Writers in the Storm

The “things I wish I’d known” blog posts fascinate me. As writers, we’re always looking for an inside secret on succeeding in this crazy life we’ve taken on. We want to know what other writers have discovered so that we can side-step those blunders.

But there comes a point, especially if you’ve been part of writers groups for some time and followed the industry on social media, that the “things I wish I’d known” posts no longer hold any new revelations. We’ve heard it all before, right?

So I was all happy-smug after I sold and skipped down the flower patch toward becoming a published author. I knew what to expect. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t think it was going to be smooth sailing from here, but I’d been listening and taking notes when writer friends talked about their experiences.

And yet, here I am scratching my head over the things I wish I’d known …

1) Querying gets harder.

You thought you were done with queries after securing an agent? I did. Sort of. My agent, after all, is the one who’s submitting to editors. What I didn’t anticipate was sending requests for author blurbs. Who did I think did this? The Blurb Fairy maybe.

Okay, not really. I don’t believe in fairies (I do, however believe in unicorns but that’s a different post). This was one of those knew-it-but-was-in-denial cases. Querying agents wasn’t a problem for me (if you didn’t think I was a wee off after that unicorn comment, this sealed the deal, didn’t it?!). And I wasn’t nervous when my agent submitted to editors. Why? Because they are looking at my submission from a business perspective. A rejection from an agent or editor isn’t personal, it’s a reflection of whether they believe they can sell that particular product.

But readers are evaluating your book from a different place, a personal place. And that makes it a wee bit scarier. So when the time came to send out requests for authors to blurb my upcoming release, I freaked out. I mean paper-bag-holy-crap freak out.

I know, I know … if I can’t handle this, how am I going to handle reader reviews. Easy – we’re talking two different audiences. My writing won’t appeal to everyone and I’m okay with that. Reading is subjective. There will be readers who post ugly reviews give me one or two stars for whatever reason. Hopefully more people who pick up my book will love it than hate it.

Authors, however, are my tribe. These are the people who know what it takes to write a book and get through the publishing process. These are the people who I admire and fan-girl over. But the idea that one of them will read my book and wonder how the hell they got roped into reading and blurbing, sent me into hives. I don’t want them to think I’m a total hack.

Here’s the thing, the writing community is the most generous group of people I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. And once I got my head out of the paper bag and sent the emails, I realized how crazy that fear was. It’s still harder than sending queries to agents, but not as scary as I allowed myself to first believe.

2) My face out there. OUT THERE!

One of the first things I do when I pick up a book is look at the back page or the dust jacket to see the author photo. So when I first signed with my agent, I added “author photos” to my to-do list. Except that I HATE having my picture taken. I look awful in photos. Just … gahhhhhh!

I suggested using a photo of my cat staring at my laptop instead (he’s way more photogenic). That request was denied. So I pulled ideas of pictures I liked and ones I wasn’t as crazy about. I researched photographers. I thought through location ideas. We tried a few different locations – inside, outside. I did the adult thing and made others decide what worked best. Guess what? It was actually fun. Now I’m saying that before I’ve actually seen the final photos, but I survived and I’m not traumatized from the experience (yet – check back after I’ve looked at the pictures).

Still, the thought of someone picking up my book, looking at the back and seeing my face … oy! Seriously, can we use the cat? How about a unicorn?

3) Writing the novel was the easy part.

The second thing I do with any book, is read the acknowledgements page. Am I the only one who reads this before actually reading the book?

When an author friend posted a picture of my book as a bound manuscript, I squealed, “it’s real, it’s a book,” then rubbed my hands together because now I get to write the acknowledgments page. I’ve been fantasizing about this since the first draft!

I opened a new document in Word, and … Major, massive memory constipation.

This book took two years to write, revise, and submit. It went through countless drafts and several sessions with beta readers. I’ve whimpered to so many author friends during that time and there have been so many amazing people who supported and encouraged me. Of course I’d remember every. Single. Person. Except I’m not. There are names at the tippy tip top of my brain refusing to come forward.

Lesson learned folks … every person who makes a difference in your WIP, write them down on a page in your project notebook (or however you organize your manuscript ideas). Because writing a 300-page manuscript is so much easier on the nerves than pulling together the 1 page acknowledgements section.

Those are my Orly-meets-reality moments. :-)
I’d love to hear yours.

