Time to Write

Video for Authors

Publishers Weekly reports that Harper Collins has unveiled plans to launch its own in-house production arm. The studio, which will make internet video, will be, according to the house, "modeled on a newsroom environment." Because most videos will be done in a Q&A style, the shoots will be "conducted on a traditional 'set,' similar to a piece you would watch on a news or entertainment talk show." The studio is planning to make approximately 500 videos annually.

I've just made a little 60-second video to promote my "Your Writing Coach" book (you can see it below--it starts with glimpses of a few places near my home in London). This is just the promo, my next step will be to make some longer videos that also contain useful content as well as a plug for the book.

(For tips and techniques on being more creative and productive, subscribe to my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin now. Just send an email request to [email protected])

What Sells Books? (A surprising answer)

What sells books? A new report from The Bookseller reveals a surprising--and initially depressing--answer: Retail displays and media coverage have overtaken word-of-mouth buzz as the main drivers for book sales.

Here are the stats on what percentage of people get their information from various sources:

* In-store displays: 26%
* Newspaper and magazine reviews: 14%
* Recommendations from friends and family: 12%
* Internet recommendations: 9%
* Advice from shop staff or librarians: 2%

I say this is initially depressing because these days what is displayed is determined largely by how much money the publisher is willing to pay. Getting your book into the window displays costs money, so does getting the book near the front of the store, and even displays like "Our Book of the Month" or "Our New Picks" are revenue-driven (in other words, if you pay, your book suddenly becomes their favorite...). Publishers are willing to pay for this for only a tiny percentage of their titles.

The second most powerful driver, newspaper and magazine reviews, are also difficult to get. There are just so many new books coming out, and many publications have cut back the space they give to book reviews.

So what can authors do? First, there is something not included in the survey but I suspect that the respondents included it as part of the "newspaper and magazine reviews" category. It is articles written about or by authors, on the topic of their book. These articles usually include details about the book. You can pitch articles like this to as many publications as you like, as long as you figure out an angle that will make you and your book interesting to their readers. For instance, in my new book, "Focus: the power of targeted thinking," I reveal a strategy for being more effective at anything you do. It's called "The Alter Ego Strategy," and I'm pitching articles to about half a dozen magazines on how it could be applied to different specific arenas.

Secondly, we can do as much as possible to get our friends and family to recommend the book. This could include having them put information about the book on their MySpace or Facebook pages, blogs, and podcasts if they have those. They could also let their work colleagues know about it, also any social groups they belong to, etc. Don't assume they will do any of this anyway--ask them to do it and make it easy for them to do it (for instance, by giving them flyers for the book).

We can also find out who are the influential bloggers in our field and send them review copies, offer to write articles for their sites, and offer to do interviews for them. I've done this for my "Your Writing Coach" book and have noticed a slow but definite pay-off.

PS: I also find it strange that television wasn't mentioned. So many of the best-selling books these days have some kind of TV tie-in. I suspect that some of that 26% that credit in-store displays may buy because seeing a book that has a TV tie-in displayed triggers the purchase.

Brainstorming Made Specific

This nine-minute video is an interview with business consultant Kevin Coyne, about what he calls "thinking from inside the box." His point is that brainstorming often is so general that the results are all over the place. His suggestion is to focus on a set of specific questions and brainstorm around those. As you'll see, the questions are couched in terms of what a business can do to improve a product or service, but with a bit of creative thinking you will see how it could apply to writers and writing (I plan to do a few posts about my ideas on this in the next week or so):

(For monthly tips and techniques for being more creative, subscribe to my free Brainstorm e-bulletin. Just send an email request to [email protected])

Creating Great Characters

Ever since reading Keith Johnstone's wonderful book, "Impro" (which I recommend to all writers...and all non-writers, for that matter), I've been aware of how big a role the notion of status plays in everybody's life. Two great creations based on the desire for status are Hyacinth Bucket (which she pronounced "Bouquet") and Basil Fawlty of "Fawlty Towers." Now science is confirming the power of status.

In a Japanese study, researchers did brain scans of volunteers who were either winning money at a card game, or being (highly) assessed by strangers. The same part of the brain lit up in both cases.

