Tag Archives: Guest Post

A guest post by Bobbi Schemerhorn.

There are so many things that I would tell myself in the beginning. I walked into this career path with my eyes shut in many ways. I thought that my writing could do no wrong, that there were only minor skills to improve upon.

So in the beginning when I first started my Guardians Series I sent out several chapters to a friend to read. The woman whom I sent them out to was extremely critical of them. She was harsh with her critiques and I felt attacked in many ways. My arrogance was my undoing, her words hurt me, deeply.

My response to this was to quit, I walked away from it for many months, even years. I now doubted my story and my ability to tell it. But I wanted to write, I felt it in my bones, I knew in my heart that I was meant to write. I felt at peace in many ways when sitting behind a keyboard or with my pen in hand telling my stories.

So I returned to the book with open eyes, knowing that I was in no way infallible. I had so much to learn, I’m still learning every day. Although critiques can be harsh and painful at times to take, I do my best to see them for what they are. Not sharp daggers intending to kill my writing spirit but rather a gentle hand guiding it into a brighter light.

My advice would really come in two parts. The first one being, don’t give up on your dreams. There are always going to be obstacles in life. School, work, kids, spouses, etc., so you need to make time for it. There is nothing easy about being a writer, its hard work. So make sure that you want to be a writer as badly as you need to breathe.

My second piece of advice is, see the criticisms for what they are. Take the notes that are most helpful, the ones that are aimed to help you improve and disregard the rest. There will always be people out there that will want to see you fail. But the people that matter in life want you to have nothing but success.

I know that the strongest piece of advice that is given all the time is, grow a thick skin. That is sound advice, but I don’t think that it is always appropriate.

To say grow a thicker skin may not be the words that I would use. Because I feel that it doesn’t always fit the situation. An old African proverb said: When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.

This work isn’t easy, it’s challenging, frustrating, and sometimes even heartbreaking. But it is worth every word, sentence, paragraph, and second.

Guest Writer Bio: Bobbi Schemerhorn has always come up with wild stories and characters since a young age. Many played out in school yards role playing but never written down. Till she entered seventh grade her teacher had handed everyone journals to document their weeks events and activities. Instead of speaking about her weekend, she created worlds and people within them. As the years passed the writing ceased and did not return again till her early thirties. When the characters and world for the Guardians Series came to life for her. It took many years of encouragement from her husband before she gathered the courage to follow a dream that had always been in her heart. Now she spends her time doing what her soul always knew she should be doing.

What I Know Now

August 22, 2014

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Author's Perspective Guest Posts Motivation Reflection Starting a Career The Writing Life Work-Life Balance 2 Comments

A guest post by Lisa Mangum.

Well, hello there, Past Lisa. I see you are just sitting down to your laptop, an exciting new book idea all fresh and bubbly in your head. You haven’t decided what to call it yet; for now, it’s just “my story”—as in “I can’t make dinner tonight, sweetie, I have to work on my story.” You don’t know it, but this idea will be your first published book, The Hourglass Door. It’s good the story is about time travel, because you see, this is Future Lisa, and I have come from, well, the future to share with you some advice about writing and publishing and the journey that awaits you.

1. You’re going to love it.

Trust me on this one. There is a lot to love about writing. Developing an idea is freedom. You get to do whatever you want and no one can stop you—not the plot, not the characters, not your readers, friends, family, or even the voice in the back of your head that warns of failure. You get to ask “Wouldn’t it be cool if…?” all the time, and there are no wrong answers to slow you down.

The writing process itself is even better. It’s like a huge, scattered jigsaw puzzle, and you get to sift and sort through the words, ideas, and images until you find two that fit together so perfectly you just know it was meant to be. And you simply connect more words and ideas and images until you have a whole big beautiful piece of art to share with everyone.

You’re going to love seeing your words come alive on the computer screen. You’re going to love making them stronger and better. And you’re going to love it when other people read them and say, “This is great!”

Most of all, you’re going to love seeing those words between the pages of a real book cover. And yes, that will be your name there on the front. You will never forget the first time you hold your very own published book in your hands.

