 |
My 1988 copy of Phyllis A. Whitney's
wonderful "Guide to Fiction Writing."
Credit | E. Humphrey |
In the introduction to
Guide to Fiction Writing,
Phyllis A. Whitney writes that "When we start out as writers we
need to explore our own talents. We can't possibly know where we will write most comfortably until we've followed various leads." Whitney writes that after writing about 300 short stories (with 100 published!) did she realize she needed "the book length to move around in did I begin to be happier as a writer." She continued to make a living writing, but had not found her specialty: romantic suspense.
As I finished one client's work during the holidays, I realized how much I enjoy writing. But I also realized I need to find my own specialty. The project was something I wanted to do well with...but it was difficulty for me to shine in its writing. This one particular client's assignment was painful for me and it made me start thinking about my writing as a whole.
Whitney begins he book by countering Joanne Greenberg's belief that "writers can be divided into two categories: those who are 'venturesome' and those who are 'consistent.'" Whitney's romantic suspense fits both categories, which she believes helps to attract readers.
As the year progresses, I've vowed to become more devoted to my own writing and less to the client work that sucks the life from my writing. I've followed a lot of leads. I still love writing nonfiction. I have my eye on a work-in-progress novel. But perhaps this is my year for discovering my specialty. And maybe it isn't something I've tried yet.
What about you? Do you know what your writing specialty is? How long did it take you to discover it? How did you do it?
Elizabeth King Humphrey is a North Carolina-based writer and editor. Still
searching for a specialty, in 2012, Elizabeth completed a certificate in technical and professional writing.
"How I Got My Agent" is a recurring feature
on the GLA blog. Some tales are of long roads and many setbacks, while others are
of good luck and quick signings. To see the
previous installments of this column, click here.
If you have a literary agent and would be interested in writing a short guest column
for this GLA blog, e-mail me at [email protected] and we'll talk specifics.
Jude is excited to give away a free copy of his novel
to a random commenter. Comment within one week; winners must live in Canada/US to
receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you've won before.
Jude Hardin is the author of Pocket-47,
a book
that Tess Gerritsen says
"keeps the pace frantic
and the thrills non-stop." Jude writes hardboiled
detective novels—lean, clean, and bluesy, with dashes
of cynicism and wry humor. He also works as a
registered nurse in a major urban medical center
Every day is a learning opportunity for marketing a published
book using regular media (TV, radio, and newspapers) and social media (sites online
that are interactive—sharing public thoughts and opinions.)
Promoting yourself isn’t getting any easier because of
the many local bookstores that are out of business. It is time to be creative and
find other venues for meeting the public. Connecting to people with the stories we
write makes the world go round like this chain of events poem.
NEWS ARTICLE CHAIN OF EVENTS POEM:
In the paper
On my blog
LIKED on Wordpress
Opened door
Worked together
MEDIA
Book signing
In real world
IN THE PAPER
I read an article in the Chagrin Valley Times about local musicians helping
soothe the loneliness of our deployed soldiers by giving them the gift of music. Warren
Henry Music is collecting old guitars and refurbishing them free of charge thanks
to co-owners Aimee Zeller and Warren Henry. The USO of Northern Ohio is shipping these
guitars overseas to our regions deployed service members.
ON MY BLOG
This
turned out to be a perfect post for my blog. Warren explained, “One of our instructors
is a veteran and told us how helpful it was to have his guitar to play while deployed.
Our troops and their families sacrifice so much. This is our way of thanking them
for their service to our country.” The Help Fight the GI Blues Campaign was launched.
LIKED ON WORDPRESS
Shortly after my post about donating guitars, I received a comment from a band, Select
Start in Tampa, Fla: “We have a day off in Bainbridge on May 15, during our month
long District Lines sponsored Go Radio headlining Tour. We plan on dropping by to
donate a guitar to Warren and the USO.”
I said, “You guys rock!”
