Critique Partners and the Art of Revising

This month I’ve been revising my NaNo project. For those of you that don’t know, #NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. It's in the month of November and carries the lofty goal of 50,000 words. I didn’t “win” but I did get close.  

I know they say close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. But what do “they” know, anyway? Let's see *them* write forty-eight thousand words in a month. <scoffs>

Slapping 50K words in a month means every single word will have to be revised. Revision is key. If I tried to fire off my NaNo Draft (which is probably even lower caliber than a First Draft) to agents or editors I could expect silence. If I sent it to my Critique Partner, I might expect a scathing reply along the lines of; “Did you send me a (swear word) First Draft?!”

I always try to remember that a first draft is just that—a first attempt. 

While writing is rewriting, it can't be done alone. A good critique partner is worth their weight in gold.  I interviewed Lane Buckman, the Lane of Robyn Lane Books, to talk about writing and critiquing.

1. How long have you been writing with a purpose?

I have been writing with a purpose since elementary school.  I got an early start with a specialized program to develop young writers through Old Dominion University, in Norfolk, Virginia.  I took my first write-for-pay job doing campaign scripting when I was fourteen, and have been working freelance since then.  I do a lot of technical writing for hire, a lot of op-ed, and dabble in marketing materials.  Now, as far as writing novels goes, I got serious about that in the early 2000s.  I sold my first novel in 2010, then followed up in different genres in 2013, 2014, and 2015.  Now, I focus on my work as a publisher, so I spend most of my time offering editorial notes to the fantastic writers we have found.

2. What’s the best thing a critique partner can tell you?

The best thing a critique partner can tell me is, "This doesn't work."  If they can back that up with why it doesn't work, that's a lot more helpful, but if something isn't reading well, I need to know--no matter how painful.  The most painful feedback I've ever gotten was, "Oh, Lane.  Just...no.  No."

3. What’s the worst thing a critique partner can tell you?

The worst thing a critique partner can tell me is, "This is perfect!"  Because it never is. 

4. What’s one piece of advice you’d like to offer new writers/new critiquers?

Don't ask your friends to read you to critique is my advice to new writers.  Your friends love you, and they won't tell you the problems with your work.  Find a reader you respect, and ask them to read as though they were going to review it to recommend to their most esteemed colleague.

My advice to those new to critique is pretty simple.   My critique motto is:  Imagine it's your work.  I offer the feedback in a way I would want to receive it.  That is, honestly and respectfully.  I don't pull punches, but I am kind.  Writing is hard work, and whether I'm reading James Joyce, or E.L. James, I keep that in mind, and I offer my feedback with respect to the effort, and the human being who did the writing.  We're all in the same boat, hoping for the same success, and we can all afford to be kind in how we deliver our messages.

5.  How many critique groups have you been in? What will keep you engaged? And what will have you running for the door?

I am active in three groups.  Each group was carefully cultivated (either by me, or another group member) to include published authors, copy editors, and people who love to read within the particular genre.  My favorites are the people who love the genre because they will tell you right off the bat if you are missing the mark.  Feedback keeps me engaged.  I run for the door when someone asks me to add in some erotica because I can't write that without laughing.

6. What can a critique group/partner offer that a writer can’t accomplish on her/his own?

  

Critique groups and partners offer honest, objective opinions in a safe environment.  I can't speak for anyone else, but my greatest fear in publishing is that my manuscript is the one the editorial team cracks up over because it is so bad.  I would rather run my work through thirty flesh-stripping critiques, than have one publisher laugh at me.  A friend recently posted that she'd just joined a critique group, and was thoroughly embarrassed by the feedback she'd received, but she was so glad she hadn't sent the book out to a publisher, or agent that way.  Critique groups help you hone your work, and help make you better.  I really can't say enough about how important it is to have someone else read your work.

KM Weiland has a great list of questions for Critique Partners  

Used with permission from Debbie Ridpath Ohi at Inkygirl.com

What do you like to ask for in CPs?

Hope for the Holidays

Merry Christmas for all that celebrate. Thinking about what to write for this Christmas Eve post, I remembered an article that ran in my neighborhood newsletter six years ago. I updated the story for this post. 

December 2009, I was sitting at the hospital with my mother as she was about to have a knee replacement. I was concerned about her, and, at the same time, thankful it wasn't me who was about to have surgery. As I tried to find something to write about, and at the same time distract my mother, I asked her if she had any ideas; she thought for a minute or two and asked me if I knew the story about the first Christmas tree. I didn't, so she told me the story.

