Writers in the Storm

Laura here - Speaking of going the distance, I just wanted to let you know that  I'm teaching a course, Submissions that Sell,  the in February at Margie Lawson's Writers Academy. Need a query? Need to organize submissions? Covers everything except Synopsis. You can check it out Here.

Now, on to the incredible Kathryn Craft!

A 'Turning Whine into Gold' post from Kathryn Craft

When you set out to write a novel, no one wants to believe it might take a decade or more to hone your skills. You’ll learn faster, you say. Go for it! Reckless innocence is the steppingstone that allows us to launch any grand endeavor. To begin we need only the excitement to try, and the vague sense that “I can do this.”

Yet clinging to innocence will not serve you for long. Along the way, you’ll hear daunting odds about reaching the top. “Agents reject 98 percent of the projects they see, you know, and even when they take on a client, they can’t always sell their work.” “You got a book deal? Ha! Don’t get too excited. Deals get canceled all the time.”

Even if you can hold onto our optimism, cinders on the steep learning curve will scrape you as you fall. Not everyone will like your “voice.” My novel’s protagonist, Penelope Sparrow, must deal with an even more personal attack: despite her obvious talent, not every dance company director has use for a dancer of her height and shape. What do you do with that?

One scene of my novel features a conversation between Penny and the baker on whose car and doughnuts she landed. When Penny says that her body has always been the wrong type for dance, he asks who the standard of success might be in music. She supposes it was Pavarotti. The baker adds, “Yet Rod Stewart has done well for himself.” I love this reminder, from someone not embroiled in the competitive perfectionism within the dance world, that there is room for all types of self-expression. The notion comforts me as a writer. Not everyone needs to love my books—I just need to find a way to get them to the people who will.

When the innocence that sent you skipping merrily down the path to publication gets crushed—and it will get crushed—you’ll reach a make-or-break point: will you keep striving, or hang it up?

If you think that to go the distance you must simply locate that missing perseverance gene, think again. Soldiering on will not be enough. Those bound to succeed will replace the void left by innocence with something more powerful: yearning.

The source of yearning is a mystery, and as individual as a thumbprint. But it is profoundly human, and easily recognized by the soul. Yearning is I want this so bad I can taste it. It’s I’ve come too far, I can’t give up. It’s hunger. It’s success, calling your name.

If you are in your time of yearning, I feel for you—I know how agonizing it can be. Fear feeds at its edges in a way that only more yearning can keep at bay. It’s wonderfully, beautifully hellish.

Yet it is the artist’s way. Embrace it. That tug on your heart and constant challenge to your resolve will make your mountaintop experience all the sweeter. Thank the Great Creator for it, because the arts could not exist otherwise; without its pull the work is just too hard. We create because we yearn for something that does not yet exist.

And this is what will happen, in that moment you’ve been awaiting, that moment conjured by the desire of your heart and the sweat of your brow and the thickening of your skin: release. Release of your novel, yes, but also the release of the yearning, replaced for this moment by that golden charge that comes from adrenaline, relief, long-term effort, and giddy, overwhelming elation.

You are where you’ve longed to be.

You’ll want to suspend the moment so you can fully appreciate the way everything has come together, just so, in its own time, as if this is the way it was always supposed to unfold. And you will revel in the fact that you have honored your truest nature and climbed to the top of your personal mountain.

On this peak where Penelope Sparrow and I now stand as one, at this pinpoint in time, there is no room for fear. Life will get real again tomorrow, when, alone once again, I’ll yearn for a new goal—but right now there is only the foundation of effort beneath us, a universe of possibility above us, and our hearts pounding as one.

Yearning brought us here. Yearning made Penelope Sparrow rise from her hospital bed after a fourteen-story fall immobilized her, and yearning made me write her story. What do you yearn to do? Penelope and I urge you to begin it, and reap its rewards.

The Art of Falling is now in stores! Join Kathryn and her guests for a Virtual Facebook Launch featuring these women’s fiction authors and their new projects: special guest Lisa Verge Higgins, Random Acts of Kindness (ARC); Sharon Short, My One Square Inch of Alaska; Barbara Claypole White, The In Between Hour; Ellen Marie Wiseman, The Things She Left Behind; Therese Walsh, Moon Sisters (ARC); Dale Kushner, The Conditions of Love; Kristin Bair O'Keefe, The Art of Floating (ARC); and Natalia Sylvester, Chasing the Sun (ARC). Giveaways of these books and The Art of Falling all day long—please join us at the event page!

