Trolling for Inspiration in News Stories

Ever searched sources of truth for inspiration for fiction? Just a line, a bit of a statement, part of an explanation, when viewed with the right mindset, can provide immense inspiration for current and future stories. A couple weeks ago I heard a story on NPR's "The World" and one single line from the story stuck out to me as a promising start (or addition) to a story. It was something about how the fighting was so intense between the three warring parties that an independent priest had to carry the only set of keys and lock and unlock the local church each night.

Fiction from Nonfiction? Absolutely!

Here are some promising statements I dug up after a quick search of today's new stories:

"The immediate problem is that the body can't be found."


"It's one thing to be the rabble-rouser. It's quite another thing to be the leader."


"She seemed genuinely surprised when [he] informed her she was being held for investigation of attempted murder. She bent her chest into her knees while sitting, and cried."


The person who signed it "Pie Fairy" also wrote: "My wings are shorter now and I am a little too fat to fly anymore. But I still love you!!"


Doing too much too soon is a common mistake. Injuries and burnout are often the result.


Along the way, someone else nearly always got an invitation to ride with him, whether it was a student on the way to school, a person going to work or someone waiting for a bus.


"It's just surprising when design finally meets toilet paper — that's sort of the final frontier," Adamson said.


She was fat. She could see it in the mirror.


"Part of my job is trying to convince that 85-year-old woman that she really should start weight lifting," says Dr. Dennis Kerrigan, senior exercise physiologist 


yet on the tsetse-fly scale of restaurant years, it was many mutations ago. Things have changed.


 He lived outside conventional ideas, he implied, because “I live alone mostly, in the middle of nowhere.”


But these young people are not battling alcohol or drugs. Rather, they have severe cases of what many in this country believe is a new and potentially deadly addiction: cyberspace.


What could possibly justify such an early wake-up call? 


Among them are foot stomping, tail flagging, head bobbing, ear twitching, hoof pawing and nose licking; lunges, charges, chases, pokes and antler thrusts; and aggressive sounds he describes as grunt-snorts and grunt-snort-wheezes. There are also alarm snorts and bawls and less disturbing sounds, like social-contact grunts between does (deer). 

Pulled from KSL, Deseret News, NPR, and NY Times. 

Know Your Genre

What is genre?

What is genre?
It is literary technique, tone, content, length etc.
Fiction is the hardest genre to break into.

• Realism-Plausible story about people and events that could really happen. Romance, thriller, historical, sports all fit under realism.

• Fantasy-Fantastical elements in traditional or modern fantasy.
  • Traditional fantasy follows the quest. 
  • Modern fantasy has elements of magic in the human world. Horror and sci/fi are sub genres of modern fantasy.

Elements in Fiction:
Plot-Plot is the backbone of the story. In fiction plot is the action that grows out of conflict.
Conflict-is the obstacle, the problem
Initial Conflict-First event that starts the quest, the hook. Only needs one page (sometimes a chapter) to establish. It creates the next cause & effect (conflict) then moves the character to the next conflict. Initial conflict will predict the climax.
Exposition-Back story weaves through out the story.
Rising Action-Series of at least three conflicts
Climax-The most intense part of the story. Everything in the story moves the story to this point and the main character has an Epiphany to the resolution. Needs only one chapter.
Resolution-Is the outcome. Needs only one chapter

 

Non-fiction SELLS THE MOST

• Biography-needs more factual support.
• Autobiography-Bigger piece of time
• Memoirs-Small part of life
• General non-fiction (Dewey decimal)-Different stories from life in one book

Elements in Non-Fiction
All non-fiction needs:
Plot
Conflict
Hook
Exposition
Climax-lesson learned
Resolution-reader says “I can do that!”

What are the target audiences?
Picture book: 1-3 pages
Chapter book: Max 100 pages
Middle grade: 100-200 pages
Young Adult: 150-300 pages
Adult: 150-several hundred pages, 70,000-90,000 words max

Making Time to Write

by Deren Hansen

In a session on organizing the writing life during Life, the Universe, and Everything (LTUE) 2011, Julie Wright said, "Time is always made, never found."

So how do you make time to write?

At one level, it simply comes down to the question, "What are you willing to give up in order to write?"

Of course, saying it that way makes you sound less than committed if you're not a writing hermit.

So how can a person who has a life outside of writing make time?

Consider the following techniques (all of which were discussed in the LTUE session I mentioned above).

