Fighting Writer's Block

How do you solve writer's block? Do you take your inner child out for a treat? Do you growl at the dog until the dog comes up with a provocative response? Do you stare at the fish bowl and imagine what the different fish would do, if they were human and in the same predicament as your protagonist?

Meredith mentioned the fear of blockage in the six weeks following the publicity push for her novel, LADYKILLER. Like Meredith, I'm a sporadic writer (currently hiding from my manuscripts-in-progress), but unlike Meredith, I've never had one of my book-length mysteries published. Double Trouble! I have no evidence of my ability to get a manuscript all the way through the grinding mill and out the other end, a full-fledged published/promoted novel. And yet I'm not worried about writer's block any more. How can that be?

I've stockpiled manuscripts in various draft stages - from really rough to practically perfect (all things considered). They need revisions, but I need distance from them to see what's right and what's wrong. Even my current circulating manuscript no longer reads quite as perfectly as I thought it did, so I'm debating revising that AGAIN before approaching my next round of agents. Others might think I'm likely to fall off the trail and end up an unsuccessful, unpublished writer.

Hogwash.

There's no pill I can take or life lesson that will alter my fate. If you're a writer, it's in your bones. Life presents moments that jump-start my inner writer and force me to return to the keyboard. I bet it's the same for you.

There are several triggers that get me back to the laptop and back into writing mode.
Here are a few:
*Cleaning - enough said
*Reading a newspaper - odd balls show up every day - great potential characters
*Reading novels - especially mysteries - wonderful puzzles that kick my brain into gear
*Reading badly written novels - gets the old blood boiling
*Researching anything that's caught my attention - curiosity builds and I wanna share it
*Browsing through the library - ditto above
*Opening my emails and checking through my favorite blogs - endlessly provocative
*Watching the world go by at the food court or a park - life in grand variety requires comments

I like deadlines - especially since I'm mostly working on my own or taking on a writing competition. When I have a deadline I'll bulldoze my way through writer's block or skip right on over the section that's got me blocked. Lots of trees die as I squander words on paper. It isn't pretty, but eventually something gives.

When writer's block hits and there's no deadline, I try to ignore it. I go do something else (as the above list suggests). By not fighting it, I'm open to all sorts of stimuli that quietly chew away at the blockage. A good nap usually helps, but so does a trip to the mall's food court. Especially if there's a hot fudge sundae in the mix!

How do you handle writer's block?

Write On!
Nan

Formatting Your Manuscript

No, I am not going to talk about how large your margins should be, etc, especially since Anne Mini has done such a great job with the subject on her blog. No, what I am going to do in this post is teach you how to get around the annoying fact that everyone wants something different from your manuscript. Agent 1 wants it in Courier. Agent 2 wants it in Times. Agent 3 wants all your blockquotes to be in a different font from the rest of the manuscript. Agent 4 wants your character's thoughts in italics. Agent 5 hates italics.

This lesson assumes you use Word, since it's the most popular word processing program (and the one I use). (The pictures in this post are from a Mac, but Word works the same way on both platforms.)

The first thing you need to understand is how Word deals with "Styles".
If you don't have a formatting toolbar at the top of your document, look under your "view" menu and select it. Now, up in the upper left of the picture you see something that says "normal." If you click on that, you'll see a drop-down menu of styles.

Each "style" has a format all its own and you can use separate styles throughout the manuscript for things like blockquotes, protagonists' thoughts, etc. When Agent A says "use underlines rather than italics," you change the parameters of the style you're using for protagonists' thoughts and *poof* all the parts of your manuscript tagged that way change automatically.

So, how is this magic accomplished? Let's take it step by step.

First, decide how you like to write. Me, I want the first line of each paragraph indented .5 and I like to read my text spaced 1.5 lines apart rather than double spaced. So I created a style called "Indented Normal", which is what I use for most of my manuscript. Here's how:

First, choose Style under the Format menu.
On the window that opens, choose "New". Another window will pop up asking you what you want to name your new style and some other questions. Name your style whatever you like but leave the rest of it alone for the moment.

Now you're going to tell Word what you want your style to look like as you type. You can always change your mind later. To do this, you want to click Paragraph under the Format drop down menu at the bottom of the window.


A new window will open asking what you want your paragraph to look like. This is where you can tell the program that you want your first line indented .5 inch and that you want to look at it double-spaced or whatever.

You can go back now and choose what font you want, whether you want it italicized, underlined, etc, by choosing font where you chose paragraph earlier.


To change the style of a piece of text, highlight it and choose the style you want from the dropdown menu at the top left. The style will automatically be applied to the highlighted text.



OK, so that looks really complicated. But you only have to do it once per style. So think about the styles you'll need. Me, I use Indented Normal, Blockquote, Chapter Heading, and Thoughts. (I have other styles for other kinds of documents, but those are the fiction ones.) When you find out that your new agent prefers Courier, all you have to do is go back to the "format style" option, change the font once, and your entire manuscript will change. Likewise, since you probably need to double-space every "normal" part of your manuscript, just go back and change that setting and only the normal parts will change, leaving the blockquotes, etc, alone.

There are lots of other options you can change for styles, but with luck this brief summary will provide you with what you need to get started. This is an incredibly powerful tool. If you have questions, please ask. I'm always trying to make things clearer.

Still to come: how to make your chapters fit together and how to put page numbers on all but the first page and how to switch your m-dashes to double n-dashes and back.

Raising Emotional Stakes: Taking a Lesson from The Matador

Thank God for DVDs. I didn’t catch The Matador when it was released in theaters over a year ago. Then again, back then I probably wouldn’t have recognized the terrific lesson the film offers fiction writers. A lesson, that is, in developing seedy characters that readers find themselves loving despite more refined inclinations. In this movie we not only identify with a truly vulgar hit man – we find ourselves rooting for the kill.

