Time to Write

Tom Perotta on not explaining and not mocking when you write a novel

I enjoyed Tom Perrotta’s novel, “Little Children,” so I was interested to hear that he has a new one out, “The Leftovers.” It’s a bit of a departure for him because at the core of the story is what might be classified as a magical realist event: the disappearance of millions of people in a Rapture-like phenomenon.

Instead of taking a big sci-fi view, he focuses on one suburban community and the aftermath of the event. As he told USA Today, he was not tempted to try to explain what caused the Sudden Departure:

“(Laughs) No. Never the least bit. To me that's always the worst part of any kind of sci-fi scenario, when you discover there was some shift in the Earth's magnetic field or some mysterious virus did something. I understand that desire. It's a very human, rational desire. But to me, the book is about not knowing. As somebody who considers himself an agnostic and feels that we're here on Earth without the answers to the most profound questions of our existence, that, to me, is the human condition.”

And despite being classified as a satirist, Perrotta doesn’t ridicule his characters. He explains:

"I have no interest in mocking them. This has been an interesting part of my literary identity because people think of me as a satirist, and satirists have more of a license to mock. Even the most ridiculous characters, as you say, I try to find a way to identify with them when I'm writing from their perspective. I usually feel implicated to some degree in a lot of what they do. I'm trying to understand why they do what they do and why they're the kind of people that they are."

(You'll find a lot more insights into writing your novel or nonfiction book in "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available now from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

 

A strategy for plotting and creating tension when you write a novel

I love creating characters and writing dialogue, it’s plotting a novel or screenplay that I find the biggest challenge. Therefore I’m always interested to find out how others approach it. It’s not that I think there’s a formula that will work for everybody, but the more we know about how others do it, the more easily we can construct or discover our own.

Here’s what novelist Terry Odell told the Writer’s Knowledge Base Newsletter about her way of working:“…being "trained" in the romance genre, I follow the GMC (Goal, Motivation, Conflict) format. My characters want something. I refuse to give it to them. And I try to find characters whose basic goals don't match at the beginning of the book…

"As a matter of fact, I think that's my basic tension-creating premise. Start with characters who have very simple goals, and then see what it takes to push them farther than they'd ever dream they could go. I prefer not to give them the skill sets they need to solve the problem. That would be too easy. They have to dig deep and discover what they really can do. And you need to have tension on every page, in every paragraph. Your character has to want something (or NOT want something).”

On her blog, Odell wrote several posts about how she did this in one of her novels. You can find that here: http://terryodell.blogspot.com/2011/06/its-about-conflict-and-tension.html

(You will find plenty of helpful and practical guidance to writing your novel in my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nichoas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

 

Douglas Kennedy on how to write well and consistently

On his podcast, Matt Lewis interviewed Douglas Kennedy, who has written ten novels (including “Leaving the World”) and three travel books. He says he has a mathematical method for writing: two pages, 500 words, a day, five days a week, with four weeks off, yielding close to 500 pages.

He was 39 when his first novel was published and it was his fifth book that broke through.  Even after writing thirteen, every new book is a new challenge.

He points out, “In the ‘American Idol’ culture … Simon Cowell will pass his blessings on you and you will get a recording contract and suddenly you’re Leona Lewis,” Kennedy said. “But basically most things happen through work.”

He believes guilt is a good motivator--for instance guilt about not hitting your quota for the day. He says one of the key questions facing every aspiring writers is, “Can you talk yourself into doing this every day?”

[My note: although this is a good way to get your work done, not every writer does write every day; some write in bursts and find it helpful to take time off to re-fill their minds in between writing sessions.]

Kenneday also believes that a bit of anxiety is helpful to keeping a certain edge—even though his books sell 300,000 copies hardcover in France (where he lives part of the year) and movies have been made of several of his novels, he still worries that it will all end.

By the way, I like his comparison of selling the movie rights to your novel to selling your child to Romanian gypsies. This may have been prompted by the fact that a dark novel of his was turned into a musical comedy.

