Writers in the Storm

By Piper Bayard

Everything I know about writing I learned from belly dancing. Yes, belly dancing.

How can this be? Art is Creativity, channeled into a three-dimensional form. It is the same basic process regardless of the medium, so the act of becoming proficient in any art is the same: discipline, practice, and dancing.

Dancing? Yes, dancing.

The question writers ask me most often is, “How do you deal with writer’s block?”

I tell them that dancing—writing—is the elimination of thought between the music and the motion. Like I tell my dancing students, when you get stuck, don’t push. It won’t work. Take a deep breath, and relax your way through it.

With writing, that means turn off the left brain and allow your muse to take over—allow your right brain to dance. Stories do not come from us; stories move through us. We are not the source of Creativity, but through discipline, practice, and subjugating the ego to the higher purpose, we can become effective conduits for Creativity.

So how do we unblock our conduit?

[No. Fiber is not the answer.]

Getting stuck in our process is all about the left brain—structure, plotting, and editing.

Control. Control is a good thing. It is the material our conduits are made of.

Discipline, practice, and understanding of our craft all contribute to building healthy channels for the flow of Creativity so that it doesn’t simply flood and dissipate with no constructive product to show for it. However, getting caught up in control can narrow that channel to the point that Creativity, like water, will go find an easier path.

When our inner control freaks get out of control worrying about what should come next, what should these characters be saying, what could make this scene bigger and better, we narrow our conduits.

The left brain is all about the piping, not what flows through it. The right brain is all about the flow. The right brain is Creativity’s studio, so when Creativity begins to dry up, it’s a sign we need to get the left brain to back off.

There is actually something simple we can do to achieve this . . . sleep.

When we sleep, our left brain checks out, and our right brain heads for the studio. That’s why so many of us wake up in the middle of the night with our best ideas. When we sleep, Creativity dances.

As you’re drifting off at night or for a nap, ask your brain a question. When you wake, before Creativity notices you’re watching her pirouette, pull out a piece of paper. Unlined paper is best, because lines are all about form and structure. Lines are left brain, and you don’t want the left brain clapping off beat with Creativity’s music.

Get out your unlined paper, get cozy with your favorite pen, and let Creativity dance.

Don’t tell her that she’s doing the wrong steps. Don’t tell her she has on the wrong shoes. And especially, don’t tell her she isn’t good enough to try those moves . . .

Don’t let your thought come between Creativity’s music and the dance she leads through your writing hand. Let her do anything she wants on that page, and trust that she will answer your question while she’s there.

We are not the source of Creativity; we are only her instrument. The three-dimensional tool that allows Creativity expression in this plane of existence. Build her a studio with discipline and structure, then get out of her way and let her dance.

Have you experienced writer's block? How do you combat it? Do you dance?

******************

Piper Bayard is a recovering attorney, a full-time author, and the managing editor of Social In Worldwide, Inc., a news and events network. Her debut dystopian thriller, FIRELANDS, is available from Amazon in Paperback and on Kindle and in e-book at Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and iTunes for iPad and mobile devices.

She is currently working with a “senior mouseketeer” in the intelligence community on the APEX PREDATOR series of spy thrillers. Her web site is BayardandHolmes.com. She would love to hear from you on Facebook at “Piper Bayard” or on Twitter at @PiperBayard.

by Jenny Hansen

My day job as a software trainer is about building the skills of my co-workers so they can do productive work. And you know what I noticed several years back?

There’s TONS of similarity between my training life and my writing life.

Case in point: Leadership Freak is a business and leadership blogger I follow. I get loads of great advice from his blog to pass on to my team. I also routinely read his stuff and put it out on the writing side of my life.

Writing is a business after all.

Below is my "writing take" on a post he did called 10 Power Tips That Build Potential. Dan Rockwell (aka@Leadershipfreak) and I agree:

People are at the center of everything.

I’ve talked about this before but, as a writer, surrounding yourself with a great team is imperative to your success. This journey’s just too hard to make a go of it all by yourself.

The team here at WITS -- Fae, Laura, Orly and Sharla -- is also my critique group. I don’t know what I’d do without these ladies, and certainly my writing wouldn’t be where it’s at without their help.

Some people have asked me what makes a great critique group.

Sharla Rae has been on the critique group track longer than I have and she wrote a great post about forming a critique group: How to Find Your Dream Team.

