Writers in the Storm

Autumn always makes me thankful. Maybe it's because of Thanksgiving. Maybe it's because of a memory of a remote cabin in the middle exploding fall colors. Maybe it's the  reminder that I have more to be thankful for than most. I'm thankful for books. Because one saved my life.

When people ask me why I began writing, I lie. I tell them that I had an idea that wouldn’t let me go. And that’s true, as far as it goes. But the reason it wouldn’t let me go is the real story. See, I write about my own demons. I think on some level, we all do, don’t we?

I’m not going to bore you with all the backstory, but suffice it to say that my decisions ended me at nineteen, with a guy I’d known a total of ten days before I said ‘I do’, living in a log cabin in the Back of Beyond, Michigan.  We had one car, which he took to work each day. I wasn’t allowed to work; a woman's job was in the home. The mailbox was a mile walk away, and town was ten. We didn’t have a phone.

There were other cabins within a mile of ours, but they were summer homes; there were no neighbors in autumn. We had electricity, but no money for propane. No worries.  We cut wood to keep us warm for the coming winter. But no propane meant no gas for the stove, range, or washer and dryer. So I learned to cook everything in an electric Dutch oven. I washed our filthy blue jeans with a floor brush on the boards of the porch.

Don’t get me wrong, it was beautiful. The cabin was beside a river, and the trees were bursting with color. I fished, and picked wild huckleberries for pies. Fires at night were warm and romantic.

But then he started hitting me.

I thought it was my fault. After all, I knew almost nothing domestic. He even had to teach me to cook.  I made mistakes, I screwed up. I learned as fast as I could, trying to make him happy, and proud. It didn’t work. He still got mad. No, furious. And I’d end up with bruises. But he was so sorry afterward that I believed him, that it wouldn’t happen again. I believed it because he believed it.

But as time went on, and I got better at that life, he didn’t change. The home I grew up in was falling apart, and I didn’t want to admit I’d made a mistake, so I never told them. I had nothing to do all day but clean and think. Believe me; you could have eaten off any surface in that cabin. But my thoughts just cycled in an endless loop.

Most of the time, things were fine. I was even happy. The anger wasn’t always there. But the potential always was, hanging like static electricity in the air. I stayed alert, always. I lost weight.

The highlight of my week was going to town on the weekend to do laundry, because I could go to the library. I was always a reader, and now it sustained me – I could go away in my mind. They'd only allow me to check out seven books at a time, so I’d choose the heftiest tomes I could find, so I’d have lots to read during the week.

That’s how I came upon Ayn Rand. Atlas Shrugged gave me the answer that I had missed, in all those hours of thinking. It never occurred to me that I was the answer.  It was a beginning.

People who know me now can’t picture me in this past. That’s because that naïve powerless girl wasn’t me. The more years I live, the more I uncover who ‘me’ is.

I never forgot the power that book opened in me.

That’s the real reason I started writing. If something in one of my stories gives one person a glimmer of an answer they seek, I’ll have paid forward what Ayn Rand gave me, all those years ago.

Your turn, WITS readers. What book has touched your life? Will you share it with us?

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About Laura

Laura Drake is a city girl who never grew out of her tomboy ways, or a serious cowboy crush. She writes both Women's Fiction and Romance.

She sold her Sweet on a Cowboy series, romances set in the world of professional bull riding, to Grand Central. The Sweet Spot won the 2014 Romance Writers of America^®   RITA^® award in the Best First Book category.

She also published a four book, small town series to Harlequin's Superromance line.

Laura’s first women’s fiction, Days Made of Glass, released January, 2016.

In 2014, Laura realized a lifelong dream of becoming a Texan and is currently working on her accent. She gave up the corporate CFO gig to write full time. She's a wife, grandmother, and motorcycle chick in the remaining waking hours.

First, I am not crazy. Well, not that way.

I've finished four manuscripts; all have finaled or won in several contests. I've sent out a dozen queries, maybe more, thanks to Laura Drake. The two books I thought were most salable, have been requested and sent to a handful of agents and editors in New York.

