Writers in the Storm

Rachel Funk Heller

What's the whole deal about writing fast? Why is it such a trend? One, we know writers who write more and have more books to sell -- sell more books! You have fans that want to gobble up everything you write and you're under the gun to write faster. But, you don't want to just churn out crap.

I hear you. In "The Writer's Coloring Book®" (sorry, one bit of shameless self-promotion) I devote an entire chapter to this subject and offer techniques to help you churn out a first draft very quickly. And you must understand, these techniques ONLY apply to writing the first draft -- that ugly, uncertain, first glimmering thing -- that must come out of your brain and onto the page. Once you have it on paper, then you can dissect it, figure out what the story is really all about, and design your plan of attack for the next revision.

One of the benefits of writing this way allows you to see the movie in your head in real time. You watch your characters in action, you listen to what they say and you just scribble down as much information as you can. When your inner editor wants to butt in, just tell her "don't worry, don't worry, we'll fix this later."

I can already hear some of you freaking out right now. Writing at top speed is a scary thing. But, you have to set the bar high and push yourself to reach it. And look at it this way, you have created a set of characters and you are putting them through all sorts of hell (I'm sure you are, lots of conflicts, lots of opportunities for your character to grow). Why not put yourself in a similar situation? That's what I did when I decided to write 8,000 words a day. Yup, you heard me, 8,000. The goal was to do it for 10 days straight, thus producing 80,000 words. But I totally hit the wall on day 6. I'd churned out 55,000 words, none that I would ever show to another soul, but that draft served as the seed for my novel. A couple drafts later I had my 95,000 word final draft.

So, here are my 8 tips for writing fast:

TIP 1:  Be prepared. Before you begin each writing session, have all of your materials handy, your scene plan, an outline, some notes on what will happen in your scene. This is essential, even if all you have is a list and character names. You want to have some kind of prompt so you won’t be writing “blind.”

TIP 2: Think about the needs and conventions of your final project to determine your total word count goal. If you are writing a novel and your best guess is that your final total word count will be between 75,000 and 100,000 words, set your word count goal for 60,000. This will give you one big chunk of story, with enough room to add or subtract characters, other story arcs, or any number of other elements to play with in your later drafts.

TIP 3: Determine your word count goal for your writing sessions. I am assuming that you will be working on a computer. Find a website that lets you take a free typing test to determine how many words a minute you can type. For example, I can crank out 65 words a minute. Now multiply that by 60. So 65 x 60= 3,900. That means at full speed I can crank out 3,900 words in one hour. To be conservative, I set my goal to 3,500 words in one hour. I know, I can feel you all freaking out, because that just sounds impossible.

TIP 4: But I have a trick up my sleeve: Use a kitchen timer or your smart phone timer and set it for 15 minutes. That’s right, work for only 15 minutes at a time. First, this tricks the part of your brain that’s freaking out. If all you have to do is 15 minutes, then the pressure is off and it feels less intimidating. However, once you get started, if you are on a roll, let the timer go and just keep working.

TIP 5:  End in the middle of a scene. As you are finishing your daily session and the timer is about to go off, or as you see your words pile up, resist the urge to finish the current scene you are writing. This gives you a great starting point for your next session. You already know what’s about to unfold. You jump in and you’re on a roll when headed into the next scene.

TIP 6: Resist the urge to edit: When you finish your session for the day, you may have “seen” what’s about to happen in the story. Jot down some notes, but don’t stop to re-jigger your story. Do not start editing. You want to get the full story out of your subconscious first. I know it will be hard to resist, but if you start editing now, you won’t know what’s about to happen down the road and you will get frustrated. Trust me, I’ve made this mistake.

TIP 7: Trust yourself, trust your instincts. The one thing that blows me away every time I’m asked to help a writer with her story is this: everything you need to tell a great story is already there in your personal unconscious. Think of it as a big computer file, in each writing session you are downloading more information. Wait until you get the full file before messing with it.

TIP 8: Congratulations, you did it! Once you've chunked this draft out of you, celebrate. Seriously, this ain't easy; it's heart wrenching, gut twistingly hard work. Now you need some down time. Don't look at these words for a long time. At least a week, a month would be better. You are a different person now than the one who started writing this draft; you need to savor your sense of accomplishment. You also need some rest and you need to recharge your batteries. When have fully recovered and with fresh eyes, dive back in and plan your next revision.

