Tag: author advice

Jumping Jacks and Minute Historical Details Don’t Get the Writing Done, and Other Advice

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Sherman Alexie writes poetry, short stories, novels for adults, novels for teens–and does all of this really well. So when he shares his advice for writers, we should probably all listen up. A couple of points I like in particular:

7. Don’t have any writing ceremonies. They’re just a way to stop you from writing.

At first I thought he meant ceremonies like the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony, and I thought “Man, that’s harsh.” But then I realized he means those silly things we think help us write, like having the right mug for your coffee or sitting beside a window or doing jumping jacks. Maybe those help get you in the right frame of mind, but they’re not what gets the writing done. You get the writing done. So write.

4. In fiction, research is overrated. But that means readers will write you correcting all of your minor biographical, geographical and historical errors. If you like, make those corrections in the paperback, but don’t sweat it too much.

This is actually a big relief. I tend to get worried about the “real” stuff in novels–what if someone is offended by my lack of authenticity about 17th century merchant ships? Unless your book is majorly about 17th century merchant ships, no one really cares if you miss a detail or two. As long as the characters are real and you don’t make any ridiculous mistakes (“When did Mars start being the closest planet to the sun?”), I’ll keep reading.

Make sure to click through for the rest of Alexie’s suggestions.

Other People Have Your Ideas and That’s Okay

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Love this post by Natalie Whipple about ideas.

The bad part: other people will have your awesome ideas.

Oh, hey. I’m just writing that bestselling novel about the same thing your novel’s about.

Sure, they won’t be exactly the same, but maybe someone else out there is also writing a book about a magic hat/boy who talks to wolves/kickboxing grandma. Maybe both of you will even get published around the same time. Maybe the other writer is someone super famous.

It’s a scary thought. No one wants to be the writer who misses out on a big idea. No one hears about a guy who wrote some other book about a white whale and a crazy captain with a missing leg. What if someone is out there right now, writing your book?

The good part: that’s okay.

First, no one else can write your book. It’s your book, from your imagination and experiences. Even if you write a book about a white whale and a crazy captain, it’s going to be different than Moby-Dick because you and Melville are different writers. And maybe they’ll both be awesome. Writing isn’t like a

Second, Whipple talks about how books don’t exist in a vacuum. If a reader picks up book A, thinking “Huh, magic hat, sounds interesting” and loves it, that reader might also pick up book B because they still love magic hats. Sure, you could be concerned about comparisons between the two, but if both books are written by talented people who care about craft and story, I think the reader can appreciate both.

Case in point–dystopian YA novels. It’s been a major trend in recent years, thanks in large part due to The Hunger Games. I’m sure a lot of writers were crafting their dystopian worlds when The Hunger Games hit and they thought “No, that was my idea!” And I compare a lot of YA to The Hunger Games. Still, that doesn’t mean I haven’t found other dystopian novels I’ve loved.

Whipple says it well: “But ultimately this whole experience has taught me that publishing isn’t really a competition. It’s a big web of connected creativity that all of us can benefit from.” The more creativity and stories we have, the better. And we all bring different viewpoints and voices into these stories, even if they’re all about kickboxing grandmas.

(image: Dean Wissing)

YA Doesn’t Hide Its Heart

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After reading this interview, I’m pretty sure Libba Bray is going at the top of my “We Need to Be Friends Please” list. This alone gets my vote of awesome:

CultureMap: You say that it was “love at first sight” for you with YA. What drew you to it?

Libba Bray: I just read this great quote by Junot Diaz, he was talking about true intimacy, and he was saying that it was the willingness to be vulnerable and to be found out. That’s what I felt that YA did. It wasn’t pretentious, and it wasn’t hiding its heart. It wanted to be found out…

It felt like those moments when you go to a party and you’re standing around for a long time, going, I don’t fit in here, what am I going to talk to these people about? And everybody’s getting drunk, and then you find this one person, and you end up sitting in some corner talking about all these arcane things.

