Time to Write

Marketing Books (The Penguin Lets You Peek)

Penguin Publishing has consistently been ahead of the curve in innovative digital initiatives, and their website both looks and is user-friendly. Their newest innovation: they are planning to offer free downloads of the first chapter of every fiction title they publish. The downloads can be to your computer, iPhone, Palm or Blackberry. My only concern is that it takes away one more reason for people to go to their local bookshop (although I’m sure most of us will still enjoy browsing actual books).

If nothing else, it’ll give us a great chance to see how other authors hook (or fail to hook) readers with their first sentence, first page, and first chapter.

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Dealing With Rejection (Harley Brown says...)

Rejection goes with the territory of being a writer, but that doesn't make it easier to take. But here's an encouraging quote by a wonderful artist named Harley Brown. This is what he wrote about discouragement in the arts world--as you'll see, it applies to pretty much any creative endeavor:

"Discouragement runs in the art world. A few rejections are all some artists need to end their dreams. It was my good fortune that I was quite immune to giving up as an artist. My life as an artist was very simple: I painted all the time and people didn't buy my works most of the time. But that equation slowly turned around. Here's the Real World: There are many people who want skillful, original, intuitive art. If you can eventually develop yourself into that category, they will beat a path to your door."

Well, sometimes they go next door by mistake, but I also do believe sometimes they show up. And if they don't, I guess we have to beat a path to THEIR door.

(PS" If you are lucky enough to come across a copy of Harley Brown's book, "Confessions of a Starving Artist," snap it up!)

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Writing Good Scenes: Can A Scene Be So Good It Ruins a Script or Book?

Can having a scene that’s too good cause a script or a book to fail? Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? But it’s true. For a clue as to why, here’s a quote from brilliant illustrator Quentin Blake, from an interview in Artists & Illustrators magazine. He’s talking about illustrating books, but I think you’ll see how it applies to scripts and books as well:

“When you’re doing a sequence of illustrations, which you often are, students often found it hard to think of the drawings as a sequence. They would work terribly hard at one, which may help that drawing but wouldn’t help the sequence. The result might be eight drawings that looked like eight separate book covers but didn’t relate to each other. So you need to think about the sequence in the book and the sequence in your work.”

I’ve seen the same thing happen with writing: individual scenes are great, but the writer has not taken the time to consider how they will work together--after all, a movie is a continuous process (as is reading a novel). One key thing to think about is the emotional impact of going from one scene to the next. Do you want the switch to cause a jolt of surprise? Or do you want a sequence of scenes to create and deepen one mood? Or do you want the next scene to cause the audience to re-think what they just saw or read in the previous scene?

To really get the hang of this, watch a film that you love and watch it again, or re-read one of your favorite novels, this time paying attention to how the scenes affect each other.

(For more tips on writing, check out my two websites: www.yourwritingcoach.com and www.timetowrite.com. You can also subscribe to my Brainstorm e-bulletin on creativity & productivity by email request to [email protected])

How to be More Creative (Melancholy = Creativity?)

Eric G. Wilson is an English professor at Wake Forest University and the author of “Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy.” In a brief interview with the Chicago Tribune, he explained his key concept:

“I really feel strongly that Americans’ addiction to happiness is dangerous. In some ways, it’s leading to a kind of superficiality and vapidity that cuts away a lot of contemplation, that cuts away a lot of creativity.
Ultimately, I feel the book says (that) to stand against happiness, to push against happiness, is to open up the possibility for what I call joy, which I distinguish from happiness. To me, joy grows out of melancholy, the idea being that a fully lived, fully human life is a complex mixture between joy and sorrow, and that’s ultimately what makes us human. So my book is really a call to live a deeper, possibly more ecstatic, energized, vital life by sitting with and by exploring melancholy.”

Hmm, maybe I should turn off my SAD light and stop taking the St. John’s Wort. What do you think of Wilson’s premise?

Marketing Your Writing (Warning: New Media Has Arrived)

If you’re interested in how new media are being used to publicize books, have a look at the New Media Minute for 03.03.08 with Daisy Whitney. Examples: Scott Siglar’s “Infected” will be using a free podcast of the book and a video trailer and Putnam and Michael Eisner are creating a web series that is a prequel to the next Robin Cook novel.

