Lori & Melinda in Maui
A writing career is kind of like juggling basketballs. You can toss a few into the air, but when they come down it takes a lot of effort to toss them back out there. You have to be alert (e.g., caffeinated), energetic (e.g., exercise regularly) and resilient (e.g., have someone to watch your back when you’re too exhausted to).
I have a multi-book proposal ready to be shopped by my agent. She’s excited. I’m excited. And I have a second book proposal almost ready to go as well. It will be a tougher sell – 1st person along the lines of Janet Evonovich and Laura Coonts. As my husband tells his family when they ask how I’m doing: All she’s doing is writing!
I couldn’t have written so hard this summer without the support of my family and my good friend, Lori! She helped plan, coordinate and herd us through my son’s wedding. He got married on Maui in August. I would not have been able to concentrate and juggle basketballs without Lori watching my back – big hug!
As Matthew West says: I don’t want to go through the motions. Take me all the way. And to do that you need to reach out and tell someone you need help.
Mel
My new bed
This has been a month of change for me. My boy got married and moved out (without me!). His room is empty. I’ve been at loose ends, trying to figure out what to do with myself, who to bother during the day and when, who to sleep with, who to nibble on when I want to go outside.
I tell you – it’s thrown me off my game!
I brought in two blue jays – right into the living room – and didn’t know who to present them to! Both times they ended up flying right back out the doggie door. Melinda says she’s having trouble concentrating too, but I don’t believe her. I’ve caught her several times looking out the window over her computer, watching the same birds I am.
For now, I’ve decided Melinda needs to see what I’ve caught (there is a sneaky gopher out back almost as big as I am) and I’m sleeping with my girl, but rumor has it she’s going off to college next summer – which will only start this upheaval all over again. But she’s a teenager (like me), she sleeps a lot (like me) and she leaves piles of bedding and clothing to burrow into. So for now, I will grace her with my presence at night.
Trixie, aka the Red Queen
Just got back from the Romance Writer’s of America annual conference (this year in NYC where my Starbuck’s coffee was $5, not $3.75 – youch!). Here are 4 sure ways to re-energize your writer’s muse while attending 3 days of workshops, wearing nice clothes so editors (and your agent) don’t think you’re a schlup and trying not to eat like you’re on vacation (dessert, dessert, dessert – what was I thinking? my son is getting married in a month!).
- Talk to other writers. My critique group and I had a 30 minute chat with Suzanne Brockmann (choir sings – she is a goddess – if you have not read her, start with The Unsung Hero). She made one statement that will stick with me forever: “The romance is the spine of the story, holding everything else up, even if you are telling a story of an 80 year old war veteran who is the heroine’s uncle.” Makes you think there’s more freedom to write, doesn’t it?
- Listen to editors. Paula Eykelhof gave a session on the importance of romance stories in our culture. She said: “The stories that give readers hope and let them know they aren’t alone…the stories of shared experiences…things we’ve all been through or fear that we might experience…these are the stories that readers remember.” Yes, I’ve written my share of secret babies, 9 months later, twins and so on, but I’ve also tackled themes that resonate – PTSD, date rape, child abuse, altzheimers – and with a light hand that disqualified me from being an Oprah book, but didn’t deter readers from picking them up. If you’re going through a difficult time, try using the theme as a backdrop in your book.
- Listen to agents. Pam Hopkins, mine, said she was seeing the market opening up a bit, but that more houses than ever are buying based on committee. She says: “Don’t rush. The writing has to be there to get past 6-8 editors sitting around a conference room table.”
- Let your mind wander. Yes, you’ve heard somebody speak on how to write a one-page synopsis before, but if you start to think about the story you’re working on, your tired, weary brain doesn’t have the chance to edit story ideas. Don’t hop in and out of sessions on a quest to find a “good one”, disturbing other attendees and disrespecting the speaker (not good form). Letting the story ideas flow makes you a winner!
And conference always re-affirms that writing is hard. Listened to Candace Havens speak, envying her energy. But her mantra is: “The only excuse for not writing is if you’re dead or in a coma.” I’m sure you can fit whatever hard work needs to be done to attain your dream instead of writing (perhaps “practicing” could replace “writing” if you aren’t an author?) in her statement. So I’ll leave you with that instead of a song quote.
Mel
So, I’ve been told life is a series of trade offs. If I wait outside for the fat, laughing blue jay in 100 degree heat, I don’t feel like pouncing on him. But if I wait inside the air conditioned house and see him, by the time I get someone to let me out, FLBJ is gone. Melinda says it’s the same thing with writing. If she watches Game of Thrones, she gets inspired to write, but she’s too tired by the time it ends to write. This is starting to sound too complicated. I’m going to blow off that FLBJ and nap.
Trixie, Queen of the air conditioned palace
So I attended a mind bending workshop by Margie Lawson recently which essentially showed me and others how to improve the emotional impact of our writing. At first it was stifling – the words wouldn’t come even for a basic scene I was writing for the first time. Then I gave myself permission to write badly and edit using Margie’s system and what do you know? It worked! Here’s an example:
First crappy draft: Shelby’s heart panged at the widow’s words.
