What’s Your Style?

 Editors and agents say that style is one of the main things they look for in submissions. Yet, they often can’t define it. They just know it when they see it.

If you’re struggling with finding your style, you may want to check out this post I did on Downtown YA.

Also I’m the featured author at TBR this month.

 

Ready to Give Up?

Succeeding in anything can be difficult. Look at all the Olympic hopefuls coming home without medals. If they compare themselves with the winners in their sport, they may feel like losers, but they’re not. Just making it to the Olympics shows how talented they are. They’re still winners, and so are you.

Who are you comparing yourself to? The winners in your field? Your ideal self? The one who does everything right while you never do?

If you’re struggling with discouragement, check out my blog, Feel Like Giving Up? on Downtown YA. And if you’re a writer who wants to throw in the towel, McKenna Darby has some great advice on the Hearts Through History blog in her post Struggling as a Writer? Congratulations!

If Only…

Do you have a lot of regrets or find yourself saying, “If only…” fairly often? I did two recent blog posts on the topic of turning those If only‘s around. Check them out at Christina Fonesca’s blog and Downtown YA. Make your regrets work for you instead of against you.

Angel in the Mist is out

All royalties go to support the Fredricksen Library.

Just got a notice that the book featuring my story, “Angel in the Mist,” is up for presale.

My story, a light paranormal, is an unusual twist on a love story. It begins in Ireland during the potato famine and crosses the ocean twice. If you love historicals, romance, or ghost stories, you might want to give it a try.

Best of all, all proceeds benefit a library. Combine your reading with your giving or vice versa and allow others to do the same.

Here’s a list of the other authors who are included:

• Hunting Season – Rayne Ayers Debski
• Take Care – Margaret DeAngelis
• Angel in the Mist – Laurie J. Edwards
• Survivor Barbie – C.A.Masterson
• A Soldier’s Gift – Don Helin
• Operation Pumpkin Patch – Gina Napoli
• A Cautious Life – Larry C. Kerr
• The Green Eyed Monster – Catherine Jordan
• Smoke – Lori M. Myers
• Number 11 – Maria McKee
• The Things She Chose to Keep – Susan Pigott
• The Surprise Party – Carol A. Lauver
• an excerpt from “Oops,” Said God – Duffy Batzer
• Swan Song – Ann Elia Stewart
• Dragon Riders – D.A.Morrow
• Free as a Bluejay – Madelyn Killion
• 4:30 – Bob Walton
• Fade to Black – Kathryn Grace
• The Nature of Sin – Maria McKee
• Dead Letters – Susan Girolami Kramer
• Dissipation – C.A.Masterson
• The Mirror – Susan E. Bangs
• Betsy’s Delight – Marlene Ross
• Moving Targets – Debra A. Varsanyi
• Creature of Habit – Don Helin

I’m also thrilled that 3 of my CPs also have work in the anthology. Nothing like having group booksignings.

Making Time for Writing

I stumbled on a new blog today that has some great tips for writers. Called Literary Crush, it’s by a fellow Vermont College (can’t help plugging my alma mater) grad, Bethany Dellinger.

I particularly enjoyed her Guiding Principles. If you’re struggling to find time to write each day, you’ll want to check these out.

New Year, New Projects?

So the new year has begun. I once read that the number 11 signifies creativity, so this should be a great year to work on all my creative projects. Just wish I didn’t have so many going at once. Dreaming of babies is also connected with new projects, and I’ve been dreaming a lot about babies too.

I managed to finish my WIP on December 30, which means I can get started on a new book. I also have plenty of manuscripts languishing in the To Be Revised drawer, but a new year seems to call for a brand new start. I have lots of ideas hopping around in my head. It’s just a question of getting them down on paper. And how do I choose which one to start on first? I have several ideas for a romance series and a few for YAs. I also want to tackle a totally new genre–writing a thriller that’s been nagging at me for several months–but am not sure it’s quite ready to be born yet. Or is that fear speaking?

Anyone have any advice on how you choose new projects?

 

Why Do You Write?

I stumbled across some fabulous quotes on writing and rejection, again as was researching an article that’s due to a publisher. This research was a bit off topic, but once again my wanderings proved fruitful (though they delayed my writing assignment).

As part of an interview with Alice McDermott, the Catholic author shared advice from literary agent Harriet Wasserman, who claimed that “writing and publishing have very, very, very little to do with each other; almost nothing.” Have to chuckle (and agree). She continues, “For writers, it’s a matter not so much of deciding you will write fiction with the hope that you will publish fiction, but rather writing fiction because there is nothing else you can do that will give you a satisfying sense of yourself or of life.”

