks in regularly to see what’s cooking. That said, I need y’all now. It’s time for you to shine!
Help me develop some new coping strategies. Feel free to include puppy management tips, too! Or home decorating ideas. I’ll take anything you can offer. Right now I’m just too exhausted for my usual method of pure determination to carry me through. It’s not that I don’t want to write; I love writing. It’s my dream job and always will be. At the moment, however, I feel buried under my current workload. I understand admitting it is the first step to fixing it.
So what do you guys do when you’re feeling swamped? What tricks have you developed? I can’t be the only one on the interwebz feeling overwhelmed so hopefully this will help others, too.
Today’s interview of author and WU contributor Robin LaFevers was born out of fan-girl love by WU contributor and author Ann Aguirre. It’s fun, freewheeling, and packed with writerly insights.
Robin was raised on a steady diet of fairy tales, Bulfinch’s mythology, and 19th century poetry. It is not surprising she grew up to be a hopeless romantic. She has also spent a large portion of her life being told she was making up things that weren’t there, which only proves she was destined to write fiction. She is the author of fourteen books for young readers. Her most recent book, GRAVE MERCY, is a young adult romance about assassin nuns in medieval France. Her books have received numerous state awards and have sold in over nine countries. Though she has never trained as an assassin or joined a convent, she has been on a search for answers to life’s mysteries for as long as she can remember.
Robin also co-founded the popular Shrinking Violets blog, a marketing resource and support group for introverted authors.
Enjoy!
Ann: Hi Robin! I’m allowed to call you Robin, right? We’re totally besties since we met for 45 seconds (I was timing it) at RWA, and I have successfully wrangled the second book in your amazing Assassin series. I regret nothing. I’ll allow our readers to groan and gnash their teeth for a few seconds. Now then… onward to the juicy stuff.
Robin: (Introverts—let this be a lesson to you. Introducing myself to Ann was a total ‘outside my social comfort zone’ moment—but I recognized her name from WU and was trying to convince myself that part of the point of going to conferences is making an effort to meet new people. Not only did she not bite, but she was charming and gracious. Lucky me!)
Ann: You write the most amazing books. I know that’s not a question, but I can only do interviews fan-girl style. So for the sake of clarity, imagine I’m bouncing up and down because I love your books that much. That said, I was particularly captivated by the gritty realism and the historical detail in your world. How much of that did you draw from actual historical precedent?
Read MoreI’ve now written four novels with other people. The first three I wrote with Carrie Lofty. This fourth one, I wrote with my husband, Andres. A surprising number of writers have said, “I don’t know you do it. I could never write with someone else.” Others have asked me curious questions regarding how the actual work gets accomplished. So that’s what I’m going to talk about today.
If you’re interested in this, first, you need to pick a partner. It should be someone you trust and with whom you have a commensurate level of ability. Even so, I still recommend you put together a partnership agreement in the event that things break down later. You can’t be too careful with your intellectual property and the right to work you’ve helped create. So once you’ve worked up an agreement (your agent can help you or a lawyer) and signed it, then you need to develop an idea together. Extensive communication is necessary for this to work. I know co-writers who talk all the time on the phone. You can also use IM, chatrooms, email, Skype, whatever works best. It will vary from book to book how much planning you want or need; that will also be impacted by your writing style(s).
In terms of dividing up the work, it’s critical to decide who’s doing what and for each partner to hold up his or her end. If you promise to revise X chapters within a set time frame, and then you don’t do it, you’re letting down someone who trusted you to pull your weight. For obvious reasons, that won’t end well. In some partnerships, the authors write together in Google docs. (I do this with my husband, Andres.) Others email new words back and forth to each other. I know other partners who vary the POV by chapter, so one writer takes this character, and the other takes someone else, and the POVs are staggered through the book this way. You will likely have to experiment to find out which fits your team and your project best.
While it can be challenging to remain in accord and to remain calm during deadlines while you’re struggling to get the work done alongside someone else, it’s also uniquely rewarding because there’s one other person who shares your joy and your satisfaction in what you’ve created. You always have someone to listen to your crazy ideas, someone who’s every bit as excited as you are, each time the book hits a new milestone.
Who can collaborate?
Read MoreWhen I was four, I read a book on my own for the first time. It was BAMBI. That was when I fell in love with the written word.
When I was eight, I wrote a short story called THE MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN DOUBLOON, and I won the National Young Author’s Conference for my school, entitling me to go to State, and meet with other young writers. There, I also met Shel Silverstein; and as I sat on the carpet square, listening to him read from WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS, I realized that was a job–that someone paid him for his words in that book. That was when I knew I wanted to be a writer.
When I was nine, I had a teacher who made us look through a bunch of cards, which had job titles printed on one side and descriptions on the other. I was supposed to pluck my dream from them and pronounce my future plans… in the fourth grade. I read through all of them, but none of them said anything about fiction or poems like Mr. Silverstein wrote. None of those dreams seemed to fit. I did find “freelance writer”, however, and it was something to do with magazine articles. That was as close as I could find to what I wanted, so I picked that. When my turn came to share with the class, the teacher gave me a rather pitying look and said, “Oh, honey. That’s not a real job. Why don’t you pick something else?”
