Advice for Career Writers (and NaNoWriMo Two Months Late)

 

cartoon robot breaking nanowrimo machine

Image by Davidd/puuikibeach

 

Way back in November, Bob Clary of Webucator emailed me about writing a piece for their NaNoWriMo promotion. They even wrote questions for me to answer so it would be nice and easy. But because I am lazy a successful copywriter in high demand, I failed to write and publish said blog until now! Oh, as they say, well. Apologies and thanks to Bob and co.

 

What were your goals when you started writing?

I wanted to write the kind of book that I liked to read. I wanted to do to other readers all the things my favorite authors did to me.

I also wanted to be a child genius who published the next great American sci-fi novel at the precocious age of 13, became rich and famous and got to co-direct the film adaptation. That didn’t happen and I got over it.

What are your goals now?

Finish my novel. Get it traditionally published. I have growing respect for the indie publishing world, but for now, at least, I’m still aiming for traditional. Though I may be beginning to doubt my trust in the gatekeepers of the literary world, there’s still something inside me that wants their stamp of approval. Sort of third-party confirmation that yes, this novel is a real piece of literature and not merely an amusing hobby that has stolen years of my life.

What pays the bills now?

I’m a copywriter at a Texas marketing firm. I write everything from billboards to blog posts about everything from cowboy boots to wound care. Every day is different, and I enjoy it tremendously.

Assuming writing doesn’t pay the bills, what motivates you to keep writing?

I’ll rephrase this question to: “What motivates you to write fiction when you already spend so much time writing copy?”

I need to write fiction to feel like myself. I rarely feel like writing when I have time to write, but if I let a weekend go by without working on the old WIP, I feel incomplete. I can even be cranky.

What advice would you give young authors hoping to make a career out of writing?

For copywriters:

  1. You’d better really enjoy playing with words; even the menial tasks like translating technical jargon into human-speak, and writing product descriptions.
  2. Read a lot and write a lot. You need to be able to recognize and fix confusing copy.
  3. Start a blog. A topical blog, not a personal blog. Pick a subject you’re passionate about and know something about. There’s a big push toward content marketing in the ad world and it will help if you have experience planning, developing, publishing and promoting content. Follow the blog at Copyblogger.com to learn more about it.
  4. Read Luke Sullivan’s Hey Whipple, Squeeze This.

For fiction writers:

  1. Don’t do this for the money. Do it because you love it, but don’t be heartbroken if you can’t make a living out of it. Few can.
  2. Don’t wait until you’re in a “writing mood” to write. The thing that separates the hobbyists from the real writers is that we put words on paper even when we don’t feel like it. Anyway, sometimes the writing mood doesn’t come until you’ve already been at the keyboard for a few hours.
  3. A lot of people will give you writing advice. Be careful whose advice you trust. Half of them don’t know what they’re talking about. Look for tips from storytellers who have proven themselves multiple times – like the Neil Gaimans and Joss Whedons and Pixar writers.
  4. When it comes to critiques of your work, drop the attitude that “they don’t like it because they don’t understand it.” Sometimes that’s true, but most of the time it’s because your work actually stinks. Cry and rant for a little while, then sit down and figure out how to fix it.
  5. Writing a novel is the hardest thing you will ever do (and good luck emerging from the experience with your sanity intact). Still, it’s worth it.

Feel free to post your own answers to these questions in the comments; you can also read answers from other writers.

 

A peek inside the publishing world

Sorry for the late post – my eyes were so tired last night, I didn’t want to open them, let alone stare at a screen. Actually, I’m typing this with them shut right now. I know, I know, I need new glasses.

Shocking! (Photo by Morgan)

Shocking! (Photo by Morgan)

For those of us still in the depths of writing our first novels (I’m close to the twelve-year mark…what is wrong with me?), the publishing world is something of a mystery. Fortunately, there’s a lot of help out there: from authors who’ve been through it, to literary agents and editors who blog about their work, information abounds. Here’s just a sampling.

The inside scoop on getting published from 3 editors

Do big publishers accept self-published work? What can traditional publishing offer that self-publishing doesn’t? Get answers to these and other questions from Alan Rinzler at the Book Deal.

What to expect when you’re submitting

What happens once you’ve hooked a literary agent, and that agent starts submitting your work to publishers? Did you know it can take editors up to six months to even reply? YA author Natalie Whipple can help you avoid going insane.

Scary contract clauses to watch out for

Darn it, Jim, I’m a writer, not a lawyer! Kristin Nelson, a literary agent and PubRants author, warns you’d better understand the legal jargon before you sign that publishing contract.

6 reasons everything in publishing takes so long

Children’s book editor Cheryl Klein explains why you’re going to have to wait a long time to see your book in print.

How to plan a book launch

Greg Leitich Smith, a children’s/YA writer, has the down low on hosting a book launch party at a bookstore.

What being a bestselling author really means

Fast Company explains how the New York Times Bestseller list isn’t based on actual sales so much as projected sales – and how Amazon is different.

Self-published sales growth over time

Curious how many books the average self-publishing author sells? VictorineWrites.com tracks the sales of 45 different authors by the month (some also have notes about price changes, etc., informing the fluctuation in numbers).

Want more publishing insider info like this? Literary agent-turned-author Nathan Bransford offers a rundown every week (or so).

AIDA aftermath: 4 ways the last few blog posts have changed my novel

bang head against wall

photo by Eamon Curry

In case any of you are agonizing over changes you have to make to your work in progress due to something you learned in the AIDA blog series, rest assured: I am drinking bucketfuls of my own medicine.

Title

I’ve been holding onto the same vague title for years. It sort of means something if you’ve read the book. Sort of. By itself it is unremarkable. I know I can do better.

First Chapter

  • Trimmed some fat from my opening scene – including most of my main character’s physical description – to make room for actual character development, punchier dialogue, and an extra layer of depth that makes the perfect precursor to the rest of the book.
  • Cut a net total of 1,304 words from that chapter.

Second Chapter

My second chapter is actually the beginning of the alternate story – one that connects to the main story but not perceptibly until much later. I offer no explanation at this point. We are simply following one character and one story in the first chapter, and an entirely different character in a different setting in the second. Mere days after realizing this egregious error, I heard one of my beta readers found it disorienting.

Why is it beta readers never seem to tell you what’s wrong with your work until after you’ve figured it out yourself?

Anyway, I added some explanatory narrative at the beginning to introduce the new story and hint at the connections without giving anything away. I also cut a few hundred words.

The Entire Middle of the Whole Bloody Book

In the midst of my quest for tips on writing a page-turner, I realized something life-changing and consequently left this sentence in my Evernote app:

ONE AT A TIME, DUH!

Translation: the order in which I introduced the five characters in the main story was all wrong. I’d made my main character the last to join the group, which meant she met all four others within paragraphs of one another, and I had to pour out oodles of backstory about who each one was and how they got there and where “there” was and what they all thought of each other and how they reacted to meeting her.

I was shooting myself in the foot with a bazooka.

So I’m both changing the order and spreading things out. She’ll spend a few days with the first person she meets, actually experiencing a couple of things I only summarized in previous drafts, and meet additional characters over the next few chapters – instead of over the next few sentences.

In short, I’ll be permanently cutting several scenes I’ve rewritten dozens of times, and adding other scenes I have never written before. I’m angry, excited, exhausted, and relieved all at the same time.

 

In case you missed it here’s a rundown of the whole series:

Attention

Interest

Desire

Action

Has the AIDA blog series led you to make any painful changes to your WIP? Rant in the comments!

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