If you’d like to hear the entertaining interview, it’s at Matt Lewis’s podcast:

 http://dailycaller.com/2011/09/08/douglas-kennedy-on-writing-well/

(If you want some easy to implement techniques for making time to write, get my book, "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done". It's published by Pearson and you can get it now from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

How writers and bloggers are promoting each other as the moon falls into the ocean

The Bath Festival of Children’s Literature came up with a unique storytelling project: a collaborative story by twenty top children’s authors, with each new chapter revealed on a different blog site. It’s going on as this is written, and ends on 16 October 2011. The first instalment is at the Festival’s blog, http://bathkidslitfest.wordpress.com/,  and you can follow it from there.

It starts with a chapter written by Rachel Beckwith, and begins with the sentence, “It was the day the moon fell into the sea.” The second instalment is by the Etherington Brothers, and includes drawings as well as text (above). 

If you’re interested in writing for children, I think you’ll find it instructive. For instance, notice whether the chapters follow on well from what went before, or whether the next author is more inclined to turn it in their own direction.

It’s also an interesting model for self-promotion. If you have a new book, for instance, are there bloggers who might want be interested in featuring a series of excerpts, each one leading to the next? Or individual bloggers might be willing to feature an excerpt, if your subject relates to theirs.

 (Do you want fresh ideas for marketing your writing? Get a copy of my book, "Do Something Different," published by Virgin Books with a foreword by Sir Richard Branson. You can get it from Amazon or your other favorite online or offline bookseller.)

 

For writers whose work has been rejected: read this!

Kathryn Stockett’s “The Help” has been hugely successful both as a novel and as a film. In an article on Shine (part of Yahoo), she talks about the rejections she got along the way.

The first rejection came from an agent who said “the manuscript did not sustain my interest.” Instead of despairing, Stockett went back to editing to make the story more riveting.

A few months later she sent it out to agents again. Fifteen more rejections. By eighteen months the number of rejections totalled 40. She says the one that finally made her cry said, “There is no market for this kind of tired writing.” Talk about a slap in the face!

She continued rewriting. She even started “cheating” on her husband: “I started lying to my husband. It was as if I were having an affair—with 10 black maids and a skinny white girl. After my daughter was born, I began sneaking off to hotels on the weekends to get in a few hours of writing. I’m off to the Poconos! Off on a girls’ weekend! I’d say. Meanwhile, I’d be at the Comfort Inn around the corner. It was an awful way to act, but—for God’s sake—I could not make myself give up.”

The rejections continued. Sixty in all.

Submission number 61 was to agent Susan Ramer.

She took on the book.

Three weeks later she sold it to Amy Einhorn books.

Here’s what Stockett says about the moral of the story: “The point is, I can’t tell you how to succeed. But I can tell you how not to: Give in to the shame of being rejected and put your manuscript—or painting, song, voice, dance moves, [insert passion here]—in the coffin that is your bedside drawer and close it for good. I guarantee you that it won’t take you anywhere. Or you could do what this writer did: Give in to your obsession instead.”

Don’t kid yourself—the rejections will hurt. I’ve been a full-time writer for a long time. I know that rejections come with the territory. You know what? That doesn’t make it any easier.

My last rejection came at the tail end of a lot of encouraging correspondence from the publisher in question. It all looked like it was going to happen—but it didn’t. I was depressed about it for weeks.

It’s taken a bit of time, but now I’m going to start submitting the project again. As Stockett says, “What if I had given up at 15? Or 40? Or even 60?”

If your work has been rejected, join me.

Back to our obsessions!

(If you have lost focus with your writing or your work habits in general, you'll find friendly guidance and a wealth of practical tips in my book, "Focus: Use the power of targeted thinking to get more done." It's published by Pearson and you can order it now from Amazon or another bookseller.)

 

How to mix genres to write fresh novels or short stories

Often something new is a combination of two existing things. One example in the writing world comes from author Spencer Quinn. He combined dog books with mysteries. He’s now on the fourth novel in the Chet and Bernie mystery series.

Bernie is the private eye, Chet is his big mixed-breed dog, whose thoughts we get to hear. Notice which one gets first billing.