Ways to Make Time in General:

Priorities

Many of us treat our writing as a hobby--not that we're lacking in commitment but rather that we approach it more like a leisure activity. Let me hasten to add that there's nothing wrong with writing as a hobby if you're satisfied with the time you are able to devote to it. If, however, you wish you had more time to write (a lament I've heard from nearly every writer I've met), raising the priority of your writing to the same level as, say, exercising, would mean that it's no longer optional.

Sandra Tayler said, "When I write first, the laundry gets easier."

Little Systems

Now that you've raised the priority of your writing, how can you make time by spending less of it on other things? There's an entire industry devoted to offering answers to that question. And every situation, of course, is different. That said, I've found the pattern of making little systems to be surprising powerful for something so simple.

I've discussed little systems elsewhere. In brief, a little system is anything that helps you streamline a recurring task. For example, I sort mail (the paper kind) over the trash can because most of it will end up there.

The most effective sort of streamlining is to remove decisions points. If you like to write in the morning, but find it hard because of the time it takes you  to get ready for the day, choosing your clothes the night before means one less decision to make in the morning.

Ways to Make Time to Work on Long-form Fiction

Clear Space, Both Physical and Temporal

Creativity is a safe, adult-appropriate word for play. In order to sustain the focus we need to create long-form works, we need a place in time and space to play. We need a place where we can leave our half-built castles in the air while we attend to other things secure in the knowledge that they'll be there, undisturbed and ready for us, when we return.

In this age of convenient mobile computing systems, setting up your writing environment may be no more complicated than opening a laptop and firing up a word processor. Clearing your schedule and your internal worry processor are more difficult. This is why many writers will go to a library or a cafe. Whatever you do, the key is to find a time and space where you can focus on your project.

Create Stability

Emergencies will derail your writing. You can't prevent all emergencies, but you can take care of things under your control so that you're not creating problems for yourself.

If, for example,you paid your bills when you receive your statement, you'd never run the risk of leaving it all to the last moment and then having a fire drill to get everything paid. I know people who, as a matter of principle, pay their bills at the last possible moment in order to deny the entity whatever interest it might have earned having the money a few days earlier. I prefer to discharge my obligations as soon as they come due so that I can devote the time I would have spent keeping track of my unpaid bills to my writing, secure in the knowledge that it's safe to play.


Deren blogs at The Laws of Making.

Suspending Disbelief

I finished a book the other night by one of my more favorite authors. I love her recent historical fiction for young adults and thought I'd read some of her earlier work.

I didn't get it.

At all.

It got me thinking about the concept of "suspending one's disbelief" in fiction writing. Writers ask their readers to set aside natural disbeliefs and suspicions and go with them in a fictional journey all the while pretending that it is real. Sometimes the journey involves other worlds and creatures, other times and places-- Orson Scott Card and JK Rowling come to mind immediately. Sometimes the journey seems almost identical to everyday, run-of-the-mill life, and yet we still must trust that somehow, somewhere, in someone's life, these events truly could happen.

The author's book I read had too many yarns woven together, too many lives being explored, and too much of a stretch that the main "collision of worlds" described on the cover flap could actually happen at all. I walked away thinking: "Really? Would that even really happen?"

That response is the sign of a failure on the part of the author to keep readers engaged. When I read Harry Potter, I closed the book and thought "Oh, if only!" I knew it was fiction; I knew Hogwarts was the creation of a talented author, but oh how I wanted to go there! I'm not alone in that. Look at how many millions of people try, in their own simple ways, to recreate the Wizard and Muggle worlds around them.

How do you do that? Here are a few keys I thought of:

Consistency. You can't be changing the rules every other chapter; it won't work. Write the rules for your world/story and keep them the same throughout.

Plausibility. Yes, it is fake, but it must be believably fake. For example, a raging blizzard in Hawaii won't get your story anywhere-- unless that topsy-turvy weather is plaguing the whole globe.

Depth. Your story must be well-rounded and have substance. Pretend your creation is a boat-- the bigger the boat (tale), the deeper the water needed to support it. A shallow story does not justify sufficient suspension!

Description. If you're solely creating the characters, the world, the fantasy, then assume your readers know nothing. Show them everything. Yes, there is a fine line to walk between description and belaboring that all authors must walk, but in this discussion, walking that fine line is the difference between failure and success.

