Jami Gold, Paranormal Author

What Makes You Feel Legitimate?

Jami Gold — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:30:28 +0000

Last week, we had a great discussion in the comments about whether we call ourselves writers or authors. In general, we agreed that while we don’t judge others by what they call themselves, we each have our reasons for what we call ourselves. Many echoed the idea that we want to feel legitimate before we’ll be comfortable using a certain title.

Legitimacy. That’s an important concept for writers.

We don’t have a normal boss or company that we work for, so we struggle to create an internal sense of legitimacy about our work. We often feel like we’re faking it, hoping no one uncovers our secret. Maybe we’re deluding ourselves by thinking we have talent and/or skill. Maybe we really don’t have a clue.

Some of us want to pursue traditional publishing just so we have that external voice confirming that this writing gig is real. Some will feel validated by getting an agent, or by selling so many copies of our books, or by obtaining a cover blurb from an author we admire.

There’s no limit to the things that can make us feel legitimate. And sometimes, the realization of “Holy cow, this is real!” comes from unexpected sources: a request for a manuscript, a beta reader who loves our work, a comment on our blog from a “real” author.

Yesterday, Rachel Graves and I got the news that our workshop proposal has been accepted for the Romance Writers of America (RWA) National Conference. *excuse me while I breathe into a paper bag for a second* Um, wow, crap, holy cow, I wasn’t expecting that.

No, really. I wasn’t expecting that.

This isn’t some little local gathering for writers. This is the RWA National Conference. One of the biggest writing conferences in the world. Over 2100 attendees. They receive hundreds upon hundreds of proposals, and they invite only around 100 of those to speak at the conference.

This might not be a big deal for a published author, but for me, this heaps a whole lot of legitimacy onto my publishing goals. As Rachel reacted when I explained to her what this signified, “Wait, don’t they know who we are?”

Meaning, don’t they know who we aren’t?

I’m not published yet, and while Rachel has a three-book contract with Tor, she’s “pre-published” because her debut doesn’t come out until the end of the year. Who are we to get up in front of hundreds of people and claim to know enough to teach them about something?

But then I stopped and thought about it. Our workshop is DEVELOP A FREE AUTHOR WEBSITE IN 60 MINUTES (OR LESS!). And you know what? I do know how to speak about that.

I created this website/blog from scratch, completely customizing every aspect of the site, and I taught myself some css and php programming to get WordPress to do what I wanted. Rachel knows even more about the technical stuff, the whole alphabet soup of programming languages. Between us, we can create a basic website with our eyes closed.

Why did it take an external acknowledgement of my knowledge and abilities for me to take it seriously? *sigh* Because I’m human.

Sometimes we dismiss just how much we know. Or we think the knowledge is so basic everyone must know it. Or we fail to give ourselves credit for knowing it at all.

So sometimes we need that external recognition to show us what’s right in front of us. We know stuff. We really do. Our knowledge, skills, and talents mean something.

Most importantly, we need to recognize one basic truth about ourselves. We are legitimate as long as we take our work seriously and keep learning new things.

What makes you feel legitimate? Are you able to recognize your own skills and talents, or do you need external reminders and validation? Are you going to the RWA 2012 National Conference (RWA12)? (Will we get to meet up? *smile*)

And a major shout out to Rachel, who did most of the work on the proposal because I was under deadline for the Golden Heart contest! *fist bump, high five, confetti, and hugs*

Multiple Personality Disorder? No, I’m a Writer

Jami Gold — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:30:01 +0000

This is an updated version of one of my favorite posts, the first of many to receive the “Jami is insane” tag. It’s okay if you laugh with me or at me. Either way, I’ll understand. *smile*

*****

(No disrespect to anyone—crazy, insane, loony, committed, batty, bizarre, eccentric, daft, demented, deranged, or otherwise—is intended by this post.)

When is a crazy person not a crazy person? When they’re a writer.

Writers can have hundreds of imaginary friends. No, I’m not crazy. I’m just talking to my characters.
Writers can talk about their subconscious as a separate person. I thought the story would go one way, but my muse argued with me until I agreed to do it his way.
Writers can talk back to the voices in their head. Of course I’m talking to the voices. How else could I find out whether the butler did it?
Writers can allow their characters to possess them, like multiple personality disorder. I’m just getting into my character’s head so I know what they’re thinking.
Writers can have a god-complex, thinking they control the universe. I do control the universe…in my stories.