In June, I woke up one morning and asked, "What are you waiting for?" Just like that, I boarded the self-publishing train, taking the first steps necessary to set myself up for success.

• I contacted a freelance editor who I met at RWA San Antonio two years ago. While I listened to Tiffany Yates Martin's presentation at that conference I thought, "If I ever get a chance to work with this woman, I'm grabbing it." I sent her eight pages from the middle of the book I decided would be a good "starter." This gave her a chance to see if she wanted to work with me, and the edits she sent back were my opportunity to see if I wanted to work with her. I called Laura Drake and read some of Tiffany's comments. Laura's response: "She's got your number in just eight pages!" Needless to say, I signed a contract with Tiffany. Best move ever!
• Now that I had my money on the line, I jumped all in. Those of you who know me, know that when I commit to something, I am laser-focused. I knew I needed to make time for this new "job," but how could I guarantee my usual daily activities wouldn't be the time sumps they could become? This may be extreme for some of you, but I disconnected my cable TV. I returned the box to the company. (Don't gasp for air. I'd been threatening to do this every time their rates went up.) I gave away my not-smart TV.
• Electronic games can suck down the better part of the evening if I get hooked in. I put my shiny games in a folder and tucked it deep in my hard drive. There are no games on my lap top. I left only one game, my favorite, on my phone. Since my phone is not my device of choice, I knew I wouldn't play more than fifteen minutes at a time.

I began cutting words from the book I was sending to Tiffany, due August 1, leisurely cutting and working a couple of hours a day. When Laura came home with me from RWA San Diego, I mentioned that I wasn't sure if I'd get through the manuscript in time. Here's what has turned out to be the most important step for me.

• Look at the full body of work you have to complete. Count the number of days you have to complete it. Do the math to figure out what must be done every day. In your calculations, give yourself a day or two off for emergencies.I subtracted ten percent of the days until my due date and used that as my "number of days." Here's my calculation: I had 22 calendar days, but I subtracted three for emergencies and day off, so I had 19 work days. 380 pages ÷19= 20 pages per day. Here's the formula: Number of pages ÷ Number of work days= How many pages you must finish per day 
• Keep to the schedule. Yep. Period.
• Work whenever you have a chance. Fifteen minutes six time during the day takes off an hour-and-a-half that night. I worked while I waited for people to arrive at my house. I worked for ten minutes before I left to exercise with the trainer. I'd never sat down to write without at least a one-hour block of time before.

I had to get through twenty pages every day to finish. Luckily, I was only cleaning up verbiage and cutting words (I had nine thousand words to cut!), so I knew I could do it. There were nights I didn't finish until midnight. Sometimes it was two a.m. But I knew if I didn't finish "my allotment," I would have even more to do the next day, and that might roll over, too.  Then I'd have this huge  word boulder chasing me down revision mountain. It only took two consecutive two a.m. mornings to get me to start working throughout the day.

Here's the part where you can nod and say, yep, Fae's a little crazy. During the word-cutting revisions for Keeping Athena, I decided I wanted to do the same thing for PRISM, my YA that was promised to a publisher on, you guessed it, August 1. I recalculated my page count for six less days (now I had to finish twenty-seven pages a day), and finished Keeping Athena a week early. I took a day off. I figured out that I needed to go through seventy-six (!) pages a day to meet my goal for PRISM. Luckily, it was the last book I've finished, so it was in better initial shape. And I had a routine down. All I had to do was cut words to streamline it. Since I had no goal for the number of words to cut, it went faster. Five-and-a-half days later, I sent it to the publisher.

Here's what I learned:

• Your words are not cast in cement. Even when you think they are as good as you can make them, you can improve the flow, the emotional impact, the sensory details—all while cutting "the fluff." Phrases like "He began to run…" become "He ran…" and you've axed two words.
• Save deleted paragraphs and scenes for use in promo material or another book. I had a wonderful beach scene that did little but provide warm fuzzies. Probably a reader would skim it. They won't have that opportunity, because I cut it. But I can resurrect it in another form, so I'm okay with the cut.
• I can do this. Again, I can do this. Maybe because, deep down, I wasn't sure of myself, I didn't consider self-pubbing or query more.
• I enjoy doing this. Who knew that "hard scheduling" my time with friends, having to say no to a few invitations, would provide the satisfaction of achievement that came from sticking to a very tight regimen. I even read a book a week during the twelve weeks. I haven't done that for ages.