Anchor. Keep at least some aspect of your story moored in reality. Throwing a reader into a newly-created, uncharted existence in a story is sure to leave them feeling like a tourist dropped off without a guide in the middle of nowhere.

All of these keys--and the skills behind them-- are learnable. Some authors are blessed to get them right off the bat (just like some authors are able to make millions with their first book). Most of us don't get it right away. We need practice and experience. We need to look through our manuscripts with a hearty dose of skepticism to make sure our story merits the "suspension of disbelief." Being aware of this will help make it easier for you to spot the holes in your own fantasy as you're writing.

Good luck! Please post your comments below! :o)
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For more reading:
http://readerviews.com/Articles-Writing_Creating_Suspension_Of_Disbelief.html

http://www.redchurch.com/quantum/2007/09/14/6-secrets-to-suspension-of-disbelief/

http://writinghood.com/style/how-to/the-magic-of-harry-potter-suspending-disbelief-in-fiction/

Websites I've Stumbled Upon

"Writing Excuses: Fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart."
Brandon Sanderson contributes to this one so it's got to be good! 15 minute podcasts to listen to. 
http://www.writingexcuses.com/

"How to write a famous blog in 6 steps" 
Most of you have a blog. Do you know how to make it famous? (me neither)
http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Famous-Blog

"Creative Writing Prompts."
Pick a number, any number, and be inspired by the prompt. LOTS of ideas here!
http://creativewritingprompts.com/

"The 18 most popular writing articles from 2011" 
Let someone else do the searching for you. One list of great articles to read.
http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/the-18-most-popular-articles-on-writing-of-2011

"Is my story worthy?" 
Not sure if it's worth your time. Here are some great tips from a good webforum.
http://www.fuelyourwriting.com/avoiding-pressure-is-my-story-worthy/

The Road to Creating a Great Book

Tips from Writer’s Digest and a few Words from VS Grenier

Every writer who has ever submitted his work to an agent, editor or publisher in the hopes of getting it published has at one time or another received the dreaded “rejection letter.” But do you wonder how other writers are doing it…getting published? Some will tell you they self-published or started their own publishing house. Others may say they have a friend, who has a friend, who has a friend in publishing. You may wonder if they just happened to scratch the winning lottery ticket. In most cases, these are all true but the one thing they also have done is called the softer side of marketing…or as I like to call it…selling yourself!

Writing is more than creating a great book, article, poem or short story. It is about sharing yourself with the world. A great way to do that is by building your author platform. If you are like most of us, you want to devote most of your time to writing. However, it is just as important to build your platform as an author if you want to reach your target readership and build a fan base. 

Most writers get queasy even imagining having to sell themselves but without a plan, you cannot truly figure out a way to sell your book. You need to think of this as your business plan, after all—this is your new business (writing and publishing), so you need to put a road map together for your book and/or business’ (you the author) success. You also should have this in place, or at least working on it, the moment you begin writing, especially if it is a new book.

In the publishing industry, not having a road map to detail your goals, book’s message and marketing plan will only land you lost among all the other books in the slush pile or on the selves trying to find a potential reader. Nevertheless, your map will keep this from happening by guiding you from staving writer to successful author. I talk about this often on my blog talk radio show, “What is Success” every Friday and this last month,  Writer’s Digest also had an article on this very subject: “50 Simple Ways to Build Your Platform in 5 Minutes a Day.”

With that in mind, you must be wondering, “What do I put in my author business plan?” A very good question, so let’s start with...what do you need to write a book? Now I know you must be thinking “imagination”, however, we both know you need more than that. What you will need is a “WOW” factor and some talent. To get started you will need some paper and a pen or if you are like me, a computer (laptop or desk) will do. However, what happens next?

So to get you started, here is a short list of ideas:

