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This is a recurring column I’m calling “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,” where writers (this installment written by Samuél L. Barrantes, author of SLIM AND THE BEAST) at any stage of their career can talk about writing advice and instruction as well as how they possibly got their book agent — by sharing seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the beginning.

 

     

Samuél L. Barrantes is an essayist and novelist from Chapel Hill,
North Carolina. His work has appeared in Paris Lit Up Magazine,
SLAM Magazine, and The International Forum for Logotherapy. He
is a specialist in Viktor Frankl’s philosophy and the Three Viennese
Schools of Psychotherapy. He currently lives in Paris. His debut
novel is SLIM AND THE BEAST, part Mark Twain, part Coen Brothers.
Connect with him on Twitter or on Facebook.

1. Harness Failure. When I thought I wanted to “be a writer” I applied to fourteen MFA programs. When I got my fourteenth rejection letter, I knew I had a choice: Would I let this be a sign that I wasn’t cut out to be a writer? Or was I going to use it as motivation to get down to actually writing? Writing isn’t something you are, it’s something you do. And the only way to get good at something is to practice. A lot. This has become somewhat of a trope in the literary world, but you really have to harness failure every night. “Success” is a ridiculous word that doesn’t mean anything to me—success, at this point in my life, is trying to write every night. After fourteen MFA rejection letters, I decided I would still finish my first novel, which is a hodgepodge of words I can’t stand to look at now. But I finished it—it didn’t finish me—and it led me to the second novel, Slim and The Beast. And fourteen drafts later, I was finally proud. (Fourteen drafts, fourteen MFA rejections … maybe that should be a new rule).

2. Be Wary of Workshops and Literary Communities. In my experience, most writer groups and “literary communities”—spoken words, workshops, etc.—are great places to meet writers, but are less helpful for the act of writing itself. This isn’t to say these communities aren’t beneficial, just that they have never helped me write. The most “successful” writers (and by successful I mean getting the words down) are too busy writing to care what others think or about “being seen.” Writing is deeply personal and also paradoxical: although you spend thousands of hours by yourself, you have to separate your words from your own ego.

So when you surround yourself with competing egos, where publication and pedigree always become part of the conversation, you end up feeling like a salesman who doesn’t quite know what he’s selling. I always think about Hemingway’s response to a question about the “group feeling” of Paris in the twenties: “There was no group feeling. We had respect for each other.” And this respect, I think, comes from knowing that writers need to be alone, time to write. So workshops and communities are great to exchange ideas, but too often they feed the ego and distract from writing.

(How to be a literary agent’s dream client.)

3. Writing = Re-Writing. I used to have a romantic notion of writing as a frenzy of creativity, where the words poured out of me, the Muses singing by my side. But the truth is writing is as much about editing and re-writing as it is about creation. You really have to love what you’re working on to stick with it. I think of the first draft as the sculptor’s block of cold stone—there is something there, buried within, but the sculptor spends years chiseling away.  For example, I cut approximately 35,000 words between the first and final drafts of Slim and The Beast, with countless rewording and revising throughout.

4. Discipline Breeds Discipline. When I first started writing with intent, I made myself a promise: three days a week, 2,000 words/day. This grew to four days a week, and now it is at five. This doesn’t necessarily mean all of those words are related to the novel I am working on, but it does mean that I berate myself if I don’t reach my goal. This is masochistic, maybe, but it is also essential—writing is as much of a choice as it is a “calling,” so I constantly ask myself the question: “If I don’t write today, then when?” But discipline breeds discipline, so whether it comes to eating healthier, doing pushups, playing piano or reading, if I don’t set routines for myself, everything falls to the wayside. This is why it is impossible for me to write when traveling, perhaps, because I lose track of all of my daily routines. The biggest challenge for a writer isn’t the writing itself but sitting down to write. No book has ever helped me more in realizing this than Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art.

5. Keep Human!  One of the dangers of “practice makes perfect” and lesson #3 is that you can end up in a robotic-type lifestyle that leaves you creatively barren. One of my favorite “rules of writing” is from Henry Miller: “Keep Human! See people, go places, drink if you feel like it.” When I reach a point where I’m mentally exhausted—or if I simply can’t create that night—I’ve learned to step back and leave the land fallow, so to speak. Miller points out that when you can’t create you can still work: meeting people, sitting in the park, watching Seinfeld, playing music, drinking wine on the river—all of these experiences are part of the writing process. Since my favorite kind of writing is about the human experience, it’s important to remain open to the goings on outside in order to try and immortalize them on the page.

6. Wisdom Isn’t Communicable. One of the biggest detriments of having a liberal arts education is you come out thinking you’re smart and interesting. But no one cares, nor should you. Pedigree means nothing. The more you try and “prove” to the reader what you know or how good you are at emulating Foster-Wallacean sentences, the worse your writing becomes, period. In Herman Hesse’s Siddartha, this is stated perfectly: “One can find [wisdom], live it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.”  Avoiding didactic writing is an ongoing challenge for me because of the dangerous dictum “write what you know.” For a long time I thought this mean intellect versus experience, because academic writing is so often concerned with how much you understand about a given theory. Of course, the best writing communicates philosophy without ever once mentioning the philosopher that said it, and I’ve spent years trying to get away from academic writing in my fiction.

(Read tips on writing a query letter.)

7. Write Because You Love. There is an incredible poem by Charles Bukowski called So, You Want To Be A Writer. For the first few years, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be a writer, or if I wanted to write. But once again, writing isn’t something you are, it’s something you do. And if you’re doing it to “be something,” the best advice is to stop. The only reason I put on my headphones, turn off the Wi-Fi, listen to ambient sounds (usually a thunderstorm, beach waves, or noisli) and sit down to write is because if I didn’t do it, I’d feel shittier the next day. In the same way I need to read for my own well-being, or how I get antsy when I don’t play music for a while, I write because it makes me happy. We don’t ask people on the basketball court “why?” or if that guy in the nightclub wants to become a professional dancer. It’s not about proving something to anyone, especially yourself. Like with everything, in the end all that matters is you write because you love.

 

Agent Donald Maass, who is also an author
himself, is one of the top instructors nationwide
on crafting quality fiction. His recent guide,
The Fire in Fiction, shows how to compose
a novel that will get agents/editors to keep reading.

 

Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:

• Agent Spotlight: Rena Rossner (The Deborah Harris Agency) seeks Children’s, Fiction, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy.
• How I Got My Literary Agent: Elizabeth Blackwell (Fiction, Fantasy).
• 3 Ways Military Service Has Made Me A Better Writer.
• 6 Steps To Seeing Your Book Published.
• Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and writing a query letter.

 

Your new complete and updated instructional guide
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much more. Filled with all the advice you’ll ever need to
find an agent, this resource makes a great partner book to
the agent database, Guide to Literary Agents.

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This is a recurring column called “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,” where writers at any stage of their careers can talk about writing advice and instruction — by sharing seven things they’ve learned along their writing journeys that they wish they knew at the beginning. This is installment is from Eric Smith, author of The Geek’s Guide to Dating and the young adult novel, Inked.

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1. Editing? Cut the Parts You Find Yourself Skipping. When I’m finished writing something, and it doesn’t matter what it is, a chapter in a book, a new essay, a blog post, whatever… I like reading and re-reading it, often times, reading out loud. And almost always the same thing happens. I find myself skipping over parts because I’m a.) way too excited to get to the next paragraph or b.) find that I’m tired of that particular section.

Usually, that means it’s time to make some cuts.

If you can’t even get excited about a bit of writing you’re working on, if you’re tired of that passage already… there’s a solid chance your reader will be too. You should be excited about everything you’re hammering down on the page. Leave no room for skipping. Unless, of course, it’s a victory skip in your backyard. Then, by all means, go forth and frolic. You earned it.

2. It’s Okay to Take a Break. When I wrapped up the rough manuscript of Inked, I immediately dove into working on a sequel idea while researching agents. Immediately. I got lucky, signed with a fantastic agent (hi Dawn!), and shortly after, the opportunity to work on The Geek’s Guide to Dating came up at my publisher. I worked on that book, and when that was done, went back to the sequel concept, worked on some essays, and started adfjdfgdfgsdfkl CRASH.
Burned. The. Hell. Out.

With one manuscript being shopped around and another on its way to publication, I took a breath. I went on a vacation. Not any place special. A little place called Tamriel. Lush wilderness, rushing streams, and tons of dragons. Oh, Tamriel is a place in a video game called Skyrim. I was on my couch. It was great.

Listen: It’s okay to take a break. Whether you’ve got something on submission, a book on its way to publication, or you’re just working on a bunch of fun ideas and drafts. Don’t burn yourself out. You’re no good for anyone like that. Plus, you need your energy for all that dragon slaying, Dovohkiin.

3. Save Your Darlings. I say this a lot, but when you’re busy editing and cutting, whether you’re making cuts on your own, with your peers, with your editor… save those darlings. Avoid that “kill your darlings” cliché, and open up a Word .doc, and stash those little gems off to the side.
Look, you might never use them. They might be the bits you cut out because they were boring you (remember #1?). Those couple of pages you sliced out of that manuscript, you probably cut them out for a good reason. Your agent, your editor, your writer friends… they’re a smart bunch, otherwise you wouldn’t be working with them, right? But down the line, when you’re working on a new story or idea, click on over. See what’s in the scraps. You might find something that sparks an idea, which you might have otherwise deleted.

And if not, whatever. How much space does a Word document take up? Like, a gig? Maybe? Who cares how many gigs? You have lots of gigs.

4. If You Must Read the Reviews, Learn From Them. I have a sign on my desk at work and at home that says “Don’t Read the Comments” in big bold letters. I bought it on Etsy in a fancy frame, because in my mind, an artisanal frame made out of reclaimed wood would make it work.

I never listen to it. No one does.

Look, if you’re going to read the reviews (you’re gonna), don’t lash out, don’t get upset, don’t get angry. Instead, see what you can learn from them. I love book bloggers. Love them. I follow tons of them on Twitter, read a lot of their blogs, and go out of my way to say hi to my favorites at conventions at BEA.

Because they are book lovers. They are my people.

And yes, when they write about my books, I read their reviews, the good and the bad. Why? Because these are the smartest consumers of books out there, and you can actually read what they think about your book! Your book! And if they care enough about your book to talk about it, that’s freaking awesome.

Reading reviews isn’t for everyone. Even I’m aware that I shouldn’t do it. I KNOW I shouldn’t do it. But I do. And when I do, I see what there is to learn. And I’m grateful that someone took the time to actually read my wild button mashing in the first place.

5. Find Your Soundtrack. I have a lot of friends who go running and hit the gym, and when they are busy doing this thing called exercising, they often rock out to music that gets them in the mood. Pumps them up. Gets them excited for the work they are about to do. Because hey, working out? That’s work. And so is writing. It’s just a different kind of work, with an equal amount of tears.

Writing at home? Find your soundtrack. For me, it depends on the kind of work I’m doing. Fussing over a Young Adult novel idea? I turn on the music of my youth, lots of pop-punk, power chords, and acoustic guitars, music by New Found Glory, Fall Out Boy, Punchline, Something Corporate, Saves the Day. An essay? Something that’ll calm me down. The Fray, Dashboard Confessional, Sherwood, Gin Blossoms.

Please note, I listen to my pop punk and emo on a regular basis too. Sing it, Motion City Soundtrack!

6. Find Your Peers Online As Well As Off. Thanks to the magic of Twitter, I’ve met more authors I admire and adore than… well I’m not quite sure how to finish that sentence. I’ve met so many. And the great thing about the online literary community (or “bookernet”), is that everyone supports one another. Be genuine, be kind, be excited. Find the authors who write books you deeply care for, find the writers you yourself admire. Connect with them on Twitter. Celebrate their success. You’ll learn so much from them. I absolutely have, and wish I’d been more active in seeking out writerly peers earlier on.

