Creative discipline – that’s an oxymoron for every writer! Creativity conjures images of free flowing thoughts; unfettered imagination spilling effortlessly onto pages and pages. The brilliance of remembered grade school grammar coupled with the adult’s ability to focus childhood imagination – that is every writer’s ability. Turn the tap on when you need it. Shut it off when life interferes. Always the stories will get written.

Or so my family and friends think.

Creativity requires time, space and yes, discipline. My writing got its kick start when I went back to university in my thirties for a degree in Food Science. That coupled with the first degree in English, I can spot an error in any recipe or food safety plan for slaughtering chickens! But, it was those nasty chemistry classes with all their formulas, all those reactions, which gave me the big Aha! and allowed me to write.

Observe. Note. Analyse. Explain. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Isn’t that what most articles on writing ask us to do? What is the character’s reaction to a given situation or action? If they act, what is everyone else’s reaction? What is the character’s ensuing reaction? Like in chemistry class, writers ask the question, What happens when I mix this with that? Explosions? That’s a good thing. A fizzle? Need better chemistry.

What if? is the magical question that blows worlds apart, creating compelling scenarios, challenging protagonists and readers to explore beyond their comfort zones. What if I as a writer don’t answer the phone or check emails regularly? What if I ignore the house work? Put off the laundry? Make a quick something instead of a feast for dinner? Just as for my protagonist, What If? also throws me out of my comfort zone. Yet, I’ve discovered that when I play by What If’s rules, I don’t starve. The laundry eventually gets done. People rarely need an immediate response. And, most importantly, my characters and worlds flourish because my discipline affords them the time to.

So yes, I’ve discovered that creativity needs discipline to flourish. Disciplined blocks of time and discipline to brainstorm What If? Turn the creative tap on and let it stay on. Otherwise, thoughts get lost, diluted or stale. Thoughts need discipline to be created and to appear on the page.

Now when you’re revising or editing, that’s a different discipline and a different blog!

Just remember, we write because words are our air, the page our playground, and our imagination feeds our spirit.

Why We Should Read Drivel

July 22, 2011

Colette Black

Craft & Skills 9 Comments

We’ve talked before about the important of quality writing. David Farland has done many fabulous posts in his Daily Kick e-blog on the importance of quality over quantity.

So when we pick up that book that makes our skin crawl, every fiber of our writing soul screaming in agony, why should we read on? I mean, we don’t ever want to write like that! We’ve all heard before, read the slush so you know the difference between good and bad work, but what are we trying to really learn? Won’t we end up subconsciously assimilating the writing style?

Not if we pay attention.

I recently read a YA book by an author with a fascinating concept that promised an interesting, innovative journey. The writing was okay, but….not really. At least in my opinion.

Why I valued the reading experience:

I took notice of specific constructs, dialogue, and plot jumps that made the book uncomfortable for me to read so I could make sure I’m not writing my own works in the ways I was silently disparaging.
I searched for the elements of the book that made it appealing to the editor, publisher (well-known top six), and fans. Those elements were good enough to catch people’s attention.
I analyzed what audience the book was targeted for, why it worked as well as it did, and what I could learn from their relative success. Quite a bit, actually.

Will I read the sequel? Not on your life. Will I read anything else written by that author? Not likely. But I’ve learned a lot about my own writing, my goals, the hold some publishers still have in book selling, and the importance of good advertising, especially with a middle-grade/teen audience.

Facing Our Fears

July 20, 2011

Frank Morin

Craft & Skills Frank Morin 6 Comments

One of the top ten fears in the world is the fear of rejection.

For writers, especially new writers, it’s probably in the top two. Why? Because we have to face it head on. There’s no way to avoid it. It’s an integral part of what we do. I’m not talking about rejections from agents and/or publishers, although that’s going to happen if you are trying to break into the traditional publishing market.

Today, I’m talking about the rejections we get from readers.

Through our blood, sweat, and tears, we take an idea and craft it out of the void into something tangible, something dear to us. Then we release it to the world for anyone and everyone to read. The very nature of this effort produces rejections. Some people just don’t get it. Some people are mean spirited. Some people just don’t like what we write.

And there’s nothing we can do about it.

Writing and reading are very subjective. There is no way we can please everyone. Nor should we.

I’ll say it again. Nor should we.

The best writing polarizes people because it reveals truth or makes a statement. There will be those who get it, who love it, who are moved by it. At the same time there will be those who hate it, who revile it, who want to bury it. There are many reasons for these reactions, but they are inevitable.

So, how do we deal with this? How do we prepare ourselves to boldly release our work to the world and keep our heads held high despite the inevitable rejections we will receive?

First, accept that rejections and negative feedback will come. Period.

Second, and this is the hard part, take feedback professionally, not personally. Writing is intensely personal, as is reading.

Dealing with feedback successfully is not.

Feedback is an opportunity to identify areas for improvement as much as it is a confirmation of existing strengths. Look beyond the “I liked it” or “This is hog vomit” for the WHY. We love to hear people say, “That was awesome!” It’s an ego boost, but it’s just as useless as someone saying, “That was the worst piece of trash I’ve ever read.” Both responses are purely subjective. We can’t work with that. All we can do is smile and say, “Thanks for the feedback.”

It’s when they say WHY that we’ve hit pay dirt.