"There was once a little Scandinavian Princess, who had everything she ever wanted. At Christmas her father, wanting to please her, took her for a sleigh ride to admire the trees and pick one out to take home. All of the beautiful trees were puffed up, proud to offer themselves to the princess, but she looked past them to a small scraggly tree. The spaces in the branches were occupied by birds and squirrels, but the little princess saw past the imperfections and took the tree home. She was so happy with it, she filled the spaces with decorations and thought the tree was beautiful.”

At this point, I interrupted my mom and said, "That's terrible, what happened to all of the little animals that lived in the tree?"

 My mom said patiently, or not so patiently if anyone knows my mom, "Oh, they all found new homes, but you are MISSING the point of the story. The point is that the little tree was small and scrawny, but to the little girl, the it was perfect and beautiful.”

Okay, whatever. I was happy to sit with my mom--she was having a big operation and needed company. I was hopeful that the surgery would go well, and she would be doing better the next day.

Later, I realized that I didn't quite get the message of her story, even after she explained it to me.

Hours after surgery, my mom was up and even walked (albeit only a few feet). I mentioned to her that I used her story for this feature. She smiled and said, "Oh, did I tell you that at the end of the story all the animals followed the little princess home and lived with her?”

Back in 2009, the day after the story, I decided that I finally understood. Like the little princess, many of us have lots of beautiful things. And I was hopeful that we could be like the little princess and see past the imperfections of the world to find beauty and happiness. 

Re-reading old articles can often be painful. But this one, even with the comma splices and dangling modifiers, still brought a smile.  That was a happy time in my life. My mom rocked the knee replacement. And the little princess story still applies; for me, first drafts often look like a scraggly tree. And if I can find the beauty of a solid frame within my story, I can finish it out, add a little glitz, and have a polished piece. 

Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanzaa, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

A day in the life of a writer...

So it's time for NaNoWriMo, that annual event where something on the order of 300,000 writers set themselves the goal of completing a 50,000 word novel in the month of November.

300,000 writers, but I'm not one of them.

I'm tempted, but in the five years since I've been writing more-or-less seriously, it always seems like I've got a big revision project planned for November, rather than drafting something new. I'm a great #NaNo cheerleader, though!

One of the other Relentless Writers was on our Facebook page looking for writing companionship this morning, and my comment was a laundry list of all the reasons I wouldn't be writing today. Which got me thinking about all the things that go into being a working writer, the things that DON'T involve putting words on the page.

With that in mind, here's my to-do list for today...

Quick background...Here at Chez Rancourt we're in the middle of a major remodel, and this week we're having the hardwoods on the main floor refinished. I'm typing this on my son's gaming desktop in the basement, my lovely king-sized Sleep Number bed is set up a couple feet behind me, and the whole place is vibrating with the sound of heavy machinery. Granted, this is a once-in-a-lifetime event (I HOPE!), but it does illustrate how you sometimes have to fit your passion in and around real life...

0400 - I'm awake because my brain hasn't made the leap to standard time. I check my phone - yes, I'm one of those freaks - and see there's a message from a free-lance editor I've been trying to contact. Yay! I lay back down and try to get more sleep, but end up reading the book I've agreed to review.

0600 - The son's alarm goes off. He's in the guest room so I hear it and get up. He just turned sixteen and he's getting ready for his driving test, which means I get to ride in the passenger seat while he drives to school. Riding in the rain at rush hour with a teen driver is not for the faint of heart, however I do appreciate the fact that it's daylight. Thank you, time change. Before we leave the house I reply to the editor, and on the way to school she emails me back. That project moves a step further.

0800 - After dropping the kid off, I drive across town to our veterinarian's office, where Ed the puppy is going to have his manhood revised. Sorry Ed. I get there early and coax the little dude into a kennel, then do some more reading while I wait for the vet to arrive. She assures me they can manage him so I take off, and right about the time I get home she calls to tell me he's freaking out and won't let them near the kennel. Did I mention he's a feisty German Shepherd? I drive back to the vet's but this time I bring my secret weapon, my oldest kid, the Puppy Whisperer. Within about 12 seconds of our arrival, she's got a muzzle on the puppy and things are back on track. I read - I'm only to about the 40% point and the book releases today - and then take my kid out for breakfast as a reward.