A comment to that posting lead me to a half-hour audio file (hosted on a WGA Strike site) about “Retooling HarperCollins for the 21st Century. It’s a keynote presentation by Brian Murray, Group President for Harper Collins Publishers, recorded in June of 2007--I think there’s a lot in it of interest to individual writers as well.

He talks about digital infrastructure, marketing initiatives, building traffic, and new revenue streams.

One of the biggest changes is that the new media give publishers (and writers) the chance to establish a direct relationship with readers. Are you doing this? Could you?

Writing Great Settings (a new way to research)

When you’re setting a story, novel, or screenplay in a location you’ve never visited, what’s the best way to find information? Of course the ideal solution is to go visit it, but now the internet offers a great new second-best. I’m not talking about the official websites that cities and countries put up, although those can be useful, too. But they tend to stick to describing the most obvious tourist locations, not necessarily the offbeat or minor details that make a place come alive on the page.

The resource I’m referring to is personal blogs. Millions of people are chronicling their daily lives on the internet now. Most of the time, their only readers are their relatives and friends but there’s nothing to stop you from having a look, too. They’ll talk about the restaurants they went to, the weather, their parking problems and lots of other details that be extremely helpful to getting a sense of a place.

How to find them? Try searching for the name of the city or town or even the neighborhood with Google. Also use Google Alerts—you type in a term, and Google sends you a daily email roundup of websites and blogs in which that term was mentioned. When you find a relevant blog, follow it for a while. Leave some comments, and if you have a question about the location, just email the person—most likely they’ll be delighted to help you.

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Writing and "The Day Job"

One more great observation from Robin Abrahams from the Miss Conduct blog, this one about balancing writing with another job:

“…Don't let the day job get you down. Don't daydream of the time when you'll be able to do nothing but focus on your ‘real’ writing. Because your readers will still be working in those day jobs, and you'll relate to them better, and they to you, if you have experiences in common.

Take notes on corporate absurdity. Stop complaining about people yakking loudly into their cell phones and soak up the rhythm of their speech…”

She also emphasizes the need to keep feeding your mind. She advises:

“Learn about gardening, cognitive psychology, wolf behavior, Hinduism, pre-Columbian art, Kierkegaard, commedia dell'arte, cheesemaking.

If you expend a lot of energy, but don't get enough nutrition, eventually your body will burn through your fat reserves and start cannibalizing muscle. This is bad. If you keep writing, but don't feed your mind and heart with enough life experience and book learning, a similar process will happen. Don't let it. And for heaven's sake don't yearn for the day when that will happen, and think that it signifies your birth as a ‘real" writer.’”

I'll second that--the minute you write, you're real enough!

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What's the Best Age to Start Writing?

Of course any age at which you feel driven to write is the right age, but sometimes people who didn’t start to write when they were young wonder whether it’s too late. It’s not, and it can even be an advantage. Writing in Miss Conduct’s blog, Robin Abrahams said this:

“I'm 40, and only now can I begin to say that writing is my career. (I don't make my entire living off the Miss Conduct enterprise--I also work part-time as a researcher at Harvard Business School, but that's mostly writing, too, and usually about stuff I'm interested in, so I say it counts.) Sometimes I get a little anxious about that, wishing I'd got started sooner, worrying about my career trajectory. Forty is young but it's not young enough to be the Bright Young Thing anymore--at 40 you can't exactly be considered "precocious" for anything other than a Presidential run or menopause.

But all that stuff I did before I became Miss Conduct in 2005--the theater, the comedy, the graduate school, the bureaucracy, the freelancing, the catering, the housecleaning, the stuff I don't talk about unless I've had a martini or two--I wouldn't be the writer I am without those things.”

So if you’re past the ‘bright young thing’ category, don’t be afraid to start, because you’ve been building up a lot of great raw material.

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Why You Should Be Unreasonable

A book I’ve enjoyed reading recently is Paul Lemberg’s “Be Unreasonable,” published last year by McGraw-Hill. It seems especially appropriate for writers. Here are some of Lemberg’s key points:

• Act on the possibility of things. Being unreasonable is about acting on the possibility of great things without worrying about the probability of success.