About Orly

Orly Konig is an escapee from the corporate world where she spent roughly sixteen (cough) years working in the space industry. Now she spends her days chatting up imaginary friends, drinking entirely too much coffee, and negotiating writing space around two over-fed cats. She is a co-founder and past president of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association and a member of the Tall Poppy Writers. She is rep’d by Marlene Stringer, Stringer Literary Agency LLC.

Orly’s debut, The Memory of Hoofbeats, will be released by Forge in 2017.

You can find her on Twitter at @OrlyKonig, on Facebook at OrlyKonigAuthor, or on her website, www.orlykonig.com.

Margie Lawson

KUDOS to Fae and Laura and Orly and Jenny. WITS is THE BEST!

 Ready to dive into a deep edit of a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author’s work?

Susan Donovan. Published by St. Martin’s, HQN, Amazon, Kensington, and Berkeley. Twenty-four novels and novellas, translated into dozens of languages. Two-time RITA Award finalist. Take A Chance On Me -- named Best Contemporary Romance of 2003 by RT Book Reviews magazine.

Susan attended a 4 ½ day Immersion Master Class I taught in New Mexico in March. Her writing wowed me. Her talent awed me. But as much as her writing impressed me, deep editing took her prologue from really, really strong to OMG stellar.

The other writers in this class of five were all Immersion-Grads. They’d already attended at least one Immersion. This class included RITA winner and WITS own Laura Drake, as well as RITA winner and NYT bestseller Darynda Jones. No slackers there.

Susan gave me permission to share how we deep edited the prologue for her current work, Under a Mason-Dixon Moon. I’ll show you the beautifully written prologue she brought to class, deep edit suggestions from my first and second passes, and the final made-us-proud prologue.

Under a Mason-Dixon Moon, Prologue

First Version, 166 words:

A lone shotgun blast cracked open the dawn. From her second-story window she watched the blue-black crows swoop across the stubbled cornfield in search of safety, finding refuge in the Sycamore branches reaching over the farm lane like the gnarled fingertips of old lovers.

The blast rolled across the Maryland countryside and vanished somewhere over the Mason-Dixon line. A hush fell over Coldspring Farm once more.

She had resigned herself to the truth of this place long ago. The land was fertile but reeked of death, the stone and mortar dignified but rotted through with lies. And now, with that gunshot, there was no one left. No eyes would ever seek the beauty beneath the despair here, and no lips would tell Coldspring's story.

Her story.

She would linger here, endlessly lonesome, waiting for her love to turn to dust and her secrets to decay in time with the floorboards, the transoms, and the walls.

It would be as if she had never existed at all.

 

Boom.

Feel that power?

I told you Susan’s writing wowed me.

Power Words

In Margie’s world, power words are words that carry psychological power. Sometimes word pairings or phrases.

Lone, shotgun, blast, cracked, search, safety, refuge, lovers, blast, vanished, Mason-Dixon line, hush, fell, resigned, truth, fertile, reeked, death, dignified, rotted, lies, gunshot, no one left, beauty, despair, endlessly lonesome, waiting, love, dust, secrets, decay, never existed

Susan loaded her 166 word prologue with 32 power words/phrases.

No wonder that prologue carries so much power.

What else did she do right?

Fresh writing.

Strong visuals.

Strong cadence.

Oriented the reader with Mason-Dixon line

Rhetorical Devices: alliteration, simile

Now we’ll look for ways to make that prologue even stronger, one paragraph at a time.

First Paragraph:

A lone shotgun blast cracked open the dawn. From her second-story window she watched the blue-black crows swoop across the stubbled cornfield in search of safety, finding refuge in the Sycamore branches reaching over the farm lane like the gnarled fingertips of old lovers.

YELLOW – open – Not needed. Stronger without.

GREEN – stubbled – Love that fresh word, and it supported the alliteration. But it didn’t work for me there. Association: beard. Pulled me out of the story.

BLUE – gnarled fingertips – Fingertips can’t be gnarled. Fingers are gnarled.

I know. Picky, picky.

But the cool thing is, when we nix TIPS, we create structural parallelism.

…the gnarled fingers of old lovers.

Hear the beats? It’s more pleasing to the ear.

The first paragraph only has two sentences. That second sentence is beautifully lyrical, and long. It’s 36 words long. That’s dachshund-esque l-o-n-g. I recommended making it two sentences.

Second Paragraph:

The blast rolled across the Maryland countryside and vanished somewhere over the Mason-Dixon line. A hush fell over Coldspring Farm once more.

YELLOW – We decided to nix blast, and use gunshot. More emotional power.