But I never did.
When I was fifteen, I wrote my first novel on a typewriter. I found books in the library about where I should send it, so I typed up my query letter, which was mostly, “Hi, I hear you publish books for teenage girls. I’m a teen girl, so I’m sure I know what they want to read. Here’s my novel!” Nine months later, at the age of sixteen, I got my first rejection.
From that point, until I was thirty-six, I got hundreds more. Some were kind, encouraging even. They told me to keep trying. The most crushing rejection (and yes, I have it memorized) was from a respected editor who said, among other things, “Miss Aguirre may wish rethink her desire to become a professional author.” That one almost drove me to do what I’d never even considered, not for one moment since I was nine years old.
To pick something else.
Read MoreI’ve written before about the dangers of the Shiny New Idea.
But this post isn’t about that. Or rather, it is, but I’ve got the hat on backward today. When you’re writing to deadlines, there are a number of expectations.
1) This book will logically follow the last one in the series.
2) It will be consistent with prior characterization and worldbuilding.
3) It will, more or less, keep the promises you made in the synopsis when you sold it.
It’s wonderful to have contracts and deadlines; I’m grateful to have multiple editors, multiple publishers, but at this point, they have certain expectations of me. I’ve earned a reputation for always turning my work in on time. I’m known for producing a certain type of book. When you add all those expectations up, pound for pound, they can be become exhausting. And daunting.
Have ever heard that you should change your shampoo brand now and then? Because if you don’t, if you use the same product day after day, then you’ll eventually get build up on your hair, and it’ll start looking dull and lifeless? I don’t know if this is true for everyone, but my hair definitely looks shinier if I use a shampoo that strips out the residue, or if I switch brands for a while. Either way, I see results.
And my writing brain is that way as well. I can only write to deadline for so long on contracted material until I feel like a caged parakeet, singing madly, but only to one tune. Then I get all sad, and I wish somebody would put a cover over my cage because I am so done with singing. Forevah! (In this analogy, singing is writing. Still with me? Good.) While I’m frantically writing to make my deadlines, I am fortitude itself. I resist the Shiny New Idea. I avoid its come-hither glances.
But sometimes I just have to let it seduce me. Why? Because I need to remember the magic. I need to experience the joy of writing for its own sake. Not for money or for publication or to make my editor happy or to tie up loose ends in a series for my readers. All of those things are important, of course, but they’re not more important than loving my job. Otherwise, this will turn into drudgery, and I might as well be working in a cubicle.
Read More“In that book which is my memory,
On the first page of the chapter that is the day when I first met you,
Appear the words, ‘Here begins a new life’.”
― Dante Alighieri, Vita Nuova
For everyone, a book starts in a different place. Recently, while I was on vacation, I received a mystifying text. I was sitting on a bus with my two kids, waiting to cross the border from Tijuana to California when my cell phone pinged. Unknown number. Then I read the message:
I did my best with the knife. The rest is up to you.
To say that I was shocked and alarmed is an understatement. But since I’m also a writer (and that means I’m also a little crazy), my imagination immediately kindled with possibilities. What a book started off that way? With a mysterious text and the protagonist doesn’t know what’s going on anymore than the reader? It would be a fascinating hook and a great angle for a suspense or horror story. Some books start out with a trigger event in real life. Others come from a snippet of overheard dialogue. Sometimes it’s a dream. And at other times, these voices have been in your head for so long that you can’t imagine living without them. The only way to exorcise those characters is to tell their story.
Read MoreAs a writer, you may think you have the market cornered on this. This is one job where you can plug away for twenty years without positive reinforcement from the industry. Then one day, everything changes. Instead of an endless string of no-thank-yous, you get a yes, please. That sale or signing with your agent may change everything.
But that first breakthrough doesn’t mean you’ll never hear the word “no” again. And you may not realize it, but agents get rejected as well. Sometimes a book pleases a lot of different agents at once. They all offer representation, but the writer only needs one agent. Which means the rest get a “thanks, but no”. If they really wanted that particular project, it can be crushing. Why didn’t the writer pick me? I thought we really connected on the phone and via email. Did you know agents have these kinds of mental conversations? They totally do.
Editors, too. I know, right? It’s kind of mind-blowing. But in fact, editors don’t always get the writers they want. Sometimes the budget is such, they just can’t offer enough money to tempt that person to sign on. Sometimes there are multiple offers on a book and the editor isn’t the chosen one. If this person loves the book enough to offer for it, this is going to be a disappointing outcome. It’s a great scenario for the writer whose book has engendered such massive love (and maybe it will be you!) but on the other end of your delightful dilemma, there’s a person with his or her fingers crossed. And you can only pick one person.
Read MoreYou may not know this about me, but I’m a gamer. I’ve been playing since college. First, it was pen and paper games, but pretty much as soon as I owned a computer, I also had games for it. Since then, I’ve progressed to console platforms (I do most of my gaming on Xbox these days). That said, some of you may have heard about the enormous controversy over the endings to Mass Effect 3, one of the most beloved science fiction franchises of all time. I’m not here to talk about those… well, maybe a little. Tangentially, anyway.