The fourth novel in the series is “The Dog Who Knew Too Much” and it’s about the search for a lost boy. As you might guess, there’s a lot of humour as well as the darker notion of a missing child.

Whether or not this is your cup of tea, the point is that Quinn has come up with a nice twist on the mystery genre—and it’s working.

Another example is the work of Terry Odell (“When Danger Calls”). In the Writers Knowledge Base Newsletter, she says, “I like to think of my books as "Mysteries with Relationships" although the publishing industry calls them Romantic Suspense. I think with the explosion of the indie market, it's easier to blend genres. Readers like a wider variety of genres and subject matter than the NY print publishers are willing to risk money on. I have one 'straight' mystery that was rejected by publishers because they said it was a blend of police procedural and cozy. I'm seriously considering publishing that one myself, because I think readers won't mind the crossover.”

What twist could you add to your writing that could expand its appeal?

(Want more ways to come up with fresh ideas? Get a copy of my book, "Creativity Now!". It's published by Pearson and available from Amazon and other booksellers now.)

What all kinds of writers can learn from Mills & Boon

The Independent recently ran an article about a contest sponsored by Mills and Boon, the romance novel publisher.

This genre is big business: M&B publishes 60 books every month and they have 1200 authors around the world (“currently all women,” the article says—surely not!).

The authors are paid in royalties which vary from £2000 ($3000) to £30,000 ($50,000) per book.

M&B accepts unsolicited manuscripts and reads all of them. However, they get more than 4000 submissions a year and only 20 of those are published (the rest come from repeat authors, many of whom write six a year).

The article features five tips from Penny Jordan, author of 170 M& B titles. They are basic but useful for fiction writers to consider regardless of genre:

1 Grab the reader's attention in the first line and introduce the hero and heroine by the end of the first page.

2 Convincing dialogue is crucial. Speak it out loud to make sure that it sounds right and flows easily.

3 SEX = Sensuality, Emotion and a certain amount of X factor. Balance the physical aspects of any sex scenes with the emotional intensity of what the characters are feeling.

4 There must be a strong element of conflict between the heroine and the hero, but they will come to value their love more than their differences. Restrict the plot to the hero and heroine; there is little room for secondary characters in a story of 50,000 words.

5 Believe in your characters; let them take over.

I’m always amused when I hear a writer make fun of books like this, claiming they could write them easily if only they could stoop so low. All the ones I know who have tried have failed. It may not be your genre (it’s not mine) but writing any genre well—meaning in a way that appeals to its target readership—is not easy and not to be sneered at.

(You'll find useful guidance on writing in any genre in my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon and other booksellers.)

 

What did you learn this week?

In one of the newsletters to which I subscribe the editor mentioned that he's going to start an exercise of writing "what I learned this week," mostly just for his own purposes. Sounded like a great idea to me, but then I had this thought: what if I didn't learn anything this week? That would pretty embarrassing.

However, he pointed out that these do not need to be Earth Shaking Truths, just observations. So here's what I've learned this week (more or less a week anyway):

People are surprisingly hostile sometimes when they leave comments on the internet. I'd observed this before on other people's blogs, but it hadn't happened to me yet. It did the other day in response to one of my posts here, and kind of took me aback. Of course when people over-react it's more a comment on them than on you.

I think I kept my response temperate, but now, thinking it over, I should have stuck to Alexander Woocott's favorite rejoinder when anybody sent him an angry letter. He just wrote back, "You could be right." And went on about his business.

Want to share anything you've learned this week? Feel free to leave a comment. Even a hostile one. After all, you could be right.

One door closes, another door opens for writers

If you want to write for magazines you may be dismayed at how many of them have closed or are in decline. However, there's also some good news: online-only magazines are starting to catch on.

One example: Lonny, started by Michaelle Adams and Patrick Cline  two years ago. The bi-monthly “shelter” (home decor) magazine now boasts 30 million page views and 200,000 unique visitors a month. One big draw: it’s free. But those numbers make it an attractive proposition for advertisers like Bloomingdales and Crate and Barrel.

