There Are No Rules - CraftTechnique

Just got word that our recent release, And Here's the Kicker: Conversations With 21 Top Humor Writers on Their Craft by Mike Sacks, hit Amazon's Top 10 List of Best Entertainment Books in 2009.

Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review, and said, "Veteran journalist Sacks conducted dozens of interviews with the top humor writers of the last century, and the result is a whiz-bang collection of Q&As that will school readers just as often as it provokes laughter."

Read an excerpt: an interview with Stephen Merchant, co-creator of The Office.

(And go buy in our shop at Amazon-like pricing. Get an extra 10% off if you're a VIP.)

Craft & Technique | Fun | General | New Titles From Writer's Digest

Monday, November 02, 2009 5:55:04 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

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Tuesday, October 20, 2009

The Much Maligned Adverb
Posted by Jane

Today's guest post is by Jim Adam, who wrote a wonderful 3-part series on protagonists & goals. Read the part 3 here (which includes links to parts 1 & 2). Visit Jim at his site or follow him on Twitter.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nobel Laureate, went on record several years ago saying that he no longer uses adverbs. If he encounters one in his writing, he removes it. And he's not alone. A lot of writers, editors, agents, publishers, and academics these days seem to have joined the crowd, insisting that adverbs should be avoided altogether.

Do some of these folks remove adverbs from their dialogue too? Not from dialogue tags, but from the dialogue itself? I'm guessing some of them do. Oops!

Sure, adverbs can be overused. But if one extreme is bad, the opposite extreme is just as bad. Balance in all things. Extremism comes in many forms, and it flows just as easily from a word processor as from an Uzi submachine gun.

Doing something the same way every time doesn't require a great artist. It doesn't require a brain. It doesn't even require something as sophisticated as a computer. A mechanism of gears and springs, a clockwork automaton, a machine in the 1800s sense of the word: that's all it takes to do something the same way every time.

Consider the title of this article. I could easily have entitled this piece, "The Maligned Adverb," and the result would have been little different. However, "The Much Maligned Adverb" works. There is nothing inherently offensive or distracting about it. And the point of this article isn't that adverbs have been criticized, because some of the criticism is warranted. Rather, the point is that adverbs have been overly criticized.

A title like "The Overly Maligned Adverb" would be weaker, in my way of thinking, because it loses the alliteration of "much maligned." In any case, calling this article "The Adverb" (avoiding any sort of modifier at all), "The Maligned Adverb," "The Much Maligned Adverb," or "The Overly Maligned Adverb," should be a result of the writer actively deciding which title suits them and their subject the best, not the result of a mindless bigotry toward modifiers in general, and adverbs in particular.

Adverbs can, in fact, make for more compact writing. Consider:

"With a reluctant grin" vs. "Grinning reluctantly"

In the Strunk and White sense, the adverbial version is tighter and, therefore, better. It uses two words compared to the adjectival version's four, a saving of 50%.

Naturally, a fanatic would claim that the previous example is meaningless since both reluctant and reluctantly should be cut.

But consider a sentence slipped in earlier: "It flows just as easily from a word processor as from an Uzi." Would a Nobel Prize winner spend time rewriting that sentence so as to eliminate the need for "easily"? Apparently he would. Feel free to give it a go yourself. Personally, I find such endeavors to be not only pointless, but downright silly.

Adverbs are like the writer's version of vibrato. Once upon a time, a guest conductor at a philharmonic orchestra asked the lead violin player for a tuning tone, got back a note with vibrato on it, and had to be carted out of the practice hall in a straitjacket. Even then, I'm not sure the violin player understood her mistake. Most likely, she wasn't even consciously aware of using vibrato.

When overused, any technique becomes a tick, a mannerism. It ceases to be a skill wielded artistically, like adding icing to a cake, and instead becomes a cake buried in a blob of icing. This is true of vibrato in music as well as Tom Swifties and other adverbial abuses in writing. But this doesn't mean that either vibrato or adverbs should be discarded altogether.

In religion, people do pointless, silly things and then claim that makes them more moral. In writing, people do pointless, silly things and claim they're better writers for it:

Don't end a sentence in a preposition.
Don't split your infinitives.
Don't use adverbs.

These are the sorts of rules that people embrace not because the rules make sense, but because the rules are absolute. Absolutist rules eliminate that insecurity we feel when we rely on our conscience (in the realm of morality) or our discernment (in the realm of art). Though absolute rules sometimes cause us to behave like we have obsessive-compulsive disorder (or worse), we continue to embrace them, and the world is a less happy place because of it.

Sure, writers need to keep an eye on their adjectives and adverbs, to not let them get out of hand. Overuse of modifiers is every bit as bad as cutting modifiers out altogether. And vice versa. The sweet spot is somewhere between those two extremes, and where you find your personal sweet spot helps distinguish you as a unique writer.

Let all right-thinking people take a stand now against fanaticism of all kinds, including the current bigotry toward the humble adverb.

Craft & Technique | Guest Post

Tuesday, October 20, 2009 1:22:24 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Remove These Phrases From Your Writing Life
Posted by Jane

I'm on an inspirational kick this week.

I recently connected on LinkedIn with my very first boss at F+W.

I always remember the advice he repeated to me that went something like: "Imagine you're 80, looking back on the fulfilling, beautiful life you've led. Now go do that."

I come across too many people who append a condition to their writing or creative life. Do you say these things?

I'll write when … (waiting for perfect conditions)
I'll write if … (waiting for some thing or someone else to act/decide/validate)

Or maybe something like:

I'll never be as good as … (denying the fact each person is unique and has something to offer -- and ignoring the hard work of self-knowledge and writing practice to help identify what makes you unique as a writer)
I don't have the patience … (for those who know the time it takes and the difficulties involved—but this forgets the preciousness of the journey and only considers the goal)

And most evil of all:

When I have enough time (we're all given the same amount of time in a day, but also we don't know how much time we're given overall)

Lately, I've come across two quotes from famous folks, echoing my former boss's sentiment. Nothing earth-shattering, but still …

Here's what Steve Jobs said when he addressed Stanford's graduating class a few years ago:

... for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

And Seth Godin wrote (around the same timeframe):

The thing is, we still live in a world that's filled with opportunity. In fact, we have more than an opportunity -- we have an obligation. An obligation to spend our time doing great things. To find ideas that matter and to share them. To push ourselves and the people around us to demonstrate gratitude, insight, and inspiration. To take risks and to make the world better by being amazing. ... You get to make a choice. You can remake that choice every day, in fact. It's never too late to choose optimism, to choose action, to choose excellence. The best thing is that it only takes a moment -- just one second -- to decide.

Photo credit: Let Ideas Compete

Craft & Technique | General | Getting Published

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 5:39:34 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Friday, October 09, 2009

15 Worthy Blogs I Just Discovered
Posted by Jane

I recently received the "One Lovely Blog Award" from Jillian Livingston (go check out isdisnormal—and you must if you are a mom). My thanks to her for introducing me to this concept.

As a result of being honored, I've been asked to note 15 blogs I recently discovered that I find worthy of the award.

(Photo above: A sign at a Buddhist temple advises that those with good eyes are inclined to fall into deep wells—which is how I feel when I discover a great new blog!)

So: here are blogs I've added lately to my Google Reader. (You can see my shared items from Google Reader here, and I accept sharing requests too if you use Google Reader.)

(1) Digital Book World
This is the newest blog launch from F+W, but it's backed by the inimitable Guy Gonzalez. A good read for savvy writers who want a larger understanding of publishing industry challenges. (Note: Digital Book World is offering a free webinar on "The Truth About eBooks" on October 21.)

(2) When Fridays Were Fridays
Written by someone who started working for a large company right out of college and stayed 30 years. I feel a cosmic connection to this person, because in 17 years, I wonder if my "About Me" will look exactly the same. I particularly like her post Have You Ever Faked It?

(3) What Consumes Me by Bud Caddell
You'll love it at first sight.

(4) Kenny Moore
Kenny is the co-author of The CEO and the Monk. I love how compassionate and human his advice is, while still being practical and appropriate for a corporate setting.

(5) Start Up Blog
I feel like I'm getting a better business training here than I would at a university.

(6) Self-Publishing Review
A site that benefits from a multitude of contributors. Professional and quality information, with a bit of magazine style to it (lead stories, resources, features).

(7) Fiction Matters
And it's not here just because they complimented me lately (or because of a bourbon affinity discovered on Twitter … well, maybe a little). Check out their guidebook, then peruse tips.

(8) My Name Is Not Bob
By the charming Robert Brewer, editor of WritersMarket.com. He is also blogger at Poetic Asides, but this is his personal blog, just launched on August 14. He's been a little quiet lately, but I know he'll be active again.

(9) The Sound and Furry
And this one is by the customer service rep behind WritersMarket.com, who is herself an aspiring children's writer. Great tips here for writers, plus cats (a great accent for every blog).

(10) Information Is Beautiful
Always amazing and share-worthy posts.

(11) Clay Shirky
Very infrequent posts, but outstanding quality when it comes to contemplating the future of media.

(12) The Book Oven
Something for everyone—especially writers—to keep an eye on.

(13) Publishing Trends
Their best content will cost you, but they still post really wonderful insider information for free.

(14) Bad Pitch Blog
While not directly tied to writing/publishing, read this long enough and you'll become a better salesperson and promoter of your ideas. A totally new find and I love it.

OK, I purposely stopped at 14. You tell me what No. 15 should be—based on the best last blog that's been added to your RSS reader or bookmark list. (Wondering about RSS readers? Read my tip on how to save time with an RSS reader.)

Friday, October 09, 2009 1:10:37 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Tuesday, October 06, 2009

The Secrets to Publishing Success (Jane's 2009 Tough Love Guide)
Posted by Jane

Above: Jane looks at you expectantly with the tough-love stare. Don't disappoint her.

--

This past year, I've posted a ton of information on how you can

(1) ensure your work is the best it can possibly be
(2) build an audience and create demand for your work
(3) take advantage of technology to push your career forward

At the Editor Intensive last weekend, I found myself referencing numerous blog posts I'd made, and thought it was time to compile what I'd consider the "guide" for 2009 on how to succeed in the new publishing landscape (because the industry ain't what it used to be).

This is a perfect reference guide for anyone who's attended the Intensive and wants a refresher—or an excellent accelerated course for anyone who hasn't.

I would love your feedback on what topics you'd like covered in more detail in the coming months!

P.S. Reviewing these, I clearly like the number 5.

--

THE SECRETS TO PUBLISHING SUCCESS: Jane's 2009 Tough Love Guide

Editing and Revising

The First Five Minutes: How Editors Evaluate Your Manuscript

Avoiding Red-Flag Mistakes on Your First Page

Secrets of Great Storytelling (Particularly for Memoirists)

5 Common Flaws in Memoir Projects

Not All Books Need to Be Well-Written to Sell

Your Protagonist Must Have a Goal (by guest Jim Adam)

Hiring a Professional Editor vs. Getting Amateur Critiques

The Golden Rule About Nonfiction Books

Querying / Submitting

Persistence Doesn't Matter If You Make This Common Mistake

5 Questions to Ask Yourself After Hearing: We Can't Sell Enough to Justify Publishing It

5 Elements of Query Letters

The Art of Live Pitching: 3 Rules

Audience Development / Platform Building

The Hardest Part About Developing Platform

The Four Stages of Marketing & Promotion

5 Questions for Those Who Don't Have Time to Market/Promote

Hard-Core Tactics for Authors Developing Audience

Fiction Writers Need Platforms, Too

Online Audience Building

Hey, Writers: What's Your Online Strategy? What Are You Waiting For?

Make Waves Online to Create a Path to Print Publication

Should Your Book Really Be a Book? How About a Website First?

What Does It Take for a Blog to Become a Book?

Should You Blog? And If So, What Are Best Practices?

How Writers Can Start Blogging in a Meaningful Way

The Benefits of Blogging (Especially for Unpublished Writers)

The Essential Components of an (Unpublished) Author's Website

How Twitter Is Helpful for Aspiring Writers

Figuring Out Your Facebook Strategy: 3 Essential Tips

Indie Publishing

Everything You Need to Know About Self-Publishing (Sort of)

My Big Rant on Self-Publishing

Big Picture

5 Ways Writers & Book Publishers Need to Embrace Change NOW

Are You Ready to Be a Bestselling Author? Then Listen to Alec Baldwin

That Unquantifiable Factor That Helps You Get Published and Succeed

Read My Writing and Tell Me What to Do

Tuesday, October 06, 2009 1:35:25 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Don't Fall in Love With Your Research
Posted by Jane

In the monthly Glimmer Train bulletin, you'll find some fabulous advice from working writers. Here's a bit of what novelist Eric Wasserman had to say about research (Eric pictured above):

Fiction writers can easily write themselves into a corner. For the writer of the researched story it almost inevitably happens when the details cease to be attached to characters, particularly when writing historical fiction, which is what I have been engaged in for a number of years. My manuscript reached over 1,000 pages at one point. Of the 450 pages I cut, the majority were sections where I had fallen in love with my research.

Also read J.P. Lacrampe on Humor in Fiction.

And more juicy advice, all free, in Bulletin 33 from Glimmer Train.

Craft & Technique

Wednesday, September 30, 2009 8:40:41 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Saturday, September 05, 2009

5 Questions You Can Ask Yourself About Stories
Posted by Jane

A little more from Glimmer Train this month—from the bulletin they just e-mailed to their writers. Go read the full bulletin here.

From Ingrid Hill: The Devil’s Trampoline:

My sweet grandmother used to murmur consolingly, when I crabbed about the misery of sitting with hot rollers burning my scalp, "Honey, you have to suffer to be beautiful." Not till I was grown did I realize the deeper meaning: not till you have been cast into tribulation's depths, suffered in your core, can beauty shine out of your eyes or your art.

From Charles Baxter: Five Questions (Baxter pictured above):

There are about five questions you can ask yourself about stories, and they're not foolproof, but they're useful. One is, what do these characters want? Second is, what are they afraid of? Third is, what's at stake in this story? Fourth is, what are the consequences of these scenes or these actions? And the last one is, how does the language of this story reflect the world of the story itself?

Craft & Technique | General

Saturday, September 05, 2009 3:23:52 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Thursday, August 20, 2009

Pain & Struggle: A Fundamental Part of Writing
Posted by Jane

Nearly one year ago, I came across the following passage on Galleycat:

Reflect on this philosophical dispute submitted by one poetry-devoted reader:

"The book was a collection of love poems by William Carlos Williams. The poem was 'Asphodel, that Greeny Flower.' And the specific line of the poem over which we disagreed was: 'I cannot say that I have gone to hell for your love but often found myself there in your pursuit.'

"Although my boyfriend and I had been dating seriously for about a year, we disagreed so vehemently about whether pain and struggle constitute a fundamental part of love that we decided to break up then and there after reading and discussing the poem."

It struck such a chord with me that I clipped it and saved it in my Google Notebook.

At first I only considered it in relation to romantic relationships (yes, absolutely pain and struggle constitute a fundamental part of love), but now I've started thinking of it in relation to writing and publishing too.

It applies in a multitude of situations, e.g.,

Hating writer's block and loving the eventual (hopeful) breakthrough
Loving to have written (but hating the writing itself)
Loving the end results of criticism/editing, but being wounded in the process

Makes it seem like the painful means or process justify the glorious end?

But the end can be painful too. The finished book: not quite good enough, there are things you can still improve, right? (I love that saying about poems/stories never being finished, only abandoned.)

And the agent or publisher: how you felt such jubilation upon getting that deal, getting their attention. Then … the sad end … maybe when the book doesn't sell as hoped. Maybe you can't get a second book deal. Maybe you lose the agent's or editor's attention. Maybe you have regrets.

The point?

To know that you're living it, experiencing it, because you can do no other thing. Because you must write. Because that's who you are.

Note: This applies to colleagues/editors too. I know few, if any, in this business who do it for anything but love. (Writers, take note. There is passion there too, even if it is a passion that seems to disagree with you ... again and again and again.)

***

Housekeeping note: I'm about to depart on a one-week vacation to Alaska. I may appear here, I may appear only on Twitter or Facebook, but look for a rather delayed Best Tweets on the week ending August 28.

