Writers in the Storm

We are very excited to have with us at WITS today, NYT bestselling author, Karen White. If you've been on vacation in Atlantis for the past ten years and haven't read her, you're missing out - hers are some of the best novels we've ever read.  Seriously.

Here's Karen:

I was putting laundry away today in my teenage son’s room and paused in the threshold, unsure of the best way to navigate the floor strewn with books, school papers, empty water bottles, shoes, clothes (dirty and clean, from what I could tell), and unpacked suitcases from last weekend’s trip.  I’d take a picture to include here, but I don’t want DFCS calling on me.  Whose child is this?

I’m a far cry from the character of Melanie Middleton in my Tradd Street series—the anal-retentive real estate agent who even schedules her potty breaks on a spreadsheet.  But I do like everything in its place. 

I like neat piles of paper on my desk (my version of a “to do” list), and I like my countertops and bathroom sinks clear of clutter.  A cluttered house means a cluttered mind—at least that’s what I’ve read.  And since I work at home, I consider the entire house my workspace, and everybody had best keep it neat and clean!  I’ve been known to collect items without warning into a large garbage bag and place in the garage.  It’s amazing how seldom they miss anything.

I manage to keep things tidy in most parts of the house, but in my children’s rooms I’ve simply given up.  I just don’t have the energy anymore.  My daughter is now in college, but when she’s at home, both kids are required to straighten up everything when the cleaning people come, but then it goes right back to requiring yellow tape across the doorway.  I’m thinking of reporting them to that A&E show, Hoarders. 

I have an iPhone that keeps me organized—with every event color-coded by family member and subject.  Even the dog has his own color.  I set an alarm for each event just in case I’m distracted and forget.  Even better, when I sync with Outlook I can send reminders to various family members, too.  But not the dog, of course, as he doesn’t have thumbs and finds operating a handheld device too much of a challenge.

You’re probably thinking that my organization spills over into my writing.  And there you’d be wrong.  I don’t outline.  I don’t do character sketches.  I don’t even do a first draft.  I just sit down somewhere with my laptop and start writing a story about characters I want to know more about. 

I’ve been told it’s the “wrong” way to write a book, but I figure after fourteen published books (including one that debuted at #14 on the New York Times list), I can keep doing it the “wrong” way.

I started out being a reader, and I write the way I read—without really knowing what’s going to happen next.  How excited would you be to read a book that you know how it ended?  Part of the fun of writing is discovering what my characters are going to do next.

The only “organized” thing about my writing is my research.  Even though my stories have contemporary settings, I always use some kind of historical context—or some kind of passion that I know nothing about. 

In The Memory of Water, the main characters were sailors, so I had to learn how to sail.  In The Lost Hours the protagonist was an Olympic equestrian, and in The Strangers on Montagu Street and the entire Tradd Street series, the heroine has to restore an old house.  This means lots and lots of research to make sure I get it right.

I do most of my writing in a chair in my sitting room.  Next to the chair is a bookshelf where I keep all of the current project’s research books and notes within easy reach.  Since I don’t always know what I’m going to write, I don’t always know what I’m going to need in terms of research material, so I make sure I have a good supply just in case. 

For my November release, The Strangers on Montagu Street, I had to know about all things Charleston:  where somebody would buy an antique wedding gown, what’s the hottest restaurant, what do interiors in Charleston’s historic district look like, who made miniature dollhouse furniture in the early twentieth century, and what colors can my heroine paint her historic home among other things.  I also needed to know what her fabulous garden would look like for a large outdoor birthday party that happens halfway through the book.  

I had everything organized by subject (including pictures and articles torn from Charleston magazine), and my notes stuffed neatly in folders.  I read and researched as I wrote, sometimes writing new scenes to accommodate something interesting I’d learned.

Now with the book done, those books have been cleared off and filed downstairs in my study on the large bookcases for future reference, and now my St. Simons Island books are filling the shelf by my writing chair to help with the writing of my book due out next summer.

Sure, writing this way probably does take longer.   But I just can’t imagine doing it any other way.  I think that after a writer finds the process that works for her, she should stick with it.

My children are trying to convince me that the cesspools of their rooms are part of their learning process, and it works for them.  I don’t buy it.  I think it’s just laziness.  When my daughter headed off to college last month, all I could think about was seeing her clean room, day after day.  Friends told me I’d miss the mess once she’d gone.  Ha!  I didn’t miss her dirty diapers when she was potty-trained, after all. 