GREEN and BLUE – Susan changed – A hush fell over – to – A hushed sorrow slipped over Coldspring Farm once more. More emotion with sorrow. Alliteration with sorrow slipped.

Third Paragraph:

She had resigned herself to the truth of this place long ago. The land was fertile but reeked of death, the stone and mortar dignified but rotted through with lies. And now, with that gunshot, there was no one left. No eyes would ever seek the beauty beneath the despair here, and no lips would tell Coldspring's story.

So beautifully written, but it could use more specificity. The reader needs to know more. I asked Susan to dig for the truth, to share her POV character’s truth in that moment in the scene.

Susan said that her character needed someone to help her uncover the truth.

That paragraph was rewritten. You’ll read it soon. Here are the last two sentences of the third paragraph:

She was alone now. There was no one to help her.

Plain writing. Just what was needed. Now the reader gets her truth.

In writing, clarity rules.

Fourth Paragraph – moved down to become the new fifth paragraph, two words:

Her story.

It is her story. But the word story didn’t share enough emotion. We changed it:

Her truth.

Big-time stronger!

Fifth Paragraph:

She would linger here, endlessly lonesome, waiting for her love to turn to dust and her secrets to decay in time with the floorboards, the transoms, and the walls.

NYT writing! Endlessly lonesome – practically made me swoon.

But I asked Susan what she really meant about the secrets. I learned that she thought the reader would pick up a message that I didn’t get. Here’s her revised fifth paragraph:

No eyes would ever detect the horror trapped in this once-loved house. No hands would recover the secrets still lodged in its wood and stone. No lips would ever speak the truth of Coldspring.

Now I get it. She’d buried her secrets in the wood and stone.

I bet Margie-grads noticed the rhetorical device she used in that paragraph. It’s anaphora. No eyes would… No hands would… No lips would… Compelling cadence.

The last paragraph of the first version:

It would be as if she had never existed at all.

A lovely sentence, but it’s clichéd. It had to be rewritten.

And Susan Donovan rewrote it extremely well. I’m sure she was frustrated at first. But she opened a vein…

I’ll credit Hemingway for that bloody phrase.

I could share at least a dozen more deep edit suggestions for this prologue, and make this blog twice as long. But I won’t.

I will share the final version of the prologue. Enjoy.

A lone shotgun blast cracked the dawn. From her second-story window she watched the blue-black crows scatter and swoop across the cornfield in search of safety. They landed in the Sycamore branches reaching over the lane like the gnarled fingers of old lovers.

The gunshot rolled across the Maryland countryside and vanished north of the Mason-Dixon line. A hushed sorrow slipped over Coldspring Farm once more.

Round and round through time, violence would give way to silence. Love would end in death. She knew this rhythm well. Moments ago, the last of them had gone to the cornfield. Like the others, he walked to the middle of the small plot framed in wrought iron and pulled the trigger. She was alone now. There was no one to help her.

No eyes would ever detect the horror trapped in this once-loved house. No hands would recover the secrets still lodged in its wood and stone. No lips would ever speak the truth of Coldspring.

Her truth.

Crows chattered from their refuge. The last trace of gunfire disappeared on the wind.

There was nothing to do now but linger within these crumbling walls, endlessly lonesome, until her whisper was no more.

I know this prologue well, and every time I read it, it grabs my heart.

Kudos to Susan Donovan for her incredible talent. And a big THANK YOU to Susan for allowing me to share her prologue and my deep edit suggestions.

I loved working with Susan. She’s fun and cool and committed to excellence.

It sounds corny, but it is my joy to help writers make their writing award-winning strong. And I love cheering for them when they win awards.

Please chime in and share your thoughts.

Or just click in and say Hi. Let me know you’re here!

Post a comment, and you have TWO CHANCES to WIN!

1. Lecture Packet from Margie Lawson
2. An online course from Lawson Writer’s Academy – worth up to $75!

Check out the courses offered by Lawson Writer's Academy in May:

1. "No One Gets Me!" Writing Believable YA Characters

2. Create Compelling Characters

3. Queries That Sell, and Beyond!

4. 30 Days to a Stronger Novel

5. A Deep Editing Guide to Make Your Openings Pop

The drawings will be Sunday, 9:00 p.m. Mountain Time.

Margie Lawson—editor, international presenter—teaches writers how to use her psychologically-based editing systems and deep editing techniques to create page turners. Margie has presented over ninety full day master classes for writers in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and on cruises in the Caribbean.