Photo credit: SheWatchedtheSky

Craft & Technique | F+W Life | General | Getting Published

Thursday, August 20, 2009 8:46:09 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Thursday, August 13, 2009

Hiring a Professional Editor vs. Getting Amateur Critiques
Posted by Jane

Today I gave a live online class on The First Five Pages—how editors evaluate your manuscript in an instant. It is one of my favorite classes to teach because in one page, you can easily show the tremendous improvement that can be achieved usually by cutting alone.

Here's a small example of what I mean (and thanks to the writers today who bravely offered up their first pages to my knife!).

[Note: The opening paragraph says that Danny, while off-duty, stumbles into the restaurant where he works to see a friend.]

Original:

“Hello, Liesel,” Daniel said as he grinned, brushed fresh snowflakes from his wavy brown hair.

“Danny, what are you doing here so late?” Liesel asked from behind the hostess stand. “Look at you. Are you drunk?”

“It’s wonderful to see you, too. You look exceptionally lovely tonight. Hey, is Andre still here? What kind of mood is he in?”

“He’s in the back room. He’s bearable tonight,” she whispered. “Danny, seriously, why are you here?”

“Tonight deserves one more. Then I’ll be on my way home,” Danny replied.

“Oh? What’s the occasion? A Christmas party? Your birthday?”

“It is an anniversary of sorts. But I’m not celebrating. It’s a day to forget, and so far, alcohol is the only way I’ve found. Just a little something for the pain, you know?” Looking around, he asked, “Who are all these people?

Edited:

“Hello, Liesel,” Daniel said as he grinned, brushed fresh snowflakes from his ~~wavy brown~~ hair.

~~“Danny, what are you doing here so late?” Liesel asked from behind the hostess stand. “Look at you.~~

"Danny! Are you drunk?” Liesel stood with arms crossed behind the hostess stand.

“It’s wonderful to see you, too. You look exceptionally lovely tonight. Hey, is Andre still here? What kind of mood is he in?”

“He’s in the back room. ~~He’s bearable tonight,” she whispered. “Danny, seriously,~~ Why are you here?”

“Tonight deserves one more. Then I’ll be on my way home,” Danny replied.

“Oh? What’s the occasion?" ~~A Christmas party? Your birthday?”~~

~~“It is an anniversary of sorts. But I’m not celebrating. It’s a day to forget, and so far, alcohol is the only way I’ve found. Just a little something for the pain, you know?”~~ Danny looked around. “Who are all these people?

When I do classes like this, it's often the first time writers have seen a professional go through their work with a fine-tooth comb. And so the question arises, "Can you recommend an editor?"

It's always tough to make a recommendation—there are so many variables!—the editor's background/experience, the kind of editing work you need, the editing approach you have in mind, your sensitivity level (yes, it matters!), the personality of the editor, and so on.

But 3 things are critical:

Make sure it's really time to pay for a professional edit. (And realize it's not the key to publication or an agent.) I recommend you read about writer Jim Adam, and his advice on how/when to hire a professional.

Make sure you know what kind of editing help you need: developmental, content, copyediting, or proofreading. The editing I've done above could be part of a developmental edit or an extensive content edit, which are far more expensive than a copyedit or proofread. A developmental edit will give you high-level feedback on how to rewrite and revise (on your own), often with major structural changes or complete redirection. A content edit may be just as thorough, but may not require a lot of new material or restructuring. Copyediting and proofreading looks at your material at a surface level (grammar, syntax, punctuation, typos).

Follow a thorough process to hire someone. Do your research. And try to get some kind of sample or idea of their work before committing. Here's an article that describes how one writer did it.

Another option is to take online classes with a professional editor/author that includes a critique component (like our own WritersOnlineWorkshops.com—Advanced Novel Writing Workshop is one of the most popular classes).

Never forget: A professional editor can make a good manuscript great, but they can't work miracles if your story line is weak or not marketable. If you want an editor who can speak to market concerns in your work, select one who has a background in published and commercial authors.

Not everyone has the money to hire a professional editor, but many writers, if they put in the time and effort, can benefit from a critique group. (We have a book coming out this December on working with critique groups.)

Some online critique groups and writing communities worth checking out:

Critters.org
Authonomy
Online Writing Workshop for SFF & Horror
Ray Rhamey's blog offers a free critique of your first 16 lines
Writer's Digest forum

Do you have recommendations for excellent free (or paid) online critique groups—or how to start a local/regional critique group? Please share in the comments!

Conferences/Events | Craft & Technique | Getting Published

Thursday, August 13, 2009 2:23:17 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Friday, August 07, 2009

The Voice of Truth and Lies
Posted by Jane

Today's guest post is from regular contributor Darrelyn Saloom. Follow this most lovely writer on Twitter. The photo above is of Darrelyn's grandmother Ara Coleman Wilkerson (1900-1929).

I’ve written about feeding The Muse (who craves poetry and art in a quest to inspire). But once inspiration has sprung forth and the bones have been written, it’s time to listen to Intuition while you edit and revise. For a writer’s life is an inward journey that must tell truth from lies.

Many writers balk at this part of the writing process, but it can be a pleasurable mine: to confer with your sixth-sense (though she can nag at times), but only because she lives in the subconscious and is indefatigable and wise.

Intuition is the voice you can’t hear because it’s a hunch, an inkling you feel as you rewrite. It questions word usage. And pesters that something’s not right: an awkward sentence, a paragraph, or (at worst) every line. And she can be better than spell check at times.

One way to recognize Intuition is to recall moments when compelled to act in the midst of strife. Perhaps an impromptu visit to a friend, you encountered a future wife; or you didn’t go when the light turned green, which may have saved your life.

You can also identify Intuition by evoking occasions you scoffed her advice. Remember that test you took, knew you had the wrong answer, refused to change it, and failed to get it right; or sped through an intersection as yellow blinked to red, and then saw flashing blue lights.

Can you hear it now? Don’t be so sure. It may be the voice of language: the loud one that encourages more pie “With ice cream this time!” The one that has had too much to drink and says, “It’s okay to drive!” And it’s a familiar voice. But do you know her name?

As a writer, it’s imperative to discern the difference. Listen. Can you hear it? Is it the voice that uses words? That tries to convince editing is not your job, but the job of a publisher’s sprite. “Don’t they have an entire staff to do this stuff?” it cries.

Did you hear it? That’s the voice of Sabotage, and it’s the voice of lies.
So now that you know the difference, be still and quiet when time to rewrite. Summon an instance when a hunch or inkling proved to be right. Listen to the soundless voice of Intuition. And take her advice.

* * *

When I first sat down to write about Intuition, I wrote a story about my grandmother, Ara, who died of tuberculosis when my father was seven. She left three young sons behind. I had never met my uncles until my father was about to die. An emotional few days, I felt the presence of my grandmother the entire time.

The day my uncles flew home, my sister Jeanne and I escorted our father to his radiation appointment. I drove the car and was compelled not to go when the light turned green, which may have saved our lives. Because a delivery truck ran its red light and barreled through the intersection. And the truck had a sign. In bold letters we watched ARA SERVICES go by.

That day I named Intuition for my grandmother Ara. And when it came time to edit and revise this piece, every line but the one about the green light was deleted and out poured The Voice of Truth and Lies. So this is for my grandmother Ara, who sits with me when I rewrite.

Craft & Technique | General | Guest Post

Friday, August 07, 2009 1:42:44 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Friday, July 24, 2009

Your Protagonist Must Have a Goal (Plot-Protagonist Secret #3)
Posted by Jane

Today's guest post is the final installment of a three parter, and comes from the experienced Jim Adam, who I met at a recent Writer's Digest Editors' Intensive. Visit his homepage, or follow him on Twitter.

Warning: Harry Potter spoilers ahead
To illustrate the importance of protagonist goal, let's look at an example (again from the Harry Potter series) of a character who abandons the role of protagonist while remaining the sole POV character.

At the end of Book 5, The Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore tells Harry the Chosen One Prophecy. According to this prophecy, Harry is the only person able to destroy the genocidal Voldemort. Dumbledore says that he should have told Harry the prophecy sooner, but held back because of his desire to keep Harry safe and free from additional burdens and worries.

We aren't done yet, but note that warning flags have already gone up. By protecting Harry, Dumbledore has minimized exactly those things that keep readers immersed in a story! Safety and freedom from worry for the protagonist? Since when was that a good idea in a work of fiction? There's a reason why The Left Behind series chronicles the tribulations on Earth, not the big party in Heaven.

What the end of Book 5 shows us is that Dumbledore isn't the right Dumbledore for the Potter series. Whether his "mistake" indicates soft-heartedness or a desire for personal glory, it doesn't matter. Dumbledore has made life easier for Harry, and thus has undercut the full potential of the story.

Continuing on, the very end of Book 5 shows Harry returning to his aunt and uncle's house where, for three months, he'll be safe and free from additional burdens and worries. [Insert the sound of screeching tires here.] Wait a minute! Dumbledore just said this was a mistake, and now he repeats that same mistake? Worse, Harry lets him get away with it?

What we have here is a plot outline forcing our Hero to become a passive little lamb. Harry goes where the plot outline tells him to go, he sits on his hands when the plot outline requires him to, and he takes decisive action only when the plot outline authorizes him to.

According to Dumbledore, Harry has the ability to stop Voldemort from committing genocide on the human race. (At this point, Voldemort is back and is operating in the open.) Exactly what kind of protagonist would go off and waste three months' time under such circumstances? A goalless protagonist, that's who.

The goal of destroying Voldemort has now become Dumbledore's, and the old codger pursues his goal relentlessly. Unfortunately, he also pursues the goal mostly off screen, leaving readers to watch Harry pursue various subplots: Quidditch, romance, and questions like, "What is Draco up to?" and "Who is the Half-Blood Prince?"

To see how insidious lack of goal (or in this case, the wrong goal) can be, let's look briefly at Book 6 of the Potter series, Half-Blood Prince. Near the beginning of that book, when Harry learns that he's to be captain of the Quidditch team, Hermione asks him, "What about the Defense Association?" [DA is a student group, led by Harry, designed to prepare students to fight against Voldemort.] Harry replies, "We'll just disband it."

Oops. Although Voldemort is already killing people left and right, Harry's goal is to be Quidditch team captain. The Defense Association is a distraction from that goal, and so it must go.

The plot outline has won and, as far as the main sequence of events is concerned, Harry has become goalless. The price for this isn't that some arbitrary rule of writing has been broken. The price is that Harry becomes a heartless wretch. People are dying, and if he applied himself, Harry might be able to stop at least some of that, but he can't be distracted from his extra-curricular activities even for such a lofty goal. This is the Hero of seven books?

A goalless central character can easily lead to a mushy story, one lacking in conflict and clear direction. (Imagine a goalless Dorothy wandering about Oz, without even the Wicked Witch chasing after her.) In the Potter series, however, the disturbance in Harry's world is both real and impactful. Events move forward inexorably, and the books continue to resemble stories. Only on closer inspection do we discover that Harry is an inhuman widget.

As writers of commercial fiction, we need to make sure that:

Our story has a protagonist.
Our protagonist has a driving goal.
Our protagonist has the right goal (prepare to fight Voldemort, not prepare to win the Quidditch trophy).
Our protagonist is the right protagonist—one who would accept wise advice when given (follow the Yellow Brick Road), but one who doesn't just get led around by parents, wise mentors, angels, friendly locals, etc.

The Overshadowed Protagonist
Speaking of getting led around by the hand, the overshadowed protagonist seems to be another common mistake we writers make. Consider our Wizard of Oz example. Suppose that when Glinda arrives, instead of giving Dorothy some sage advice, Glinda accompanies Dorothy to the Emerald City. The result would be that Dorothy gets overshadowed, the dangers to her get minimized, and—quite likely—the story gets bogged down in backstory and exposition, as Glinda kindly fills in the poor girl on the history of Oz, the habits of the Munchkins, the magical processes used in creating the Tin Man, etc.

Although the real Dorothy is joined and aided by other characters, although she remains ignorant of much of what is going on about her, although she never becomes a witch or a Kung Fu master, still Dorothy retains her goal and is able to pursue that goal relentlessly. Her goal-driven behavior keeps the trip to the Emerald City from being a travelogue, and it keeps the trip to the Wicked Witch's castle from being an arbitrary sidetrack.

Despite Dorothy's general ignorance, she always has enough information to pursue her goal under her own impetus. This is the difference between a protagonist and a widget:

If a protagonist has no clue how to pursue their goal, they might as well not have a goal.

This is another key point that seems to trip us up as writers. For most readers, "pursing a goal" means more than a protagonist waiting patiently or wandering blindly, hoping for inspiration.

In the last book of the Potter series, The Deathly Hallows, Harry is trapped in that sad state of wanting to destroy Voldemort but not having a clue how to proceed. He moves one step at a time, following a trail of breadcrumbs, never fully comprehending what it is he's doing, or why. It seems an ignominious state for a Hero to be in.

However: Ms. Rowling apparently realized that Dumbledore was too powerful to keep around, and so killed him off. Unfortunately, she then allowed him to manipulate events from beyond the grave, thus turning poor Harry into a pair of granny glasses scuttling about in the woods. Ms. Rowling got away with it, and maybe you can too, but why take the chance?

If we give our main characters goals, make their achieving those goals as difficult as we can, and then let them pursue their goals under their own impetus, the result will be a more engaging story. And after all, isn't that our goal?

Photo credit: TRAFFIK

Craft & Technique | Guest Post

Friday, July 24, 2009 10:53:03 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Thursday, July 23, 2009

Does Your Novel Fall Victim to the Protagonist/Goal Switcheroo? (Plot-Protagonist Secret #2)
Posted by Jane

Today's guest post is the second installment of a three parter (ending Friday), and comes from the wise Jim Adam, who I met at a recent Writer's Digest Editors' Intensive. Visit his homepage, or follow him on Twitter.

Read Part I (How to Prevent Reader Boredom in Your Novel) here.

Some of us can't quite decide who we want our protagonist to be. Sometimes this results in a story that contains a lot of POV characters, but that isn't always the case.

In my novel, I had one primary POV character for the first 250 pages. Then I switched to another POV character for the middle 250 pages. And then I switched to yet another POV character for the final 250 pages. As a result, no single character was strong enough to tie the book together into a cohesive unit. A master writer (or somebody with a body of fans already in place) might have been able to get away with this sort of thing. Unfortunately, I don't fit into either camp.

POV switching is harder to pull off than professional writers like Stephen King or George R.R. Martin make it look. Each POV character brings a different goal with them, or at least a different slant on a goal, and as a result, readers can easily find themselves several chapters into a book, still unable to decide what the story is really about.

If your story features a lot of POV characters, or if it switches around between several protagonists along the way, make sure the story truly requires it. For many of us, POV switching is a sign that we haven't quite figured out what story we're trying to tell.

Goal Substitution
In some stories, the protagonist stays the same but their goal changes. If not handled carefully, this can make a story feel like it's gotten sidetracked, with the plot suddenly chasing after a will-o-the-wisp.

Sure, plots don't have to be linear, but readers are liable to get confused (or miffed) if we change either the protagonist or the protagonist's goal without sufficient justification. In the movie The Matrix, Neo's original goal is to find out what the matrix is. Partway through the movie, Neo gets his answer. This forces him to adopt a new goal: "Figure out how to fit into this new reality." Neo's goal change works because it's integral to the flow of events, and thus it makes sense to the audience.

For a protagonist to change goals on a whim, however, or in response to some ancillary or trivial event: that's going to be hard for many readers to swallow. Maybe it's a sign that we're conflict averse, or maybe we think we're perpetrating a "surprise twist." But whatever the explanation, the result may be the same: a disappointed reader.

The flip side: if something happens (as with Neo) to invalidate a protagonist's first goal (such as they achieve that goal), the story needs to quickly provide the protagonist with a new goal. Using our Wizard of Oz example, imagine Dorothy showing up in Oz without any burning desire to get back home. Not only does she wind up wandering around endlessly, now she doesn't even have a meaningful goal.

One sign of a goalless protagonist is that they get pushed about by events. Instead of acting, they react.

Even if we throw life-threatening challenges at them, the challenges still begin to seem disconnected and arbitrary. The result is generally that the story looses its zip and, possibly, many of its readers.

A goalless protagonist seems to be especially common in "translation" stories where the main character is pulled out of a mundane life and is suddenly transported into an amazing Other World. The Wizard of Oz and The Matrix both show how to make such a premise work.

