A Writer’s Method

Some people write with their head, some with their heart. I fully contend and agree with today’s quote. You have to be somewhere in between to be a great writer.

Have you ever noticed that some of the really best sellers aren’t the greatest writer? Why is that I’ve always wondered. These past few years I’ve come to the conclusion that the real reason authors are popular is because they appeal to one’s heart first then their head.

If we are ever going to be great writers, each of us must do the same. Our characters must leap off the page and into a readers heart. From their heart, it will go to their mind and they will get what we’re trying to say.

Every romance novel or cross-genre romance novel is trying to say something to the writer, to reach them on a level where writer and reader connect. No connection and your books will never be picked up again. Hence the quote of ‘just open a vein’ because this is the level many readers relate to when reading a book.

You as a writer must connect with your readers. Otherwise, you’ve failed your mission.

Today’s quote goes right along with this subject:

A writer's mind seems to be situated partly in the solar plexus and partly in the head. ~Ethel Wilson

You must be a writer of both places because you can have a technically superior book but without emotion, people by and large won’t pick up another book.

Have a great writing and reading day! See you tomorrow!

Lynn

Planning The Best Seller

I don’t think any writer sits down and says I’m going to write a best seller. I know that they all hope their book is well received and they plan what they might do should it make any money. But planning a best seller is out of the question.

What every writer does do is plan on writing the book. Everyone’s plan is different and believe me when I say I’ve probably tried them all. LOL!

Right now I must say it depend upon the book just how I plan for it. A lot of my bigger books, I do character charts and then think about what I would like to happen in each chapter for the number of chapters planned. I also think about the word count for each of those chapters. Long books, I tend to have longer chapters, short books shorter chapters.

For me a long chapter is about five thousand words and a short chapter is about half that amount. No matter long or short, I plan to do one chapter a day regardless of length. The reason I can do this is that all I do is write. I am lucky in this aspect of my life as a few years ago, my loving husband gave me the option of staying home and writing or continuing to work.

Since I was working at the time, I continued until they laid me off and I can honestly say, it has been one of the best decisions of my life. I love writing and love how happy I am when writing. What I don’t love is the constant interruptions from my family who swears I’m neglecting them. LOL! Well, their perception is wrong since I treat writing as a business. There are hours I must be in my office and hours I don’t have to be but frequently am.

If their request comes during a time I’m not required to be in my office, I will go do whatever it is they want me to do. Most of the time, they don’t see it that way at all. But with the youngest finally heading toward college, I know more and more of my time will be my own.

Now back to planning that book. Again, there are many ways to plan as well as the classes online to help you do so. When I first started, I was meticulous in planning every detail. But I am what is known as a pantser meaning I write by the seat of my pants. I just sit down and I write. However, if the book is over fifty thousand words, I will do the character charts and the plotting outline. If my book is a fantasy or sci-fi, I will definitely plan as I don’t want to get lost in the maze of what I’ve made up for that world.

If any of you have specific questions about planning, comment here and I will answer them in a later blog.

I have a quote today which is exactly how I see the planning thing. You do it when you’re doing something you don’t like so well. Here’s today’s quote:

The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes. ~Agatha Christie

Have a great reading and writing day! See ya tomorrow!

Lynn

Writing Isn’t Easy

Today I’m going to explore the myth that writing is easy. If I could have a dollar for every time someone has told me writing is easy, I’d probably be a millionaire by now.

I kid you not.

People have this strange illusion you just sit down at the computer and the words flow. Now, I have to be honest, there are some days the words do flow but there are others where no matter what I do, nothing happens. The key is to make the days where nothing happens few and far between.

Now, there are many ways to do this and one I utilize quite often is to read industry books. Recently I found a new to me book called How To Write A Best Seller by Rob Parnell. Here’s one of the best quotes I have ever seen regarding rejects:

"The entire publishing industry is set up to say ‘no’ as a reflex. Have you noticed this? Of course. It’s self evident. Plus, it makes sense. If only one in a thousand published books ever sells more than 60 copies (did you know this was the shocking reality?) then saying ‘no’ does them little harm. In fact it saves them a lot of hard work, paper and money. The majority of publishers survive on re-printing books that have proved themselves first anyway – whether that be in the small presses or on other publisher’s lists. No-one, it seems, is prepared to stick their neck out anymore – if they ever were – and say ‘this is it’ – this is a potential bestseller. For good reason – it’s impossible to predict these things."

This is the hard, cold reality of writing and getting published.