To learn about Lawson Writer’s Academy, Margie’s 4-day Immersion Master Classes (in Denver, Washington, D.C., Phoenix, Canyon Lake, Dallas, San Jose, Melbourne, Australia, and more), her full day Master Class presentations, on-line courses, lecture packets, and newsletter, please visit www.margielawson.com.

(And 10 things you can do about it)

Kelly Simmons

Time and again, through my writer’s mentoring nonprofit work and pitching ideas to writer’s conferences, I hear the same thing:  writers of all levels not only struggle with plot, structure, and craft – but with productivity issues.

Why?  Because what works for one writer, simply will not work for another.  In critique groups, we try not to take things personally. It’s your work, it’s not you. But you know what?   It IS YOU. And any problem you are having with your writing, and especially with your writing productivity, stems from who you are.  Or who you aren’t.

Here are my suggestions for upping productivity, based on personality type.

Are you a people pleaser?  Overcommitted?  Writing grants for a nonprofit instead of your novel?

1. You can save the world after you save your novel. Volunteer for YOURSELF FIRST. If you have trouble saying no to people, write up a gentle paragraph about why you can’t do whatever someone is asking you to do – and keep it on your computer –and copy/paste whenever you have to say no.

2. Give something up, and replace it with writing. Announce to the world – “I am not cooking dinner on Tuesday or Thursday.” Work out at the gym 3 x a week instead of 5.  Watch one less TV show, and write during that time instead.

3. Make use of miniature time pockets. Hire a babysitter for 2 hours and STAY HOME and write.  Go to a Laundromat and write for an hour while your stuff is drying.

Are you a perfectionist?  Do you procrastinate because the task seems too large, or you’re afraid you won’t measure up to your own standards?

4. Write a simpler novel. You heard me. Throw away that multi-generational beast with 100 characters and brainstorm something simpler. I’m not kidding.  I’m not wrong.

5. Make it impossible to go off-track. A) Write into the next scene, leave notes for what you are going to do next. Always.  B) Create writing prompts that have to do with your WIP or your characters and keep on your computer, so there’s always a task to complete.

6. Set up a reward structure.  Like potty training a child with M&Ms. Pay yourself for meeting your goals.  Think it doesn’t work? You must not be potty-trained.

7. Set goals that don’t focus on word counts. Word counts, page counts, and number values create weird, mathy pressure. Instead, use your words.  I will write until the timer goes off. I will write until the candle burns down.  I will write until the streetlights come on. 

Are you a type A overworker? Do you think you could get your novel finished if you only had a research assistant and a secretary?

See answers 2 and 4. 

If that doesn’t work –

8. Write at work. Yes, you heard me correctly.  How much of this you do is up to you, and what kind of job you have, but your company does not control your brain 100% of the time. If it did, how would you gossip?

If you have to sit in lots of boring meetings – daydream about your characters.  Learn a simple written code – so no one will know what you are jotting down on your yellow pad.

When it’s slow, or you’re on your lunch break, write a quick paragraph.  No one needs to know.  You know how to minimize your windows, right?  You know how to write in an email app, right?  Course you do.  Oh, don’t look at me like that.   The company doesn’t OWN YOUR DREAMS.

Are you sensitive, observant, and easily distracted?  

Yes, you could download Freedom to cut off your wifi, yes you could buy noise cancelling headphones, but YOU KNOW THAT.  Here are two suggestions that are FREE and just as helpful.

9.  Turn off all your notifications on your phone.  Let nothing ever beep or buzz to alert you to anything again.   And when you write -- Put your phone in another room.   And leave it there until you’ve worked for an hour and earned a reward of looking at it. (see #6.)

10.  Clean up your act.  Simplify your workspace and office.  Throw things away.  Make your whole world look as if you have tons of room for your writing, and maybe, just maybe you will.

It’s not easy to write a novel.  It takes time and focus and dedication.  But how you free up the time, and find your focus, differs for everybody based on who they are.  Do you see yourself in these suggestions?  And what has worked for you?  I’d love to hear!

About Kelly

Kelly Simmons’ novels have been hailed as electrifying, complex and poignant, and aren’t those nice words? Her third novel, ONE MORE DAY, keeps being called riveting, so don’t buy it unless you want to stay up all night reading it. She’s a member of Women's Fiction Writers Association, Tall Poppy Writers. and The Liars Club & Writers Coffeehouse, a group of published novelists dedicated to helping fledgling writers.

http://www.kellysimmonsbooks.com/
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