Many of us who attempt translation stories, however, try to carry the story with clever, amazing, and humorous interludes. The Munchkins, Scarecrow, the sentient trees, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, Emerald City: we expect these elements to hold the reader's interest by themselves. Maybe they will, maybe they won't, but certainly Dorothy's story loses something if she's wandering about goalless, just enjoying the scenery.

The protagonist's goal is the glue that holds a story together, giving events heightened purpose and interest.

In tomorrow's final installment, we'll look at examples that illustrate the importance of goal, as well as what happens in the case of an overshadowed protagonist.

Photo credit: nasebear

Craft & Technique | Guest Post

Thursday, July 23, 2009 5:13:10 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Wednesday, July 22, 2009

How to Prevent Reader Boredom in Your Novel (Plot-Protagonist Secret #1)
Posted by Jane

Today's guest post is a three parter (ending Friday), and comes from the inimitable Jim Adam, who I met at a recent Writer's Digest Editors' Intensive. Visit his homepage, or follow him on Twitter. Warning: For any Harry Potter readers and/or movie fans who do not know the outcomes of Books 6 and 7, spoilers lie near the end.

Most people define plot as "the events that make up a story," and that's a fine definition. Except that for writers, it's a shortcut to the hot place. I've been burned by it, and as I read unpublished works by other struggling writers, I see them getting burned by it too.

Here's a better definition:

Plot is the set of actions that protagonists take to achieve their goal.

Wait, don't leave yet! I know you've seen this definition before and are bored by it. Maybe you have every right to be bored, but for many writers, the simplicity of this definition is misleading. We look at it and think, "Yeah, yeah, I learned that twelve years ago." But however simple the rule seems, many of us still haven't mastered it. We continue to churn out stories that are collections of disconnected events, stories that lack drive and intensity, and stories that wander off course.

What ties a series of scenes together, so that they feel truly connected?

A common cast of characters?
A common central conundrum?
A common setting?
Cause-and-effect relationships?

Even taken together, all of these elements aren't enough. Only by giving goals to key characters, and letting those characters drive the story, can we make a sequence of events hang together as an integral plotline.

Maybe it sounds easy, but I continue to struggle with this concept in my own writing, and based on what I'm seeing in various workshops, I'm not alone.

The One Sentence Plot Description
My editor tells me that I should be able to describe any novel in a single sentence of the form:

Protagonist must do X or else Y will happen.

Does that sound reductive? Too linear? Maybe it is. But for those of us struggling to get our act together, simpler is better. Sadly, for many of us, our one-sentence plot statement would be something like, "Gretta must do what she's told when she's told until I reach the desired word count."

Characters without strong goals become widgets, pushed about by our word processors. They meekly subvert their personality to the predefined plot outline. As a result, they come across as passive, unreliable, dull.

The Right Protagonist for the Job
Consider The Wizard of Oz. When Dorothy steps into the Land of Oz, her eyeballs bulge. Goodness, they certainly don't have flowers like these in Kansas! As she wanders about, a soap bubble lands and out steps Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. Glinda tells Dorothy, "To get back home, follow the Yellow Brick Road. That'll take you to the Wizard, and he'll be able to help you."

Dorothy straightens her back and stomps her foot. "I most certainly will not! Go visit a Wizard? Ha. What do you take me for?" And so Dorothy tramps off into the wilderness, carefully avoiding the Yellow Brick Road whenever it comes into sight. A thousand pages later, she's still at it, no closer to getting home than when she started.

The problem here isn't that our shadow Dorothy lacks a goal, but that the author has selected the wrong Dorothy for the story. This alternate Dorothy's hard-headedness makes her look like a dolt, someone that readers will have a hard time identifying with, sympathizing with, or caring about.

The more cynical reader, of course, sees this alternate Dorothy for what she really is: a convenience for the author, who wants to write an epic story but can't be bothered to come up with a true plot, and so makes do with an episodic travelogue.

If a protagonist (or villain) has the path to victory laid out for them, and then turns away from it for some arbitrary reason, the story loses intensity. Some readers may even lose their faith in the story's trustworthiness.

At the risk of being pelted with bludgers, I'm going to use Harry Potter to illustrate this point. In the Potter series, at the end of Book 6, Half-Blood Prince, the evil Voldemort has won. Voldemort's nemesis (Dumbledore) is dead, and Voldemort's Death Eaters are inside Hogwarts itself—locked in battle with Dumbledore's loyal followers.

Voldemort's path to victory is clear. He need only join the fight and he can carry the day. Instead, his Death Eaters flee Hogwarts, and for the next three months, Voldemort quietly sits on his hands so that Harry can have his traditional summer vacation at home.

In this case, the villain is forced to turn his brain off precisely because the protagonist of the story isn't the right protagonist. Harry is neither ready, willing, nor able to take up Dumbledore's mantle. If Voldemort played his cards, Book 6 would end with Harry Potter dead, and Book 7 of the series would vanish.

The arrangement here reminds me of a Warner Brothers cartoon: A wolf and a sheepdog walk up to a time-clock and punch in. "Morning, George," the sheepdog says. "Morning, Ralph," the wolf says. They move to their respective positions, the 8 a.m. whistle blows, and they begin feuding over the sheep. When the 5 p.m. whistle blows, they clock back out and walk home together amiably.

When a story manipulates key characters, forcing them out of character in order to achieve something the writer considers important, the result can become farcical. The best way we can avoid this fate is to:

Make sure our key characters have solid goals that they pursue vigorously.
Make sure our protagonist is well-matched (both in ability and in temperament) to the obstacles he's expected to overcome.

If the obstacles aren't great enough, reader boredom will likely set in. If the obstacles are too great, we'll be forced to cheat in order to reach a happy ending. Of course, both the first Oz book and the last Potter book cheat. The Wizard of Oz suddenly decides that witches melt if touched by even a drop of water; The Deathly Hallows introduces three godlike magical artifacts to get Harry across the finish line. What this shows, I think, is that if we have a strong story, nothing's going to stop us. However, for those of us with boxes full of rejection slips or an interest in producing the very best story possible, we need to carefully match our protagonists to the obstacles they face, and vice versa.

Photo credit: principia aesthetica

Craft & Technique | Guest Post

Wednesday, July 22, 2009 10:00:16 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Monday, July 20, 2009

Turn Your Dragons Into Princesses
Posted by Jane

Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet is one of the greatest writing advice books of all time. You can highlight nearly every passage as an inspirational gem. But there isn't any quantifiable advice in it.

As much as Writer's Digest focuses on the nuts-and-bolts of craft/technique, and beats the drum of marketing and promotion, everyone on staff recognizes that what sets the successful apart from the unsuccessful is rarely quantifiable.

Maybe there are some numbers you can look at, for a vague generalization:

Kevin Kelley's 1,000 fans
Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hours (as explained by Seth Godin)
John Grisham's many rejections

These numbers only point to a larger felt sense that a writer knows in his gut, physically (but may intellectually ignore) when it comes to recognizing the effort or determination required.

But your motivation and desire to write or express yourself doesn't lie in the numbers. Whether you like it or not, it keeps its home in the hopes and fears that go much deeper than the writing goals you might have set for yourself.

One of my favorite passages from Rilke:

Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible is in its deeps something helpless that wants help from us.

We all have some kind of dragon holding us back, and we typically give it a name that obscures its real identity. Maybe your dragon is "not enough time" or "writer's block" or "publishing industry is unfair." But is that really the true, felt sense of what's holding you back? Only you can tell. (And I recommend this book to find out what that true, felt sense might be.)

Every creative person, every artist, needs someone who encourages them, who can see the potential inside, who can see the princess in the dragon. My father told me as a little girl that I could do anything and be anything that I wanted. And I could tell he really believed it. And so I believed it too.

What do you hang onto? What can turn your dragon into a princess?

Note: It's a busy week for me, so I'll have guest blogger Jim Adam here on Wednesday-Friday. (Curious what I'm up to? Check out my live, online class on query letters this Thursday, and the Midwest Writers Workshop.)

Photo credit: james_michael_hill

Craft & Technique | General | Getting Published

Monday, July 20, 2009 4:45:36 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Monday, July 13, 2009

Love Prompts? You Need PROMPTLY.
Posted by Jane

Creative writing prompts (or finding inspiration) is one of the most popular, evergreen topics at Writer's Digest. So this week we're very proud to launch a new blog called Promptly by Writer's Digest editor Zachary Petit.

Promptly will offer prompts, activities, and inspiration—and a little positive reinforcement in the form of free books that get sent our way—to help you get your pens moving and keep them that way.

For any of you who are fans of our weekly newsletter prompt, or Robert Brewer's Wednesday poetry prompt, you need to check out Promptly!

Craft & Technique | Fun

Monday, July 13, 2009 5:24:34 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Friday, July 03, 2009

There Are 2 Types of Writers: Which Are You? (The Other Side of the Slush Pile)
Posted by Jane

Today's guest post is from the insightful Jim Adams (Migdalin.com). I met Jim at the June WD Editors' Intensive. He also contributed this piece about the benefit of hiring a professional editor.

The Fire in Fiction, by Donald Maass, informs us that there are two types of writers:

One type writes in order to write.
The other writes in order to be published, obtain fame, and receive impressively large royalty checks.

As with any dichotomy, this one has its problems, but recently I gained a better understanding of why Mr. Maass would come up with such a dichotomy in the first place.

Recently, I got a chance to sit on the Other Side of the Slush Pile.

Most writers' workshops qualify, in some sense, as slush piles, but the online community Authonomy, run by HarperCollins, takes things one step further. Authonomy lets authors post their books, or significant portions thereof, and then lets them vote for each other's work. Books get rated based on how many votes they have, and books at the top of the ratings get looked at by one or more purchasing editors at HarperCollins.

While you can only vote for five books at a time, you can comment on as many books as you like. Having posted a goodish portion of my own book, I set about providing comments to several individuals who had befriended me or who had suggested a bout of mutual mastication, so long as I went first …

So, I began to read, and I began to critique.

My efforts were unappreciated. I had failed, you see, to follow the prevailing custom, which was to write a critique thusly:

This book was so good, I was tempted to cut off my fingers, because compared to you, I don't deserve to write even a grocery list. Excuse me while I go change my underthings: that's how much your words moved me! I especially liked how you capitalized the first word in every sentence. Masterful!!

Let me reiterate that Authonomy is a slush pile. While I haven't been part of the community for long, the few books I've read and commented on so far are (in my inexpert opinion) not ready for publication, and I don't mean they're in need of a thorough proofreading. The problems I've seen have been fairly major. But, using Mr. Maass's dichotomy, most people on Authonomy appear to be Type 2 writers. They're looking for validation, not criticism. They're looking for publication and a paycheck, not insight into how they might improve their work.

Naturally, it's difficult to accept criticism on a book that took you a year or more to write. And who wants to hear that a book they believe is finished still has significant room for improvement? Move a few commas around? Be happy to! Revise a few sentences for clarity? Well, if you insist. Rewrite the book so it begins on page one, ends at a meaningful destination, and accomplishes something at regular intervals along the way? How dare you!

Of course, tact plays an important part in writing any critique, but having learned my critiquing skills at critters.org, I write tactful critiques as second nature. After all, my book is out there too, and if it's to be savaged, I prefer to have it savaged without unnecessary invective or rancor. But tactful or not, I get the impression that most of the writers on Authonomy aren't interested in meaningful feedback.

To be fair, another part of the equation here is: Who to believe?

Do you believe the fifty people who agree with you that, "Oh my God, this is going to be bigger than Harry Potter," or do you believe the one lone voice of dissent? In all likelihood, the voice of dissent is just a psycho-killer wannabe who fills his time between stalkings by pulling the wings off budding novelists. Your best bet is to quote the immortal Buzz Lightyear ("You are a sad, strange little man, and you have my pity."), and go on about your business.

Still, whatever the psychology, the end result is the same. Individuals stroke each other and promote books that are half-baked.

It's possible that over-eager writers are outnumbered by those who suffer from the opposite problem: the curse of endless revision. We can't know for sure, but it's worth mentioning. Balance in all things. Sooner or later you have to pull the cake out of the oven, put the icing on it, and let people cut themselves a slice. If someone then tells you the cake could have stayed in the oven just a bit longer, well ... who knows. Maybe they have a point, or maybe next time they don't get invited to tea.

Craft & Technique | Getting Published | Guest Post

Friday, July 03, 2009 10:44:53 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Risking Failure (from the Glimmer Train Bulletin)
Posted by Jane

Every month, Glimmer Train sends out a monthly bulletin with information about their contests, as well as helpful advice from established writers. In the most recent bulletin (Bulletin 30), you'll find:

Making Stories Out of Stories by Randolph Thomas
The Music of Words by Lynn Ahrens
Risking Failure by Josh Henkin (pictured above)

Incidentally, the next issue of Writer's Digest magazine (September 2009) will feature an essay from Henkin as well, in the MFA Confidential column.

Here's a little of what Henkin has to say in his Glimmer Train piece:

I believe this is one of the most important lessons a writer can learn: You must always be willing to risk failure. Another lesson: Don't take rejection personally. So much is luck—finding the right editor at the right moment when he or she will be receptive to the story you've submitted. I know this first-hand.

Click here for Bulletin 30 (and to find archives of other bulletins).

Craft & Technique | Getting Published

Tuesday, June 30, 2009 5:07:07 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Friday, June 26, 2009

Better Than Brad Pitt? (Why You Should Go to Book Events)
Posted by Jane

Today's guest post is from becoming-a-regular-and-fabulous-contributor Darrelyn Saloom. Above she is shown with Tim Gautreaux, the recipient of the 2009 Louisiana Writer Award and author of three novels and two story collections. The picture was taken at Garden District Book Shop in New Orleans. Follow Darrelyn on Twitter.

A book event! Authors read from their latest masterpiece, sign copies, and, if you’re lucky, share stories of their writing journey. Maybe an author will reveal how he/she found the plot (in a newspaper), the characters (popped into their head), or even the theme (a song on the radio).

It’s easy to project grandiosity on an admired author. Born to brilliance, for them it comes easy. Such a perfect sentence, and look at that verb. Oh the ease!—the ease from which he/she writes—larger than life, and so much smarter than me.

That’s what I tend to think of writers I admire. And that’s what I thought of Tim Gautreaux. My friends knew this about me. I drove around with his books in my car. Recommended his short story collections and novels to strangers in airports and on the streets (yeah, that was me). So I was thrilled when Garden District Book Shop in New Orleans sent me an e-mail to announce his scheduled book signing.

The day of the event, I checked into Hotel Monteleone and found my way to Prytania Street. The bookstore had a small coffee shop to the side of the building, and I spotted Gautreaux and his lovely wife, Winborne, sipping coffee in a window seat. And, yes, I was nervous. This was better than a French Quarter Brad Pitt sighting for me.

The Louisiana native did not disappoint. With Cajun accent he read from his latest novel The Missing. And then he talked about his writing process. The audience sipped wine, nibbled cheese, and asked questions. And his answers were generous.

Generous because his stories were often rejected by editors—yes—rejected! And he told us that red marks mapped the pages of his returned manuscripts! But here was the key (and what I believe separates a talented writer from becoming a published author—or not).

When Tim Gautreaux’s stories and manuscripts landed back in his mailbox, he read suggestions and criticisms with an open mind. He explained how he’d carefully tear apart a rejected story, rewrite and revise it, put it back together, and send it out again. And again. And again, if necessary. Until he got it right.

If you’ve read Gautreaux’s novels and stories, you know he’s a man obsessed with machines. His characters are camera repairmen, piano tuners, welders, train engineers, and a priest. Okay, so maybe a priest has nothing to do with machinery, but there’s an old Toronado in the story with a “huge eight-cylinder engine and no muffler.”

Tinkering is Tim Gautreaux’s lifelong hobby. He told us about the barn in his backyard in Hammond, Louisiana; and about his collection of antique steamboat whistles, lanterns, and gauges, an amusement that seeped into his novel, The Missing.

“Find what you love,” he said, “and write about it.” What Tim Gautreaux loves has served him well. Tinkering with machinery seems to have taught him the patience to be a writer. To construct something, to take it apart (piece by piece), and then to build it again is not easy. It’s hard work. And it’s akin to writing a poem, a story, a novel. It took him nearly five years to write The Missing.

