Writers in the Storm

Kate Moretti

A few weeks ago, the fabulous Kimberly Brock wrote a post about the fear of the blank page. She claimed that there are people who love it and she called them psychopaths and equated it to jumping out of airplanes.

I’m here to confess: I am that psychopath.

I just handed in my latest novel to my editor. I have a few scenes I know it needs so I plan on banging them out now while she is reading. I have articles to write (this one!) and emails to catch up on. But the lure of the blank page is too much. Today I opened a Scrivener file and wrote 800 words. I don’t know where the scene will fit in the novel, if it’s the first scene (feels like it to me) or if will be relegated to the murky middle, as a flashback. I just know that right now, everything about this book feels kind of amazing: fresh, new, not muddled and unclear, the shimmering pull of discovery right around the next bend.

For me, the draw of writing isn’t in the actual drafting. It’s in the idea of story. I have a Google word document with ten primary story ideas (and a zillion other partial ideas) in various stages of development. Some are just a logline with zero details: a woman does x, a woman’s sister/friend does y. Others have fleshed out characters, and still others have a theme I’m interested in more than a plot. Bottom line? They’re all potential stories. (Side note: I keep it in Google so I can access it anywhere, even from my phone on the go).

Are you the kind of writer who feels paralyzed by the beginning? Who looks at a blank page with dread? Who thinks, “Oh no, now I have to come up with a whole new idea,” and rather than feel that zing of anticipation, you want to crawl into bed and pull the covers over your head?

4 tips to help you come up with a new story:

1. Open to the stories around you.

They are everywhere. In the man who walks from his house across the street to three houses down, every single morning, and walks home every night. Who lives three doors down? I’ve never seen them. I assume a sweet, octogenarian romance. But how cute is it that he comes home every night? Does he care that much about propriety?

I write suspense, so sometimes I see a story and think: oh, this is not my story, not my genre. Sometimes I even pass those ideas along to friends. Sometimes I can massage the inspiration into something that does fit my genre. Writers can be lightning rods for stories, but we struggle to receive it. We can get so caught up in the questions: Is it commercially viable? Can it carry a book? Is it for me? Can I make it for me? Can I bring that something-something into another plot? It can get so exhausting that it kills creativity.

I find that getting the initial lightning strike down on paper — regardless of logistical questions — is what captures the essence of story. My Google word doc has zillions of these; it stands at almost twenty-five pages: some of it is complete non-sensical, various fonts (copied and pasted!), it’s messy and disorganized but it’s all (gold)mine.

2. Read the headlines.

I peruse headlines from five or ten years ago, just for fun. There’s a danger here, especially for historical fiction writers, since what inspires one may inspire many. The old adage, “the truth is stranger than fiction” is never more true than when you find a gem like this or a heartwarming story like this.

I read a story, years ago, about a family of children who was kept in a small New York City apartment their entire lives. Their mother died and the children were taken in by social services. They’d never been outside, never been to school, never socialized with other children. This is absolutely in my story document. I can’t find an angle that fits my brand but I just love it.

My forthcoming novel, THE BLACKBIRD SEASON, was inspired by a news story I read about a teacher who followed his students on social media. He was praised in the story for being involved and going beyond the call of duty. I thought, hmmm there must be a twist I can apply to this. What if the very thing that once made him a great teacher became the thing that made him a suspect in a student’s murder? I catalog these odd bits and pieces on Pinterest where I can access them later.

3. Consume other fiction: Not just books, but movies, television.

I find a lot of inspiration in true crime TV, as does a writer friend who recommends shows to me. I am currently into The First 48, which breaks a case down to the investigation level, each episode ending with an arrest. I am also inspired by books outside of my genre. Years ago, I read the book THE CASTAWAYS by Elin Hildebrand. I loved the ensemble cast structure and the beach setting, so an ensemble cast with a beach setting has been on my list since. In a fit of inspiration, I recently dusted it off and developed the four main voices, the murder, the motive, the red herrings.

4. Try.

This comes off like sanctimonious B.S. I’m sorry. I do think some percentage of writers expect inspiration to be like divine intervention. I’ve heard a newly published writer say “I have to really be inspired by something” when discussing story development. While many great stories may start as pure lightning strike, others must be ferreted out of the confusing depths and coils of the writer’s mind.

