Writers in the Storm

Kimberly Belle

For the past few months, I’ve been making the promotional rounds for my second novel, The Ones We Trust. I’ve been talking to readers and touring on blogs, and one of the questions I keep getting is, how was writing this story different than writing the first one? My answer is always the same: Um, how much time have you got?

I wrote the very first words for The Ones We Trust six years ago, all the way back in 2009. It was my very first attempt at a novel, and like most first novels, it wasn’t pretty. The characters were cliché, the conflict was uninspired, the dialogue was stilted and the writing was cringe-worthy. If there was a story in there, it was buried under all the wrong words—words even a newbie like me could tell were complete crap. When I was done, I closed the file, shoved it in a box under my bed, and chalked the experience up as practice.

I took everything I’d learned from that first failed attempt and wrote The Last Breath—the story that ultimately landed me an agent and a book deal. But when it came time to move on to book number three, The Ones We Trust wouldn’t leave me alone. Fix me, it kept whispering to me from under the bed. I have a story to tell.

So I pulled it out, dusted it off, and went back to work. I rewrote it, then rewrote it again and again (and again). I fixed the tone and the voice, matured my characters, deepened backstory to intensify the conflict. I added a subplot and a whole cast of new characters. I killed my darlings more times than I care to count. I lost a lot of sleep and I shed a lot of tears.

How many words did I waste? A million, at least. It took me that many to drill down to the very essence of the book—the slain soldier’s story. Though we never actually meet him on the page, The Ones We Trust is built around what, exactly, happened to him on the battlefield. This plotline was the crux of every single rewrite, a red thread, leading the way. It’s where, as soon as I got out of my own way, I found my story.

 

We writers talk a lot about stories that demand to be told, about the ones that grab us by the guts and won’t let go. For me, The Ones We Trust was one of them. For six years, those characters lived in my head, dominating my days and filling my dreams with mini movie clips of their next scenes. My method of wrangling them to the ground (did I mention it took me six years?) is not one I’d advise or ever hope to repeat.

But like all great trials, it makes the successes—in my case, seeing my firstborn up there on the shelves—that much sweeter.

What do you think, WITS readers? Do you have a dust-bunny book with some gold dust on it?

 About Kimberly

Kimberly Belle grew up in Eastern Tennessee, in a small town nestled in the foothills of the Appalachians. A graduate of Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, Kimberly lived for over a decade in the Netherlands and has worked in marketing and fundraising for various nonprofits. She’s the author of two novels, THE LAST BREATH and THE ONES WE TRUST (August 2015). She divides her time between Atlanta and Amsterdam.

Keep up with Kimberly on Facebook (www.facebook.com/KimberlyBelleBooks), Twitter (@KimberlySBelle), Instagram (@KimberlySBelle) and Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/KimberlyBelle). For more about Kimberly and her books, please visit her website, www.kimberlybellebooks.

Susan Spann 

Welcome back to the #PubLaw negotiation mini-series here at Writers in the Storm!

The last post took a look at how to create a pre-negotiation plan.

To re-cap:

• Read the contract; make a list of points you’d like to change.
• Prioritize your list into deal breakers, important points, and “things to ask for.”
• Consider the publisher’s potential responses to your requests.
• Adjust your list, and strategy, to address potential publisher concerns.

Now, let’s look at tips for increasing your chances of success in the actual negotiation:

1. Like flies, publishers prefer honey to vinegar.

No matter how the negotiation opens, proceeds, or finishes, you must remain professional throughout the process. Negotiations may occur by phone or (more commonly) email. Regardless of method, take the time to phrase your comments in a polite and respectful manner.

Not all publishers (or their lawyers) treat authors (or agents, or anyone) with respect. In fact, I just wrapped up a negotiation with a publishing attorney whose responses ranged from “merely condescending” to offensive. Though tempted to respond in kind, I kept my cool—and ended up obtaining several concessions she would never have agreed to if I’d used the tone she used with me.

It isn’t easy to keep your temper and stay polite when the other side is hostile, condescending, or both. However, it’s the only way to get the best possible deal.

2. Pay attention to the publisher’s negotiating strategy—it’s an indicator of your future relationship.

A publisher or editor who condescends or ignores your concerns during negotiations probably won’t become more attentive and engaged when the contract is signed.