1000 - Back home to write a blog post. I download Gimp to the desktop so I can make a thematically appropriate image for the post, and also so I can work on some teaser promos for one of my two upcoming releases. I've got the edits back on one of the releases, but going through them will take longer than I have right now.

From here I'm going to describe how I think things will happen. This is all subject to change...

1200 - I'll pick the oldest up from her volunteer gig at the feral cat rescue and take her to catch the bus for school. Then I'll go to my BFFs house to wait for the furnace guy to show up, since she has to work today. I'll have my laptop with me, and with any luck I'll make some headway on the edits while I'm waiting.

1400 - I should be back home, and I should be editing. I've gotta get this project turned around, because tomorrow I'll be working the day job and the rest of the week will be complicated by the fact that we're going to have to move to my parents' house while they stain the floors. I've got two day jobs, technically. One's about 3/4 time and the other is per diem, and it seems like the busier I am with writing, the more they want me to work. Because that's how life rolls.

1600 - Pick up the Puppy Whisperer from school so she can come with me bring Ed home. I expect we'll all have a mellow evening huddled together in the basement. At least there won't be heavy machinery operating overhead. I'll finish the review book and maybe poke at some edits or work on some teasers. There's always something to do.

And that's the bottom line. There's always something to do. In the course of the day, I'll have exercised my people-management skills, my editing brain, my (limited) graphics talent, and (arguably) my humor-writing chops. I'll throw in some parenting and - since the husband has the flu - a little nursing on the side. I will also buy toilet paper, because we're out.

TMI?

But I won't be putting down 1600 words, which is what you need to average daily to make your NaNo goal. Maybe if they ran it in February...

Peace out!
Liv



So what about you? Are you doing NaNoWriMo? What's your secret for balancing work and writing and life?

Self-Publishing Journey Part II

The last time I was here, in early August, I talked about deciding between traditional publishing (including Big-5 houses and mid- and smaller-sized houses) and self-publishing.

I talked a lot about what you need to consider if you choose to self-publish, like acquiring a good editor, finding reliable beta readers, marketing, marketing, marketing.

You may remember that I mentioned my co-author, Merissa, and I had decided to self-publish book one of our MMA-based romance series. Here we are in October, and we're well on our way to realizing that goal.

In the meantime, though, I also decided I wanted to write a series of novellas and self-publish those. It started as kind of a frustrated tantrum that some tropes seem to sell better than others, so I wanted to experiment and see if I could do well with a series if I followed tropes.

Hence, the Caine Brothers series was born. It's a series of erotic romance novellas about six alpha brothers (a billionaire, a biker, a SEAL, a fighter, a rocker, and a shifter...and one of them will have a stepbrother/stepsister romance). Yes, it may seem cliche, but I'm putting my own twist on all the stories, and really, it's an experiment in self-publishing. Can I create something that will sell by chasing the trends?

So between the two projects, I've been hard at work learning the ropes of self-publishing. Thankfully, I'm involved in several Facebook author groups where some of the authors are also self-published, and many of them have been very generous about schooling the newbie.

From here on out, when I say "I" I mean both I and we. I did all the work on the novella, but Merissa and I have worked together on the novel.

Because I'm an English teacher with a masters in writing, I felt relatively qualified to edit my own work. This was an advantage because it saved me time and money by not having to pay for a professional editor.  Once the drafts (of the first novella and the MMA book) were done, I edited them then sent them out to beta readers.

Having reliable beta readers who are also authors, or long-time readers with some advanced skill in understanding story structure and/or mechanics, is extremely important because they can help you find holes in your plot or characters, which you can then go back and fix.

Once I was sure the manuscripts were clean and ready to go, I had to attack the hard work of figuring out what came next.


It turns out, you can't do anything else until you have a cover, so cover art was the next step. For the co-authored novel, we chose to have an artist do the cover. We love the artist and the results, but it wasn't cheap. You pay for quality, which we were willing to do. For the novella, I felt reasonably capable of creating my own cover, which I did. However, I know my own limits, so I kept it simple and clean.  



With covers completed, the next step was formatting. I found a formatter in one of the Facebook book groups, called her and chatted. I'd read some of the books she'd worked on, and after talking to her and interacting with her online, I liked her so I chose to use her. She did a fabulous job on the novella, so we'll be using her for the novel as well.

The next thing I needed to figure out was how to get the book uploaded to the different digital media sites. I talked to other self-published authors and learned about KDP and Draft2Digital. The novella will only be digital, and although the novel will also be in print form, I haven't done the work/research on print yet. That's another step.

