There are a variety of sites on which authors can showcase their work and get feedback from readers. At one of the biggest, Wattpad, readers can comment on your work, follow you, and vote for their favorites.
The site is geared mostly toward fiction for teens and young adults. One of the stars of Wattpad is Jerilee Kaye. She had more than ten million readers and more than 11,000 comments for Knight in Shining Suit, her chick-lit/romance novel.
That attracted attention from some traditional publishers, but she decided to go the independent route. She self-published the ebook using Smashwords (a popular self-publishing site), with a price of $2.99. She left ten chapters on Wattpad as a sample and to ensure the book’s continued presence on the site. She also created a trade paperback edition with CreateSpace (an arm of Amazon).
If ten million people had already read it on Wattpad for free, would there be anybody left to buy it?
The answer was a resounding yes. It is one of Smashwords’ top twenty-five bestselling titles ever. That didn’t happen by accident, though. Kaye told Publishers Weekly that getting reviews from bloggers, advertising on Goodreads and doing a paperback giveaway with them, and interacting with her readers online all were critical to her success. She also posted more material on Wattpad, which found new readers, some of whom then bought her book.
This is not the usual experience for a self-published author but it shows that having had free exposure for a book on a site like Wattpad can work for you rather than against you.
I see that somebody has an ebook out called "8 Hour Bestseller: How to Write Your Bestselling Book in Record Time." I guess in an era of the supposed 4-hour work week, 8 hours is a long time.
The author says his ebook will show you how to write 2000 words an hour. Wait a minute, that means your book will be only 16,000 words long. That's kind of short. Oh wait, his book has a print length of 59 pages. Allowing for the title page, table of contents, etc. probably it's only 50 pages...times, say, 300 words per page...equals 15,000 words. OK, I guess he considers that a book.
Oh wait, his book has a print length of 59 pages. Allowing for the title page, table of contents, etc. probably it's only 50 pages... times, say, 300 words per page...equals 15,000 words. OK, I guess he considers that a book.
By the way, his definition of "bestseller" is a book that reaches number one in its category on Amazon, which isn't hard to do if you get a bunch of people to buy your book at the same time. It has no relationship to the normal definition of bestseller.
I don't necessarily mean to be harsh with this author, it may be that his book has lots of useful information. What annoys me is the emphasis on how to write a book in the fastest possible time, rather than one that actually is as good as you can make it...and that won't happen in 8 hours.
If you want to write a book, you'll find friendly guidance in my book, Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from your favorite bookseller. Warning: it emphasizes quality over speed..
The interpretation of these rules is mine, not the Dalai Lama’s, but I hope I’ve stayed within the spirit of his intention.
1: Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk
Yes, there’s a chance nobody will want to publish your book or buy your screenplay. If you self-publish, there’s a possibility few will buy your book. But if you are passionate about writing, these risks are worth it.
2: When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
Rejection is part of the writing process. Sometimes it doesn’t even take someone else to reject our work, we may realize when a project is done that it’s not our best work and put it aside. But there are lessons within each rejection, whether they be about writing or marketing, and if we can gain those, we’ve not lost.
3: Follow the three Rs:
Respect for self
If writing is important to you, go for it even if others are sceptical or unsupportive. Respect your dream.
Respect for others
There will always be people who don’t get it. These could be family members who don’t understand why you’re spending so much time on something they can’t relate to, or editors who fail to appreciate your work, or people who make rude or stupid comments on your blog or in a review. Don’t waste time trying to win them over. Respect their right to have an opinion…and your right to ignore it. But also be open to the possibility that sometimes criticism stated the wrong way may still have something useful at its core.
Responsibility for all your actions
If you’re not writing, it’s nobody else’s fault. Yes, you have pressures and demands but many who have had as many or more obstacles have managed to write books and scripts and plays.
4: Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
There are many successful writers who desperately wanted their first novel to be published and it wasn’t. Years later they look back and say thank goodness, because it wasn’t good enough. Had it been published, probably it would have failed and delayed their eventual success.
