Writers in the Storm

Piper Bayard

Conference season is gearing up for the year – a time of excitement, anticipation, and, for many writers, social angst. But with a few tips and a little preparation, it can also be a time of fun and founding lifelong friendships.

Most of us are introverts. Just thinking about mingling in a room full of strangers, sharing meals, and making conversation makes us break out in hives and run back to our boxes to play with our imaginary friends. As a result, some writers would rather suck broken glass up their noses than attend writers conferences. But we muddle through and make new friends, surprise ourselves with a good time, and leave paradoxically energized and drained all at once. In time, it gets easier.

 

 

These are a few tips I’ve picked up over the years:

1. Feel free to walk up to groups of people and join in.

We’re all there to meet people, and most of us are shy turtles peeking out of our shells.

2. This goes for famous authors, too.

It’s okay to walk up to published authors and say hello, no matter how famous they are. If they aren’t hiding in their rooms, it generally means they are open to conversation, and they are just as worried about not having anyone to talk to as you might be.

In fact, the more famous the author, the happier they are likely to be when we speak to them. One NYT bestseller I know went to a special event where she was the keynote speaker, and people were so intimidated that no one sat at her table. Let’s just say it was awkward for her. No one ever gets so famous that they want to be alone at a table.

3. Be real.

We’re all writers. That means we’re all used to making up characters. That also means that we all can spot a made up character coming out of a person’s mouth.

Every life story is compelling when we live with honest passion. When we are passionate and honest about our own lives, no matter what we do, no matter what our experiences, others will find us interesting and engaging. We are always on solid ground when we keep it real.

4. Ask people questions about themselves.

People love to talk about themselves, and when we show an interest in them, we convince them that we are positively brilliant.

Some good starter questions at conferences . . .

• Is this your first conference?
• Did you travel far for the conference?
• What genre do you write?
• Do you plan to pitch to an agent?

5. Attend all of the dinners and parties.

Stalk a chair at a lunch of dinner table where your favorite author will be sitting. I do this by walking into the dining room early, finding their name placard, and placing a notebook at the table to reserve my seat. I used to expect scowls, but as long as I’m polite to the wait staff and stay out of their way, no one seems to mind. I've made some wonderful author friends this way.

Every conference has a courtesy suite or a cocktail party. Find it. Use it. This is where you will meet lifelong friends and make lasting connections.

6. Don’t talk about your book unless someone asks.

We all have projects that we want to talk about. However, it’s generally considered bad form to interject unsolicited monologues about our WIPs into conversations with people we just met. Don’t worry. Sooner or later, someone will ask about your work, and that will be your green light to dive in.

7. When you do talk about your Work In Progress, speak succinctly.

Most of us have done it, and all of us have heard it . . . “Well, it’s a story about a girl who is a fairy. But she doesn’t know she is a fairy. And she has some daddy issues, and there’s this guy she likes. Oh, wait. I need to back up . . .” Eyes glaze over, and people escape as soon as they can.

An easy way to prevent this disorganized conversation killer is to start by imparting your log line and then offering more if asked.

Formula for a Log Line:

Protagonist + Verb + Antagonist + Antagonist’s Goal

Example 1: A huntress must befriend her worst enemy to topple a despotic dictator before he exterminates her people.

Huntress + must befriend, topple + dictator + exterminates her people

Example 2: An ex-intelligence operative must destroy a billionaire cartel intent on flooding worldwide terrorist markets with stolen U.S. ground weapons technology.

Ex-intelligence operative + must destroy + billionaire cartel + flooding terrorist markets with weapons

No names or plot specifics are necessary.

For an excellent primer, see Marcy Kennedy's article, How to Use Your Logline, Tagline, and Pitch to Create a Stronger Story. When you are comfortable with your logline, tagline, and pitch, speaking engagingly about your work will be second nature.

8. Agents and editors are people, too.

Feel free to walk up and talk to them, especially at the cocktail party, in the bar, or in the courtesy suite. They are at the conference to meet authors, and they want to talk to you.

1. Unless it is your pitch session, talk about anything with them except your work. If you connect with agents and editors on some other topic, they will most likely ask you about your WIP.
2. Don’t only talk to agents and editors to get them to ask about your WIP. No one likes to be used.
3. Don’t hit on the agents and editors. That’s major bad juju for a writing career.
4. Don’t fall for the “casting couch.” It is rare at conferences, but I have seen an agent working the conference circuit who used his profession to lure writers into questionable after-hours activities. This is also major bad juju for a writing career.
5. If the agent or editor of your dreams appears to be exhausted, and especially if they are in an elevator or a bathroom, leave them alone. They definitely won’t want to work with you if you are annoying.
6. Understand that writing is an art, and publishing is a business. If you get a “no,” it’s not personal. It’s business.