7. Surround Yourself With Supportive Friends. Team! Team, team, team, team, team. I even love saying the word, “team.” Having an awesome team backing you up is so very important, and I’m not just talking about professionally. Close friends that can network you, will blast your message out there… those friends are awesome, don’t get me wrong. But friends that will give that crappy rough manuscript a looks over, who will join you for coffee and listen to you ramble about an idea you haven’t quite thought out yet, friends that will look over your under-construction author website full of Geocities era animated .gifs… those are the supportive friends you need around you at all times.

Real friends. The friends that will give you a kick in the pants when you’re down and troll you a little bit when you’re doing too well. Who will keep you level. Surround yourself with those kind of friends, and it’ll certainly help your writing career.

Good luck!

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Eric Smith is the author of The Geek’s Guide to Dating (December 2013), which was an Amazon Best Book of the Year in Humor and has sold into five languages. His debut young adult novel, Inked, comes out January 2015 with Bloomsbury’s digital imprint, Bloomsbury Spark. He is represented by Dawn Frederick of Red Sofa Literary. He can be found blogging for BookRiot and The Huffington Post, and when he isn’t busy writing, he can be found tweeting and marketing at Quirk Books. Visit Eric’s website to learn more, and follow him on Twitter (@ericsmithrocks).

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This is a recurring column I’m calling “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,” where writers (this installment written by Nina Darnton, author of THE PERFECT MOTHER) at any stage of their career can talk about writing advice and instruction as well as how they possibly got their book agent — by sharing seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the beginning.

(Never open your novel with a dream — here’s why.)

 

        

Nina Darnton is a former psychologist and staff writer for Newsweek and
a former frequent contributor for the New York Times. Her suspense/thriller
novel, THE PERFECT MOTHER, publishes today, Nov. 25, 2014 from
Plume. The book, which is about a mother who learns her daughter has
been arrested for murder while studying abroad, has been praised by
thriller authors Robin Cook & Clive Cussler. Connect with
Nina on Facebook or Twitter.

 

1. Don’t wait for inspiration. Write a specific number of words a day—no matter what. Sometimes that means sitting with nothing to say for an hour or more. Sometimes it means writing your designated number of words and discarding them the next day. But it is a discipline that ultimately helps you get the book done. My husband, who published 7 books (two of which were best sellers), taught me this. He was a journalist and he thought in column lengths. He determined to write 1000 words a day, (which is a lot. I do more like 500). If he was in the middle of a paragraph when he reached his goal, he stopped. He wanted to be excited about starting again the next day. It worked for me too.

2. On the other hand, unlike my husband, there are times when I know I’m on a roll, and if that happens, I make use of it. On those rare days, I won’t stop writing until the well feels dry.

3. Carry a pad around (or use your IPhone or IPad) and jot down notes when you think of something. It’s like cute stories about your kids. You think you’ll never forget an adorable sentence they’ve uttered or an observation they’ve made, but you do. Keep a record.

4. You don’t always have to know everything before you begin. I heard an interview with Lee Childs in which he said he works completely intuitively. He doesn’t write an outline, for example. He says he doesn’t even really know the story until he begins writing. Others need a detailed outline, sometimes chapter-by-chapter.  I am somewhere in the middle. I like to know where the story begins and approximately where it ends. I know some of the characters. But in my recent book, “The Perfect Mother,” for example, my favorite character, a Spanish detective named Roberto wasn’t part of the plan. He just kind of appeared when my main character Jennifer needed a friend and took over. I don’t really know where he came from, but I was grateful he appeared. So you have to give your creative instinct room to work, even as you plan and structure the plot.

(How should you discuss a book’s series potential in a query letter?)

5. Take your inspiration where you find it. By that I mean, if you read something in the newspaper and it sets your mind wondering and inventing ramifications of that story, don’t be afraid to use it (another trick I used for my latest novel). If someone tells you a story or you observe something interesting, use it if you want to. Don’t be afraid that it’s already been done. Inspiration can come from anywhere. There are only a few stories in the world. It’s how you develop them creatively that takes stark facts and events to a narrative that resonates.

6. Write whatever you want to, even if you are worried that someone you know will be upset by it. I once sat next to E.L. Doctorow at a dinner many years ago and I asked him what to do if you had an idea for a book but were afraid executing it would hurt someone you cared about. His advice? Always write the book, but know that you don’t always have to publish it. I think that’s good advice.

7. In today’s book market, I think it is very important to know that your book may be wonderful and it still may not sell. This means that you should not write a book unless you really like the process of writing. Once it’s published, you do, of course, what you can to promote it. But you can’t count on commercial success. You may get poor reviews and feel hurt and humiliated. (I try to remember that a review is only the opinion of the person writing it and not sacrosanct). So the only reliable reward is the pleasure you get from the creative process itself.

 

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Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:

• Agent Spotlight: Andy Kifer (Gernert Company) seeks Literary, Sci-Fi, Thrillers & Nonfiction.
• 5 Things To Look For In A Critique Partner.
• It Starts With A Good Book.
• How I Got My Literary Agent: Natalia Sylvester (Fiction).
• Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and writing a query letter.

 

Want to build your visibility and sell more books?
Create Your Writer Platform shows you how to
promote yourself and your books through social
media, public speaking, article writing, branding,
and more. Order the book from WD at a discount.

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BY MIKE MEGINNIS

This is a recurring column called “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,” where writers at any stage of their careers can talk about writing advice and instruction — by sharing seven things they’ve learned along their writing journeys that they wish they knew at the beginning. This is installment is from Mike Meginnis, author of Fat Man and Little Boy.

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1. Write for your own pleasure. My goal is always to write sentences, paragraphs, scenes, and chapters that satisfy and surprise me. Trying to guess what other people want will lead you into dead ends quickly — there are so many people, they all want different things, and you can’t know who will be your audience, or if you’re even going to have one. All you can know for sure is whether you’re having fun. And if you’re not, your readers—whoever they turn out to be—will feel it.

Besides, the rewards of writing fiction are often small and few enough that if the writing itself isn’t a pleasure then there really is no reason to continue.

2. Write “love it or hate it” stories. No one buys a book because there’s nothing wrong with it. You don’t build a lasting audience by winning the mild approval of a broad swath of people. You win readers by deeply pleasing one person, then a second, then a third. The people who truly love one thing you write will always remember that experience, and the people who hate something you write will remember that too. The people with feelings between love and hate are the ones who will forget, who will never buy a second book with your name on the spine.

3. Worry about sentences first and last. Some things make good sentences in your voice and style; others don’t. I have a lot of great ideas that I will never write because I can’t make them conform to the sentences that I write best. There’s a story that takes place entirely inside computer hard drives that I would absolutely love to tell, but that sort of abstract, high-concept setting just doesn’t work in the simple, declarative sentences I do best. (Believe me, I’ve tried.)

Once you’ve found a way to write your story in your best sentences, trust that: in my experience, if you attend to the sentences, the macro-level issues (structure, character, tone) will attend to themselves. If a section isn’t working for what you suspect are macro reasons, fix the sentences until that section works.

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4. Make arbitrary rules to simplify your process. The thing about writing is there are far too many options, many of which are equivalent or very nearly so. I will sometimes spend fifteen minutes typing the word “that” in the middle of a sentence and then removing it. Arbitrary rules can help you to move past these traps. My rule used to be that I would not use “that” if I could help it. In every book, I make rules about page-lengths for chapters—the chapters in this book will be eight pages long, four, or sixteen. In this book, the chapters will be ten pages long, twenty, or five. I avoid three-syllable words where two- or four-syllable words will suffice. None of these are good or bad rules, and none of them should necessarily be yours. You should make up your own. All that matters is that they make decisions easier.

These rules change all the time, of course: now I use “that” wherever I can tolerate its presence. If a rule leads you to make a mistake, you can always fix it later.

5. Get to the good stuff as soon as you possibly can, if not sooner. Inexperienced writers often begin stories with their main character waking up to the sound of an alarm clock. The character showers, brushes his or her teeth, and dresses. Maybe there’s a breakfast scene. Writers do this because we can’t find the story’s actual beginning, or worse, because we think we have to work up to the good stuff. We think it needs context, that the reader needs to be prepared to understand and appreciate it in the right way. Most of the time, we’re wrong; we should be jumping right in. To help myself do this, every time I have a good idea for any part of a story, I try to write it right away, even if it probably won’t happen for hundreds of pages. This helps me to remember to get to my best material as soon as I possibly can.

6. Embarrass yourself as much as you can. When you feel strange about what you’re writing, when you worry what your family will think, when you begin to be just slightly concerned about your future prospects for employment in light of what you’ve written, that’s how you know you’re onto something good. Nothing is less interesting than a story designed to imply that the author is a cool, smart, moral person with good ideas and opinions.

7. Don’t try to make something smart, subtle, wise, or beautiful. These qualities will emerge on their own in ways you could never predict or contrive. Your job has nothing to do with the mind or the soul. Your responsibility is the body. What does the body want? What do your characters want? What do you want for them? Are they hungry? Are you? If you are hungry, then maybe so are they. Maybe you should feed them. Or maybe they will have to wait.

If someone were to ambush you and shout, “SAY SOMETHING PROFOUND!” you would sputter and fail. When you try to say something dumb, you’ll usually fail at that too—you’ll say something smart or strange or beautiful instead.

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Mike Meginnis is the author of the novel Fat Man and Little Boy (Fall 2014, Black Balloon Publishing). The Brooklyn Book Festival called Mike one of “the year’s most impressive debut novelists” and The Japan Times said Fat Man and Little Boy “straddles a hybrid genre of historical magical realism.” Mike has published stories in Best American Short Stories 2012, The Collagist, PANK, and many others. You can find him on Twitter @mikemeginnis.

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This is a recurring column I’m calling “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,” where writers (this installment written by Dylan Landis, author of RAINEY ROYAL) at any stage of their career can talk about writing advice and instruction as well as how they possibly got their book agent — by sharing seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the beginning.

GIVEAWAY: Dylan is excited to give away a free copy of her novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before. (Please note that comments may take a little while to appear; this is normal).

 

    

Dylan Landis is the author of a novel, RAINEY ROYAL (Sept. 2014 Soho), which
was a New York Times Editors’ Choice; as well as a collection of linked stories,
Normal People Don’t Live Like This. She received a 2010 National Endowment
for the Arts Fellowship in fiction, and had a story selected for The O. Henry
Prize Stories 2014. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The New York
Times, Tin House, Bomb and House Beautiful. Find her on Twitter.

 

 

1. Start a file called 100 Rejections. Chris Offutt gave this advice from at the Wesleyan Writers’ Conference, back when I’d published exactly nothing, and it was so encouraging. He said: Make it your goal to collect 100 rejections, and you’ll feel like you’re doing your job as a writer with each submission, rather than crashing emotionally over each rejection. I took heart from this fact: Offutt nearly filled his own file before getting his first story in print. When I got my first acceptance, I tucked it into the Rejections file to leaven it. And then I just stopped counting, and kept submitting.

2. Be a dedicated reader for at least two people. Funnel some generous literary karma into the writing community by offering to be a reader, even if you don’t have a dream reader of your own. (Such relationships are often not mutual, anyway.) Never doubt that in your writing life, what goes around, comes around. Besides, critiquing the work of another writer hones the ability to self-critique. I’m fortunate enough to trade “Monday pages” with a stellar writer named Heather Sellers. It’s a work relationship so intense I call her my “writing wife,” but I also read frequently for another excellent writer who doesn’t read for me.

(11 literary agents share what NOT to write in your query letter.)

