Writers in the Storm

by the WITS Founders

One of our founding members, Sharla Rae, recently passed away after a long battle with cancer. She was pivotal in all of our lives here at Writers In the Storm. Fae, Laura and Jenny have shared memories of her below, as well as photos of our great times together.

Jenny ~ Ah, that Charla. She could always make me laugh and she sure did know how to sexy up a boring scene. Her heroes were alpha and her heroines were feisty. She was an Iowa girl, married to a Chinese man from Singapore, and she could cook Chinese food better than any restaurant I've visited.

I miss you and your sweet smile, Char. I know you're organizing a glorious party in heaven right now that includes great food and fun, with your beloved son as your co-host.

Laura ~ In 2008, I was a newbie to RWA (Romance Writers of America), having belonged to a local chapter in Orange County, CA for about six months. I was hungry. I wanted an agent and a New York contract. But I knew I needed input on my manuscript (embarrassed to admit I'd titled my WIP, A Fawn in Winter, which became my second book, Her Road Home. Yeah, newbie). Someone in the chapter said that a long-standing crit group had lost a member and was looking for a new one. Score!

I got up the courage to approach Charla Chin (a published author!), and she told me in a no-nonsense tone that I would need to submit a sample of my writing, then attend a crit session so they could judge if I were a good fit. Yikes! I submitted, and went to the group, palms sweating. It was the most important interview of my writing career to date, and I needed this! There was Char and Jenny, and to my horror, I was told there was another applicant (Fae). She'd "interviewed" the night before, and they told me her stuff was good! I was toast. All was lost. But the next day Char and Jenny told us they decided to take us both on—alleviating my need to hate Fae Rowen forever—which is good, because she's about my best friend now.

Char was an integral part of starting this blog, but that's a story for someone else to tell. I'm just proud that Sharla Rae allowed me to use her name for my main character in my first published book, my RITA winner, The Sweet Spot.

Thank you Char for all you've given me. Sweet dreams.

Fae ~ I first met Charla Chin the night of my "interview" to become a "Slick Chick." The name of their four-member critique group was The OC Slick Chicks, which, of course, provided us with a lot of laughs.

I knew the member who had moved, Theresa, and the group wanted a replacement. I sent them my chapter, they each sent me theirs. I showed up for our meeting, copies of my critiques of their work in hand.

After I finished explaining my comments, they shared their individual thoughts on my chapter. I'd been in two critique groups before health and moves blew them up, so I was used to people reading my words and making comments like, "But what are they feeling?" or "Real people don't do that."

Charla, Jenny, and Deb gave me good feedback, but even better, at the end of that evening, they told me they had one more person to interview, but they wanted me to become part of the group.

I drove home happy, sure that I'd found my "forever home" in the writing community.

A couple of nights later, Char called to let me know that they'd decided to invite the woman who'd met with them the next night—Laura Drake—to join, too. I knew who Laura was from OCC meetings, but, I have to admit, a bit of my sparkle and glitter dimmed, knowing that I hadn't gotten "the nod" by myself.

Best turn of luck, ever! Funny how the Universe does that for you.

Charla was a great critique partner. She was multi-New York published and she could write sexy! Sometimes I wasn't happy with her comments of "You need to sex this scene up, Fae." But she had great suggestions about how to do that, so it ended well.

Soon after Laura and I joined the group, the fifth member, Deb, took a writing hiatus. We were down to four.

On one of the rare nights that we met at someone's home (for some reason we had dinner at Charla's that night), we talked about getting into the social media age as a writing group by having everyone join Facebook. Jenny showed us how to do that, and we all left with Facebook accounts, including one for our group. I have to admit, I did nothing with mine for at least a year.

We also came up with the idea for this blog site. We threw out different names and nothing stuck, until I semi-channeled The Doors and suggested Writers in the Storm. Laura and I have the same musical sensibility, so she jumped on the name, looking for pictures for a banner. Jenny talked about administration of the site and volunteered to get it up and running and shepherd it through the first three months as long as we all wrote one blog a month and learned how to post it, as well as comment on the other posts.

This was a new time-sump for all of us. We asked every writer we knew to blog for us. The technology wasn't easy for us to master, so we bothered Jenny. A lot.

