Tag Archives: novel

Landmarks

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It’s been an interesting year in my writing career for me.

I’ve had my first print publication from Cutting Block Press, to be released in August in their new anthology, Tattered Souls 2.

I’ve been to my first convention as an author with something being sold and celebrated at the convention. There, I signed my first autograph for a complete stranger.

And now I’m taking on my first novel editing commission as a freelance editor from someone I didn’t personally know.

It’s been pretty amazing. I’d like to describe all these processes, so you can see what they’re like from the inside.

I submitted ‘Becka’, my horror novella, to a few places before Cutting Block Press. I approached the submission process with a strong amount of confidence in the work. I’ve submitted short stories before, to lots of places. Following standard advice at the time, I usually submitted with the philosophy that if you start at the top (in pay terms) and go by what genre and general type of story the magazine likes, you’ll eventually get there. That didn’t really happen.

With ‘Becka’, I had a much smaller field to go through – it’s not easy getting novella length work into print. But I knew it was a fantastic story (no false modesty here). And so I approached it with the attitude of finding a worthy home for it – somewhere that it would fit in to the attitude and desires and body of work of the press in question. The second place I looked happened to be Cutting Block, and I sent it off really hoping they would accept it, because they were right for the story. And it got accepted.

Later I found out they were having a release party for it at the World Horror Convention in Austin, which happens to be a place where I have relatives. I also had a friend who wanted to take me to Florida and could sort of fold a trip to the convention into the general vacation. Now, let’s be clear: that meant I didn’t have to pay anything in particular for this trip. Travel costs, convention entry, all covered. As an ENTRY LEVEL published writer, I would strongly recommend not spending much to go to conventions where your stuff is published – it’s fun and exciting, but makes zero financial sense and there’s not that big a boost to your career. Go to your local ones, because they offer so many benefits that it’s worth the entry costs. But when you factor in hotels and flights, better wait till your career demands it.

That said, I learned a lot. I mostly learned about the horror community. Now, be aware that I’m comparing it to the SF/Fantasy community, which is mostly where I spend my time. In comparison, I found that the horror convention was much smaller. Smaller even than my local Denver SF convention, Mile Hi Con. And this was the WORLD Horror Convention.

Everyone I met at the convention was wonderful. Nice people, friendly and interested (and interesting). Interestingly, everyone I met was a writer, or an artist, or a publisher, or an editor, or attending with one of the above. I do mean everyone. At Mile Hi Con you have a large surrounding flood of readers, appreciators and people who come to meet the writers/editors. Yes, nearly every SF fan is an aspiring writer somewhere in the closet of his soul, just like me. But at the horror convention, the attendees were almost universally in the biz. These people were primarily selling to one another.

It may be as a direct consequence of that, but I also felt that there was a strong uniformity to cover design, art and clothing of choice – all of which were black, with a strong iconic image and/or statement.

It was all very interesting and I enjoyed it greatly. There were some fascinating panels. As usual, the combat panel, staffed by ordinary looking people who could tear you into small pieces if necessary, dissolved into anecdotes – they do that at the SF conventions too and it’s always a blast. I had a great time manning the booth for Cutting Block, quizzing anybody who sat with me about aspects of the business that I wasn’t fully familiar with yet. Learned a lot there, too, especially about when it is and isn’t useful to sell your own books. And I signed an autograph or two for people I’d never met, which I count as a landmark too.

Good stuff, and I had a great time. Conclusions: there’s lots of room for innovative new writers in the horror field, and make sure you spend your money wisely when considering conventions.

And finally, the freelance editing section of my website garnered a customer for the first time. As you know if you’ve been reading this site or following me on Twitter, the marvelous Jeff Kirvin got me into the whole editing thing, flooring me a year ago or so by asking me to do this job I’d never considered at all. Like Miles Vorkosigan, I never thought this was a job that had any reference to me, but I took to it like a bat to warm blood. The term addiction may be useful here.

So these are the landmarks of my career recently. It’s not all been roses – I seem to be rather stuck in terms of getting any writing of my own done recently, for example. I’ve been through patches like that before, however. And health issues have really interfered with things in the last months. But that’s hopefully going to turn around.