3. Pay yourself first. That’s how financial gurus put it, but here the currency is time. I learned the painful way to say no sometimes when friends invite me out. If you don’t pay yourself first, you’ll fall mortally out of touch with your work. Another way to pay yourself first is to turn off the TV. While some writers may be watching (admittedly excellent) television, you’ll be getting your novel written.

4. Don’t share work-in-progress with non-writers. Indeed, don’t even discuss it. Think of work-in-progress as an egg around which the shell has not yet hardened. I told my wonderful husband, a newspaper editor, my idea for a scene I wanted to write. “It sounds like a cliché to me,” he said. I winced—but as an editor on a daily deadline, his job is to derail weak ideas before they waste anyone’s time. As a fiction writer, mine is to trust my ideas, follow them around dark corners and see what turns up. Thankfully, I wrote my scene. The story won a prize that took me to Russia, ran in a top literary magazine, and was published in my first book.

5. Insomnia is a friend. So is commuting. Ditto long waits at the dentist’s office. At some point in mid-life I learned what it meant to be up much of the night, unable to sleep. So I got up and wrote, enfolded by silence. I thought, This time is gift-wrapped just for you. Other little packages of time for writing, and reading, are everywhere. My teacher, Jim Krusoe, turns the radio off during his driving time in Los Angeles and thinks hard about his novel in progress. And my husband carries poetry specifically to read on the New York City subway.

(How do you boost web traffic to your writer blog? Here are 7 tips.)

6. When you think you’re done, read the work aloud. Yes, the entire book. Slowly and with beats and expression. Listen for every flat note, every jutting word. (My writer-friend Michelle Brafman read parts of my second book to me over the phone.) Your ear will pick up problems in language that your eye skims past: it’s just the way we’re made. I failed to do this with parts of my first book, Normal People Don’t Live Like This, and the copy I read aloud from is full of crossed-out words, lines and even paragraphs. So I read my second book, Rainey Royal, aloud twice (with Brafman’s help) before submitting it for publication. If this sounds extreme, know that some authors read aloud first as they write, and then again at the end.

7. Free yourself from ritual. If it’s just a matter of a quick meditation, that can be freeing—but take notice if you truly can’t write unless you light a particular jasmine candle, or hold your lucky pen from Paris, or swim a mile. At that point, your rituals may be running you. From there it’s not so far a jump to “I can only write in perfect silence” or “I can only write if the whole house is neat.” Time is a gift. Try not to throttle it with conditions.

GIVEAWAY: Dylan is excited to give away a free copy of her novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before. (Please note that comments may take a little while to appear; this is normal).

 

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Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:

• The 10 Worst Types of Critique Partners.
• Example of What a Synopsis Should Look Like: ROBOCOP.
• Sell More Books by Building Your Writer Platform.
• 5 Reasons to Set Your Novel in a Famous Place.
• Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and how to write a query letter.

 

Want to build your visibility and sell more books?
Create Your Writer Platform shows you how to
promote yourself and your books through social
media, public speaking, article writing, branding,
and more. Order the book from WD at a discount.

Add a Comment

This is a recurring column I’m calling “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,” where writers (this installment written by Heather Sellers, author of CHAPTER AFTER CHAPTER) at any stage of their career can talk about writing advice and instruction as well as how they possibly got their book agent — by sharing seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the beginning.

GIVEAWAY: Heather is excited to give away a free copy of her book, CHAPTER BY CHAPTER, to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before. (Please note that comments may take a little while to appear; this is normal).

 

             

Heather Sellers is the author of two popular guides to the writing life,
Page after Page and Chapter after Chapter as well as a textbook for writers,
The Practice of Creative Writing.  Her award-winning memoir,
You Don’t Look Like Anyone I Know was an O, Oprah book of the
month club selection.  She teaches creative nonfiction at the
University of South Florida. Find her on Twitter.

 
1. Don’t start with an idea. Start with an image. Readers want to enter your world. Too often, we writers start with our grand ideas, our glorious intentions. Start your poem, your essay, your novel, your screenplay, your love letter, with an image. An image isn’t static. It’s a scene, something taking place in real time–is a little micro-movie. It’s action that engages us on the sensory level.

2. Start with conflict right away. Don’t warm up, wander, or muse. Start with a battle: one character’s strong urgent desire set against, and directly opposing another equally “right” character’s strong unmet desire. Plunge into problem.

(Before you send out your query, look over a submission checklist.)

3. Come in through the side door. If you are too on the nose, you lose your reader. Coming in through the front door means your piece is about exactly what it says it is about. But our pleasure in reading is figuring things out. Set up the writing so your reader gets to be smart; trust that she truly wants to figure things out. Write so that the words point to your point but don’t spell it out directly. Readers are brilliant. And powerful writing creates an envelop for the reader to slip into. When writing about despair and meaninglessness, start with a bug. When writing about transcendent love, start with something as unexpectedly to the side as a sandwich.

4. Notice what you notice. My friends are always commenting on the notebook by my side, the note cards in my pockets, my habit of asking for a piece of paper and writing things down. I guess it’s weird but I can’t even walk down to the mailbox without a note card and a pencil in hand. At restaurants, at red lights, on hikes, kayaking, even riding my bike, I’m always pausing to take notes. It’s very difficult to invent convincing details on the spot. But more importantly, noting strengthens the observing mind, and that’s your gold as a writer, noticing what you notice.

5. Take care not to write solely for revenge or therapy or venting. That’s what your diary/therapist/best friend is for. Part of the point of literature is to help us see why annoying people are annoying. Write to learn; don’t write to unburden or to punish. Your work can be darkly honest and brutally exposing of injustice and it can still be fair, beautiful, and (when appropriate) kind.

(What query letter mistakes will sink your submission chances?)

6. Use lists in your work. If you give the reader lists of specifics (she loved roasted chicken, antique fairs, handing her husband his folded laundry and her dog’s head in her lap, that weight) you give her everything she needs. Quickly. Lists not only increase the tempo of your work, they can deliver an enormous amount of necessary information in an appealing rhythmic package. Try a list on every page: short lists, long lists, lists with surprises, two item lists, secret lists.

7. Billy Joel calls his working life “being in harness.” Every since I heard him say that in an interview, I’ve adopted it. “I’m in harness,” I tell my friends. I can’t go play. I’m in harness. You can’t live your whole life in harness though. You have to know how long the trip is going to be, or you are unlikely to saddle up. I write in four forty-minute blocks of time, with mandatory fifteen minute breaks in between. This kind of happens from 9-1, but not exactly. If I don’t hit my marks, I have to work at night. I’m in harness, but the milk runs are clear, definable, and they end. I can’t work without a timer. I can focus for 45 minutes. No more, no less. I’m half horse, half rider.

GIVEAWAY: Heather is excited to give away a free copy of her book, CHAPTER BY CHAPTER, to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before. (Please note that comments may take a little while to appear; this is normal).

 

Get both of Heather’s informative fiction writing books
at a discount together.

 

Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:

• New Agent Amy Cloughley Seeks Clients!
• Tackling Tough Topics in Young Adult Fiction.
• Tips for Pitching a Literary Agent at a Writers’ Conference.
• Agent Interview: Frank Weimann of Folio Literary Management.
• Remember the importance of BICHOK: Butt in Chair, Hands on Keyboard.
• Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and writing a query letter.

 

Want to build your visibility and sell more books?
Create Your Writer Platform shows you how to
promote yourself and your books through social
media, public speaking, article writing, branding,
and more. Order the book from WD at a discount.

 

Add a Comment

This is a recurring column I’m calling “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,” where writers (this installment written by Sally Koslow, author of THE WIDOW WALTZ and other books) at any stage of their career can talk about writing advice and instruction as well as how they possibly got their book agent — by sharing seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the beginning.

GIVEAWAY: Sally is excited to give away a free copy of her novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before. (Please note that comments may take a little while to appear; this is normal).

 

        

Sally Koslow is the author of four novels—THE WIDOW WALTZ was recently
released in paperback—as well as a nonfiction book, Slouching Toward Adulthood.
She has published essays and articles in The New York Times, More, Real Simple,
O the Oprah Magazine, other magazines and two anthologies, teaches creative
writing at Sarah Lawrence College and through the New York Writers Workshop
and works as an independent writing coach. Previously, she was editor-in-chief
of McCall’s and other magazines. Find her on Twitter.

 

 

1. Use exercise to kickstart your creativity. Nothing strategic. No Zumba, which is all about fancy footwork or Pilates, where your brain needs to concentrate on sucking in your gut—pardon, your core. Definitely no team sports, golf, tennis or walking with a chatterbox. Pick something repetitive like solo walking, running, biking or swimming, when you space out and mimic a dream state. When I run, I feel as if I’ve pressed my writing on button. I’m that geek who stops running to scribble ideas.

2. If you write fiction, cross-train your brain by trying non-fiction writer or vice versa. For fiction, imagination is the glue. For non-fiction, it’s curiosity. Memoir is a hybrid that needs a big scoop of both.

(What should you do after rejection?)

3. Picture your scenes as a movie and take notes on what you see and hear. Don’t make your dialogue too writerly. Most American speech is choppy, even rude, as we interrupt one another and forget whatever we know about grammar.

4. Your computer is your friend (thank you, search engines and spell-check) but only up to a point. Don’t reread your work exclusively on a screen—it will look too finished. Print it out, more than once. The longer you work on something, the greater the fatigue-factor. It’s normal to get sick of your writing after a while. Every time you print, switch fonts to trick your eyes into seeing your work in a fresh way.

5. Read your work aloud. You may sound full of yourself, but this is the best way to listen for rhythm–or lack of it, to zone in on klutzy spots and to hear words you may overuse: all, always, just, so, usually, very, perhaps, really… If you repeat words, be intentional about it. This reminds me…

(Are you writing middle grade, edgy paranormal, women’s fiction or sci-fi? Read about agents seeking your query.)

6. Keep a running list of words you overuse. When you’ve finished a chapter or draft, use your writing program’s find/replace feature to see what you can cut or change. Make it a head game. Who needs Candy Crush?

7. When you’re “finished,” put your writing aside to gel. Rushed writing is rarely your best work. Read, rinse, repeat–again and again.

8 (BONUS!). Remember that a published book has at least five sales hurdles. #1 is to yourself, when you decide your manuscript is ready to be seen by agent. #2: an agent agrees to work with you and presents your book to a select group of editors. One or more of them fall in love with it—there may be an auction–and try to convince a colleague committee to acquire the book. With luck, you make sale #3—to a publisher. The publisher’s sales team works to place your book in stores and other venues: sale #4. The most important sale, #5, is to readers, though you may be lucky with bonus sales to foreign publishers, television or Hollywood.

GIVEAWAY: Sally is excited to give away a free copy of her novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before. (Please note that comments may take a little while to appear; this is normal).

 

Don’t let your submission be rejected for
improper formatting. The third edition of
Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript
has more than 100 examples of queries,
synopses, proposals, book text, and more.
Buy it online here at a discount.

Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:

• How to Write a Novel: 7 Tips Everyone Can Use.
• Need an agent? New agent Amy Tannenbaum seeks writers.
• Travel on the Page: How to Write About a Country You’ve Never Visited.
• Why You Have to Stop Beating Yourself Up Over Your Writing.
• Sell More Books by Building Your Writer Platform.
• Agent Linda Epstein: Learn more about her and query her.
• Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and how to write a query letter.

 

Want to build your visibility and sell more books?
Create Your Writer Platform shows you how to
promote yourself and your books through social
media, public speaking, article writing, branding,
and more. Order the book from WD at a discount.

Add a Comment

This is a recurring column I’m calling “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,” where writers (this installment written by Craig Lancaster, author of 600 HOURS OF EDWARD) at any stage of their career can talk about writing advice and instruction as well as how they possibly got their book agent — by sharing seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the beginning.

(See a list of fiction literary agents.)