Savor those moments. Love them. Remember them. Hold on to them tightly, because as much as you’re going to love it…

2. You’re going to hate it.

Editing sucks. Rewrites are ugly. Bad reviews hurt. Figuring out how to sell your book in one sentence is excruciating. Standing for hours on a Saturday afternoon in Costco trying to talk strangers into buying your book when all they really want to do is buy a five-pound jug of mayonnaise and go home is no fun. Sitting at a bookstore on a cold February night with only one copy of your book in the entire store, but you can’t sell it because no one even comes into the store for two hours—unspeakable.

(Later, you may find these to be valuable learning experiences, but at the time…yeah, you’re going to hate them.)

Deadlines are impossible, terrifying, unrelenting beasts. You will find yourself saying “no” to all kinds of things: No, I can’t go to the movies with you; I have to work on my book. No, I can’t read that new novel; I have to work on my book. No, I can’t be bothered to shower, eat, sleep, change my clothes, speak nicely to another human being; I have to work on my book. Your life will be measured in increasing word counts and decreasing days until the deadline knocks you flat.

But it doesn’t matter, really, because the deadline is just the point where your editor will say, “That’s great. Now rewrite the whole thing and make it better. And can you have it done by next month?”

3. The answer is “Yes.”

Remember to balance out all those “No” answers with some “Yes” answers as well.

You will be asked a lot of questions during your journey as a writer. And more often than not, the best answer to give is “Yes.” I know you won’t have much time for marketing your book. (You’ll still need to work full-time while you write, after all.) But if you say “yes” to one marketing event per week, you’ll be surprised at how many wonderful things you’ll experience and how many wonderful people you’ll meet.

So say yes to those book signings, blog interviews, newspaper articles, TV appearances, speaking requests for book clubs, business conferences, and writing conferences.

And above all, say yes when it comes time to celebrate your achievements: “You’ve just finished your last book. Do you want to go to Disneyland to celebrate?” YES.

4. Dream bigger.

You know how everyone tells you to “dream big”? Well, I want to tell you to dream bigger. Whatever you think your ultimate goal is, whatever the pinnacle of your personal and professional success looks like—dream bigger.

You hope in your secret heart to sell 1,000 copies of your book? Dream of selling 5,000. You think it would be amazing to win an award for something you wrote? Dream of winning four awards. You feel pretty sure you’ll be happy if you write only one book? Well, surprise—you have more stories in you than you’ll know what to do with. Make sure your dreams grow every bigger day.

5. “Don’t hurry. Don’t worry. Don’t stop.”

Remember when you saw this quote at Disneyland? The truth of it will become more important to you every day that passes. No matter what happens, don’t hurry through the good stuff, don’t worry about the bad stuff, and just don’t ever stop.

(So, now that I’ve been-there-done-that, where do I pick up my T-shirt?)

Guest Writer Bio: Lisa Mangum attended the University of Utah, graduating with honors with a degree in English. A lifetime lover of books, she has worked in the publishing industry since 1997, editing works by several New York Times bestselling authors as well as debut novelists. She was recently named Managing Editor of Shadow Mountain Publishing.

Besides books, Lisa loves movies, sunsets, spending time with her family, and trips to Disneyland. She lives in Utah with her husband, Tracy. She is the author of four award-winning YA novels (The Hourglass Door trilogy and After Hello), a short story (“Sold Out”), and novella (“&”). She also edited One Horn to Rule Them All: A Purple Unicorn Anthology.

You can find her @LisaMangum or Facebook.com/lisamangum.

The Holy Grail of Creativity

August 14, 2014

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Author's Perspective Doing Good in the World Guest Posts Motivation Self-Awareness Starting a Career The Writing Life No Comments

A guest post by Brian Herbert.

There are many pieces of advice I could give to myself if I were a new writer at the start of my career. From the perspective of decades later and millions of words in print, there is much I could say about the decisions I have made, the paths I have taken, the worlds I have created, and the characters who inhabit them. I could encourage the fledgling writer to be observant and keep a journal, to write every day, and to develop a thick skin, so that he doesn’t give up, even in the face of having his stories rejected repeatedly. I could lengthen this list considerably with tip after tip . . details about how to plot, how to build character files, how to build suspense, and how to market his stories. Structural and practical details, and they would be useful.

But there is an even more important piece of advice, one that I consider to be the most valuable of all.