Maybe HGTV will be interested in a “before” and “after” show about children’s rooms after they depart for college.  I’m already envisioning the neat and tidy bins I’ll have stacked in my son’s now unreachable closet, the sharply folded clothes in the drawers of his dresser that right now can’t be closed.

Or maybe I’ll write a book with a mom and two messy teenagers.  I wouldn’t have to go very far to research, and the time saved might allow me to reorganize my office.  And my kitchen.  Or maybe I can just catch up on the sleep that I’ve been missing for the last nineteen years.

Do you live with people who "organize" differently than you? Where do you write and what is your process?

After playing hooky one day in the seventh grade to read Gone With the Wind, Karen White knew she wanted to be a writer—or become Scarlett O'Hara.  In spite of these aspirations, Karen pursued a degree in business and graduated cum laude with a BS in Management from Tulane University.  Ten years later, after leaving the business world, she fulfilled her dream of becoming a writer and wrote her first book.  In the Shadow of the Moon was published in August, 2000.  This book was nominated for the prestigious RITA award in 2001 in two separate categories.  Her books have since been nominated for numerous national contests including two more RITAs, the Georgia Author of the Year Award and  has twice won the National Readers’ Choice Award for Learning to Breathe and On Folly Beach.

Karen currently writes what she refers to as ‘grit lit’—southern women’s fiction—and has recently expanded her horizons into writing a mystery series set in Charleston.  Her fourteenth novel, The Beach Trees, was released in trade paperback by New American Library, a division of Penguin Publishing Group, in May, 2011 and debuted on the New York Times bestseller list at number fourteen.     

Karen hails from a long line of Southerners but spent most of her growing up years in London, England and is a graduate of the American School in London.  She currently lives near Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and two teenage children, and a spoiled Havanese dog (who appears in several of her books), Quincy.  When not writing, she spends her time reading, scrapbooking, playing piano, and avoiding cooking.  Her next book, The Strangers on Montagu Street, will be published on November 1st, 2011 and she is currently contracted with Penguin for four more novels.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/karenwhiteauthor
Email: AuthorKarenWhite@aol.com
Website: http://www.karen-white.com

We interrupt our regularly scheduled blog for an announcement: Amy Hahn was the lucky commenter who won a copy of Judy Duarte's new novel, Christmas on Nutcracker Court!  Congrats Amy!

Here's our own Jenny Hansen, starting a new series on critique groups.

In my everyday life I’m a training coordinator for an accounting firm, focused on building the skills of my team so that they can do productive work. I’ve noticed through the years that there’s tons of similarity between my training life and my writing life.

Case in point: I’m an avid Leadership Freak follower and I get loads of great advice from his blog to pass on to my team. Below is my "writing take" on a post he did back in August called 10 Power Tips That Build Potential.

Dan Rockwell (aka@Leadershipfreak) believes that people are at the center of everything, and so do I. 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.

A large part of my team is my critique group, which is made up of the founding members of Writers In The Storm – D.A. Watt, Fae Rowen, Laura Drake and Sharla Rae. 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 so I’ll let her answer that in her upcoming post. I want to focus on how to give and receive feedback in a way that’s constructive and nourishes the insecure artist inside of every writer.

I didn’t make many changes to Leadership Freak’s 10 Tips…writing is a business after all.

10 Power-tips that build a writer’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 out of that 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 or the Life List Club…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 the 10 Hot 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 the newly walking Baby Girl). By day, she provides training and social media marketing for an accounting firm. After 15 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 jhansenwrites and at her other blog, More Cowbell.

Today we're excited to have with us Judy Duarte, two-time RITA finalist and author of over 40 novels.

And she comes bearing gifts! Judy will give away a copy of her latest book, CHRISTMAS ON NUTCRACKER COURT to a lucky commenter!

Here's Judy:

I can’t remember when I first dreamed of writing a book, but the desire to create a story and have it published grew until it was impossible to ignore.

But since English was my least favorite subject in school, I didn’t know very much about crafting fiction.  And to make matters worse, I had no idea where to start.

Lesson # 1: God doesn’t give a person a dream without also giving them opportunities and the power to make that dream come true.