There are other reasons to attend a book signing: to support a fellow writer, a favored bookstore, (did I mention they often serve wine and cheese?). But to connect to an admired author, and to share his/her struggles are valuable lessons for an aspiring author. And there really is no excuse not to go. Because—they are free.

(The day I completed this blog post, the June issue of The New Yorker arrived in my mailbox—bearing a stapled gift—a new story by Tim Gautreaux! “Idols” is about Julian Smith. And he is a typewriter repairman. So add typewriter repairman to my earlier list. Follow this link to read Julian’s comical and stubborn journey to defeat.)

Craft & Technique | Getting Published | Guest Post

Friday, June 26, 2009 8:28:41 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Writing Advice Hasn't Changed Much Since 1921
Posted by Jane

On my desk I keep a copy of one of the first Writer's Digest titles, How to Write Short Stories by L. Josephine Bridgart, published in 1921. It is a subtle reminder of how little things have changed when it comes to writing and publishing. Below is an excerpt from the very first chapter, "Common Sense in Viewing One's Work."

—

Writing for publication is a business. If the new writer will accept this fact he will have laid a foundation upon which, if he have the necessary natural ability, he can build success.

If a young woman tells you that she intends to take up nursing, and later reveals that her chief reason for doing so is that the uniforms in a certain hospital have attracted her, or that she enjoys reading to the sick, or dislikes the business life her father has suggested for her, or has heard that nurses make a great deal of money, you immediately feel that her nursing will not be a great success. You reason that nursing involves some very hard and disagreeable duties and that a girl who think only of the incidental pleasures or the monetary rewards is pretty sure to fail. It is not common business sense to enter a profession without taking into consideration the requirements of that profession.

I have read this lack of common business sense between the lines of many a first story. Some of these stories tell how a young girl with no experience won a prize in a short story or novel contest; often the prize-winning story was written in an afternoon, or an evening, or in the dead of night as the result of an idea which came to the author after she had retired. Some of these stories are about attractive young women who sold an editor a manuscript because she was attractive, or because she was poor, or because she was sick or saucy. Such stories show plainly that the authors are depending on personal charm or "an inspiration" or luck rather than upon hard work to win acceptances. They do not stop to reason that before they can hope to sell a manuscript they must learn how to produce a manuscript that some editor will want to buy. …

Unless you respect the principles governing the construction of a story or an article or a poem you cannot produce a manuscript that the careful editor will consider worthy of a place in his magazine. In any other trade or profession, the beginner expects to encounter a great deal of hard work. He expects to master certain rules, learn to apply them, and then make himself skillful by practice. Writing for publication means careful preparation and a great deal of hard work, just as millinery and surgery and sculpture do.

In her autobiography Ellen Terry tells of actresses who had explained to her that they did not care to be hampered by the rules. The successful actress had replied that it was wise to learn the rules before one decided to abandon them. "Before you can be eccentric," she commented pithily, "you must know where the circle is." …

The editor does not care at all about rules as rules. He wants a manuscript that will hold his readers' interest. If you can break the rules and still produce a manuscript that will grip the attention from the first sentence to the last you need not fear that your irregularities will cause you a rejection.

Craft & Technique | Fun | General | Getting Published

Wednesday, June 24, 2009 5:36:40 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Monday, June 22, 2009

How to Save Time and Money with Professional Editors
Posted by Jane

This post has been adapted from material by Jim Adams, at his site Migdalin.com. I met the talented Jim this past weekend at the WD Editors' Intensive, and we discussed his passion for editor George H. Scithers.

—

After 30 years of rejection, I finally got tired of not knowing why my writing wasn't working. Before trying to find a publisher or an agent, I sent the novel I'd just finished (or so I thought) off to a professional editor.

The year that followed was expensive (professional editors don't come cheap), but it also taught me things about plot, protagonist, pacing, and novel structure that I hadn't picked up from 15 credit hours of undergraduate creative writing courses, an M.A. in creative writing, and reading untold books on writing (some of them with titles like PLOT).

Professional editors are more efficient than how-to books. They give you feedback specific to your project. It's one thing to read a "rule" in a book, it's another thing to have an editor point to a spot in your opus and say, "Here's where you broke the rule, and here's how your writing was weakened as a result."

Professional editors can be more effective than a degree in creative writing, since half your time in getting that sort of degree will be in ancillary class work. Worse, unless you're careful and choosy, you could easily wind up (as I did) at a university where the creative writing teachers sneer at pedestrian concerns like plot. If you dream of getting an M.A. or M.F.A. in creative writing, you might consider finding a professional editor instead. Not only could you learn more in less time, the editorial route might even be less expensive (depending on the university you're applying to), especially if going back to school means giving up a decent-paying job.

As sold as I am on getting help from professional editors, though, when I started working on a new novel, I faced a real dilemma: an insufficiency of funds. Although I hope this new book will need less editorial hand-holding than the previous one, getting the full manuscript critiqued still represents a major expense.

Also, I never feel I've mastered something until I do it right three times in a row. As such, I still have doubts about my ability to spot major plot holes and plot sidetracks on my own.

My brilliant solution to this conundrum?

I sent my editor a detailed synopsis rather than a complete novel.

Getting a synopsis critiqued is not only less expensive, it can save you a lot of time. In my case, although I already had a complete draft of the novel written, revising generally takes me twice as long (at least) as writing the rough draft. Thus, by spotting major non sequiturs in the synopsis, my editor can save me from tweaking pages, chapters, or even (please God, not that again!) an entire book that needs to be tossed out and rewritten from scratch.

If you like to outline and plan books ahead of time, you could even save yourself time during the drafting stage by getting an editor to look at your story premise and outline straightaway.

While they might tell you things you don't want to hear (such as that your underlying story idea won't hold water), wouldn't you rather find that out before you've spent months or years of your life working on the thing?

Even getting a synopsis edited can cost $200 or more, but it's money well-spent, since this particular $200 could save me weeks, even months, of fruitless revision and polishing. Even better, it could save me several thousand dollars, compared to sending a full manuscript to my editor, only to find that my novel has major structural problems—problems that could have been fixed via a review of my story outline.

Wondering how to find a solid professional editor? Preditors and Editors is a good resource for checking out an editing service before you give them your money or your manuscript. I've been using The Editorial Department, and the editor they assigned me to (Peter Gelfan) is the greatest: cruel, insensitive, tactful, patient, and very insightful.

My first book is still making the rounds of agents and publishers, and may still wind up turning into a trunk novel. While I'm convinced it's technically solid, that isn't enough to make a book sell given the difficult publishing environment these days. But whether my first book makes it or not, I feel much better about what I'm doing. I no longer feel like I'm spinning my wheels fruitlessly, repeating the same mistakes over and over again without realizing it.

—

Have you used a professional editing service that you've had a good experience with? Recommend it in the comments!

You can also check out:

Writer's Mart, where editorial services advertise with Writer's Digest
Advanced Novel Writing Workshop at WritersOnlineWorkshops.com, a long-term course that offers critiques of your work by the instructor and peers
As always: the next Writer's Digest Editors' Intensive (upcoming in October and December)

Conferences/Events | Craft & Technique | Getting Published | Guest Post

Monday, June 22, 2009 1:32:31 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Tuesday, June 16, 2009

5 Common Flaws in Memoir Projects
Posted by Jane

Most everyone knows how difficult it can be to sell a memoir when you're not famous (or infamous). I often advise writers that if you don't have a celebrity-like fan base, or a loyal and captive audience, then you need to write like a master—or have such a fantastical story that no one will be able to divert their attention from it (the kinds of personal stories that get aired on the morning shows, like that guy who had to cut off his own arm when stuck in a mountain crevasse).

Many writers I meet tackle memoir as their first serious book project, which often means their writing has not yet advanced to the level that will enrapture editors/agents. There are exceptions, of course, but I've only met one or two in my time at Writer's Digest, and they have significant writing history behind them. (Here is one example.)

Here are the five common flaws that I see in manuscripts I review at conferences.

You have written a story focused on pain or victimhood—and nothing more. You get extra (negative) bonus points if you wrote it as part of a grieving process, either at the recommendation of a therapist or as part of a therapy group. Writing through grief and tragedy is a proven method to heal, but it is not a proven method for getting published. I say this not to be insensitive, but to bring needed attention to the fact that these stories are prevalent, and very few publishing houses are accepting them. This is especially true of stories of (1) abuse (2) cancer (3) caring for aging parents.
Your source material is a diary or journal. And you're using that as your rough draft, or the book is structured in that manner. Such materials are fine for inspiration and to remember vivid details. But very few diaries or journals are suitable starting places for a publishable memoir. (And I say this as a fan of Anais Nin.)
You want to tell about your experience as a means of self-help for others—that is, you mix the memoir and self-help genres. I have never seen this work on the page. You have to choose one or the other. Self-help is a better option if you have the credentials/authority to back up your advice. Life experience, or overcoming a personal challenge, is not enough expertise to help others, especially when it comes to physical and mental health.
You have no definitive story arc or story problem. Are you attempting to tell everything about your life, from beginning to end, starting with childhood, where you were born, where you went to school, leaving no stone unturned? Why? Are you sure it's essential to the story? Memoirs need a beginning, middle, and end, and there needs to be a story problem, just as you would find in a novel. And it needs to be told in scenes, and have characters. And you need to leave out a lot of detail.
The story is not told with a fresh or distinct perspective. You need to find the voice or perspective that makes the story compelling and offers vibrancy, and create an effective and engaging dramatic persona.

One of the more fascinating pieces I've read on memoir was in a July 2002 article in Writer's Digest magazine. W.W. Norton editor Alane Salierno Mason discussed the difference between the "I" memoir (which is all about the narrator) and the "eye" memoir (which is about point of view and relationship to the greater world as well as self).

Most people I meet are undoubtedly writing the "I" memoir, but it leads to a lot of talking and talking and talking (as Mason points out), and unless that talking is absolutely captivating, it's tough to take the project further than your own friends and family.

Looking for more help on this topic?

This is by far my favorite book on writing personal narrative, by Vivian Gornick: The Situation and The Story
Our quarterly WD Editor Intensives give you an opportunity to have your first 50 pages vetted by an expert.
Our online workshop series offers a course on memoir, taught by Writer's Digest author Gloria Kempton (next start date: August 6)
Writing Life Stories (from Writer's Digest) offers comprehensive instruction that was recently revised. You can read an excerpt here, and read a Q&A with author Bill Roorbach here.

Photo credit: Jurvetson

Craft & Technique | Getting Published

Tuesday, June 16, 2009 2:55:19 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Friday, June 12, 2009

Stay on Premise, PLEASE!
Posted by Jane

Today's guest post features once again the delightful Darrelyn Saloom. (You can read her first guest post here, "The Song of Writing.") I'm sure you've all experienced some variation of the story below, which illustrates a huge lesson that some writers never learn—how to leave out all the unnecessary details! (Below: a picture of Darrelyn and her husband.)

My first stay-on-premise lesson was in a freshman creative writing class, Wendall Mayo handed back my long short story and told me he liked it—all five of them!

Hmmm? I expected a Pulitzer Prize, not this. Okay, so maybe I wandered a bit here—oh, yes—and there. But I thought it would explain this, prepare the reader for that. So, maybe he had a point. But it’s a great story! I thought. But no epiphany.

Until Mardi Gras. My husband, Danny, and I stood in a noisy, inebriated crowd to watch the parade. A tacky float towered above us as we jumped and bumped and fought for beads. We were waiting for the next float when a woman (we barely knew) huddled next to us and started talking. She told us she almost missed her flight to get here. And even with all the noise, we grinned and bent towards her to listen to her story.

On the way to the airport she had stopped for coffee. She ran into an old friend, who was married to her ex-husband’s cousin. Oh, oh, oh, she almost forgot that the cousin had been taking a break from posting pictures of her lost dog, Muffin, that often ran away, but never for three days! … I mean, she had a dog once that …

Here came the next float, but the woman kept talking. She was not even to the airport yet. She had segued from Muffin the dog to her own dog to her ex-husband’s cousin’s marital history! Danny and I stuck up our arms to show her we wanted to scatter like children to catch beads. But she kept talking. I could hear a band in the distance—The Northside High School Band—my favorite! But she kept talking and talking and talking.

My husband’s grin slipped away. And then his eyes began to glaze. By the time his chin pointed skyward, I knew she had lost him. But now a relative had died! Tears pooled in her eyes! So I made Ooh sounds to confirm the relative’s sudden death was terrible. A tragedy! But what happened to the almost-missed-my-flight story?

The Northside High School Band marched closer. I started to dance a little, not knowing if this was appropriate (but not really caring at that point.) The band stopped about a block away to twirl batons, gyrate, and shake. These kids could really dance, and I longed to spin around to watch them. But the woman’s swollen tears had spilled to her cheeks!

Which Danny never saw because he continued to stare skyward. And then he began to roll his head. He rolled and rolled until he (brilliantly) swung his body on the last roll, broke the huddle, and slinked away. And left me with the talking (now crying) woman.

When the marching band finally parked in front of us, I threw my hands to my ears, mouthed that I could no longer hear her, and whirled and wiggled and bopped away. The whole time thinking of Wendall Mayo’s lesson on premise, a lesson now pounded into me with every glorious bass drum beat.

Never heard how the woman raced across the airport in the nick of time to catch her flight. And, by the time I abandoned her on the crowded street, I really didn’t care. Her storytelling bored and confused me. All I wanted to do was to flee.

So if you ever find yourself telling a story. And the listeners’ eyes start to glaze, or their heads start to roll, or (heaven forbid) they flee. Chances are pretty good you’ve gone off your premise. So next time—for story’s sake—stay on premise, PLEASE!

Craft & Technique | General | Guest Post

Friday, June 12, 2009 11:10:40 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Friday, May 29, 2009

Just a Start (How a Writer Builds Confidence)
Posted by Jane

Today's guest post is from the lovely Jane Koenen Bretl—an aspiring author taking one day at a time, and writing about it. Her blog, jane, candid, is a sometimes funny, sometimes thoughtful, often irreverent account of one mom trying to start a writing career and make the kids catch the bus. Really, it’s just one jane’s look at life.

As someone just embarking on a new writing career, I am hard-pressed to offer hard-earned wisdom or sage writing advice. I have, oh, maybe 20 more years of rejection letters to look forward to before I will feel qualified to offer those nuggets of wisdom to the readers of this blog. What I can share is one jane's journey to become an Author, the kind I think of with a capital A.

Technically, I have no formal writing education. A business degree, ten years in the food industry, nearly a decade as a full-time mom, a children’s photography business of my own—none of these pursuits specifically qualify me to write more than newsletter cover articles and the Christmas card letter. Still, through career after career, one thought returns time and again—the desire to express myself through writing, and to ultimately be published. Sometimes it is better for me not to know how much I don’t know. The publishing industry might serve as a good example. However, a series of serendipitous events landed me in a writing course last June, where I finally found the courage to pursue my dream of becoming an author—to step off the ledge of comfort and face failure as a viable, admittedly probable, option … at least, I thought, until I figured out what I was doing.

Start by starting.

I worked on a few children’s book ideas, and threw myself into my new career the same way I did each one before it—by researching and reading and absorbing everything I could find about the topic. I had bookmarks of writing websites; the list was a mile long. I bought lots of books and writer's market guides and reference materials. The Elements of Style sat on my bedside table, as if the contents would continue to seep into my subconscious while I slept. All this research quickly led to lots of thinking about writing and reading about writing and planning for writing—without much actual writing about writing.

Did I mention start by starting?

I did submit one story to an anthology, because a writing instructor advised that anthologies were a good place to start building clips for a resume that had none. I wrote a second anthology piece but never bothered to send it in, since by then I hated the first submission and was seriously questioning the sanity of breaking into the publishing world in the first place. The more I read, the more intimidating the whole proposition seemed.

But I continued to read, read, read about writing until last December, when I signed up for the Writer’s Digest Editor’s Intensive event. How lucky that the F+W Media office is in my hometown! Serendipity strikes again! In my newbie enthusiasm, I glanced over one little detail: it is a really, really, REALLY good idea to have actually polished something before I sit down for 30 minutes with an editor.

Good thing we don’t know how much we don’t know or it would be hard to ever try something new.