Lest ye doubt, allow me to enumerate the many fine qualities with which this character arrives on stage. He’s rude. He’s crude. And yes, he is lewd.

Let me say right up front that if you’re likely to be offended by soulless standup sex – even if it is performed by Pierce Brosnan – you might want to give this film a miss. You’ll lose out on something special if you do, however. Because we begin to know this guy just as soon as we see his mechanical, off-hand, misogynist attempts to de-stress following each kill (he might as well be f___ing a mannequin). The camera work’s not pornographic, nor remotely titillating. This part’s not filmed to shock so much as to help us get this character.

Writer/Director Richard Shepherd takes advantage of our expectations for the stereotypical assassin. In fact he counts on our expectations in order to build emotional tension. He draws us in because the guy’s so not like we are (right?) and we’re repelled at the same time we’re curious. We’re not certain what this guy’s gonna do, and we’re more than a little worried about it. In fact we’re downright uncomfortable. (I particularly enjoy watching this kind of film – in some ways like Pulp Fiction though not nearly as bloody – with my spouse. When I’m disturbed, I know he’s about ready to get up and leave the room.)

Shepherd draws an exaggerated character, but he does so with a light touch. This makes him interesting without turning him into a caricature. And then the director starts to play against the stereotype. We learn that our truly offensive assassin’s lonely. He’s kind of anxious to please a guy that he meets in a bar, a polar-opposite niceguy played by Greg Kinnear. Still repelled by our assassin, we don’t know what to make of him. But his poor social skills are so over the top that we’re fascinated, so we stick around to see what he’ll do when the director forces these unlikely buddies to interact.

Here’s where we get well and truly hooked. We’re not watching a transformation – our hit man doesn’t lose his undesirable traits – so much as we’re starting to make excuses for the guy. He so wants to make up for his bad behavior that we’re relieved when Kinnear gives him a second chance. He tosses off whoppers so effortlessly we’re willing to believe him. He’s so inept in all matters besides f___ing and killing that we’re disarmed right along with Kinnear.

Since I don’t want to give away the ending, I’ll need to be careful here...no more fun details! Shepherd layers on the vulnerabilities through both action and back story. Finally, we get the twist, the masterful flaw that’s so unexpected – one that so beautifully plays against the stereotype – that we’re totally identified. And it’s startling. Because we find ourselves in our assassin’s shoes at a most unsavory moment.

Nothing dull about this movie. And yet it’s not at all your typical action film. I’m totally impressed, because it achieves what I hope to – someday - in my own stories... characterization so riveting that the plot’s at once surprising and inevitable.

–Lois

More on What Motivates Us

Now that my thriller, LADYKILLER, has been out six weeks and much of the touring, signings, drop-bys, bloggings, updates and phone-ins are over, I've had time to think about how much fun I've been having. And it has been fun.

Signing books for friends! Signing books for strangers! Talking about the book to people who have read it! The poster with our photo in independent bookstores like the Black Orchid. Seeing it on the shelves and sometimes on the special display racks in Borders and Barnes & Noble. Going to mystery cons and having a new book to talk about on the panels.

What could be more satisfying?

And what could be worse than never having it happen again?

My husband (and co-author of this book) is a steady writer. He writes nearly every day and with great concentration and amazing output.

Me? I write sporadically. To paraphrase the Ramones, writing comes in spurts.

At LADYKILLER's pub date, I had a short story started and a novel outlined and maybe a third written. I stopped to enjoy the ride.

Now I've started writing again, panicked that I will never have this kind of fun again.

This weekend, I nearly finished the short story. My research for the novel is beckoning. I've set it, strangely, in a state I've never visited, so I have a lot of work to do. And I'll do it. So I can have fun.

What Slogan Pushes You?????

I am supposed to be up to my neck in queries, but I'm not motivated to pursue the business end of writing. Apparently, I am only motivated to write. Of course,without the business end, none of my fabulously written words will ever leave my computer, so, I'll just take a short break to post here and then wander back to sorting Agent A from Agent B and then deciding what to put in each query letter.

Anyway, I am going to share my favorite slogan with you. It is a quote from Gillian Roberts, author of the Amanda Pepper series. I think it comes from her book, You Can Write A Mystery. I keep it posted on my computer monitor and repeat it to myself a hundred times a day.

"Don't write it right, write it down."


A thousand times a week, that slogan has stopped me from leaving my work in mid-sentence to check the dictionary or the thesaurus, or far worse, to roam through pages (and hours) of internet reseach on a minor point.

All of that can be checked after the draft is finished. So I stay disciplined. I jot a note on what needs to be investigated and I keep writing.

So, I ask, what slogans keep you motivated? Keep you glued to the keyboard when you'd much rather lounge with a research book and a cup of tea?

Terrie

Memorial Day Wishes

To all who are in our military, have family and friends in the military, and who served in our military in years past, may you feel the love and support of the nation today and every day.

And, to all the civilians affected by the events of September 11, 2001, may you find joy in life, even if it is one day at a time.

And, as I write these words, I wonder if there are any Americans who do not fall into at least one of those categories. We share far more than is visible to the human eye, and that's my thought for the day.

May the sun shine upon all our hearts on this Memorial Day Weekend. Perhaps we can connect through our writings.
Write On!
Nan

What's in a Name?

Character names - they can be so helpful or self-destructive. With a lousy memory for character names, I often find myself cuddling in with a wonderfully complex book and a sticky note list of who's who that I add to as I go. Clearly I like a name like Pudgy or Riff or Angel or Twerp - names that come with a personality that either fits or is a total opposite, like the 6'8" guy named Shorty. Wait a minute - maybe it's nicknames that I like best! Do you share that preference?

And, what's your reaction to the use of a pen name for some books and your actual name for others? I've heard that the wildly productive Lawrence Block regrets having invented several pseudonyms for different mystery series he wrote. He's thinking now that his name recognition gives no accurate reflection of his cumulative book sales. What if a writer writes both a cozy series and a high-risk suspense series? Is it enough to indicate the subgenre on the book cover: "A Cozy Mystery" versus "Guts Fly!" What if some mystery novelist also wrote books on growing peanuts for fun and profit? Would you want to see a different name there? Would you use a pseudonym if you were the writer?