 

 

   

Craig Lancaster is the author of the novel 600 HOURS OF EDWARD (2012,
Lake Union), a novel about 600 tumultuous hours in the life of a 39-year-old
man with Asperger’s syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Lancaster
lives in Billings, Montana, with his wife and two dachshunds. His other novels
include THE SUMMER SON and EDWARD ADRIFT. His work has received a
Montana Honor Book designation, a High Plains Book Award and an
Independent Publisher Book Awards gold medal. His new novel,
THE FALLOW SEASON OF HUGO HUNTER, is set for a late-
September 2014 release by Lake Union Publishing. Find him
on Twitter.

 

1. It starts with a good book: Self-evident, right? Perhaps. But there are a lot of bad books out there, and a considerable number of them will sell better than your good book. Nonetheless, writing a good book is how you keep the faith with readers and with yourself, and that requires the proverbial village: critique partners, beta readers, people you trust to tell you the truth about your manuscript, and your own willingness to keep revising until it’s right.

The market can be unforgiving with a good book, but you’ll never have to apologize for it. Further, if you want to build a career, writing good books—not just sensations—is how you do it. In my experience, writing a good book means finding a deep well of empathy inside myself and letting it flow onto the page.

2. There are many ways through the door: My first novel, 600 HOURS OF EDWARD, was self-published before self-publishing was cool. It got picked up by a small regional publisher, won some nice awards, built a small following, got picked up by Lake Union Publishing and sold more copies than I ever allowed myself to imagine. It’s still going, still finding new readers, still connecting, every single day. What a fabulous ambassador it has been.

(Writer’s Digest asked literary agents for their best pieces of advice. Here are their responses.)

3. Patience is a virtue: You’ve finished with your book, but your editor has nine manuscripts he’s reading before he’ll get to yours. Negotiations on a book contract can take weeks. Your book has been acquired but is still months away from actually coming out. I’m not a patient guy by nature, but the writing life has taught me to deal with the slow-turning wheels of publishing. It’s why I fill my life with other projects and other interests. I design a quarterly magazine. I lead writing workshops. I have a long-running backgammon battle with my father. I have manuscripts in various levels of production—one actively being written, one being edited, one being marketed, at all times.

4. It comes around again: Before she started repping me, my agent, Mollie Glick of Foundry Literary, turned down 600 Hours of Edward with a bit of regret: She loved the story but wasn’t sure she could sell it. She wished me luck, and I trudged off, wondering if I’d ever find an agent. Three books later, I was trying to get representation for the second Edward book, Edward Adrift, and an author friend hooked us up. I reminded her of our previous interaction, and she said, “I always wondered what happened with that book!” Now we’re on the same team. That’s pretty cool.

5. Don’t quit the day job…yet: After one book, I thought it impossible to see a day when writing would pay my bills. After two books, the same thing. But then came books No. 3 and No. 4. A couple of foreign translations added to the revenue stream. A strong foothold in the United Kingdom and Germany expanded my readership. And, finally, in August 2013, I was able to give notice at the newspaper where I worked as a copy editor. Every month since then, I’ve stayed on track with my financial plan.

(When can you refer to yourself as “a writer”? The answer is NOW, and here’s why.)

6. The publishing world has changed, but…: It’s easy to get caught up in the tales of woe or the conventional wisdom. Publishers don’t nurture talent the way they used to. Advances are smaller. Midlisters are increasingly marginalized. And maybe that’s all true. But the technological changes afoot in publishing also represent great opportunities. There are fewer links in the chain between authors and readers than ever before. There are more ways to make your work available. Amid all the transformation, though, one really cool thing has remained stable: Nothing moves a book like word of mouth. Blockbusters may be conceived at the marketing table, but individual readers decide what they like and what they recommend to their friends. Remember what I said about writing a good book? This is where it pays off.

7. Generosity never fails: I remain ever thankful for a lot of people who helped me early in my career when they had nothing to gain from doing so. Whether it was reading my manuscript or letting me talk to a writing class or giving me advice about the business, these people were generous with their knowledge and their resources. I resolved to do the same when aspiring authors sought me out. No, you can’t help everybody, and yes, you need to protect your own time for your own projects. But being kind and being generous are always good choices. (On the flip side, you’ll no doubt run into some people in this business who delight in hurtful behavior. Be generous in your sympathy toward them, too. It must be a miserable way to go through life.)

How to Blog a Book by Nina Amir discusses
how to slowly release a novel online to generate
interest in your writing and work.

 

Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:

• A new agent wants unique literary voices, women’s fiction, narrative nonfiction, memoir & comedy.
• 10 Dos and Dont’s For the Aspiring Novelist.
• The Value of Tough Love and Honest Feedback.
• Agents Share Their Query Letter Pet Peeves.
• Agent Maria Vincente seeks clients NOW.
• Open Your Eyes and Ears: Writing Inspiration is all Around You.
• Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and writing a query letter.

 

Want to build your visibility and sell more books?
Create Your Writer Platform shows you how to
promote yourself and your books through social
media, public speaking, article writing, branding,
and more. Order the book from WD at a discount.

Add a Comment

This is a recurring column I’m calling “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,” where writers (this installment written by Jackie Morse Kessler, author of TO BEAR AN IRON KEY) at any stage of their career can talk about writing advice and instruction as well as how they possibly got their book agent — by sharing seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the beginning.

GIVEAWAY: Jackie is excited to give away a free copy of her novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail, and international winners can receive an e-book instead. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before. (Please note that comments may take a little while to appear; this is normal).

 

 

     

Jackie Morse Kessler is the author of the acclaimed YA series Riders of the
Apocalypse, published by Harcourt/Graphia. The first two books in the quartet,
Hunger and Rage, are YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers; in addition,
Hunger has been nominated for several awards while Rage is an International
Reading Association YA Choice. Breath, Loss, and Rage are Junior Library
Guild selections. She lives in Delmar, New York. Jackie’s newest book is the
YA fantasy TO BEAR AN IRON KEY (May 2014, Month9Books).
Find her on Twitter or Goodreads.

 

1. An old idea can still be a good idea. Back in 1998, I wrote a short story about a witch and a thief who had to outsmart the fey king and queen. That story was never published. Years later, it was the starting point for what became the novel To Bear an Iron Key. Just because you shelf a story, don’t think it will never see the light of day. Time away from it can give you a new perspective.

2. Your process may be different with each book. When I first started writing, I was a “pantser”—I didn’t outline ahead of time. Then I started writing brief synopses before writing a book (usually at an editor’s request), but during the actual writing process, I’d scrap the synopsis about a third of the way through (shhh, don’t tell the editors). For my most recent project, I wrote a detailed chapter outline before I started writing the book. The process for the next novel might go back to pantsing. Or not. It’s nice knowing how a story will get from the beginning to the end. (Unless I change my mind a third of the way through. Shhh.)

(What are overused openings in fantasy, sci-fi, romance and crime novels?)

3. Finish the story. When I wrote the draft of To Bear an Iron Key, a specific situation came up in chapter three, one that was mentioned throughout the book…but I didn’t actually rectify that situation. Why? In my rush to finish the draft—and my focus on the big finale—I overlooked it. Oops. Thank goodness for revisions! In short, if you’ve got big, unanswered questions in your book, answer ’em before you type “The End.”

4. Revision is your friend. When I was working on the revision of To Bear an Iron Key, I not only had the chance to address the situation that I’d accidentally left unfinished; I also honed the POV so that it didn’t lapse out of the main character’s close third-person perspective. While I pride myself on writing clean drafts, there’s really nothing like revision to kick your story up to the next level. Before you decide to send your draft to an agent or editor, give it a clean read and see if there are any places where it could be stronger, clearer, or tighter.

5. Trust your editor. After spending weeks, months, or even years on a book, the last thing we want to hear is there’s more work to be done. Sometimes, we’re so close to our stories that we can’t see where there are structural and other problems. That’s where our editors come in. It was my editor for To Bear an Iron Key who pointed out that my world building was a bit uneven and that the antagonist’s motivation needed to be clearer. When you get your editorial letter, don’t panic. Take the time to understand your editor’s suggestions, and think through how to apply those suggestions to make your book stronger. And then…revise!

(If an agent rejects you, are they open to reviewing your revised submission?)

6. Deadlines matter. Once a book is on a production schedule, any delay could result in pushing back your publication date. Don’t blow off a deadline. If you’re the sort of writer who works well under pressure (I am; I also tend to overdo the chocolate under a deadline crunch), then you’ll probably be writing until the very last minute. If high pressure isn’t your thing, you should get an early start on that next draft or that revision, because you never know when life will throw you an unplanned power outage or week-long illness.

7. The best validation is your name on the cover. Being a writer means setting ourselves up for rejection. Whether it’s a “no” from an agent or editor or a scathing review, there will be times when it will feel like maybe we shouldn’t be writing. Don’t believe that feeling. Many people say they’re going to write a book. Fewer actually do so. Be proud of your accomplishment! When your book gets published, celebrate! Not every book will hit a list—but I promise, that book will look very sweet on your bookshelf, face out, at home.

GIVEAWAY: Jackie is excited to give away a free copy of her novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail, and international winners can receive an e-book instead. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before. (Please note that comments may take a little while to appear; this is normal).

 

Do you have an idea for a great novel? Are you at a loss
for where to start? Look no further. You Can Write a
Novel, 2nd Edition, gives you concrete, proven
techniques to get from idea to manuscript to bookstore.

 

Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:

• Why You Shouldn’t Imitate Others’ Writing Styles (Except to Cut Adverbs!)
• Author Lisa Tenzin-Dolma Explains How She Got Her Pet/Dog Book Published.
• Novelist Jamie Mason Asks “Is Your Book Your Baby?” Her Answer: NO.
• Sell More Books by Building Your Writer Platform.
• Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and how to write a query letter.

 

Want to build your visibility and sell more books?
Create Your Writer Platform shows you how to
promote yourself and your books through social
media, public speaking, article writing, branding,
and more. Order the book from WD at a discount.

 

 

 

Add a Comment

This is a recurring column I’m calling “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,”

where writers (this installment written by Natasha Solomons, author of THE GALLERY OF VANISHED HUSBANDS) at any stage of their career can talk about writing advice and instruction as well as how they possibly got their book agent — by sharing seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the beginning.

 

 

     

Natasha Solomons

THE GALLERY OF VANISHED HUSBANDS
(Plume, August 2013), a story
set in 1958 London that Good Housekeeping called “a charming tale” and RT
Book Reviews called “absorbing and exciting.” Natasha is also the author of
Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English


and the New York Times bestseller
The House at Tyneford
. She lives in Dorset, England, with her husband
and young son. Find her on Twitter
.

 

 

1. Hearing voices in your head isn’t a bad thing if you’re a writer. When I start to hear voices in my head, it’s a good sign. It means that my characters are coming to life. When I start something new, I’m always waiting for that moment, when, Golem-like, my characters will take on their own lives. For me, that’s when I start to hear them talk. I finish a scene on the page, but I can still hear them chatting. I like to eavesdrop on their conversations. It’s very reassuring.

2/ Don’t listen to everybody. Because this is the road to madness. Not the pleasant, conducive, voices-in-your head madness but unhelpful, going round and round in circles until you need to lie down quivering in the dark type madness. Everyone will have a different opinion on your writing, and some people will love your work for precisely the same reason that someone else dislikes it. Find a few people whose opinions you trust—and listen to them. My first reader is my husband. He’s a writer, too so our lives are a mini writers’ workshop. It can be intense and lead to tetchy moments over the chicken at dinner but I always trust his view even when we don’t agree. I also listen to my friend and agent Stan, as well as to my editors. Even if I’m not sure about the precise note, they almost always point to something that’s not quite right in the manuscript.

(Do writers need an outside edit before querying agents?)