Since the novella will release October 19, I'm currently deep into figuring out how to let readers know it's there for them. I'll be hosting a Facebook release party, I've been posting in every book group I can find, and found a lot of reviewers in response to some of those posts. Some of those reviewers were excited enough about the book that they wanted to join a fan group, which I set up on Facebook, also.

I'm not going to pay for a publicity company to do a formal blog tour or other marketing for the novella, but we will do that for the novel. We're still shopping/researching on that front.

So far, everything seems to be moving along nicely. Of course, I won't be able to draw any conclusions until either of the books release and we see how they do.

What have I learned so far?

Self-publishing is a lot of work. There's a lot to learn. I haven't written any new words for a while since I've been so busy learning. However, the learning should be a curve with a steep incline at the beginning and a smoother plateau (or at least a very reduced incline) from there. Once I know what I need to know, I won't have to spend that time learning it again.

My hunch is that the hardest part of the whole deal will be hawking the books--finding readers, establishing a fan base, getting the word out. Once I/we crack that nut, hopefully things will be easier.


The next time I'm back, I'll be able to report on releasing a self-published book and what I've learned about marketing. I might feel completely differently on the other side of that effort, so stay tuned to see what happens!

~Margaret

[DON'T] Write What You Know

by Charlotte Levine Gruber

Ten years ago I began my writing journey. Crime fiction is my genre of choice, so it was no surprise to me when my emerging story headed down the dark path. 

The Self + The Path by Hartwig HKD

When I approached the soggy middle, I joined a local writers group. The speaker that day was a creative writing professor who said, “Write what you know.”

I thumbed through my pages (yes, a hard copy).

• My protagonist was a single dad with two teenagers. 
• Another POV character was a teenage thug. Also male.
• I had no real clue how they fit together.

I went to the writers group a few more times and learned how to punctuate dialogue, but pretty much didn’t know how to fix my project. I began another story, and this time I followed the professor’s advice and wrote what I know. But of course, what I know isn’t really that interesting. I have an MBA and worked in bankruptcy. But I filled pages and pages of bankruptcy information. 

Good thing I have beta readers and critique partners making snarky comments. Even my sister confessed to skipping those blocks of text.

Now I’ve been writing long enough to question that first visiting professor. He may have been talking about beginning writers, or, gasp, perhaps I misunderstood. 

Because really?

The Boy Who Lived by Beth

Is JK Rowling the boy who lived?

Stephanie Meyers in love with a vampire?

Or EL James… well…let’s not go there.

The Creative Writing Director at Harvard University, Bret Anthony Johnson, argues against writing what you know. He states; 

“For me, it’s the difference between fiction that matters only to those who know the author and fiction that, well, matters.”

Read Johnston’s article—it’s enlightening. 

As a genre fiction junkie, I often feel that literary works put out by Iowa graduates are beautiful and memorable but I still prefer Janet Evanovich or Stephen King.

Even so, I happen to agree with Johnston. Writing what you know is not the same as knowing what you write. Research is key, as is transporting yourself to the page. Or more specifically, transferring your emotions to your character, or learning to see the world through their eyes.

Photo by Dawn Ellner

I shelved that first manuscript. In a rewrite of my second project, CODE OF SILENCE, Hank Phillippi Ryan told me, “It’s not enough to describe this scene. You have to BE Andrea.”

Of course, Hank is right. Seeing the world through your character’s eyes allows your reader to do the same. Engaged readers don’t want to put the book down. 

So write what you know how to feel. 

But the rest? Make it up. And have fun doing it. At a writers' convention Jonathan Mayberry bragged that he got to go to work everyday in his pretend world with his pretend friends. 

And what could be better than that?

Be A Tease!

Everyone loves a tease. That tiny morsel of goodness to whet your appetite and leave you begging for more. The build up of anticipation for something, whether it's food, books, movies, a hot date...it's what keeps your attention and focus, leaving you aching for more.

Teasers are an important part of book marketing. Done right, you can grab a brand new reader's attention in less than a minute. Done wrong, you can turn a potential reader away for life.

Here's a teaser for my new book out today, ELUDING ILLUSIONS

Sometimes teasers can be done using a tagline or a "hook" for your book. Here's another using a tagline for my book, VEXED.

Sometimes teasers can be lines or quotes from your book.