This comes from my recent attack of second thoughts. I discovered my predilection for names that begin with the letter B in my latest manuscript. One of my critique buddies fielded that one. So now I'm shopping for alternative names for some of the characters. The nickname approach just might be my solution. Now, should I worry that too many of my characters could end up sounding like they belong in a cartoon?

The name game! It's giving me a headache.

Write On!
Nan

Feel the Fear and Court the Muse Anyway

A few of us women of mystery have been known to experience creative dry spells – we've blogged about it before – but it’s not only writers who suffer blocks.

Recently I visited friends in the mountains of Maryland, an artists’ mecca. My host was a sculptor who works in wood. Ordinarily ideas come to him while he’s working or listening to music. But lately he’s hit a dry patch, following some success, and was telling me about the various words of wisdom he’s been offered by artists about courting the muse.

"Permit yourself idleness. Sit receptive and wait," was one suggestion. "Art’s your job. Put in the hours no matter what you come up with," another. "Try working with something other than wood." How befuddling, all this disparate advice. If I’d thought he would listen I’d have encouraged morning pages and artist dates.

As a freelancer, I've learned a few things about my own process. For example, I write best sequestered in my home office (and if you think you’ve got problems try writing in a cubicle among software developers when the lid blows off and they start shooting rubber bands). I’ve also learned that when a deadline’s looming not only must I not allow writer’s block, but the deadline serves to light a fire under my butt. But that’s business.

Poetry's more akin to sculpture. I've written quite a few poems. I've gone months not writing them, too. Poetry requires poetry-head, and if you’re not in it, good luck to you. How do you get in it? Steep yourself in other peoples’ poems and then go out into the world and take notice. Word of warning – poetry and mystery novels have turned out to be a poor mix. The world of story blocks poetry-head. Maybe once I’ve finished....

Okay. The novel. After my blog post House of Cards I was reminded by Clare2ey that sometimes writers get scared of finishing. Her comment made me squirm. Too close to home. Yeah. For me, fear of finishing stems both from fear of rejection and fear of success. Flip sides of the same coin. Eyes on me.

Those fears shed light on why I’ve never submitted creative work for publication. I’m talking more than ten years of writing poetry and creative non-fiction. Well, except for one poem, and its rejection by Georgia Review – my first submission – stopped me cold. True story. (Oops...do mystery org newsletters count? Submitting to those, too, took a good deal of courage, but I have managed it. Twice.) That’s it. By no means is it all she wrote, folks.

So what happened to me when I neared the end of my novel's second draft? It’s true I got cold feet. Cold enough to wake my critic. The one I’d sent napping during drafts one and two. Although I know now that the novel benefited by her wise council – and I didn’t give up and I figured out how to handle the changes and I’m going strong again – still it was coming uncomfortably close to being ready to send that book into the world that so frightened me.

My friend the sculptor? His last piece was so good it was scary. I think maybe that’s his problem. In that vein, remember Capote, Harper Lee, and Salinger? For each of them, success spelled the end.

Note to self: I’m an optimist. Better work on my problem with the affirmative side of that coin.

–Lois

The Voice(s) In My Head

Recently, the wonderful Agent Kristin of PubRants posed the question of whether writers could have different voices for different genres. My first instinct was to say "no." I tend to gravitate toward certain authors because I enjoy their voices even more than I do their plots, and when I react really badly to a piece of writing, when I put down a book before I finish the first chapter, it's because I don't like the voice (or because the grammar and/or spelling are so atrocious the book is simply unreadable).

So if I don't like an author's voice in one book, do I have to keep trying her other books, at least her books in other genres, to see whether I might like those better?

Well, maybe.

The reason this has come to mind is that, as I mentioned some posts back, I recently enrolled in a writing class. It's not the nuts-and-bolts kind of class, more a free-your-mind kind of class. But the homework for this week was to write a short short story. Not quite flash fiction, but really, really short. I don't think mine's as much as story as scene but I am not good at short so it will have to do.

Story or scene, the voice in the piece I will bring to class tonight is completely different from anything else I've ever written. I'll post a couple of sentences of it here, along with a couple sentences that are the closest I can find to the same thing in my current work-in-progress. Both are very rough. Both links go to .pdf files containing the whole scenes from which the excerpts are taken.

1 (short short).

I had cried at our parting. Tear of loss, tears of self-pity. I resist the urge to cry again. Tears of sorrow, this time, tears of frustration at what might have been.

- He got what he deserved. He should have stuck with the one he loved, not left her for the one who made sense.

She is angry for me, and I appreciate it, but she does not understand. We are what we are and he made the only choice he could. I don’t hate him. I never have.

When we leave, I will kiss his stubbled cheek and clasp his softening body to my own and wonder if he ever mourns the long-gone pieces of his soul.

2. (work-in-progress)

Moisture, increasingly salty as I approached the ocean, collected on my face. The fog thickened until I felt as if I were swimming, unable to see more than a few feet in any direction. No cars passed; I was the only one crazy enough to seek out the beach. Preoccupied with thoughts of Cheryl, I forgot Iris’ warning, stepped on a rock and slid, landing sharply on my butt and sending a shock up my spine. My unintended seat was large and flat so, removing my sneakers and socks, I propped my feet on the rock below mine and listened to the crash of the waves. My eyes stung and at first I blamed the salt hanging heavy in the air; then I felt the tears sliding down my skin.

Neither particularly sad or in pain, I wasn’t so much crying as leaking, but I couldn’t seem to stop.

