Time to Write

If You Haven't Been Published Yet

If you haven't been published yet, here are some words of wisdom from writer Rob Roberge: "Being published didn't make me a better writer. The story was just as good and I was just as good the day before I got the phone call. I just hadn't had the work accepted yet. It's important not to allow external validation to be your chief motivator, because writing is about the journey, not the destination. Destinations take care of themselves when you're moving in the right direction."

By the way, I am indebted for this quote and the previous ones about networking to the most recent edition of UCLA's Writer's Progress, a print publication that lists the courses available at UCLA Extension. You can request a brochure describing the 2007-8 Master Classes by emailing: [email protected] .

Overcoming Writer's Block - The Interview Method

There are two forms of writer's block. In one, you can't write anything at all. In the other, you are stuck at a particular point in a story and can't figure out what could come next.

This post has a tip for the second situation: interview your characters. Imagine the characters are real people who are experiencing whatever is going on at the point of the story where you are stuck. Imagine that you're a reporter asking them some questions, such as:

* What happened that brought you to this point?
* How do you feel about the current state of affairs
* What would you like to have happen next?
* What do you fear might happen next?

Jot down the answers that come to mind for all your main characters. There's a good chance that these will how you the way forward.

Networking for Writers

Networking in the traditional sense is not one of my favorite activities, but certainly this is a business where contacts count. Writing instructor Chrysanthy Balis says, "You can write magnificent script all day long, but without getting out there and establishing relationships you're not very likely to get connected to an agent or a manager. Some of us are more natural at it than others, but it's a skill set to learn and utilize."

Bill Taub, also a UCLA teacher, puts it strongly: "There are two elements to building a career. Do the work and NETwork."

For writers there are several kinds of networking that are the 'usual suspects':

* with one or two other writers, with whom you can swap work and give each other feedback
* small writing groups for the same purpose
* writing workshops where you meet kindred spirits and also teachers and guests who may be helpful
* writing conferences where you may have a chance to meet personally with agents, editors, publishers, and other professionals and, in some cases, pitch them your projects

While writers can help each other, it's even more important to connect with people who may be able to hire you, such as producers, publishers, network executives, editors, and studio executives. That's why you may also want to consider attending workshops, conferences, conventions, and other events where these types of people congregate.

[My new book, YOUR WRITING COACH, includes two chapters on marketing yourself and your work: one for traditional approaches, one I call 'guerrilla warfare for the writer.' It's out now from Nicholas Brealey Publishing.]

 

Diary of a Non-Fiction Book

My book has been out for a couple of months in the UK and one month in the US and of course we're trying to make sure it's in all the book stores, especially the chains. On the website, initially we had a link only to Amazon, and that annoyed Barnes and Noble to the point of saying they wouldn't stock the book unless we also linked to them. Of course I was happy to do that anyway, it was an oversight originally, but it does show how important it is to keep all the players happy. If you've got a website on which you're selling your book, be sure to link accordingly.

Barnes and Noble now has placed an order for the book. Next, we're hoping Borders will follow suit.

Organizing Your Writing Work: Use an Energy Line

Here's a clever idea from Behance.com (which I found out about on creativity-portal.com): An "energy line" you use to prioritize your work. You create a line across a notice board or on your wall. On one end you put up index cards listing the highest-priority tasks, on the other end you put up cards for tasks not needing attention right now (but to keep in mind), and then you array all other tasks between these two extremes. When a task is done, its card is taken down; when a priority changes the card is moved in one direction or the other. Sounds like it would be especially useful when juggling several projects at once.

A Lesson in Trimming (see video below)

In Palm Springs recently, I watched palm tree trimmers doing their job. They climb a ladder as high as they can, then continue to climb using a belt (no safety harness or net!) and at the top employ a machete to cut off the dead fronds. Every year in the Southwest a few of these guys drop to their deaths. (By the way, the palm trees look way too sparse when these men are done, but within a couple of months the growth is such that the trees look normal again.)

By comparison, we writers have it easy when we cut and edit our material, but there are a few similiarities:

1. We have to figure out where the cutting is needed
2. We have to have sharp tools (a sharp eye for getting rid of the unnecesssary)
3. We have to be fearless--most writers don't cut enough for fear of damaging the material
4. We have to understand that we may have to "re-grow" the material--that is, add new material to fill it out

We also have to beware of stretching metaphors beyond the breaking point...oh oh.

A Lesson in Trimming (see next post)

Mixing Up the Media

Here are three names, can you guess what links them? - Richard Branson, Deepak Chopra, Guy Ritchie.

Well, it was Branson and Chopra, among others, who set up Virgin Comics back in 2005. And Guy Ritchie has created a comic for them, called "Guy Ritchie's Gamekeeper."

The Los Angeles Times quoted Ritchie as saying this is the first step in a career plan to use comics to shape and launch his films. "It's the storyboard for the film," he said.

You can have a look at the comics at www.virgincomics.com (where you can read them online or download them), but what's more intriguing to me about this is that it's another avenue with potential for aspiring as well as established film-makers to get a project underway. And for another example of how the media are mixing, go to the same site and read about the new joint venture between Virgin and the Sci-Fi Channel.