You'll notice in the teaser above I put my copyright info and gave credit for the picture to the owner of it. NEVER use pics of celebrities or steal pics from the interwebs to use in teasers. You can get in serious legal trouble without express written permission from the rights holder of the image. There are many stock photo sites you can buy images from to use in your teasers. 

And if you don't want to buy images, some photographers will allow you to use an image if you credit them in the photo, as I did above. But you must have their permission to do so. Or you can use plain backgrounds and make your own using images from your book cover art files as I did in the first two teasers. Ask your cover artist for help if you want banners made up or blank teasers you can manipulate using your cover art files.

A teaser can even be as simple as just an image and your release date to start getting your cover in front of your potential reader audience, like the one I did above.

Also, please remember when making teasers to keep the fonts legible.

While those are cool fonts and it makes it eye catching, it's somewhat hard to read. Teasers should entice a future reader, not make them work for it or get frustrated because they can read only every other word because of font, or colors blending in over background images. 

Try can keep them as crisp and eye catching as possible.

Remember to change up the teasers. 

• Have a sexy one if it's a romance novel. 
• Have a more serious and dramatic one that shows the depth of the book as well. 
• Have a tagline hook as we mentioned earlier. 
• A PG level one for general audiences is also a good idea. 
• Have one as well that gives perspective and insight into the personalities of your characters. 

Like the one below for my novel, VEXED, it gives you a sense of the banter between the main characters.

Teasers can also can turn a potential reader into a lost sale. Remember that a variety of people will be seeing your teaser. So, unless you're posting in a specific group of people, please make your teasers for a general audience. If you write BDSM or Erotica, make sure you have a teaser specific to those audiences, but don't post those in a general FB group using graphic sexual references. Have a cleaner version for the masses and put a warning that the book itself will contain language, violence, or graphic sex. 

Also, please, for the love of all humanity, make sure your teasers don't have misspellings or typos. It's a reflection on you as the author. Put your best work forward.

Go forth and tease the world!!

To Self-Pub or not to Self-Pub: The Burning Question

Self publishing--Indie publishing--is all the rage these days, and for good reason.

In its fledgling days, self-publishing amounted to vanity publishing. It consisted primarily of people who had written a book, mostly for themselves, and wanted to see it "published" so they could give copies to their friends and family. For the most part, they weren't serious authors whose goal was a career in writing novels.

For a long time self-publishing was the illegitimate child of the publishing industry. Books were just plain bad: badly edited, badly written, bad characters, bad plot, bad storytelling...just BAD. It gained a horrible reputation that lingered like that uncle nobody wants around.

But self-publishing has shed the stigma and evolved into a serious, reputable, potentially profitable alternative to traditional publishing, so much so that many traditionally published authors are engaging in hybridization of their careers by doing both.

What are the advantages of self-publishing?

 The major advantage to self-publishing is control. As the author, you have control of everything: cover, content, price, marketing, branding.

You have the freedom to do whatever you want with your book.

You also keep all the subrights to your work, and can sell those yourself.

Finally, you keep all the profit. For ebooks, most publishers pay authors between 25% and 50% of royalties on all sales. As a self-published author you keep most of the profit.

Sounds great, right?

What are the disadvantages of self-publishing?  

You're responsible for EVERYTHING. You may envision yourself living the life of an artist, free to make your own choices regarding your work. And that's true. But once you write the book(s), you have to take off the artist hat and put on the businessperson hat and start all the hard work of cover design, formatting, purchasing ISBNs, interacting with vendors, understanding pricing and SEO and markets and readers and genres and niches.

Part of being a self-published author is keeping your name in the readers' mind, so often self-pubbed authors produce more work than traditionally published authors. Romance, especially, is a high production genre where many authors crank out anywhere from two to four manuscripts per year.

And then there's marketing. So much marketing. When you self-publish you're solely responsible for making sure your target audience knows your book exists, so they can buy it. How do you do that? It's like the quest for the holy grail, my friend, the thing all self-pubbed authors are searching for. Basically, marketing is a shitton of work.

Finally, when you self-publish, you bear all the cost of publishing your book. You must purchase the cover art, pay for the ISBNs, pay for copyrighting, pay for marketing, pay for printing, pay for shipping...you pay for everything.

A side note about genre: Not all genres sell well as self-published books. In fact, romance seems to be by far the best genre to self-publish, primarily because romance is the best selling genre overall in all publishing formats at over 50% of the total fiction market. Romance readers are rabid, gobbling up books as fast as authors can write them.

