Author Archives: fictorians

Why Revising is a good thing.

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Guest Post by Dan Wells

Congratulations! You finished NaNoWriMo this year–a 50,000-word novel in just one month. Maybe it’s a full story, or maybe it’s just a beginning; maybe you printed out the little diploma and hung it on your wall, or maybe you didn’t even finish. Maybe you didn’t even do NaNoWriMo this year, but you have a book left over from last year, or a book that you wrote without any connection to NaNoWriMo at all. The point is, you wrote a book. Hooray! That’s a step most people never even make it to, and you’ve done it. Good for you.

Now it’s time to go back and make it better.

“Revision” is, for a lot of writers, a scary word. You may think I’m trying to give you a bunch of extra work. You may think I’m telling you that the book you wrote doesn’t count, and that you have to write the whole thing again. You may even think that the book you wrote is brilliant and doesn’t need to be revised at all. Rest assured that your book IS brilliant, and it DOES count, but that you need to revise it anyway. Revision is something that a lot of aspiring writers balk at, but experienced, professional writers never question. It is our very best friend, and, quite frankly, one of the primary reasons we are professional writers. Revision is a magical process that will turn your finished book into an excellent book; it will take your brilliant story and refine it in a way that will help everyone recognize its brilliance. Think of the recipe for your favorite food: even if you have all the right ingredients, the dish won’t turn out like you want it unless you combine them in exactly the right way–and even if the flavor is perfect, the best chefs will spend just as much time on presentation and serving, making sure that every aspect of the meal is perfect.

Or, to make things easier, I can sum up that entire paragraph in one sentence: your first draft is for what you want to say, and your final draft is for how you want to say it.

The revision process starts with distance. Remove yourself from your writing for a while–a few days, a few weeks, a few months, whatever it takes to give yourself a fresh perspective when you come back to it later. Work on other projects, read other books, and cleanse your mental palate. If you have someone willing to read your work, give them the manuscript so you can get some outside feedback. The purpose of this step is to help yourself see the book for what it is, not for what you think it is. Inside your mind you have an idealized view of the story you wanted to tell–you know what emotions you wanted to create, what reactions you wanted to elicit in the reader, and which parts of the story would be exciting or romantic or scary or sad. While you were writing it, you saw it the way you wanted it to be. Other people–and yourself, with enough distance–don’t have that idealized view, and they’ll see your story for what it really is. When you give yourself distance and come back with fresh eyes, you can compare the story on the page to the story in your head and figure out which parts worked and which parts missed the mark. WARNING: most of it missed the mark. I can tell you that without even reading it, because that happens every time, and it happens with every author. The more you write, and the more you develop your skills, the better your first drafts will be, but even your very favorite writers write bad first drafts. They do it all the time. I do it myself. The trick is to not let it get you down–don’t get depressed, don’t give up, just use this as an opportunity to fix what’s wrong. Again, think of a chef: when she tastes her latest creation and realizes there’s not enough salt, she doesn’t close her restaurant and move away and never cook again, she adds more salt. You’re not here to agonize over your problems, you’re here to solve them.

Step two, of course, is to look really closely at the problems you found in step one, and figuring out exactly what’s causing them. To continue the metaphor, step one is where you taste the food and realize something’s wrong; step two is where you figure out that it’s wrong because it doesn’t have enough salt. Like all things, this comes with practice, but you can start that practice by asking the right questions. It’s not enough to say “this book is bad,” you have to ask yourself why it’s bad. Is it boring? Are the characters unlikable? Is it hard to understand? Maybe your helpful friend who read the book told you he couldn’t figure out why the characters were doing what they were doing. Your job, as the author, is to look at those characters and their actions with a discerning eye: do they have good reasons for what they’re doing? Do those reasons connect as logically to their actions as you thought they did when you wrote it? Are those reasons clear in your mind but never really presented well on the page? Say the book is boring: does the reader have good reasons to care about what’s happening? Does the reader like the characters enough to be invested in their problems? Does the reader have all the information they need to be ready for the climaxes and the cliffhangers and the big emotional payoffs? No matter what the larger problems might be, you can dig underneath and find the specific issues that are causing them.