If someone dislikes a story because my craft was sub-standard, or my descriptions were bland and uninspiring, well maybe they’ve just identified a blind spot where I can improve. On the other hand, if someone says my action sequences were so powerful they couldn’t put the book down, or if a particular scene drove them to tears; wonderful – I’ve confirmed an existing strength I can leverage in the future.

The why of feedback may provide nuggets of truth.

Or not.

Some people still just don’t get it, or they’re just mean-spirited. Take all feedback with a big grain of salt. Judge it on its merits and either learn from it or set it aside.

In the end, you’re the judge that really matters.

This is hard to do, but it’s as necessary a skill as learning to develop powerful characters, craft a valid story arc, or write good dialogue. If you don’t, you can be crushed by negative feedback.

And remember, you are writing because you love to write. You hope other people will enjoy your work, but their reactions do not define you. Keep that in mind, and it will help shield you from the negative criticism that might otherwise beat you down and intimidate you into giving up your writing.

How have you overcome the fear of rejection?

ThrillerFest, ePublishing, and Getting an Agent

July 19, 2011

psdemian

The Writing Life 3 Comments

I recently attended ThrillerFest.

It was a four day event. Last two days are panels of famous authors and lots of awards. I saw Ken Follett speak and met and spoke for a while with Larry Beinhart. The first 1.5 days were called CraftFest, and consisted of three tracks of great panels from highly successful writers in the Thriller genre. At the end of the CraftFest was AgentFest. It was like a speed dating event, but you’re pitching agents. (Forgive my metaphor, as it’s the only one I knew offhand).

The CraftFest portion of the event was very enriching. Lectures covered topics such as “How to develop your voice”, “keeping the reader in suspense” and “point of view, psychic distance, and passive voice”.

Probably my favorite lecture was from Stephen James who had a very fast delivery style (he was covering “nine characteristics of the modern thriller”) and who had an odd technique of literally hurling free books AT the audience, and even his handouts were distributed essentially spraying a cascading fan of paper over the front few rows.

There was tons of advice given, but I heard these basic lessons reiterated and I think they are still the most valuable to give to anyone entering the field:

1) READ READ READ, good and bad, in your genre

2) WRITE WRITE WRITE

Simple no?

ePublishing

Over the last year the volume of press about self-publishing and e-publishing has been deafening. Working and writing about technology in my other life, I was very familiar with the rags-to-riches stories that had been told about application development for mobile phones, and some of these same themes were being explored in eBooks.

During the last year the here’s what I heard through all my sources — all the rumors, discussions, opinions — about e-publishing

There’s no longer a stigma to being self published
Publishing is transforming to digital faster than it did for music or movies
E-publishing is now 20% of the bookbuying market. or 30%. Or something like that.
Amazon sells more e-books than normal books
Not really, Amazon sells more volume because many books are cheaper
Spam eBooks are killing Amazon, and then you’ll need a filter, which will be… traditional publishers
Only Amanda Hocking and Adam Locke did a million and you’re not them
Borders is going bankrupt because eBooks are the future
Barnes and Noble’s new focus is toys, gifts, coffee table books, games, puzzles, DVDs, CDs, and scones
The way to succeed with eBooks is 1) social networking 2) writing half dozen acceptable quality books in rapid succession
Literary agents have been infected with the Hollywood virus and are now out to steal your soul and all your royalties because they no longer work for you they just want to own your back catalog mwah hah ha
E-royalties suck and aren’t fair in traditional deals
Publishers never did anything for midlisters anyway it was all up to them to market themselves
Don’t get an agent you can do it all yourself
Don’t get a publisher you can do it all yourself
You just need to spend a few grand for an editor and somebody to make you a good cover
Oh wait, if you focus on learning social networking and building up your audience you may not have time to write
If you self publish successfully you can get a traditional book deal and sell to people who don’t have e-readers and a few of those still exist
$0.99 to $2.99 ebook pricing is devaluing books
People can’t find your book in a bookstore if it’s e-published
There’s no longer a stigma to publishing traditionally on paper

Getting An Agent

The main reason I had gone to the event was to learn about getting an agent. Here’s what I learned about THAT:

You need an agent because they can submit simultaneously instead of you slowly pitching your manuscript slowly, one publisher at a time, over many years.
You need a “log line” – a punchy one-line hook about your book
Loglines are too Hollywood ; those are for scripts. You need a pitch line and a query letter.
You need to work on your pitch a lot to make your query perfect.
You must address your query letter to the agent and research the agent and address them by name and call to verify their name but you can’t nag and you can’t do anything strange or unusual in your query letter.
Actually you don’t need a query letter they’re too slow. You need to go to conferences and meet an agent and pitch your book. Then they’ll ask you to send the manuscript.
If the agent doesn’t like your pitch, because your one-line description of the book wasn’t short enough and perfect enough.
Wow this is going to be really hard.
Actually you’re interviewing the agents and you need to see if you can vibe with them.
Oh wait, the right agent will like your pitch if your story is good because they’re interested, and will ask for the manuscript.
If the agent doesn’t like your pitch you can simply move on. There are other agents.

Summary

The event was amazing (I’m writing spy thriller and some scifi thriller so it was a good fit for me) and I plan to go next year as well. To recap:

There’s no longer a stigma to having a literary agent
Read in your genre
Write a lot