Look for red-flags in the publisher’s behavior. If you ask a reasonable question, does the editor answer reasonably or brush it aside as if your concerns don’t matter?

How does the editor respond to requests for compromise? A considerate refusal, which recognizes your request but explains why change isn’t possible, suggests a far more positive relationship than “we’ve always done it this way, and perhaps you should just self-publish if you don’t like it.” (And yes…I’ve seen that answer in a real negotiation.)

One caveat here: Sometimes a publisher’s attorney handles the negotiations on behalf of the acquiring editor, and the lawyer’s tactics may not reflect the editor’s normal behavior. In other words: don’t nuke a deal because the lawyer lacked appropriate social skills. Far too many of us fall short when it comes to social niceties.

3.  When negotiating by email, remember that writing has trouble conveying tone—on your side or the publisher’s. 

Text—especially simple, business-related text—can often convey a “shadow-tone” contrary to the writer’s intentions. When sending and receiving email, phrase your own words carefully and interpret the publisher’s responses generously with regard to tone. For example: “We’ve always done it this way” could be a polite explanation…or a hostile argument-ender; you can’t tell which it is from the words alone.

Proofread all negotiation emails before you hit “send,” not only for content and typographical errors but also for tone. When reading the publisher’s responses, give the benefit of the doubt with regard to tone whenever possible—and remember: don’t lose your temper, no matter what.

4. Negotiate your way through the contract paragraph by paragraph, rather than jumping around in the text.

Shortly before the negotiation, re-order your list of negotiating points to match the paragraph numbers in the contract. During negotiation, address each point as you come to it in the document. This ensures that every important point is discussed—if you work out of order, things often get missed or fall through the cracks.

Think on your feet—and outside the box.

If the publisher refuses your first suggestion for a contract amendment, quick thinking may help you to respond with a workable compromise.

Here’s an example: You ask to keep your translation rights. The editor refuses, saying the publishing house wants foreign language rights as part of the contract. “All right,” you say, “would you be willing to use language that grants them to you for the first two years after publication, but lets me revert any unused foreign language rights at the end of that period?” Many publishers will consider—and agree to—this language.

Effective pre-negotiation planning helps you prepare for this kind of situation, too—the more you prepare, the more creative options you’ll have to offer.

5. Plan for more than one round of negotiations. 

Sometimes, your requested changes may require permission (or consideration) by someone other than the acquiring editor. Don’t get upset if the editor asks to consider your request, or discuss it with the company lawyers. This doesn’t mean the answer will be no!

Negotiations can resolve all issues in a single shot, but far more often a publishing contract results from multiple rounds of negotiation over several weeks (or months). Patience is, indeed, a virtue.

So…who’s ready to negotiate?

About Susan

Susan Spann writes the Shinobi Mysteries, featuring ninja detective Hiro Hattori and his Portuguese Jesuit sidekick, Father Mateo. Her debut novel, CLAWS OF THE CAT (Minotaur Books, 2013), was a Library Journal Mystery Debut of the Month and a finalist for the Silver Falchion Award for Best First Novel. BLADE OF THE SAMURAI released in 2014, and her third novel, FLASK OF THE DRUNKEN MASTER, releases on July 14, 2015. Susan is also a transactional attorney whose practice focuses on publishing law and business.

When not writing or practicing law, she raises seahorses and rare corals in her marine aquarium. You can find her online at http://www.SusanSpann.com, on Twitter (@SusanSpann), and on Facebook (SusanSpannAuthor).

I don’t plot. I don’t outline. I don’t even do character sketches. I know, I know … I’ve tried, I really have. Every time I try, I freeze and lose the spark for the story.

Here’s the irony, I’m a planner—not just any planner--a neurotically compulsive planner. I’ve never met a project, a trip, a day that I didn’t plan to the last detail. Seriously. Weeks are mapped out in my dateplanner. Days are detailed on insert sheets within the weekly plan. I even have a task list on my iPhone. Each new project starts life as a shiny Gantt chart. My brain is always two steps ahead, calculating how to go from here to there, anticipating roadblocks and thinking through potential detours.