It has been said that a writer should not write for money, that this should not be his first thought when a piece is created. In this line of reasoning, if he discovers and nurtures his talent, the money is sure to come later. Eventually, he will receive piles of cash; he just needs to write without getting paid much for a while, and the income will come later. This advice is interesting on the surface, but if a new writer really has creative integrity, he will not expect the money to come at all. Such a possibility will not even be in the back of his mind. He will be engaging in the creative process for an entirely different reason.

In writing, as in art, many people copy the work of professionals they admire. Art students sit in museums trying to replicate the works of great masters, seeking to learn their painting techniques. Would-be fantasy writers read Tolkien over and over, and then produce stories that mimic the works of the master. They say they were “inspired” by Tolkien. This happens in other literary genres as well—mystery, adventure, romance, science fiction, mainstream.

Many writers are looking for a handy formula, on which they can hang their own words as a sort of façade—a way of masking the fact that they are not being original, and perhaps that they are not capable of being original. Some musicians do this, and produce works that sound very much like those of others. It happens throughout society, with one product looking very much like another one. Automobile after automobile, house after house, commercial after commercial, book after book, movie after movie.

If something sells, it has countless imitators. But I would tell the new writer that taking this path would be selling his creative soul. If he were to take that route—be it in art, writing, music, or any other art form—he is not truly being himself; he is trying to become someone else. The most important thing a writer of integrity can do is to have the courage and honesty to find himself, and to express that self in words.

Originality is a noble goal.

I’m not saying it’s easy to attain this objective. Corporate publishers want material that is similar to other material they have published “successfully” (i.e. that has made money), and writers naturally fall into that trap. In order to sell their stories they think they must copy, because another writer has made a name for himself that way, and writers are desperate to be successful, and to be paid well. So they replicate the works of others (like taking a recipe and changing an ingredient), and make excuses for doing so. After all, certain ideas are already out there being copied, and writers are getting away with it, so why not jump on the bandwagon? Why not be “inspired” by a writer you admire?

There are many temptations leading the would-be writer onto that course, telling him to do exactly this. If he takes the bait, he rationalizes doing so in any number of ways. People are good at rationalizing, at finding excuses for less-than-noble behavior.

Admittedly, I’m being idealistic, considering the trickiness and laziness of human nature. But I’m talking about human potential here, about a writer’s own personal potential. I would encourage him to try going inward, instead of picking the ideas of others like fruit from a tree. Try going deep inward. Have the courage and the patience to do this, and see what is there. Look for integrity and originality, in the deepest regions of personal consciousness. A person might find a real pearl there, instead of an imitation.

The new writer might ask how this can possibly be accomplished, if he needs to make a living. The bad news is, that for this approach, he might need to keep his day job for awhile, and perhaps for much longer than that. Think of the great artists and writers who never found commercial success in their lifetimes, but stuck to what they believed in anyway. They stayed the course, knowing deep within that they were creating important works, and that one day they would be recognized. This type of writing from deep within, this type of artistic expression, should not be done for money, not in the near term or in the long term. It should be done for an entirely different reason.

It should be done for the holy grail of creativity, in a heroic effort to find the writer’s own originality. It has been said that each of has at least one interesting story to tell, at least one book within each of us. I would also like to think that each human being has at least one original thought.

I’m not going to tell a new writer how to accomplish this inward journey, only that he should make the attempt for his own sake, no matter how arduous it is. After all, if I were to provide detailed instructions on how to attain the holy grail of creativity, it would be a formula, and that’s exactly what we are seeking to avoid.

Guest Writer Bio: BRIAN HERBERT is the author of multiple New York Times bestsellers. He has won several literary honors including the New York Times Notable Book Award, and has been nominated for the highest awards in science fiction. In 2003, he published DREAMER OF DUNE, a moving biography of his father Frank Herbert that was a Hugo Award finalist. His acclaimed novels include SIDNEY’S COMET; SUDANNA, SUDANNA; THE RACE FOR GOD; TIMEWEB; THE STOLEN GOSPELS; and MAN OF TWO WORLDS (written with Frank Herbert), in addition to the HELLHOLE Trilogy and thirteen DUNE-series novels co-authored with Kevin J. Anderson. In 2013, Brian published OCEAN, an epic fantasy novel about environmental issues (co-authored with his wife, Jan). Brian’s highly original SF novel, THE LITTLE GREEN BOOK OF CHAIRMAN RAHMA, was published by Tor Books in July 2014.