Sometimes I use long drives to deliberate think of story ideas. I talk into a microphone and pretend it’s a person. Sometimes I talk to another writer. The act of using my voice prompts me to dig deeper. I might say, “What if a woman who is hiding from her ex-husband falls in love, unwittingly, with her ex’s brother? NO, that’s been done before, I think. Wait, look up the plot of Sleeping With the Enemy, God I haven’t seen that in like 15 years.” It’s the stream of consciousness that awakens THE THING in me: the creative beast that will eventually unlock the story.

And that is all I really need: the key to unlock the story I know I have. Somewhere. I get the partial down in my Google doc and call it a day. When I’m at the stage I’m now, where I have to write up a pitch for my agent to send to my editor or even start a few chapters, I mine the document monster I’ve been keeping for years. Sometimes, it even works.

How do you mine for story?

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About Kate

Susan Spann

In the immortal words of Don Schlitz (made famous by Kenny Rogers): “You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away … know when to run.”

Smart words for any gambler, but equally valid for authors. Unfortunately, too many authors don’t have the courage of those convictions when a long-awaited publishing offer comes … even when they suspect the offer isn’t necessarily a good one.

Learning when to walk away from an offer (and developing the strength to do it when necessary) is one of the most important business skills an author can develop.

No one can, or should, tell you when to refuse a contract, but let’s look at a few situations when wise authors should at least consider refusing a publishing deal:

1. The publisher is a vanity press or offers a predatory contract.

Legitimate traditional publishers never ask authors to pay for anything out-of-pocket. Legitimate publishers pay royalties based on gross receipts or “receipts on all sales of the work,” less returns, without deducting publishing costs or expenses before calculating royalties due to the author.

Any publisher that requires the author to pay publishing expenses (or pay for anything out of pocket!), to purchase “mandatory copies” of the work, or to agree to non-standard contract terms is not offering a fair and equitable deal. Beware, in particular, of publishers who attempt to place short time limits on accepting the deal, try to prevent the author from hiring a lawyer or agent to review the contract, or bully the author in any way.

2. The publisher won’t agree to a reasonable, industry-standard contract.

Sometimes, even legitimate publishers’ contracts don’t meet industry standards. Most publishers will negotiate, but if the publisher won’t budge on terms you consider vital, or won’t allow you reasonable termination rights if: (a) they fail to publish within 12-18 months of signing the contract, or (b) if sales drop too low, it’s better to walk away than to sign a contract you consider unreasonable or unfair.

I strongly recommend hiring an agent or publishing lawyer to advise you and negotiate any contract on your behalf. That said, you, the author, have the right to decide what business terms you will and will not accept. You have the power to refuse any deal that doesn’t meet your standards.

3. The publisher lacks the experience or capacity to publish and distribute your work appropriately.

Small publishers and micro-presses often lack extensive distribution; larger publishers may not give your work the attention it would receive at a smaller house. Different presses have different advantages (and disadvantages) – and you, the author, have the right (and obligation) to choose your path. Create a business plan for your work, and follow the publishing path that meets your goals. However, always investigate the publisher’s resources, distribution, experience, reputation, and business practices before you sign a deal.

4. The publisher can’t do more for you than you could accomplish as an author-publisher.

Before accepting a publishing deal, ask yourself: can this publisher do more for me, and for my work, than I could do if I published the book myself?

If the answer is “no”—or even, “I’m not certain”—you should seriously consider walking away from the deal altogether. Becoming an author-publisher is a serious business decision that no author should make lightly. However, signing a contract is serious too. Never entrust your work to a publisher that can’t do more for you than you could on your own (or by hiring people to assist you).

It’s better to walk away from ANY offer than it is to sign a contract you regret.

Have you walked away from a publishing deal? Would you have the strength to do it, if you recognized the offer was not a good one?

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About Susan

Susan Spann is a California transactional attorney whose practice focuses on publishing law and business, and is also the author of the Hiro Hattori (Shinobi) mysteries, featuring ninja detective Hiro Hattori and Portuguese Jesuit Father Mateo. Her fourth novel, THE NINJA’S DAUGHTER, released from Seventh Street Books in August 2016. Susan was the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ 2015 Writer of the Year, and when not writing or practicing law, she raises seahorses and rare corals in her marine aquarium.

Find her online at http://www.SusanSpann.com, on Twitter (@SusanSpann), and on Facebook (/SusanSpannBooks).

Donna Galanti

When I was a kid I used to sneak into people’s coat closets when visiting with my parents, hoping to find a Narnia world on the other side. I would huddle in the dark, beneath winter coats, imagining an older world long gone as I hid among musty wool. If I sat long enough would I be transported there?