We get to do all that—without being committed. (Why do I have a jingle playing in my head? *Wouldn’t you like to be a writer too?*)

In fact, the more in tune we are with our imaginary-friends-slash-characters, the better we are at making the world of their story believable for the reader. And I don’t think that’s just wishful thinking on my part.

After all, how can a we make a reader believe in a character, setting, or situation, if we don’t believe it ourselves? Even my villains become some of my imaginary friends, because if I have a good, well-rounded villain, I can sympathize with what drove them to their decisions.

I have to make my characters real in my head before they can become real on the page. If I can’t figure out where to take a scene, it’s because I’m not listening to my characters. Just as much as actors have “method acting”, becoming the character they’re playing, writers do the same thing.

When I listen to my characters, I discover things about the story I’d never think of on my own. For one, they’re much funnier than I am. And sarcastic. And noble. And generous. Don’t those sound like the kind of people we’d like to have as friends?

So forgive me if I sound like a crazy person when I talk about how I know that so-and-so would never do such a thing because they told me. When I listen to those voices in my head, I’m just trying to be a better writer.

Visit Kristen Lamb’s blog for more Top 10 Reasons to Become a Writer, as she gave me the idea for this post. Thanks, Kristen!

*****

Have you ever read a book and felt like the characters were your friends? What made them come alive for you? How much do your characters or your muse talk to you? Are you laughing with me or at me? *smile*

What Is the Goal of Ranting?

Jami Gold — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:30:24 +0000

*sigh* It’s happened again. An author has insulted other authors and a huge percentage of readers. Why do people do this?

Between social media, the interrelationships of the publishing industry, and the permanent nature of the internet, news of negativity travels far and wide. Sure, we can’t spout unicorns and rainbows all the time, but I question someone’s goals when they fling insults.

If we act unprofessionally, we (surprise, surprise!) won’t be seen as professional. If we put down the majority of readers, we limit our readership. If we put down other authors, we negatively affect our ability to work with them—and all those associated with them.

Let’s not kid ourselves. No matter what publishing path we take, we need to work with others in the industry.

It’s shortsighted to put down authors who might be our agency-mates, share our publisher, use the same freelance editor (and by putting down an author’s work, doesn’t that reflect on their editor?), have the power to veto letting us into a “tribe” of indie/self-published authors, or any other of a hundred ways we’re all connected.

Yet people fail to learn the lesson from the last ten times this internal sniping went badly and want to discover the consequences for themselves.

An odd dichotomy exists within the internet, as it possesses both a short attention span and a long-term memory. This current issue will blow over, as it always does, but the next time someone makes a similar mistake, the details of this incident will be brought up again as an example. Maybe the example will point out how people don’t learn from the past, or how these arguments have been rehashed a billion times. The point is, the internet remembers, and this author will forever be held up as an example of “what not to do.”

One YA author insulted a genre years ago, and the co-author of a popular book review blog, while referencing a current issue, tweeted a link just last week to a several-year-old post exposing the author’s attitude. The blogger admitted that she still holds a grudge against the author for that behavior. Years later.

We might be able to understand someone’s negativity if they’re venting about a perceived wrong. We all do that. We all need to vent sometimes.

But in most of these cases, the insults come from nowhere. There’s no trigger, no revenge motivation, nothing. Just plain, “I’m going to put you down because it makes me feel superior.”

We know that behavior by another word: Bully.

I don’t care how jealous we are of other authors, other blogs, or other books. Someone will always receive more attention than we do. We cannot build ourselves up by tearing others down.

In this case, the author insulted…wait for it…the romance genre. *insert shocked face here* He states his opinion that romance authors shouldn’t be treated as well as other authors—and he states this as fact. He states as fact that romance novels are meant to be inferior.

In his twisted argument, any romance novels that are any good aren’t, in fact, romance novels, but love stories. Try telling the authors that.

But that’s how he justifies his insults. In his definition, good books can’t be romance novels because if they’re any good, he calls them something else. (Um, yeah, don’t try to make sense of that circular logic.)

Let’s skip over the insanity of that argument, let’s ignore the fact that the romance genre is ten times broader than the category romance stories he assumes it to consist of, and let’s gloss over the detail that he writes genre science fiction and thus can’t even use literary elitism as an excuse for his behavior.

Let’s just look at what could possibly motivate him to insult the largest percentage of genre readers. *think, think, think* Nope, I got nothing.