Now, neither of these is great literature. As I said, they're rough (particularly the second one). But they are--at least to me--widely, and wildly, different from each other. Both are first person narratives, but that's about the extent of the similarity. Some of the difference in voice is, without a doubt, the result of the necessity in a longer piece to have action, to have plot. And there are conventions associated with different genres. I couldn't put dialogue in italics in a novel, but quotation marks seemed too harsh, too interruptive, for the scene I wanted to write for the short.

So I guess I'd have to say (and not for the first time) that I was wrong. Writers can have different voices. It's possible, even, that different genres necessitate different voices.

What do you think?

Missing For A Month

More than a month ago I got sick and wound up in the hospital. Then I came home for a long convalescence. Here’s the part where I tell you all about it: whine, whine, babble, babble, whine. Whew! Aren’t you glad that’s over?

Now I have to catch up with my life which has been spinning along without me. The women of mystery have posted lots of thought provoking ideas. Normally, I would have posted responses, but *sigh* I was convalescing, so I decided to do a bit of a ramble touching the last few bogs.

Miss Snark. How can we survive without her? Although, unlike the daring Laura, I never sent in a question, I would read avidly and sometimes after reading I would feel like a hysteria victim who had just been slapped back to normal. So, to you, Miss Snark, I say: “Thanks, I needed that.”

Nan and I are in the same place, literally. We have both had stories picked up for the Sinc Tri-State Anthology. A first for each of us. We have received documents and directions that indicate this is real. (The tax form is the big clue.) Like Nan I am grateful to be doing this in the midst of a group of more experienced writers so I can just tag along.

I applaud Nan’s connecting the dots method of querying. I had just begun to set up queries when I got sick, so I have to start again. I also have to kill a story I was submitting but I missed the deadline. My second novel is lying around somewhere. I have to get back to that and so on and so on.

Elaine, I think that trying to time the readers taste is like trying to time the stock market. It cannot be done effectively. No one ever hits the exact peak, and there is sooooo much room in between. My advice would be to work on the book you are enjoying the most right now. Writing is supposed to have an element of pleasure for the writer. Go find yours!

Laura’s success guilt post is fascinating. She is absolutely a person who rejoices with others in their success and minimizes their less stellar performances. But the issue of jealousy is an interesting one. I have been fortunate enough to get nothing but the strongest support from the published writers I have met along the way. When I am a published writer, I would hope to “pay it forward” and help those coming along in the ways that I’ve been helped. I hope that the jealousy Laura describes never touches my life. I’m not given to envy, nor do I wish to be envied. And if I turn into a big ole published blowhard, well, I just hope that Miss Snark rises from the blog graveyard to give me a big ole smack, so once again I can say: “Thanks, I needed that.”

It's great to be back. Terrie

Miss Snark Is Retiring

Sadly, the wonderful Miss Snark is retiring. Her advice has always been tart but incredibly useful. And the crapometers, ah the crapometers.

Even after her retirement, however, she is leaving her blog up so we can still learn from it. So if you need to find advice on a particular topic, go over there and type whatever you're looking for in the "search" box.

For example, in the current phase of my writing, I need to know about synopses. If you, too, need help, get thee to Miss Snark's Synopsis Crapometer!

Getting the Willies - Contract Signing Time!

I'm hyperventilating, but it's a good thing! Little decisions, taking on little challenges, can leave you standing atop a hill you never knew you had climbed. Writers, beware!

Last year I spotted an invitation to members of the Sisters In Crime NY/TriState Chapter in my overloaded email account. The email proposed an anthology - short mysteries (7,000 words or ) less based in the NY area. I worked out a story called "Casino Gamble." It featured my two teachers and a murder at an upstate NY casino run by Natives. It's full of my "cultures-in-confict" theme.

Well, Casino got accepted, with revisions, and now the SinC NY group has a publisher, and NOW I have to sign a contract, fill out a tax form, and - worse yet, come up with a photo for my newly arriving website (based in the publisher's website)!!! It's starting to sound like we're going to be PAID! Funny thing, I never thought about getting PAID for this - only saw it as a good thing to tack onto my merits list in a query letter.

Holy Cow! So glad I'm doing this as part of a group instead of negotiating the waters alone.

Fellow writers, BEWARE! This is how it goes - one moment reconsidering my life of crime (writing) and the next discovering I'm about to be a published mystery writer (albeit in a short form)!

I'll keep you posted!

Whew! Time to catch my breath and eat some chocolate!

Write On!
Nan

From Email Slush Pile to Agent's Hands, Almost

As a writer and wannabe novelist, it's good to find connections if you're not born with them. Connections tend to get your manuscript snagged out of the slush pile. It's a good leg up on the climb to getting published. I arrived on the scene without any connections at all, or so I thought.

At this stage of my wannabe-novelist sojourn, I'm trolling through the waters wherein agents lurk, wasting a lot of time and bait on uninterested agents. Even though I Google them, swap notes about them, read through acknowledgement pages for signs of them, the ones who are best suited to my story lines remain elusive. Books that seem similar to mine rarely name the agent in the acknowlegements (ungrateful writers!). Some of the info I find is outdated. It's a mess trying to target the right agent.

I wonder why some internet genius hasn't created a website listing all the books in print and the agents who sold them. If you hear of it, let me know!

In lieu of that resource, from this point on, every conference I attend, every book club meeting, every trip to the library, I'll be searching for off-beat characters like mine, and send out some honest fan mail to those fine writers. Writers often turn out to be generous souls who will surrender the name of their agents, especially when they trust you not to misuse or abuse the information.

My query (that got a nibble from Stephanie Kip Rostan's assistant) got snagged from the email slush pile because I mentioned one of SKRostan's writers, and our brief meeting. A connection!
Small as it was, it helped.

I did not even hint that Stephanie Lehmann (Rostan's writer) liked my characters, or my story (she has not had the opportunity to read any of my stuff, poor gal! ), or that we had any closer connection to me than a quick conversation and an autograph. All I needed for my query letter to get noticed was to connect the dots from my off-beat characters... to SL's book... to SL, herself... to the agent (SKR) with a taste for my type of characters.