In terms of your characters, a few useful questions to ask are:

*How do they view their place in the world? Is that also how other people see them? If they over-estimate or under-estimate their place, that can be funny or sad. Charles Dickens used these discrepancies for both comic and tragic effect.

* How do they react when put into an unfamiliar situation? Their behavior will be influenced strongly by their status.

* How does the balance of status (or power) between characters shift over the course of your book or script? Again, such shifts can be great for comedy or drama. A classic dramatic example is the film, "The Servant."

(For more writing tips, see my book, "Your Writing Coach" (Nicholas Brealey Publishing) and the associated website: www.yourwritingcoach.com. The book contains code words that unlock interviews with writers, agents, producers and others on the website.)

The Power of Collaboration

Charles Leadbeater’s book is “We-Think” and it’s about “mass innovation, not mass production.” Below is a four-minute promo for the book that presents the ideas behind the book--some are rather simplistic, but they're worth considering:

I notice he's not giving away the book--but he is giving away the first 3 chapters on this site.

(For tips and techniques for increasing your productivity and creativity, sign up for my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin. Just send an email request now to [email protected])

How to Deal with Rejection or Criticism

As a writer you deal with a lot of criticism, negativity, and rejection. I used to find this very difficult. Actually, I still find it difficult—just less so. One of the things I’ve learned along the way is that some people are negative all the time. I used to know a man who could turn any positive into a negative. When my first book was published he said, “Congratulations! Let’s hope people actually buy it—I’ve read that most books fail.”

I don’t think he was intentionally trying to bring me down, it was just how he saw the world (he dealt with any good news about himself in the same way). It bothered me until I realized that this was his problem, not mine.

If you have such a person in your life, once you recognize their pattern it will lose its power to depress you—but I’d still suggest not spending any more time with them than necessary.

Submitting Your Manuscripts (How Not To...)

The Writing Excuses website features useful fifteen-minute podcasts. I caught one the other day on which Mirrorbooks editor Stacy Whitman revealed some common mistakes that writers make:

* Not following the guidelines (most publishers have these on their websites);

* Saying “My kids read this manuscript and they loved it," and mistaking that for market research;

* Simultaneous submissions. (It’s OK to send simultaneous pitches & sample chapters—but if someone asks for the complete manuscript and says they don’t accept simultaneous submissions, then don’t do it.);

* Not keeping track of your submissions so that you submit the same thing twice to the same editor;

* If writing a children's book, illustrating it yourself (unless you're a professional illustrator, of course) or hiring an artist to do it. Children's book publishers prefer to find the artist themselves;

* Using fancy paper or pretty fonts;

* Turning a manuscript page upside-down or backwards to check whether the editor read that far--it just annoys them.

The One Secret of Writing Success

The Atlanta Constitution-Journal ran an interview with Peter Bowerman, who is a commercial writer and author of "The Well-Fed Writer." There was one sentence that really struck me as showing the key element of success:

"He began his writing career in January 1994 by making more than 1,000 phone calls to seek commercial writing jobs, 'and by May, I was paying all my bills.'"

This is where the rubber meets the road: Action!

A thousand phone calls.

A hundred query letters.

Fifty meetings.

A bunch of manuscripts or screenplays or articles where you learn what you're doing before one sells.

Nothing happens until you take action.

What's the action you can take today to advance toward your writing dream?

(For tips and techniques for being more creative and productive, sign up for my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin--just send an email request now to [email protected])

Amy Tan on Creativity

Novelist Amy Tan ("The Joy Luck Club") was one of the speakers at this year's TED Conference. She spoke entertainingly about the nature of creativity, her own creative process, and the mystery that surrounds the topic:

(For tips and techniques for being more creative and productive, sign up now for my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin. Just send an email request to [email protected])

What are You Aspiring To? (The Copycat Syndrome)

I wanted to share with you one more quote from film director Aaron Rose (see previous post for more info on him). He's talking about film-making today, but I think it applies pretty much to all the arts and maybe beyond:

"I don’t want to come off as a hater – because everyone is entitled to make whatever they want to make, and be successful at it or whatever – but the idea of independent film as it exists today is such a sham, because even the real indie films are just mimicries of Hollywood movies. Even the ones that don’t have stars, and they’re trying to be like, “We made this on a shoestring budget,” still mimic the structure. There’s still this aspiration of being normal, just being the same old film over and over again. There’s not a whole lot of experimentation, in my opinion… but I think that’s in everything. I think the music industry is very similar too. It’s just the times we live in. People have aspirations and they feel their way of doing it is to mimic what’s being done at the top. That’s sad."