Tomorrow I'm starting my first round of edits to the sequel of Keeping Athena. I have three weeks while Tiffany does a second pass through Keeping Athena. Why not get the next book in shape to send her? A secret—yesterday I took the day off from writing. I didn't know what to do with myself; the day was so long. I pulled out the chapter print outs for the next book and put them in order. This one's going to be a lot tougher than the first two. I haven't looked at it for six years, and I'm swapping out the son of the couple in Keeping Athena for Athena's brother, so there will be some re-writing. Bonus: When doing the editorial revisions that Tiffany returned, I got a slam-bang idea for the third book in the series. When I get through all these revisions, I can't wait to start it!

Next month I'll share the writing and editing tips I learned from the first round of editorial revisions Tiffany suggested.

Do you have tips to share about getting ready for a revision marathon? What works best for you?

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About Fae

Fae Rowen discovered the romance genre after years as a science fiction freak.   Writing futuristics and medieval paranormals, she jokes  that she can live anywhere but the present.  As a mathematician, she knows life’s a lot more fun when you get to define your world and its rules.

Punished, oh-no, that’s published as a co-author of a math textbook, she yearns to hear personal stories about finding love from those who read her books, rather than the horrors of calculus lessons gone wrong.  She is grateful for good friends who remind her to do the practical things in life like grocery shop, show up at the airport for a flight and pay bills.

A “hard” scientist who avoided writing classes like the plague, she now shares her brain with characters who demand that their stories be told.  Amazing, gifted critique partners keep her on the straight and narrow. Feedback from readers keeps her fingers on the keyboard.

When she’s not hanging out at Writers in the Storm, you can visit Fae at http://faerowen.com  or www.facebook.com/fae.rowen.

Photo credits: Pixabay

Piper Bayard

Lone Wolf Writers are those who shun critique groups, avoid craft classes, and cross the street when we see volunteer editors heading toward us. We are known for keeping to ourselves and avoiding too many voices in our heads and in our lives.

If you're still not sure if you are a Lone Wolf Writer, click here.

But while we Lone Wolf Writers can produce drafts without a pack, we still need friends and allies to nurture and grow those drafts into great books that we hold in our hands and show to all of the family and friends who keep telling us to get “real” careers.

In that, we are no different from all other writers.

 

 

One of the most social watering holes for finding friends and allies is Twitter.

We live in an unprecedented age where agents, editors, New York Times bestsellers, and publishers are all at our fingertips. All we have to do is talk to them.

What? Talk to people? But I’m a Lone Wolf Writer. I only know how to talk to imaginary friends.

No worries. I’ve got you covered.

Twitter is a cocktail party.

Groups of people collect here and there about the “room” and discuss various topics. Those topics are called “hashtags,” and they look like a # sign with a word behind it, such as #hashtag.

Joining in a conversation on Twitter is like joining in with a group at a party. We first find a group, or hashtag. We read what other people are saying for a few minutes, and then we jump in with a relevant comment.

So how do I find these groups?

1. Get organized. Tweetdeck and Hootsuite are free programs you can download to keep your Tweeps in columns. This makes it possible to follow hundreds, or even thousands, of Tweeps at the same time.
2. Start with the people you know. Find them on Twitter, follow them, and respond to their tweets.
3. Check out their followers and say hello to them, as well.
4. Make a writer hashtag column, such as #MyWANA, #amwriting, #amediting, or #amrevising. Read through the tweets, pick a few that resonate with you, and respond to those people with encouragement and feedback.
5. Use your publishing name as your handle instead of a moniker. This way, people can find you and support you in turn.
6. Help your friends connect with people by introducing them to each other.

Here are 12 Hashtags for Writers you might enjoy, courtesy of Marcy Kennedy.

That’s great for finding peers, but how do I network with the publishing superstars?