Margie inspired revision: At her words, Shelby’s heart shriveled into a prune as taut and leathery as the tall widow’s cheeks.
Now I find I’m listening to song lyrics to see if they avoid commonly used writing and cliches. Here’s a line from Cee Lo Green’s “Forget You” about a woman leaving him for a richer man: I guess he’s Xbox and I’m more Atari, but the way you play your game ain’t fair. Wow.
M
Call me particular, but I like my kitty life predictable. Up at 4 am for a little neighborhood strut, back inside by 5:30 am for my first breakfast, play a little swipe at the ankles from underneath the bed until about 7:15 when it’s time for my second breakfast and then a stint on the office floor in the sun until it moves on (about 9 am).
But that schedule gets disrupted if certain non-writer members of the household (who shall remain nameless, but I know who you are) do not get their chores done, then Melinda starts the Roomba and runs the scary upright vacuum at 7:30 or she gathers up all the aluminum cans scattered about the house for the recycle bin which makes it impossible to nap! Or…you get the picture (see mine – do I look happy?) People! I’m…I’m…I’ve got my eye on you!
It's Not Always Good to Be Queen
Trixie, aka the “Off with their heads!” Red Queen
So I’ve been researching and working on getting Amber Rules self-published and there must have been a trace of traditional pubbed blood residue on the work, because instead of just jumping in with both feet to e-pub I had to explore the “print on demand” aspect of it. What a rat’s nest of horrors that is!
Here’s my checklist when considering self-publishing:
- Subject your work to a strong set of critics before you ever consider self-publishing. Meaning: if your COMPLETE book has won awards and/or has been read by traditionally published authors who think it’s great = it’s ok to consider self-publishing. If you aren’t selling but you are getting great feedback, consider yourself a part of the “right book, wrong time” club. Self-publishing before your work is ready can submarine your work/career/earning potential (my caveat: there is always someone who breaks the rules successfully, it just never is me).
- Can you produce or afford to pay someone to produce a quality cover? Books are more likely to sell with a quality cover, whether it’s e-pub or print on demand. Every penny you spend is tax deductible, but if it comes to putting my kid in soccer or paying for a professional cover, I’m putting my kid in soccer and learning how to photoshop.
- Print on Demand: My own personal hell. There are companies that will do this for free, but beware! You must be able to format your book in a way that is compatible for the size book you want to print (usually they request a .pdf – not in 8.5 x 11 but in the book size and with margins that vary right to left – surprisingly, this was the most time consuming part). Since they farm out the actual printing, don’t assume that the cost to print a 5×8 book will be less than a 6×9 book (just because it’s smaller). Apparently there are more printers capable of printing the trade press size and it is cheaper. You’ll have to juggle font size and page length to control costs (just like they do at the big NY pub houses) and it usually takes them 24-48 hours to upload your latest version so you can get a new quote – not easy!
- E-pub. Easy-peazy. Create an account on somewhere like the kindle store, upload your work (word doc is preferred by kindle), choose a price and after they’ve reviewed the file (this is a black box – I’m not sure what happens since they don’t edit your work), they approve it and put it online (usually 48 hours).
So there you have it. My last six weeks of learning condensed down to four points. Hope it helps you make a decision. Or as Taylor Swift says, “Just jump, then fall” and see where you land.
Mel
I’ve been writing up a proposal with three older characters who like to match-make in a small town. It’s really fun. When that darn cat wakes up the dog at 5 am and the dog wakes me up, we all trudge down the hall for coffee and breakfast and then I quite happily crawl back in bed to write the next scene or so of the story.
This is unusual for me in that I’m usually a plotter and this story is just coming without plot, with surprising layers of conflict and backstory and fun surprises. For the first time in a long time, I feel as if the writing as clicked.
It’s like that song from MercyMe: Everybody hopes that maybe somewhere down this road we’d finally find that place where we belong, that place where we’re complete, the one that occupies our dreams. And I know as a writer this feeling comes and goes, but it’s nice to be in the zone. I’ll enjoy it while it lasts.
M
A dish fit for a queen
I think my eating schedule is positively fabulous. It allows Melinda to get up every hour or so and stretch her legs. I mean seriously, she could develop arthritis in her hips from sitting all day and thinking. Just look what I found in Melinda’s copy of Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland:
“Fan her head!” the Red Queen anxiously interrupted. “She’ll be feverish after so much thinking.”
Take a break woman and put some food in my Powder Puff Girls bowl!
Trixie, aka this household’s Red Queen
OK, I’ve committed to this self-pub route for Amber Rules. I paid someone to design a cover for me. Oh, boy, I took grief from my critique group – “Self publishing is not a ticket to a New York publishing house.” I don’t see it that way. I wrote a book. NY eds didn’t bite on it during the big recession. In my marketer’s brain, I see this as excess inventory.
So I’m putting it out there for electronic download sometime in April and I’m preparing to send it out to review. And if it sells and enough people ask me to write Blue’s story…well, hip-hip-boo-yah! Found this quote to solidify my feeling: We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have. Frederick Keonig.
M
