Lisa Yee shares all the secrets about being a super successful author:
It’s that easy!
Tag: author advice
Quote of the Day
“Being a writer is like having homework every night for the rest of your life.”–Lawrence Kasdan
I’d Go to a Conference to Meet Neil Gaiman
An excellent post by Neil Gaiman about why conferences, workshops, and other writing events aren’t around to get you published. One point:
“We were doing that because we wanted to meet people like us. Because we wanted to attend the panels and learn. Because we were fans of the people who would be at the convention and wanted to listen to them.”
Although conferences and workshops can be very useful tools in developing your craft, they’re also for fostering a sense of community, which is fantastic. And maybe the people you meet will be able to suggest agents to get in touch with or grants to apply for. Maybe you will get published because of someone you met at a conference.
But I think this plays into the overall idea of there being no guarantees in writing. Even if you meet all the right people and have all the right tweets, it doesn’t mean you have earned a spot on a bookshelf somewhere. The best you can do is write your best work. The work that needs to be in some reader’s hands. Even then there are no guarantees, but it makes success a lot more likely in case you do happen to meet that right agent/editor.
Authors Inspiring Authors
At the SCBWI blog, Martha Brockenbrough asked fellow SCBWI members and debut authors what being part of the organization has meant to their careers. My favorite response comes from Kimberly Sabatini, whose novel Touching the Surface will be released this fall:
“The best thing I learned from SCBWI is that I will never cease to be inspired by the authors in my tribe.”
I think this is a huge part of being a member of a writing group of any kind, whether it’s SCBWI or an MFA program or a bunch of friends who get together to workshop stories while drinking wine. There’s something really energizing about being part of a group that shares your goals and passions. Writing in a vacuum can be very draining. At the SCBWI conference in January, everyone I met was so friendly and encouraging. Having a base like that can be really helpful during rough writerly periods, too. You know you’re not the only one experiencing rejections and you know that success can take a lot of hard work. But there’s a built-in cheering section spurring you on. Being a member of a writers group doesn’t mean you’ll automatically get published, but it’s a great base to have.
Leave Debtor’s Prison to the Dickens Characters
Over at her blog, Hazel Mitchell has probably one of the smartest posts I’ve seen about writing and finances. She says writers need to have a level of financial stability in order to write well.
“I am here to tell you that this career can be a money pit. And if all it is doing is sucking your resources and leaving you in crisis it’s not a career and you may need to back off a bit.”
Blunt? Maybe, but it’s excellent advice. Even lots of really successful writers can’t afford to just be writers. They can’t travel to all the conferences or go to all the workshops. In fact, I wonder how most people afford these kinds of things anyway. Being at the SCBWI conference in New York was fantastic, and I’m planning to attend the New England version as well, but I don’t think this is something I could do every year. It’s not quite the same, but as Hazel mentions, having the internet is an extremely useful substitute. You can still connect with writers on a daily basis and get inspiration without paying for a hotel room.
The Rake's Progress, Plate 7 by Hogarth
Hazel also mentions that writing is not like being a doctor. Doctors have to pay a lot for med school, but eventually they have a more secure financial living. (Although I’m sure lots of doctors could reply and tell me otherwise.) Even if you’re extremely talented and hardworking, there’s no guarantee that you’ll ever make it as a financially viable writer. So why go into debt over something that most likely won’t make you money?
I think it comes back to that job/career balance. It can be really tempting to say you’re going to give up the day job and just write, and things will eventually come together. But I know I tend to stress about where money for heat/rent is coming from if I don’t have a job and health benefits. It can be frustrating to lose major hours of your day to something that’s not your chosen career, but in the end it might be better to go to work everyday and write whenever you can and not be crushed by debt.
I’d really recommend checking out Hazel’s whole post. It’s not gentle advice, but it’s really worth hearing.
Get Going, Take Notes
Check out this fun list of writing tips from Liz Kessler. One of them:
Tip 1: Get out from behind your desk
If all you have in front of you is a computer screen, you’ll never find the inspiration you need. Get out in the world. Go for a walk in a wood, along a beach or even just round the block. If you keep your eyes open, you’ll always see something interesting. And make sure you have a notebook with you. (Buying new notebooks is half the fun of being a writer.) Even the best idea in the world can be forgotten if you’re not careful. Think of your notebook as a net to catch your ideas in, so there’s no danger of them slipping away. I’m not suggesting you write an entire novel while you’re sitting on a park bench – but if you jot down the essential ideas as they come to you, you’ll have a starting point when you get home and get down to work.
I actually really like running without music because a lot of times I end up thinking about a story I’m working on. You never know what can come up if you’re letting your mind wander without lots of other distractions.
Also, I used to be really good about keeping a notebook, but in the last few years I’ve let this lag. Liz has inspired me to get back on it. Who knows what I’ve lost by this point?!
There Will Always Be Readers
There can be a lot of doom-and-gloom when it comes to the publishing/writing world. Articles claim that books are being killed by e-readers/Amazon/the internet/asteroids. But On her blog, agent Rachelle Gardner shares 6 reasons for writers to be optimistic. My favorite:
5. People still READ.
And now that everyone’s on the Internet all the time, people are reading more than ever. That means if you write words, chances are, you’ll find someone to read them.