There you go, use these tips wisely and crank out that draft. Your readers are waiting to read your stories.

So what do you think WITS readers? Ready to try it? Still freaking out?

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About Rachel

Rachel Funk Heller began her career as a journalist and worked as an independent television writer/producer for over two decades. She's worked for a variety of industry clients as well as the Hawaii State Department of Education. She is a former CNN producer who worked in both the Atlanta headquarters and the Washington D.C. bureau. An accomplished video editor and graphics designer, she was commissioned to produce and illustrate a YA story-telling television series titled, “Christabelle in the Museum of Time.” She recently completed her workbook for writers, "The Writer's Coloring Book®" launches on March 30 at writerscoloringbook.com

 

Find Rachel on Twitter: @RchelFunkHeller or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/rachel.f.heller

 

 

Kimberly Brock

I know you of the Blue World.

You are a storyteller. You are made of memory. Your mind is an endless accordion of timeless impressions.

You are exhausted by the everyday. You press your face to mirrors and search for other worlds in your own eyes. You listen for the ancient voices in the bending boughs of trees.

You experience the seasons of the Earth within your body, struggling toward light, creeping toward slumber, agonizing over the lack of empathy and care for soil and blossom. You speak to animals. You wonder where they sleep.

You gaze at horizons and ache for wisdom, connection, purpose. You remember a faraway land you will never reach, and know it is the Canaan which lies within you.

You treasure deep silence and find comfort in the whisper of time slipping round the tender curl of your ear, a sweet warm breath. You tuck away with kaleidoscope dreams, puzzles to sort into patterns and possibility. You love the secret taste of all your favorite words, especially the restorative piquancy of love.

You are restive. You mourn the ages, the beauty you are blind to, the suffering you are bound to, the wonder of dying stars and the wars that rage within all bleeding hearts. You crave expression.

You are small beneath a heavy sky. You are lost upon a vast sea. You are not here in the present or present in the future. You feel yourself an alien.

Don’t be fooled. You are not languishing. You are not trapped. You are longing.

I often feel – don’t you? - my chest will fling itself open and a thousand birds will burst forth, madness released, to finally extinguish the longing to arrive at some finish, to come to some certainty, for the relief of completion. If only I could finish this draft, solve this plot, know this theme. I want to feel the work is solid. I want it to be worthy. I want it to be myself and also outside myself. I want it to be done. I want it to be human.

In the end, every word remains with me, for it is my story, after all. Incomplete in ways I can’t assuage or explain. The end is never the end. I write it again. I am writing it on my bones.

And yet, there is joy! A single sentence, a perfect turn of phrase can move me to such faith or challenge all of my convictions. It’s a rush. I want to shout these stories from the gables and glens, a resounding echo to encourage fellow wanderers, murmuring ancient tales to themselves, squinting at faded print, their only guide through the cerulean miasma of existence.

So, here is the most beautiful secret - we know this blue place. We are of it.

This is where we were always from and where we are always going. Just as light at the blue end of the spectrum does not travel the whole distance from the sun to Earth, but disperses, scatters, reflects, here is the truth about all of us. We are perpetual.

To look at the Blue World is to see our state of being and to know why.

Author Rebecca Solnit says in her beautiful book, A Field Guide to Getting Lost, “Some things we have only as long as they remain lost, some things are not lost only so long as they are distant.”

We write our stories, struggling with all our will against the blue. But what if we cherished the irreconcilable, instead? What if we could take our place as witness to the mystery rather than fearing it? Embrace the distance, rather than clambering to close it up? What might we tell from the blue? What courage might our words inspire?

Here is what I say - We are meant to create. We are meant to write from the blue. We are designed to observe, to wonder, to fear, to yearn, to connect, to build, to celebrate, to cry, to strive and to rest. But most importantly, we are meant to long. To long is our gift. Only in our longing are we perfect. Our longing is our home. Our longing is our story.

We are not meant to arrive. We are not meant to resolve.

We are horizons, dreams, and time.

And we are meant to reach, ever reach.

What do you think, WITS readers, writers,

does the above sound like you?