Select Start replied, “As does
Writers always ask, "What's hot? What sells?" While trends come
and go, one of the most popular genres of all time is thriller. And not just thriller,
but also mystery and crime. If these genres interest you, you're in luck. Elisabeth
Sims, author of the award-winning Rita Farmer mysteries is teaching a webinar
on April 14, 2011: "How
to Write a Dynamite Mystery or Thriller That Sells: Learn to Charge & Plot Your
Fiction Like a Pro."
DETAILS
The webinar goes down at 1 p.m., EST, Thursday, April 14, 2011. It lasts 90 minutes.
Keep in mind you do not have to attend the live event to get access to the recorded
presentation as well as a critique from the instructor. Sign
up here!
3 Reasons to Attend:
1. Elizabeth Knows Her Stuff. She's written multiple mystery series with the big
NYC publishers. She's helped thousands of writers to
enrich their work, expand their talents, and learn the elements of wildly successful
fiction.
2. Free Critique! All registrants are invited
to submit Page 1 of their mystery/thriller/suspense manuscript in advance of the event. Sign
up here.
3. These Genres Sell. Millions of genre readers
are eager for new stories. Especially in today's digital-boom market, agents and editors
are hungrily searching for fresh talent. If you want
to hear that magic sentence, "We'd like to make you an offer," you must write a mystery
or thriller that will quicken the pulse of even the most jaded agent or editor. Deals
for good new books happen every day. And the writer who stands the best chance has
gained a rock-solid knowledge of the essential elements, such as:
-
Definitions of the mystery form and the
thriller form, and the essential elements of each.
-
How a successful mystery/thriller uses ancient storytelling
techniques to hook a modern audience.
-
How to start with a basic idea for a mystery or thriller and
build a novel-length plot from there.
-
Why subplots are so important in these genres, and how to weave
them into your main plot.
-
Why you should unfetter your imagination every chance you get.
-
How to write convincing characters and places.
-
Newbie mistakes to avoid, including page/chapter 1 clichés and
overused techniques.
INSTRUCTOR:
When I decided to write The
Shadow War, my first step was to overcome a serious handicap: a Ph.D. in English.
I'd been through both MA and PhD programs in Creative Writing, and taught at universities
for many years, so I was fully indoctrinated into the "There's Literature and Then
There's Everything Else" school of fiction.
Guest column by Glen Scott Allen.
who has taught
at Reed College, the University of Utah, and Towson
University. He's traveled in Russia to do research for
The
Shadow War (Nov. 2010), and lived briefly in The
Netherlands. He is also the author of the nonfiction
book, Master
Mechanics & Evil Wizards, as well as
numerous short stories and essays. He currently
lives in Maryland. His website is GlenScottAllen.com.
(Glen is giving away two free copies of his book to
random commenters! Comment within one week.)
Yet all my life I've been a huge fan of spy novels. I
knew that some of the greatest "serious" writers of all time—Joseph
Conrad, Hermann Melville, Henry James—had
written books that today one could find on the "Thriller" shelf at a bookstore; and
I knew that good suspense writing created fictional worlds as compelling as anything
to be found in the Great Works.
So Do #1: Don't let all those years you've spent in workshops be an impediment.
Use those "literary" skills. Good writing is good writing, regardless the label they'll
put on it in the library.
Which brings us to Do#2: Just like they told you in Writing 101, good fiction
springs from good characters, not necessarily good ideas. It's the characters that
will carry your reader through plots and conspiracies, and just because the novel
is "plot driven" doesn't mean they can be shallow or mere stereotypes. Your characters
need to be living, breathing actors, with pasts, quirks, and conflicts, not cardboard
cutout mouthpieces for Good and Evil. Only then will readers get attached to them
and want to tag along on their adventures.
Do#3: Believe in what you're writing. I remember in grad school an editor from
a big publishing house told us that the writers on his Commercial list were every
bit as convinced they were writing great fiction as those on the Literary list. "Jackie
Suzanne (Valley of the Dolls) believed she was right up there with Shakespeare,"
he said. And his point wasn't that Suzanne was delusional, but that her stuff worked
because she believed in it. The moment you try to
No pressure, but the opening of your book is the gatekeeper in
determining whether your novel will sell. If your opening is weak, it won’t matter
if chapter two is a masterpiece. Editors and agents will stop reading before they
get to it.