Once you’ve identified specific issues, step three is to figure out how to solve them. Let’s look at character motivations again: your readers (and perhaps even yourself, if you’ve created enough distance from the manuscript) are confused about why the main character is doing what he’s doing, and you’ve determined that this is because his motivations are never properly explained. There are many, many, many ways to solve this, and you need to figure out which is the right one. Do you just add a few lines of inner monologue where he explains himself? Maybe several lines, scattered throughout the book, where he reaffirms his personal beliefs? Maybe you need a new scene–the bad guys do something that affects the main character personally, so he has a clear and visible reason for opposing them. Maybe you need to add a new character: a dependent who the bad guys can hurt, or a buddy that the main character can talk to, or a romantic interest that will give the main character something to fight for. Maybe your character’s motivations rely on some key piece of knowledge she didn’t have access to in the first draft: oops! Figure out how to give her that knowledge, maybe with a mentor/traveler/newscaster/whatever who can explain it to her, or a scene of investigation or accidental discovery where she can learn it for herself.

It all boils down to this: when you look at your book critically and identify its weaknesses, you can drill deep down into what’s causing those weaknesses and figure out exactly how to make your book better. Once you’ve cleaned up the storytelling, you can do the same thing with the writing: polishing it and refining it until it’s not just good, but great. Learn how to revise, and your writing will become better than you ever imagined.

Dan Wells has a new book coming out in March called FRAGMENTS, the sequel to PARTIALS; it’s a post-apocalypse SF story about a group of plague survivors trying to rebuild civilization.  Also check out his e-novella called ISOLATION that’s kind of sort of a prequel to the series and takes place several years before the apocalypse.

Bio: Dan Wells lives in Germany with his wife and five kids. Why Germany? Why not? He writes a lot of stories, reads a lot of books, plays a lot of boardgames, and eats a lot of food, which is pretty much the ideal life he imagined for himself as a child.

NaNo NaNo

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Nora Zelevansky

Guest Post by Nora Zelevansky

I probably shouldn’t admit this, but when I first heard the term “NaNoWriMo,” I thought maybe it was a Star Trek species or a riff on Robin Williams’ “Nanu, Nanu” alien catchphrase from 1970’s sitcom Mork & Mindy.

In case you don’t already know: it is neither of those things.

NaNoWriMo is an acronym for National Novel Writing Month. And, lest you assume (as I would) that it’s some random meaningless designation like Bacon Appreciation Week or Balloon Animal Day (not to downplay the importance either of those deeply important celebrations), I can assure you that this is serious business.

During the month of November each year, thousands of people all over the country commit to writing about 1,677 words a day sans outlines and without editing. At the end of the month, each person is meant to have a relatively short (about 50,000 word) draft of a novel. And some of those novels eventually get published. My book Semi-Charmed Life was fortunate enough to be among those.

Being largely based on free association, that resulting first draft is generally a bit of a mess. At least, that’s true in my case. In 2009, I participated for the first time, moved by the desire to find out if I could write fiction. I am, after all, a journalist, whose forays into creative writing had previously been relegated to personal essays, memoirs and creative nonfiction. But I was craving an outlet without deadlines or specific guidelines for my voice. I was in the mood for a different kind of challenge.

For me, NaNoWriMo was a game changer. And I am not alone. Not even close. This wasn’t the first time I’d toyed with ideas for books, usually getting all excited and then deciding a mere week or two later that the concepts were lame, would never go anywhere and were not worth months or years of anyone’s time. But this was the first time I was offered a structure for writing a novel, that I was instructed to pick an idea (even if just for the first page or chapter) and stick with it … no matter what.

Though I am disciplined as a writer (I have to be as a freelance journalist), I’m not big on enforced structure. So, for me, it was relief not to have to have to outline or research much, elements that NaNo discourages. And, as goofy as the supportive exclamation point-filled NaNoWriMo emails sometimes seemed from the cheerleading staff of fellow writers, knowing that thousands of others were attempting the same feat did keep me on track. And don’t even get me started on the graph: Participants sign up online, create profiles then watch a graph that tracks their word count accomplishments grow and shrink. I can’t quite tell you why, but that graph kept me honest. I couldn’t bear fail it! It kept me writing even on difficult days.