5: Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
The so-called rules of writing have evolved from the experience of many writers over many years, and they will stand you in good stead most of the time. Once you understand them, you can feel free to experiment and break them.
6: Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
Never ask for anyone's opinion about your work unless you're ready to hear it--good or bad--and not let negative feedback affect your relationship. As I said above, some people in your life won't get it. If you value those people for other reasons, keep your writing life as separate as possible from your interactions with them.
We all know how it goes: resolutions are made on January 1st and generally they’re forgotten by February 1st. If we don’t take action, we’ll end 2015 making exactly the same resolutions again. That doesn’t mean you’re lazy or lack ambition, it means you’re human and nobody’s helped you do it right.
HERE’S WHAT NOT TO DO
Do not just try to do the same thing, only this time on February 1st! It didn’t work in January, it’s not going to work in February or March or April. There’s a better way.
FOUR SIMPLE STEPS? REALLY?
How come books on achieving your goals make it so complicated? Well, you wouldn’t pay for a book as short as this email, would you? People have to pad it out and give it some kind of fancy name so that you’ll hand over some money. I make my money doing other stuff, so I can be concise. I’m not selling anything. Weird, huh?
IMAGINE IT’S NEXT NEW YEAR’S EVE
Imagine it’s New Year’s Eve, 2015. What’s the ONE THING you want to have be different? What do you want to feel proud that you did? For instance:
* you got your weight and fitness levels where you want them
* you started your own business
* you wrote that book you’ve been thinking about
* you improved your relationship with your kids
* you learned a new language
* you got your finances in order
STEP ONE. Complete this sentence, in writing:
“By the end of this year, the one thing I definitely want to achieve is________________________.”
That doesn’t mean you can’t achieve other things as well, but this is going to be your highest priority, so pick something you’d really be proud to have done. If you achieve it in less than a year, great! You can move on to your next goal.
BIG RESULTS COME FROM SMALL STEPS
You’ve heard the saying, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Well, it continues with a single step, too. Lots of single steps.
One of the main reasons people fail to achieve their resolutions is they don’t chunk down their goal into small enough bits. They start out big--maybe taking an hour a day to exercise, for instance...but then life takes over. The stuff you used to do in the time you’re now spending on exercising still needs to be done, so you fall behind. And before you know it, it’s too hard to keep up the new effort and you stop.
STEP TWO. Fill in these two sentences once a week, in writing:
This week, here’s what I’m going to do to move toward my goal during just one session of 15 minutes a day:________________________________________. To make this possible here’s what i’m going to do 15 minutes a day less: __________________________________.
First, what can you achieve in only 15 minutes? If you’re learning a language, you can learn a new word or two. If you want to write a book, you can jot down notes about the plot, the characters, the theme. If you want to improve your relationship with somebody, you can spend 15 minutes a day listening--not talking or judging or giving advice, just listening--to them. If you want to get your finances in order, you can set up a filing system and use it on all the receipts and other documents that are in a big jumble at the moment.
The reason you fill in these sentences once a week is that what you will be doing will change as you make progress. Once you’ve spent a few weeks jotting down general ideas about your book, you may decide to spend that 15 minutesa day working on the main plot points. Once you’ve learned a bunch of new words in another language you may decide to spend 15 minutes a day listening to audio lessons on how to form simple sentences, Most of the time you’ll find it easy to figure out the next logical thing to do.
Second, what can you do less of? If you’re getting more than 7 or 8 hours a night of sleep, you can sleep 15 minutes less. Set your alarm 15 minutes earlier, or go to bed 15 minutes later. Or you may choose to eliminate 15 minutes a day of TV, Facebook or Twitter time, or something else. There isn’t anybody who can’t find a spare fifteen minutes a day.
YOUR MEMORY SUCKS (AT LEAST MINE DOES)
You may think there’s no danger that you’ll forget to do your 15 minutes a day, but there is. Trust me, I’ve done it myself.