You’d think my compulsion to plan would lead to careful plotting of stories. But nooooo. Sigh.

A story idea will come at me—sometimes it’s a title, sometimes an event, sometimes an object—then bounce around, collecting more details like a dust bunny grabbing at every strand of hair in the living room until it’s fully formed and ready to move out on its own.

But unlike the carefully calculated project plan (I can tell you within a day or three how long each draft will take) the brainstorming and writing process need more freedom.

Say hello to my good friend, Mind Mapping.

Mind mapping is a thinking tool that goes with the flow of the thought process rather than forcing those thoughts into a linear order. It’s creative and visual and perfect for brains that have a tendency toward the squirrel story threads. I heard it once described as “the little Swiss-army knife for the brain.” That was all I needed!

There are plenty of mind mapping software options to choose from (some paid, some free, depending on the features you want) or you can freehand with different colored markers and a large sheet of paper (or white board). Whatever works best for you.

I’ve tried the marker and paper and software before. For one of my picture books, I used crayons and poster board—man that was fun! But for my women’s fiction, I prefer software that’s easy to drag and drop and move and tweak.

Here are a couple of pointers that have worked for this non-linear thinker.

Brain dump.

The idea behind a mind mapping session is not to detail the story plan but to empty your brain of details for the story. Order doesn’t matter. Whatever comes to mind, whenever it comes to mind, put it down. Link it to other ideas or details as the connections become clear.

For example, in my WIP, my main character receives a letter from someone in her past that awakens a secret she’s tried to forget for over 20 years. The first thing I put down was “secret.” From there, I let my mind loose. Obviously the secret affects her, so she gets a bubble. But there’s the person who sent her the letter, the person who wrote the letter (he’s dead, by the way), her job, the friends who were affected by the secret back in the day, her parents, a rescue dog, one of the kids she works with, her husband.

Next, I looked at each of the bubbles and added to those. What about the secret will affect her job? Why does she suddenly feel the need to look for an old high school friend she hasn’t spoken to since graduation? Why would she adopt a dog suddenly?

At this stage, the items you jot down don’t need to have clear lines to others but they do need to inspire parts of the story. As you start digging a bit deeper into each one, you’ll discover how each relates to the other pieces. And you’ll add additional twigs to each new branch of your map.

Don’t tie yourself to one way of doing your map. Maybe you start with individual words or couple of words. For example, maybe there’s an anecdote between two characters that jumped to mind or a description of an object or place. Put those down as they came to you, don’t try to force them into the one or three word bubbles to match the others. Everything is fair game!

The more the merrier.

When you create an outline for your story, you have one outline. Mind mapping doesn’t have to be just one map per story. You’re not trying to organize your thoughts, you’re releasing them. If one bubble sparks an a-ha moment, give it it’s own map. See where it takes you.

For my WIP, I currently have four maps—the main one I started with, one for my main character (this is where I’ve captured things I know about her, details that bring her to life for me), one for her job/career, and another for her senior year in high school (20-some years ago). Each time I open a new page and let my mind run free with the possibilities, I see new story paths and details.

Think of mind mapping as the hot air balloon vision for your story. It takes you out of the forest of details and puts you up high above the treetops, to see the whole of the wooded space and all the cute little story squirrels scampering around in there.

Interestingly enough, I’m a linear writer. I have to start at the beginning and work through to the end of the story. I never fully know the end until I get there. With mind mapping, I get the big picture idea for my story, I have random details and an understanding for how each fits with the others—I have the map to guide me through the forest. I may still veer off a path in pursuit of another squirrel, but I know that to get to the end of my trek, I’ll have to get back on the main path.

If you’re not a plotter, not a linear thinker, give mind mapping a shot. It’s an organic, visual thought process that appeals to right brainers. Most mind mapping software have the ability to turn the visual brainstorming into a linear outline. That’s a bonus if you need to turn in an outline (or expand it into a synopsis) to your agent or editor.

I’d love to hear from pantsers and plotters how you approach the brainstorming process. Are you a linear thinker or a visual thinker? What tools or processes help you capture your ideas?

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.

You can find her on Twitter at @OrlyKonigLopez or on her website, www.orlykoniglopez.com.