That is to say; as much as I enjoyed the process, I also found it difficult sometimes. Like everyone else, I started on November 1st of that year. Which was my first wedding anniversary. Which was the day I was traveling via plane with ten buddies back from a best friend’s wedding in Mexico. Which was the day after their wedding, when I was a lot hungover from too much tequila and Churros. As you can imagine, I can’t say it was the most productive writing day of my life. And it would not be the only one that was rough going.

For most of us, no matter how much we adore writing or how much time we have to dedicate to the task on a given day, there are always times when the words just don’t flow, where what we scribble or type is pure crap. If I’d gone about writing my book through a different method, I would have, of course, had the luxury of taking a pass on those days, but that’s how you get stuck and give up. NaNo forces you to push through the less creative moments to get to the next thing. After all, you can always go back and edit when the month is through.

I won’t bore you with talk of my addiction to Cherry Coke Zero during that time or the explanations to my husband that got me through that time and out of certain holiday obligations, BUT suffice it to say that a plot emerged despite my total belief that it would not. And afterward, when I reread the draft, which truly was a big mess, I saw some elements that seemed worth pursuing and I started the rewriting process.

The Rewriting Quandary

For me, rewriting can be easier than writing for the first time. After all, there’s no blank page staring you in the face. But not everyone feels that way. So, how to keep yourself working on revisions long after the NaNo process has ended?

Well, first of all, I know that many colleges and continuing education institutions offer classes on taking your novel to the next level and so that structure and accountability can be helpful for some. I personally felt that I’d already put so much work into completing the draft. To abandon it then would just have felt wasteful. I wanted to see where it could go.

My book in particular was a strange mix of genres, part coming of age, part mystery, part humorous satire-that was never what I’d imagined I would write. And I was proud of it … and a little intrigued too.

I sent the draft to friends and family for feedback, made revisions, then sent it to more people I knew for notes. Of course, it’s not always easy to hear that feedback, but you just try to remember that its all in pursuit of a greater goal. People are only expressing opinions and, while you may not like everything you hear (in fact, you definitely won’t!), it’s helpful to give the manuscript to many people of different backgrounds and interests. That way, if they all give you a similar note or point to a similar problem, you know that it really does need to be addressed.

On Picking Readers For Notes

Another thought: we all have relationships in our life with people we love that are complicated. (And, yes, that’s probably a euphemism for something worse.) If you can, avoid sending those people the manuscript for feedback. It may seem obvious, but its’ really easy to make that mistake.

Ask yourself, will I be able to hear negative thoughts from this person and do I trust him or her to give me honest feedback without twisting the knife or trying to make me feel small? Does this person truly have my best interests in mind, in this context, or is our relationship competitive in some ways? Often people don’t even realize that your attempt to write a novel pushes emotional buttons for them, so it’s important that you consider everyone’s feelings, so that you don’t end up feeling angry, defeated or upset.

Once You Get Published

Anyway, a bazillion revisions later, the unimaginable (for me) happened: I found an agent who was excited about the story and she sold my book Semi-Charmed Life to Macmillan’s St. Martin’s Press. It hit bookstores this July 2012.

The day they handed me the galley and I actually held the bound manuscript in my hand in the form of a book was probably the proudest of my life. Of course, what’s amazing these days is that we can sell to publishers or self-publish and, either way, get to see our work in book form.

I spent most of the summer touring around like a crazy person, doing everything I could to promote the book. That’s harder than you’d imagine these days. Since Borders closed, the chance of someone just coming upon a book accidentally while browsing is down something like 25%. The greatest challenge is just letting people know that you and your book exist, then hopefully encouraging them to give it a chance.

My novel’s cover is pretty and sort of looks like a water color painting and it certainly has the components that suggests, but it has a darker, more literary, almost cartoonish side (compared sometimes to The Royal Tenenbaums in tone) and that’s something a person would only know from actually picking it up and reading it. So, the trick is getting people to try it out, to take that step.

The other night, I was at a cocktail party and was introduced to a fellow novelist. He told me the title of his book and I told him mine and we both vowed to buy copies. That’s a vow I’ll keep: as we both admitted, once we realized how tricky it is to get a story out there, we started buying books by every author we happened to meet. It just seems like good karma, like the right thing to do. And I’ve ended up reading some fantastic new books that way too!