See, the reason fans are so angry is because what’s delivered is diametrically opposed to what’s promised. It’s like if you had written five books in a series… and with every interview you did, you promised readers everything would be all right; just trust you. Then in book six, a giant rock falls and everyone dies. It’s not just that you ended your series sadly. It’s also about a fundamental breach in trust between author and reader. If you build expectations toward a certain goal, then you risk all the goodwill you’ve created in your career if you execute a sharp 180 at the last minute. That’s not to say you can’t ever write surprises. You can do unexpected things in your body of work. But I really believe it’s wrong to tell readers one thing, and then deliver another.
For example,
Read MoreFor me, it’s character development. Interesting characters, those that are different, unusual, flawed: those are the ones I remember. I love reading about people who shine, who stand out from the literary pack. By shine, I don’t mean perfection. Flaws make or break the character. I remember reading one manuscript when I was judging a contest, and the heroine’s flaw appeared to be that she was too everything. Too beautiful. Too smart. Too rich. Too witty. It made everyone judge and hate her. In the right hands, this might work, but this rendition left me rolling my eyes: “Yes, we all feel so bad for you. It must be terrible to look like a supermodel, have a trust fun, and work as an expert in the field of artificial intelligence.”
There is no right answer to this, by the way, as this is a subjective question. For some people, the answer would be a unique idea, truly beautiful writing, or an original world. All of those things add to my enjoyment of a book, but are not the quality that makes it magical. Today, I’m giving my personal criteria. When I read, I will overlook flaws in worldbuilding and plot, if the characters are compelling. But conversely, if the characters are cardboard or I can’t relate to them, it doesn’t matter how strong the world or how meticulously the book is plotted. Every single time, I will put the book down, wander away, and not return. I prefer to read about people who feel tangible to me, and the way that begins is if they feel real to the writer.
Sometimes, a book strikes me as… “competent”. There’s nothing wrong with it, but it lacks the spark that fires my imagination and lets me fully engage. I never get lost in the characters’ lives or lose my realization that these are words on a page. What causes that barrier to immersion?
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People often ask me how I can get so much done. So I’m going to share with you a few of the strategies I’ve learned since I’ve been writing professionally.
1) Don’t multitask.
When you’re writing, that’s what you need to be doing. Not watching TV, checking Twitter, email, doing laundry, talking to someone on the phone. Do whatever it takes in order to focus on your work. If that means going to a coffeeshop, do that. If it means going in your bedroom and shutting everything else out, make it happen. You’ll find that with distractions reduced, you can get a lot more done. And don’t allow yourself to feel guilty over it, either. This is your writing time; you deserve it, and you’ll get a lot more done when you dedicate yourself to it 100%.
2) Know your next scene.
I recommend stopping the previous day when you already know what comes next. That way, there’s no blank staring time. You can jump right back into the action because you’ve got the scene set up in your mind already.
3) Understand that writers block usually means there’s a problem.
Read MoreAt some point in your career, you may write something that offends. That’s the nature of the job. But don’t feel that you must choose the safe course for fear of running aground. The beauty of fiction is that we can explore dark themes to our heart’s content — without anyone ever getting hurt for real. We can think about scenarios that trouble us without real casualties.
I don’t know about other authors, but I don’t impregnate my work with my agenda: political, religious, or otherwise. When I write something, I do it because it suits my world and my characters. Depending on their age, gender, and upbringing, they can’t always know what I do. Their views can’t (and shouldn’t) reflect mine, all the time. Plus, if my characters do bad things, they can learn from them. I find it’s far more moving and powerful to write about someone climbing out of a dark hole than for that character never to fall.
It can be upsetting when people say things about you and you can’t rebut. In fact, you’re not supposed to acknowledge that detractors exist.. because you, as the author, have all the power. Yet I have a colleague who suffered through such a hate campaign, based on a cute middle grade book she wrote, that she cried pretty much every time she checked her email. What did she do that was so terrible? She wrote a book. Whether someone likes a book or not, this kind of online harassment is over the line. I have another friend who has a cyber stalker, who started as a reader. The things she’s received as a result of this obsession are rather terrifying.
So what do you do when a reader extrapolates erroneous personal data, based on what you’ve written? It can be bad if they make judgments about what kind of person you must be, and just make comments online. But sometimes, as above, they take it a step further. And what’s your recourse? Some authors will put people in their books in retaliation. Obviously, I don’t think that’s a good idea for so many reasons. First, it’s unprofessional. Second, it cannot serve the story, which is the writer’s foremost responsibility. I don’t advocate that by any means, but what’s left? In some cases, it makes sense to report the unwanted contact with the authorities, but they’re not always talking directly to you. Sometimes it’s more like libel.
I wish I had the answers. But all I can do is open the topic for discussion. What do you think?
Photo courtesy Flickr’s *Jeffrey*
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