 

About Kimberly

Kimberly Brock is the award winning author of the #1 Amazon bestseller, THE RIVER WITCH (Bell Bridge Books, 2012). A former actor and special needs educator, Kimberly is the recipient of the Georgia Author of the Year 2013 Award. A literary work reminiscent of celebrated southern author Carson McCullers, THE RIVER WITCH has been chosen by two national book clubs. Kimberly’s writing has appeared in anthologies, blogs and magazines, including Writer Unboxed and Psychology Today. Kimberly served as the Blog Network Coordinator for She Reads, a national online book club from 2012 to 2014, actively spearheading several women’s literacy efforts. She lectures and leads workshops on the inherent power in telling our stories and is founder of Tinderbox Writer’s Workshop. She is also owner of Kimberly Brock Pilates. She lives in the foothills of north Atlanta with her husband and three children, where she is at work on her next novel. Visit her website at kimberlybrockbooks.com for more information and to find her blog.

 

 

Chuck Sambuchino

This column excerpted from Chuck's book, GET A LITERARY AGENT (2015, Writer's Digest Books)

 

Concerning the definitions of high fantasy vs. urban fantasy:

“In high fantasy, an entire world is created; it doesn’t take place in what we recognize as the world as we currently know it. It usually has magic or magical creatures of some sort, though there are some exceptions. Urban fantasy also takes place in what is recognizably our world and has vampires, werewolves, zombies, ghosts, etc. The stories involve characters that are human, or were once human, but have evolved into something else.”

—Tamar Rydzinski (Laura Dail Literary Agency)

 

On the confusion between urban fantasy and paranormal romance:

“Urban fantasy versus paranormal romance is always a fine line. I think urban fantasy lingers a tad longer on the wider plot, and paranormal romance lingers a tad longer on the chemistry between the two main characters.”

—Robin Rue (Writers House)

“There is a lot of overlap in these two genres, but at its core, paranormal romance cannot exist without a romance. Urban fantasy can.”

—Sarah LaPolla (Bradford Literary Agency)

 

On mystery vs. thriller:

“The way I see it, a pure mystery is where the crime has already happened and the protagonist must solve it. In a thriller, the protagonist is often waiting for the crime to occur or working to prevent it. Mysteries can be more introspective, with a focus on the protagonist’s mental powers of deduction, where thrillers are known for more action and physicality. In mysteries, a key element of the plot is hidden from the reader, such as (most traditionally) who the villain is. In a thriller, you often know who the villain is fairly early on, and the plot is centered around a game of cat and mouse.”

—Cameron McClure (Donald Maass Literary Agency)

 

On an agent’s willingness to work with a book that straddles two, three, or even four genres: 

“If you are unable to tell me what it is you’re writing (and do not say you ‘really can’t’ because ‘it has never been done before,’ because every time an author says that, a kitten explodes), then how am I going to frame it and sell it? There are of course subgenres within genres, but an author straddling too many genres is akin to Shark-Octopus-Bear lurching out of the ocean, growling and biting and thrashing its eight arms hither and thither. And no one wants to approach that—not an agent, not a publisher, and not Greenpeace.”

—Barbara Poelle (Irene Goodman Literary Agency)

 (Hi, everyone. Chuck here chiming in for a second. I wanted to say I am now taking clients as a freelance editor. So if your query or manuscript needs some love, please check out my editing services. Thanks!)

On what constitutes crime fiction:

“I would say that crime fiction is less about the whodunit than about the protagonist’s dilemma in a criminal milieu. The protagonist may not have all the information—so there is a mystery in that he is trying to find something out—but the story is really about how he solves his problems, which are often as much about his lifestyle as about the particular crime that spurs the plot. For instance, in Ray Banks’s brilliant Saturday’s Child, Cal Innes is forced by a local mob boss to find a former employee and the money he stole, but in many ways the story is about Cal trying to find a place for himself and form an adult life within a socioeconomic stratum that offers very few options.”

—Stacia Decker (Donald Maass Literary Agency)

 

On the categories of children’s fiction:

“In a nutshell: Early Readers = Frog and Toad, and Elephant and Piggie. Chapter books = Judy Moody, and Ivy and Bean. Think of the stages of development in this order: picture books lead to early readers, which lead to chapter books, which lead to middle grade, which lead to young adult.”