I could get addicted to playing connect the dots!

Write ON!
Nan

What to Write, What to Write?

I read today that ABC has released its Fall 2007 schedule. Several new shows will be debuting, including Women’s Murder Club. This is the one-hour drama based on the James Patterson series about four women in San Francisco banding together to track down killers. Three of the women are law enforcement professionals (a police detective, an assistant district attorney, and a coroner) and the fourth is a newspaper reporter. However, while they utilize their specialized knowledge, skills, and contacts in every show, they bring down the bad guy du semaine during their off hours, as private citizens.

My first thought on reading this was, “Oh heck. I made the wrong decision.” What decision? To put my cozy WIP on the side and focus on getting my paranormal mystery underway. I knew fantasies were enjoying a rise in interest, but I’m a die-hard mystery fan, so about a year or two ago, I started kicking around ideas for a combo novel. Last fall, after attending a lecture by an agent who said paranormal mysteries were gaining in popularity, I started making actual notes. After the release date for the final Harry Potter was announced, it dawned on me that I wouldn’t be the only one suffering withdrawal after the book became history, and I ran down to Staples and bought a new looseleaf binder and several packs of index cards. Finally, when I started hearing over and over again the last couple of months that the market for cozies had become saturated, I found a good storage spot for my cozy and tucked it away.

Women’s Murder Club will be on Fridays at 9:00, which is not the best time slot. However, it’s going to be on after Men in Trees, which has picked up a good little following. The show could make it. It could help revive the cozy. Granted, it's not a cozy, but it is a more traditional mystery, not a paranormal.

So now I’m wondering what to do. If I spend all my time on the paranormal, I won’t have my cozy ready if the cozy market opens up again. Worse, by the time I have the paranormal ready, the paranormal market might also be saturated. I could alternate, working one day or week on one, the next day or week on the other. But then it’ll take me forever to finish either book. Grrr! I have no idea what to do.

So tonight, I guess I’ll go watch American Idol and think about something else for a while. Hmm, let’s see. What if there’s a witch who enters a nationally televised talent contest, but one of the judges is murdered …

Success Guilt

Once, when I was young and true,
   Someone left me sad - 
Broke my brittle heart in two;
   And that is very bad.

Love is for unlucky folk,
   Love is but a curse.
Once there was a heart I broke;
   And that, I think, is worse.
                       --Dorothy Parker

I was going to talk about description today, but something has been coming up over and over in blogs and in my personal experience that I'd like to explore a bit.

This issue first came up on an agent's blog. I read so many that, honestly, I can't say which one it was. The essence of the problem is this: unpublished authors are finding that once their colleagues get published, they suddenly become far less friendly, less helpful, even catty. And yet, on another blog, I read the exact opposite: unpublished authors suddenly became far less friendly once someone became published, and started saying nasty things behind her back. My first thought was "surely that doesn't happen all that often." But I heard it often enough, and from enough different sources, that it became evident there really was a problem.

Part of the reason I found this so shocking is that most of the people I've met since entering this world have been wonderful. Not all of them, of course, but the vast majority. Yes, even the agents and editors. Prevailing opinion seems to be:

a) unpublished authors are jealous of others' success
b) authors are only using one another on their way to becoming published--once they no longer feel they "need" the others, they drop them.

Now, I freely admit to being a bit of a misanthrope. It comes from years in retail and food service. But at the same time I am always happy and excited to meet people and make new friends, which I think comes from years of being a teacher. I want other people to be successful. In fact, I've been told at almost every job I've held that I made those I worked with work better and harder. I just can't imagine not wanting the people you've been friends with to be successful.

So I prefer to think about some of the strain of relationships between the unpublished and the newly published as the result of something along the lines of "success guilt." I've had this a couple of times in my life. One example: I had a great meeting with during a pitch session at a conference. A woman I'd met at the conference was going to see the same agent and when she came out and met up with me later, she was terribly depressed and even angry. Her session had not gone at all well.

So what did I do? Well, not everything the agent had told me was positive, even though I felt the session was a good one, so I concentrated on those aspects of the meeting and tried to tell this woman that constructive criticism had to be seen in that light--as constructive. I got together with her and tried to work out some strategies for changing some of the issues the agent had spotted, along with telling her some of the issues the agent had spotted for me, and asking her opinions on how I might solve them.

But I didn't say a word about the better parts of my meeting, the parts I found exciting. For some unknown reason I felt guilty about being successful where she was not.

The second kind of situation that makes me feel uncomfortable, if not exactly guilty: At conferences and in industry-related social situations, I've met authors terribly excited about getting an agent/publisher and signing with them, but I know--often because I'm more internet savvy than the authors in question--that they are not going to be happy in the long run because either the agent is a scam artist (or merely incompetent and likely unable to sell the work) or the publisher is a front for a vanity press. I don't want to rain on these people's parades, but I also want them to find a better agent, a better publisher. Basically, I want them to be successful and happy.

I don't know how to deal with these situations, which, I must admit, is an oddity for me. Sure, there are plenty of things I don't know how to do. I am horrible at firing people. While it's hard for me to take rejection, it's much harder for me to reject someone else.

But I trained early in life to be the peacemaker, the teacher, the person who brought order to chaos. Hey, everyone has a job, right? Those are the roles I was given, and I took them on willingly. So I can kind of see, if I were suddenly to have been accepted by an agent and/or a publisher, how I might feel a bit awkward around those who had not, especially if they'd been rejected by that same agent or publisher. I like to think it's that awkwardness that creates the tension both published and unpublished authors seem to be feeling.

How about you? Have you faced any of these issues? How did you deal with them?

First Crime Novel Competition

Mystery Writers of America just announced their "First Crime Novel Competition" for 2008.

Deadline is December 31, 2007.

For more information, go to minotaurbooks.com/contests.html

Thought you might like to know.