Have fun mingling! I look forward to meeting all of you. I actually really do. And then, because I’m an introvert, I look forward to going home again and sharing the experience with my imaginary friends.

So, WITS readers, do you have any other tips for us?

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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.

I’ve been in a bad place lately. And admitting that in public is a big deal for me. See, I’m the equivalent of a golden retriever named Pollyanna.  My glass is way full. Except lately.

417 rejections before I finally sold earned me a pretty tough skin. So how could I find myself here - lower than octopus poop in the Mariana Trench, glowering at those swimming above?

I’m writing a book. A book that was handed to me by the unseen current over our heads that Stephen King talks about. I’ve always written blue collar. This one involves a Molecular Biologist and the head of the Governor’s Task Force on Women. My books are not high-concept. This one is HUGE concept. My books are emotional, but this one will knock you on your butt. I haven’t believed in a book like this since The Sweet Spot, my RITA winner.

I put together the proposal, tidied its bow, patted it on the ass, and sent it to my agent, knowing it would find a seat in the front row of my dream publisher.

Then I got rejected.

Now, it was one of those oxymoronic rave rejections, but still . . .  And my agent is shopping it elsewhere (hello, Jodi Picoult’s publisher), but I had my heart set on that original one. Which brings me to my first point:

 

Expectations are joy killers. 

Why do you think little kids are so happy? Because they don't know or give a flying diarrhea diaper about expectations. They wake up every morning, happy to see what's going to happen today.

I'd decided how this was going to happen. Big mistake. Reminds me of the old Jewish saying - 'Man plans, God laughs.'

I have enough experience in this life (and industry) to know that when this book is successful, it won't matter how I got there. This is short-term thinking that I need to get over.

Now.

 

 

Wallowing doesn't help

Everyone loves commiseration, and I'm no exception. What good are friends if you can't whine to them, right? :/ A bit of that is necessary, I think, to help soothe your singed nerves. But keep at it too long, and you feel worse.

What's lower than the Mariana Trench? I don't know, and I'm not going there. Give yourself one 'Oh shit' conversation with a friend - maybe two, but no more. It puts your feet in cement and makes it harder to kick off from the bottom.

Trust me on this.

 

 

 

 

It takes a lot to take me to ‘The Green Side’. I don’t believe in jealousy.

Because there IS enough to go around.

It’s like loving your kids…did you run out after the first one? I didn’t think so. It’s the same with success. Your success has no bearing on my ability to achieve it – therefore I’m free to be happy for you, and help you celebrate.

I really believe that.

 

 

 

But there's another hard-won lesson I've learned over the years that will help me more than all the above.

When I'm focusing on what I don't have, or what others have, or what I should have,

I'm giving away my power. 

Because I have a choice in my focus, my power isn't being taken from me, I'm giving it away.

Have you ever noticed that if you don't sit down to write, you're not happy? You're guilty and snippy, and end up cleaning toilets to do penance.

But sitting down and hammering out your daily word count leaves you fulfilled and happy?

The only way I can influence my future is to write the best f'n book I'm capable of. That is where my power lies. If I'm focusing on anything else, I'm not only wasting my time, I'm draining my energy. It's kryptonite to the creative process.

So I'm going to write now. And I wish you all the focus. All the power. Go forth and

So what say you, WITS readers? What helps you when you're down?

photo credit: Misery Loves Company via photopin (license)
photo credit: February 22, 2015 via photopin (license)

Photo credit:http://blackheartmagazine.com/2014/02/28/lets-talk-book-promo-by-susan-tepper/

A bit about Laura's latest release - Days Made of Glass:

Harlie Cooper raised her sister, Angel, even before their mother died. When their guardian is killed in a fire, rather than be separated by Social Services, they run. Life in off the grid in L.A. isn’t easy, but worse, there’s something wrong with Angel.

Harlie walks in to find their apartment scattered with shattered and glass and Angel, a bloody rag doll in a corner. The doctor orders institutionalization in a state facility. Harlie’s not leaving her sister in that human warehouse. But something better takes money. Lots of it.