Hopefully you’ve already scoped out a dramatic scene to open your novel. You know
who’s in the scene and what’s going to happen to propel the novel forward. Your opening
scene can be long or short. It can be action packed or moody, rich in description,
or skeletal and spare. It may contain a vivid sense of setting or a strong shot of
character. Regardless of what’s in that scene, the reader should have some idea what
the story is going to be about after reading it, or at least have a good sense of
the theme and be eager to turn the page.
Think about:
-
How does the opening sentence set up the scene?
-
What’s the out-of-whack event, and how does it pull the reader
forward?
-
In what tense is this told, and from which character’s point of
view?
-
What do we know about the setting?
-
What’s the weather and time of day?
-
What do we learn about Russ Van Alstyne?
-
Why does this event matter to this protagonist?
-
What does this opening scene suggest that the book is going to
be about?
-
Does this opening develop plot or characters?
THE DRAMATIC OPENING
A good way to start the opening scene is by jumping right into the action. Here are
some opening lines that catapult the reader into the story:
"When the first bullet hit my chest, I thought of my daughter."
- No Second Chance, Harland Coben)
"Gordon Michaels stood in the fountain with all his clothes on."
- Banker, Dick Francis
"The house in Silverlake was dark, its windows as empty as a dead man’s eyes."
- The Concrete Blonde, Michael Connelly
"I was fifteen years old when I first met Sherlock Holmes, fifteen years old with
my nose in a book as I walked the Sussex Downs, and nearly stepped on him."
- The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, Laurie
R. King
"They were thirty-five nautical miles off the coast of Rhode Island."
- The Mayday, Bill Eidson
Your opening line is important, but don’t obsess about it. Just write an opening line
that puts the reader into the scene, get past it, and keep going. You can make it
“perfect” later.
HOW TO WRITE IT
The first scene of your book presents some unique problems. Your primary job is to
get your story moving while at the same time introduce your reader to the characters
and setting. Keep your eye on the story you’re setting up—something intriguing has
to happen. Lay in just enough character and setting description to orient the reader
This series is called "Successful
Queries" and I'm posting actual query letters
that succeeded in getting writers signed with agents. In addition to posting
the actual query letter, we will also get to hear thoughts from the agent as to why
the letter worked.
The 38th installment in this series is with agent Christine
Witthohn (Book Cents Literary)
and her author, Rochelle Staab, for
the murder mystery novel, Hollywood Hoodoo.
In lieu of a cover (not available yet),
this is a
nice picture of author Rochelle Staab.
Dear Ms. Witthohn,
I am pleased to submit for your consideration, Hollywood Hoodoo, a witty murder
mystery with a voodoo curse, set in contemporary Los Angeles. It's complete at 71,000
words.
In Hollywood Hoodoo, mysterious tarot cards, a cursed voodoo spell book, and
the falsely accused team of L.A. Clinical Psychologist Liz Cooper and Religious Philosophy
Professor Nick Garfield come together in the hunt for the real killer of a voodoo
initiate.
Hollywood Hoodoo is the first of a series of supernatural themed murder mysteries,
featuring Liz—the pragmatic shrink, and Nick—the broad-minded occult expert.
My professional background includes Top 40 radio station programming and 28 years
of executive marketing positions at Warner Bros. Records where I remain a consultant.
Writing one-line headlines is fun. Writing novels is bliss. [Some personal info here
was removed.]
I’m a member of MWA, RWA, SinC, and KOD. Hollywood Hoodoo has been submitted
in the 2010 RWA Golden Heart contest. I understand the value of marketing and am motivated
and ready to focus my efforts.