Today I'm focusing on how to give and receive feedback in a way that’s constructive and nourishes the insecure artist inside of every writer.

10 Power-tips that build a critique partner’s potential:

1. Always believe in your critique partner. If you believe in them, they’ll believe in themselves.

2. Put them under moderate levels of stress.

Don’t protect your critique partner from pressure. If their plot doesn’t make sense or they’d get more mileage from a scene by changing POV, you have to tell them. It is the nicest thing you can do for them.

3. Support them when they are challenged by honoring their energy and efforts. As their critique partner it’s your job to help them over that 80th rejection by assuring them that submission 81 might be the one resulting in a sale.

4. Provide resources; but remember too many resources stifle creativity.

This means loan them your craft books, plot with them, critique their work. Then send them off to work their magic alone.

5. Focus on their strengths not their weaknesses.

Don’t get sucked into what you wish your critique partner could do. If they keep writing, they’ll be able to do it someday. Take their weaker scenes and do your best to help smooth them.

Ex: I can’t write transitions between scenes well – if the gals didn’t give me that one sentence here and there, I’d probably cry with frustration (cause I’d never get my heroine out of that damn scene…NEVER!)

6. Engage them in the process of setting goals and creating vision.

It’s good to get together at least once a year and set goals and plot out projects. If your critique partners don’t want to do this themselves, ask them to still do it with you. At the very least, ask them to help you review your goals for challenges like ROW80…they’ll tell you if you’ve taken on too much.

7. Give them opportunities when they are ready; 80% ready is ready enough.

I’m famous in our critique group for being a little, um…forward. When we are at events like conferences or meetings with editors or agents who are taking pitches, I’ve been known to sell a critique partner right into the pitching session. They don’t always thank me, but no one has killed me yet.

8. Expose them to others who are doing what they could do.

If you know your critique partner would love to write mysteries, pass on the information for workshops that you passed over for yourself "because you don’t write that." Ditto for the experts in your life like the cousin on the police force or the great-aunt who raises Thoroughbred horses. You know people in your life that are subject matter experts. Refer these people to your fellow writers when the occasion arises.

9. Shorten the time-line for completing projects.

Adhere to deadlines within your critique group, the same as you would with your regular day job projects. Since a piece of fiction is never "finished," as writers we have to learn how to let go when it is "good enough" and move on to the next project. Setting deadlines can help make this letting go process easier.

10. Help your critique partners press through excuses.

Work, school, kids, illness. There are a million reasons we can think of not to write. Some are valid (for a while) and some are not. It’s up to your critique people to remind you of the one really big reason to finish your writing projects. If you want to be published, you must write. And revise. And submit. The End.

Everything else is just window dressing.

A word on pain:

Young and emerging leaders writers will rise to the point of pain. As a writer with some talent and perseverance, the simple equation of butt-in-chair and writing practice is often enough to let a writer write a good book. Progressing from "average writer" to the "remarkable writer" we all yearn to be takes passion, conviction, vision, persistence, and courage.

Your critique partners should be there with a word of comfort or a kick in the pants, AND practice the 10 Power Tips above, to help you break through to the other side.

How do you handle the critique process? Do you have a critique group? Tell us about them and what tips you’ve found to get the most out of the process.

Happy Writing!

Jenny

Jenny fills her nights with humor: writing memoir, women’s fiction, chick lit, short stories (and chasing after her toddler). By day, she provides training and social media marketing for an accounting firm. After 18 years as a corporate software trainer, she’s digging this sit down and write thing. When she's not here at WITS, Jenny can be found on Twitter at JennyHansenCA and at her personal blog, More Cowbell.

by Susan Spann

Today the #PubLaw guest series takes a look at when you need a literary executor (or trustee) to administer the copyrights in your estate.

The executor (in the case of a will) or successor trustee (in the case of a trust) is the person who administers and distributes an estate after a person’s death.

When copyrights aren’t an issue, the executor or successor trustee has a fairly straightforward job. He or she collects the deceased person’s assets, either with or without court supervision, creates a distribution plan that follows the deceased person’s will or trust, and then distributes the assets to the heirs.

The process usually takes about a year from start to finish (unless there’s fighting among the heirs, and then all bets are off). Once the assets are all distributed, the executor or trustee is discharged and the estate is closed.