Romance readers read broadly. They read historical, literary, and yes, his genre of science fiction. *raises hand* Unlike his assumption of romance readers, I’m qualify-for-Mensa intelligent, I’ve read from Douglas Adams to Isaac Asimov (and that’s just in the “A” section of science fiction authors), and I care deeply about the quality of writing in books. Ask anyone I’ve beta read for. *smile*

And unlike his assumption that all romance readers are stuck in their thirteen-year-old minds, I was reading science fiction as a teen and starting reading romance novels only a few years ago—when I was a multiple of thirteen. And hey, let’s knock down another stereotype while I’m at it. I’m very happy and satisfied in all aspects of my life, thank you very much.

I honestly can’t understand behavior like this. Why would an author risk losing readers and support to insult all the authors and readers of a genre, when there was no trigger, no need to answer a question, no motivation for revenge?

I’m left with the conclusion I stated above: Some will try to tear others down to make themselves feel superior. And I can only feel sad for this author.

I haven’t mentioned the author by name or linked to his post here because I don’t want to encourage him. However, in the interest of full disclosure, here are the instructions for finding the article (which I’m spelling out so my blog doesn’t upset the search results). In Google:

Type his first name, spelled C, a, l, e
Followed by his last name, spelled M, c, C, a, s, k, e, y
Next type the word “loves”
Then the word “romance”
And finally the word “novels”.

In a lovely twist of fate, the aforementioned blog post is currently the top search result to that five-word phrase. (Why yes, I do hope he sees that full message in his Google Search Terms. Google bombing for the win in an amusing-but-non-insulting way. *snicker*)

Author Carolyn Jewel has a post with a historical take on his illogical approach to logic. And the text of one of his now-deleted comments can be found at the bottom of this post by author/publisher Magdalen Braden.

I hope we all learn the lesson this time. Before we rant, make sure we know our goal. Is it to start a conversation? Leave the insults off the page, like I’ve tried to do here. Is it for venting? Maybe a conversation with a critique partner would be safer. Is it to lob insults? Definitely keep it in private.

Do you rant in public, and if so, what’s your goal? What do you think of someone when they rant? Do you think “bully” is an appropriate description for unprovoked insults? Do you have tips for how to rant in a positive way? Did you follow the directions for the Google search? *smile*

Image copyright: xkcd webcomic

Do You Call Yourself a Writer or an Author?

Jami Gold — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:30:21 +0000

Recently, the Awesome-Dipped-in-Glitter (TM) Kristen Lamb pointed out that “aspiring is for pansies.” We are not aspiring writers.

Aspiring: to have a plan, desire, or hope for something.

Writer: a person who writes.

If we put those together, that means an aspiring writer is a person who plans, desires, or hopes to write, but doesn’t actually write.

We know those types. The neighbors who—when we tell them we’re writing a book—say, “Oh yeah, I’d like to write a book someday.”

Aspiring writers say they want to write, but they never actually do it. They never carve time into their life to sit down and write. They’re full of talk and no action.

Writers—real writers, those who can ditch the “aspiring” label—are the ones who make the time to plant their butt in a chair and write. That’s it. That’s all we have to do to call ourselves writers.

That’s it?

Yep. That means we’ve already accomplished more than those who just talk about writing. The act of writing gives us the authority to call ourselves a writer.

What about “aspiring author”?

That gets a bit trickier, as “author” comes with baggage. According to the dictionary, “author” means a person who writes a completed work or is the creator of something.

Seems simple enough. I’ve published over 150 blog posts. Does that mean I can call myself an author? I’ve completed several stories, does that count?

It used to be that the publishing industry (i.e., agents and editors) thought of “writers” as unpublished and “authors” as published. I’m sure there are many who still have that attitude. However, the ease of self-publishing makes that a useless distinction.

Why should Joe Schmo, who couldn’t tell the difference between a colon and a semicolon if his life depended on it, be called an author just because he self-published some incoherent crap on Amazon? (My apologies if any of my readers are named Joe Schmo. This is not directed at you. I promise. *smile*)

Why shouldn’t I, who could have self-published two years ago but decided to improve my craft before deciding on my path, not be called an author just because I value my work and my readers too much to subject them to crap-status?

That’s not a whine, by the way. I don’t really care about labels. I call myself a writer on this blog all the time because that’s what I do. I write.

My point is that everyone interprets “author” differently. Dean Wesley Smith recently wrote a blog post stating that authors focus on the past (what they’ve completed) and writers focus on the present and future (what they’re writing or will write). So he calls himself a writer despite publishing over 100 stories.