Kathryn Craft is a developmental editor at Writing-Partner.com. Her debut novel, The Art of Falling, will be released through Sourcebooks 0n January 28. Her second novel, While the Leaves Stood Still, is due from Sourcebooks in Spring 2015. Long a leader in the southeastern Pennsylvania literary scene, she loves anything that brings writers together—conferences, workshops, retreats, and blogs like Writers in the Storm. She also blogs at The Blood-Red Pencil and at her personal blogs, The Fine Art of Visiting and Healing Through Writing. Connect with Kathryn on Facebook and Twitter.

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mjfrig/9560558346/">Mike F.</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin<

by Cate Russell-Cole

As writers, we are creatures of habit. We have our favorite words, preferred plot structure, must-refer-back-to writing books and generally, we have “our genre!”

I love to see writers wearing their genre with pride and not writing in line with the latest fad, but I have this itch to challenge them to try something new. I want to ask, why does that area mean so much to you? Look at what you can gain by trying something completely different. You just don’t know what unexpected treasures you may discover!”

There are all kinds of benefits to writing in more than one genre. For a start, you don’t pigeonhole yourself, become stale or get as bored. The other great gain, is you do learn that you can achieve more than you thought.

I came across an infographic on Pinterest which is an excellent illustration of what additional writing skills you can acquire by breaking out of your box.

Paraphrased and shortened it read like this:

• The historical genre teaches you about atmosphere, weaving in details and avoiding anachronisms.
• Science fiction gives you a hand getting to grips with back story, particularly in regards to pacing how you present it.
• If your protagonists are lacking in color, read or write horror to gain an insight into evil, motivation and work on the suspension of disbelief.
• Thrillers are another outstanding example of learning pacing! When it comes to plot formation in regards to escalation, tension and cliffhangers, it is a great place to start exploring.
• To understand character emotion, go for romance.

I would add, if you want to understand characterization, plot and behavior traits in-depth, look at the real-world examples around you via memoir / life story writing.

It takes a surge of courage and commitment to step outside your comfort zone and get your boots muddy on new soil, but as I said above, the rewards are there. You may discover an approach that makes you feel more confident as a writer, sells better or is more satisfying for you to craft.

In experimenting with another story form, you can set yourself free of the confines you may have imposed around yourself for security. Are you trying to be like your favorite authors, rather than being yourself? Experiment and see.

If you find taking on say, science fiction or horror when you are a romance writer way too much, start with memoir first. You can’t go wrong. You are the expert on you. Use your life and the people you have interacted with to craft a new form of story and inspire you when you’re blocked.

Although each genre below is different, the goal is most often the same: Evoke a strong emotion in your reader.

For an example, here are the opening lines of several stories:

"We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold."
~ Literary: Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson

"I was standing at the entrance to the London Inn, looking towards the inner harbor. It was growing dark, a warm velvety darkness tumbling from a cloudless sky..."
~ Thriller: Lallaloosa, Rags Daniels

"1801 – I have just returned from a visit to my landlord – the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with.”
~ Romance: Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë

"At night I would lie in bed and watch the show, how bees squeezed through the cracks of my bedroom wall and flew circles around the room, making that propeller sound, a high-pitched zzzzzz that hummed along my skin."
~ Womens Fiction: The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd

"Someone was looking at me, a disturbing sensation if you’re dead."
~ Y/A Horror: A Certain Slant of Light, Laura Whitcomb

Below are the first lines of some popular memoirs:

"As a boy, I never knew where my mother was from–where she was born, who her parents were."
~ The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother, James McBride

"We went there for everything we needed. [We went there when thirsty, of course, and when hungry, and when dead tired.  We went there when happy, to celebrate, and when sad, to sulk.]"
~ The Tender Bar, J. R. Moehringer

“The year I turned forty-three was the year I realized I should have never taken my Mennonite genes for granted.”
~ Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, Rhoda Janzen

From these examples, you can see there are very few differences between the manner in which the genres are written. The asset you gain by writing in more than one genre is the extra strength you can bring into your favoured story form.

Last of all, if you need a helping hand to get started with memoir, the CommuniCATE Resources for Writers blog posts every week on life story writing, to help you write about what you know.

Please visit: https://cateartios.wordpress.com
Or click here http://cateartios.wordpress.com/category/the-memoir-project/
to access to archive of memoir posts.

Are you attached to your genre, or do you experiment among many? What other skills do you want to gain that you think you'd learn from another genre? Do you have a favorite first line example you'd like to share?

About Cate:

Cate Russell-Cole, is an experienced creativity teacher and author. She has been published in many local and Internet e-zines, magazines and newspapers; and has researched, written and taught her own courses since 1990. Her most successful course to date is “Write Your Life Story.” She is also Founder of the “Write Your Life Story Memoir Project” online.

