Recently a writer shared a list of all the reasons why she needed to wait until winter to begin her new writing schedule. I read it over, paused a moment, and responded, “There will always be reasons not to write.” Those times when life seems most overwhelming–when it comes rolling straight at us full-tilt–present some of the richest challenges and also opportunities. No better time to be writing with full commitment to your practice. A writing life is just that, a writing life. It goes on, whether times are smooth or filled with upheaval. When you feel tested, I …
Sarah’s & Cynde’s Blog
KEEP THE ELEPHANT IN YOUR LAP
I turned thirty in a dinghy on the River Ganga, while a full moon and the fires from the corpses in the burning ghats illuminated the shores of the holy city of Varanasi. That trip to India years ago changed my life. I glimpsed my own mortality, dodged snake charmers and lepers, paid homage to living goddesses and glassy-eyed sadhus. I also met Ganesha, the elephant riding the mouse. Ganesha, the son of Shiva and Parvati and one of the most revered and popular Hindu deities, is also known as the Lord of Success, the god of wealth, wisdom and …
The End of Plague and Pestilence
I am pleased to announce victory over pinkeye and various other woes in my household! (See previous post.) Because I’m in contact with many writers and quite a number of them are in the process of sharing their stories with select readers, agents, and editors, I am going to use the next few blog posts to focus on surviving and thriving through submission and beyond. Have you ever thought about the fact that it’s called submission? Only in publishing…
PINKEYE, EARACHES, AND OTHER WRITING BLOCKS
Okay, it’s been a tough few weeks for my immediate family. My five-year-old daughter had pinkeye, my husband is recovering from an earache, and I’m coming back from a garden variety cold. Hence the recent scarcity of blog entries. I’m catching up soon, I promise.
THE WORD ON WORD COUNT
If you’re about to query agents about your debut novel and the word count tops 150k, land here first: The Swivet. Agent Colleen Lindsay lays out the basics by category. Bottomline–less is more. The average word count for a novel? Between 80k and 100k, with YA running between 50k and 80k.
THE CASE OF THE DREADED SYNOPSIS
When it comes time to find the right agent for you and your novel, you will need to compose a query letter and a synopsis. Your job is to make both of these documents tight, professional, and effective. To spare yourself needless pain and embarrassing blunders, seek help without shame. Agent Query has clear guidelines to help you come up with a dynamite query. Fiction Writer’s Connection offers excellent tips to help you draft and polish your synopsis. The good news: once you tackle your synopsis, the query will seem like a piece of cake!
PLATFORM ANYONE?
I was having tea on Canyon Road with literary agent Irene Webb and she mentioned a trip to New York to visit with editors. What are they looking for? I asked. Her answer boiled down to two points: 1) A writer with a unique voice; 2) A writer with a strong a platform. Voice? We know it when we hear it, when we read it on the page. It’s a sort of author’s thumbprint, and it lends the story its unique flavor, energy and tone. More about voice in a future post. Platforms? Does the word bring to mind discos, …
PLAY IT RISKY
I met Donald Maass last October when we were both among the presenters at the Surrey International Writers’ Conference in Surrey, British Columbia. Not only is Maass a high-powered agent with great marketing advice for writers, he is also a writer who truly cares about other writers, their creative process, and their stories. Read what he has to say about originality and fiction on his new blog at Writer Unboxed–and never play it safe again.
THE BUSINESS OF WRITING -How not to ship your power out with the manuscript.
Over the next weeks I’ll be focusing on the business of writing–building your platform, choosing authentic career strategies, finding the right agent, evaluating your publishing options from traditional to POD to e-books to Kindle. And most importantly, how to hold onto your power and your sanity over the course of your creative lifetime. I’m not going to try to organize these “biz” posts in any particular order. Instead, I’m posting links to sites I already know are useful. And I’ll be on an active hunt to discover new (to me and perhaps to you) resources. If you’re serious about the …
CARTOONS, HORIZONS & OTHER OUTLINES
As part of my family’s spring break, I spent the past few days revising an outline. This novel is already in progress but I’ve been making changes to some of the plot elements and I wanted to “picture” the whole again. I worked up a six-page prose outline. Sure enough, it gave me a new perspective. Still, I wanted an instant picture. My first idea was to use a “horizon” outline. It’s something I do often and it’s simple. I draw a line across a long sheet of paper. I divide the line into thirds to represent the three acts …