3. Only make paper plates not china ones. One of the best pieces of advice I’ve been given is from my friend Jeff Rona, a composer. For a while he stopped having fun writing music. He knew he was creating pieces of art and he fretted about posterity. Then one day in the studio he ran into another artist. This guy was recording and having a great time, and he and Jeff got chatting. He explained to Jeff that “Your problem is that you think of your music as fine china while I think of mine as paper plates.”

The metaphor holds for writing fiction, too. I like to have fun when I write. It’s not always enjoyable—some days it’s just hard and I feel that everything I do is nonsense. But, when I don’t worry and I try stuff out, play with words and see what works and what doesn’t, good things happen. I can always cut the mistakes—no one needs to see the dodgy first draft. I can throw stuff away. After all, it’s only a paper plate.

 

WD’s Novel Writer’s Tool Kit

Available while supplies last




.

 

4. You can’t wait for the Muse. I like the Muse to find me already at my desk. Usually, I’ve been there quite a while before she shows up to work, but the act of writing, reviewing and tea drinking helps to persuade her to appear, however late. I don’t have time to wait until I’m in the mood.  I’ve found this to be even more true since having my son. There’s absolutely no time for any rituals. If he’s asleep/playing quietly away from plug sockets then I need to be at my desk.

5. Allow yourself to be surprised. I have a plan when I write but I keep it purposely vague. I have story waypoints and scenes that I’m writing towards, but I need to be surprised along the way. When my characters have taken on a life of their own, they drive the story and often the scene I’ve been imagining for a hundred pages turns out differently from how I expected. I’ve learned that for me this is part of the joy of writing. I enjoy these surprises and if I try to force the characters into the scene precisely as I’d planned, it doesn’t feel quite true.

(What are overused openings in fantasy, sci-fi, romance and crime novels?)

6. If anything else apart from writing can make you happy, then do that instead. Writing as a career is hard. Sometimes it’s not so much a career but a compulsion. If you think that something else could make you happy, then you’re probably not a writer. Writers tend to write not because they want to, but because they have to, even though the odds of success are stacked against them. I really can’t do anything else, not only because I have few other discernable skills/uses but if I’m not writing I’m a miserable creature.

7. Never forget Bunny if you’re on a book tour with a baby. I’m currently touring with my husband and small son. We’ve learned that the most essential item in our luggage is a well-loved/nibbled grey bunny. He’s been across the US with us all, and as long as we have Bunny, it will be a good day.

 

Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:New Literary Agent Seeking Clients: Pooja Menon of Kimberley Cameron & Associates.

5 Things Agents Can Do to Make Writers’ Lives Easier

From Self-Published Memoir to Traditional Book Deal.

Sell More Books by Building Your Writer Platform.

Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter

or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and how to write a query letter.

 

Join the Writer’s Digest VIP Program

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This is a recurring column I’m calling “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,”

where writers (this installment written by Jeanne, author of HER BOYFRIEND’S BONES) at any stage of their career can talk about writing advice and instruction as well as how they possibly got their book agent — by sharing seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the beginning.

 

Jeanne Matthews

Dinah Pelerin mysteries published
by Poisoned Pen Press, including Bones of Contention, Bet Your Bones,
and Bonereapers. HER BOYFRIEND’S BONES

was released in June 2013.
Like her anthropologist sleuth, Jeanne was born with a serious wanderlust
and she sets each of her books in a different part of the world. Originally
from Georgia, she currently lives in Renton, Washington.
For more information, visit her website.

 

 

1. Keep your manuscript, not your head, in the clouds. I used to be casual and nonchalant about saving my writing to a remote server – until a heartless perp broke down my front door, rampaged through my house, and stole my computer containing my manuscripts and research notes, pictures, blogs in progress, and all of my contact information. Even so, I was lucky. I had sent my most recent novel to the publisher just a few days before. I had a hard copy of an earlier draft, but the thought that I might have had to recreate all of the edits from memory made my blood run cold. As the saying goes, “Experience is a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.” I now send everything to that mysterious, digital Cloud in the sky on a daily basis.

2. Don’t be hamstrung by the admonition to “write what you know.” Fiction writers are constantly lectured to write what they know. But I have no desire to rehash my own experience. For me, the joy of writing is in discovery and learning about people, places, and events I know nothing about. Travel and research may not turn you into a bona fide expert, but in this age of permeable borders and access to free information, you can write a well-informed, plausible story about anything or any place that catches your fancy.

3. The quality of the writing is the only thing you can control. Self-promotion is a necessity in today’s crowded marketplace and, except for the top tier authors whose publishers have large advertising budgets, it falls to the rest of us to stir interest in our books by whatever means we can. We must arrange signings, give interviews, solicit reviews, blog, haunt the social media sites, and attend conferences if we can afford them – all the while we continue writing the next novel. Sometimes it feels as if a million writers are scrambling for the attention of a seemingly diminishing pool of readers. But no amount of effort will guarantee sales. Good reviews, word of mouth, and name exposure help, but success is unpredictable. All you can do is write the best book you can possibly write. That’s why most of us become writers in the first place, right?

4. Read your writing out loud to somebody else. It’s amazing what you’ll hear. Things that seemed crystal clear or charmingly lyrical when you read them over to yourself in silence may sound muddled when you speak them out loud to a more objective listener. Reading my work to other writers tells me immediately what needs to be cut or clarified.

 

What could be better than one guide on crafting
fiction from wise agent Donald Maass? Two books!
We bundle them together at a discount in our shop

How Writers Can Use Twitter For Networking and Success.

Why Writers Need Book Bloggers.

Create the Breakout Blog: A Guide For Writers.

Opportunities Through Blogs & More.

Sell More Books by Building Your Writer Platform

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Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter

or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and how to write a query letter.

 

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This is a recurring column I’m calling “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,”

where writers (this installment written by M.M. Vaughan, author of THE ABILITY) at any stage of their career can talk about writing advice and instruction as well as how they possibly got their book agent — by sharing seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the beginning.

GIVEAWAY: M.M. is excited to give away 2 free copies of her novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before. (Please note that comments may take a little while to appear; this is normal).

 

 

M.M.Vaughan (Monica Meira Vaughan) is the author of THE ABILITY

MINDSCAPE


,
will be on sale March 2014. Monica likes to start writing after midnight and it
has been, until recently, her secret hobby. On the weekends, she dedicates
her time to building cardboard cities for her three-year-old daughter and
catching up on sleep. She lives in London. Learn more on her website



or
get in touch with her on Twitter
.

 

1) Don’t send your manuscript out to every agent at once. I learned this by mistake. I made a list of twelve agents that I wanted to send my book to and prepared a submission pack for each one. I then realized that I only had three stamps so I sent three out and decided that I might as well wait and see how they responded before sending the rest. I’m glad I did. All three turned it down and all three mentioned that they didn’t like synopsis. I rewrote the synopsis (which, in fairness, was awful) and sent out the manuscript to the remaining seven agents on my list. Five said yes! Maybe they would have been interested anyway, who knows, but it makes sense to submit in batches to take advantage of any feedback you might get.

2) No news means … absolutely nothing. As the least patient person I know, I have had somewhat of a difficult time dealing with how slowly everything in publishing happens. To help me sleep, I have now devised a formula which (just about) keeps me on the right side of sane: Time for something to happen = Maximum length of time you expect that thing to happen, add one month and multiply by two. And I’m not even kidding.

3) Use your time well. Formula or no formula, waiting for news from agents or publishers is painful. Some do’s and don’ts (which I may, or may not, have compiled from personal experience): DON’T call them, stalk them, refresh your email obsessively or pore over agents’ twitter feeds for some veiled reference to your manuscript. DO use the time to build up an online presence or, even better, start a new book. If you get the deal, you’ll need to write a second one and, if you don’t – well, you’re not going to give up, of course. Oh, and change your ringtone for the caller you want to hear from, so you only injure yourself running to answer your phone when it really matters.

4) Secrets for your readers. Another lucky accident. When writing The Ability

, I gave the last name ‘Genever’ to the baddies because it’s an anagram of revenge (a central theme), and the first names Dulcia (from the Latin for ‘sweet’), Ernest (synonym of ‘heartfelt’) and Mortimer (Latin, ‘death’). So their names mean Sweet Revenge, Heartfelt Revenge and Revenge of Death. I also, for no good reason, decided that the string of numbers my protagonist Chris ‘visualizes’ during an unusual test would be 1291292025, which I’m sure you’ve already worked out spells ABILITY if A=1, B=2 etc. I was just entertaining myself really, and explained neither in the story itself.

However, when it came to promoting my book, these two ‘secrets’ turned out to be a great way to give readers at events something extra that they couldn’t have learned without hearing it from me personally. It also ensured a good ‘oooh’ moment at the end of my talks, which is always nice. Not knowing how useful this would turn out to be, I didn’t include any secrets in Mindscape

, my second book, and now regret it. I’ve learned my lesson; book three is full of them!

5) Once you get a book deal, you will struggle to find time to write. I have to admit that, though I have learned this, I haven’t yet found a solution that works for me. Before my book deal, I had no idea how much an author has to do; edit, blog, tweet, facebook, answer emails, network, reply to readers who take the time to get in contact and so on. The list is endless. Oh, and then there’s the small matter of writing the next book, which, now you have a deal, also comes with a deadline. (Fun fact that haunts me with every day that passes without blogging: some book distributors have a little graphic that shows how active you are on blogs, twitter and goodreads).

If I’d known all of this before I got my deal, I would have spent some of that painful waiting time building up an online presence (see point 2) so I didn’t end up doing it all from scratch when other work started coming in. I know that not everybody agrees about the necessity of all this extra ‘stuff’ but, personally, I think my best chance of continuing on this surreal and incredible journey will be with the support of others.

I have been surprised (in a really, really good way) at the generosity and kindness of people both online and off and, even if I do often lose count of the irons in the fire, I do believe it’s worth finding the time to maintain those relationships and let people know how grateful you are. Also, it’s worth remembering that nobody can promote your book with more passion than you can – use that to your advantage.

6) You never stop worrying. I worried I’d never get my book finished. Then I finished it and immediately started to worry about whether I’d get an agent. I got an agent and then had sleepless nights over whether I’d get a publishing deal. Got the deal, worried about whether I’d be able to deliver the edit they wanted. I could go on. I don’t think there’s much to be done about this but hopefully it will be some comfort to know you’re not alone and that there’s at least one other sleep-deprived, mildly neurotic writer out there (me) sharing your pain. At some point though, you just have to find a way to turn the anxiety dial down a notch before you self-combust. Which leads neatly onto my final point…

7) Celebrate. So I finished writing my book, got an agent, secured a publishing deal and received my advance. Wow! Literally all my dreams have come true but I’ve always been too busy focusing on the next thing I have to do to stop and celebrate. One day, a friend pointed this out to me and amends were made. Now, when a project is finished or I receive good news, I make sure I take one night off to savor the moment.

At whatever stage of the writing journey you’re on, enjoy your achievements. It could be a party, dinner at a restaurant, a glass of champagne or, perhaps, a night playing online poker while watching back-to-back Mad Men episodes followed by an epic lie-in. Whatever floats your boat. This is now my one rule of writing and, in my opinion: Best. Rule. Ever. As the great philosopher Ferris Bueller once said: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

GIVEAWAY: M.M. is excited to give away 2 free copies of her novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before. (Please note that comments may take a little while to appear; this is normal).

 

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Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:Meet a New Agent Who Seeks Horror, Fantasy and Sci-Fi.

Be Your Own Book Publicist: book tours, book trailers, videos & more.

Literary agent @jbdrowley seeks clients NOW.

Sell More Books by Building Your Writer Platform.

Why Feedback From Your Target Audience is Important For Writers.

An interview with CNN Producer Jack Gray about his debut essay collection.

Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter

or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and how to write a query letter.

 

Want to build your visibility and sell more books?
Create Your Writer Platform

Order the book from WD at a discount

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This is a recurring column I’m calling “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,”

where writers (this installment written by Tricia Goyer, author of THE PROMISE BOX) at any stage of their career can talk about writing advice and instruction as well as how they possibly got their book agent — by sharing seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the beginning.

 

 

            

Tricia Goyer

on Twitter




by SheKnows.com. Tricia, along with a group of friends,
recently launched NotQuiteAmishLiving.com
, sharing ideas about simplifying life.
Her latest novel is THE PROMISE BOX
(Zondervan, May 2013).

 

 

1. The more you write the more creativity you have. My best ideas come one week before deadline when I’m writing long hours and my eyes burn from staring at the computer. I write down these ideas—as much as will come to be at the time. Some ideas are for books. Some ideas are for blogs, but I just write. Good words work like a well pump. When you start pumping it takes a while to get the creativity flowing, but if you keep pumping the ideas start to gush.

2. It’s okay to have be passionate about many things … and to write about them all. I write fiction and non-fiction. I write historical fiction, contemporary fiction, Amish fiction. I write articles and blogs. All of it is me, and all of it has a similar themes, no matter the venue. I write about ordinary people rising to the call, finding healing from their past, and stepping out with courage—whether that is rescuing a child in World War II, daring to becoming an individual in a closed Amish community, or simplifying your life as a parent in everyday life. All of these are part of me, and it I share them in a dynamic way my readers will jump around with me as I share my passions.

3. Relationships with other writers are the most valuable resource in a writer’s toolbox. I attended my first writers conference

in 1994. I was 22-years-old and pregnant with my third baby. I was the most unlikely person there to become a published author, and while the knowledge I learned about writing has benefited me over the years, the people I’ve met changed everything. I met a multi-published author who became a good friend. She also introduced me (and recommended me) to my agent, who I’ve worked with since 1997. I met other new authors who I connect with for support and critique. They are still my friends, and all of us have found publishing success. So many times at conferences writers stalk the agents and authors. Just as important are those sitting at the lunch table with you.

4. Writing may rob time from your family, but the benefits can’t be numbered. For years I felt guilty for spending time on my computer instead of giving my children all my attention. (They still got a lot.) I felt guilty for limiting their extra-curricular activities, too, but as they grew I realized my kids benefited from my work. We traveled to amazing places on research trips. We met noteworthy people. Mostly my kids realized that following one’s dreams took a lot of hard work, but it paid off.

5. Living deeply and fully makes the writing more powerful. I would have been content to sit in an office all day and write, but the people in my life have pulled me into real world beyond the computer. Losing a loved one, welcoming adopted children into our home, and serving those in the inner city rub me raw, but it’s from a tender heart that words become sincere.

6. Every editor can teach you something different. I’ve worked with over twenty different editors for my forty books, and they each teach me something about stronger writing. Instead of being defensive, I take note of the weaknesses they find in my writing and strive to do better on the next project.

7. You can’t fake it. You can’t fake good research. You can’t fake articles that are thrown together. You can’t fake the time and attention it takes to flesh out fictional characters out and them to life. Readers can tell, and they’ll call you out. You also can’t fake good character or your care for the reader, which is equally important, especially in today’ social media world. Hard work, dedication, and transparency with the characters (and yourself) pays off in the long run.

 

Join the Writer’s Digest VIP Program

Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:How to Write Your First Novel: 6 Pieces of Advice.

The Importance of Setting in Your Fiction.

NEW Literary Agent Seeking Writers: Claire Dunnington of Vicky Bijur Literary.

How to Write a Plan a Book Series.

Sell More Books by Building Your Author Platform

.

Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter

or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and how to write a query letter.

 

Want to build your visibility and sell more books?
Create Your Writer Platform

Order the book from WD at a discount

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This is a recurring column I’m calling “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,”

where writers (this installment written by Ben Stroud, author of the short story collection, BYZANTIUM) at any stage of their career can talk about writing advice and instruction as well as how they possibly got their book agent — by sharing seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the beginning.

GIVEAWAY: Ben is excited to give away a free copy of his collection to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before. (Please note that comments may take a little while to appear; this is normal).

 

Ben Stroud’s stories have appeared in Harper’s, One Story, and Boston Review,
among other magazines, and have been anthologized in New Stories from the
South and Best American Mystery Stories. A native of Texas, he now lives in
Ohio and teaches creative writing at the University of Toledo. His debut story
collection, BYZANTIUM

on Twitter. Credit: Bering Photography

 

1. Writing Routines Are Only So Valuable. I used to be a stickler for routine. My desk needed to be just so. I needed the room (and preferably the apartment) to myself. I needed non-vocal music (classical or soundtracks). Then I moved to a one-bedroom apartment in Germany. I couldn’t get a good radio station—this surprised me. The only option for a desk in my furnished apartment was a slatted folding table not much larger than one square foot that I had to stick in the corner of the living room. Gone were all the little things I depended on. But I worked that year, every day, and learned that all that other stuff was unnecessary. I needed only the desk.

2. However, a Schedule Is Key. Writers get this advice a lot, and I’ll put it here, because it’s true. I write every morning. A few hours, the exact number depending upon the other current demands on my time. This is the way stories and novels get built. You can have a good day, a bad day, but so long as you’re there, you’re producing, you’re learning. The lesson here—schedule trumps pretty much everything.

3. Residencies Can Be As Much Harm as Help. I’ve been lucky to spend time at Yaddo and MacDowell. On the plus side, while at these place I learned to revise my work in a deeper way—to sit longer with it, to have the patience to test each sentence out. On the minus side, with the day sprawling ahead of me at a residency, I would linger over breakfast, have long morning conversations, and I brought the bad habit of sitting around too long in the morning (subbing the internet for conversation) back home. A problem, since back home I didn’t have full days to give to my work. So the lesson here, for me, is that a residency can be good to shake things up, to learning something new about your work. But there’s great value in having a steady schedule and a steady place to write and not messing with that too much.

4. The Agent Will Come When The Agent Will Come. When I was a college student, I asked my writing professor about agents. He told me to not think about them, to focus on that other stuff and that getting an agent would take care of itself. In my case, he ended up being right. Now, it’s true, at a certain point you’ll have to worry about this. But the main thing is the writing, making sure it’s good. If that’s your focus, then eventually the other stuff will work itself out, too.

5. The Writing World Works in Hidden Ways, and Can Surprise You. I never thought I’d be able to sell a story to a magazine like Harper’s. It was a dream, of course, but one I thought impossible. Then one day I got an email from my agent. A Harper’s editor had read some of my stories in a few other magazines (stories that I thought had largely gone unnoticed) and wanted to read some of my work. It took two years and four tries, but eventually I got a story to him that he and the other editors liked. I couldn’t have planned that. I couldn’t have made this happen through strategy. All I could do was write the stories and hope that someone on the other end liked them.

6. That Said… That said, while luck and chance are involved in everyone’s career, the most important thing is that you keep doing the work. It was through writing those early stories that I caught this editor’s attention. And it’s because I kept at it, day in and day out, that I was able to produce those four stories to show him. (The other three all found homes as well.)

7. Write What You Want to Write. This is a lesson I learned early on as a writer. It seems self-evident, but every year I have students struggling with this. One of the important tasks of a young writer is to discover what she or he wants to write. You can only figure this out through a heavy combination of reading and writing and following your own taste. If you don’t know what you want to write and where it fits in the writing world, then your just going to struggle and struggle.

GIVEAWAY: Ben is excited to give away a free copy of his collection to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before. (Please note that comments may take a little while to appear; this is normal).

 

Agent Donald Maass, who is also an author
himself, is one of the top instructors nationwide
on crafting quality fiction. His recent guide,
The Fire in Fiction

Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:How to Interact With Agents on Facebook and Twitter.

How to Create a Simple Writer Blog.

How to Back Up Your Blog and Save Content.

So You Have a Blog — Now What?

Sell More Books by Building Your Author Platform

.

Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter

or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and how to write a query letter.

 

Want to build your visibility and sell more books?
Create Your Writer Platform

Order the book from WD at a discount

.

Add a Comment

This is a recurring column I’m calling “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,” where writers (this installment written by G.M. Malliett, mystery author of multiple novels) at any stage of their career can talk about writing advice and instruction as well as how they possibly got their book agent — by sharing seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the beginning.

(Learn tips on how to write a query letter.)

GIVEAWAY: G.M. is excited to give away a free copy of her novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before.

 

 

        

G.M. Malliet is the author of WICKED AUTUMN, an NBC “Today” show
Summer Reads Pick (Charlaine Harris). Her first book won the Agatha
Award for Best First Mystery, and her two most recent books were chosen
by Library Journal for their best mysteries lists of 2011 (WICKED AUTUMN)
& 2012 (A FATAL WINTER). Visit her website at http://GMMalliet.com. 

 

 

 1. Write what you love to read. Authors just starting out often misinterpret the standard advice to “write what you know.” Perhaps you know a lot about root canals or tax law, but the trick is to write the type of book you most love to read—thriller, love story, or historical novel. That way you know what’s been done before, and what you can build upon. Your insider knowledge of tax law may come into play, perhaps in a legal thriller, but a little of that will go a long way. By the same token…

2. Don’t write a Scandinavian mystery, unless you happen to be Scandanavian. Even if you read the Steig Larsson books a dozen times, trying to write a book with a setting and culture you know little about will guarantee an unhappy ending.

(Writing a thriller? Check out our list of thriller literary agents.)

3. Don’t invent a series character you wouldn’t marry. You may have to live with this character for a very long time. Agatha Christie famously wanted to throttle Hercule Poirot and his mustaches with her bare hands before she was done with him or he with her. By the same token, avoid Agatha’s mistake in inventing an elderly protagonist unless you yourself are elderly. This leads us to…

4. Plan Ahea… As the old joke goes, particularly if you are writing a book that is part of a planned series. I called my first Max Tudor novel Wicked Autumn. The second book in the series was A Fatal Winter. So far, so good. You may have spotted that I have a seasonal trend going here. I have a strong title in mind for the spring book, but a title for the summer book eludes me. I figure I’ll cross that fjord when I get there. For the fifth book I am in trouble unless they invent a new season. Or I could switch to using Swedish titles: Swedish for autumn, I am told, is “höst.”

5. Never get too attached to your book title. Getting too attached to anything you’ve written is asking for trouble, but titles can be particularly problematic. Writers tend to cling to their titles until they have to be pried from their cold dead hands. I’ve been lucky that out of five books I’ve had published (the first three were the St. Just series for Midnight Ink) only one title was rejected. Midnight Ink’s marketing department wanted to keep the third title consistent with the first two. They were probably right about this, but it led to the sort of lengthy exchange of emails that can take years off an author’s life. I still mourn that lost title, and I plan to resurrect it one day. But unless they want to call your book Boring Novel or Stupid Book or something else you just can’t live with, let it go.

(Read the guest column “What’s in a Title? Everything.”)

6. Listen to half the advice you get from those who critique your work. The question, of course, is “Which half?” But it’s your book, and you should be able to defend it before you even think of showing it to anyone: critique group partner, agent, editor—anyone. What you share should be your strongest effort, and you should have a very good reason for every decision you’ve made in writing it. Before you’ve reached the point of confidence (this is different from stubbornness, by the way), you’ll probably be quick to go on the defensive. You may cling mulishly to what is clearly not working in the book. Avoid the chance of ignoring good advice when it is given by thinking the whole thing through ahead of time.