And then before you know it you’re having a conversation about the meaning of life and it’s four o’clock in the morning. That kind of feeling, that kind of intimacy — I felt like that’s what I got from YA.

I feel like this is the perfect way to describe a career in YA. When I was in college and grad school, most of my fellow writers focused on literary fiction. There’s a lot about literary fiction I like, but it never felt as compelling to me as YA. Like Bray says, I feel that YA isn’t “hiding its heart.” I love that there’s so much heart.

Fight (and Write) Like a Girl

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Last night I went to Boston GLOW’s Fight Like a Girl! author panel, and it was awesome!

The MG panel–Lynda Mullaly Hunt, Padma Venkatraman, Erin Dionne, Jennifer Carson, and Ellen Booraem

Techincally, there were two panels–one for middle grade authors and one for YA authors. Even though you could have just attended one or the other, I was glad to see both. Panelists tackled different issues, like how setting was used or how the line between weakness and strength is blurred or how reading allows for greater empathy. It was inspiring to hear so many fantastic MG/YA authors talk about their work, and to hear about an organization dedicated to helping women become active leaders in their communities and the world.

The conversation got me thinking about the different ways in which my characters are strong and weak, and how these qualities are manifested b their actions.

Other fun stuff:

  • Hearing about people’s inner nerdiness.
  • My new Fight Like a Girl t-shirt.
  • Meeting new writer friends, seeing old writer friends get to be friends.
  • Being prompted to ask my question in the YA Q&A session (since I tend to freak out about raising my hand).
  • Swag bags.
  • Hearing about Boston GLOW’s 2013 IGNITE Change Leadership Contest.

Thanks to everyone who helped make this event so inspiring and so much fun! I’m feeling stronger already.

Take a Deep Breath and Take Your Time

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Love this post at YA Highway about taking care of yourself in the stressful world of writing. Among other things, Kirsten Hubbard reminds us that we should give ourselves permission:

. . . to take your time.

As writers, we’re so aware of time. How much time we have to write each day. How long it’ll take to finish a book and revise it. To get an agent. To sell to a publisher. And after that, there’s contracts, editing, promotion, and (a million light years away) release.

Everything takes so damned long! As a result, we often fall victim to this relentless urge to hurry hurry hurry – because somebody will write our idea, or we won’t have a 2013 book out, or we’ll turn 18 or 30 or 45, or a million other arbitrary things. On good days, that hurry hurry hurry refrain lights a fire under our butts. But it’s also really freaking stressful. And stress doesn’t result in our best books – or happiness in general.

As long as you keep writing regularly, give yourself permission to take your time. It’ll take how long it takes. And however long that is – it’s okay.

In moves, books get written in the time it takes to show a montage. There’s no editing required. People are super successful published authors by the time they’re 18. That’s totally unrealistic! The writing and publishing process takes a long time. And most people don’t understand that. They’ll ask when you’ll be done with your novel/get an agent/get published. Mostly this is just from excitement, but it can induce a lot of unnecessary pressure. (As if you’re not already beating yourself up about that stuff, right?) I love Kirsten’s suggestion to take your time. Rushing the journey doesn’t help and only needs to stress.

Make sure to check out the rest of the list for more ways you can give yourself permission in your writing career. I’m feeling more relaxed already!

Integrated Parts of Story and Removing Stuff You Love

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The Horn Book has a fantastic interview with Rebecca Stead about her latest book, Liar & Spy. One part I especially enjoyed:

“Roger: So many things worked well not only by being intrinsically interesting, like that taste test Georges’ science class does, which is just fun, but by being integrated parts of the story. Sometimes I’ll see authors throw in – I say throw in, which is disparaging; that’s how it feels to me – but it seems like someone has put his or her own little pet project or idea into a story but really hasn’t made it part of that story. Whereas I feel like you did.

Rebecca: I do believe there’s a great temptation to throw things in, as you put it, that you think are neat, or that you have a very clear, specific memory of and think you could do a good job writing about. What I find is that it’s like a seed you plant. You can try it, and if it will grow and connect with other ideas in the book, and you can see connections that you can actually realize on the page, then you’re allowed to leave it in. But if it just kind of lies there and doesn’t really add up to anything or there’s no chemistry with everything else going on in the book, then you have to take it out. I had a couple of things I tried to force into this book that just lay there.”