In my mind, it all goes back to the fact that writing isn’t easy. You have to have a great product right out of the gate or it will languish and never sell a thing. This means to me every word on the written page must count. Every word must belong to the overall product. That’s hard in anyone’s book and it doesn’t matter whether you write scientific papers, white papers or the great American novel. Writing is hard work. Period.

Recently, I heard the lamenting of ebook writers who were saying they haven’t sold very many books over the short course of their career. One of things I have noticed in today’s world is the fact one must promote themselves daily. Matter of fact, I set aside a whole day to promoting and it’s usually Wednesday. So you all know if you see more of me on the loops on this day, you know why.

There’s also the fact, I belong to an unsightly number of looks. At last count, it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 175 of them. That’s right, 175 and it so explains the nearly 3000 emails a day. I’m sure you’re all wondering how I keep them all straight. Well, I can thank Outlook for this as I have tons of folders and archive weekly what I don’t delete. Then there is also the fact that on a yahoogroup, your messages are always there. So if you’ve missed something, you can just go back into the group and see what you’ve missed.

I’ve had to do that a lot with the number of times I’ve killed a computer. But that’s a story for a different day.

Today’s quote definitely goes along with the subject. Hope you agree:

Easy reading is damn hard writing. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

I couldn’t have said it better. Hope you all have a great writing or reading day!

Lynn

The Cat Herders

Okay, I’ve heard many times dealing with writers is like herding cats. Over the years, I’ve realized this is so, so true. Writers are truly the creative ilk of the universe. They live in their own little worlds then they do what they feel is pertinent for their life and their career regardless of the real impact. We all know cats are truly only out for themselves.

As I turn 52 on the 21st, yes I really am that old, I can see the big picture and can’t say that this is true of every writer. There are those out there with hearts of gold and a true desire to help their fellow writers. I should know as I’ve been helped by a few in my lifetime. For this I am forever grateful. But to get those fellow writers to agree on a subject, that’s a special art unto itself.

Writers can’t agree most of the time because they have been alone on this journey for so long, they don’t know how to be part of a group at the moment they are finished with a project or even in the middle of it. But by the same token, once said project is done and to the editor, they can’t wait to flock together to share their experience.

Every writer has more than one thing in common with another. Some more than others and those will be able to form close bonds which tie them to the other author for whatever reason. Those who are able to put all things aside will form critique groups and writer groups because of their need to learn more and if nothing else, to share the experience.

Here are two videos which I think you’ll see shows this subject quite well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk7yqlTMvp8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gppbrYIcR80

I hope those picked up your spirits...they did mine.

Now, the quote of the day is:

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. ~William Wordsworth

Isn’t this the truth? As romance writers, we definitely need to fill our pages with our heart. Our heart is where it’s at and we can come up with those HEAs.

Happy writing and reading!

See you all tomorrow!

Lynn

The Editing Bug

Today I wanted to go over a little bit about the editing. Every writer has to do it. Some have a horrible time at editing while others can’t wait for the process. There are those who edit as they go and there are others like me who just want to get the words on the page then worry about fixing the uglies.

There was a time when I edited as I wrote but I found that I never got done with a story if I worried about what I put down on the page with every click of my fingers. A bestselling author recently told me that her NYC editor dumped sixty percent of a manuscript and I was horrified. I mean, I do clean it up before I send it to the editor. Deleting that much from one of my stories would scare me. I guess I scare easily. LOL!

Today’s quote is from a man I admire greatly. He was always talking about the editing process during his long career. He also encouraged writers whenever he could. I know I enjoyed many of his books growing up and still do. I always love his take on geology. LOL!

Here’s this week’s quote:

I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter. ~James Michener

Have fun being a rewriter every day as each of us need to be excellent in this field.

Until tomorrow...

Lynn

My Own Worst Enemy

I’ve known this for years. I am my own worst enemy. The good part is as I get older, the better I am at not doing this. But sometimes things happen to make me wonder if I’m on the right path and doing what I’m supposed to do.

See, all I have ever wanted to do is to write. I worked toward the day when I didn’t have to get up and go work for someone else. Even when I worked for myself, all I wanted to do was be able to go from my bedroom to my office. And I’d had my office in place for years.

Then life comes along and things don’t fall into place the way you think they should. Or one of your kids tell you that you love writing more than you love them or the grandchildren. Now that one cause me to pause and take this little self-doubt journey.