I call myself “Paranormal Author” in the title of my blog even though I’m not published in book form yet. No one has ever called me on it, but maybe they’re all snickering behind my back, thinking I’m a wanna-be or a poseur.

So why do I do it? Why do I invite potential ridicule by using a word that has so much baggage? Because to me, “author” implies an attitude of a career rather than a hobby. Yet I don’t call myself an aspiring author either.

My family is geeky enough that we frequently quote Yoda from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: “Do or do not. There is no try.” I’m not an aspiring author because I’m not trying. I have more than just a plan or a hope to be published someday. I’m doing, I’m working, and I will reach that goal.

When we want a promotion in our day jobs, we’re told to dress for the position we want, not for the position we currently have. People see us and judge us based on how we present ourselves. Therefore, I decided that if I want to be seen as an author, I should act like one. (Or as Kristen Lamb says in her follow-up post to the one above: “Act like a professional and others will treat us like a professional.”)

Self-doubt causes me to question my decision all the time. My choice is not for everyone. Some still cling to that “aspiring writer” label. Some, like Dean Wesley Smith, embrace the “writer” title. Some will wait until someone else crowns them with the “author” designation.

But I want people’s first impression of me to be that I’m a professional writer and take my work seriously, so I claim the title of “author” in the header of my website. I am a writer because I write, but “author” embodies my goals, my actions, and my attitude toward writing. So I swallow the self-doubt that plagues most of us writers and strive to live up to the word “author.”

Do you use the “aspiring” label, and if so why? Do you call yourself a writer or an author (or both, like I do)? What do those words mean to you? Do you think the old baggage or new self-publishing options make “author” a meaningless word? Do you think it’s a mistake for me to call myself an author before I have a book published?

Squee! The “Pitch Your Shorts” Winners!

Jami Gold — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:30:58 +0000

Thank you again to everyone who participated in Pitch Your Shorts with Entangled Publishing. It was a huge success (eleven requests!), thanks to all of you!

The editors have finished their dueling (I heard from a reputable source they arm wrestled to settle their disputes), and the following editors have requested these manuscripts:

Adrien-Luc Sanders, Senior Editor
email: Adrien-luc(at)entangledpublishing(dot)com

Susan Sipal – Southern Fried Wiccan
Jaya Lakshmi – Neo-Mecca Mayhem
Jackie Ashenden – Talking Dirty
Erin Goffin – Kitty’s Guide to Stripping

Kerry Vail, Associate Editor
email: Kerry(at)entangledpublishing(dot)com

Jami Gold – The Hornet’s Virgin
Joseph Adorno – As She Wishes…

Libby Murphy, Associate Editor
email: libby(at)entangledpublishing(dot)com

Dorothy Dreyer – My Sister’s Reaper

Lewis Pollack, Associate Editor
email: lewis(at)entangledpublishing(dot)com

Megan Conway – Of Time
Buffy Armstrong – Dark King’s Lover

Kerri-Leigh Grady, Associate Editor
email: Kerri-leigh(at)entangledpublishing(dot)com

Joanne Pibworth – Shoes, Lies & Videotape
L.K. Below – Hellish Haven

(For those who are curious, each winner’s name links to their blog/Facebook page and each winner’s manuscript title links to their pitch.)

If Your Manuscript Was Requested…

If your manuscript was requested, please send an email with the full manuscript to the requesting editor (replacing (at) with @ and (dot) with a period in their email addresses above):

Include REQUESTED in the subject line,
Write a cover letter in the body of the email, letting them know they requested this through Pitch Your Shorts so they’ll open the attachment, and
Attach the full manuscript in RTF format.

Learn about the editor requesting your manuscript by checking out their write up on the Pitch Your Shorts post. Read more about them (are they on Twitter?) at Entangled Publishing’s website.

Also, please comment below so I know you saw this request. I’ll need to track down email addresses for any winners who don’t comment below, and I’d appreciate it if you save me from the extra work. *smile*

If Your Manuscript Was Not Requested…

If your manuscript was not requested, the editors are happy to take a second look. Please send your query with the first five pages pasted into the email to the appropriate email address.

Flirt (10-15K) submissions should be sent to:
flirt-submissions(at)entangledpublishing(dot)com
Ever After (20-40K) submissions should be sent to:
everafter-submissions(at)entangledpublishing(dot)com
Lori Wilde’s Indulgence (45-60K) submissions should be sent to:
indulgence-submissions(at)entangledpublishing(dot)com

Also keep an eye on Entangled’s general submission page (they just added another line for 50-70K category romance suspense stories!) and their blog for special calls for submissions for anthologies. Several pitches that didn’t get requests were very good, so don’t lose hope.