The full interview with Aaron Rose is here.

(For once-a-month tips and techniques for being more creative and productive, subscribe to my Brainstorm e-bulletin--it's free. Just send an email request to [email protected])

Rewriting, Re-Editing and Finding the Right Structure for Your Story

Aaron Rose is the director of an independent film called "Beautiful Losers," a documentary about artists. I haven't been able to see it yet but I found an interview with him and the film's editor, Lenny Mesina, of interest, especially their courage in starting over when they realized the film didn't work:

"We were working in a situation that was very uncreative and very unhealthy with editors that were great editors, but it just wasn’t working. We essentially finished what we thought was the film and then just threw it in the garbage. It was just horrible! It had none of the power, none of the spark, none of the laughs, and none of the drama that this film has now. It was a straightforward documentary with voice over – the co-director did the most horrible voice over – it was just a very standard doc.

We had all these experts chiming in about how important this is. We had Brian Grazier, curators from the Whitney museum, Jeffery Deitch, the New York Times art critics, Art in America and all these experts saying, “This is all so important!” It didn’t fit what the art’s about at all or the vibe of the film. So we left that situation and threw that entire cut in the garbage – nine months of work, everyday for eight or nine hours a day. We brought the whole production back to L.A. and found Lenny [Mesina, film editor] and Fernando Villena and it all clicked. From then on it was beautiful."

After scrapping the original version, they found a new structure:

"There was a structure there for sure, but it was composed very non-linearly. I think the structure started to really come together towards the end. We started feeling like, 'Ok, this is what it is!' The early part of the film kind of discombobulates you… for twenty-two minutes into the film there’s no narrative. It just bounces around, you’re in New York, you’re in Nashville, you’re in San Francisco, you’re in Portland, it just shakes your head around and then the narrative hits at twenty minutes. It’s actually a four-act structure. Which is totally not the way you’re supposed to do it… and it totally works. Which goes to dispel that whole myth that you have to have a three-act structure to hit the people emotionally, which is total bullshit, because we have a totally different structure that works just as well."

You can read the whole interview with Aaron Rose and Lenny Mesina here.

(For a regular dose of inspiration and tips on how to be more creative and productive, subscribe now to my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin. Just send an email request to [email protected])

Ray Bradbury and the Santa Barbara Writers Conference

Ray Bradbury is a wonderful writer who fueled my imagination and my desire to be a writer when I was a kid, with books like "Something Wicked This Way Comes," "The Martian Chronicles," and "Fahrenheit 451." He's still going strong at the age of 86 and will once again open the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, June 21-26.

The Barnes & Noble "Meet the Writers" site includes an interview with Ray Bradbury from 2000. Here are a few excerpts:

"On the occasion of his 80th birthday in August 2000, Bradbury said, 'The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter because some new idea has hit me. The feeling I have every day is very much the same as it was when I was twelve. In any event, here I am, eighty years old, feeling no different, full of a great sense of joy, and glad for the long life that has been allowed me. I have good plans for the next ten or twenty years, and I hope you'll come along.'

Do you have any special writing rituals? Every day at 9:00 a.m., for two hours, I begin a new short story, sometimes finishing it, or write an essay or poem. This routine has continued for sixty-five years.

Many writers are hardly "overnight success" stories. How long did it take for you to get where you are today? Any rejection-slip horror stories or inspirational anecdotes? It took me roughly 30 years. It was a long, slow process with a thousand rejections. I'm still getting rejected this late in time. The important thing is to continue writing and continue being in love with books, authors, and libraries.