1. Outline who you want to reach with your book. Knowing your target readership is important, not only in writing but in also knowing whom you need to market to after you are published, and better yet…before your book even hits the bookstores. Time to jot down all those people who will want your book and how effective they will be at getting more people to want it; after all, if you hit the right target market, they will be more than happy to share about you and your writing with others who like the same things they do. Nothing beats word of mouth marketing.
2. Sign up for Google Alerts. Google Alerts (google.com/alerts) can help you track who is following and talking about you or your book. I use this for not only myself as an author and my books, but also for Stories for Children Magazine, the World of Ink Tours and everything else I do. Why is this important? So I can make sure I am reaching my target readership or a group I might not have thought about to begin with. The other important thing to do is send a "Thank You" when you see they have posted, twitted or shared about you. Remember…Network!
3. If you have a blog/social network site, post pictures of you out promoting your book and at writing events. Readers like to know you are actively involved with your writing. Trust me; I know how hard this can be. I am not the best about this either, but my goal in 2012 is to be better. I have a blog, I have a newsletter and I should be posting my picture at writing and community events. So get ready to see more of me in 2012, even if I hate having my picture taken.
4. Hold your own local event. This one is not as tough as we make it out to be. There are many local businesses that are willing and happy to host a book signing or author event. You just need to ask, but I would first build a networking connection with the business first and also offer something in return for their help. Make it a partnership.
5. Offer guest posts to those who have blogs or websites on writing or topic of your book. This helps build a fan base or following. Those of you who have been reading or following me for sometime know that I write guest post for a few blogs and websites (free of cost). I do this because I love sharing about writing, marketing and publishing.
6. Be a guest on a talk radio show. This is a great way to show your expertise as a writer or on a topic in your writing/book. I have my own blog talk show but before I become a blog talk radio host, I was a guest on many different talk radio shows local and on blog talk radio. This helped me build a following and fan base for my writing and my services.

If you want more tips and suggestions, read the Writer’s Digest article: “50 Simple Ways to Build Your Platform in 5 Minutes a Day.” The tips I shared are also listed along with 45 more!

Wishing you much success in 2012.

Also, don’t forget to check out the January SFC World of Ink Tours. We have some great authors touring with us every month. You can learn more about our World of Ink Tours and the authors we are currently hosting and have hosted at http://storiesforchildrenpublishing.com/WorldofInkTours.aspx.

In addition, tune in to blog talk radio’s World of Ink Network every other Friday where I’ll be hosting the “What is Success” show on Fridays and the “Stories for Children” show on Mondays. You can also catch me monthly on the “Families Matter” show, which airs live on the 3^rd Wednesday of every month. You can learn more about BTR’s World of Ink Network, our guest and hosts, and our shows at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/worldofinknetwork or on our blog http://worldofinknetwork.blogspot.com. 

Bio: VS Grenier is an award-winning children's author, founder & owner of Stories for Children Publishing, LLC., award-winning editor-in-chief of Stories for Children Magazine and chief editor for Halo Publishing, Int., and also, the host of the blog talk radio shows Stories for Children, Families Matter and What is Success. To learn more about her, visit http://vsgrenier.com

Resisting the Temptation

Here I am after Christmas with a fresh pile of new books to read but I’m rereading Harry Potter again… It is however, benefitting me in some ways: By now I’ve memorized all the plot twists and my mind is able to focus even more on the clever writing.

When I last posted about Rowling’s genius a question popped up concerning how the young wizards who aren’t muggle-born get educated before Hogwarts. I pondered this a bit while reading but the answer never came up. It got me thinking about how there are many other huge important aspects of this world--that has become real to so many of us—that are never covered in the books.

I promise I’m getting to the point.

The question about the young wizards’ and witches’ education was just that, a question; a speculation of how the younger wizards lived. We inquired “How were they educated?” It was never, “Why didn’t Rowling think of how they had been educated?” This is because we have grown to trust her. She has formed the world so flawlessly with Harry being introduced to features about it little by little all the way to the end of the story. We never doubted that—whether Harry’s been given time to find out about it or not—the answers to our questions exist. Rowling may or may not know the answer to how the children were educated before Hogwarts, but we have no problem trusting that there is one.

I am one of those writers that has a problem of pausing the story for pages at a time hoping to get all of the aspects of the world I’ve worked so hard on across to my readers. It is extremely difficult for me to tone things down and weave in the description I would much rather just give in an info dump. This becomes especially hard when my MC is already familiar with parts of the world; I always fear that my readers will never have a chance to learn everything.

The simple truth is that most of the time, they probably won’t. If you have done your job as a writer and made your world whole and complete, then while your readers explore parts of it with your MC they will grow to trust that the rest of it exists. We need to learn to enjoy the fact that much of our preparation with worlds and characters will never make it into the manuscript but that our knowledge of their existence gives what is written there a new depth and reality.

(Though I may never hear of any goings on in South Dakota, I trust that exists and has just as much of a history and culture as Utah.)