McDermott expounds on Wasserman’s statements: “…early in your career it’s very easy to lose sight of the fact that the work itself is the most essential thing. As frustrating and depressing and discouraging as a day spent writing can be, that day of work is also the best reward this career will give you. That’s where your satisfaction has to come from-from creating those challenges for yourself, sentence by sentence, using whatever talent you have. You don’t do it because you’ve got a contract with a publishing house. You do it because you have to, because that’s what you’re here for.”

Getting back to the real reason we write can often lift us from the doldrums of rejection letters and help us take our work to the next level.

Turning Life into Poetry

Heard U.S. Poet Laureate (2001) Billy Collins at the Bookmarks Festival and love the way he writes about mundane subjects, then zings you with an unexpected line or twist. Or conversely, writes about a deep subject, then throws in something prosaic that totally reverses the direction of your thoughts. As writers we need to surprise readers, make them sit up and take notice, shock them, make them think about things in a new or innovative way.

Here are a few Collins thoughts that I jotted down (some are paraphrased):

To write is an act of faith. You hope someone will read it.

A poem is traveling to an unknown, non-existent ending.

Read until you find a poet who makes you jealous. Jealousy is the best motivator. English teachers call this influence.

How do you know your work is good? When you read it back and know that no one else could have written it.

You come up with an original voice by imitating others. (Yes, he really did say that.) He went on to say that you should absorb others’ work, then combine all these influences without others being able to detect it. So is that another way to phrase the old writing advice: Read, read, read??

Writing a Breakout Novel

Gotta love my CPs (critique partners, for those of you unfamiliar with the acronym). Where else would I find such a great group of cheerleaders. They keep me going on my manuscripts, subtly pressuring me to complete a new chapter for each critique. And it works.

Sure some chapters need a lot of work, but my CPS are always generous with their crits (and their praise, so I don’t get discouraged). And sometimes they do something extra special that makes my heart race. Last night was a case in point. One generous member of the Piedmont Plotters gifted all of us in the group with Donald Maass’s (yikes, all those s‘s? But it’s what CMoS says is correct, & I always follow Chicago Manual of Style) Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook. How cool is that? I’m guessing we’re all going to be breakout novelists soon. Can’t help but be.

According to the promo, we’ll “learn to: – Create a powerful and sweeping sense of time and place – Develop larger-than-life characters – Sustain a high degree of narrative tension from start to finish – Weave sub-plots into the main action – Explore universal themes that will interest a large audience.”

From the first lesson, which you can see here, your protagonist needs to have at least one heroic quality. Try the exercises on page 12 and see what heroic qualities you value.

I couldn’t resist adding more than one person I admire, but it turned out they all had similar qualities. My list included Mother Teresa, Gandhi, MLK Jr., and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. I’m drawn to people who fight for human rights, who fight convention, and dare to be different. I was intrigued to find that the protagonists of all my books share these qualities.

Two other things that resonate with me are selfless giving and nonviolent protests. Interestingly enough, my main characters don’t always use peaceful means to reach their goals. And sometimes (a character flaw, perhaps?) they’re far from selfless. It definitely set me thinking.

What about you? Who are your heros/heroines? And why are you drawn to them? Do your book characters reflect those values?

Overcoming Procrastination

My Muse--Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I just stumbled across a blog called “Getting Jump Started” that has what the author, Sarah  Bush, calls the 20 Minute Technique. To get moving on projects (especially creative ones) that you’ve stalled on for a while, set a timer for 20 minutes and do something–anything–related to the project. Sounds easy, right?

It is. I’ve been using this technique for years, only I set the timer for 10 minutes. The results are the same. It shoves me out of my complacency and gets me moving in the right direction. Even if it’s only a tiny step, I’m one step closer to finishing than I was before. And it works for writing a novel, painting a picture, cleaning the house, or any task that I’ve been avoiding.

One of the reasons it works so well is that, for a perfectionist like me, the critical part of my brain shuts down. It dismisses those 10-minute efforts.

“Ha,” it says. “There’s no way you can do anything productive in such a short amount of time.” And it stalks off.

Yay! It’s amazing what a great creative start I get before it realizes that I’m actually getting things done without it. By the time it comes storming over to demand that my creative half pay attention to its directives, the work’s well under way. And even it can see that the creative side’s doing a super job. Sometimes it stalks off to sulk; other times it points a finger at all the mistakes, but by then my creative side is strong enough to handle the barbs.

Most of the time procrastination is fear of failure, so the 10- or 20-minute trick helps. No one can write a perfect novel in that short a time, so for a little while, my muse can play freely without the pressure of producing a perfect product.