While traveling around teaching writing workshops, giving readings and even calling and/or Skyping into book clubs around the country to discuss Semi-Charmed Life (something I am still enjoying very much), I often talk up the NaNoWriMo process. Sometimes I feel like I must sound like some crazy cultist because I am such a believer. But the process worked for me and I think, even for writers who care less about the outcome and more about the experience, it can be incredibly enriching on an emotional and creative level, like writing Morning Pages while doing The Artist’s Way. It’s an escape from the everyday, a chance to let your mind (as cheesy as it might sound) do its thing and run free without constrains.

For me, it was a chance to discover that I had a much wilder imagination than I’d assumed. Who knew? It’s been a new way for people to get to know me, as well. Friends and relatives have read the book and said things like, “I feel like I understand you on a whole other level now. And I think maybe you’re crazy.” Nice.

I have been using the NaNo process to write my second book for the last six weeks. It’s longer than 50,000 words and I couldn’t wait for November to start because I have an actual deadline this time from my publisher, but the basic principles still make sense.

Interestingly, this time is harder. That surprised me. I’m more inhibited by what I know about publishing and by expectations. I can let my mind run rampant to some extent, but I also have to make sure that I stay on track, so I don’t horrify my publisher. But its working, or I guess I’m working, and that’s what’s important.

Ultimately, I like to think I wasn’t entirely wrong about the definition of NaNoWriMo, when I first heard it bandied about. While the acronym may not refer to some alien species, it is sort of a strange cultural community full of people who allow their minds to take them to lands far, far away. And that’s a unique thing.

Meanwhile, I should be getting back to writing. Better say goodbye.

Or as they don’t say, but totally should, during National Novel Writing Month:

Nano Nano.

Good luck!

Nora Zelevansky is a novelist, freelance journalist, essayist and editor, whose writing has appeared in publications including ELLE, Vanity Fair online, Salon.com, Cosmopolitan, Travel + Leisure, the Los Angeles Times, Martha Stewart Weddings, Town & Country, Style.com, SELF, The Daily Beast, The Washington Post and Daily Candy to name a few.  She is a contributing writer for C Magazine.
Semi-Charmed Life info, My website, Book For Sale, Facebook Author Page
Twitter handle: @missnoraz

Libraries & Writers Groups ““ A Partnership made in Reader Heaven

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Guest Post by Holly Paxson

You’re a writer. You know the joys and agony of transforming that blank page into something creative and new. But you’re tired of slogging away at the keyboard on your own. Maybe you’re a brand-new writer who isn’t sure where to go after those first few pages, maybe you’re an experienced master of prose who needs a fresh environment to break a block. Whatever the reason, you’ve decided you want to join a writer’s group, perhaps even start one of your own. So how do you go about it?

A great place to start is your local public library. In addition to the helpful books and other resources on writing, libraries often provide free meeting room space for writing groups to meet, or perhaps already run such a group as a library-sponsored program.  Libraries host everything from weekly critique groups to full-fledged day-long writers workshops complete with published-author instructors and tips on getting published. And almost always, these programs and workshops are completely free.

If your local library doesn’t have any kind of writers program or group, then you may wish to consider starting one. First, think about what kind of group you’d like. A small critique group? A large organization where members share presentations on writing and form critique partnerships on the side? Think about how often you’d like to meet, and, if you don’t already have a group of writers ready to join you, consider how you’ll get the word out that your writers group exists.

Once you’ve considered these questions, then, go to your local library. See what kind of meeting space they have available. Will you need to commandeer a table in a quiet corner, or does the library have a meeting room you can reserve? What is the room’s capacity, and how often is it available? Ideally, the availability of the library’s space will work with what you’ve envisioned for your group.

You may even wish to approach the library staff, to see if they’d like to work with you to make your writers group a library-sponsored program. When libraries sponsor programs, they can provide advertising to promote your group to help recruit members, sometimes even provide funds to assist with workshops or presenters. Typically, all that the library asks for in return is that participation in the writers group be free and open to the public.

Libraries can also support the work of your group’s published authors, to varying degrees. For those who wish to get their work into the library’s collection, the best way is to ask the library what their criteria are for accepting books. Some libraries can’t add books that have been self-published, or are only available in ebook form; others can. Some libraries have special donated local author collections, which allow any local author to donate a copy of their book for the community to borrow and read. Some libraries will sponsor special author receptions or book-signings to help promote local authors, or will allow books to be sold in associated Friends of the Library bookstores or booksales.