We need to remind ourselves to do it. One way is to link it to something we do already--something we like or need to do, so we never forget to do it. For instance, you might decide:
* I will not have breakfast until I’ve done the 15 minutes. Put a note on your box of cereal or on your fridge to remind you.
* I will not watch any TV until I’ve done the 15 minutes. Put the note on your remote control.
* I will not look at Facebook/ Twitter/ Pinterest / Whatever until I’ve done the 15 minutes Put the note on your computer screen or your tablet or phone.
* I will not put on my shoes until I’ve done the 15 minutes. Put the note on your shoes.
You can also set an alarm, or authorize somebody in your household to remind you every day, or make a pact with a buddy to phone or email each other every day, or email yourself at the end of every day. It’s a good idea to use two or three methods at first, to make sure that you’re remembering to do the fifteen minutes. Eventually it will become a habit, but that may take six weeks or more.
Also set up a way to remind yourself to review your progress once a week and set out the plan for the next week. Put it into your calendar, add an alarm to that day, schedule a call with a buddy so you can compare progress and support each other in setting up the following week, or whatever works best for you. It may take a few tries until you find the method that works every time.
STEP THREE. Fill in the following:
To remind myself to do this every day, I will: _________________________________. If that doesn’t work, I will:________________________________________. To remind myself to review the week and set out the plan for the next week, I will:___________________________________________.
If you ever lapse, take that as a signal to try something else, not to give up doing the 15 minutes!
STEP FOUR. Do it now.
I lied. There are really only three steps, but I’m making the fourth one do it today. Ideally, NOW. Skip reading the rest of your emails for the next fifteen minutes. If you haven’t filled in the sentences above, that can be your fifteen minute task for the day. That, plus setting up whatever kind of reminders you’re going to use. If you’d like to have a goals buddy, forward this email to them and invite them to join you.
Did you notice that I asked you to fill in the sentences “in writing”? You need to write or print out those completed sentences and keep them where you can see them every day. That’s an important part of the method, please don’t skip it.
WHAT ABOUT STUFF THAT CAN’T BE DONE IN 15 MINUTES A DAY?
By putting in lots of daily short sessions, you will gain momentum. You will see your goal starting to become real. You will feel proud of yourself. You will have greater motivation to keep going.
You may reach a point where 15 minutes a day isn’t the ideal way to spend time on your project. That’s fine, then you can get creative about how to find bigger chunks of time. Maybe you will decide to spend 30 minutes every other day. Or maybe you will be excited enough by your progress to give up an hour a night of TV in favor of working on your project. Or maybe your project now seems more desirable than however you used to spend your Saturdays, and you give it a full day every week.
The process will be basically the same, though. For every new chunk of time, you decide on something to give up, you work out each week what you’re going to do, you set up reminders for yourself, and you keep going. The closer you get to your goal, the more exciting and easier this gets.
ANY QUESTIONS?
If you have any questions about how you can apply this to your own situation, feel free to email me:[email protected]. If I can help, I will.
I'm working on a new online course, Profit from Your Creativity, and one section is about mindset.
One myth I'm writing about is that somehow people who publish your book or give your paintings space in their gallery are doing you a favor. Let's go to the supermarket to see if this is true...
At the supermarket you are confronted by an entire aisle of cereals. There are more cereals competing for your attention than can ever win it. It's a buyer's market.
If you choose the shredded wheat, are you doing it a favor? No, you're choosing it because you think it will taste good and/or be good for you.
It's a win for the shredded wheat and for you.
DON'T MAKE THE CORN FLAKES CRY!
Should the corn flakes take your rejection personally? Does it mean they should slink back to the Kellog's factory, knowing that nobody else will ever buy them?
Silly, right? Yet that's the attitude a lot of writers and artists have when their work is rejected.