www.brianherbertnovels.com

www.Facebook.com/brianherbertnovels

Twitter: @DuneAuthor

Own Your Choices

August 5, 2014

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Author's Perspective Balancing Acts Craft & Skills Guest Posts Motivation Reflection The Writing Life 1 Comment

A guest post by Peter J. Wacks

I’m taking a break from working on a Veronica Mars Media Tie In story to sit down and contemplate the following request: ‘If you could go back in time and speak with yourself as a new writer just starting out, what’s the most important piece of advice you would give yourself?’ The makes me think a lot of things.

First thing it makes me think, though, is that it’s a trick question.

I have accomplished a lot of what I have set out to do, and I have done it because of the failures I have embraced.

I manage Wordfire Press because I had the temerity to have a company fail in the game industry, over-hiring from a group of friends until it crashed itself under the weight of payroll. Without that failure… I never would have learned to abandon caution in your dreams—while laying groundwork—plans within plans—to protect your creative child in reality.

Without the frustrating failure of my first book The Divine Prank, which ended up in the trash as a 100,000 word partial manuscript under the first printing of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, I wouldn’t have learned the hard edge of fight that lets me never back down, and always find a way through… that same edge that pushed me to sell tens of thousands of copies of my first book, Second Paradigm, by hand. It’s also what gave me the edge and strength to say no to a 2,000 book print run with a $2,500 advance from the big six and say, I’m not going to change the plot structure, I’m going to self-publish it instead.

There are a dozen other examples I won’t cite, because you get the point. What else does the question make me think of? What about successes? What about learning curve?

The second thing it makes me think is, what successes have I had that I could have amplified?

That is another slippery slope. The largest frustration I have dealt with when it comes to success is that I was a better writer in 2008 than I was in in 2012. I spent so much time on marketing and promotion that my writing style regressed.

I got worse.

Talk about frustrating! I couldn’t sling my stories as well! …Which forced me to study my style and start coauthoring with others to regain my skills and find new techniques.

Was

Awesome!

I am so much better now than I could have been by myself. Each author I have worked on a project with has amplified my skills. How could I give that up? Why would I give that up? More importantly—if I hadn’t been faced with my own lesser skillset, would I have been able to learn what I have, could I have embraced the growth? I don’t think so. Which ties back to failing your way forward, and we are back to our first answer.

The third, and final thing, that the question makes me think on is what I like to call the ‘Hallmark’ factor. What platitudes are out there that seem trite until you REALLY need to learn that lesson, at which point they become incredibly poignant? And how the heck do I generalize a very personal lesson to a large audience in such a way that they gain something of value out of it?

Don’t forget your personal relationships?

Sleep is important too?

Never give up, never surrender!?

And there it is, the one thing we can ALL learn from. But it is not something that any of us need from the past. If you are here reading, or in my case writing, then you haven’t given up. You haven’t surrendered. But…

Writer, musician, artist, actor… the title of a creative almost synonymous with the phrase self-doubt. So let’s not focus on a lesson for the past, but instead focus on a lesson for the present and, more importantly, for our future selves.

Every failure isn’t a failure. None of them are. They are just weapons your future self can use to create success. Be it a month, a year, a decade, or a lifetime of fighting, you are remarkable – because you haven’t given in! Because you fight, you learn, you grow, and each step that feels like it is a step back, is, in fact, something you will look back on in the future and say “Wow, I’m glad I learned that lesson then!”

Own your choices. Only you can. And every choice, good or bad, is what will, in the end, give you the strength to succeed… and you will, because you have been strong enough to not give up.

Write on.

~Peter J. Wacks

Guest Writer Bio:

Peter J. Wacks, the managing editor of Kevin J. Anderson’s WordFire Press, is a bestselling cross genre writer. He has worked across the creative fields in gaming, television, film, comics, blogging, and most recently he spends his time writing novels.

When he isn’t working on the next book he can be found hanging out with his kiddo, practicing martial arts, playing chess, or fighting with swords. He also loves Angry Birds and drinking IPAs with friends.

You can find out more about Peter at his website, which he rarely finds time to update:www.PeterJWacks.com