More than ever, libraries today are community hubs and busier than ever. As an institution supported by your tax dollars, they exist to be used, to provide resources, and to bring people together. For your writers group, a partnership with your local library can be invaluable. So how do you know what your local library can do for you?

All you have to do is ask them.

Holly Paxson has worked (and written!) in public libraries for the past nineteen years. She currently manages a branch of the Timberland Regional Library in Lacey, Washington, where she is hard at work on her next book.

James A. Owen: How Synchronicity Works (For Me)

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A guest post by James A. Owen

Everyone in the world seems to spend a lot of time trying to discern signals in the noise, to find the elusive patterns that will somehow light the way towards an easily attained success – but the truth is that everything is signal, and the only patterns that exist are those we trace with our passing. Our choices form the patterns, and it’s only in hindsight that we can see them. The important thing to remember is that circumstances change; this is why patterns cannot be replicated. The only thing we can do is make choices as wisely as we can and then adhere to them – and the most important choice you can make is to never sacrifice what you want the most for what you want most at that moment. Doing that creates the only kind of pattern worth following: a straight line. If you follow that, then the world will intersect with you in the ways that resonate with your choices, and not the other way around.

Those intersecting moments are synchronicity; the flashes of insight, inspiration, and opportunity that tell you you are on the right path – but it only works if you do not waver in your choices.

Two years ago, an animation producer offered me a $250,000 investment in the HERE, THERE BE DRAGONS IP to jumpstart the development phase of the movie. We’d already had a dry run developing it at Warner Brothers with HARRY POTTER producer David Heyman and BATMAN BEGINS screenwriter David Goyer, who was overseeing my script, but they were occupied with other projects at the time, so it proved to be a nonstarter. Several years later, I’d regained the film rights and was working on it with Rick Porras and Marc Ordesky, two producers from THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Rick had introduced me to a screenwriter, and we’d assembled a great presentation, including preproduction sample art from ILM, but the high pricetag on the movie (estimated at $150 million to $175 million – ships on water are costly) was proving daunting to the studios, so we decided we needed to do more development first – and that takes money.

The offer could not have come at a better time for the project, and for me personally – after costs (paying the lawyers) and paying the screenwriter and other associated stuff, I would have netted about 40% of that. What made that money essential was that I was at the time coming down with a bad case of pneumonia that would linger for months – forcing the cancellation of the book tour for my fifth Imaginarium Geographica book, and seriously delaying completion of the sixth.

After difficult and protracted negotiations which stretched from August into December, we reached an agreement in which she and her backers would get a 25% stake in the IP, plus a return on their money, plus producer’s fees. A great deal for them, and a bearable one for me. But then we found out they wouldn’t be ready to fund until January – and I had to tell her if I didn’t have $50k by mid-December, I would lose my house. It had been a difficult season for a lot of people, and my own mother had come within days of losing her house. An error in transferring my mortgage between banks turned into a huge and expensive debt – one I couldn’t pay without that money. The investor said – around December 6 – that she might be able to arrange it.

By December 9, she said they can advance the money I needed immediately, on signing of a deal memo – AND on my assignment to her of all animation rights in the IP.

I agreed.

Around December 12, she told me her backers also wanted the publishing rights, too. I asked to exclude the current books, planned sequels, and spinoff titles. She agreed.

On December 14, I received the deal memo with only hours left to receive a wire to save my house. It included publishing rights to the excluded list of books. Furthermore, ALL rights to the IP would be transferred to a jointly-owned LLC while the other negotiations were conducted, during which NO other money would change hands.

I declined to sign. And she vanished from my radar without asking after my house.One immediate positive aspect of this was the effect it had on producer Mark Ordesky, who called up his attorney (also mine) and said, “I don’t know five people in Hollywood who would have made that choice.” Prior to this event, he had been on the periphery, but now he was decidedly involved in whatever I could make happen before I went broke.

Somehow, I managed to talk the bank into holding off on the foreclosure sale, in part by suggesting that I could 1) actually hold a press conference about it; and 2) make them look really bad for doing that sale right before Christmas. They agreed, and ended up announcing a moratorium on ALL of their foreclosure sales until after Christmas.