A Warning to Other Website Owners

I received an email today warning me that the company hosting one of my websites had not paid the company from which it was leasing its servers, and that I had two options: sign up for hosting with this other company, or move the site to another host. I had only 48 hours to do one of these, then the site would be kicked off the current server. In the message, they named the hosting company I have been using and the its owner, which gave it credibility.

I had a moment of panic, then it struck me that no reasonable company would give you only 48 hours. I Googled the source of the message (viphosting) and found that this is a scam. Undoubtedly had I gone to their site, they would have asked for my log-in information, password, and the credit card number I'd used originally, and then the pillaging would begin.

I don't know how wide-spread this particular scam is, but I wanted to warn you in case you receive a similar message.

Books and Films - the Money Mix

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that publishers are going beyond their normal practice of selling film rights, to actually putting up money for films to be made from the books they publish.

One instance of this is a deal for Random House to invest up to nine million dollars in films made by Focus Features based on Random House books. The first one out will be "Reservation Road," based on John Burnham Schwartz's 1998 novel. The plan is for Focus to make two or three such films each year.

Random House gets to have a say in selecting screenwriters, directors, and stars. Of course they hope to make a profit on their investment, but they told the Times' Jeffrey Trachtenberg, "We're doing this primarily to sell more books as movie tie-ins."

The Times pointed out how lucrative such tie-ins can be. Patrick Susskind's novel, "Perfume," was selling 13,000 a year before the movie version came out. That jumped to 100,000 copies in 2006.

Music and Creativity (And Must You Think Happy Canadian Thoughts?)

Do you think you have to be a tortured soul in order to be creative? A study done at the University of Toronto suggests otherwise. It concluded, "volunteers were better able to solve challenging word puzzles after thinking happy thoughts and listening to upbeat music." On the other hand, the researcher, Amanda MacMillan concluded, negative thoughts limit your ability to think outside the box.

Of course, it's possible this applies only to Canadians... Seriously, there is a flaw in applying this too broadly. There's a big difference between solving word puzzles and coming up with a storyline, for example. I believe that all kinds of negative thoughts and emotions can lead to great storylines--any number of people have used writing as a way to create a world that is different from their own unsatisfactory reality.

However, I believe that music IS a good way to stimulate creativity--but whether it should be upbeat or downbeat depends on the individual, his or her mood, and what he or she wants to write.

What Can You Protect? (The Case of the Stolen Story--Maybe)

When I was a kid there used to be a magazine feature, I think it was in Reader's Digest, called "You Be the Judge." They'd present the essentials of a legal case and then you guessed the outcome before looking to see what really happened. So here's one for you:

A man and a woman are friends and neighbors and both are writers and animal lovers. He's also a producer and actor. She shows him her script about a woman who is obsessed with saving cats. He reads it, likes it, says if she wants him to act in it, he'd be willing. Time goes by. She gets a producer to show her script around, but then she finds out that her friend/neighbor has made a deal with Paramount for a script he wrote about...a woman obsessed with saving dogs. The film (called "Year of the Dog") came out in April and flopped.

She feels betrayed and now they're fighting like...I won't say it. And she's suing him. Interestingly, she's not suing him for copyright infringement. That's probably wise, because it's impossible to protect just an idea, only how an idea is executed. Her case is that because he's a producer, there was an expectation that if he used her idea in any way she would be compensated. (If you want to look into this more via Google, her name is Laura Kightlinger, his is Mike White.)

So: you be the judge--what do you think the outcome will be? My guess is that their relationship and the circumstances in which she showed him the scirpt were ambigous enough (since they were friends, not just writer and producer) that she will not prevail. I also predict it will never get all the way to a trial--the usual outcome of these things is a settlement, which often is less expensive than winning a court case.

Another Book Signing (things writers hear...)

FiFi and I Need Your Vote!

I am taking part in a Pitch Party at animation magazine. The idea is that you create a little ad for your concept for a cartoon series and a panel of experts and the readers vote on which ones are the best. Those get a prize and consideration from various animation companies.

My entry is FiFi, as you can see. If you like this idea, I'd appreciate it if you could go here and vote for FiFi. (If you don't, I suspect she'll have a nervous breakdown--do you want that on your conscience?

Thanks! (PS: Please do it now, as voting closes soon.)

Watch Writers in Action

Simon & Schuster has started a new video channel, www.bookvideos.tv, that shows little documentaries about authors and their books.

At the moment, there are only 16, but they will be adding more as time goes on. These go beyond the usual talking-head interviews (nothing wrong with those, by the way).

One is a featurette about Jeannette Walls and her mother, the subject of "The Glass Castle." The film features her both Walls and her mother. Kathy Reichs is another featured author.

Will videos like this attract new readers, or only preach to the already-converted? Nobody knows for sure, but this is one more example of how the new media are being used to support the old media. (I've tried to do the same thing with the videos at www.yourwritingcoach.com, to accompany my book of the same name.)