Book Review: The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing by the editors of Writer's Digest Press

by Scott Rhoades

How can you not like a book that ends with "Some people have no sense of humor when it comes to great literature. Or arson."?

This hefty collection of articles from Writer's Digest was an enjoyable read. It's 77 chapters are full of quotes and interviews and advice from writers on the writing process, genres, being a writer, and just about every other conceivable topic. Like most collections of this sort, I expected it to be hit and miss when it came to personal relevance, but there was very little miss.

Even advice on writing in genres that I will likely never write was useful. I might not write romance, but I need to know about writing sexual tension and how to set a story in a historical period. I'm not a big fan of thrillers, but I can always use more advice on increasing suspense and avoiding the pitfalls of withholding information from readers.

I always like to read about the ways established writers struggle just like I do, and how they work through it. That Margaret Atwood has abandoned forever some of her novels after writing 200 pages or more because they just weren't working gives me hope.

The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing is like attending a huge writing conference or lecture series featuring established writers and editors from Orson Scott Card to Kurt Vonnegut. Whether you read this cover to cover like I did, or just seek out the articles that will kick start you out of your writing doldrums, this is a book that should be on your shelf or in your e-reader, where it is handy whenever you need advice.

The Sky is Falling

by Deren Hansen

Between the economic downturn during 2008 and 2009, and the rise of e-books in 2010, it seems that the voices prophesying upheavals of apocalyptic proportions for the book business this past year have grown louder and more insistent. With the annual odometer about to tick over, it seems like a good time to celebrate doom and gloom for the publishing industry.

Of course, there's been a book business for roughly four hundred years, so doom and gloom are nothing new. In just the twentieth century--and not counting the Internet--radio, television, paperbacks, video tape, and computer games have all been identified as evidence that the sky is about to fall on the publishing industry.

'Wait," you say, "this time it feels different."

Perhaps. But things tend to survive, sweeping change notwithstanding. Automobiles are pervasive, but there are still buggy whip manufacturers.

Books aren't going away any time soon. The book business, however, is another story.

If I asked you to name the major players in computing you'd likely answer, "Microsoft, Apple, and Google." If you're tech-savvy, you might add Amazon (because of their cloud computing services), and if you have a sense of history, you would include IBM. With the single exception of IBM, it wasn't that long ago that a completely different pantheon, with names like Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and Cray, dominated the industry. And before them, there were the elder gods like Control Data Corporation.

Other industries have seen a great deal more changes. What is it that has shaken publishing to its roots?

It's simply that we can no longer rely on the certainties that defined the business for decades.

So, what's going to happen to publishing?

The most cogent argument-by-historic-analogy I've heard is that publishing is more like television than music. (See Kristine Kathryn Rusch's piece on changing times in the publishing industry for a much more thorough and thoughtful analysis of the structural changes facing big publishers.)

The key similarity between the two industries is that they grew up around a distribution network that was, for a time, basically the only game in town. If you wanted your television program to reach a national audience, it had to go through one of the three major networks. If you wanted your book to reach a national audience, it had to go through one of the major publishers. Remember, the key service historically provided by publishers was distribution.

Television changed when cable systems expanded and provided new channels outside the three networks. As viewers, we have more programming options than ever before. For broadcasters, it looks like the audience is smaller because we now spread our attention across all the providers. (And for the national networks, it feels like fall from grace because they're just one of many providers now.)

The new distribution systems supporting ebooks will most likely produce an analogous change: readers will have more to read than ever before, while the major publishers will have to compete for what looks like a smaller audience.

We clearly are subject to the old Chinese curse that says, "May you live in interesting times."


Deren blogs at The Laws of Making.

The Future of Books?

Interesting article: http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2011/06/when_hard_books.php

What do you think?

Oh, and of course, Merry Christmas!

How to Hear Success Stories

by Deren Hansen

Aspiring writers are drawn to success stories, like moths to flames. And we're all guilty of a little twinge of jealousy that we aren't the subject of the story. But as inveterate optimists (what else can you call someone who devotes years to a single manuscript), we soak up the stories hoping that one day we will be the hero of a similar story.

So it's deeply ironic that we who are storytellers often fall prey to the tricks of our own trade when we hear these stories and afflict ourselves with unrealistic expectations. We hear, for example, of the writer who went from query to book deal in 37 days, note that our own queries have gone unanswered for more than 37 days, and conclude that we're not worthy.