All it means is that the person who rejected your work doesn't get it. It's their opinion that your work can't make any money for them. They may be right. If they are not excited about your work they wouldn't be any good at selling it to a publisher (if the rejector is an agent, for instance). By rejecting you, they are disqualifying themselves. They have shown they were not the business partner you were looking for.
If they do accept your work, they are doing it because they think they can profit from it. There's certainly nothing wrong with that, but it underlines the fact that it's a transaction from which both parties can profit. It's a relationship of equals.
WHAT KIND OF GIRL SCOUT ARE YOU?
You may think that your attitude is not that important--it's the work that will determine whether or not it is accepted. However, the way you present it, for instance in a query letter or pitch, can have a major influence as well. Certainly it can influence whether or not the other person ever reads or looks at what you are offering. Three girl scouts will show you how that works.
At some point or another you've probably been approached by Girl Scouts selling cookies. Imagine three Girl Scouts with three different opening lines and think about how you'd respond:
Girl Scout A:"Hi, we're selling cookies. You don't want to buy any, do you?"
Girl Scout B:"Hi, we're selling cookies. Do you want to buy some?"
Girl Scout C: "Hi, we're selling cookies. Which do you like better, chocolate chip or brownies?"
It's really easy to agree with Girl Scout A: "No, I don't, thank you."
Girl Scout B's approach is better, but it still makes it very easy to say no.
Girl Scout C doesn't give me the chance to answer no right away. Instead, she prompts me to think about cookies. Which do I like better? If I like brownies, her question probably makes me think about (and maybe visualise) eating a brownie. Yes, please!
Unfortunately, a lot of writers are like Girl Scout A. Their query letters include negatives, like "My work hasn't been published yet, but...." Or in a pitch they say something like, "I haven't worked out all the details yet, but..." If you do that, nobody is going to buy your cookies.
THESE COOKIES WILL [not really] CHANGE YOUR LIFE!
I'm not suggesting that you go to the other extreme: "This book will outsell Harry Potter because it's the most exciting blah blah blah!" That's a turn-off too. It smacks of delusion or desperation, neither of which looks good on a writer or artist.
Instead, you want to use a form of presentation that reflects your enthusiasm for your project...and a potential win-win for equals.
(Would you like more useful information about writing, all the way from the idea through to publication? You'll find lots of useful help in my book, Your Writing Coach. It's published by Nicholas Brealey and available from your favorite bookseller.)
In a Fast Company series of successful authors' tips on writing better stories, Terence Winter (creator, writer, and executive producer of the series, Boardwalk Empire) makes a great point about choosing the most interesting part of a story to tell:
"Every movie you’ve ever seen about Al Capone shows him at the height of his power, and sort of like Al Capone’s Greatest Hits. If you can only spend two hours with Al Capone, you want it to be when he’s at the top of his game.
On Boardwalk Empire, we meet Al Capone when he’s a kid driving a truck. That Al Capone is so much more interesting to me because we get to see him become the guy we know, and we had hours and hours to do it, and really see what formed him and what made this guy tick and that’s so much more a luxury as a storyteller and more satisfying for the audience."
The series Gotham does something similar by looking at the formative years of the man who became Batman, and also by focusing on a character (Inspector Gordon) who has a supporting role in the later story.
Even in a screenplay or novel I think there's a lot of value in taking the time to brainstorm a number of ways of approaching the story before committing to one. For instance, a kidnapping story could be told with any of these as the viewpoint character:
* the victim
* the loved ones of the victim
* the detective investigating the case
* the kidnapper
* someone who is wrongly accused of the kidnapping
* someone who inadvertently or unwillingly gets involved in the crime
* a psychic (fake or genuine--if there is such a thing--who is asked to help locate the victim
* a previous victim of the kidnapper who realizes she knows something that could help but is reluctant to relive the experience
I'm sure there are more, but you get the idea.