I think a lot of writers can related to this, especially at the first conception of a book vs. the final product. Trusted readers tell you that X just isn’t working or they’re not sure why it’s there. You argue. “No!” you say. “This is for real reasons!” But usually it’s just because you love the idea so much, and the story doesn’t really benefit from that extra page count.

The good news is that none of that X you loved needs to go away forever. Maybe it’s not right for this project, but keep it in your back pocket for something else.

Your Book in Fifty Words

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It’s easy to get lost in all the bits of your story. A way to focus? Short summaries:

“So here’s the challenge – write a short summary of your novel. You’re only allowed fifty words…What’s the point of this, you may ask? Two things. One, it allows you to condense your novel and really see the bare bones of the story. You only get the really important details. The bare minimum to tell people. Two, it allows you to recognize problems with your novel if you CAN’T summarize it that short. If fifty words isn’t enough, you may have too much going on.”

Such a great idea! Rachel includes some tips on how to form your summaries and some examples to get you started, so make sure to check out the full post.

Going to try this one on my current projects.

Detail Work

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Over at YA Highway, Veronica Roth has a great post about why the details matter:

“Details are what build a world, what build a character. And when you’re like me and the same descriptions come to mind over and over again, or you find it difficult to describe things with any specificity, details are where you can return to ground your story and your characters.

The best ones feel like little revelations about a character or a story– John Lennon draping himself over chairs, or Craig sitting down when he pees, or Regina popping antacids. The best ones are not obvious or cliche, but unique enough to be memorable, and not so odd that they take you out of the story as you read.”

I like that she mentions that details need to be focused. You can’t just have your character collect baseball cards or do handstands in math class for no reason. What do these details offer your characters and their emotional journey, and how will readers interact with these details?

Veronica also shares some of the YA Highway team’s favorite character details as well.

One of my favorite details is from Judy Blume’s Just as Long as We’re Together. Stephanie and her new friend Alison are hanging out one afternoon and mention they both used to collect Barbies. They end up getting the Barbies out of storage and playing around with them for a little while. Afterward, they promise not to tell anyone about it. I remember reading this when I was in middle school and it struck me as the perfect combination of silliness and nostalgia that you can only share with a good friend when you’re that age. It’s a delicate balance between childhood and maturity, and sometimes you want to slip back into those old games. This moment shows that Stephanie and Alison are still trying to manage that balance, and feel comfortable enough with each other to act like a kid every once in a while.

What character-revealing details have struck you?

Quote of the Day

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“No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.”–Mary Shelley

What better way to celebrate Mary Shelley’s birthday than with this fabulous quote? It’s one of my favorite quotes for writing, because it’s a good reminder that a) all characters are flawed somehow, and b) even the worst villains don’t think of themselves as purely villains.

Author Events and Public Speaking

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Confession: I hate public speaking.

The few readings I’ve done have been preceded by me telling my husband that fiction writers shouldn’t be expected to talk in front of other people, and that public speaking is a bizarre form of hazing. Nothing bad has happened–usually things go well–but they still make me nervous.

For the next one, I’m definitely going to reread Cynthia Leitich Smith’s post about how to handle public speaking events and potential problems like hecklers, not having enough time, and small turnout. Lots of really helpful advice and great anecdotes. I especially like her suggestion for how to politely respond to awkward or obnoxious questions.

Also, something very important to keep in mind about all kinds of author events:

“Say thank you, no matter what. The vast majority of children’s-YA book event planners are volunteers and among the most formidable champions of your field.”

Public speaking can be overwhelming, but it’s really helpful to keep in mind that the people planning and attending the events love these books. They’re not out to get you or make you feel awkward. They want to listen to you speak because you make something they love. And then you get to talk to them, too, and engage with them about their own reading and writing experiences. How cool is that?