Why do we do this? We forget that the foundation of the storyteller's art is to skip the boring bits. Advice about pacing, pithy dialog, and scenes ("in late, out early") all comes down to artfully avoiding the boring stretches that are an inevitable part of real life.

And how will you tell your success story? Fresh from the process of scrupulously scrubbing all the boring bits out of your manuscript will you say, "Then on the following Tuesday, I wrote 1673 words. But when I looked over the new material on Wednesday, I decided I needed to rework half of it so I didn't reach my new word count goal that day ..." No, you'll apply your craft and weave together a concise narrative of the highs and lows of the experience with a sprinkling of lessons learned. Above all, you will make it a story with protagonists, antagonists, try/fail cycles, a climax, and a denouement.

Why?

Because that's the essence of what you do as a storyteller.

The next time you hear a success story, remember that it is a story. Learn what you can from it, but don't compare it directly with your experience because you simply don't know all the boring bits that were skipped to make it a good story.


Deren blogs at The Laws of Making.

Real-Life Fiction

by Scott Rhoades

If you've ever been in a writing group or taken a creative writing class, you've no doubt listened to a writer fight against suggestions for change to a fact-based piece of fiction on the grounds that "That's what really happened." This is one of the drawbacks to turning real life into fiction. Fiction has certain requirements, and real life often does not fit. There's story structure, characters, conflict, all those things we know about.

If you want to base a story on a real event, you need to be ready to invent new characters for the sake of the story, combine others, change events, play loose with facts, make up dialogue, and cut out real events and characters who do not move the story forward, no matter how important they were to the actual real-life story. There could also be legal implications when you put real people into your stories, exactly as they really are.

There can also be problems when you write about something you are very close to. The way you and your spouse got together (or split up) means a lot to you and your spouse. Keep things exactly as they were if you're writing for yourself. But people who are not so close to the real-life story will not love reading a fictionalized account unless it meets the requirements of a good story, no matter how touching and poignant the real thing was.

I highly recommend Robin Hemley's book, Turning Life Into Fiction, for anybody who wants to write a story based on real life, whether it's your own life, somebody's you know, or somebody who lived long ago.

By all means, go ahead and base a story on real life. We all do it to some degree. Just make sure you put the reader and the story first, not the events that inspired the story, if you want it to be an enjoyable read for people who aren't as close to the things that really happened as you are.

Publishing Options and Exploiting Your Intellectual Propery

by Deren Hansen

Given the recent discussion of traditional and self-publishing, I feel the need to join in with some structural observations. My aim is to give the conversation a baseline of economic reality.

First, however, I have to say that the degree to which partisans are vilifying each other reminds me of the Mac vs. PC religious wars of the '90s. As someone who understands that all Turing-complete computational devices are provably equivalent, I grew impatient with the name-calling in that context until I came to understand that the deep feelings arose because people needed to justify the $3000 - $5000 investment they'd made in one platform or the other.

In addition to the investment dynamic there's a notion of art and its noble pursuit wrapped up in our aspirations as writers. You're here because books have affected you deeply--probably more so than any other expressive medium. That experience elevates reading and writing from the level of mere commerce. But the fact of the matter is that if you want to trade your words for money you're squarely back in the realm of business.

Writers who charge for their work are in the business of exploiting their intellectual property. It's unfortunate that the word, "exploit," has few positive connotations because it is the correct term: you're trying to derive benefit from your words and the stories they contain.

In the past, the best way to exploit your intellectual property was to license it to a publisher--effectively entering into a partnership designed to benefit both parties. Similarly, in high tech launching a start-up became practically synonymous with securing venture capital because the necessary equipment was too expensive to finance yourself. In both cases the pattern of trading future returns for current working capital was so dominant that alternative approaches could be written off as non-starters.

But things change.

In high tech you can rent all the computing power you need (and only what you need) from cloud computing providers. In publishing, you no longer need $30,000 to $50,000 to print, store, and sell books. In other words, it's now not only possible to exploit your intellectual property rights yourself--doing so in the right circumstances might make better economic sense.

All of which is a long way of saying that finding a publisher or becoming your own publisher can and should be a clear-headed business decision. And just like any other business, you must understand the full implications of your options: licensing your intellectual property to a publisher doesn't guarantee you'll be taken care of; publishing it yourself isn't a short-cut to the fame and fortune the gatekeepers have wrongly withheld from you. Both paths (in all their variations) require hard work over a long time with no assurance that you'll ever see a return on your investment.