This is a multiple submission. The first chapter of Hollywood Hoodoo is copied
below. Thank you for considering my work. I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Rochelle Staab
Commentary from Christine:
I like queries that are short and sweet. A query should give the agent/editor the
“bones” of the story. If the writer does a good job, the agent/editor will ask to
see the “meat.” What I particularly liked about this query was this: the writer gave
me the genre, word count, and the hook in the first two sentences. Notice how short
these two sentences are?
Paragraph 1: gives the vitals; Paragraph 2: gives the bones; Paragraph 3: shows exte
This is a recurring column I'm calling "7 Things I've Learned
So Far," where writers at any stage of their career can talk
about seven things they've learned along their writing
journey that they wish they knew at the beginning. This installment is from mystery
writer Alan Orloff.
1. Things move slowly in the publishing world. Be prepared to wait. A lot.
For your critique group to get through your manuscript. For your queries to be answered
(if you're lucky). For your partials and fulls to be read. For editors to weigh your
submissions. For your book to wend its way through the production process as it heads
toward the bookstore shelf. Best advice: Have some other projects to work on while
you wait!
2. Getting help really helps. Critique groups can help you with your writing.
An agent can help polish your submission and will know where to send it. An editor
can help massage your manuscript into its optimal form. Ignore these "helpers" at
your own peril. Getting published really is a village effort (so make sure you have
plenty of food on hand).
3. You need a thick skin. Rejections are the norm—don't let them "spin you
out." Otherwise, you'll never get any writing done. Persistence and perseverance are
key.
4. Your book doesn't "belong" to only you anymore. While you were writing your
manuscript, it was your baby. You could feed it what you wanted, dress it how you
wanted, play with it whenever you wanted. Now, you have to share and listen to other
people's "baby-raising" advice. Once you sign a contract, your book gets slotted into
a release date and tossed onto the production conveyor belt. Flap copy, cover design,
titles, internal and external sales pitches, copyediting, publicity, sales. It all
gets done on schedule, without emotion and (mostly) without you. Get used to it.
5. Online promotion takes a lot more time than you think. Website, blog, Google
Reader, Facebook, Twitter, listservs, Yahoo groups, nings, and a kajillion other social
sites lure you in and won't let go. These connections are valuable, but you need to
exercise discipline or you'll look up and four hours will have elapsed with nothing
to show for your "writing" time except a few Mafia War hits.
6. Other writers are extremely generous. I've found other writers (published,
unpublished, bloggers, Twitterers, etc.) to be very helpful with their advice, comments,
and time. The sense of community among writers is unbelievably amazing!
7. Take time to enjoy every bumpy, thrilling, uncertain, joyous, nail-biting, wonderful,
anxious minute. No sense get
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Elizabeth, this is such a relevent topic for me and something I gave a lot of thought to last year. I'm still figuring it all out but getting closer. Interestingly, I spent a lot of time on a project that taught me what I didn't want to pursue. All valuable information.
I work as a staff writer and a columnist for a local weekly newspaper. My first magazine article will be published in a regional travel magazine this spring, as will a nonfiction essay in an anthology. My heart is in everything I write; I would dare say that I have more than one specialty. I write suspense novellas, too, but so far I have not had much success. If I have learned anything, it is to continue doing what makes me happy.
I chuckled when this post arrived in my email. I am the proud owner of that same book, which is only one of MANY on the craft of writing that I have collected over the years.
I write nonfiction and Christian fiction/romance, and one issue I constantly struggle with is having a multitude of ideas stored in my head and scribbled on various scraps of paper. Although I currently have four main projects in various stages of completion, there are others waiting in line for their turn at being the focus of my affection.
Life erects gigantic roadblocks to our writing time. People need us, want our undivided attention, circumstances interrupt us. Don't we selfishly wish we could take one solid month with no extraneous demands or distractions, rent a house or condo by the sea, and simply write?
Sometimes I wonder if I will actually live long enough to see each project that is partially knit together in my brain through to finalization!
Nothing makes my heart happier than having a block of time to sink my teeth into a writing project and then the reward of hearing someone say, "I loved your book" or "Your book inspired me to..." It's what we do because we are driven to educate, entertain, and inspire.