(For writing tips from some of the greatest classical and modern writers, get a copy of my book, Your Creative Writing Masterclass. It's available from your favorite bookseller. You can find out more at www.YourCreativeWritingMasterclass.com)
At fastcreate.com, Director Richard Linklater, recently feted for his film, Boyhood, shares his approach to coming up with the structure of his films:
"There are a lot of stories in the world, and I spend all my time thinking about how to tell them. That, to me, is the cinematic element. That's the hard part: the right narrative form on every movie is the thing I have to break. New forms have always been a part of my thinking. 'Could you ever tell a story this way?'"
In other words, he starts with the story, not a predetermined structure. In the case of Boyhood, that was a real challenge:
"The idea for Boyhood was one of those 'aha' moments that at its core was problem-solving. The film's structure emerged out of trying to solve the problem of how to express that story over a long period of time. It's very straightforward, but in a way that hasn't been done before, because it's just completely impractical."
STRUCTURE VS. PLOT
Linklater is not saying that a film can be made without a structure, but that we don't have to stick to the most common plot shapes:
'When I write a screenplay, I've diagrammed the architecture of the story. There's really got to be a structure; art demands it. I care more about structure, less about plots. Anything plot-driven feels a little more man-made, more manufactured. I'm always going toward something that's a little more true to life."
HOW TO LET THE STORY BE THE MASTER
Linklater's approach mirrors what I often say in the screenwriting classes I teach: Let the story be the master, not the servant. For instance, don't start by trying to squeeze the story into the steps of the hero's journey. Instead, explore the story long enough to discover what it's really about and then figure out a structure that serves it.
Asking a few questions can help you do that:
1. Who is the most interesting person in this story?
2. What happened before the part of the story I intend to tell, and what happens after it?
3. Who and what changes as a result of the incidents in the story?
4. What do I want an audience to feel while watching this story?
Often we are eager to start writing right away. Doing so can be another way of finding the answers to these questions, but it's tempting to regard what you've written as THE way to tell the story, rather than an exploration. That's why I recommend exploring these aspects of the story before you start to write. As a result, you may find yourself ending up with a different protagonist, or telling a different part of the story than you had in mind, or even switching it to a different genre. And you're likely to end up with a script that doesn't seem a carbon copy of existing scripts.
WARNING: RESISTANCE AHEAD
Linklater has a lot of freedom in the stories he chooses to tell and how he tells them. As a writer without his track record, you may well meet resistance if you pitch a story that has a structure not immediately recognizable as the three act structure or the hero's journey.
However, it's also the stories that are told in a fresh way that stand out, and I believe that in the long run you will be well served by emulating Linklater.
Here's part of an offer I received via email today, about self-publishing for Kindle. My comments are in red.
"You would be surprised at how easy it is for anyone to get published on this new platform and the industry-crushing royalties paid directly to you, the author, make traditional publishing a thing of the past." True, pretty easy. Traditional publishing isn't ready to die yet, but let's read on.
"You see, where traditional publishing offers their authors a mere 7% to 15% royalties on average, you can get up to a 70% profit share just by publishing on the Kindle Marketplace." Yes, that's true.
"And while the big publishing houses refuse to adapt to the change and keep pricing their digital copies for just a few dollars less than their print counterparts, independent publishers are stealing the market covertly with #1 best-sellers selling for just about the price of a good coffee." Name authors are still doing very well with e-books priced not much below the paperback version. There have been some number one best-seller e-books from unknown authors charging much less. So..mostly true.
"For this reason, we are seeing an explosion of new authors publishing their works of fiction as well as non-fiction and making a killing with cheap digital books." The explosion, yes. A killing...true for a very small percentage of self-publishers.
"Do not miss out on this revolution that can make you a fortune." Can you make a fortune from self-publishing? Sure. You can also win the lottery, be left a fortune by an elderly lady you once helped across the street, or find a cache of old gold coins in your back yard.
