I’m not a funny person, or at least I don’t intend to be. I take everything too seriously, and I fell for the “gullible’s not in the dictionary” joke three times when my husband and I started dating.
How the hell could I ever write humor in my novels?
Jokes happen at my expense, not because I’m making them. Every party I go to without fail, I say something I intend very seriously that instead makes everyone laugh. I’m left saying, “But it’s true!” and baffled as to why everyone is laughing.
My CP got an agent! A contract! An award! A big advance! I’m thrilled and excited for them. We celebrate, go out for drinks, plan what comes next on their big journey.
What do you do when the genre you write is commonly referred to as trash? Not just by non-readers, but by the key audience demographic as well? The romance genre, dominated by a female readership whose novels most often involve sex, would have to be referred to as trash in a culture still affronted and embarrassed by any mention of feminine sexuality, right? Continue reading A Case for Romance
(First posted on DIY MFA.) When shit goes down in our lives, how do we keep writing? At best, we lose our ability to focus on our work. Sometimes it makes us question our work—question whether what we have to say will be relevant. Or at worst, become afraid to write what we write. Continue reading The Courage To Write What You Believe
(First posted on RWChat.com.) A novel isn’t a page turner without conflict. Conflict is what keeps us on the edge of seats worried about what will happen next. But managing conflict as a writer–planning it, producing it, keeping it–is an exercise in stamina. Beginning a novel with enough conflict to last until the end isn’t easy. Add in the struggle to keep the conflict ball in the air chapter after chapter, it takes a lot of practice.
Conflict stems from two main sources:
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Balancing external and internal conflict is like walking a tight rope. There has to be enough external conflict to keep the over arching plot moving without stalling. But there has to be enough internal struggle to keep the reader emotionally engaged in the stakes till the end.
We love our characters and the temptation to make things easier for them, to help them fall in love sooner, reach that happily ever-after faster, is possibly the worst enemy of our story. If it’s too easy for them, who wants to read that? There’s no reason to keep turning pages. But if we torture them and employ my favorite technique from James Scott Bell, “What’s the worst that can happen?”, then we come up with the kind of books we can never get enough of–even after the HEA.
(First published on DIY MFA.) Deadlines are terrifying. They’re funny little things almost made to be broken, but without them we’d get nothing done. (Even this article, I’m turning in two days late, but if there wasn’t a deadline, would I write it at all? Probably not.) Continue reading Deadlines Are Not Your Worst Enemy
(First posted on #RWChat.) It may sound like a bit of an exaggeration, but I don’t think it is. Writing 50,000 words in the month of November for the last three years, with the help and support of the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) community has made me the writer I am, and it’s not just because my 2014 NaNo book became my debut published novel this summer.
My NaNoWriMo stickers on the back of my old laptop from the three years I won.
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The discipline to commit and write a novel in 30 days is a daunting but very professional task. The respect it shows one’s work with a specific goal and a hard fast deadline along with the accountability of the whole NaNo community is the mark of a budding professional writer.
The number one thing NaNoWriMo did for me was teach me to turn off my overcritical, often debilitating inner editor. I have a tendency to over analyze everything, often making it hard to achieve a goal because perfection gives me writer’s block. But the NaNo philosophy of Don’t-Edit-Just-Write helped me learn to write for the pure enjoyment and pleasure of it.
In the midst of achieving deadlines this year, I’ve been losing sight of that – the joy of writing. I can’t wait until November 1st. NaNoWriMo is fast becoming my yearly commitment to myself to remember I LOVE TO WRITE!
(First posted on #RWChat.) Submitting your work for feedback is like putting your heart in someone’s teeth. If you’re lucky, they’ll hold it gently in their hands. If you’re not so lucky, they’ll bite down and make it bleed. But if you’re REALLY lucky, they’ll take the time and effort to help your work be the best it can be, even if it means tough love. And there’s a reason why they call it tough – it ain’t easy to take.
But before we chat tonight about receiving feedback, I’d like a word about GIVING it. I admit, I didn’t know how to give it at first. I was one of THOSE people who coated others’ work with so many comments, it looked like a sea of red by the time I was done. I was brutal. And I definitely owe some people formal apologies for the feelings I hurt. I was new, and I didn’t understand what good feedback meant.
Here’s my understanding now of what good feedback means, or at least the kind I like to get:
Good feedback does not mean taking the person’s work and nitpicking it until you’re trying to make it your own. That’s not feedback, it’s rewriting, and it’s rude. (See the guilty sign on my back…)
Good feedback also does not mean sugar coating – telling someone glowingly how wonderful their work is without any critique. That is shallow and superficial and unhelpful. (I’ve done that too, out of laziness.)
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It also means giving the attention to make constructive, deliberate critiques. To look carefully at a writer’s work and find the potential that has yet to be realized. Great feedback is given with respect and wanting to bring the work to a higher level. It’s given with a belief in the other writer’s ability and the integrity of their story. It’s investing the time and effort to uplift the work, not degrade it.