—Jen Rofe (Andrea Brown Literary Agency)

“Early readers are for young kids just beginning to learn to read and are more heavily illustrated. Their language is restricted to basic words and concepts that help kids ages 4-6 learn to read. An example would be The Berenstain Bears. Chapter books are for intermediate readers ages 7-10. Chapter books are for kids that are not quite ready for Harry Potter, but The Very Hungry Caterpillar isn’t going to hold their attention either. Chapter books have illustrations but are primarily about the prose, and they have a bit more narrative complexity. Early readers can be indistinguishable from picture books and often have color illustrations on every page, whereas chapter books usually (though there are plenty of exceptions) have only black and white line illustrations sporadically interspersed. Early readers aren’t usually more than 1,000 words, whereas chapter books are usually over 10,000 words. Both types of books are targeted at the school and library markets, so there are a lot of considerations when it comes to the vocabulary you should use. I would recommend doing a lot of research before attempting to write either sort of book.”

—Evan Gregory (Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency)

“A middle grade book is generally intended for eight- to twelve-year-olds, and the protagonist should be in that age range as well. YA is geared toward ages 13 and up, although sometimes a YA book is classified as younger or older YA. Obviously subject matter must be appropriate for the intended age group, but equally as important is the voice. Too often the voice strikes me as too old or too young for the character’s age. If the protagonist is an eleven-year-old boy, then the reader must feel like an eleven-year-old boy is speaking to them. An authentic voice makes the reader want to accompany that boy on his journey, whatever it may be.”

—Ann Behar (Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary Agency)

 

On classifying erotica, romance, erotic romance, and women’s fiction:

“The book crosses the line into erotica when the sexual journey is more important than the romantic journey. And that’s not a bad thing, just a different market.”

—Michelle Johnson (Inklings Literary Agency)

“To me, erotic romance is primarily between a couple (or sometimes a threesome) that will have a happily ever after. At its heart, it’s the story of people finding their soul mates and exploring the connection via sex. Straight-up erotica doesn’t have to end in a committed coupling. The focus (to me, and I’m sure others’ [tastes] will vary) is more on the voyage of self-discovery … a character or characters learning what it is that makes him or her happy and comfortable and finding the courage to accept whatever might be revealed.”

—Lucienne Diver (The Knight Agency)

“A contemporary romance’s plot revolves around the love/romantic element, whereas women’s fiction tends to revolve around women’s issues and the growth and empowerment of the female protagonist. Women’s fiction can have romance, but it’s not the driving force of the plot.”

—Kathleen Ortiz (New Leaf Literary and Media)

“Women’s fiction novels are not simply stories with female characters, but stories that tell us the female journey. Women’s fiction is a way for women to learn and grow, and to relate to others what it is to be a woman.”

—Scott Eagan (Greyhaus Literary Agency)

 

On writing an LGBTQ novel/memoir:

“It drives me crazy that I get so many queer memoirs and coming-of-age novels where the author assumes that it’s enough to just be gay, and nothing much else is going on in their stories other than this identity crisis. I don’t mean to trivialize that experience, but at the same time, many coming out stories don’t make for a riveting read or can sustain the scope of a novel on their own. This only works if you’re writing at the level of someone like David Sedaris or Alison Smith.”

—Cameron McClure (Donald Maass Literary Agency)

“If the protagonist’s sexuality isn’t an issue in the story line—if the protagonist just happens to be gay—I don’t think that book would be pigeonholed [as LGBTQ fiction]. But if the book is about the protagonist’s gay lifestyle, then it would be categorized as such.”

—Jennifer De Chiara (Jennifer De Chiara Literary)

 So, what do you think? Any surprises here? Did you learn anything you didn't know?

About Chuck

Chuck Sambuchino of Writer’s Digest Books edits the GUIDE TO LITERARY AGENTS and the CHILDREN’S WRITER’S & ILLUSTRATOR’S MARKET. His Guide to Literary Agents Blog is one of the largest blogs in publishing.

His 2010 humor book, HOW TO SURVIVE A GARDEN GNOME ATTACK, was optioned by Sony Pictures.  Chuck has also written the writing guides FORMATTING & SUBMITTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT and CREATE YOUR WRITER PLATFORM.

Besides that, he is a freelance book & query editor, husband, sleep-deprived new father, and owner of a flabby-yet-lovable dog named Graham.

Find Chuck on Twitter and on Facebook.