The future looks interesting. Thanks so much for being part of it. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do…

What to Pay For

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In a writing career, there are a million people who stand ready to tell you what to do. Some of these people want money, in the form of up-front cash for advice, or for the cost of how-to books, or the cost of conventions, or the cost of workshopping, agenting, mentoring or critiquing your work.

When is it worth it to pay? When are you getting scammed? When are you laying out money for something you could get for free – and when are you passing up an opportunity that would repay itself tenfold?

It’s not easy to tell, and everyone will tell you something different. The only hope is to steer by your internal star: what feels true to you and what feels wrong? Here are the three things that seem the most true to me.

ONE: YOU ARE IN A BUSINESS
In other words, you are the supplier of a product (fiction) and everyone else in the business (publishers, agents, editors, readers) are distributors and/or consumers of that product. If you keep your eye on that simple fact, you will realize a number of things that proceed directly from it.
- Most of the money, over the course of your career, should end up in YOUR pocket
- You have to learn, struggle, work and fail and learn some more to succeed – no easy answers
- You must handle your own money and business matters – no one else can do it for you
- People (even agents and publishers) can choose whether to buy your work or not, and that is ALL the judging they can do – no one can tell you what to write or not write but yourself

TWO: YOU NEED INSTRUCTION
If ever you feel that you don’t need to learn any more, stop. Your career is over. There will always be things to learn. The business changes all the time, the craft changes all the time, and you change all the time. Everything is fluid, and nothing is fixed. Not even the language! This has several implications as well.
- Writing comes first – don’t buy workshops, conventions or how-to books you haven’t got time for
- Strive to make your time do multiple duty: conventions can be part of self-marketing and networking as well as instructional
- Don’t do things you’re not ready for – get your product ready before buying marketing courses, etc
- Before you spend money, check with yourself: is this about the writing, or about the socializing – and is it necessary?

THREE: YOU ARE NOT ALONE
There are many writers in the world. Most of them have been where you’re standing, and most of those have empathy and understanding – though few have much free time. Band together. Share the cost, share the ability, share your work, and remember that all writers are readers. This is really the most important of all.
- Much advice is free on the internet – check that it’s from authors and editors you respect and that it feels true to you – no need to pay for 99% of advice, especially for beginners
- If you have a critique group and use them well, they are invaluable; if they are nonhelpful, primarily social, or mostly build you up OR mostly cut you down… drop them at once
- Most of the truly helpful stuff to pay for involves other people – groups, conventions, and workshops are OVERALL more helpful than how-to books, paid mentors, online classes or paid critiques

I hope this free advice has been helpful. The gist of it is really said in two easy lessons: be cautious with your money and follow your own sense of what is true. Neither is easy. Sorry. It’s not an easy thing to be a successful writer – if you’ve been told that, you’ve been told lies.

Fun, satisfying, creative, adventurous, ever-changing, powerful, astonishing and wondrous – but not easy.

A Crazy Person’s Guide to Outlining: Step One-The Idea

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Time to do another outline. I feel like I must be a schizophrenic outliner. I have a bunch of books on the subject, I tend to pick and choose through them, and I edit the outline as I go. When I first discovered that I wasn’t a “pantser” I found my characters went left, a lot. That led to maps and that, eventually led to outlines.

So yeah, outline. Excuse the dust while I figure all this crap out. I figure if I do it in public I’ll actually get my process down. I’m sure most of you will laugh at me, but I’m used to it.

And books. Here are the books that, over the years, I’ve gleaned pieces and parts from. I’ve not gone through all these books completely. I’m taking time to do that now.

First Draft in 30 Days by Karen S. Wiesner: This is first book I ever got on outlining a novel. It’s badly titled but contains a way of looking at outlining that I had never scene before. It gave me several tools that I really rely on now.

No Plot No Problem Novel-Writing Kit by Chris Baty: In some circles the book is considered the pantser’s bible. I cheated and just got the kit…which I find inspirational every November. Not sure how well it worked into outlining. I’m relying on the daily cards for this, the other items (cheer-leading and inspiration for NaNo) I’m not going to worry about.