Unfortunately, not all genres do as well self-published, so if you're thinking about publishing your own book do some research to see if self-published books in your genre sell very well.

If self-publishing is so much work, why do so many people do it?  

There's a lot of frustration with traditional publishing. Because the publishing industry is evolving so rapidly and expansively, traditional publishing has changed a lot of its models to meet the changing habits of readers. The days of huge advances are gone, and if you hadn't noticed, the days of huge chain bookstores are waning as well. Digital books have taken a huge bite out of print book sales, which means bookstores can't afford to stay in business.

Because of this, traditional publishers are more cautious about acquiring authors for print deals. They don't pay as much, they don't acquire as many, and there are different expectations of authors. As a result, many traditional publishers have started their own digital lines and acquire authors for those more often than for print. Authors get no or very little advance for digital deals, and usually smaller royalty percentages than smaller digital-only presses, or what they'd make from self-publishing.

Digital-only presses offer higher royalty percentages than traditional publishers, but they often don't do much more than what you could do yourself as an indie-author. They bear most of the costs of publishing the book, but often expect authors to shoulder a large portion of the marketing effort.

Because it's more difficult to get a print deal with traditional publishers, and digital-only deals aren't maybe as attractive as they could be, more and more authors are turning to self-publishing.

When is it a good idea for you to self-publish?

First, ask yourself: Why do I want to self-publish? Am I willing to do all the work involved? Do I want a long-term career as a writer? Do I want to publish a book just so I can say I did it? Am I frustrated with traditional publishing and want to try something different?

If you answered yes to any of these questions...it's a good idea to self-publish!

BEFORE YOU SELF-PUBLISH: It's important to keep in mind that once you self publish, you can't take it back. You can't take that same book and query it to agents or traditional publishers. So if you self-publish a book and it tanks big time, you can't say, oh, well, I'll just start querying agents now. They just won't look at it because it's ALREADY PUBLISHED.

With that in mind:

If you can afford a professional editor and decent quality cover (some people can do these things themselves, but not many. Be honest with yourself about your strengths and weaknesses);

If you're a good storyteller and have had beta readers (other than your mom, other family, and friends) read it and help you polish the story;

If you've researched and know your genre sells well in the indie-published arena;

If you're a savvy businessperson who knows how to market and publicize your work;

You have all the ingredients to be successfully self-published.

What prompted this post about self-publishing?

My writing partner, Merissa McCain, and I have decided we're going to self-publish our contemporary romances, the Tap Zone Series, set in the world of MMA fighting.

We did extensive research, we've made a to-do list and split it so we each have responsibilities, we've put together a long-term plan, and we're proceeding  according to it.

We haven't set a release date yet for book one, but it will be sometime this fall. We'll keep you posted.

In the meantime...everybody keep writing!


~Margaret


 

 

Is it Better to Have Loved and Lost Than to Have Never Loved at All?

by Charlotte Levine-Gruber

photo by William Creswell

I've titled this post with a quote (modified) from Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem, In Memorium. For me, it's apropos. Last month, I lost my first love. Someone who was the most important person in my life for decades. My heart still aches. While I've gone back to work and tried to put some semblance of "normal" back into my schedule--the loss still feels fresh and painful.

Tennyson lost a beloved friend to a sudden and unexpected death. While I didn't lose a friend, my loss was unexpected. I was completely unprepared--as if you could prepare.

I pose this question:

Would you avoid the pain of loss, if it meant you never had a chance to love __________________(fill in a name).

Our blog is all about writing. So let's substitute your person above with a "life dream."

Like any great love, writing has many ups and downs. Sometimes great joy, and sometimes heartache. Let's be honest--writers have a lot of heartaches. 

The words may not flow. Writing anything to hit your daily goal only makes what I call "forced words." These awkward words are readily apparent to anyone reading. You may as well just write THESE WORDS WERE FORCED.

Even then, writing is like no other job. As Marissa just posted last week--only other writers truly understand a "writers high." You can decide what to write, who to write, where they live, do you build a new world, or do they live in your neighborhood? You can even decide who to kill and who kills.

If you think about your favorite author and how much you love a book, answer these questions: Do you talk about characters with friends and neighbors?  Get mad when characters do stupid things? How about when your favorite series ends? Do you re-read favorites?

The first time someone read my manuscript and talked about my characters floored me--they knew...MY PEOPLE?

Jonathan Mayberry once said of his writing gig; "I get to live in my imaginary world, with my imaginary friends."