I’ve never doubted my ability but because I get bored easily with almost everything, I doubted my tenacity. But to be honest, writing is the only thing I have done all my life. Everyone has to have a passion and writing is mine. I think that is why I would fail at so many things...not exactly fail...but once accomplished absolutely no desire to continue that path. I have stories which are like that and it’s one of the reasons, I can’t write endings first. I can write the last line but nothing before it as I have to take the journey with my characters.

Still, after all is said and done, here I am, at my computer, typing away. Writing is my passion and I will never give it up.

Today's quote goes right along with this theme:

And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt. ~Sylvia Plath

Everyone needs to know they are good at something. If writing is what you are good at, go for the gusto and don’t listen to anyone who tries to tell you that your stories are worthless or that you don’t have it in you. You do. You just have to keep at it and they will read whatever you produce because they like you.

See ya tomorrow!
 
Lynn

Realizing the Dream

Today is the day that I decided I’m going to try and post to this blog daily. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking...she’s gonna do it for a while...then one of those stories she writes will take her away. Probably. LOL! But I have enough in me to keep this whole thing going for a while.

Today also was the day I realized I never told you all what happened at my conference in April. I posted this message on my critique group loop on Friday, April 16, 2010 while still at the Desert Dreams conference. Since that time, I have been working on what I’ve always called my breakout novel. You know it, I’ve been putting the first few chapters up here and there to keep it alive for me. Read this and you’ll see just how alive it is!

Okay...I've got to tell you a story...and how it made me speechless. I know, I know...next to impossible...LOL!

Part of this trip has been for me and a friend to get away. My friend, Brenda, loves books and has gone to an RT conference with me before. She's also an aspiring writer that I'm trying to get interested in RWA. She's also had a horrible time this year with her husband losing her job and 3 kids under 18. So this was my Christmas and birthday present to her. So today we did some girl things and didn't get back to register for the con until about 4 this afternoon.

I get my registration packet and start looking at everything as we'd found a quiet, out-of-the-way place to discuss where, what and when. I found my Realizing the Dream score sheets and pulled them out. I thought the score terrible, 48 out of 50, and knew I blew it. I put it back in the envelope and found my appointments with an editor and an agent. This is really why I came here and entered the contest. For the contest, you had to be an attendee and not published by a NYC house or represented by a NYC agent.

At the time I entered, I talked extensively with the contest chair as I had so many books epublished and I didn't want to take advantage of the contest. She assured me that the contest was for someone just like me. They wanted entrees from every genre and at every level. I sent off my entry and forgot about it until this week. And when I saw my score, I felt I had blown it because I know people do get perfect scores.

So, we're at the genre dinner tonight and they make some announcements, they do the raffle and then they turn it over to the contest chair. I don't pay attention because I've blown it in my mind. The first finalist was a gal sitting at my table and she jumps right up plus her enthusiasm is contagious. The next name they call is...mine...and I'm blown away. My friend Brenda pushes me out of my chair toward the stage and the gal at my table walks up with me. The third gal is from the middle of the room and we're all on stage.

The contest chair states how close the scores were and still I'm thinking, 'No friggin' way' and 'what am I doing up here?' And she announces the winner...and it was me...and I was speechless. I can barely say thank you to everyone because I am shaking so hard. The whole time back to my seat I'm thinking/saying 'OMG, I can't believe it.' And it took me twenty minutes of people talking to me to get me grounded.

I have an appointment with two editors tomorrow, Laurie Rauch of Samhain and Kate Sevier of Berkley Sensation, and one agent, Miriam Kriss. All these people were on the seven or eight (I'm not sure) judging committee who voted my proposal the best.

And can you all guess which one it was? Sigh. "Where's My Underwear?" garnered the top spot in the Realizing the Dream contest. Another thing, I would not be here if it weren't for each and every one of you. All of you had input to this story and have helped me every step of the way. I owe you all dinner and plan to take you all out when we can do it.

One more thing, I can guarantee they want changes...LOL! I hope you all are up for a final round of Underwear. I'd start now but I don't have everything here.

Thanks for all your support...let's see if I can bring it home!

This was one of the best things to happen in a very, very long time. I’ve been on Cloud 9 since it happened. I’ve also been working my butt off as every editor/agent I saw or described this story to all want a peak. So I’m polishing up the proposal and re-editing the rest of the story.

So see…I haven’t forgotten you…I’ve just been really, really busy. I’ll be back on this subject in the next few weeks with an update on my progress. See you all then!

 

Lynn