Write ON!
Nan

Closing in on "Award Winning Writer"

If you've never participated in the RWA Mystery/Suspense Chapter's Daphne du Maurier Award contest, it's one you should check out for next year. You can get started on your entry today, and, no, there does not have to be any hint of romance in your submission. The important thing is the mystery/suspense angle of your story.

The contest for 2007 is basically over, and I'm not a finalist...but I'm getting closer. Maybe next year! My results came back today. It's the best experience I've ever had in a writing competition. Even when I lose, I win. Check it out!

(The following pertains to the "unpublished division," open only to those of us who have never had a novel published. You'd have to check the website to find out the specifics for each category - there are several available!)

Why should you enter this contest? For me, it's a no-brainer.

First, the entry fee is cheap: $25.

Second, they have a really nifty judge's rating form that you can download from their website. The judge's form not only gives you an official heads-up on HOW your submission will be scored, the judge's form is also a great assessment tool for your own use (or use within a critique group) on what your story/voice, etc., SHOULD contain.

Third, losing the contest still gives you a phenomenal pay-off: your offering (first 15 pages) gets rated by 4 different judges. There is ample opportunity for the judges to write in comments along with scoring you on the various points. They send back your rating sheet, your original submission (often with text notations), and a nice rejection. You end up with four separate critiques of your first 15 pages, and a lot of things to reconsider.

Fourth, you might even win!

Okay, so there are some more details you could use:

They rate submissions, using a 1-5 range in various categories, clearly delineated. Highest score wins. The judges are a combo of published and unpublished (but prescreened) writers of Mainstream Mystery and Suspense. They grade your hook, plot, pacing, conflict and protag, characterization, dialogue/narrative, setting, Point of View, style/voice, and offer 4 additional bonus points. The total possible score is 128 points per judge. Reach that, and you've got a winner!

Okay, so how did I my Busty Biggs first fifteen pages score out of 128 points? First judge: 44 (yes, folks, 44 out of 128! Yikes!); second judge: 98 (not soooo bad); third judge: 117 (now you're talking) and fourth judge: 125 (Oh, yeah, baby!). In reconnoitering the final point value of each entry, the lowest score is dropped (good-bye 44!). My "total average," after dropping the 44, was 340 points out of a possible 384. Hey, hey, hey! Sounds good to me.

Clearly the judge who awarded me a measly 44 did not "get" Busty. I've run into agents like that - their rejections come with a scorched edge. But, 3 out of 4 judges DID feel that Busty has some good bones - something worth sending out and around. Their cautions that my chapter two was a bit too slow hit home. Better yet, one suggested that I rework something I mentioned in the chapter and expand on it to snap the pace back up to speed.

The judges all offered comments that proved helpful - even number 44! I could tell that they wanted more of a suspense submission than my story offers, but that's something I can live with.

Two years ago I submitted my two teachers ms and did not get the good grades I'd hoped for, but did get great advice on what needed attention and some suggestions there, too.

All of that is why the RWA Mystery/Suspense Chapter gets my glowing praise, and my intention to come up with yet another manuscript to submit either next year or the year after. I'm getting closer to that Award Winning Writer category, and one of these days, by gum, I intend to get there! Hope you're right there with me, too.

Write On!
Nan

Cyber Personas: Talking Funny Online

Ever check out your own kids’ My Space pages? (Hi guys. I swear it was only once!) I’ll bet their virtual personalities gave you a bit of a jolt.

But it’s not just Gen X and Gen Next’ers who talk funny online. Sensible middle-aged adults – maybe especially the sensible ones – seem to take on a barely recognizable persona when they stumble into a social networking site. Apparently, people get a kick out of inventing offbeat versions of their ordinarily sober selves.

Sound familiar? Aren’t these folks a little like fiction writers? Inventing characters on the page? Each and every fanciful personage some variant of the writer herself?

While I’ve long known that I’m more inventive at the keyboard, others are more creative behind a fountain pen. I’ve concluded that whatever the tool, when we start talking with our fingers we tend to go someplace deeper than we go in ordinary face-to-face interactions. And once we step into one of the endless virtual worlds available on the internet, we’re all the more likely to take on singular qualities.

Analysts like John Suler (The Psychology of Cyberspace) explain the phenomena as anonymity’s ‘disinhibition’ effect. You don’t know me. You can’t see me. It’s just a game. I’m as clever as the next guy. I’m cooler than the next guy. And hey, what you see here’s the real me.

Some folks act out dark and dangerous stuff online. But most people are simply having benign fun trying on identities.

Here’s the rub. Whatever text your disinhibited self puts out there – her words have a tendency to stick around. You can’t shake them. You may never shake them.

I’ve seen a number of recent articles warning folks to Google their own names to see what a potential employer (read editor) is likely to learn about them. It may not be a pretty picture. Here’s a relatively harmless example that illustrates the point: In a moment of enthusiasm on Crimespace, I accepted the Cliché Challenge to write a briefer-than-flash clichéd story. The offerings were so outstanding that I dashed off some remark like “deadlines be damned, I’m gonna try this too.” I did try it, and found my own entry charming. My point, however, is that my “deadlines be damned” remark wouldn’t be appreciated by my actual clients, who care about my meeting deadlines. Come to think of it, my future editor (I'm forever the optimist!) might not find it so appealing either.

–Lois

P.S. Take a look at the Boston Globe’s recent “The Avatars of Style.” Some people create graphical images to represent their virtual selves. Some even make several. It’s like playing paper dolls with an infinite wardrobe. Even better, you can animate your little person. She can moonwalk or jump rope. However, I’ve seen more interesting avator graphics, I’m certain, than the ones referenced in the Globe article. Where do I go to find something really unusual? Must have been on a gaming site that I saw such cool figures. Oh boy. Guess I’ll have to try gaming now too!

Criminal Inspirations: New YA Heroine?