THIS IS WHERE IT STARTS TO GO WRONG
"Thousands of amateur authors are doing it already. Take Amanda Hocking for example. She started less than a year ago, and now has a handful of paranormal and romance titles on Kindle." Hold it! Amanda Hocking didn't start less than a year ago! She beganself-publishing in 2010! She doesn't now have a handful of titles, she wrote 17 novels in her free time, and in her first year self-published nine.
THE SITUATION HAS CHANGED
An article in the New York Times reflects why this offer would prefer to cite figures from 2010 rather than current ones:
"Now, though, the world has more stories than it needs or wants to pay for. In 2010, Amazon had 600,000 e-books in its Kindle store. Today it has more than three million. The number of books on Smashwords, which distributes self-published writers, grew 20 percent last year. The number of free books rose by one-third.
Revenue from e-books leveled off in 2013 at $3 billion after increasing nearly 50 percent in 2012, according to BookStats."
"Most of her books sell for a reasonable $8.99. That means she gets around $6.30 for every copy sold." Wrong! She priced her books at either 99 cents or $2.99, that's one reason she was able to sell so many--a low risk for the buyer. Also, a very important factor was timing. She came along when lots of people were buying their first iPad or other tablet and wanted things to read on it, but there weren't yet that many titles available. Much less competition than exists today.
The promoter, Trent Steele, Editor of the Write Street Newsletter, also doesn't mention how much marketing Amanda Hocking did. I've read her own account of this, and she was a marketing demon. By the way, she no longer self-publishes. After her self-publishing success, she signed a rich deal with St. Martin's Press, so clearly she doesn't agree that traditional publishing is a thing of the past.
"Even a relatively small book, selling for $2.99, and selling just 500 copies a month - which is very realistic - would bring in an extra $1000 a month, or $12,000 per year." That's more than the vast majority of self-published authors earn and it's hardly the killing or fortune mentioned earlier.
AM I OUT TO DISCOURAGE SELF-PUBLISHERS?
Not at all. I'm all favor of controlling your destiny and self-publishing is one way to do that. However, you have to go into it with your eyes open, with a plan...and with accurate information. I've emailed Trent Steele (I don't know if that's a real person or a marketing persona) to ask why they're sending out information that is out of date at best, and misleading at worst. I'll let you know if I hear back from him/them.If you know someone who isc
>the next post: more hype aimed at writers--be aware!
It can take ages for a screenplay to become a film and of course a lot of times the production never happens. Nick Hornby, whose most recent adaptation is Wild, starring Reese Witherspoon, deals with it by using the time in between to write his novels.
An article written by Joe Berkowitz for fastcreate.com points out, "what once seemed like a dealbreaking burden [the delays] has turned into a boon for the prolific author's productivity."
Yes, he does have the advantage of being a best-selling novelist and Academy Award-nominated (for An Education) screenwriter, but I think there's a useful lesson in there for the rest of us as well, namely to figure out how to make the downsides of the business part of our craft work for us rather than against us.
Hearing back from agents and publishers can take just as long as the gaps and delays experienced by screenwriters. I think the lesson is to have another project ready to go when we send one out into the real world...which also helps cut down on the amount of time we spend thinking about the first project's fate!
Director Michael Haneke is interviewed in the current issue of Paris Review. This is what he said when asked whether drawing on your own experience and background is good or necessary:
"I’ve never seen good results from people trying to speak about things they don’t know firsthand. They will talk about Afghanistan, about children in Africa, but in the end they only know what they’ve seen on TV or read in the newspaper. And yet they pretend—even to themselves—that they know what they’re saying. But that’s bullshit. I’m quite convinced that I don’t know anything except for what is going on around me, what I can see and perceive every day, and what I have experienced in my life so far. These are the only things I can rely on. Anything else is merely the pretense of knowledge with no depth. Of course, I don’t just write about things precisely as they have happened to me—some have and some haven’t. But at least I try to invent stories with which I can personally identify.