As reported in USA Today, Lonny’s success led to a partnership to create Trad Home, an online version of Traditional Home (print) magazine. That resulted in more than 16 million page views in just five weeks.

It’s part of a shift to reaching younger people who are not as attached to print and who are totally comfortable in the digital world.

The good news is that online magazines need just as much content as traditional ones, meaning work for writers. And here’s a bit of irony: the success of Lonny online has the publishers considering doing a print version as well.

If you want to check out Lonny, you’ll find it at www.lonnymag.com.

Larry David's Rules of Life

 

Just for fun today, here's a compilation of Larry David's rules for life, comprised of clips from "Curb Your Enthusiasm." It was put together by Samantha Zalaznick for New York Magazine. Enjoy, and if you like this post, share it with somebody--that's the rule! 

 

Cinemagraphics: little moments from movies

What you see below, from the movie "Brazil," is an example of Cinemagraphics, tiny moments of motion created as gifs (Graphics Information Format). You'll find more of these, as well as some great still photographs, at www.gusmantel.com. Very cool, don't you think?

 

 

An inspiring letter to artists (it's good for writers, too)

On the Letters of Note site I spotted this letter written by Pixar artist Austin Madison to encourage others struggling to do good work:

May 17, 2011

To Whom it May Inspire, 

I, like many of you artists out there, constantly shift between two states. The first (and far more preferable of the two) is white-hot, "in the zone" seat-of-the-pants, firing on all cylinders creative mode. This is when you lay your pen down and the ideas pour out like wine from a royal chalice! This happens about 3% of the time. 

The other 97% of the time I am in the frustrated, struggling, office-corner-full-of-crumpled-up-paper mode. The important thing is to slog diligently through this quagmire of discouragement and despair. Put on some audio commentary and listen to the stories of professionals who have been making films for decades going through the same slings and arrows of outrageous production problems. 

In a word: PERSIST.

PERSIST on telling your story. PERSIST on reaching your audience. PERSIST on staying true to your vision. Remember what Peter Jackson said, "Pain is temporary. Film is forever." And he of all people should know. 

So next time you hit writer's block, or your computer crashes and you lose an entire night's work because you didn't hit save (always hit save), just remember: you're never far from that next burst of divine creativity. Work through that 97% of murky abyssmal mediocrity to get to that 3% which everyone will remember you for!

I guarantee you, the art will be well worth the work! 

Your friend and mine, 

Austin Madison

"ADVENTURE IS OUT THERE!"

(If you encounter a block, you'll find help in my book, "Your Writing Coach," available from Amazon and other online and offline book sellers.)

 

How getting beat up by Oprah set this writer free

You probably remember the controversy around James Frey, whose “The Million Little Pieces” was published as a memoir but was found to contain fictional elements. He was heavily criticized, not least by Oprah, who'd had him on once to promote his book, once to sort of defend him, and a third time to give him a good (verbal) going over. 

In this three-minute video he talks about how the incident actually set him free. 

 

 

If you want to write a screenplay, get this free ebook

I've contributed a chapter on screenwriting to a new ebook that's yours for free. It's called "The Modern Moviemaking Movement," and it's the brainchild of my friend Jason Brubaker.

Jason's site is www.FilmMakingStuff.com, and he's a young, smart, ambitious film-lover/film-maker/film distribution consultant who is on top of the new developments in film-making that have brought what used to be the preserve of the big studios into the realm of possibility for individuals and small groups. 

He's corraled some great people to contribute their expertise on all aspects of the new filmmaking movement: not just writing, but financing, production, and distribution.

Even if you only want to write screenplays, you need to be aware of where filmmaking is going because it's having a major effect on writers as well as everybody else in the field. 

You can get your free copy here: http://www.ModernMovieMaking.com. It has already been downloaded more than 10,000 times, so don't miss the boat!

When you've had a chance to read it, let me know what you thought, either as a comment to this post or directly at [email protected].

 

 

Writers: is this a crisis, an opportunity--or both?

We are in the middle of tumultuous times for writers.