Here's a fascinating story about Amanda Barnett, a teenaged deputy coroner in Indiana. She's 18, and works for her father, the elected coroner of Jay County. I think this is an idea with fantastic series potential (for some talented YA author, not ham-fisted ole me): the family dynamics of having dad for a boss who empowers her, but still wants to protect her, balancing schoolwork and what has to be a stressful, demanding job; seeming so weird to the other kids...

I'd read it, and give it to my nieces- in a few years.

It's this kind of far-out premise that, if you were merely pitching the idea, editors might argue no readers would accept. Ah, truth, always surprising me just when I think I've got you figured.

May I also take this moment to mention the Crime Lab Project? Go to the CLP Forum blog for the most current stuff. This initiative comes from within the world of crime fiction to help make actual labs as well funded, equipped, and staffed to provide the timely, accurate, and just results we all like in our reading and viewing. Backlogs and budget constraints are the reality, not the exception, and ambitious Amanda deserves a good place to land once she graduates.

Mystery Short Story Contest

This just in:

The Crime and Suspense ezine has just announced another NO FEE writing
contest. The contest opened today and the deadline for entry is June
15. Specifics regarding rules, requirements, judging, and prizes are
on the Crime and Suspense web site at http://www.crimeandsuspense.com

Write On!

Querying 101 - Making Connections

As a writer and wannabe novelist, it's good to find connections if you're not born with them. Connections tend to get your manuscript snagged out of the slush pile. It's a good leg up on the climb to getting published. I arrived on the scene without any connections at all, or so I thought.

At this stage of my wannabe-novelist sojourn, I'm trolling through the waters wherein agents lurk, wasting a lot of time and bait on uninterested agents. Even though I Google them, swap notes about them, read through acknowledgement pages for signs of them, the ones who are best suited to my story lines remain elusive. Books that seem similar to mine rarely name the agent in the acknowlegements (ungrateful writers!). Some of the info I find is outdated. It's a mess trying to target the right agent.

I wonder why some internet genius hasn't created a website listing all the books in print and the agents who sold them. If you hear of it, let me know!

In lieu of that resource, from this point on, every conference I attend, every book club meeting, every trip to the library, I'll be searching for off-beat characters like mine, and send out some honest fan mail to those fine writers. Writers often turn out to be generous souls who will surrender the name of their agents, especially when they trust you not to misuse or abuse the information.

My query (that got a nibble from Stephanie Kip Rostan's assistant) got snagged from the email slush pile because I mentioned one of SKRostan's writers, and our brief meeting. A connection!
Small as it was, it helped.

I did not even hint that Stephanie Lehmann (Rostan's writer) liked my characters, or my story (she has not had the opportunity to read any of my stuff, poor gal! ), or that we had any closer connection to me than a quick conversation and an autograph. All I needed for my query letter to get noticed was to connect the dots from my off-beat characters... to SL's book... to SL, herself... to the agent (SKR) with a taste for my type of characters.

I could get addicted to playing connect the dots!

Write ON!
Nan

Querying 101 - To E-query or Not to E-query

While trying to decide which agents to query for my outside-the-box protag (Busty Biggs), the question of e-queries spread a dark cloud overhead. I'm not good at filling in forms, and many of the agencies asked for submissions via e-mail form. Ugh!

Forms DO indicate what most interests the agency. BUT forms diminish our ability to control the way we present our manuscript to the agenting world. I dithered over that for a while. It's like a challenge: Here's a little white box, now tell me what makes you and your story any different than all those other word-filled boxes on all those other email queries that I'm slogging through, droopy eyelids and all.

And, if you're targeting one agent in particular, why in the world would anyone ever submit a query to the submissions box of the agency? Well, let me tell you...

Since I'm both a neophyte with equeries and a weenie, I was dubious about agency/internet protocol - Would I be violating modern etiquette by ignoring the agency's wishes and contacting one agent directly? - I finally opted for the more cooperative route. I went to the agency's submissions page and copied the form they wanted me to submit. I printed the form out and chewed my lip, trying to sound exotic-yet-fascinating, co-operative-yet-clever.

First off, they asked "How did you find our site?" Hoorah! From the get-go I knew I had a good hook - Stephanie Kip Rostan (one of their agents) was/is the agent for Stephanie Lehmann, author of THE ART OF UNDRESSING. Although that novel is not a mystery, it does have a prominently featured exotic dancer (retired) and includes frequent mention of sex toys and parties where toys are sold like Tupperware products. (She makes Busty seem prudish by contrast!) And, it's written with a great sense of humor.

Better yet, I had spoken with Stephanie Lehmann while getting her autograph on that book last year, at the Backspace Writer's Conference. She had mentioned having a great agent, whose name I promptly forgot. Luckily, she thanked the agent (Stephanie Kip Rostan) in her acknowledgements.The agency practically invited me to plug my meeting with Stephanie Lehmann, and then state my primary interest in getting through to Stephanie Kip Rostan. Stephanie Lehmann's name was my opening hook. And, I think that paid off.

How do I know? This is what was in the SUBJECT box: "RE: Slush from someone who met Steph Lehmann." SLUSH??? SLUSH??? Okay, so the queries to the agency went straight into a slush pile - now why did that surprise me? But, did you notice the rest of that subject box entry? "...from someone who met Steph Lehmann." STEPH Lehmann. Now THAT told me the hook had sunk in a bit. The note was from Rostan's assistant, Monika, who saved my query from the dreaded slush pile. WHEW! Lived to fight another day.

Since I sent that agency query, I've been advised by folks far wiser than myself that e-queries should be sent to the specific agents. And that's what I'm doing now, as I continue to query other agents - just in case Stephanie Kip Rostan doesn't turn out to be the agent for me. At least that's my plan until something better comes my way!

Any comment and/or advice is welcome!

He's Late, He's Late, for a Very Important Date

I’m starting work on a rush copyediting project today. I don’t mind rush projects. I work best when I have a deadline pressing—I guess because I don’t have time to worry about doing it right or wrong—and the fees are often higher. But that’s just me.

