You Are Not a Bulldozer

Every once in awhile, my writing life starts to feel like an assembly line, like my stories are widgets I'm just churning out. This happens when I stop paying attention – attention to the craft, to creativity, to passion and to purpose. And, to my regret, I haven't been paying attention for longer than I care to admit. 

But this past summer, I found my way back to myself and to my writing, and earlier this month I read an excellent blog post by Annie Neugebauer over at Writer Unboxed - "Advice to Writers Who Are In It" - that reinforced a lot of what I recently realized. Here are a few highlights that struck me: 

On working harder – "What matters is that you do your best work as often as you can without burning out. When you're mid-project, you need to be deep, deep in your high-effort zone every work day for a good chunk of time. It's not about what other people are doing or can do; it's about what you can do."

On thinking more deeply – "Thinking is valuable. I'm not trying to sound condescending, but we often forget that. In a society that tells us we have to be proving concrete output to be productive, it's easy to bypass that nothing-to-show-for-it part of the process where we stop and really think. Think hard. Think deep. Think for a long time, if you need to. It's what ultimately makes your work great. Thought. Don't let the word count bogies convince you you don't have time for it."

On not barreling through – "Sometimes we need to "power through," yes . . . But for the love of all things literary, stop barreling through. You're not a bulldozer; you're a writer. Writing isn't always a thing you can muscle. Willpower, maybe, but not the craft . . . Sometimes slow is faster in the end."

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How's your writing life? Are you working harder, thinking more deeply? Or have you been barreling through? Can you guess what the tortoises' favorite part of this post is? 

The More Creeped Out You Are

I am socially awkward at the best of times, but I usually manage to come up with a coherent and interesting (hopefully!) answer to the general question about what I write - something along the lines of short fiction, dark fiction, horror. Now, if you ask me specifically what my novel is about, you get this -

"Um...."

Doesn't that just sound deliciously creepy and like something you're dying to read? NOT! Napping tortoises are more interesting than that. (And definitely cuter.)  

Literary agent Janet Reid wrote an excellent post - What's Your Book About? - about her experience at a conference speaking with authors and what happened when she asked them about their work. I absolutely recommend heading over and reading the whole post, but here's the biggest takeaway for me:

"You simply MUST be prepared to tell people, in a compelling way, what your book is about. . . . First thing to remember is start NOW. No matter where you are in the publishing cycle: querying, sold, pubbed, you need to be able to say what your book is about."

I'm working on it!

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And speaking of Ms. Reid, I entered her Writing Without Rules Flash Fiction Contest last month, and although my story didn't win, her comments on it (below, in blue) made my entire month.  

Gregory, old and gnarled, slumps on his porch. His lawn, overgrown with weeds and wild things, chokes the once neat path. At the gate, nettles cling, watch deserted streets. He calls out, can only hope for more survivors.

A man and woman appear, dirty, laden with packs.

"Please help! I fell."

They hesitate, the rules different now.

Gregory is desperate. "I have food, water. It's yours."

They nod, start toward him.

He watches the lawn shiver, the monsters within slither out to feed. He listens to the screams.

Gregory is spared. Again. He stands, stretches.

The rules are different now.

Honestly this creeped me out so much I could barely read it the second time.
Thank all deities foreign and domestic that I live in Brooklyn, a place with few lawns.
Of course, the more creeped out you are, the better the writing.

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Are you prepared to talk about your novel? Or are you like me, still working on it? Do overgrown lawns creep you out? If you have a lawn, do you know what's lurking in it? 

Writing News and High Wire Walking

Here are a few writing notes and two fun videos I thought you all might enjoy... 

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Author and former literary agent, Nathan Bransford, is planning to self publish a guide to writing a novel. He's going to blog about the self publishing process along the way. I can't wait to read both the guide and the posts!

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Here's another wonderful Robin LaFevers post, The Play's the Thing, from over at Writer UnBoxed. It's all about the need for play in our writing. She includes some excellent examples of what she does, like making collages and writing travel journals in a character's voice.

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About a month ago, Nik Wallenda did a high wire walk over downtown Sarasota. He was about 200 feet up, walking on a wire the width of a nickel , with wind gusts of about 25-30 MPH. No net. No tether. My husband went to watch - along with about 10,000 other people! 