7. The only way around Writer’s Block is to drive straight through it. Whether you’re cleaning out your garage or writing a book, the same principle applies: Never tackle a big project all at once. Approach it as a series of little projects strung together. Maybe you don’t feel like describing a character today, so work on your setting. If that plot twist isn’t working, work on something else you know you want to have in your book. Imagine the house where you protagonist lives, or where he goes for coffee every day, and describe it in one short but finely honed paragraph. That’s it. You’re done for the day. Tomorrow, tackle the next part of the story that happens to engage your attention. When you’ve stitched all these pieces together, what you’ll have is a finished novel.

GIVEAWAY: G.M. is excited to give away a free copy of her novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before.

 

Are you a subscriber to Writer’s Digest magazine
yet? If not, get a discounted one-year sub here.

Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:

• New Literary Agent Seeking Clients: Gemma Cooper of The Bent Agency.
• Interview With Agent Helen Zimmerman, Who Seeks Fiction and Nonfiction.
• How to Publicize and Promote Your Book: 7 Tips.
• Sell More Books by Building Your Writer Platform.
• Exactly What Your Pitch Should NOT Look Like.
• Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and how to write a query letter.

 

 

Want to build your visibility and sell more books?
Create Your Writer Platform shows you how to
promote yourself and your books through social
media, public speaking, article writing, branding,
and more. Order the book from WD at a discount.

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This is a recurring column I’m calling “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,” where writers at any stage of their career can talk about seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the beginning. This installment is from writer Emily Hainsworth.

 

 

 

       

Emily Hainsworth is the author of THROUGH TO YOU (Oct. 2012,
Balzar + Bray). She was raised in upstate New York and currently
resides in Denver with her husband, cat, and standard poodle.
THROUGH TO YOU is her first novel. You can visit her online
at www.emilyhainsworth.com.

 

 

1. Allow yourself to dream. Before I had a book deal or even an agent, I used to spend a significant amount of time daydreaming about becoming an author. What it might be like, how it might change my life. At the time, this felt silly and self-indulgent, but the daydreams kept me going, thirsting for a taste of true success. If I’d given them up, I might’ve given up hope, and I never would have seen those dreams finally coming true.

2. Surround yourself with people who have similar goals. As in many aspects of life, it helps to have friends working toward similar goals. I didn’t know anyone else who even wrote YA when I started out, but I quickly found supportive friends beginning their publication journeys, just like me. Almost every one of the people I met back then now either has an agent or a book deal. You can boost each other up the rungs of the ladder—you don’t need someone at the top to pull you up.

3. You’ll never understand constructive criticism until it’s been given AND received. I never appreciated the feedback people offered when critiquing my manuscripts until I was put in a position to offer the same people insight into their own work. Deconstructing flaws in someone else’s story will help you identify similar issues in your own writing. It’s amazing how perfect words can seem until you’ve had a two-way feedback exchange.

4. Writing is important, but so if your personal life! Sometimes I get fixated on my goals and it’s difficult to see anything but the brass ring I’m reaching for. Being driven is a gift, don’t get me wrong, but don’t lose sight of your support system along the way. If your spouse/family/friends are giving you space to work endless hours on that manuscript, take time to show them how much you appreciate their confidence in you. Many sacrifices are made on the road to publication, but your loved ones should not be among them.

5. Don’t let success grind your productivity to a halt. After THROUGH TO YOU sold, I became consumed by ‘what happens next.’ But the thing is, not a lot does happen immediately after your first book sale. You should simply keep writing. I spent so much time worrying about what the editing process would be like and what my next book should be that by the time I started making progress on the second book, I was very behind and wished I hadn’t let myself get side-tracked.

6. Don’t be afraid: authors, agents, editors, even filmmakers are people too. The first time I spoke on the phone with many of these people, I was petrified. I don’t even remember some of the conversations because I was so sick to my stomach with worry I’d say the wrong thing. In retrospect, I probably would’ve made a better impression if I’d remembered each of these people had to get started somewhere, just like me…and they didn’t somehow become super-human in the process.

7. If you did it once, you can do it again. This goes for everything from completing a second manuscript to selling a second book… and beyond. The first book I wrote didn’t get me an agent and will never be published. When I realized I needed to abandon it and start from scratch, I wasn’t sure I had it in me. Starting a novel is the hardest part for me, but I did it a second time, and it got me an agent and a book deal. I just repeated the process with my next published book, and will go for it again with the one after that. It doesn’t get easier, but it is possible to start from the blank page all over again.

 

 

This guest column is a supplement to the
“Breaking In” (debut authors) feature of Natalie
in Writer’s Digest magazine. Are you a subscriber
yet? If not, get a discounted one-year sub here.

 

 

 

 

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This is a recurring column I’m calling “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,” where writers at any stage of their career can talk about seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the beginning. This installment is from kids writer Kami Kinard.

GIVEAWAY: Kami is excited to give away a free copy of her novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before. 

 

 

 

   

Kami Kinard is the author of THE BOY PROJECT: NOTES AND
OBSERVATIONS OF KARA MCALLISTER (Scholastic, Jan. 2012).
Her poetry, stories, articles, and essays have appeared in periodicals
for children and adults. Kami also works as a teaching artist for SC
schools, and teaches writing courses for continuing education programs.
She lives with her family in balmy, buggy, and beautiful Beaufort, SC.
Connect with her through her blog, Facebook, Twitter, or see her book trailer here.

1. Recognize that you have a lot to learn. There is a stage in every writer’s life when they think everything they write is great. There is a name for this stage: beginner. Often when we start writing we are so excited about what we produce that we fail to see how much we have to learn. My writing improved dramatically after I realized that it needed to do just that.

2. Get feedback on your work. The only way to see things clearly is through lenses other than your own. I learned so much when I finally joined a critique group. Specifically, I learned how to improve my craft. When not actively involved in a group, I have a writing partner who reads everything I write. If a critique group doesn’t appeal to you, you can pay for critiques at conferences, or hire a freelance editor. Others will be able to see problems you are blind to. Trust me.

3. Invest in your career. If you chose to be a doctor, a lawyer, or an architect, you wouldn’t be able to open shop without an education. While no one requires this of authors, if your career is important to you, make an investment in it. Travel to conferences where writers you admire will be speaking or teaching. Take classes and go to workshops. If you are willing to keep improving and keep learning, you will eventually get an agent and a publisher. I spent the first few years of my career “saving money” by not attending events. That was a very expensive mistake.

4. You need an agent, even if you think you don’t. It is still possible to sell a book without an agent, but what happens next? Contracts are complicated these days with audio rights, e-book rights, and foreign rights and more. Unless you have experience with contract negotiations, allow an agent to help you. You will most likely get a better advance, and an agent will be able act as a liaison between you and your publisher if anything goes wrong. I have sold books with and without an agent, so I speak from experience. Which of my books do you see in bookstores across the country today? The one my agent sold.

5. Don’t be afraid to outsource. You’ve heard the phrase “life happens,” right? Sometimes life happens in ways that can impede our careers. Four months before my book debuted, I ended up spending most of my time in a hospital room with a family member. I needed to be planning for my book’s release, but I didn’t have a minute. My self-designed website needed upgrading. A book trailer needed to be produced. A blog tour needed to be scheduled. I finally realized that if I wanted these things done, I was going to have to pay someone else to do them. A friend found a web designer for me, my editor gave met the name of a film student who made trailers, and I found another writer willing to research the market and target blogs for a potential tour. I also asked her to find out what other things I should be doing to promote my book. She named a price. I paid her twice that. It was worth every penny.

 6. There is strength in numbers… join a group. I am a member of The Apocalypsies, a group of 2012 debut children’s authors. Because we are a large group, bloggers and other book lovers contact us as a unit.  I’ve had many more opportunities to promote my book through the Apocalypsies than I would have had on my own. I didn’t know about this type of group until the writer I hired to do research found it for me. I was one of the last members to join. I love being part of it! But I missed a number of opportunities because I joined late.

7. Make friends. A lot of people will tell you to go to conferences to make connections, but friends I’ve made through these events are far more valuable.  It is wonderful to have friends who have similar career goals and who understand the challenges authors face. I am thankful to have shared my journey as an author with awesome friends!

GIVEAWAY: Kami is excited to give away a free copy of her novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before

 

 

Writing books for kids? There are
hundreds of publishers, agents and
other markets listed in the latest
Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market.
Find it here online at a discount.

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This is a recurring column I’m calling “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,” where writers at any stage of their career can talk about seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the beginning. This installment is from writer Joanne Brothwell.

GIVEAWAY: Joanne is excited to give away a free copy of her novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before.

 

 

 

   

Joanne Brothwell is the author of STEALING BREATH, a
paranormal romance from Crescent Moon Press (March 2012).
Find Joanne’s blog here. Also, you can find Joanne on Twitter.

 

 

1. Learn The Craft. This is advice I wish I’d listened to before diving into writing my first novel, head-first. Instead, I wrote the first draft and then started to learn about writing. Tip: this method is painful. If I’d put that time into learning the craft instead of just powering ahead, I would have saved myself innumerable hours wasted on revision. Or was it time wasted? Perhaps, it wasn’t all a waste. Learning how to write after the first draft may have its advantages. Firstly, I had more of an investment in learning the information (I had a manuscript I wanted to sell), plus I had the ability to put the learning into practice (on my manuscript). So, um, ignore this advice. Just write.

2. Revise. Be prepared to revise, rework and rewrite that manuscript. Being a writer includes a great deal of time consuming, non-creative work, and the sooner we accept that, the closer we are to having a product that might just sell. First drafts are the fast, easy part (Well, not that fast!), but the revisions go on for long after those final words are typed on the last page. Hunker down and revise.

Sometimes we have to give ourselves permission to be wrong. Let go of the heart-wrenchingly difficulty scene that took us three weeks to write, remove the perfectly fleshed-out character we love, or the delete the terrifying monster we were convinced was our greatest brain-child ever. When I’ve admitted to cutting 50,000 words in one sitting, people are amazed. What? Why? It hurts, yes. It’s disheartening. But sometimes, it’s essential to making the story work. Don’t get too invested in anything, keep an impartial, detached attitude about your book. This is business. If it doesn’t work, cut it, end of story.

3. Seek out critiques. I have to admit, I hate critiques. I absolutely loathe them. When I get a critique in my Inbox, it usually sits there for a day before I can even open the document. When I read through it, I�

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This is a recurring column I’m calling “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,” where writers at any stage of their career can talk about seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the beginning. This installment is from writer Megan Bostic.

GIVEAWAY: Megan is excited to give away a free copy of her novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before.

 

 

 

           

Megan Bostic is a mother of two, residing in Tacoma, Washington.
She was moved to write her first novel in the spring of 2002 after
deciding to close her child care business in order to provide hospice
care for her terminally ill mother-in-law. Megan thrives on the challenges
she has faced so far on her journey to publication, and has
recorded her struggles in a humorous-yet-personal video series,
Chronicles of an Aspiring Writer.  She is a member of SCBWI, PNWA,
Class of 2k12, Apocalypsies, and is an avid blogger. Her YA novel,
NEVER EIGHTEEN, debuted from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,
January 2012. Visit her online at her author website, on Facebook,
and on Twitter.

 

 

 

1. I Am Not the Next JK Rowling. Of course I thought I’d be the next JK Rowling, and I wanted to be SO bad, but after I wrote my first novel, and after my first few rejections, I realized I was not. No one is the next JK Rowling, Stephanie Meyer, or Suzanne Collins, but you can be the best you. That’s what I decided to do, and what it took was to put that superhero series aside and work on something that really spoke to me, and to work hard at it. Will I ever pick that series up again? Maybe. But I will and can only be Megan Bostic.

2. It’s not them, it’s you. I know, that’s a hard reality to face, but it’s true. They are the professionals and they know what they’re looking for. Your writing may need work. However, your writing could be full of awesome sauce, but it’s just not what the agent is looking for. Talent is not the only component to getting a book published. It’s also the market. What are people looking to read? Agents have to be somewhat prophetic in finding the next big

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This is a recurring column I’m calling “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,” where writers at any stage of their career can talk about seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the beginning. This installment is from writer Leah Bobet.