• You know what you should be doing. So do it. You don’t need more gurus and pundits to tell you what to do. Take action.

• Often the most transformative ideas come spontaneously and unbidden. Then, reasonable thinking kills them. Don’t let it do that.

• You don’t have to do something just because someone says you should. Ask, “Why should I?” whenever the conversation turns to shoulds and shouldn’ts. Should is the road to mediocrity. “Why should I?” is the first step toward majesty.

• While people believe that systems are the death knell for creativity, the opposite is true. Systemized companies standardize the routine, relieving people’s minds of trying to figure it out each and every day. Instead of focusing on the commonplace, people’s minds are free to consider the extraordinary. Creativity soars.

If these ideas speak to you, check out the whole book.

Creative Secrets of An Advertising Guru Revealed

Recently I had the pleasure of giving a talk at a Creative Summit at the BBC. One of the other speakers was top adman David Droga, now head of his own innovative agency, Droga5 (he was speaking via satellite from New York). In response to a question, Droga revealed the creative process they use:

1. Decide what emotions they want to evoke;

2. Get together a wide range of people to work together right from the start--creatives, tech people, etc.;

3. Manage the massive insecurities and egos of the people working on the challenge so everybody feels they are being heard and will keep contributing;

4. Refine the goal--a totally open brief can be too intimidating;

5. Don't fall in love with the first idea, even if it seems like a great solution. Force yourself to keep going and writing;

6. Skepticism can be healthy, it prevents blind optimism and exposes flaws or weaknesses that can be addressed;

7. When it's time to sell the client, you can't sell on creativity, but you can sell on WHY you got to the solution you're proposing.

All good stuff for creative endeavors of all kinds!

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Smart Writers Talking About Writing (great video)

Another great new excuse to do something other than write! It’s the launch of titlepage.tv, which kicks off with an hour-long chat with and between writers Richard Price, Colin Harrison, Susan Choi, and Charles Bock. Intelligent talk about books and writing—can’t beat that for displacement activity!

And if you need another reason to procrastinate, there's an interview with cult novelist J. G. Ballard at the Waterstones site (www.waterstones.com/ballard). Scroll down slightly to see the video window.

If you want to watch this with better resolution, go here.

Writing a Novel: Richard Price Reveals...

One of my favorite contemporary novelists is Richard Price, whose “Freedomland” is a great read (if not a great movie). He’s also a screenwriter whose credits include "Color of Money.”

His new novel is “Lush Life.” I haven’t read it yet but I enjoyed this interview with Richard Price on the new Barnes & Noble Studio site (which looks like it’s going to be a great place to spend some time.

If you want some great examples of using details to reveal place and character, Price is a great model. In the interview he talks about his approach to research by just hanging around. He also reveals "the only good thing that came out of screenwriting" for him (other than the money). And although he's noted for great dialogue, he acknowledges the supremacy of structure.

(For free monthly tips on creativity and productivity, subscribe to our Brainstorm e-bulletin -- just send an email request to [email protected])

Is It Good? (The Quincy Jones Test)

I heard a podcast the other day with the great Quincy Jones. He was asked how he knew that a song or album was going to be a hit. He said that some people in the music business believe in using focus groups and other research strategies, but his approach is different. He said,

“I believe in goosebumps.”

His belief is that if something you create gives you goosebumps, the chances are it’ll do the same for others.

Amen.

(for tips and techniques on creativity, sign up for our free monthly creativity & productivity e-bulletin--just send a request to [email protected].)

A Surprise Post and How a Writer found Success

What a nice surprise to find this post on YouTube! The writer she refers to in the video was Wayne Dyer, and the book was "Your Erroneous Zones." He spent six months doing what she describes. He has become a multi-millionaire, all based on the success of that first book.

A Songwriting Tip that Works for Other Writers, Too

The Colorado Springs Independent features a brief interview about songwriting with up-and-coming musician and scriptwriter Joshua Radin. They asked how his background in screenwriting impacts his songwriting. His answer:

“Screenwriting is a visual medium. Even though you're writing words on paper, you still have to show it, not tell it, so when it came to writing songs, I just think visually. So if I'm writing about a breakup or something, the things that come into my head are what the girl was wearing or what the sky looked like.”

A good tip for any kind of writing.