Authors’ estates present special problems, because of the ongoing nature of copyright management.

An author’s estate plan may simply transfer ownership of copyrights to one or more named beneficiaries (or “heirs”), who then will own and manage the rights directly. When heirs have the proper business skills to manage copyrights, this is often the simplest and most cost-effective choice.

But problems arise when heirs lack the business savvy to manage copyrights properly or when more than one heir is named.

Copyrights aren’t like houses, or cars, or jewelry—assets which can be readily converted into cash and which require no ongoing business skills. Copyright management requires specialized skills which many heirs do not possess.

Unless you appoint a special executor or literary trustee to manage your copyrights and creative works on an ongoing basis, your heirs will inherit the right—and the obligation—to control and manage your copyrights directly.

This often ends badly, especially when the author wants multiple people to share ownership of (and the profits from) the author’s works. Disputes may arise about how to manage the copyrights; for example, whether to accept a contract offer and on what terms.

The copyright management process can be confusing even for one heir and confrontational when many heirs are involved.

But there is a solution.

The author can name a literary executor or literary trustee (they’re the same thing – except that “executors” usually operate under a will and “trustees” under a trust) to handle the ongoing management and control of copyrights on behalf of the chosen heirs.

The literary executor can be the same person as the general executor who handles the initial estate administration or someone else entirely. The literary executor can be one of the heirs, or can be a professional hired (and often paid) to manage the copyrights on your heirs’ behalf.

When a literary executor is used, the general executor (or trustee, in the case of a trust) will handle the standard estate administration issues–collection and distribution of money and other assets through probate proceedings or trust administration efforts, as appropriate.

The literary executor will handle management of the estate’s intellectual property components, initially under the general executor’s direction and then acting independently after the rest of the estate’s assets have been distributed.

While the general executor’s job may be finished in about a year, the literary executor may continue to manage creative works on behalf of the author’s estate until the end of the copyright term.

Sound expensive? It can be, especially if the estate needs to pay for the literary executor’s services. If the estate is large and complex, however, it may be worth the fees to know your copyrights are being properly managed and the profits distributed properly to your heirs.

How do you know if you need a literary executor?

Here are some simple questions to ask:

1. How large is your literary estate, and how much annual income does it produce?

If your estate contains unpublished works, or published works that don’t earn very much income, it may not prove cost-effective to hire a professional literary executor or trustee. That said, if you’re leaving your works to multiple heirs, it still makes sense to find one to appoint as the manager, with the power to make business decisions on behalf of the group.

2. How many heirs do you want to split the ownership and profits from your literary works?

Many cooks spoil a soup, and crowds of heirs tie copyrights in knots. It’s fine to leave your works to multiple people, but the more heirs you name, the more important it becomes to have a single person in charge of management.

3. Do any of your heirs have the business skills required to manage copyrights? If so, would that heir be willing to act as the literary executor of your estate?

The person placed in charge of managing literary works must have the business savvy to manage the copyrights properly. If none of your heirs has the business skills to handle the job (or the willingness to undertake it), you need to either appoint a professional literary trustee or find a capable literary attorney who’s willing to act as counsel to the heirs.

4. Is your literary estate complex or difficult to manage?

Authors who write for multiple publishers may have numerous contracts in force at any given time. The more books you write, the more complicated your literary estate becomes (with the possible exception of successful single-series authors, whose contracts may all sit with a single publisher or publishing group). The more complex your estate becomes, the more important it is to have someone skilled in literary management at the helm of your estate.

Revisit these questions every few years, because your answers will change with the passage of time.

New books are written and published. Readership grows, and profits increase. Heirs get older, change professions, and acquire new business skills. The estate plan that works for you today may well prove badly outdated a decade from now, so make sure to revisit your situation regularly.

I need a literary trustee, so how do I choose one?

I’ve already gone on too long today ... so that, my friends, is the topic of next month’s post.

Have questions about this or other author estate planning issues? Feel free to ask in the comments – Susan wants to hear from you!

Susan Spann is a publishing attorney and author from Sacramento, California. Her debut mystery novel, CLAWS OF THE CAT (Thomas Dunne Books, July 2013), is the first in a series featuring ninja detective Hiro Hattori. Susan blogs about writing, publishing law and seahorses at http://www.SusanSpann.com. Find her on Twitter @SusanSpann or on Facebook.