What I Wish I'd Known

In a few weeks I will have the privilege of speaking to a Sacramento writers group and I am hoping that you might help me out. My topic is "What I Wish I'd Known" as it pertains to writing or the writing life. You don't have to be a published author to have discovered what you wish you'd known when you first put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard). Sometimes many years pass before a writer sees his or her words in print, and in all that time progress is made, mistakes are addressed and shortcuts are found. Wisdom is gained. This is where you come in.

First, I'll offer a few insights I learned of my own:

• 'You're only as good as your next book.' I always thought this sounded like something said to keep the author's pride in check, or used as a book contract negotiation tool. But it's true. An author sends off one 'baby' and births another, if she gets the chance. Once again she stands at the lonely intersection of Creation and Vulnerability and scavenges for an idea, a character or a plot. There are no guarantees that she will sell another book or that people will like the book once it's published. So, the same effort should be put into each book produced, even though you had the luxury of spit-polishing the first one for five years and had to write the second one in a matter of months. It's hard to do consistently.
  
• 'Humor is subjective and doesn't always translate well to the written word.' Okay, I think most of us have written something, for example in an email or a Facebook post, that seemed so witty at the time but fell flat and sounded plain stupid. As we mentioned in Latayne's earlier post of May 26, sarcasm without accompanying visual or tonal cues can be misunderstood and offense can easily be taken. On the other hand, if you have no gift for humor, you may simply bore the pants off the reader, which is just sad. This is one of those times that it's better to be safe than sorry.
• 'Writing feeds me.' If life gets in the way and too much time goes by before I can write, I get grumpy and out-of-sorts. Basically, I'm starving. There is something about the creative process of peopling fictional places with living, breathing characters who want something so powerfully that they grow in spirit and soul that nourishes me. This is one time I shouldn't skip meals.

I polled different writer friends and here are two of the thought-provoking words of wisdom I received (without giving away the entire list):


Randy Ingermanson says:
Focus on improving your craft. Once you have good craft, the contacts with agents and editors will be easy. If you don't have good craft, any contacts you might make with agents and editors will be useless.

DiAnn Mills says:
True success is a hundred pages without an adverb.

Can you think of something you have learned along the way that would have made the journey easier? It could be a practical labor-saving device, an incredible book or website, or a quote or bit of inspiration you received, for example. As I said, you don't have to be a published author to have gleaned wisdom from the process. You just have to keep your eyes open. What can you share with us today?

Showing vs. Telling: Subtexting

In Bonnie's fabulous post on Showing vs. Telling, she mentioned two major components - POV and subtext. I thought that today we would dig further into subtext.

Subtext is elusive and often revealed by dialogue. Randy Ingermanson (the Snowflake Guy) summed it up on his website, Advanced Fiction Writing. You can check it out here.

'Roughly speaking, subtexting refers to the art of putting a whole different layer of meaning under the surface, so that the dialogue is not really about what the dialogue appears to be about.'

Subtext can be implied or it can deliberately disguise. Some authors use it to state a belief, further a cause or even hint at a relationship that may offend the sensibilities of some readers. In any case, a good writer utilizes subtext rather than writing 'on the nose'. 'On the nose' dialogue states what the author wants to say in no uncertain terms and sounds unnatural and contrived. In normal conversation, people often don't say what they really mean. If April is asked if she's upset that her boyfriend broke up with her, she may reply that he was a loser anyway and by-the-way, she's having the stupid tattoo they got together removed from her...shoulder. Her friends will give each other knowing looks behind her back, and although she never admitted to being hurt, they know she is.

Subtext can be witty. Think of Nick and Nora Charles of the Thin Man (am I dating myself?). Seriously, you should rent a few of the Thin Man movies if you haven't seen them already. Their relationship always simmers just below the surface and often complicates whatever murder they are investigating.

Nick and Nora's subtext may be easy to spot, but in most cases, the writer has to trust that his readers 'get it.' Subtlety is the signature trait of subtext. By nature, it is elusive and felt more than seen. And it makes for a much better story. Without it, the story will seem contrived and moralistic.

What stories can you think of that do this well? We'd love to hear from you!

The Mechanics of Plotting a Novel

(News! I can't stand it! I just have to give away another copy of Latter-day Cipher! God is blessing it with keeping it on the Amazon best-seller list for its category (Christian Mystery) and I want to send it to someone who has not read it yet. So -- I'll randomly choose someone who comments on this post.)

Now, on to the subject at hand: plotting a novel.

Recently I spoke at the University of New Mexico’s annual Writer’s Conference, “From Start to Sales V."