Unfortunately, Char's son was diagnosed with cancer. She was very involved with his treatment and semi-moved to Texas to be with him. When his treatment was over and it appeared he was cancer-free, we celebrated with her. But then, his cancer returned. After his death, she was diagnosed with cancer and chose to remain in Texas for treatment. During this time we prayed for her, e-mailed her, talked on the phone with her.

She, too, was declared cancer-free and sent home. But the drug protocols had been brutal and taken a toll on her. She tried to get back up to speed with her writing, critiquing, and Writers in the Storm, but eventually decided to concentrate on her family. Her rights were reverting to her on her first three books, and she was going to revise them for self-pubbing.

I wish she'd had time to finish that task.

I miss our rides to our WITS critique sessions. I miss hearing about what was going on in her life. I miss her excitement when she added a doll to her collection. I'm sorry we all lost her so early.

Some links to her most popular posts:

• Are Your Characters Stylin'? Descriptive Fashion Phrases and Terms
• Writing About Hair: The Thick and Thin of Descriptions
• Character Eye Descriptions: The Window to Your Story
• Using a Crowd To Create Tension in Your Story
• 10 Tips for Writing Children and a Descriptive List
• How is Writing a Futuristic Novel Like Writing a Historical

If you'd like to share a memory about Sharla Rae, we'd love to hear your story.

by Kathryn Craft

I’ve written here before about the importance of community in carrying our writing careers forward and I stand by that advice. You’ve only gotten where you are because of the hands you’ve held. But no one community may be able to carry the upwardly mobile among you all the way to your goal.

Is it time for you to leave your communal nest? Consider the following.

1. The organization may no longer be a fit. Everything about the publishing industry is in flux, so why not writing groups? The group that supported you during the decade you sought an agent may now advocate for self-publishing. The programming on story craft you signed on for may now be devoted to marketing talk. If majority rule means you are not progressing toward your goals—and especially if your needs feel sidelined, or belittled in any way by the people masquerading as your comrades—the culture of your organization has become a poor fit. It’s time to get out and try another.

2. Your critique group may be holding you back. When critiquers are secretly flummoxed about what a writer is trying to accomplish, they’ll often focus on minutiae when the root problem may be weak story architecture that a one-chapter-per-month analysis won’t allow them to identify, even if they knew how. The writer walks away from the group relieved that the session has gone so well—but carrying a well-worded, perfectly meaningless story. While critique groups can be a great place to gain early workshopping experience, there may come a time when you’re trading your valuable time for advice that is holding you back.

3. Growth happens outside of your comfort zone. The creative mind thrives on new experiences and alternate ways of thinking, and you can’t acquire those if you stay in the same place with the same people doing the same thing. Your writing organization may feel like home, but there may come a time when you need mentors with more depth in the industry to inform you, challenge you, and open new doors for you. To do that, you must reach up—not back.

4. Even empty luggage causes drag. Remind yourself of your goal in joining the group in the first place. I doubt that it was to make friends, even though that may be a valued side benefit. If you find that that marketing cooperative you joined does more drinking than retweeting, it may be time to cut ties. You could try to adjust your expectations and stay—your friends are still sparking joy!—but it won’t work for long. A writer only has so much time in her life, and she needs to surround herself with similarly dedicated colleagues who can help her career.

5. A big fish who stays in a small pond casts a large shadow. Leaving a writers’ organization can be fraught because we worry about hurting people’s feelings. But what if you are hurting others by staying? Others may benefit from the opportunity to fill a leadership role you’ve vacated. Annual contest wins and self-published anthology entries may feed your ego, but may not equal the career advancement you seek. Meanwhile, you’re standing in the way of others who need the chance to shine.

If you are getting all you want or need from your writing group and are satisfied with your career as is, I’m not trying to suggest you leave behind a valued resource.

But if your needs aren’t being met and you think it may be time to make a move, please don’t worry that you’re ditching your friends. In this business, you need all the friends you can get, and those who really care about you will find other ways to keep in touch.

No two writing paths are the same, and you’re simply seeking to further yours—and that was always the point.

Is it time for you to leave the nest? Have you ever had to leave a group that was no longer serving your needs? Did it end up being a good move? Were you able to preserve valued relationships?

Laura Drake

I read a recent article from Electric Lit. As a professional writer, or aspiring to publication, you need to read it. It's HERE. Go ahead, we'll wait.

The facts the article was based on came from the Authors Guild 2018 Survey (you can read that HERE) which said that, "American authors ... incomes falling to historic lows to a median of $6,080 in 2017, down 42 percent from 2009." (Based on a survey of over 5k authors)

Wait! Before you run off to flush the flash key of your work, start a bonfire in the back yard, or give up, let's discuss this.