Ever see The 13^th Warrior? There’s a scene near the beginning of that movie where Antonio Banderas is encamped with Vikings on a river in Eurasia. He notices another ship has arrived during the night, and a boy is standing like a statue in the bow. Omar Sharif explains that the boy is letting the other Vikings see him.

Antonio: “But he’s in plain sight.”

Omar: “They don’t know if what they see is real. Something to do with the mist. Apparently, they find dangerous things in the mist. The boy was being polite, giving them time to decide if he is real.”

We have to give superstars time to decide if we are real. Everyone wants a piece of them, and almost no one gives back. Some people suck up in the hopes of ingratiating themselves. Others create work for them by asking favors right off the bat. Still others exploit the superstar’s success by name dropping and giving the impression that relationships exist where there are none. In short, superstars have something to lose, and they know it.

Start by letting your chosen superstar “see” you.

1. Promote them. Do this by tweeting their book release, retweeting their tweets, or giving them a shout out.
2. Respond to their tweets with positive comments.
3. Bond over something other than writing. For example, if your chosen author superstar is also a veterinarian, chat with him about pets.
4. Do all of the above in moderation. Responding to every tweet constitutes sucking up and perhaps even stalking.
5. Keep the chat light and impersonal. Remember—you’re at a cocktail party.
6. Do NOT ask for favors. The goal is a long term genuine friendship, which leads to mutual support.
7. Be The Little Drummer Boy and give what you have.

In the end, it is the act of giving that lays the foundation of a solid friendship, whether that is with our peers or with our superstars.

 

If ever in doubt about how to respond to people on Twitter, treat them like they are dying.

[What? Who even says that?]

Yes, you heard me right. The best approach to making friends on Twitter is to treat everyone as if they are dying. Think about it . . .

1. We don’t judge dying people.

Their Judgement Day will come soon enough, and the Big It needs no assistance from us on that score.

2. We do listen to them.

In that moment, they are more important than we are so we keep our mouths shut and our ears open.

3. We do let them know they are heard.

This doesn’t mean we agree with everything they say. It means we validate that they said it. The easiest way is to say, “That sounds . . .” Difficult, painful, amazing, intense, etc.

4. We don’t argue.

Letting people know we heard what they said is not the same as agreeing with them, so we are not violating our integrity when we refrain from disagreeing.

5. We don’t offer unsolicited advice.

They’re dying. As far as we know today, we’re probably not dying any time soon. Therefore, we don’t literally know how they feel. It’s important to realize that and not pretend that we do by trying to fix things for them.

6. We don’t whine about our problems.

It’s one thing when we share the truth of our writing—our word count, our goals, our successes, our conference experiences, etc. It’s another to whine about our hemorrhoids.

Note: Hemorrhoids are those pains in the butt that never really go away, like wretched stepmothers, drunken relatives, or abandonment issues. Dying people may be interested in us, but NO ONE wants to hear about our life’s “hemorrhoids.” Hemorrhoids make everyone uncomfortable.

7. We do validate a dying person’s feelings.

Again, “That sounds . . . .”

8. We do validate their lives.

We read their words and comment on their pictures.

9. We do find sincere, positive things to say.

We cheer for their successes. We acknowledge their efforts. We share the beauty of the day, whether it’s a good meal, a new baby, or a stunning sunrise.

10. We do show our gratitude.

We say thank you. Because every single time a person shares themselves with us, it is a gift we may never experience again.

In short, when we are the friend and ally we want to meet, we find the friends and allies we want.

Are you a lone wolf writer? Do you use social media? Which social tool is your favorite and why? What are your tips (or questions) for building relationships, on Twitter or elsewhere online?

[Note: Piper is on the road today so she'll be answering comments at rest stops - lets be sure to entertain her.]

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About Piper

Piper Bayard is an author, a recovering attorney, and the managing editor of the Social In Worldwide network. Her writing partner, Jay Holmes, is an anonymous senior member of the intelligence community and a field veteran from the Cold War through the current Global War on Terror. Together, they are the bestselling authors of the international spy thriller, THE SPY BRIDE. You can find Piper at BayardandHolmes.com.