You can find out about Cate's books and other activities on her web site at  http://www.virtual-desk.com.au/artios.html

“Write Your Life Story” Memoir Project Links:

Blog: https://cateartios.wordpress.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Write-Your-Life-Story/173393852705651
Google Plus: http://plus.google.com/communities/112990534902148227158
Twitter: http://twitter.com/cateartios

By Nalini Akolekar

For those of you who don’t know me, I started my publishing career back in the Stone Age as an editorial assistant at Silhouette Books.  I loved my job and was strongly encouraged to stay in the field, but life and children intervened and I wound up taking a hiatus from the business that lasted several years.

When I decided it was time to get back to doing what I loved, I started off with some freelance reading for Karen Solem at Spencerhill Associates.  I had come full-circle.  Karen was my first boss in publishing years earlier at Silhouette.  It didn’t take long for me to decide that I wanted to learn the agenting side of the business and get back to the industry that I love.

Authors frequently want to know how to find an agent--wanting to be an agent meant I had to find some authors!

Queries, client recommendations, conference pitches – these are all excellent ways to find great writers to represent.  Ultimately I think finding the right authors is 25% good instinct and 75% good luck.  So far my instincts have been pretty darn good, but my luck has been even better.  Signing each new client requires a mix of artistic, business, and personal compatibility—each author and situation is as unique as the writing that drew me to them in the first place.

Here are just three examples of some ways it’s all come together:

I was living North Carolina at the time and decided to stop into a local writers’ group meeting in the coffee shop section of a local bookstore.  It was a small group of unpublished writers, and they had exchanged pages before the meeting for critiquing.  I stuck out like a sore thumb as they discussed the work they had all read.  I kept quiet and listened, then asked if I could get copies of the pages.

Barbara, the striking blond sitting across from me, handed me an extra copy of her chapter.  She was skeptical, but friendly, and holy cow could she write!

We stayed in touch, and over the next year I gained some clients and experience while she finished her book. I loved the completed novel as much as I had loved those first few chapters, and so I signed her up.

A few months later she was choosing between two offers and ended up signing a 2-book contract with a Big Six publisher.  How’s that for a fairy-tale ending…I mean, beginning?  The best part is that it’s a true story.  For real. You can ask her-- Here.

One of my favorite queries happened to come from another North Carolina writer.   Just one among the hundreds in our submissions inbox, the email caught my eye, the query caught my attention, and the book knocked my socks off.  Coincidentally this query was from another Barbara – Barbara Claypole White.

The opening line of her letter was “DOGWOOD DAYS is a love story about dirt.“  How could anyone not read more?  The book was as insightful, poignant, and quirky as she is. It took a little longer for us to find the perfect publisher for the book that became THE UNFINISHED GARDEN, but the journey and the relationship we built has been has been totally worth it.

Laura Drake’s famous contribution to Chuck Sambuchino’s Guide to Literary Agents Blog was “My First 400 Queries Were Rejected: How I Persevered and Got an Agent & Book Deal”. (You can read it Here.)

Her story has been tweeted and re-tweeted a million times.   Laura talks about the editor who introduced her to her perfect agent, and the flip side of that story is that I was the relatively new agent who received the phone call from that editor.

She knew I was taking on new clients and graciously said that while she doubted Laura’s book would work for her particular imprint it was too good not to be published.  This was a lady who knew her stuff so I jumped at the chance.  Not only had a wonderful, talented writer been dropped in my lap, but she’s a fabulous person to boot.

Over the past five years I’ve been able to build a healthy roster of talented and diverse authors and place their work with a wide range of publishers that includes the Big Six, indies and e-first imprints.  The work is challenging and exciting, and the satisfaction is immense. 

These days my biggest challenge is remembering that I can’t possibly represent every talented author that I come across and still do my job effectively.   But it’s hard to remember that when I still get that gambler’s thrill every time a query catches my eye.

What stories do you have about agents and writers finding each other? What do you think makes a great query opener? What do you find most frustrating about querying?

About Nalini

When Nalini Akolekar was growing up her mother would frequently ask her in exasperation, “What are you going to do with your life?  All you ever do is read romance novels!”  Little did she know, her daughter was building a career for herself—one captivating page at a time.

Nalini joined Spencerhill Associates after a lengthy editorial career and several years in advertising sales.  Agenting provided the perfect opportunity for combining her editorial instincts with her sales, marketing, and business experience.

Nalini specializes in romance and women’s fiction in the adult market, but she also loves thrillers. Many of the new authors she’s worked with have gone on to sell multiple books to major publishers.