Writer’s Digest Writing Kit Okay this is full of idea cards and mini markets and tips. I got it for a birthday a few years ago…it’s still sealed. Seems to be aimed at beginners. Inside are cards with basic writing tips and definitions, an idea deck, a market list and writing tips. I’m going to use the writing tips and ignore the rest for this exercise.

You Can Write A Novel Kit by James V. Smith: I loved Smith’s Writer’s Little Helper, as it was just that, a tiny book with a ton of help. And this has forms too. I like forms.

Book in a Month by Victoria Lynn Schmidt: This book advocates writing while outlining. Which drives me nuts. But it has forms…and I am a form sucker.

From First Draft to Finished Novel by Karen S. Wiesner: I’ve skimmed this book so not sure how much I’ll use.

Sundry Items: There are various tips, worksheets and such I’ve collected over the years. I’ll be referring to these as well from time to time.

So anyway on to Day One, Step One! Oh wait, you want to know why?

I started Without Honor in 2001, just after September. Not only was the world as we know it imploding but my life imploded as well. That’s nearly nine years. I have plenty of partial manuscripts around…why did my first novel take that long to complete?

I had no idea what I was doing. A creative writing degree doesn’t deal with novel composition at all. Okay it may now, but back then it sure didn’t. This was odd, considering how many novels we had to read. (I had fifty to ready for one class that fall of 2001…they were YA novels but still that’s not including the rest of my course load).

Without Honor started as a hokey dream that basically played out like a title sequence of my friends dressed in renfair garb playing up to the camera while they played up to the camera and theme music.

Yes, my dreams are weird. Back on topic:

I started a short story, decided I had a novel. I think I wrote three scenes…and then didn’t touch it until December 2002, after my first NaNo and had 16,000 words towards a sequel that would become two chapters of WH.

My life was crazy. I was writing every day but most of it was non-fic and helped me do things like provided food for my daughter. Now I have this finished thing except for a final sweeping revision…and I really like it.

I want to do that again, in a much smaller span of time.

Technically, Between Kingdoms already has an outline. However, I haven’t looked at it for a long time. The one written scene was written nearly six years ago. Let’s start fresh and get this down and ready.

Step One: The Idea

Everything starts with the glimmer of an idea. Ideas come from anywhere, a phrase, a joke, a mention, a dream, real life, fiction, anywhere.

I’ve heard a few would be authors’ claim they have so many ideas and can’t pick one. Write them down, pick one, work on it, finish it and then go onto the next. How is that hard…well I’ll get to that.

The current project came to me in a dream. A long narrative dream which I still remember vividly. I kept it in my head for a long time thing about it. Percolating as several authors call it. Now to get it in a novel I have to define it. So let’s start this outline.

1. Get an Idea
Got one? Good. No? Wiesner suggests brainstorming, reading, etc. Schimidt has a questionnaire about likes and dislikes to help you come up with an idea. Write that idea down. If notes, pictures and such come while your formulating…stick them all together. Smith suggests a salable idea. Then he states know one knows what that is until they see it. So make sure the idea is something you love and are willing to research and devote time too. If not. Drop it.

2. Write the Idea Down
Describe the idea in one sentence. Schmidt calls this the pitch. Smith calls this the nugget and includes title as well as small paragraph. Starting with a sentence you have the idea condensed from the start. It saves later condensing, and can be rewritten if the central idea changes later. I open yWriter, start a new project. Open the project settings and fill out the project description. Title, one sentence, followed by a paragraph.

3. Idea and Reality
Smith has a test for checking your idea. It’s like a Cosmo quiz that start’s “How do you rate?”. He also lists some Cardinal Rules that boil down to don’t be boring. This is similar to Richard Peck’s 10 Questions ask about your Novel. I don’t write these down but ask myself these questions about my idea.

And that’s step one. Now for inspiration!

NaNoWriMo Card 1: Just Write
Problem One: Not Writing

You know why not everyone who has an idea writes a novel? Because they don’t write.