I have also noticed a trend (which was verified by an agent I spoke with), that NY publishers are abandoning the romance market (excepting the top sellers) to the indies. And I imagine this isn't unique to romance. Publishers can't compete with the indies' ability to price cut. This is not new news--the trend has been advancing for years; it started with midlist authors, and is moving UP the food chain--meaning what was considered a good print run has declined steadily, and the number of copies you need to sell to be offered a new contract is increasing.

New York (the Big 5, or 3, or whatever they're down to) is still buying debut authors, but only in hopes of discovering a winner. If your first book or two aren't blockbusters, you're most likely not invited back to the party.

I don't blame the publishers. They're in this for the same reason you and I are--to make a profit. That's just reality.

But for me, the more disturbing part in the article is the entitlement issue it raised. I have seen this as well. I began a Facebook group for readers 3 1/2 years ago and it's grown to over 11k members. There was a discussion begun there a week ago, about where to go to get free books...the poster basically bragging that they almost never paid for books anymore. They weren't talking about pirate sites, either. We founder/moderators jumped into the discussion, explaining the relationship between paying for product, and the continuing availability of it. Many readers were shocked to hear how little authors make on their books. They thought (when they thought) that the fat cat publishers wouldn't notice to loss of a book sale here and there. I hope we enlightened a few readers.

It began innocently (yikes, an adverb!) enough, as a marketing strategy. A way to get more readers by making the first of a series free, or almost free. The plan is to get the reader hooked and they'd go buy the rest of the author's series, then backlist. For the author, it was taking a gamble on their own talent. And it worked brilliantly (Ugh, another). For that author. Not so much the market.

Then, giveaways. Also a great marketing tool, with the same philosophy as above. But soon there were readers roving like packs of coyotes, skipping from group to group, only there for the free books. Many of them resold the books on Amazon below the publishers cost, which was a double hit for authors--they gave away the first, then a reader who might have paid, bought the discounted 'used' book, and the author got zero money on that, either.

Then came Amazon's Kindle Unlimited. A subscription service where a reader pays a monthly fee and can read an almost unlimited number of books. The majority subscription fees are put in a 'pool', and participating authors share in it. I was a CFO in my career; this never made sense to me as being in the author's best interest. And it's had the unforeseen consequence of cheapening the worth of the product in the reader's mind.

I'm not bemoaning the 'commoditizing' of books. We write as art, but if you've sold to a publisher, or offered your book for sale in the market, you know your book becomes a 'widget'--a commodity the minute it goes up for sale.

However we innocently we got here (3 adverbs in one post. I must really be upset), we're not going back. A market trend like this doesn't reverse (with the exception of innovation, and then, the majority of the price increase goes to the innovator).

Bottom line is black and white in the Authors Guild survey; excepting the few at the top, writers can't make a living writing fiction anymore.

So why am I being Debbie Downer, dumping salt in your morning coffee?

Because writers are angsty insecure people. I know many (and I count myself in the tribe) who were whispering to each other. I've heard it at conferences and group meetings: 'Are your sales down?' 'How was your last advance?' 'Did you sell through?' And that's after we chewed fingernails for months, trying to get up the guts to ask. See, it's bad form to ask about money if you're an artist. It's like asking a coworker how much they make. Also, payment is more than a living; it's a way of keeping score. And you want to know where you fit in the hierarchy, as much as you don't want to know. AND you sure don't want the person you're asking to know!

Facts is facts, and now they're out. In a weird, twisted way (hey, we're authors, right? We're used to that), it's a relief. I hear the whispers in the wind. It's not just me.

I wrote this post for a reason, not just to pee in your corn flakes. What can we do about all this? Two things:

1. Don't quit your day job. The odds of you making a living wage, writing, though possible, is not likely.
2. Know why you're doing this: There are a lot more reasons to write than to make a living. Is your reason enough to keep you going? Mine is.

If you came looking for answers, I don't have any. But let's discuss it.

Have you noticed this trend? How are you dealing with the reality? Have you thought about quitting writing? What keeps you going?

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Laura is teaching her, 'First Five Pages' class online at Savvy Authors, beginning April 29 through May 12. Come polish those pages to a high shine, and learn advanced craft tips at the same time! Click HERE for more info!