My students, meanwhile, pitch only the gravest of topics. For them it’s always got to be the Holocaust. I usually tell them, Back off. You have no idea what you’re talking about. You can only reproduce what you read or heard elsewhere. Others who actually lived through it have said it much better than you ever could. Try to create something that springs organically from your own experience. For only then does it stand the slightest chance of being genuinely interesting."
Of course (in my opinion) that doesn't mean you can't wrap your own experience in a genre story. The YA novel I've been working on is called Reptile Nation and in it a segment of the population turns into reptile people. I must admit not only have I never been a Reptile Person, I haven't even met any. However, the book really is about the friendship between the two main characters, and that's a theme I (and everybody else) can relate to.
"When his apprentice wants to know which route he should choose, the Yaqui brujo answers, "Any path is only a path...All paths are the same: they all lead nowhere. The only important question you must ask is: 'Does this path have heart?'
If a path has heart for you, then dare to follow it. It is important to give up on irrelevant questioning, to take care not to waste yourself."
--Sheldon Kopp in "If You Meet the Buddha On the Road, Kill Him!"
***
Does what you are writing have heart for you? Then dare to follow it. It may or may not lead you to publication; for sure it will lead you to yourself.
The Fall 1975 issue of Paris Review featured an interview with novelist John Steinbeck. He won the Pulitzer Prize and was a Nobel laureate, and The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men are still required reading in many English and literature classes. I'm sharing six tips from that interview (culled by the excellent Brain Pickings blog), with a few additional comments by me. This is the last of six:
"If you are using dialogue--say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech."
This was also advised by Kurt Vonnegut in the previous series of tips. As well as saying it aloud as you write it, get somebody else to read it aloud as you listen. Ask them not to act too much. If you don't have a willing friend, use your computer's text-to-speech function. The voice will be somewhat robotic but it will still be worthwhile to hear the words spoken. Doing this is even more important for people writing screenplays or plays.
(Mark Twain had advice for writers, too, as did Anton Chekhov, Kurt Vonnegut, Jane Austen, and many more. You'll find it my book, Your Creative Writing Masterclass, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from your favorite bookseller.)
The Fall 1975 issue of Paris Review featured an interview with novelist John Steinbeck. He won the Pulitzer Prize and was a Nobel laureate, and The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men are still required reading in many English and literature classes. I'm sharing six tips from that interview (culled by the excellent Brain Pickings blog), with a few additional comments by me. This is number five of six:
"Beware of a scene that becomes too dear to you, dearer than the rest. It will usually be found out that it is out of drawing."
I'm not familiar with the phrase 'out of drawing,' but I know what he means. This is the same advice as "murder your darlings." A scene that stands out may be wonderful in itself but by standing out it detracts from the rest. This was also mentioned in the tips by Kurt Vonnegut that preceded these posts. It hurts to do this, but do it we must.
(There's more advice on writing, from Jane Austen through to Martin Amis, in Your Creative Writing Masterclass, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from your favorite bookseller. It makes a great present, too.)
"Freedom is cumulative. One choice made with an element of freedom makes even greater freedom possible for the next choice. Each exercise of freedom enlarges the circle of oneself." - Rollo May
I think this applies to what we write as well as to the rest of our lives. When you refuse to self-censor based on what others might think or whether something is more or less likely to sell (do we ever predict that correctly?) you make your circle of freedom smaller.
The Fall 1975 issue of Paris Review featured an interview with novelist John Steinbeck. He won the Pulitzer Prize and was a Nobel laureate, and The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men are still required reading in many English and literature classes. I'm sharing six tips from that interview (culled by the excellent Brain Pickings blog), with a few additional comments by me. This is number four of six:
"If a scene or section gets the better of you and you still think you want it--bypass it and go on. When you have finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find the reason it gave trouble is because it didn't belong there."
If you still want the scene but are still unsure of how to write it, asking the following questions can be useful:
* What does each character in this scene want?
* In this scene, what is each character afraid of?
* What's the difference between what the character says or does and what he or she would like to do or say?
* What is each character's emotional state at the start of this scene?