Now, as a children’s book author and writer of fantasy, I get to step through doors into other worlds. The easy part is stepping into that new world. The hard part is creating a world, characters, and story from a child’s point of view. How to get into that view? By finding my childlike wonder again.

Do you remember what filled you with wonder as a kid?

I do. I walked along rock walls under the stars when the world was asleep. I climbed trees and sang songs to the woods. I swam all day becoming as brown and leathery as an armadillo. I hid away in rose bush caves to write – all the while believing that magic existed, and every day held little miracles.

But what evokes childlike wonder now as a grownup? And as adults writing for children, can we even recapture that? 

Regaining a childlike sense of wonder isn’t about returning to a childlike state, it’s about letting yourself be awed by the little things in your grownup life. Our mundane responsibilities can often dull our wonder, but just because every day is filled with little things it doesn’t mean they aren’t miraculous. 

However, keeping our childlike wonder can be difficult when grownup duties mount. In order to do my job well as a children’s author, I often need to rekindle and sustain my kid wonder. But how?

11 ways to evoke childlike wonder:

1. Re-visit pictures of ourselves as kids. Search through specific memories. Journal in our voice from that moment. What were we excited about? What did we most desire? What made us sad?
2. Did you write diaries as a child or teen? Re-read them to inspire that voice of youth in your own writing.
3. Look at the world from an unfamiliar perspective. Make a snow angel. Hide in a closet. Climb a tree. Be pulled along in a little red wagon (if you can fit!). There are Big Wheels for grownups now. Try it!
4. Create a new bucket list with your kids or grandkids. What do they dream of doing that you could do together?
5. Do your kids write stories? Read them to grasp a worldview through their own words. What do they notice? How do they feel?
6. Revisit the age of your characters. Go back to that time in your life and draw a map of your neighborhood. Walk through it in your mind and journal about it. What do you see? How do you feel? How did you react to events there?
7. Do a stand-up dramatic read-aloud of a scene in your story.
8. Face a childhood fear (mine was going down in our creepy 200-year-old cellar where I was sure bodies were buried).
9. Engage in child’s play with your kids. Hide-n-Seek, Tag. A favorite of my son and mine was battling sock wars to Irish music.
10. Eavesdrop on kids at the mall or park. Take notes of their conversation.
11. Visit those places you spent time at as a child. Walk in your childhood shoes again.

I did this last one not so long ago. I resurrected an old manuscript rich with one of my childhood settings. It prompted me to go back in time to the campground my parents owned and operated in New Hampshire. When I drove up, I was zapped back to the 1970s. 

Suddenly, I was nine-years-old again. I swam in the pool, fished with my dad, romped through the woods, collected dead butterflies and shotgun shells, whizzed about on strap-on roller skates, played pinball machines, and spun 45 records on the jukebox.

Returning was an emotional gut punch. I could be a child again in that place of innocence but just as it resurrected joyous moments from childhood, it also brought back painful ones.

What did I take away from this trip for my writing?

• Vivid feelings of childhood – the good and the bad – to enrich my writing.
• Revisited my creative foundations and reinforced my yearning to write for kids.
• Fortified the connection from childhood to adulthood.
• That I can mend my past while forging my future from it.
• A renewed sense of childlike wonder, boxed up with a crooked bow and broken seams.

Most importantly, I remembered how awesome it was to be a kid again, to be lost in the moment. And that every day as a kid held magic. By renewing my own sense of childlike wonder, I could once again be lost in it while writing – and tap into the magic of the little things. 

Have you ever thought of writing for children? And if you do write for children, how do you write from their point of view? Share your tips!

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About Donna

Donna Galanti is the author of the paranormal suspense Element Trilogy and the children’s fantasy adventure Joshua and The Lightning Road series. She attended an English school housed in a magical castle, where her wild imagination was held back only by her itchy uniform (bowler hat and tie included!). There she fell in love with the worlds of C.S. Lewis and Roald Dahl, and wrote her first fantasy about Dodo birds, wizards, and a flying ship. She’s lived in other exotic locations, including Hawaii where she served as a U.S. Navy photographer. She lives with her family and two crazy cats in an old farmhouse, and dreams of returning one day to a castle.

Donna is a contributing editor for International Thriller Writers the Big Thrill magazine and blogs with other middle grade authors at Project Middle Grade Mayhem. She enjoys teaching at conferences on writing craft and marketing and presenting at elementary and middle schools. Visit her at www.elementtrilogy.com and www.donnagalanti.com.

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