But to get to Jonathan Mayberry's level, you're guaranteed a lot of heartache and rejection. 

In my PitchWars group, most writers have queried more than one hundred agents before being offered representation. One hundred rejections. And that's all before submitting to publishers.

So, back to my question:

Would you rather have loved and lost, or never loved at all?

My dear, sweet, prickly, sometimes irritable, and always stubborn mother had a heart attack last month. I've never gone through anything that hurts this much. 

Would I trade to eliminate the pain? 

Not a chance. 

The gift of loving such a wonderful woman makes up for every bit of pain. And I had the ultimate privilege of calling my favorite person "Mom."

At the funeral, even through my thick fog of grief, I realized how many lives my mother touched. 

So, writers, if you love what you do, keep working, keep trying, and don't give up. Remember, it takes a writer to become an author.

Audiobooks and the Impatient Reader (aka me)

I don't know about you, but I'm quite fond of audiobooks, particularly since they now come downloadable to one's favourite electronic device via the internet, rather than in boxes of countless CDs or, for those of you who remember, actual tapes. Those things always seemed to conspire against me by hiding the most important part somewhere so that I'd end up buying the book anyway (I have the sneaking suspicion that the cause for the cd/tapes disappearance is somehow related to the One Missing Sock phenomenon). These days (thankfully) it's hard to lose parts of your audiobook if it's right there on your phone or what have you. 

But I digress. 

So, I've told you I'm quite fond of audiobooks, particularly for long car journeys, boring waits for appointments, long, solitary walks and even during my runs. The problem is that some books are rather exiting, and it turns out that I have no patience WHAT SO EVER.

My most recent audiobook favourite is The Lion of Senet by Jennifer Fallon. It's an older book,  a fantasy of the political intrigue kind (no real magic). Brilliant book, the first of a trilogy, and so engrossing that about halfway through I had to buy the ebook and finish it RIGHT AWAY.  

The problem, you see, is that I read somewhat faster than the presenters of audiobooks are capable of telling the story. I've always been a fast reader, easily finishing exiting books in a single day (well, if they're not too long, anyway), and I've been known to read late into the night to find out WTF happens to the hero/heroine...(way too late, in fact...)...

In and of itself this is not a problem. Right? Right.

BUT.... well.

I've never done a course on speed reading (and yes, there is apparently such a thing), but it's through my troubles with audiobooks that I figured out the way I read so fast:

I skip things.

And by that I don't just mean that (GASP!!!) I sometimes flip to the end of a book to see what the last page says (SACRILEGE!!). I skip words and sentences and let my mind fill in the blanks. I'll consciously read, say, (and I'm guessing here) every 6th, 7th, 10th word, and just sort of register the rest of them.

I think.

Which explains the problem of ebooks... you can't skip ahead (well, not easily, anyway), and if you make it play faster you get Mickey Mouse voices. *grumbles*

It's frustrating!

So here's my point, or rather question, for the day (and yes, I have one):

What type of reader are you, and, if you're a writer, what type of reader do you think would enjoy your book most?

There's all sorts of readers out there, and I'm in no way saying that one way is better or more legitimate than another (where would be the fun in that?). Some people like to savour every word and ponder sentences, others drop into the flow of things and can't stop without getting to the heart of the book. Some skip ahead like me, and some would never even dream of looking at the last few pages ahead of time.

Do you think there's a certain type of book that invites (or seduces?) the reader to hurry forward in their nail-biting exitement to figure out who it was, and others that invite the reader to linger? Is it a genre question?

Let me know what you think!

I promise next time I'll tell you all about that One Missing Sock Phenomenon. : )

Furthering Your First Pages

by Charlotte Levine Gruber

Photo by Stephen Poff 

We all want the magic ingredient that keeps readers turning pages — whether the reader is a agent, an editor, or a fan, what holds their interest? 

As a writer I’ve gotten lots of advice how to begin, and how not to begin my story. 

• Never have a prologue. 
• Start with action. Or don't start with action—why should readers care if they don’t know the characters?
• Don’t start with a character waking up, talking on the phone or getting an email. 
• Put your main character on page one. 

Weeding through such conflicting advice is challenging, and ultimately, only you know what works best for your story. But lets face it. We have to start somewhere. 

Do you need a prologue? Most often, the answer is no. But in certain instances, a prologue can be an effective device.