GIVEAWAY: Leah is excited to give away a free copy of her novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before.

 

 

 

      

Leah Bobet drinks tea, wears feathers in her hair, and plants
gardens in alleyways. Her short fiction has appeared in venues
including On Spec, Realms of Fantasy, and multiple Year’s Best
anthologies, and her debut novel, ABOVE (starred review in
Publishers Weekly), was published by Arthur A. Levine
Books/Scholastic in April 2012.  Find her at leahbobet.com.

 

1. That process is the most individual thing on earth: All writing advice (including this batch here!) is nothing more than how that particular writer learned to write; how they compensated for the things they weren’t so good at in the beginning, and reinforced the things that were always strengths.  You’re not them: You have your own strengths and weaknesses, and your own brain, so there are no hard-and-fast craft rules, or craft advice that always fits.  Just tools, some of which might be useful, and learning to write is really just the process of learning which tools are the ones that fit your hands best.

2. That sometimes when writing advice looks obvious, or stupid, or like it makes no sense, it’s because your brain isn’t in the place yet where that piece of advice is useful.  Write it down in a file.  Go back and look at that file every six months or so.  One day it’ll be the exact thing you needed to hear.

3. To weigh criticism with seriousness and objectivity.  Even if you disagree with the critiquer, you have to get that work past the editor; even if you disagree with the editor, you have to get it past the reviewer; even if you disagree with the reviewer, you have to get that past the reader – and it’s the reader who we’re all ultimately responsible to for putting forward our very best, and the reader who’s the most exacting judge.

4. That you don’t have to sign any contract that makes you even the slightest bit uncomfortable.  Usually when a contract’s making you uncomfortable, there’s a good reason for that, and just like going on another date with someone you’re getting that bad feeling about, sticking it out and then cleaning up the mess later is always much more work than just saying thanks, but no thanks.  There’s always another person to date,

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This is a recurring column I’m calling “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,” where writers at any stage of their career can talk about seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the beginning. This installment is from writer Leah Bobet.

GIVEAWAY: Leah is excited to give away a free copy of her novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before.

 

 

 

      

Leah Bobet drinks tea, wears feathers in her hair, and plants
gardens in alleyways. Her short fiction has appeared in venues
including On Spec, Realms of Fantasy, and multiple Year’s Best
anthologies, and her debut novel, ABOVE (starred review in
Publishers Weekly), was published by Arthur A. Levine
Books/Scholastic in April 2012.  Find her at leahbobet.com.

 

1. That process is the most individual thing on earth: All writing advice (including this batch here!) is nothing more than how that particular writer learned to write; how they compensated for the things they weren’t so good at in the beginning, and reinforced the things that were always strengths.  You’re not them: You have your own strengths and weaknesses, and your own brain, so there are no hard-and-fast craft rules, or craft advice that always fits.  Just tools, some of which might be useful, and learning to write is really just the process of learning which tools are the ones that fit your hands best.

2. That sometimes when writing advice looks obvious, or stupid, or like it makes no sense, it’s because your brain isn’t in the place yet where that piece of advice is useful.  Write it down in a file.  Go back and look at that file every six months or so.  One day it’ll be the exact thing you needed to hear.

3. To weigh criticism with seriousness and objectivity.  Even if you disagree with the critiquer, you have to get that work past the editor; even if you disagree with the editor, you have to get it past the reviewer; even if you disagree with the reviewer, you have to get that past the reader – and it’s the reader who we’re all ultimately responsible to for putting forward our very best, and the reader who’s the most exacting judge.

4. That you don’t have to sign any contract that makes you even the slightest bit uncomfortable.  Usually when a contract’s making you uncomfortable, there’s a good reason for that, and just like going on another date with someone you’re getting that bad feeling about, sticking it out and then cleaning up the mess later is always much more work than just saying thanks, but no thanks.  There’s always another person to date,

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This is a recurring column I’m calling “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,” where writers at any stage of their career can talk about seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the beginning. This installment is from writer K.M. Ruiz.

GIVEAWAY: K.M. is excited to give away a free copy of her novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before.

 

 

 

      

K.M. Ruiz studied English and American Indian Studies at San
Francisco State University. Her debut novel, MIND STORM,
released in 2011. Her newest novel, TERMINAL POINT, comes
out in June 2012. Kirkus said of her second book, “The action
is nonstop, insanely violent and mostly lethal, like X-Men on
steroids … It’s a tribute to Ruiz’s skill that, somehow, when
a winner finally emerges, it’s the one you’ve been rooting for.”
K.M. lives in California. You can visit her on Twitter.

 

 

 

1. Be Patient – The whole hurry up and wait aspect of the publishing industry is so very, very true. You will be waiting on agents, while on submission, through the editing process, right up until release day. Sometimes there will be little flurries of action (Cover! Blurbs! Reviews!), but for the most part, keep an eye on the book working its way toward reality and know that when it arrives, you might actually miss the lead up.

2. Fingers On The Keyboard (Or Pen In Hand) – So you turned in your first or even latest book? That’s great! Where’s the next one? Keep writing, even if it’s just to flesh out an idea before you find the words to turn it into a story. Write a little (or a lot) every day if possible, no matter how busy your life gets.

3. First Readers Are Gods – When you find a good first reader, commit to keeping them willing and docile by bribing them with whatever is necessary to keep them happy. Every story needs a second pair of eyes (or more) to keep you focused. You’re not going to always see what’s wrong and a good first reader should be able to help you with that. Listen to them. You don’t always have to edit according to their suggestions, but keep listening.

4. Become An Extrovert – I’m not an extrovert but I can fake it really well! Seriously, no matter how much you hate talking in front of a group of strangers or putting yourself out there online, you need to be present. Being accessible online is a must, I can’t stress that enough. Consider Twitter and other variant blogging sites your social masters. Take any opportunity to do a reading or a signing, even if it’s just dropping by a bookstore to autograph stock. Bite the bullet, drink some alcohol, an

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This is a recurring column I’m calling “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,” where writers at any stage of their career can talk about seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the beginning. This installment is from urban fantasy writer Suzanne Johnson.

GIVEAWAY: Suzanne is excited to give away a free copy of her novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before.

 

 

 

 

    

Suzanne Johnson is the author of a new urban fantasy series
set in post-Katrina New Orleans. The first book, ROYAL STREET
(Tor), was released in April 2012. Books two and three are scheduled
for release in fall 2012 and spring 2013. A longtime New Orleans
resident now living in Auburn, Alabama, Suzanne can be found
online at suzanne-johnson.com.

 

 

 

1. Outline, outline, outline. I wrote ROYAL STREET front to back, beginning to end, with a lot of meandering in between. Said meandering bits got hacked through multiple revisions. Meandering wastes time. I learned quickly that if I’m going to hold down a full-time day job and expect to write multiple novels in a year, I have to be a plotter, not a pantser.

2. I don’t know as much as I thought I did. I’d spent many long years in journalism and thought I knew how to tell a story… until I began writing a novel. The difference between a 4,000-word feature article and a 94,000-word novel is as epic as it sounds. With all the writing workshops available online these days, there’s no excuse for not continually studying the craft and continuing to learn.

3. The “Track Change” function of MS Word is my friend. Sometime during my first book’s production cycle, I got all nostalgic and thought it might have been romantic to have done book revisions and copyedits back in the olden days of paper manuscripts. Until a production glitch on the second book provided me with three-hundred-plus pages bound with a rubber band, on which I was expected to manually make copyedits using colored pencils. Obviously, I had been delusional and had read Little Women too many times. There was nothing romantic about it. It sucked.

4. Go ahead and read the reviews, but don’t take them too seriously. Before the first book launched, everyone told me: Don’t read the reviews. Really? How can you not? But the days of obsessive checking Goodreads to see what the latest complete stranger is saying have passed. I still look but now I see those reviews as if they were a bus hur

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This is a recurring column I’m calling “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,” where writers at any stage of their career can talk about seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the beginning. This installment is from writer Emmy Laybourne.

GIVEAWAY: Emmy is excited to give away a free copy of her novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before.

 

 

 

     

Emmy Laybourne is a novelist, lyricist, and actress. She has
acted in movies, television, and improv groups including Chicago
City Limits and UCB. She lives in Chestnut Ridge, New York, with
her husband and their two children. MONUMENT 14 marks her
fiction debut. The trailer for Monument 14 features an original song.
A companion piece to Monument 14 can currently be found at
Tor.com. It’s called “Dress Your Marines In White” and it’s free!

 

 

 

1. I only write if have at least 2 hours in front of me. Most days, it takes me at least 45 minutes to calm down my mind and get ready to write. It’s a horrible 45 minutes, during which time the temptation to check emails and answer phone messages is nearly unbearable. But if I can wait it out, I will eventually find my way into the core of my own creativity.

Now, if I do all that suffering and finally get there and the words start to flow and then all of a sudden I have to stop because, say, it’s time to pick my kids up from school, or I have a dentist appointment, or I have to go have lunch with some dearly beloved friend – it makes me want to gouge my heart out.

That’s why I leave myself at least two hours to write – preferably four or even six.

2. I write five days a week. When I am working on a novel, if I do not give it a certain amount of my bandwidth, I lose momentum. I think of it this way: I’ve asked a group of characters to come and hang around me while I tell a story about what is happening to them. I owe them my attention. It’s sort of like inviting guests to a party – if I don’t pay attention to them, they get bored and wander off.

Now, this is not to say that I write 5 days a week every week! No, I have to take weeks off at a time when I need to prepare for a book launch or a play reading.

But if I’m focusing on writing a novel, I try to clear my schedule as best I can so that I can not only write 5 days a week, but also:

3. I write at the same time each day. That way the party guests know when to show up! I used t

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This is a recurring column I’m calling “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,” where writers at any stage of their career can talk about seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the beginning. This installment is from writer Olivia Newport.

GIVEAWAY: Olivia is excited to give away a free copy of her novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before.

 

 

    

Olivia Newport‘s novels twist through time to discover where
faith and passions meet. She chases joy in Colorado at the foot
of the Rockies, where daylilies grow as tall as she is. Her
husband and two twentysomething children are welcome
distractions from the people stomping through her head
on their way into her books. Find her on Twitter or on Facebook.
Her latest book is the May 2012 historical romance,
THE PURSUIT OF LUCY BANNING (Revell).

 

 

 

1. Take the long way. Shortcuts rarely pay off when it comes to research and preparation. Grabbing a quick fact here and there results in an unpersuasive random sensation in the finished text—which then turns out not to be finished after all. Writing is about more than crafting and reshaping the words that make it to screen or paper. It’s about wisely sifting the possibilities of what to write about in the first place.

2. Be your own nemesis. Writing leaves little time for preening. Criticize yourself. Someone else is going to do it anyway. Being tough on yourself is your best defensive move. Even when you’ve written something to be proud of, outline three ways it could be better.

3. Unpeel the truth. Just because something happened in real life doesn’t mean it belongs in your novel. The catalyzing event is more likely to become the germ of a character’s experience, rather than a verbatim account. The final value may be emotional or spiritual, rather than factual. The truth the novelist seeks goes beyond accurate details.

4. Play chess well. Think three plays ahead. Or four. Or six. How is your character going to respond to the next event you plan to drop into the plot, and how will you counter that reaction by upping the tension? Anyone can learn the rote rules for moving a bishop or a rook or a knight, but the winner patiently waits for the angles to converge.

5. Sign your work. One valuable reason to write multiple manuscripts before trying to publish is pumping up your novelist muscles. Your own review, or the opinions of a few trusted readers, may reveal signature strengths that you can employ

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