So I showed up at the event, all bright eyed and shiny, ready to learn, learn, learn. It quickly became obvious (at least to me) that most everyone else in the room had several novels under their belt, had paid their dues, logged their hours, and were blogging or freelancing or had been writing full-time for years. I swear some attendees had tattoos with long-suffering potential book titles on their arms, and those were just the ones I could see. Oh, and they had actually written something great to discuss with the editor the next day.

Oops.

When I arrived for my 30-minute time slot, I wasn’t feeling so shiny. I did have a crackin’ query letter that received good feedback, but my chosen editor kindly and gently indicated the actual story needed a lot of work. Like the “start by starting over” kind of work. Not a surprise, really—after only a few months working on the story (in between all that reading), I already knew it was not ready for prime time. I did receive a wealth of helpful information and actionable advice from the editor. It was a great experience, even though I was secretly hoping the work contained a glimmer of brilliance somewhere deep down. Well, not this time. But the good news? I now had my first (albeit unofficial) "rejection" under my belt. Now I felt free to make more mistakes along the way. Rejection in any form, even the most kind, is painful yet still liberating. It was like that first scratch on a new car—it took away the need to worry about my mental bumpers.

So I listened, and I walked out the door with a new focus. Jane Friedman and the rest of the staff inspired me to join some social networks to build contacts and connections with other writers and potential readers. I could commit to writing (something) daily. I would start a blog (as soon as I figured out what a blog was) and use that as part of my daily writing practice, and as an idea incubator and network builder. I would start visiting lots of other blogs, leaving comments, and building up my own readership while creating more and more contacts along the way. Learning something new every day.

The fellow attendees of the conference? Several of them formed a Facebook discussion group, invited any attendee to join, and shared a heap of experience and information. And, of course, I learned that some of them shared my state of mind, the writer's blessing/curse to never think the words are quite right, yet. To keep revising and rewriting and wondering when. I wasn't alone with my doubts, or my over-active imagination. (I still wonder about the tattoos.)

That anthology piece? It was actually published this spring, and that gave me a shot in the arm. Actually it is still an IV drip of confidence as I keep the book next to my computer, there to remind me how I felt the day that book arrived in the mail. The book with my name in it. And my little story. Someday, my name could be on the cover, if I work hard.

Using Jane's advice to become more productive while becoming cyber-savvy, I started using (for the love of god) an RSS reader. Now I could satisfy my need to read voraciously about writing and still have time to write something. And, four months after its launch, I can say I truly enjoy the process of blogging and have, through that social media, found a new voice within myself. I just passed the 5,000 hit mark for jane, candid, a small number by many blog standards but a big milestone for me. I am not sure yet where this voice will take me. Actual income is a rational goal. I have to start by starting …

Craft & Technique | General | Getting Published | Guest Post

Friday, May 29, 2009 12:46:35 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Friday, May 22, 2009

The Song of Writing
Posted by Jane

Today I am thrilled to present a guest post from
writer Darrelyn Saloom. I met Darrelyn at a
recent Writer's Digest Editor Intensive, along with Deirdre Gogarty. These two amazing women are collaborating on a memoir about Deirdre, who is the 1997 Women's International Boxing Federation champion. You can follow Darrelyn on Twitter. (Photo shows Darrelyn in Cincinnati, with writers Barbara and Sean on either side, after the first day of the WD intensive event.)

It took me a long time to believe I could write. I’ve always enjoyed biographies and have read numerous lives of authors who lauded an educator in adolescence as their source of inspiration—a flash of insight burst forth while reading lines of dead poets: Shakespeare, Emerson, Dickinson, Keats. But no such teacher manifested for me in my teens or twenties (that would come later). For me, the muse bloomed with poetical songwriters of my generation: Smokey Robinson, Johnny Rivers, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and Carol King.

But it was my father, an encyclopedia salesman, who first planted the melodic seed. Filled with wanderlust, he never stopped traveling. Life with Daddy was spent in the backseat of a book-laden car, absorbing adventurous yarns, chirping along to Peter, Paul, and Mary. My Kentucky-born father crooned Stanley Brothers’ tunes and recited “The Raven.” Poe blended into a folk song of enchantment. So it was in the backseat of Daddy’s Ford Thunderbird (where my sisters and I hid kittens and candy) that I fell in love with the imagery of words, the rhythms of poetry, the song of writing.

But falling in love was easy. Hard was to realize I wanted to write. Harder was to believe that I could. The writers I craved were distinguished professors of the humanities. Columbia University PhDs or graduates and teachers of MFA programs; I had no degrees. I dropped out of high school, hitchhiked from the Louisiana bayous to the Oregon coast, picked beans on a farm, married young (and often) and birthed a family. But I grew restless for something unknown to me.

So I went to college in my thirties. I never finished. But now I could lay claim to teachers of literature and writing who encouraged me. Into my forties I continued to read and to study: The Southern Review, The Gettysburg Review, Glimmer Train, and—yes—Writer’s Digest (long before I ever met Jane Friedman). Circled words, underlined phrases and sentences, lists of definitions littered the backs of my books and magazines. I studied libraries on writing and punctuation, even The Chicago Manual of Style.

When I began to write narrative, my restlessness ceased. But did I believe in my ability? The stories I wrote were printed and stuffed into folders and drawers. A few were lost on an old hard drive. Yes, I was still intimidated by the MFAs and PhDs and only wrote for friends and family. But even with their praise, I did not believe in my ability. Belief would have to wait. (And to make things worse, I was about to turn fifty.)

Unable to submit my stories, I printed business cards and worked as a freelance editor. I excelled at spotting clients’ errors, picking apart proposals and briefs. Red ink pen in hand changed me. It improved my writing by opening my eyes to writers’ mistakes. Taught me that writing is a place I can never be impatient or lazy. For a writer must never stop learning. As for intimidation, it has started to slip away. Because now I know it’s hard work that conjures words into music and not a degree.

Here are two verses my father would often sing. I’ve started to wonder if he knew that one day (years after his passing) the lyrics would serve to sustain me. I can still hear his voice.

    If I had the wings of an angel
    O’er these prison walls I would fly
    I would fly to the arms of my lover
    And there I would lie till I die

    Oh, meet me tonight in the moonlight
    Meet me tonight all alone
    For I have a sad story to tell you
    It’s a story that’s never been told

(Researching this old ballad, I found as many versions as strings on three guitars. So I stuck to the only two verses and lyrics my father taught me when I was only two or three. It took me nearly fifty years to grasp that as a writer “belief” is like an angel’s wings. If you, too, struggle to believe in your writing ability, I hope this will inspire you to grow some wings and tell your stories.)

Craft & Technique | General | Guest Post

Friday, May 22, 2009 10:03:52 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Friday, May 15, 2009

Before You Decide to Pursue an MFA: 7 Essential Tips
Posted by Jane

Today we have a guest post from Writer's Digest author Tim Lemire (I'm an English Major, Now What).

Getting your MFA degree in creative writing sounds alluring, especially with the job market in the doldrums: “I think I’ll take a couple years off and work on the Craft.” But before you pack your bags with unfinished fiction or poems, clean underwear, and a whole lot o’ dreams, consider these caveats.

1. “Great writer” doesn’t necessarily translate to “great teacher.” You may fantasize about studying with your literary hero or heroine, but if meeting your heroes is disappointing (and it often is), being critiqued by them won’t be a joy ride either. Pick your MFA program based on something more than its star prof: e.g., location, course requirements, cost, length of program, diversity of student body.

2. “Professor” doesn’t necessarily translate to “mentor.” You may dream of your esteemed writer/professor taking you under her wing, introducing you to her contacts in publishing, getting you an agent, and inviting you to parties, but none of this is in her job description. Your teachers are there to read what you put in front of them and offer feedback -- period. You may end up getting special attention, but don’t expect it.

3. Talk and ask questions. As you consider programs, contact faculty and schedule time for a phone chat, to get to know them better. Also ask to be put in touch with current MFA students or recent alumni. Take notes.

4. Ask about workshop philosophy. Your success in workshop will depend largely on the critical atmosphere the moderating teacher allows. Ask professors: Do they insist on discussions that are respectful and helpful, or do they enjoy watching students mix it up like cats in a sack?

5. If you’re writing fiction, show up with a novel in draft. Short fiction is wonderful, but it doesn’t sell. Your professors know this and will likely critique any longer manuscript you have ready. (Confirm this with them.) Having a novel manuscript to show publishers or agents will stand you in better stead than having just a handful of stories.

6. Prepare for a schedule change. Working 9-to-5 can be a grind, but it’s predictable and secure. The academic schedule changes daily. Teaching classes, attending classes, holding office hours, working a part-time job, and trying to be a literary genius on top of it all is no small organizational feat. You will need to be an expert budgeter of time and energy.

7. Lower your expectations of being “literary” with your program colleagues. You’re going to graduate school, not stepping back in time to some 1920s-era fantasy of expatriates in Paris. Check your pipe, cape and bon mots at the door: The MFA program will likely be more work than you imagine.

Finally, if you’re not accepted into any MFA programs, don’t take it as a sign from the heavens that you weren’t meant to be a writer. That decision is up to you, not Fate or Destiny or some committee. There’s always next year, and plenty of writers fared OK with that MFA degree.

Tim Lemire, a graduate of the MFA program in creative writing at the University of Michigan, is the author of I'm An English Major -- Now What? How English Majors Can Find Happiness, Success, and a Real Job (Writer's Digest, 2006). He also posts TIM'S ENGLISH, a weekly five-minute podcast about effective communication: http://timsenglish.blogspot.com.

Craft & Technique | Guest Post

Friday, May 15, 2009 1:27:54 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Wednesday, May 13, 2009

News, Events, and Free Info at Writer's Digest
Posted by Jane

Today I'm taking a little break to let you know about some other stuff happening at Writer's Digest. Tomorrow I leave for the Pennwriters conference in Pittsburgh and will be Tweeting (@JaneFriedman) and blogging throughout the weekend.

Cool stuff on other WD blogs

What Should You Include on Your Bio for Agents?

Interview with Poet Justin Marks. Good tidbit where he says, "I've been given such large heaps of bad advice over the years I'm hesitant to offer any of my own. So maybe my advice should be, 'don't take any advice.' Then again, I've also gotten some good advice that has often helped sustain me: Trust yourself. Don't let anyone or anything stop you. Be willing to change. Perservere. Stuff like that."

Veteran writer and editor Mark Garvey gives advice to writers who are new to blogging.

Great agent advice from Jim McCarthy of Dystel & Goderich

From Script Notes: Are webscripts useful writing samples?

Free excerpts from new writing books

Download a PDF excerpt with great creative writing prompts, from our newest creativity title, Take Ten.

Check out a conversation with The Office co-creator Stephen Merchant where he talks about where the idea for the show came from and how it got onto the air. (From an upcoming title, Here's the Kicker.)

Upcoming events

WDB/BEA Writers Conference (May 27). This is the big kahuna where you can pitch to 66 agents and 4 editors during a 2-hour window. Even if you aren't successful in your pitch attempts here, you will learn so many amazing things about what makes an agent or editor jump on a project. The interaction is invaluable and can shave years off your path to publication. The full day costs $199 and includes the pitch session (plus lunch and terrific networking). I'll be there, as will most of my colleagues from Writer's Digest.

WD Editors' Intensive (June 20-21). Once again, we're opening up Writer's Digest HQ to 50 people for a personalized weekend of writing and publishing instruction. We spend a day coaching you about how to succeed in the changing landscape of publishing, then wrap it up with a one-on-one 30-minute appointment to discuss the first 50 pages of your manuscript or proposal. We've received excellent feedback from writers who've attended who love the up-close-and-personal interaction as well as the practical, hard-working information.

Online education

Guide to Literary Agents editor Chuck Sambuchino is hosting a live session tomorrow on how to land a literary agent. There's still time to register; follow the link here.

Writer's Market editor Robert Brewer (also known for his Poem-a-Day Challenge at Poetic Asides) is hosting a live session on May 29 on how to get your poetry published. You'll never meet a better expert, and you'll get an opportunity to ask him any question you like on the topic during the live event. Again, visit this site for registration links.

Unsure if an online event (webinar) is right for you? You can find our FAQs here.

We're launching a new WOW course, Hooked, which is focused on how to craft an amazing beginning to your novel—one that will catch the attention of agents and editors. It's nearly full, but we're still accepting students. Class starts on May 28. Go here for more info.

Competition deadlines

The deadline for the Writer's Digest International Self-Published Book Awards has been extended to May 20. Enter in 10 different categories, from poetry to humor. You could win $3,000, plus some winners are noticed by agents. (Yep, we have success stories of authors who have been picked up by a traditional house after winning this contest.) Click here for more information or to register your entry online.

This Friday marks the deadline for our biggest contest of the year: The Writer's Digest Annual Writing Competition, now in its 78th year. Grand prize includes a trip to NYC with a Writer's Digest editor to meet with agents.

As always: You can sign up for the WD newsletter on the homepage and receive a free-book on 70 common writing mistakes. You can also sign up for musings strictly from me, on writing and publishing (launching July 1). Go here to register.

Photo credit: Sister 72

Agents | Conferences/Events | Craft & Technique | General | Getting Published | New Titles From Writer's Digest | Self-Publishing

Wednesday, May 13, 2009 4:49:40 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Friday, April 24, 2009

Avoiding Red-Flag Mistakes on Your First Page
Posted by Jane

Yesterday, I presented a webinar on how you can critically review your manuscript (particularly the first pages) for red flags that lead to a rejection from an editor or agent. My thanks to the 25 participants who were courageous enough to allow us to critique their first pages.

For my blog readers, here are the common problems that we identified during the webinar:

Flashback on first page
Too much backstory or explanation, slowing story down
Waiting for the protagonist to appear (or unclear protagonist)
Starting with an alarm clock or ringing phone
Lots of characters introduced on first page
Ordinary day stuff (getting out of bed, walking to kitchen, etc)
Ordinary crisis moment without distinct voice or twist
Too much telling about the story, not enough showing
Nothing happens -- no action or problem
Interior monologue: in character's head, just lots of thinking, no acting or interaction with anyone else
Predictable story start or story line without a unique take
More of a journal entry (stream of consciousness), and not a story
Wrong starting point; not starting at a point of change
Too confusing, not enough reason or motivation to figure out what's happening

Here are other excellent resources:

An excerpt from Hooked (a book about story beginnings)
Alice's blog focusing on children's/YA
Chuck's blog, focusing on agents' perspectives
My take on common nonfiction problems (from my blog post at Pennwriters)
Big red flags in the first 25 pages (from my blog post at Harriette Austin)
My blog post about memoir/storytelling, inspired by Ira Glass (good for every genre)
8 Articles/Posts You Should Have Read in 2008

Agent/Query Research

AgentQuery.com
QueryShark

If you attended the webinar, I hope you found the information you were looking for. Don't forget to network with me on Facebook, Twitter (@JaneFriedman), and LinkedIn; I regularly post and share information of interest to writers seeking publication.

Check out next online event! How to Land a Literary Agent

Future webinars also include:

The Dreaded Synopsis
How to Get Your Poetry Published

Click here to view details on all upcoming online events .

Conferences/Events | Craft & Technique | Getting Published

Friday, April 24, 2009 9:47:33 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Why NOT to Get a Creative Writing Degree
Posted by Jane

I have a BFA in creative writing from the University of Evansville.

I took a mix of literature and writing courses, got practical experience as the editor of the Evansville Review and University Crescent (and had a fabulous time doing it), and was mentored by a professor who ultimately gave me a lead into F+W for my internship (now 12 years ago!).

I recently commented to a group of friends on Facebook that if I had to do it over again, I would not major in creative writing (though I would never, ever change a thing about my college publications experiences).

A college friend, who had also majored in writing, asked why. And now I share those reasons with you.

The most valuable lessons I've learned in my writing life never came from my formal education in it. I've learned much more through practice and through reading what I love. (Plus, in a nod to Writer's Digest, I've benefited from its prescriptive, nuts-and-bolts stuff that universities tend to eschew, but can really shave years off the learning curve.)
I've also found that the writers I enjoy have some intense interest, passion, or training that influences their style and point of view and voice. It really sets them apart.
I was just too damn young. Lots of the writing was merely cathartic.
I also learned much more through teaching composition to freshman.

So what major would I choose if I had to do it over again? Since you can improve your own writing simply by doing more of it (plus everyone gets better with age), I'm not sure I even care. It could be any major that provides something enriching, a different facet or perspective to my life thinking.