When a rep from the Pro Bull Riding Circuit suggests she train as a bullfighter, rescuing downed cowboys from their rampaging charges, she can’t let the fact that she’d be the first woman to attempt this stop her. Angel is depending on her.

It’s not just the danger and taking on a man’s career that challenges Harlie. She must learn to trust—her partner and herself, and learn to let go of what’s not hers to save.

A story of family and friendship, trust and truth.

 

 

 

 

 

I’m always amused when friends or family read my work and try to piece together who a certain character is modeled after. My standard answer is, “no one and everyone.”

Whether it’s characters or locations, situations or details, there’s always a hint of my life in every book I write.

Characters.
I'm going to put it out there front and center -- none of my characters are carbon copies of real people. Hey, I don’t want to get sued or lose friends and family.

But I enjoy giving a nod to people I care about in some form. For example, in one book, there’s a feisty older lady who volunteers her time at a coffee kiosk in the retirement home where she lives. I named her after a good friend who is absolutely not of retirement age but shares my love for coffee and has a wicked personality like the character in the book.

In The Memory of Hoofbeats, coming out in 2017 from Forge, I have a young male rider named for my son. Because he asked, he loves horses, and I how could I possibly say no? There’s another young rider named after a friend’s daughter because the young lady rides and her mom has been an amazing supporter and friend throughout my downs and ups in the writing process.

Locations.
It's always fun to read a book where I know the location the story takes place. But interestingly enough, when I write, the pictures in my brain are mish-mashes of multiple places.

The Memory of Hoofbeats takes place in a fictional town in Maryland and the stable is a combination of a couple of barns where I’ve had the pleasure of riding. Each “visit” to the stable when I sat to write was a trip to a happy place. I didn’t have many opportunities to visit the stable during the period I wrote this book, but my fingers and imagination could beam me up at any moment.

Another book takes place in a Delaware beach town that was inspired by Rehoboth. It’s not exact, but there are restaurants and the boardwalk and a couple of houses that I fell in love with and had to work into the story.  One house in particular caught my attention. It’s ocean front and has a deck on the second level, beautiful French doors, and inviting wood furniture. Every morning on our vacation, I’d get a cup of coffee at a nearby coffee shop then walk the beach and stop not far from this house. The main character in my book imagines what it would be like to be the person living in that house.

Situations.
This is a wee bit more complicated. Last year I wrote a post about using my fiction to explore how I feel about things, people, me. I’ve never gone through what my characters go through, at least to the extent they go through it, but some of those situations stem from real life experiences.

In The Memory of Hoofbeats, the main character Emma has to face her childhood best friend who betrayed her and turned her back on her. Thankfully, I’ve never had a friend be this awful but I’ve had to sort through hurt feelings when a friend I thought was close turned away from our friendship for reasons I didn’t understand. Through Emma, I could say the things I wish I could have told that so called friend.

One of my favorite characters is an old carousel builder who has Alzheimer’s. My grandmother suffered from Alzheimer’s and Hank became my emotional outlet and connection to someone I lost. Writing his thoughts, I heard her voice.

Details.
These are the little things that make your characters and settings come to life. In my work in progress, for example, the main character uses the Star Wars theme song as her ring tone for her best friend. Yup, you guessed it, I have that same ring tone.

In every book at least one character ends up with curly hair. That’s usually where the physical likeness stops though since most of my characters are fit and athletic, two things I’m still wondering if I can regain. :-)

In one book, the main character shares my love for Chris Botti. In my WIP, the grandmother listens to the same opera over and over. My mom loves opera although she doesn’t listen to the same as obsessively. It was with her that I saw La Boheme (the opera Grams in the book has on autoplay) for the first time.

In The Memory of Hoofbeats, my main character has a thing for hazelnut lattes and discovers the zen in crocheting. Anyone need a scarf or hat (I've been searching for that zen a lot lately)?

Now you … do you write in personal tidbits into your books? Give a nod to a friend or relative? Kill off a friend or relative (no names please! :-) )?

About Orly

After years of pushing the creativity boundary in corporate communications, Orly decided it was time for a new challenge. Three women’s fiction manuscripts later (plus a handful of picture books), it’s safe to say she’s found her creative outlet. When she’s not talking to her imaginary friends, she’s reading or at least trying to ignore everyone around her long enough to finish “just one more paragraph.” Orly is the founding president of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association. 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.