But, for all of us who weren't there, check out the following two videos.The first one shows what the walk looked like from the audience. The second one shows what it looked like from Nik's point of view! He had cameras on the pole he carried. Plus, you can hear the conversation between Nik and his father and team as Nik walks.

Collecting Advice

How many times have I mentioned putting my stories together into a collection? Five? Twenty? More than that? Sheesh. (Apparently the Year of Yes has turned into the Year of Hemming and Hawing.)

I'm not usually this much of a procrastinator. The project just feels so...daunting to me. Between the technology learning curve and the marketing aspect and the potential for more rejection makes me want to duck my head back under the pages of my slow-moving tortoise of a novel-in-progress. (And honestly, Larry and the Mrs. move faster than me and my work.) 

But enough is enough. My flash fiction collection will be out by the end of this year (come on, I need some sort of cushion!), hopefully by the end of the summer. 

Many of you have already done this or something similar, and I would so appreciate any thoughts, advice, or tips on the subject, whether about e-publishing or choosing a cover or arranging the stories or promoting it. Feel free to comment or, if you'd rather, go ahead and email me at: 

MadelineMora-Summonte (at) hotmail (dot) com.  

Thank you all!

Writers and Writing from Around the Web

During my Internet travels over the past week or so, I came across a few things you all might enjoy -

* Two excellent posts on the Writer Unboxed site are excellent reminders that it's all about the craft, all about writing the best book (or story or poem etc.) we can. Check out "A Promotional Strategy for Overwhelmed Introverts" by Robin LaFevers and "The Importance of a WOW Book in an Overcrowded Marketplace" by MJ Rose.

* UMass Lowell kicked off their Chancellor's Speaker Series with a very exciting first speaker - Stephen King. You can read a bit of background about the event and King here. And, you can watch/listen to the whole thing online here! I haven't gone through all of it yet myself - you can click on individual clips, like him reading a brand new short story! - but I've enjoyed it so far. Even if you're not a fan of the horror genre, King always has excellent writing advice.

* Since I celebrated a relatively big birthday in 2012, I found this article/slideshow, "Authors Over 80 Who Shun Retirement," particularly inspiring. You're never too old to be - or stay! - a writer.

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Planning on writing past "retirement age" like those over 80 folks? Excited about the King talk? Do you sometimes feel the craft of writing gets overshadowed by the fast paced pressure to get our work, our words, out there?

Point of View Problem

The original title of this post was "How Many People Can Live In My Head Before My Brain Bursts" but I figured that was too long.

As I get cracking on this new novel (don't even ask about the other one,) I find myself struggling with POV. I told myself I was going to stick with one POV. I wanted something more streamlined, more focused than my usual mess of two, three or more (yes, more!) POV characters. Now, Character A was all set - she was my one and only . . . until Character B decided he wanted to tell his story. (Okay, it's really me who wants to tell his story but whatever.) And don't get me started on Character C. 

Could Character B's and Character C's stories come out through my original POV character? Sure. Is that the best way for the novel to unfold? I don't know.

I'm concerned I'm falling back into my usual way of doing things - too many POV characters - because it's easier, meaning comfortable. (And really, it hasn't worked all that well for me so far - do you see a novel with my name on it anywhere?) I want the story to be told in the best way possible and right now, I'm just not sure what that is.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Any suggestions or advice for deciding who your POV character is or how many you'll have?

As a reader, do you prefer one POV or more? I don't really have a preference as a reader but I will say that with multiple POVs, I usually find myself "liking" one of the characters better than the others, looking ahead to that character's chapter, etc.

Thanks in advance for all your help! 

Why Can't All Writing Advice Be This Funny?

 
Would you like to read some writing advice that includes:

- a dose of Southern humor?

- this line -  "...possums with the bombs tucked into their marsupial pouches..."  

- references to actor Alan Rickman?

Yeah, me too.  To read some awesome writing advice that includes all three - and then some! - head on over to author Joshilyn Jackson's blog and read this post. 

(Just so you know, Joshilyn Jackson is one of my new favorite writers.  I have one of her older novels still on my shelf but I'm holding off reading it because once I do, I'll have nothing to hold me over until the new one.)