Given that business/marketing skills are often found in successful writers, that is a tempting choice. Sadly, most people think business/marketing are contrary to art and creativity. But 2 things to keep in mind:

Marketing should be about a service provided to people, not something inflicted on people! (Read: May I market for you? Thanks to Guy who helped lead me to this article.)
Business is as much about people and psychology as it is the numbers. I always like to quote Dana Gioia on this point, who once said the higher you get up the food chain, the more it's about qualitative judgment, not quantitative. Read this interview with him at the Wharton site.

That said, getting a degree in writing can give you the time and permission you need to focus on your writing. Plus a great mentor is invaluable.

But it doesn't help you develop a writing career or help you get published (if that's what you're expecting).

P.S. I still love and adore my alma mater.

Photo credit: Aunt Owwee

Craft & Technique | General

Wednesday, April 15, 2009 5:37:21 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Why LOST Has Become Unwatchable (It's All About the Writing)
Posted by Jane

[We now take a break from our regularly scheduled programming for the following rant.]

I've been a devoted fan of LOST since its debut. I have watched the first season four times; I have watched the second season three times; I have watched the third and fourth seasons twice.

I can watch it so repeatedly only because the writing is so damn good. I love how the audience is given credit for having a brain, that we have to guess at what people are thinking or feeling, and that even if people's motivations aren't apparent at the start, we sense a good reason for their actions, and there's a payoff when the full story (usually a back story) is revealed.

It is simply compelling to watch the characters interact and develop and grow. They act like real people. And we don't have all the answers.

Unfortunately, now that we're knee-deep in season five, it feels like LOST is starting to completely lose all the wonderful things that made it so good to begin with.

We now get touchy-feely emotional status updates or displays from the likes of Sawyer or Kate, as if we were watching daytime drama. I don't want people to vomit up their emotions every other scene! I want repression, misdirection, misunderstanding!
We now see characters do crazy things (that put themselves at enormous risk) that they have no reason or motivation to do (except out of the goody-goodness of their hearts).
Everything is now explained to us. (Hey, sorry folks if you haven't been able to follow the time-travel plot twists, let us break it down for you real slow during this excruciating conversation, revealing how dumb we think you really are.)
Numerous plot holes opening left and right. E.g., aren't people suspicious that Juliet has suddenly become a skilled surgeon when she was originally working the motor pool? Hello?

I just spent about 10 minutes Googling to find sympathizers, by searching:

Lost Season 5 poor writing
Lost Season 5 bad writing
Lost Season 5 terrible writing
Lost Season 5 writing

I found nothing. Am I being too tough on this show? Am I the only one? Aren't there any writers/editors watching? Does anyone agree it's quickly becoming unwatchable? (I think I may have some sympathizers over at AgentQuery due to a Tweet exchange on wanting to detonate the island.)

Craft & Technique | Fun

Tuesday, April 07, 2009 5:50:57 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Secrets to Getting What You Want (It's All About Rhetoric)
Posted by Jane

One of the first lessons I taught student writers, when I was instructing freshman composition, was the art of rhetoric. Rhetoric isn't a term many of us are familiar with, yet we employ rhetoric every day to get the things we want and to persuade people.

If a writer is an outstanding rhetorician, it means he knows how to persuade. Rhetoric (rather than writing) used to be studied in school. It still should be. (Read a history of rhetoric at Wikipedia.)

As a professional editor, when it comes to interacting with friends, family, and others (off the job), they all tend to think (or be fearful) that I am silently picking apart their writing style and grammar, looking for errors, or otherwise judging their proficiency. Nothing could be further from the truth. I might notice the errors, but as long as errors don't get in the way of meaning, who cares?

But I do notice when someone's rhetoric isn't effective. And that's when I tend to speak out in the most uninvited way. Like right now.

I happened to read this blog post about leadership, which uses the analogy of an orchestral conductor to make its point. Of course, whenever I find anything that mentions orchestral conducting, I send it to The Conductor! And I knew this blog post would push every single one of his buttons, and he'd be compelled to comment. (Which he did.)

With The Conductor's reluctant permission (and hopefully none of you consider this a public spectacle, just a very informative writing and publishing lesson!), I'm reproducing his original comment here, followed by my revised version, that shows how a great writer (as well as a great marketer) always gears a piece of writing for an intended audience.

ORIGINAL

You know, it’s misinformed nonsense like this that perpetuates the incorrect impressions people have about what it is a conductor actually does. (I blame all those Bugs Bunny cartoons!)

Of course, the “true visionary” is the composer. That’s why we classical musicians devote our lives to studying and performing their works hundreds of years after they were written. However, you are quite incorrect with your suggestion that every player has a score. This could not be further from the truth!

A typical conductor’s score has anywhere from 10 to 50 lines of music to be read simultaneously. The conductor must spend countless hours studying scores in preparation for rehearsals, for he is in fact the ONLY member of the ensemble who has a blueprint of what everyone is supposed to be doing. Each section of the orchestra has only their OWN part in front of them. The violins don’t know what the flute is playing. The timpani has no clue when the cellos are going to come in. Given that there are 80-100 people on stage, with differing experiences, musical attitudes, and abilities – SOMEONE has to lead. And that someone damn well knows what he’s doing.

Don’t believe me? Watch these 2 minutes of rehearsal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLLzZVsErjo

What you see in concert, when a conductor leads an ensemble through a performance, is the end product of dozens of hours of study by the conductor, and then yet another dozen hours or more of rehearsal.

Finally, the idea that the orchestra could do just fine without a conductor is also quite untrue. Yes there are orchestras, the oft-mentioned Orpheus Chamber Orchestra being the most celebrated, which performs sans conductor. However, what is less well-known is that in rehearsal, each and every rehearsal, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra chooses someone from the orchestra to conduct. And they must hold many more rehearsals than most orchestras in order to prepare for a performance without a conductor.

I’ve played in professional orchestras as a violinist for over 20 years, and have conducted for over a decade. Ask any professional musician playing in a major orchestra if it would be possible to perform a major work of Shostakovich, Mahler, or Schoenberg without a conductor. I assure you the answer will be, “no”. And this is why the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is a “Chamber” orchestra, and not a full orchestra.

REVISED
Note: The numbers in brackets refer to my commentary below.

[1] You are absolutely right that the true visionary is the composer. Classical musicians study and perform composers' works hundreds of years after they were written. However, your analogy doesn't quite reach perfection, since your suggestion that every player has a score is not entirely accurate.

[2] [3] Each section of the orchestra has only their own part in front of them. The violins don’t know what the flutes are playing. The timpani has no clue when the cellos are going to come in. You can have 80-100 people on stage, all with very individual parts (not to mention experiences, musical attitudes, and abilities). On the other hand, a typical conductor’s score keeps track of all this. It has anywhere from 10 to 50 lines of music to be read simultaneously. The conductor is the only member of the ensemble who has a blueprint of what everyone is supposed to be doing. What you see in concert, when a conductor leads an ensemble through a performance, is the result of a specific person making specific decisions and leading—decisions that are made during rehearsals before performance.

[4] You can see an example during these two minutes of a Leonard Bernstein rehearsal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLLzZVsErjo

[5] As you mention, though, there are orchestras, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra being the most celebrated, which performs sans conductor. What is less well-known is that in every rehearsal, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra chooses someone from the orchestra to conduct. And they hold many more rehearsals than most orchestras in order to prepare for a performance without a conductor.

[6] [7] [8] I have to admit, though, I am biased. I have conducted for over a decade. However, I’ve also played in professional orchestras as a violinist for even longer, and have watched how the personality, technique, and preparation of a conductor can dramatically change the outcome of a performance—for better and worse. As you note, a conductor who makes a spectacle of himself isn't leading, and in turn won't be respected by the orchestra, which will result in a poor performance. A great conductor knows how to get out of the way and focus everyone's attention and passion on the music (or the composer and score, as you point out).

[1] I've removed the first lines in the original because it will automatically make the reader defensive and unlikely to listen to the forthcoming viewpoint. Studies have shown that it takes about 10 compliments to make up for 1 negative remark. Also think of it this way: Whatever your initial tone, or whatever feeling you convey, that will likely result in the same feeling in the reader. So if you're looking for sympathy, but not extending any to start, you'll have a more difficult time convincing anyone of your argument!

[2] I've reorganized information here so it focuses, first and foremost, on the immense challenge at hand: lots of individual parts that need to be … orchestrated. Putting out these facts then raises the question in the mind of the reader before you make your ultimate point and provide a solution. So, your reader is already agreeing with you before you even make the point.

[3] Exclamation points, all caps, or rhetorical questions can often subvert the point you're trying to make, rather than support it. I recommend eliminating in favor of language that's clearer or stronger.

[4] When you provide evidence, always be specific if you want someone to pay attention to it. (Also avoid snarkiness if you want someone to be attentive to your examples and take them seriously.)

[5] Repeating tactics from [2].

[6] Eventually, you do have to claim how your POV is biased (either directly or indirectly). This doesn't necessarily mean your POV is any less credible or persuasive. Rather than using it as a way to force your authority, use it to garner additional understanding.

[7] I've taken out specific references to composers, because unless one understands the challenges these composers present, the argument is not effective, and even worse, it alienates your audience if they don't understand.

[8] It's always best to end on a note of agreement, and find that common ground again. So I've put some words in the mouth of our conductor-writer here.

——

OK, this has been a long post. Congratulations to those who stuck with it! You can also see a more direct business benefit (related to rhetoric) over at All Things Workplace (that talks about always using "you" and "because" to get what you want).

Photo credit: jordanfischer

Craft & Technique | Fun | General

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 5:27:51 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

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Tuesday, March 03, 2009

3 Questions Writers Love to Ask (That Really Have No Concrete Answer)
Posted by Jane

I was recently invited to an online Q&A with UCLA's extension course on Finding a Home for Your Essay (Online), taught by Victoria Zackheim.

It's always invigorating and interesting to field questions from writers that remind you what it's like to undertake the endeavor to write and publish. Sometimes, after being in the industry a while, your mindset becomes so business focused you forget how much feeling is wrapped up in it.

I thought I would share some excerpts from our session together. (For better or worse, the most interesting questions are usually the ones that can't be concretely answered.) A big thanks to the students for their thoughtful questions (which have been condensed for brevity's sake).

Do you have any tips or tricks for faking an authoritative voice [in writing]?

When I think about "authoritative voice," it seems more applicable to instructional or informational pieces. If you're writing a personal essay or memoir, then I would say you need an authentic or distinctive voice more than an authoritative one. Figuring out a voice that is natural and authentic to you is a long process; writers refine their voice over many years. I'm not sure I have a single trick or tip that would help you nail it.

However, you can find excellent advice in a book by Vivian Gornick, The Situation and the Story, that talks about how to craft personal stories with great resonance. It's all about knowing what's unique about YOUR perspective on something, what makes your "I" perception different and interesting, apart from all others.

For any of you who have read Eat, Pray, Love: That's an example where the writing and voice is very distinct and confident, but I wouldn't characterize it as authoritative.

I've heard from agents that they think "I write well" but they "just didn't fall in love with this book." It's probably inscrutable, but can you put your finger on things that make agents/editors fall in love with work?

You might find the book The First Five Pages by agent Noah Lukeman to be helpful, because he identifies all the mistakes that writers tend to make that can turn off agents/editors (or lead to the "didn't fall in love with this").

There's also a great book by Donald Maass called Writing the Breakout Novel that identifies how novels can reach that next level of rich scope and detail that makes them truly magnificent. (And he has another book releasing this spring called Fire in Fiction that should be helpful for anyone who's missing that inscrutable quality.) Of course these books are for fiction writers, but for anyone telling a story with characters, many of the same principles apply.

But from my perspective: This "no love" response usually means one of the following things:
Your characters weren't compelling or original enough
Your story wasn't unique or engaging enough (in the end, it all comes down to story)
You may have the technical skill down, but you haven't yet crafted something that really sets itself apart from everything else that's out there.

Or, it could be a simple matter of not having found the right agent/editor who WILL fall in love with your work. It takes time.

Is there any advice you can give me about confidence in my writing?

This will sound terribly unhelpful, but you can decide to have confidence in your writing as soon as you're ready to have confidence. It's really just a matter of making that choice. No one can give it to you.

There's a story about a master violinist and his student. Roughly paraphrased, it goes something like this: The student asks, "Tell me, am I any good? Should I keep pursuing this?" The master replies, "If you have to ask for my permission, then you don't have what it takes." (If anyone has a link to the original story, please share!)

Same applies to writing. Of all the people who set out to write, of those who succeed, it's the ones who most doggedly pursue it, no matter what people tell them (not the ones who are the most talented).

Writing takes persistence more than confidence or talent. And in fact, a little lack of confidence is good for most writers. It pushes you to do better.

And in regards to pleasing an editor, try instead to think of your reader. Don't write for the editor, write for your intended audience. Take the focus off of you and how much you succeed with the editor. How much are you succeeding with your reader? What does your reader think? That should help alleviate many of your concerns.

What about you? Do you have tips or tricks that have helped you gain confidence and authority in your writing?

Photo credit: Matthew Dutile

Craft & Technique | General | Getting Published

Tuesday, March 03, 2009 4:36:12 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

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Thursday, February 12, 2009

Secrets of Great Storytelling (Particularly for Memoirists)
Posted by Jane

If you've been reading this blog long enough, you know how strongly I recommend Ira Glass as a resource on learning how to storytell. Even though his medium is radio, the same concepts apply to written stories as well, particularly personal stories.

I recently discovered Ira's Manifesto over at Transom. As I've said before: It has the ability to change your stories overnight.

Two nuggets to get you interested:

Some stories definitely aren't worth pursuing. These are stories where everything reminds you too much of other stories you've already heard, and stories where there's no sympathetic character (it's hard for the story to carry much feeling if there's no one in the story to relate to), and stories where everything kind of works out as you'd sort of expect. Surprise is important. …

And yes, there are ways to get a story to work. Often this means you have to think about what the heart of the story is about, and figure out how to make that more present. This can involve adding moments and scenes that build up the central conflict (and pruning away the ones that don't). It can mean making explicit what the story means, stating more directly what the point of the whole thing is. More about that below.

Another reason to click-thru: The great Q&A session that follows each part of the manifesto. Rewarding.

Craft & Technique

Thursday, February 12, 2009 7:01:25 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

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Thursday, January 22, 2009

Craft a Salable Nonfiction Hook
Posted by Jane

As promised, I am critiquing two nonfiction book concepts that were submitted in the comments of my post yesterday. (Background: If you're one of the first 50 people to sign up for my webinar on Jan. 29, you'll get a personalized critique of your book's hook, up to 100 words. So far, we have about 7 seats left until we reach 50. You can register here.)

Here's a nonfiction book concept submitted by Deborah:

Have you ever wanted to do something but told yourself it wasn’t possible? In “Honey, This Isn’t Walden,” you’ll read the story of a woman who dragged her professor-husband and three kids to 32 acres in the middle of nowhere to start a 19th century homestead. With no background in animal husbandry or farming, the family starts raising goats, pigs, chickens, and other animals, as they try to grow their own food in an organic garden. After laughing, crying, and shaking your head as you read about their mistakes, you’ll wonder what’s stopping you from doing what you’ve always wanted.

Here's the first stage of revision; I have made up some details that may not necessarily be true but can be adjusted as needed.

“Honey, This Isn’t Walden": How a wife and mother of three, without any experience in rural life, takes her urban and professorial family to live on 32 acres in Nowhere, Kansas, where they undertake animal husbandry and organic gardening.

Step two would be figuring out more specifically from the author what big thing CHANGED for the family. While it can be a lesson about doing what you've always wanted, there does need to be some kind of story arc where we have a major conflict that has to be resolved (not just a series of charming anecdotes). Is a broken marriage repaired? Do kids kick drug habits? These are dramatic examples, but you get the idea. Or, if this book really is just a series of charming anecdotes, it will be tougher to sell—and will need a catchier or more intriguing title, like "How Animal Husbandry Brings Families Together." (A more intriguing title in general is recommended.)

Here's a nonfiction book concept submitted by Cathy:

In "Thrifty Girl: Tips and Survival Strategies for Guilt-Free Spending in the Real World," Ms. Shouse, a Chartered Financial Consultant with 16 years experience, and more importantly a mom and wife seeking economic sanity, advises to stop thinking of money management as a dirty word but to seek an enlightened view of finances.