A prologue can provide the story question right up front. It may relate to a scene near the end of the story, and the story itself then shows what led up to this moment. This enables you to introduce your characters in a more leisurely fashion, and your reader's experience with 'meeting' them will be enhanced by foreshadowing of what is to come. Marg McAlister has an excellent example of this type of prologue on her blog. 

A prologue can be used to introduce a certain character's viewpoint on one occasion only. The rest of the book may be told from just one other viewpoint, or from several different viewpoint characters that are in some way removed from the one you've used in the prologue. The prologue can bypass the danger of viewpoint violation. 

J.K. Rowling’s first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, is told in a close 3rd person POV (Harry’s), but her first chapter is quite different, told when Harry is a baby. This chapter switches between omniscient and 3rd person POVs. Rowling may have considered setting this information aside as a prologue because of those different voices and the ten-year lag between it and the next chapter, but she didn’t do it. The information contained in those first pages is critical, it helps to set the story up. Had it been a prologue (at 17 pages) what do you think would have happened to Harry Potter? 

My critique partner, Christina Dalcher,  wrote about the Prologue Problem on her blog this month. She has an impressive list of bestsellers that all have prologues. Another book I’ll add to her list is the Book Thief (Markus Zusak). And I’ll admit that I loved the book, but skipped the prologue.

As Christina points out, most agents and editors hate prologues. Our in house-agents concur and add that established authors have more craft under their belt and more clout with publishers. My recommendation do what works. Never say never. And don’t give anyone a reason to skip pages.

How do you like to start a book?

Why You Need Beta Readers (Feat. Women of Cyberpunk)

It’s been a while since I set my high-heeled foot in a college classroom. But from what I remember,  the laws of physics provide boundaries to human capabilities, right? That’s why I was so baffled by Lucy, the film in which Scarlett Johansson's character absorbs a drug that allows her to use a hundred percent of her brain. Without giving too much away, I’ll say this: Lucy has an interesting premise and incredible visual effects, but the science is a hot mess. (If you don’t care about spoilers, read this from Mashable.com).

 

This is one screenplay that needed more beta readers and a thick red pen.

  

Lucy

 

What are beta readers, you ask? Beta readers are volunteer test subjects for your drafts. They find plot holes, suggest changes in the story, point out things you can’t see for yourself, and generally let you know when something doesn’t work (and when it does). They tell the truth about your writing. They see the big picture because, unlike you as the writer, their minds aren’t overflowing with character sketches and plot outlines.

 



Big Hero 6

 

You cannot do this for your own drafts. It doesn’t matter if you’ve read a thousand books in your genre or if you’ve memorized every major style guide in the English language. You’re the writer, NOT THE READER—and these are two very different roles.

 

There was a time when I thought I could edit anything, even my own work. I created my first newsletter at the ripe old age of ten(ish) after a trip to the Fort Worth Japanese Gardens with my grandparents. In high school and college I annoyed my peers by editing the heck out of their articles, and now I do the same thing with novelists as an associate editor for Henery Press.

When I’m in the zone, my eyes catch missing apostrophes, errant quotation marks, word clutter, main character likeability problems, and plot issues like nobody’s business. Words run in my caffeinated blood.

 

Blade Runner



Yep, I’m a trained editor—a professional. But here’s the deal: I STILL CAN’T DO THIS FOR MY OWN WRITING. When it comes to my own stuff, I’m blind. And stubborn. Sometimes, very VERY stubborn. (Should I delete the vague adverb, very? Of course I should. But I’m leaving it there. Twice even. Why? Because I want to. Because I’m the writer, darn it…and you can’t stop me.)

 



Ghost in the Shell



Even after the eighth draft or so, I still hold onto that-which-I-should-delete (backstory, excess character reflection, adverbs) and fail to expound on that-which-I-should-include (worldbuilding, character emotion, descriptions).

 

I do things in my own writing that I tell other writers to avoid, unaware that I’m committing the same literary sin until someone calls me out on it.

 



The Matrix

 

Fortunately, I have some amazing beta readers. These brave souls provide informed ideas to make my imaginary biotech believable, tell me I'm writing like a girl (when it should be a guy's POV), and mediate for characters I'm tempted to kill. (I'm no George R.R. Martin, but I like a high body count. Just sayin'.) A big thank you for my beta readers—I couldn't do it without you!

 

Okay, writers: Go find yourself some beta readers. And bonus points if you decide to watch this short scene from Lucy, which includes—of all things—A RED PEN. No joke.