Congratulations to all the winners and good luck with your submissions!

What’s the Power of Your Network?

Jami Gold — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:30:11 +0000

Let me start by profusely thanking everyone who bravely participated in Pitch Your Shorts and everyone who helped spread the word about the pitch session. I was out of town all last week for my grandmother’s funeral, and yet the pitch session was a great success because of all of you. Thank you!

(I’ll share the news about the editors’ requests once I hear from them. They’re probably still fighting over who gets dibs. I’m tempted to install hidden cameras and send them Nerf guns. *snicker*)

Even before I became a writer and had to worry about this publicity thing, funerals always made me think of networking. When someone dies, everyone who knew the person has to be notified and often the immediate family isn’t up to the task. As if that isn’t a big enough job, the timing of the funeral and visitation hours at the funeral home imposes deadlines. So the way news travels in such instances has always fascinated me. (Yes, I’m weird.)

Take my grandmother’s funeral. She lived to 100 years old, so she had a long list of family, friends, and acquaintances. A steady stream of people attended her visitation hours and her funeral procession was the longest I’ve ever seen.

Despite the large turnout, I could think of several friends who’d attended her 100th birthday party and who weren’t at the funeral. Did they not get the news? Were they out of town? Do they avoid funerals? I don’t know.

Yet for every person who didn’t show, there were the surprises who did. One of my dad’s high school girlfriends. (That was…er, interesting. *snicker*) A cousin none of us knew we had (not nearly as scandalous as it sounds). How had those people gotten the news? Not a clue.

This unpredictable nature of networking was echoed by the spread of the news about the pitch session with Entangled Publishing. I saw several trackbacks from people linking to my blog with something along the lines of “I can’t remember how I came across this post, but here’s a great pitching opportunity.” Countless people I’ve never talked to tweeted about the pitch session.

The pitch session received the most hits for a post that wasn’t listed on StumbleUpon or other big traffic-generating site. Every visitor came to my blog the “old-fashioned way,” hearing about the post through my network and my network’s network and so on, one person at a time.

It’s easy to see why that post was so popular. I was offering something of real value to my readers—an opportunity to pitch to six editors hungry for stories. I try to provide something of value in every post, but some things are valued more than others. *smile*

My point is that our network, real life and online, spreads messages when people think the information is wanted by the receivers. It’s up to us to strive for that level with all our writing. If we write things others want to read, our network will be there to share the news. And that’s the not-so-secret secret to harnessing the power of our network.

Has the reach of your network, real-life or online, ever surprised you? What type of message spread the furthest or the fastest? What’s the oddest path someone else’s news has ever reached you?

How Tightly Do You Control Your Blog?

Jami Gold — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:30:20 +0000

We’re in the middle of the Pitch Your Shorts pitch session with Entangled Publishing. If you have a 10-60K word story with strong romantic elements, check out that post for details on how to pitch to six(!) editors.

During the pitch session, I’ve had to lock down comments to make sure things run as smoothly as possible. Normally, I love encouraging conversations in the comments, so this temporary change made me think about how we balance comment policies and our desire for interaction on our blogs.

Some authors don’t allow comments on their blogs at all, while others let everything and anything go through. Most people delete spam comments, sometimes without checking to make sure the comments are really spam. Some people engage with trolls, while others delete all negative comments.

I don’t think there’s any “one right answer,” as everyone has to do what makes sense to them. But maybe by learning others’ reasons for their policies, we might discover an approach that works better for us.

Know Your Options

Spam Policy

WordPress blogs can use the Akismet plugin, which catches 99.99% of spam comments. (That’s not an exaggeration. I get 30-50 spam comments a day, and I’ve seen only a handful of false negatives or false positives over my year and a half of blogging.) I don’t know if Blogger blogs have a similar plugin (maybe someone can share in the comments).

Personally, I’ve decided to check spam comments before deleting, as several legit comments have landed in the spam folder. Besides, many of my spam comments are…er, entertaining and educational. *smile* I blogged before about what we can learn from spam (one spam comment inspired the story I’m pitching!), and I translated another spam comment into Instructions for Zombie Apocalypse Looting.