"They call it personal finance because it's personal and so-called experts should stop telling people what they can and can't do," she says. "My methods teaches readers to achieve their unique money goals by design and have a ball doing it."

Here's how I would revise; again I'm taking liberties with the actual book content to illustrate how to improve.

"Stop Listening to the Financial Experts: An Action Plan for Guilt-Free Spending in the Real World" offers a customizable 12-point plan that encourages you to ignore the finance experts and spend in areas that matter to you—putting the "personal" back in personal finance. Authored by a financial consultant with 16 years of experience, this book shows you how to take a more enlightened path to money management that doesn't feel dirty, accomplishes your unique long-term goals, and leaves you at peace at the end of the day. You might even have fun while doing it.

The key here is to focus on concrete benefits the book is going to deliver. The author's credentials (in a nonfiction book hook this brief) should only be mentioned as a way to clarify the author's authority or expertise. I also amended the title to be more attention-grabbing, because for me, the best thing about this book's positioning is that it will teach you how to manage your money based on personal qualities you have, and not some strange, alien economic or financial principles you're not familiar with and might not comprehend.

Now that I've given my two cents, what do you think? How could these be further improved? (Sometimes I miss some real obvious improvements!)

Photo credit: Kevin Dooley

Craft & Technique | Getting Published

Thursday, January 22, 2009 6:11:07 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

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Thursday, September 18, 2008

From First Draft to Finished Novel
Posted by Jane

One of our newest releases, From First Draft to Finished Novel, scored a positive review over at Armchair Interviews. Here's a little of what they had to say:

From First Draft to Finished Novel is a wonderful addition to the writer’s reference library Wiesner makes things as easy as possible for the reader. She includes a glossary of terms, story plan checklist exercises, editing and polishing exercises and various worksheets. Her writing is concise and easily understood, even for the novice writer.

Find out more about this book here—plus download free worksheets!

Craft & Technique | New Titles From Writer's Digest

Thursday, September 18, 2008 4:56:55 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Monday, September 08, 2008

10 Years in Publishing: What I've Learned (#1)
Posted by Jane

To celebrate my 10 years with F+W Media, this week I'm blogging on five things I've learned after ten years in the business. Above I've posted a lovely photo of moi (taken by HR) on my first day of trade publishing life: August 3, 1998. If you like that photo, just wait. I'll post some more treasures from those glory years.

What I've learned #1:

Many authors claim they want good editors—and bemoan the fact that editors don't edit any more—but few authors graciously accept thorough editing and attention from their editors (when it does occur).

You often hear these days that editors no longer edit—that they're too busy doing other things, like meeting with sales and marketing, creating innovative products to compete with digital media, or simply managing the day-to-day tasks of producing dozens of titles per year.

What I've found, though, is that an editor's life can be made miserable if she offers up a thorough development or content edit, because the author's ego (or attitude) gets in the way.

This already sounds like terrible, horrible cliche—the writer vs. editor, us vs. them mentality that, frankly, is quite tired and tiresome for me.

Let's try to take this a step further then, shall we? Perhaps even into positive territory!

1. First, remind yourself that the editor is trying to make the best book possible, and the suggestions/edits are meant to improve the book and help it succeed.

Now, some editors have poor bedside manner (they only make negative comments; they never sprinkle in positive comments or helpful encouragement). I myself am guilty of this. But you must look past it. This editor wouldn't have agreed to work with you if she didn't believe in your idea, in your work, or in you. The admiration is there—the editing process is getting down to brass tacks, it is a laser-like focus on How can we take this to the next level?

The edits aren't there to tell you what you did wrong. The edits are there to provide an outsider's perspective as well as an expert's perspective on your work. This should be invaluable feedback for improving your work and your own skills. If you're scanning the editor's comments looking only for variations of "What a genius you are!" you've completely misunderstood the editor's role. She's not there to bolster your self-worth. She's there to push you and challenge you.

2. You will inevitably disagree with some of the editor's suggestions. This is natural, this is expected, and this is nothing to get upset about.

The editor is not always right, of course. But there's no reason to get angry if you disagree with her suggestions; anger or frustration over edits is wasted energy. Why? See Point 3 below.

Also: Occasionally I work as a freelance copyeditor, and I'm always befuddled when I'm (frequently) told by the assigning editor, "Don't go too heavy or the author will freak out." Why do authors consider it a bad thing when their work is tightened, clarified, or otherwise improved? As a writer myself, I actually do know why. Because we become far too attached to our own words; we see them as extensions of our mind, heart, or soul. To see any of it cut—it's like having an internal organ dug out with a spoon. Guess what? It's time to stop treating our words as hallowed ground.

If you find yourself disagreeing with everything the editor says, then evaluate whether you both have the same vision for the work. Has there been a critical misunderstanding as far as what the work is supposed to achieve? Obviously there can be different perspectives even when you're both headed for the same goal, but everyone's in trouble if you can't find common ground on the fundamental issues of unique selling point (of the book), target audience, and how to approach that audience.

3. Have a conversation with the editor (via phone or e-mail) in instances where you have a differing viewpoint.

Again, the key is to have a productive conversation—and not flare up or lash out when your work is being revised, questioned, or cut apart. The editor will greatly respect you if you take the following approach in each conversation:

a) Clearly identify the edit/suggestion that you have differing opinions on.
b) Summarize why you think the editor wants you to make the change. If a reason was not given by the editor, ask why the change or revision was suggested.
c) Once you fully understand why the change was suggested, explain either why you think the original version should remain, or suggest an alternative solution.

The key here is that when you explain (c), it should tie into what's best for the reader, the market, or the book. Any editor worth her salt will hear you out, and she'll be persuaded to your way of thinking if your argument is sound.

Most writers are not very good at self-editing—it is an incredibly rare skill. It's why most writers belong to critique groups, so they can get hopefully impartial feedback that will help them improve their work.

It's also part of your skill set to learn how to work effectively with editors. It may not come naturally at first, but if you're lucky enough to have a dedicated editor—an editor who edits—it's a gift. Learn how to take advantage of it, not get upset over it.

Craft & Technique | F+W Life | General | Getting Published

Monday, September 08, 2008 3:07:43 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Take Our Quick Survey on Writing and Critique Groups
Posted by Jane

As you might've read late last week, Writer's Digest wants to know your thoughts on participating in writing groups and critique groups. Have you ever been part of an active critique group? Did your writing improve? Would you buy a book on the subject? Take this short 10-question survey, and let us know what you think!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Y6cvGHFtAdXoJbVL1rSNzg_3d_3d

So far, the comments we've received through various blog postings have been excellent. After reviewing the comments, it appears a useful book would include the following features, benefits, or information:

The Basics

The difference between writers' groups and critique groups
Open groups vs. closed groups; other types of groups; ideal group size
How to start a group; how to run a group; multiple techniques/strategies for hosting
How to develop ground rules for a group
Compatibility between group members (skill level, genre, etc)
How to be a productive member
How to avoid "bad" groups and find "good" groups; questions to ask a group before joining
Typical bad experiences and how to avoid them
Handling conflict and other communication skills
Questionnaires for forming groups and finding the "right" members
How to shake up a group that's gone stagnant

Critiquing

When listening/encouragement are more important than a critique
How to go beyond "I like it" or "I don't like it"
How to adapt feedback to the level of writer you're critiquing
Multiple techniques for critiquing; guidelines for different types of critiques
How to receive or listen to critiques; questions to ask your critiquers
How to incorporate feedback into your work; judging your own work
Critique checklists

Other

Joining online groups vs. local/regional groups
Case studies or profiles of successful groups
Exercises/prompts for different types or levels of group; adapting prompts for group use
How do you find a group that's the right fit for you? Or how does one find a group, period?
Provide a directory or "match" service?

Craft & Technique | General

Tuesday, August 26, 2008 3:32:00 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Friday, August 22, 2008

Podcast Interview With Lee Lofland
Posted by Jane

Bleak House Books has interviewed WDB author Lee Lofland (Police Procedure & Investigation) about his views on writing and law enforcement. Click here to go straight to the podcast.

Click here to read an excerpt from Police Procedure & Investigation.

Craft & Technique | New Titles From F+W

Friday, August 22, 2008 3:20:12 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Monday, August 18, 2008

Is Your Memoir Kind of Like Those Horrible Singers on American Idol?
Posted by Jane

A freelancer and colleague, Jana Reiss, e-mailed me a few comments about my last blog post that I wanted to share. (Jana is a former reviewer at Publishers Weekly.)

At PW I would get a lot of self-published memoirs for review, and authors never quite understood why I wasn't assigning their work. I couldn't exactly say, "Your writing sucks," even if that happened to be true, but I would tell them the same kinds of things you are saying here -- that unless you already have a celebrity platform or some kind of wonderful eat-pray-love kind of experience, no one outside your immediate circle is usually going to care what you have to say.

I laughed when I saw your description of writers who rely on their friends and family to tell them that their writing is terrific and sure to be featured on Oprah. I was on a panel once with an editor who asked all the first-time writers in the audience if they had ever seen the early episodes of American Idol. Most had. He said something like, "Those people who can't sing are always telling Simon Cowell, 'But my friends and my parents say I'm a really great singer!' And those people are horrible singers. You need a professional opinion." It was a great analogy and, judging from the uncomfortable looks of many people in the audience, he got his point across.

Another technique I have tried when speaking to writers is to ask them about the memoirs they have read recently. What did they like about them? Then I point out that the memoirs they have mentioned are without exception either a) written by celebrities or b) already bestsellers. It's a sobering thing when they realize that if THEY don't read memoir when it's not already water-cooler talk, why should anyone plunk down $24.95 for their story?

Many thanks to Jana for sharing her advice! More people need to hear it.

Craft & Technique | Getting Published

Monday, August 18, 2008 12:15:37 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Sunday, August 17, 2008

On the Road: SSU Writers' Workshop (And: Memoir/Storytelling Tips)
Posted by Jane

Today was the final day of the Sacramento State University Writers' Conference; I arrived on Friday and have been meeting with writers and speaking since early on Saturday morning. This afternoon I was off-duty and walked to a nearby Borders (pictured above)—the first time I've walked into a bookstore flanked with palm trees.

But down to business.

Saturday (early morning): Manuscript Critiques
Before the conference, I was sent 20-page manuscript samples from five writers. Four of the five were memoir or life story manuscripts. Let me state right out that memoir is difficult to do well, yet lots of people are attempting it. If you're not a celebrity, then your story has to survive on the art and craft of the writing, or your sharp and unique perspective—no easy feat for a new or inexperienced writer. Of the manuscripts I read, they tended to be:

Very raw and personal. This makes it difficult to revise with the requisite distance. Some of the manuscripts I read used excerpts from journals/diaries, which is usually not a good idea if we're talking about producing publishable work.
Lacking a story arc. The reader needs to have a reason to keep reading, to feel like they are in the hands of an experienced storyteller. Even the life or the experience seems chaotic and without shape, there needs to be a shape and order on the page.
Cathartic. Writing is an excellent way to find or make meaning out of painful and confusing experiences. But such writing isn't necessarily publishable. Personal essay and memoir has to go beyond a cathartic experience (that benefits the writer alone) and give the reader a compelling reason to keep reading.

Saturday (mid-morning): Speed Pitching
I participated in a two-hour pitch session, where writers had three minutes to pitch their projects to editors/agents, one-on-one. Again, I encountered many writers trying to tell their life stories or family stories.

RED FLAG: Memoir & Life Story
I can't begin to tell you how often I hear the following at writer's conferences (and from writers all over the map):

"My friends and family love my stories. They said I should write them down."
"I wrote this just for my family, but they said it should be a published book."
"My [family member] had an amazing life. Her stories deserve to be written and published so they're not lost forever."

What I'm about to say may appear cold, unfeeling, or downright mean, but:

OK: Your life stories or family stories are unique and deserve to be shared. But do they deserve book publication? Or, more importantly, do you have the talent to tell these stories through the written word so that they do deserve book publication?

Everyone forgets that writing is a craft that takes years of dedication and practice to become skilled at. If you haven't been practicing the craft for years, there is little chance that your initial efforts to write your life story or memoir will be publishable, and even then, only with an incredible amount of hard work and revision.

The same is true for fiction writers, of course. Very few novelists ever publish their first manuscript. Or second. Or third. Or fourth. It takes time before you get good—in any genre.

The truth is: You could have the most sensational, unusual story ever, or the most boring story ever, but whether it's successful on the page all depends on your skill as a storyteller and as a writer—and not everyone has this skill. Period.

Friends and family give bad advice. Don't forget that. They may love your stories, but they also love you (presumably!). That's why they're telling you to write and publish.

When I meet discouraged memoirists and personal essayists, I think (unashamedly): Good! It's good that you're getting tired of it, that you're getting frustrated. It means you don't have what it takes, and you need to move onto something else. Book writing and publishing is not a money maker, it is not going to bring you fame and celebrity, and it will not bring in a flood of readers. It will likely disappoint. If you must have something for posterity, self-publish. Or save your money and save your stories in a Word document that you back up on multiple hard drives.

OK. Off soapbox.

Keynote: Dinah Lenney
Now that I've said my piece about aspiring memoirists (apologies to all memoirists!), let me talk about Dinah, who gave the keynote and has a published memoir. Her talk focused primarily on memoir, and it was the best talk I've ever heard on the genre. Generous, honest, funny. Her main point was that memoir is a performance that's driven by your voice or your presence. It's not necessarily the content, but your "cover" of the content. That is: Memoirists "cover" the past, take on the past, riff on the past, filter it and interpret it for an audience. She also had a great quote from Stendhal, "The heart can make anything seem important."

It reminded me of a series on storytelling by Ira Glass. Here's the first in the series. (I may have already referenced this before, but it's worth referencing again.)

My Sessions
For those who would like the PowerPoint presentations from my sessions (as PDFs), here they are!

Craft a Salable Nonfiction Book Concept: NonfictionBk.pdf (894.3 KB)
The Times They Are A-Changin': Times-Changin.pdf (926.16 KB)

Many thanks to the board members of the Sac State workshop, particularly Amy Ruddell, Verna Dreisbach, and Bill Pieper. If you'd like to read some blog posts about the conference, visit this site.

Conferences/Events | Craft & Technique | Getting Published

Sunday, August 17, 2008 6:12:48 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Thursday, August 14, 2008

Do You Treat Writing Like a LOVER on the Side?
Posted by Jane

Speaking as an editor/publisher, some books will always hold a special place in my heart, long after they've been published and ceased being bestsellers. Well here's a book that still deserves to be a bestseller, year after year (even more so than Anne Lamott's tome!): Page After Page by Heather Sellers. (We also published a follow-up, Chapter After Chapter, which some people say is even better!)

Fortunately, readers are still discovering this gem every day; here's one example:

The more I read of it, the more I love it and want to give Heather Sellers a really big hug. Over lunch I read her take on people who are always saying "I'm so busy! I'm so stressed! I have so much to do!" I work with people like this. They drive me crazy. I worked out a while back and everyone is busy. It's ridiculous to tell people that you're busy. We know you are, because we are too. A Heather says - we all get 24 hours in a day, how are you going to use yours? She also wrote a whole bunch about treating writing like a lover instead of a mistress (or whatever the word is for women who have another dude on the side) and giving it attention and love and dreaming about it. Anyway, I love this book. I am reading it in small doses, digesting and completing exercises.

Click here to visit the writer's blog.

Craft & Technique | General

Thursday, August 14, 2008 6:21:30 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Interview With Faculty Chair of Vermont MFA Program
Posted by Jane

Here at Writer's Digest, we have been extremely fortunate to work with the faculty chair of the Vermont MFA program, David Jauss, to publish his writing instruction (or non-instruction) book, Alone With All That Could Happen. It is a lovely book that I hope gets the attention it so richly deserves. (In early 2009, we're also publishing a collection of essays from the Vermont MFA faculty called Words Overflown By Stars.)

For those who aren't aware, the Vermont MFA program (a low-residency program for creative writers) was ranked one of the best in the country by Atlantic magazine. So we're particularly excited about the partnership.

In any case, the whole purpose of this post is to let you know of a terrific 30-minute interview with David Jauss with Shelagh Shapiro, for her show called "Write the Book" on WOMM-LP 105.9 FM (Burlington, Vermont). It's available for free as a podcast through iTunes, or you can visit the show online and listen here: Write the Book podcast (July 26).