Though I’ve been asked many questions about the writing of my novel, Latter-day Cipher, I was approached about two issues new to me. One (and this one greatly dismayed me) was the question that was asked by several people in different forms. It was, “How can I take a WIP (or completed novel) and make it Christian so I can offer it to a Christian publisher?” The implication was that the Christian market was a place for what you might not be able to sell to a secular publisher, but if spiffied up with what one contest judge on Twitter wryly called “clunky Jesus insertions.” Ask any of us here at Novel Matters – is the Christian novel marketplace an easy target?

Secondly, the audience wanted to know how I plotted Cipher. I think I surprised them when I told them what I did: I took a class in novel writing about 15 years before beginning Cipher, and started a first novel which I never finished. However, when I began Cipher, I did two things. First, I bought a workbook called The Marshall Plan Workbook : Writing Your Novel from Start to Finish. I tore the pages out, put them in a binder, and did exactly what the author said to do in terms of number of pages assigned to characters, pacing, placing of “surprises,” etc. Then I took a paperback copy of what I consider to be one of the most effective and well-plotted suspense novels I’ve ever read (though I was ambivalent about the content, you understand), The Silence of the Lambs.

I outlined the whole book, noting when the POV changed, when surprises were introduced, what number of pages were used in scenes.

It felt like a wonderful protective armor, a kind of framework within which to be creative but still satisfying the reader.

Later, I learned of Randy Ingermanson’s “Snowflake Method” for writing a novel. I love it, and along with Marshall’s workbook and my notes from Silence of the Lambs, I’ll use it in refining the plot of the novel I’m now working on.

What works for you?

Adrift in the Branding Sea

Writing a book is so much easier than promoting one. Put me in my office where I can see the sky through my windows, and hear the birds, my wind chimes and the clacking of my keyboard, and I'm a happy woman.

~

But navigating the promotional waters of the books I create, now that's a different story. I don't mind going along for the ride, but steering the whole darn ship is another matter. I'd so rather not. But since I don't have the luxury of floating through the process, I'm going to call on all of you to help as I make my way through the (n)oceans of branding, and try to create one of my own.

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Latayne got us out of port and into the open seas of the branding issue, and there have been good comments to keep the boat afloat, but here are two questions: What is Branding? What is a Tagline? And are they synonomous? Okay, that's three. In my mind a tagline is like a teaser, for, say, a Steven Spielberg movie. "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water" for Jaws. "He is afraid. He is alone. He is 3 million miles from home" for E.T. "It's about life. It's about love. It's about us" for The Color Purple.

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Taglines, right? That define individual films? But it takes a brand to define the combined works of Steven Spielberg. Something like The Storyteller's Storyteller. Am I right? Oh, I hope I've got it.

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Author Randy Ingermanson wrote in his Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine: "...the world of publishing has split into two armed camps. One camp insists that branding is vital to the health of an author's career. The other camp says that the whole brandwagon is a load of hooey ... ask six people to define branding, you get about eight different answers." He goes on to state his definition of branding, which I think is very helpful. "Your brand is what other people think when they hear your name."

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So, assuming we're successfully navigating the waters of branding here, I'd like to launch my own lifeboat and see how far I get. I write contemporary novels about issues that cause women pain. Using Latayne's lighthouse points, I covered Time and Genre with one pull of the oar, as well as indicating my Audience. Every Good & Perfect Gift is about infertility and catastrophic illness. Lying on Sunday is about infidelity. These are my Topics. (The tagline for Gift is: True friendship is invaluable, but for Gabby Whitaker the cost could be too much; for Lying on Sunday the tagline is: For Abbie Torrington, betrayal and truth are about to collide.) Then like the labor of childbirth, I push through the pain to the point of deliverance. In the process I do all I can to cause laughter. And there is my Unique Tone or Flavor. Combined, this creates my Branding Statement. Have I got it right so far?

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To put a fine point on it, I write Heart-of-the-Matter Fiction. Did I just create my Brand? If so, what do you think of it? From my branding statement in bold type in the above paragraph, can you suggest a better brand? If so, I invite you to share it. And for those readers who are not also writers, what does branding mean to you? Is it important? Does it help you decide whether or not to read an author's writing? Or is it, as one camp suggests, just so much hooey?

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Award-winning novelist Randy Ingermanson, "theSnowflake Guy," publishes the Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine, with more than 15,000 readers, every month. If you want to learn the craft and marketing of fiction, AND make your writing more valuable to editors, AND have FUN doing it, visit http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com.