The author was supposed to deliver this manuscript to his publisher several weeks ago. The delivery date was either in his contract or, if this is “option material,” firmly and clearly stated in some other official way. The author just blew it. Luckily, this is his fourth book with this publisher and the first three did well. If this was his first book or the first three didn’t do so well, this might very likely also be his last book with this publisher.

Why? Why are manuscript delivery dates so important? When a project is acquired, among the many things negotiated and agreed upon by the author, agent, and acquisitions editor is the delivery date. Before the contract is even signed and returned to the publisher, the project is “scheduled” based on this date. Whether the publisher is big or small doesn’t matter; all publishers work to their capacity as far as the number of books they publish is concerned. And each of those books has to go through the various steps of the publishing process in a certain order and by a certain date. One book being late can knock all the other books off schedule.

More important, the publishers begin presenting their books to booksellers six months to a year before the book even comes off the printing press, and the booksellers order them two months to a year in advance. Publisher sales reps don’t haul around copies of finished books in their cars, and booksellers don't buy two copies of this and three copies of that, sliding them immediately onto their shelves. Instead, the sales reps verbally describe the books, basing their descriptions on sell sheets and leaving catalogs for the buyers to review and order from when they're ready. The publishers, therefore, need to have their catalogs, sell sheets, and other sales materials prepared a year or more in advance. And this, of course, means that they need to schedule their titles a year or more in advance, with the schedule remaining unchanged after the catalog is finalized.

Booksellers, meanwhile, are also hurt if a book is late. Most have tight budgets, with an allowance for a certain dollar amount of books each month. If a book is released late, many usually cannot fit it into their budget for the rescheduled month. The money allotted for book purchases in that new month has already been committed to other books. Furthermore, the income they expected from the book in the original month is lost. Income is lost all down the line—by the booksellers, publisher, author, and agent.

A late manuscript also isn’t great for the content of the book. The acquisitions editor of this particular book is the best content editor I know, but he didn’t have the opportunity to perform his magic this time. And magic it is, since his editorial recommendations usually not only significantly improve his books but have put several on the New York Times Bestseller List. I won’t have the time to be as careful as I usually am, and I may also not have the time to make a second pass, which is when I read for flow and catch anything I missed on the first pass. The proofreader will be similarly rushed.

Personally, I’m going to have to skip my Sisters in Crime meeting tonight, postpone a doctor’s appointment next week, and put in much longer workdays than usual. I’ll also have to put my own book on the side for now. For the next month, the acquisitions editor will be even more stressed than he normally is, and the production editor will be on pins and needles hoping the proofreader, book designer, compositor, and I all finish on time.

In the end, this book will still be good, because everyone involved will continue to give it the best they can under the circumstances. However, it could have been a better book. It’s a shame.

Writing Is Hard Work

Today I took a break from my "real job," at which I usually work every day, especially on weekends. Working from home has its benefits, but it does mean that I always have work that I can and should be doing. So instead of working at my paying job, today I slept in and then went to Borders--one of two places I go to write--and spent the whole day. (One of the other difficulties with working at home is that there's no way on earth I can write there!)

It was a very productive day. I reached 55,000 words. Now, that may or may not sound like a lot, depending on where you are in your own process, but those of you who know me know that things were plugging along very nicely until about 40k words and then stalled. If I got in 1000 words a week, I was lucky. And just now, that output isn't going to cut it--I have, for want of a better way to put it, a deadline to meet. (It's a long story.)

As I mentioned the other day, one of the things I've found useful in the past to jump start me is a good workshop. So last night I attended the first of a ten-week writing course designed for creativity, not technique. Oh, sure, there are craft aspects in it, but the assumption of this particular course is that you know how to write.

Could I do the kind of thing we do in this course myself? Sure. Well, a combination of on my own and with a solidly focused critique group, since there are workshopping aspects to the course as well. If I bought Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down The Bones and, possibly, Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way, both of which strongly inform my writing teacher's ideas on creativity, and I had the self-discipline to follow the advice therein, I could probably work my way through those periods where every word seems a struggle, but I know myself well enough to know that won't work for me.

Look, I'm Jewish. Guilt is a major motivating factor in my life. I know the Weight Watchers plan by heart, but I've never lost a pound unless I showed up for weekly weigh-ins. No one judges you when you step on that scale, but having someone else look at your progression--or regression--works for me. Likewise, I'm apt to follow my writing teacher's instructions to freewrite on assigned topics for 5 minutes or 10 minutes a day, whereas trying to do it on my own would be worthless. Is she planning on looking at our freewriting? Nope. But if I have to look at her next Tuesday night and I *haven't* done it, I'm going to be one unhappy camper.

Today I was determined to get the few pages I had handwritten into the computer so I could get a better sense of where things stood with the manuscript. (I can only write by hand. With a fountain pen. I've recently been told that I have adult ADD, in part because I carry three pens, each with a different color of ink, so that I can write in different colors according to what I "feel" like and so that ink changes let me know where I left off on one day and picked up on another.) Things chugged along until I got to the last page I'd written which had been so painful that it had taken me two days to write a single paragraph.

Whoops. No wonder it had taken so long. The scene was all wrong. In fact, there was a whole scene missing that would change the entire mood of the one I'd been trying to write. So...big change. And today, as well as typing in those several pages as I'd planned to, I happily wrote until I was exhausted, and typed in the stuff I'd added. Which is how I came up with 55,000 words.

Here's the thing. I was exhausted when I was done. Writing, like any creative process, is hard work. I make beads for a living and when I stand up after a three hour session at the torch, I am always tired. (My usual day of work includes three torch or cutting hours plus a couple hours doing things like cleaning the studio, cleaning beads, pricing, sorting, packing, shipping and photographing.) This is something we tend to forget. We think that because we are not physically active, we have no reason to get tired.

Su