Craft & Technique | New Titles From F+W

Wednesday, July 30, 2008 2:53:46 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Friday, July 25, 2008

Recap (Day 2): Midwest Writers Workshop
Posted by Jane

This morning I met with writers for manuscript critiques. The most common problem?

Too much detail and explanation in the opening
That means too much telling and showing. (Do we really need to watch your character move slowly from one place to another, each movement, each gesture, each breath? That's not building momentum. That's usually called boring.) Carefully consider if each detail or action needs to be specifically conveyed. (Is it OK if it is only implied?) Here's a challenge I presented to three different writers: Can you take your first five pages, and condense into 1 page? 1 paragraph? What happens? What stays, what goes? Is it stronger?

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Midwest Writers Workshop
Bill Fitzhugh delivered the lunch keynote. Highlights of his talk:

There are still dry counties in Mississippi.
Remember to do the research.
It's mostly hard work, but sometimes 10,000 butterflies come in through the window, then they leave. And you work to make that happen again.

In the afternoon, I once again delivered my session on crafting a saleable nonfiction book concept that will attract the attention of agents and editors. (You can go here to download the PowerPoint presentation as PDF file.) If you attended the MWW session and still need the handouts (three pages total), then e-mail me at wdbooks@fwpubs.com, and I'll send them to you as PDF files.

Conferences/Events | Craft & Technique | Getting Published

Friday, July 25, 2008 6:09:32 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Tuesday, July 22, 2008

How Writing a Novel Is Like Falling in Love
Posted by Jane

There are many stages of a relationship, just as there are many stages of your novel writing and revision process. Blogger Libba Bray has written a charming piece that illustrates how you fall in and out of love with your work:

THE FIRST DRAFT
I love this book. And it loves me. I never want to be without this book. Never, ever. What? Were you saying something? I'm sorry I can't hear you because my book just said the best thing ever. Wait--just listen to this sentence. I know! Isn't my book so dreamy? I love you, book. Do you love me? Of course you do. OMG--we said that at the SAME TIME! WE ARE SO IN TUNE! This is going to be the best book ever written. Oh, whisper that again. I Pulitzer you too, honey. Sigh.

Read the full post here. Thanks to Nancy Parish at F+W for sharing it with us!

Craft & Technique | Fun

Tuesday, July 22, 2008 3:50:47 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Saturday, July 19, 2008

Recap: Harriette Austin Writers Conference
Posted by Jane

I always love journeying to the South for a writing event; aside from getting to hear the regular and charming "Yes, ma'am" near and far, I never have to sigh over yet another ubiquitous conference cheesecake. Here, I get to choose among blackberry cobbler, banana pudding, and apple pie!

But down to business.

Here at Harriette Austin, Saturday was a full day of workshops and one-on-one critiques; unfortunately I didn't have a window to attend other sessions. But I do have a few tips based on my manuscript critiques—I read the first 15 manuscript pages of eight different novels. The same red flags appeared again and again.

Big Red Flags in First 15 Pages

No clear protagonist-problem. Of the manuscripts I read, only two had a very clear protagonist with an identifiable problem. For most first-time novelists, this is a requirement for a story beginning. Also, several manuscripts had more than three POV characters in first 15 pages, which can create a dizzying experience for the reader. It's a big risk.
Slow start. About half of the manuscripts I read had very slow starts, where the story was mainly taking place in the characters' heads, or it suffered from too much backstory too soon. Resist the temptation to flashback or give a lot of detail about the past; move the story forward instead, and weave in the backstory (only as absolutely required) as you go. I recommend Hooked by Les Edgerton to help refine your first few chapters.
In two manuscripts I read, the authors were trying to position their work as fiction, but it was clearly a true-to-life story. In both cases, the authors felt their stories were more marketable or safe if written as novels. Unfortunately, this often creates more problems than it solves.

Crafting a High-Powered Nonfiction Book Concept
Here at Harriette I debuted a new session that focuses on how to develop a killer concept for a nonfiction book (with the exception of memoir). I usually deliver sessions on writing nonfiction book proposals, but I realized these sessions totally missed the big problem that authors have. The key struggle is coming up with a concept that will sell. If the author has evidence that his or her book idea will sell, the proposal practically writes itself.

Click this link to download a PDF of the PowerPoint presentation: NonfictionBk.pdf (894.3 KB)

The Harriette conference features about a dozen different publishing professionals (editors and agents), and takes place in a delightful venue—the University of Georgia Center. They take excellent care of both presenters and attendees, and I highly recommend it to all aspiring writers, especially novelists.

Conferences/Events | Craft & Technique | Getting Published

Saturday, July 19, 2008 6:49:52 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Writer's Digest Books Excerpt Extravaganza!
Posted by Jane

Our newest team member, Melissa Hill, has been busy posting excerpts of Writer's Digest titles on our web site (both new and old), so I wanted to share with you the full list of free material now available. Welcome your suggestions of what you'd like to see posted or distributed from our catalog of titles!

EXCERPTS ON OUR SITE (click on title to be taken directly to excerpt)

Fiction writing

Make a Scene: Open Your Action Scene With Gusto
Fiction Writer's Workshop: Dialogue as Conversation
WGF: Revision & Self Editing: Tips for Revising Your Manuscript
Mind of Your Story: Creating Stand-Out Characters Using a Specific Distinctive Trait
The Power of Point of View: What Your POV Choice Communicates About Your Story
From First Draft to Finished Novel: Principles of Building a Story
Bullies, Bastards, and Bitches: Defining and Developing Your Anti-Hero
Alone With All That Could Happen: Autobiographobia

Inspiration

Pocket Muse II: From the Introduction, addressing artistic despair
Writer's Book of Matches: How to use the prompts in the book

Nonfiction writing

You Don't Have to Be Famous: The Right Attitude for Writing Your Life Story
Writing Life Stories (2nd edition): Challenging the Limits of Memory

General

Book in a Month: 4 Tips for Making Time to Write
Write Is a Verb: The Four Energies of Writing (What's Your Fuel?)
How I Got Published: The Secret to Getting Published
Writer Mama: The Write-at-Home Mom
The Craft & Business of Writing: The Writer-Editor Relationship

Other genres

101 Songwriting Wrongs: Capturing Ideas Before They Get Away
The Rhythm Method, Razzmattazz, and Memory: The Action Verb and Beautiful Accidents
Writing the Christian Romance: From the Introduction
Writing & Selling the YA Novel: Finding Strong Ideas for Teen Fiction

Reference

Howdunit: Police Procedure & Investigation: What a Detective Does
Howdunit Forensics: Time of Death (A Critical Part of the Timeline)

PDF DOWNLOADS (click on the title to be taken to a landing page linking to the download)

The Pirate Primer (a lexicon of pirate language)
Chapter 8: Insults

Noble's Book of Writing Blunders
Table of Contents, Introduction, and "Don't Add Adverbs and Adjectives to Prettify Your Prose"

By Cunning & Craft
A section on crafting your characters, because fiction is all about people

Howdunit: Police Procedure & Investigation
Table of Contents, and tips to sharpen your CSI skills

Between the Lines
A section on creating effective backstory

Novelist's Boot Camp
Mission III: Enlist Your New Recruits

Chapter After Chapter
Find your writing wings

Hooked
Opening scenes: an overview

What Would Your Character Do?
Scenario: Family Picnic

Craft & Technique | Excerpts | Getting Published

Wednesday, July 09, 2008 4:00:57 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Tuesday, July 08, 2008

New Title in Write Great Fiction Series
Posted by Jane

Our newest title in the Write Great Fiction series, Revision & Self-Editing by James Scott Bell (who also authored Plot & Structure), is now widely available, and reviews are starting to appear. Here's a snippet from C.J. Darlington's review at TitleTrakk.com:

Speaking of writing conferences, that’s what reading this book felt like—attending a break-out session presented by a skilled wordsmith who knows of what he speaks. Like a caring English Professor, Jim hovers over your shoulder pointing out the problems and dishing out the fixes. He pulls no punches, and you can tell he wants those who read this book to succeed. With lots of sweat, burning desire, and these techniques in your back pocket, you truly can.
When Plot & Structure released I said, “If you can only buy one writing book, buy this one.” Well, it’s time to make space on your shelves for one more. Revision & Self-Editing deserves it.

You can …

Read the full review here.
Read an excerpt, "Tips for Revising Your Manuscript."
Read a Q&A with author James Scott Bell.

Craft & Technique | New Titles From Writer's Digest

Tuesday, July 08, 2008 3:42:07 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Friday, June 27, 2008

New Release: Writing Life Stories, 2nd edition
Posted by Jane

Almost exactly 10 years ago, Story Press (a former imprint of F+W Publications) released a fabulous instruction book by Bill Roorbach, Writing Life Stories.

I'm thrilled to announce that we've just released a second edition of this valuable text, still under the Story Press imprint, in what we're calling the 10-year anniversary edition. In this new edition, Bill (with the help of Kristen Keckler) has taken care to fully update and revise the text. In his preface, he writes:

So much has changed in the ten years since the first edition of Writing Life Stories was published. For writers, perhaps the biggest development has been the wholesale advent of the Internet, with its constant evolution, its endless opportunities for interaction, for instant research, for locating and speaking directly to readers via e-mail, blogs, and Web sites. Everyone's typing now. …

Memoir as a popular genre has moved past most of its early controversies, and enjoys new standing in the world of letters and in the university. But there's also brand-new hullabaloo, such as the James Frey scandal … or the Deborah Rodriguez dustup … And is this the end of the world? Of course it's not. That roar you hear comes from the explosive power of narrative as applied to real life. What is the role of memoir and the essay in the quest for truth? Or even Truth? You'll answer these questions over and over, always in your own way, with every paragraph you write. …

Old friends of Writing Life Stories will find plenty here to re-charge their batteries, lots of new ideas and fresh instruction. First-time readers will join those returning to find new exercises in every chapter, clearer explanations of difficult issues like the use of metaphor, more up-to-date information on publishing, examples from newer writers, and more recent titles to complement the dozens of examples in the original edition, and a much more sophisticated look at the Internet.

Phillip Lopate and Lee Gutkind were kind enough to praise the first edition, and this second edition is even better. Be sure to check it out if you're actively writing or teaching creative nonfiction; we've posted an excerpt from Chapter 2 on our site, "Challenging the Limits of Memory."

Craft & Technique | Excerpts | New Titles From Writer's Digest

Friday, June 27, 2008 1:39:39 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

New Release: Alone With All That Could Happen
Posted by Jane

This month, Writer's Digest Books is releasing one of the most sophisticated fiction writing guides—ever. The editor who discovered this book, Kelly Nickell, said she got goosebumps when reading the original proposal, such was her excitement that we might have the privilege of publishing this book.

While it's definitely not for everybody (and might not have a lot of practical application when it comes to strict genre writing), the people who typically poo-poo writing instruction books will absolutely love it (the problem is: will they condescend to buying it?!).

The book is Alone With All That Could Happen: Rethinking Conventional Wisdom About the Craft of Fiction Writing by David Jauss, a creative writing professor.

Here's a brief snippet from the Introduction:

Each time we sit down to write a work of fiction, we face a vast panorama of possibilities—and not just "all that could happen" but also all the narrative strategies and techniques we could possibly use to convey the people and events we imagine. The process of writing a work of fiction is ultimately the process of making choices among this panorama of techniques and strategies. But before we can make these choices, we need to know what the possibilities are, and in my opinion, too much of what's been written about the craft of fiction restricts the possibilities we can, and should, be exploring. In this book, I have tried to take a descriptive, rather than prescriptive, approach to the craft of fiction.

One note about this book's packaging that's not apparent when viewing it online: It's a hardcover book with a 3/4-length jacket. That means the jacket only extends to just below the title. Now, I have to tell you: The editor, designer, and I were convinced this cover treatment would work, and we fought the objections of sales, marketing, and production. We put ourselves on the line.

So, please, if anything, buy this book because I don't want to be told it didn't sell due to poor packaging! Let's prove that 3/4-length covers sell!

Craft & Technique | F+W Life | New Titles From Writer's Digest

Wednesday, June 25, 2008 3:35:10 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Friday, June 13, 2008

Quick & Deep (and Life-Changing) Writing Advice
Posted by Jane

I keep several Moleskine journals, and one is devoted specifically to the philosophy of great writers (or great writing). Today, a glimpse into the most recent entries:

The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of because words diminish your feelings—words shrink things that seem timeless when they are in your head to no more than living size when they are brought out.

—Stephen King

In every work of genius, we recognized our own rejected thoughts: They come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.

—Emerson

To poets, silence is an acceptable response, even a flattering one.

—Colette

Before the play [by Harold Pinter], I thought words were just vessels of meaning. After it I saw them as weapons of defense. Before, I thought theatre was about the spoken; after, I understood the eloquence of the unspoken. It offered no explanations, no theories, no truths, no through line, no certainties of any kind.

—John Lahr

Something has to be alive inside the story, giving it a pulse … What is it that's going to be whispering in your ear? Mostly it'll be what was there to start with—the unending swirl of memories, start-ups, hang-ups, and preoccupations. Write what you know goes the cliche. I'm not so sure you have a choice.

—Danny Leigh

If there is a single pressure that has brought me to writing, it is regret. That is like rocket fuel for this kind of art.

—DBC Pierre

Craft & Technique | General

Friday, June 13, 2008 2:59:38 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Thursday, June 12, 2008

Weekly Roundup of Great WD Blog Posts
Posted by Jane

The latest and greatest information from WD editors:

Three acts of bad blogging (Writer's Perspective)
The editor of Writer's Digest magazine offers excellent and simple tips that will improve your blog overnight. Be sure to check out helpful comments from readers, too.

How I met one of the 20 worst agents (Guide to Literary Agents blog)
An entertaining story about a bad agent.

Help them help you (Living With the M-Word)
Our senior marketing manager talks about the harsh reality of how a publisher will (or won't) be supporting your book.

How do people read and buy books? (Alice's CWIM blog)
A Market Books editor points to a recent article with interesting statistics about people's book-buying habits.

What should you charge to ghostwrite a book? (Questions & Quandaries)
If you're thinking about writing a book for someone else, what's a fair rate?

Agents | Craft & Technique | Getting Published | Industry News & Trends | Marketing & Self-Promotion

Thursday, June 12, 2008 5:55:37 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Friday, June 06, 2008

Which 30-Day Novel Writing Plan Is Best? (WD Backlist Smackdown!)
Posted by Jane

Our staff just recently discovered a comprehensive online review that compares two books from our backlist, First Draft in 30 Days by Karen Wiesner and Book in a Month by Victoria Schmidt.

A brief snippet:

It’s a tough call on the better book here. From evaluating nothing but the methods and books themselves, I’d personally go with First Draft in 30 Days (because of the career planning chapter, nice list of writer’s block solutions, and the ability to tailor the project for new or existing projects easily).

However, if you’re a more visual person, or you like the extra nudges of probing questions to help you think and re-focus, Book in a Month will probably serve your needs better. I bought both, and don’t regret either purchase. There’s no reason I would suggest that you not consider one or the other, if this kind of project interests you.

Read the full review at All Book Marketing.

Thanks to author Karen Wiesner and editor Kelly Nickell (who worked on both of these book projects!) for passing along the link.

Craft & Technique

Friday, June 06, 2008 11:05:24 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Overused Fantasy Cliches
Posted by Jane

As I prepare to leave for Los Angeles, I'll leave you with some entertaining (and useful) reading on someone else's blog. There's a site called Dragon Writing Prompts that has a delightful post for fantasy writers, The Not-So-Grand List of Overused Fantasy Cliches.

A few of my favorite bits:

Evil doers with multi uber awesome powers always come unstuck when a newbie hero/heroine turns up with one super lame attack all powered by (you guessed it) LOVE! (Known as the Pretty Sammy effect.)

The evil wizard is played by either Jack Palance or Christopher Lee.

Scantily-clad and hatless heroes and heroines are able to walk for miles outdoors under a blazing sun without even the slightest hint of a sunburn or skin damage afterwards.

Many thanks to Pam Wissman, editorial director at North Light & Impact Books, for sharing this link with me.

Fun | Craft & Technique

Tuesday, May 27, 2008 11:14:11 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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