That spring, I decided I needed to somehow replace the six figure income I lost from the investment deal, so I could pay my bills and possibly fund the movie development myself. I had a Book Babe transcribe a recording of the library presentation I’d been doing for a few years, which I edited and expanded into DRAWING OUT THE DRAGONS: A Meditation on Art, Destiny, and The Power Of Choice. I released it as an ebook, and started selling well – REALLY well.

A number of readers wanted to have print copies so they could give DotD as Christmas and graduation presents, so I started a Kickstarter fundraiser to get the money. We overfunded, raising 130% of the amount we needed.

Around the same time, I googled the animation producer’s name and found out she and her backers had been censured by a federal judge for selling unregistered securities, and for fraudulently selling stakes in companies based on ownership of IP’s that they did not fully control. Had I agreed to the earlier deal, I would have either seen my biggest works tied up in a legal morass indefinitely; or seen my work used as a lever to bilk investors out of their money.

One of the Kickstarter backers was one of the people in charge of the venerable LTUE Symposium held for thirty years at BYU, and she invited me to be their next guest of honor.

The DotD books came out just prior to Christmas and started selling well, and more, garnering stellar reviews.

I went to LTUE in February 2012, and delivered a keynote address – DRAWING OUT THE DRAGONS – which got me a long, long standing ovation from an audience of 400 people. I was mobbed the rest of the day.

That night at the group signing, a woman waited at the end of my line for three hours in order to tell me the keynote was the most amazing thing she’d ever heard, and that she’s the acquisitions editor at a fine publishing house, and she gave me her card, and said if I ever want to do ANYTHING with them, the door was wide open.

Three months later, after I, in my Merchant Prince mode, conducted a serious courtship campaign, she and her boss, the publisher, flew to Arizona to convince me to do business with them.

Negotiations ensued. A contract was proffered. Negotiating the details took longer than we planned – but still, were going extraordinarily well.

In July, on the drive back from a family vacation, we found that the bank had finally ceased all foreclosure actions on my house and granted a loan modification.

Further negotiations occurred.

And, as of last Friday, the publisher and I finally agreed on the last terms of a deal comprising a total of eight books under two of the largest contracts I have ever signed in my career.

One contract is for a fiction series, the other, for a nonfiction series. Multimedia and film development on the former is already underway under the supervision of the same team I’d assembled to work on HERE, THERE BE DRAGONS – only this time, I hold all the rights to everything, because we’re funding the development ourselves.

If I had said yes to that investment deal two years ago, I would have spent the entirety of the front money saving my house – which I may have ended up losing anyway, because no other money would have been forthcoming due to the true nature of the backers making the offer. Instead, I would have given up most of my publishing rights in my most successful series, the animation rights, a chunk of all the REST of the rights, and more, tied myself as a partner to people who were about to get shut down by a federal court.

Because I DIDN’T say yes to what seemed a sure thing and reasonably easy money, I had to find another way to raise funds, and it was by sharing my own story. Because I did that, it became a book; because of the book, I was invited to speak at LTUE; because of that keynote address, I met an editor who has changed my future. And because of that meeting, I can now see the straight line stretching away ahead of me as clearly as I can see the one behind me.

All of the details of these projects will be announced later this week. I’m sharing it here, publicly and among readers who are my peers, first – along with one more secret: the first book published under this deal is going to be released in a new nationally-distributed mass market hardcover two days after the one year anniversary of my keynote address, and two days before the next LTUE Symposium. Sometimes the synchronicity you find is the synchronicity that you create for yourself.

The struggle turned into prosperity, because my choices never wavered. That’s how my synchronicity works. There’s no elusive pattern that creates success; it’s the benefit of following a straight line.  Everything important to YOU is your signal. The rest is signal for someone else. Follow your signal. Trust your judgement. Hold firm to the choices you believe in.That’s how it works.

James A. Owen is the author of the Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica series, the creator of the critically acclaimed Starchild graphic novel series, and the author of the Mythworld series of novels. He is also founder and executive director of Coppervale International, a comic book company that also publishes magazines and develops and produces television and film projects. He lives in Arizona. Visit him at HereThereBeDragons.net Stay tuned for a follow-up post by James A. Owen regarding the hinted-at projects. Something exciting is in the works.