Great feedback is a giant compliment of YOUR WORK IS WORTH MY TIME. Accept it with grace, consideration, and discernment. Having the dedication to take every piece of it seriously is a hallmark of a great writer.
Given compassionately and well, great feedback is the foundation of building the great relationships we have going in this wonderful community of ours.
(First posted on DIY MFA.) I’ve been planning to write this post for over a year. Except I really thought it would be the “When Your Book DOES Sell” version. But yeah… that didn’t happen. The book my agent signed me for didn’t sell. I found out five months ago. It’s taken me that long to be ready to write this.
I knew it was coming. The book was on submission for a year. My agent told me it would be happening soon, and I wanted it to be done. A whole year of checking my email obsessively, hoping an editor would want it—it drives a person insane.
I thought I was prepared for it to be done, but I wasn’t. The email from my agent with “Closeout” in the subject line—it messed with me. It didn’t matter that in the time I was on submission I’d written and sold another book. Having my first book not sell… The self-doubt was crippling. I’m still getting over it.
It’s like an old relationship that breaks your heart. Even after you meet someone new, someone better, it doesn’t make that break up hurt any less. But I’m not alone. This happens to every writer. (Don’t tell me the exceptions. I’m not talking about outliers here.) Plenty of writers have one, two, even three or more books that don’t sell, and they just keep writing.
And I wanted to be one of those people, the kind who keeps on writing and never gives up. So here are some things I did after the closeout that worked cuz… Three months later, I got a new deal. The three book kind J
So when a book doesn’t sell, try to…
It hurts when your work doesn’t sell. It’s a horrible feeling. The gut reaction of “everyone hates my writing” is overwhelming. But take the wound and turn it into fuel. Turn it into motivation to make your next book better than the first. Turn it into, “What do I write this time?”
Listen to what others have been telling you. Don’t give in to the blinders of “no one will ever buy my books.” Somewhere in the feedback you got were positive things and suggestions of things to work on. Sort through it. Listen to the good advice from others and hear what things they want to read from you next.
Some of the most common symptoms are: 1.An unshakeable depression, stress and anxiety, as well as avoid. 2.Overwhelming hopelessness levitra on line deeprootsmag.org combined with gloomy feelings. 3.Extreme guilt, feelings involving vulnerability, with out perception associated with home worth. 4.Loss of energy, a new slowing down associated with metabolism, along with activity ranges. Tadalafil has no effect in the absence of stimulation. purchase viagra from canada Hence it is incredibly popular treatment program that helps people in recovering from a great variety of disorders that can potentially become obstacles for success. http://deeprootsmag.org/2013/03/13/gone-home/ cialis price Therefore, you cost of tadalafil are advised to control stress through intake of herbal pills and bathing daily with cold water. Whether the advice and feedback work or not, keep writing. Keep writing. Keep writing. Keep writing. There is no better medicine. Though getting back to writing can be a tricky mine field. A book not selling makes you doubt even your strengths. Trying to figure out why it didn’t sell, which things to change, which things to keep about your writing—it’s exhausting to do on your own. That’s why you need to…
This is crucial. Getting support, being reminded about your strengths is infinitely important when mired in the self-doubt of shelving a work. Lean on your friends. Let them be your cheerleaders. They’ll need you to do the same when they’re buried in the lows of this roller coaster publishing business.
Don’t give up on yourself. Focus on your stories and what you want to write, rather than your fears. I won’t even name them here. They are the fears-that-shall-not-be-named, because they’re not worth your time. They just get in your way. Focus not the past disappointments but on the doing.
It takes time to recover from a book not selling. My doubt hasn’t gone away. I took big risks in the book that didn’t sell, and I wonder if I’ll ever be brave enough to take those again.
But somewhere in there, something good happened.
I looked up the dates of my emails and files. The week before my “closeout” email, my agent sent me a list of prompts from my soon-to-be publisher’s request list. The week after the closeout, I started on one of them.
It worked. Four months later—three book deal.
You can do it, too.
My first book releases in less than two months. There are so many promo things I’m supposed to be doing, even though the editing was done ages ago. The list of stuff authors are supposed to do for book promotion keeps getting longer. We’re told we need more followers, more reviews. Injury to any of these parts which are viagra soft 100mg part of this sequence (nerves, arteries, smooth muscles, fibrous tissue) can cause ED. Note cialis no prescription cheap if you’re getting any disorders in your sleep, especially in the night. The viagra india pharmacy unica-web.com difference between primary and secondary impotence stems from the cause. Hence, buying this https://unica-web.com/ENGLISH/2013/UNICA2013-AGM-minutes.html buy cipla cialis is very easy and consuming the right nutrition gives you more energy and stamina. We need a website, a brand, a mailing list, a blog, a Twitter, a Facebook, a Goodreads, a blog tour, a giveaway. Reviewers, pre-orders, book signings, book swag, book trailer…
Whoa! Whoooaaa… My heart is racing. More.