We need to move past trying to justify one approach over another and take a clear-headed look at the promises and pitfalls of all the expanding opportunities for writers.


Deren blogs at The Laws of Making.

"Finding Your Voice"

"...I was searching for something outside myself-- some sound that did not belong to me, that was not a part of me and was never to be created by me. And all the time I could have spent investigating my own instrument was instead trying to imitate [the] 'perfect voice'... Remember your true voice can only be arrive at with a relaxed concentration and careful attention to individuality."

-Carolyn Sloan
"Finding Your Voice", page 46

**I believe I have posted this quote before. I was going through some papers of mine and came across it again. I read this book during a brief time of delusionment when I believed I could learn how to sing. I loved the quote so much that I wrote it down. Finding your voice is a powerful drive for writers. We cannot succeed when we are attempting to imitate someone's work. We must be true to ourselves and our own creativity ability. The world does not need another JK Rowling, Stephanie Meyer, or ___fill-in-the-blank___. The world is missing you and your work. You, uniquely, imperfectly, gifted, exactly, you.

What are you doing to find your own voice?

Self Publishing...Or Not...Again

By Julie Daines

There's been some sparks flying--again--on the whole To Self Publish or Not debate. So, I'm chiming in with my two cents.

Here is a great quote by Edan Lepucki (The Millions) from an interesting article about her reasons for not self publishing. I agree with with much of what she has to say, but not all.

I found this especially in line with my own thoughts:

Readers themselves rarely complain that there isn’t enough of a selection on Amazon or in their local superstore; they’re more likely to ask for help in narrowing down their choices. So for anyone who has, however briefly, played that reviled gatekeeper role, a darker question arises: What happens once the self-publishing revolution really gets going, when all of those previously rejected manuscripts hit the marketplace, en masse, in print and e-book form, swelling the ranks of 99-cent Kindle and iBook offerings by the millions? Is the public prepared to meet the slush pile?

Is the public ready to meet the slush pile? I'm not. And as more kids are getting e-readers, parents have to be doubly vigilant to ensure their kids aren't downloading anything worse than just a poorly written book.

But, as she points out, blogs and other forms of reviews are already popping up to help readers wade through the slush.

My personal reasons for going with a traditional publisher are similar to Ms. Lepucki. Mainly, I want my manuscript to be its best. I want an editor telling me what's working and what's not. I want that stack of revisions to make the story better.

I recently started reading a self-published book with at least FIVE editing errors on THE FIRST PAGE! I don't want that to be me. I had to put the book down.

I have nothing against self-publishing whatsoever. It's just not for me--at least right now.

What are your thoughts?

The Archaeology of Storytelling

by Scott Rhoades

I recently read a quote from Stephen King in which he compares writing to walking through a desert and finding a chimney sticking out of the sand. That stuck in my mind because I've been going through that experience myself lately.

I was reading a pretty good book last week, when something in the story sparked an idea for a story of my own. That happens fairly frequently. Sometimes it's something I'm reading, but it might also be a place I'm visiting, a person I see, or any of several other triggers. The entire world is that desert King mentions, and when my eyes are open, I often stumble upon chimneys.

But then what? I tend to get more sparks of ideas than I could possibly have time to write. What happens once I discover the chimney, or some other artifact? That's when a writer has something in common with an archaeologist.

First, we have to examine the artifact and determine whether it's worth exploring. That often means fighting an inner critic who automatically tries to discredit the new find as not being worthwhile. That's like our archaeologist trying to get funding for a dig. It's not fun, but it's necessary. It can also be hard. Why should we invest time and energy on this particular dig when there's so much out there? And what makes us think we're the write person for this exploration anyway?

Once we fight that battle, things get more interesting. First, we have to look closely at the artifact (a whole story idea, maybe, but more likely a brief glimpse at a character, a snippet of conversation, a bit of setting, or something even less material). How can this little bit of almost nothing turn into a story. We get out our picks and brooms and start working away at the layers.

Can we find the motivation for our new character? Other necessary characters? Can we work him into an interesting story? What does he want and who or what stands in his way? Layer by layer we try to find something significant in that little bit of brick we found sticking out of the sand. And all of this is before we've even started writing.

If there's enough there, we can start writing and see what we find as we unravel more and more of this hidden civilization.