In 1996, while scanning a class schedule for the UC Irvine Office of Extended Studies, I noticed a weekend course called “How to Write a Romance Novel.” I was in luck! I was going to learn everything I needed to know—in one single weekend!

Lesson # 2: There’s something to learn every day—and being published doesn’t change that.

Had I realized how little I knew about craft and how long my first sale would take, I might not have made that trip to Irvine that day. But when I climbed into my car, I was enthusiastic and hopeful.

At the class, I met other aspiring romance novelists. One woman was writing a paranormal time travel. I didn’t read or particularly like paranormals, but something drew me to her. She was the only one who seemed to share the same burning desire to make our dreams come true. So I volunteered to read her work if she would read mine.

Lesson # 3: When it comes to finding the right critique partner, it’s not a matter of searching for someone who lives nearby and has Thursday evenings free. It’s more important to find someone who shares the same dream and who’s willing to be your “teammate” in every sense of the word.

One of our classmates mentioned Romance Writers of America. And can you believe it? There was a chapter that met at a restaurant only 45 miles from my house!

After attending my first meeting, I was in awe. I went home that day and blocked out every second Saturday of the month on my calendar. There was now a wealth of knowledge and resources available to me, so I watched my pennies and attended every meeting, signed up for every conference I could afford, and learned all that I could.

Lesson # 4: Seize every opportunity to hone your craft and to network with other authors.

Several months later, I finished my first manuscript and went to the San Diego State University Writer’s Conference, hoping to meet an editor who would buy my book. I knew it was just a matter of time before a publisher snatched up my masterpiece.

And the conference paid off! A New York editor asked for a proposal! I hurried home, printed out my pages, and mailed it to her. Once I knew the package had arrived in New York, I waited for the telephone to ring—and I jumped each time it did. Before long, I began to wonder if she’d ever call.

Lesson # 5: The journey will probably take longer than you think, so try to use the time wisely.

Instead of placing “the call,” the editor returned my manuscript and said, “I wasn’t taken with the writing.”

Lesson # 6: Expect to get discouraged at times—it’s part of the trip.

I polished that story and sent it out again. This time, while I waited, I started writing a second book and continued to hone my craft.

Lesson # 7: Just because God placed the dream to be published on your heart doesn’t mean He won’t require a great deal of work on your part.

One of my critique partners sold her first book, then her second. I was thrilled for her. We were a team, remember? And I wanted it as badly for her as I did for me. I was even more determined to follow in her footsteps.

When my second critique partner sold, I was thrilled for her as well. Never once did I feel jealous. But as the two of them continued to sell, seeds of doubt began to grow. Was my work as good as they insisted it was? Would I ever get the call?

Lesson # 8: As Gary Provost said: You need three things for success…talent, good luck, and persistence.  If you have persistence, you only need one of the other two.

Four manuscripts, a scrapbook full of rejections, fifteen conferences and a hundred RWA meetings later, the rejection letters became more and more promising, the contest scores closer to the top. Then on May 7, 2001, while on vicodin and pumped full of an antibiotic because of a pending root canal, I got “the call.” Silhouette Special Edition wanted to buy my first book.

More than thirty-five sales later, the desire to write and sell is still strong, the wait on word from my editor about a proposal is still nerve wracking, and the call with an offer is still nearly as exciting as the first.

But can I let you in on a secret? I’m convinced that there are a lot of unpublished authors in the world who have more talent and skill than I do, but for one reason or another they became discouraged and quit writing.

Lesson # 9: Never quit dreaming, never quit trying, never quit honing your craft. Dreams come true—but not if you give up.

Judy Duarte always knew there was a book inside her, but since English was her least favorite subject in school, she never considered herself a writer.  An avid reader who enjoys a happy ending, Judy couldn’t shake the dream of creating a book of her own.

That dream became a reality in 2002, when Silhouette released her first Special Edition.  Since then, more than forty of her books have hit the shelves, including four women’s fiction novels and two novellas.

Judy, a two-time Rita® finalist with MULBERRY PARK (2009) and ENTERTAINING ANGELS (2010), was awarded a two Maggies and a National Reader’s Choice Award for her heartwarming stories.

When she’s not cooped up in her writing cave, Judy spends time with her family near the beach in Southern California.