No, print is not dead, but the pace of change has surprised almost everyone. People are moving over to ebooks and online news sites at a very fast clip.

“So what?” some people say. “It’s just a different delivery system. Content will always be king.”

I wonder if they’ve been paying attention to the music business: About 95 percent of music downloads in 2010 were unlicensed and illegal, with no money flowing back to artists, songwriters or record producers, according to a spokesman for the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

But what about that guy who sold a million copies of his novels on Kindle? And that young woman who writes Twilight type novels, she’s made a small fortune, too. There’s gold in digital!

Yep, and they’ve done it by selling massive quantities at a very low price—99 cents to $1.99. Have you looked at the Kindle offerings lately? Almost everybody except the already well-known writers has jumped on that 99 cent price point.

How many of them do you think are going to sell a million copies and how many do you think are going to sell 100 copies and take home $100?

In the meantime, we’re training readers to expect new digital books to cost 99 cents.

At the news and feature story end of things, Arianna Huffington sold her huge site, The Huffington Post, to AOL for $315 million…and the contributing bloggers got…nothing.

One of the bloggers has initiated a class action lawsuit asking for $105 million to go to the bloggers, but Huffington says the internet has changed the way writers work and that “Free content — shared by people who want to connect, share their passions, and have their opinions heard — fuels much of what appears on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Yelp, Foursquare, TripAdvisor, Flickr and YouTube.”

Whether or not this suit has legal merit, the point is that everything is trending toward free. It’s not yet clear whether publications fighting that with a paywall will succeed.

It may sound like I’m complaining about all this, but I’m not.

It is what it is.

If you try to fight reality, you lose.

My point is that we writers had better be paying attention.

If we are happy writing for free, fine; but if we want to make a living from it, we’d better apply our creativity to figuring out how to get ahead of that wave instead of finding ourselves carried along behind it—with empty pockets. How can we ply our trade in a different way, one that people are happy to pay for?

I wish I had the answers; all I have are a few clues that might help us figure it out.

One is the Grateful Dead model. The band didn’t just allow people at their concerts to make bootleg recordings, they actually encouraged it and made their money from concerts and merchandise. Is there a way that writers can give away part of what they do but create a more exclusive experience for those willing to pay?

It’s also worth keeping an eye on the current music scene—which bands or artists are finding new ways to earn income and how are they doing it?

Actually, I've just run across an example: Unbound Books uses a crowdfunding model (where people pledge a certain amount of money toward the production of a book, with rewards that escalate as the size of the pledge increases). Typically a small pledge gets you a signed copy of the book, a bit more might get you some exclusive videos of the author talking about the book's background, and so on.

Rupert Isaacson (author of"The Horse Boy") is taking it a step further by offering one radomly selected person who has pledged at any level for his new book the chance to spend half a day trail riding with him through the countryside that's the setting for his Unbound historical novel.

Another interesting development is the growth of interactive and site-specific theater. It’s not that the audience determines the plot but in some cases they mingle with the actors at a location where the drama plays out. Is there an equivalent for writers?

Another is the Banksy phenomenon, of art appearing unpredictably and gaining value from a sense of mystery. Again, could there be a counterpart for authors?

Finally, I’ve noticed more situations in which musicians and writers, especially poets, collaborate to create interesting products and events. Who else could authors collaborate with and what could they create together that people would pay for?

Another example from Unbound is a live event they're having on Sept. 12 at which ten authors will pitch their new projects and there will be a trapeze act and a band as well as a special surprise guest. TV crews from Channel 4 News, the BBC and Sky Arts will be filming at the event. The organizers are charging £20, which includes a £10 voucher to pledge to any of the ten authors on the night.

If you have any ideas, please add them here in a comment, or email me directly at jurgenwolff(at)gmail.com and I’ll feature them in a future post.

(One thing for sure is that we also have to get smarter about marketing our work. You may find two of my books helpful for that: "Do Something Different," published by Virgin Books with a foreword by Sir Richard Branson, and "Marketing for Entrepreneurs," published by Pearson. Both are available from Amazon and other online and offline book sellers.)