I'm exploring an idea right now. I don't know yet whether I'll actually start writing something new. I know from past experience that most ideas don't pan out. And often, those that do end up having little or nothing to do with that original spark. The manuscript I'm shopping around now is nothing at all like it was when I had that first bit of an idea. Everything is different--the setting, the characters, the plot.

That chimney in the sand might turn out to be the remains of a lonely cabin, or a house, or a factory, or a city, or a movie set, or a discarded piece of masonry that somebody dumped in the desert, with no significance whatsoever. But you'll never know unless you study it and do a little work.

Revisions: Nice and Slow

by Deren Hansen

Agent Jessica Faust offered excellent advice on responding to revision requests from agents.

She wrote her post after @agentgame tweeted, "I've gotten back revisions on an overly fast turnaround that damaged the book rather than making it better."

Jessica says she understands why authors might be anxious to respond quickly (e.g., fear she'll lose interest or hope to appear responsive), but cautions:

"getting it back to me quickly isn’t going to do you a damn bit of good if what you send back is in even worse shape than the first version. If you think it had to be perfect before, now it has to be even better than perfect. There aren’t many second chances in life. When you get one, use it wisely."

I found the second of her suggestions for handling a revision request particularly illuminating:

"Remember that revisions to a submission are only just the tip of the iceberg. Revision letters to my clients can be pages and pages long. I’m not going to spend that time on a submission. Therefore, you have to carefully read between the lines. Look at what I’m saying and then beyond that, and fix it all."

I encourage you to read the entire post.

In the spirit of using second chances well, there's another reason not to rush your response to a request for revisions.

We advise writers to let some time pass between completing a draft and diving into revisions so that they can approach their work with fresh eyes.

There's a similar dynamic with readers: over time the specifics of a story fade into a general impression. The agent who asks for a revision clearly wants to see the project again. Why squander the opportunity to have them take a second look at it with fresh eyes?


Deren blogs at The Laws of Making.

"5 Books your Teenage Boy will Actually Read"

I'm always curious to read what other people say about the books that *every* boy/girl/adult will read. This list from KSL actually surprised me. Only one of them was published within the last 10 years. The rest are older than that.

It makes me realize I need to rethink the books I'm getting for my son to read. I've gotten stuck in the "what's new" or "what's hot" mindset to the exclusion of the classics.

What do you think about this list? Do you agree? What did they leave off?

"5 Books your Teenage Boy will Actually Read"
http://www.ksl.com/?sid=18298422&nid=1011&title=5-books-your-teenage-boy-will-actually-read

Character Development: Innie vs Outie

By Scott Rhoades

There are many ways to develop characters and create fictional people whose personality types help to ensure realistic conflict. I've written before, for example, about the Enneagram personality profile system, which can help create compatible and incompatible characters with realistic traits.

A simpler way to make sure two characters have natural conflicts is to make one an introvert and one an extrovert. Literature is full of innies because they are easy for many writers and readers to identify with. We sometimes have trouble with outies.

I've been reading lately about the differences between innies and outies. This week I came across an interesting web page containing a lexicon that nicely illustrates how introverts and extroverts see the world differently. You can find it here.

Two characters with such different ways of looking at their worlds will conflict, especially if the want the same things. The lexicon can also help you understand your characters and depict them realistically, especially if you are an innie and your character is an outie. I hope you find it (and other discussions about how introverts operate in an extroverted world) useful.

Another useful article: http://www.carlkingdom.com/10-myths-about-introverts

Mac-attack

Last week, I made the jump from a PC user to a Mac user. Thanks to a great deal offered to my husband at his work, I got a screaming deal on a MacBook Pro. It took a week or two to get my files and such transferred and then I finally did it.

Last Friday, I broke the reliance on my PC. First time for years that I didn't turn on my laptop and use it. I'm all Mac now.

Before now, all my word processing has been on Microsoft Word. Now I'm left to wonder if I should invest in a copy of Microsoft Office for Mac as a default, fall back to my old comfort zone, or do I explore the new range of options available to Mac users? What say ye?

A good friend of mine recommended Scrivener. Any of you heard of it? Any of you use it?

What other Mac programs do you recommend I look into? If I'm going to break out of old habits, then I want to do it all the way. But since I'm a Mac novice, I need your help/suggestions/insight.

Leave lots of comments below for me! :o)