Maybe things are changing for books. Maybe one day we’ll all have e-readers or chips implanted in our head that flash the words into our brains. But I think people will always want stories. In pretty much all of human history, we’ve shared stories–around campfires, on cave walls, on paper, online, etc. If you have a great story to share, people will probably want to read it.
What good thought keeps you going through the barrage of bad publishing news?
Are You There, Oscar?
Don’t know who to root for on Oscar night? Judy Blume is here to help. Along with being one of the most famous MG/YA authors ever, she’s also a huge movie fan. The New York Times talks with Blume about her picks. For major awards, she’s pulling for The Artist, which I haven’t seen yet but sounds fantastic. The only point on which I have to disagree with Blume is The Tree of Life, which she thought was pretentious and I really enjoyed. It’s not necessarily a movie I’d watch over and over, but I thought it was a compelling look at how we form memories as children and how insignificant personal struggles are amid the universe.
Blume also talks a little about what she’s working on now:
Q. Is it a young adult novel or is it for adults?A. I don’t know, it’s one or the other. It’s probably both. It’s too soon to know. Did you see that thing with Maurice Sendak and Stephen Colbert, it’s on YouTube. [Bagger’s note: It is really worth watching. Especially when they get to the marker-sniffing.] Colbert says something about, ‘So did you always know you were going to write for children?,’ and Sendak says: “Write for children? I just write, and they decide where it should go.” I will have to decide, but I’m on a first draft of an intricate novel, it’s a complicated story for me to tell.
Glad to see another writer who sees their work for children as just a natural part of the creative process, not a major deliberate choice.
Who are you cheering for at this year’s Oscars?
If Only There Were an Idea Orchard We Could Pick From
Probably the most frequently asked question of writers: “Where do you get your ideas?” The short answer: Lots of places.
The long answer: Richard Thomas at Storyville is here to help with that. He looks at how various writers can get ideas. Obviously not the absolute final list, but it’s a fun collection of how the imagination can work. For me, most ideas come from what Thomas describes as Quiet Time:
“Always be open to suggestions. Maybe it’s in the shower, or on the toilet (I’m not kidding here), or when you go jogging. Always keep a notepad handy. When you are doing other things and NOT thinking about a story idea, a new title, a way to use that new word or setting or character you’ve been holding onto, you’d be surprised what comes to you. Let your mind wander, let whatever abstract thoughts you have just float about. Maybe it’ll turn into the “What if…” game we talked about earlier. Just be open and aware and quick to write something down if it comes to you. “
Queen of the Air, for example, started with the phrase “My mother thinks she’s Amelia Earhart.” No connection to anything else; it just flashed in my brain one afternoon. It started as a short story and soon I realized I needed a lot more space to develop it.
I’d say most people think writers use what Thomas calls Personal Issues or Personal Challenges. Lots of people tell my husband or me “You should write about this aspect of my/your real life.” Maybe that works for some people, but generally this doesn’t work for me. I write fiction, not nonfiction. Nonfiction is great, and sometimes I’ll pull details from my real life, but rarely will I write a story that’s inspired by people or events in my life. I think that’s part of the fun of fiction–you get to make stuff up! It’s nice to be able to impart a personal connection with your characters, but I think it’s also just as good to develop a sense of empathy for emotions you haven’t experienced.
Mostly, I think this is a hard question for writers to answer because a lot of times it’s not the simple or exciting answer an audience wants or expects. Rarely does a writer get a spark of inspiration, sit down and pound out a perfect novel. More often, the idea strikes and it gets mulled over and tweaked and written down and rewritten a thousand times. It’s part of the process, but not as simple as one might expect.
Do you ever get asked where your ideas come from? What do you respond?
Great Editors Still Want Great Writers
Editorial friends: ever wish you could have been the person to work on books by JK Rowling, Philip Pullman, Tomie dePaola, Jerry Spinelli, and more? Arthur Levine has you beat. Check out this fantastic interview with him about his experience as an editor and how a hopeful writer can approach the world of publishing. A few nice points:
OLSWANGER: Do fiction editors want to find new writers?
LEVINE: Sure. The lists get full, but there’s always room for a new, special voice. There’s nothing more exciting than coming across that. I can’t imagine a point where I will have covered every possible form of great writing, not only serious literary fiction but humorous literary fiction, fiction from many different cultures, and mysteries, and . . . you know, there’s so many genres and so many types! I can’t imagine a time when I would have a writer that is the last word in every possible form of writing. There’s always going to be room for somebody new.OLSWANGER: You’ve worked with many writers over the years. In your opinion, how does a writer grow?
LEVINE: I think writers grow by pushing themselves to be more honest and revealing about themselves in their work. They grow by reading and turning outward, not by turning inward and becoming self-referential. The writer who says, “Oh, I only concentrate on my own writing–I don’t read other people’s books” is missing out on the opportunity to be exposed to new voices and approaches that help one grow. And taking risks. That’s another way that writers grow.OLSWANGER: Do you believe good writing always gets published?
LEVINE: “Always” is too strong a word because nothing happens always. But I think if a person is determined, smart and professional enough, in addition to having that piece of writing, then they have a great chance of getting published. A person who has a truly original piece of writing will have their choice of opportunities. With enough persistence, they will wind up getting published.
Overall, I think there’s a lot of hope in this interview for upcoming writers. Rowling and Pullman may be great, but even Levine is excited about what’s next. Make sure to check out the rest of the interview, too!