What tips or advice do you have for writers still looking to be discovered? Fall in love and stay in love. Do what you love and nothing else. Don't look at the market, look into your heart and find what is there and put it down.'"

A warm and wonderful writer. I thought I'd also share with you a bit more information about the Santa Barbara Writers Conference via this interview with its Executive Director--I wish I was going, but maybe you can! Listen to this five-minute interview here:

Finding Time to Write in Short Bursts - a tip

In an interview in Writing Magazine, novelist Santa Montefiore shared a tip with Judith Spelman regarding how to quickly get in the writing mood when you have only a little time. She listens to music:

"She listen to the same track over and over again. Each book has a certain piece of music connected with it so it gets her straight back into the story again. 'If I have only half an hour to write, I put the music on and I'm absolutely back in again. It really helps and it also moves me. I find if I have a moving piece of music I get into the feel. It's like a soundtrack to a movie. You take the music away and the movie is fine but when you have the music in it, it is suddenly very moving. That's why the combination of writing to music makes me feel stronger and helps a lot."

Helpful hint: If there are others in your working area, use headphones!

(Want more tips and techniques for how to be more creative and productive? Get my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin--just send an email request now to [email protected])

Writing at Night

For the night owls reading this, you (we) are not alone. Writer A. L. Kennedy wrote an essay about her nocturnal orientation in The Observer. Here are a couple of excerpts:

“I work at night. I don't just mean I write at night - I am writing this at 1.53am, as it happens - I mean I function at night. After sunset, I think as clearly as I ever will. I want to walk about, play the banjo and wear hats. I want to enjoy being alive in an uninterrupted and possibly creative way. Left to my own devices, I would always keep my office hours between 10pm and 4 or 5am. Sadly, the rest of the world fails to understand this and tends to telephone me most mornings. Traffic noise, hammering next door, unforgiving travel schedules, the necessity of meeting daytime people and purchasing food; they all conspire to drive me from my bed and disturb my natural order, so I spend my life jolting from one kind of jetlag to another.

…Chronic back pain has spent the past 10 or 15 years keeping me highly alert after dusk and ensured that I write lying down. It's a great relief, in every sense, to write - to spend the dark hours in impossible places with people who never were. The pain is suspended and something is made.”

Sudden thought: Maybe the reason that there’s so much vampire literature is that a lot of writers share this characteristic.

(Want tips and techniques on being more creative, regardless of the time of day or night that you write? Get my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin by request to [email protected]. You will also find lots of useful material in my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey.)

How To Brainstorm -- Lessons from Porky Pig

On a site called Hollywood Animation Archive, I found this description by Stephen Worth about how the writers and artists of classic cartoons worked:

“The idea for a cartoon would start with a simple premise- a sentence or two that described the general theme of the cartoon. For example... "Porky is a bullfighter." or "Mickey, Donald and Goofy are ghost exterminators." In the premise there would be no real attempt at describing a plot, just a simple statement of a situation that might offer entertaining possibilities.

Once the premise was chosen, a group of artists would be called together for an initial gag session to come up with ideas. At Warner Bros, this meeting was referred to as a "No No Session", which meant that no one was allowed to say "no" to an idea- any suggestion was fair game. At this stage, the gags were generally isolated variations on the basic theme of the premise, with no attempt to put them into any sort of continuity or plot. The goal was to come up with funny situations that could be expanded upon and reworked into something more specific further down the line.

The artists would sit with pads and pencils or lap boards, jotting down notes and doodling up thumbnail sketches of what the ideas might look like. The sketches might be pinned up on a cork board so the other artists could work gags off if it. One person would be responsible for taking notes for the group, so after the meeting was over, the story man could go back and refresh his memory of a specific gag. As the doodles and notes piled up, certain themes would form, gags would lead to follow up gags and build to "topper gags". A continuity would begin to take shape."

This is a great example of the basic principles of brainstorming:

* Start with a premise - something to brainstorm about
* No negativity allowed (whether it’s a group or just you doing the brainstorming)
* Small ideas are fine—there’s no need for them to make sense or fit together yet
* It's fine to add to or piggyback onto other ideas
* Write down everything

Hey, if it worked for Porky, it can work for us!

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