Moderation Policy

The Discussion settings in WordPress can be set to disallow anonymous comments (requiring a name and email address), close comments on older posts, require a first-time commenter to go through moderation, moderate all comments, or disallow all comments. I know Blogger can be set to moderate comments on older posts, but I’m not sure about the rest.

On my blog, I’ve decided to disallow anonymous comments and require first-time commenters to go through moderation. I enjoy the give and take of opinions from my readers, but I also want to keep spammers and trolls away. I think that’s a happy medium that hopefully doesn’t impair the conversation.

Some people use a third party like Intense Debate or Disqus to manage comments. I’ve decided against using a comment management plugin for now because some people might not comment if they have to sign up for yet another service. (I know I resisted for a while.)

Negative Comments

Next up on the line of tricky decisions is how to handle legitimate or semi-legitimate comments when they’re negative about us, our work, or our readers/other commenters. Some people simply don’t want negativity of any kind on their blog. Others don’t want to be seen as having too thin of a skin, so they let insults through. And still others like encouraging controversy and debate.

I’ve written some posts that are controversial, meant to start discussions of pros and cons, and some that ask for others’ opinions to see if anyone can get me to change my mind. It would be disingenuous of me to ask for opinions and then delete any comments that disagree with me.

Personally, I’ve set the line at insults. Of the two comments I’ve deleted, one was an obvious troll who insulted me for liking the latest Star Trek movie (which wasn’t the point of that post anyway), and the other was a pseudo-anonymous commenter who yelled at me for referencing Wikipedia as a source in a post. (Apparently, they wanted to copy my post for a college essay, but their professor doesn’t allow Wikipedia to be used as a source. They were mad at me because the post was “written annoying well for something i can’t use.”) Yeah, I’m real broken up about those two comments. *rolls eyes*

Editing Comments

Beyond negative comments, the slipperiest slope is whether or not we should edit someone else’s comment. When someone comments on our blog, are we “allowed” to mess with their URL, links they include, or modify their content?

Like the legitimate-but-negative issue, this is a tough call. Our blog is our online home and what happens there reflects on us. We each have to find the line that matches with our needs. Some of us want to have a professional image or brand. Some of us worry more about insulting our readers by messing with their comments.

It might help us decide how to handle the situation if we think of our blog literally like our home. We might take into consideration whether the commenter is a regular (Do we consider them a friend in our home or are they more like a random guest?) and whether we know what their intentions are (Did they include that link to be helpful because it’s relevant or to be a drive-by spammer?). In other words, would we let them get away with that behavior in person or would we escort them to the door?

As I mentioned in the post for the pitch session, I’ll edit comments if I know the commenter wants to change it. Several times, someone has posted a second comment with a correction right after another comment. I’ll often edit their original comment to match what they want and delete the follow-up comment. I usually let them know I’ve done this, and they’ve been grateful for having their typo erased. I consider this a service I provide to make up for the fact that my comment system doesn’t allow editing.

Usually, as long as a link is relevant to the post and helpful, I’ll allow them. The one time I deleted a link, it felt more like someone starting a sales pitch in the middle of a party in my house. Nope, I don’t have to allow that.

A handful of times, I’ve had new commenters to my blog say something that seems relevant but is a bit off. In those cases, I’ve checked the URL they list with their name and email. If the URL leads to a website that feels spammy, I’ll simply delete the URL so their comment can be approved but their name won’t link to anything. I figure that’s a good middle of the road decision to avoid upsetting someone who might be a real reader of my work, but also prevents me from being taken advantage of, just in case they weren’t legit.

I’m sure some will think I’m too lenient (maybe they don’t allow any outside links) and others will think I’m too much of a control freak (umm…no comment *smile*). My point is that we each have to find the line we’re comfortable with. Some bloggers might not have considered these issues or assumed they had to let everything through. Maybe by talking about our options, we can find the approach that feels right to us.

What are your blog policies? Do you moderate comments? What makes you not let a comment through? Have you ever edited a comment? Are you a Blogger user who can provide insight to those options? Do you want to try to convince me to change to Intense Debate or Disqus?

(And I apologize if your comment gets caught in moderation because of the temporary lock-down due to the pitch session. I’m out-of-town for my grandmother’s funeral, but I promise I’ll approve your comments as soon as I can.)

It’s Time to “Pitch Your Shorts”!

Jami Gold — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:30:50 +0000

Update: Sorry, this pitch session is now closed. I might do another one at some point, so stay tuned. Thanks for your interest!

The Pitch Your Shorts pitch session is officially open! Please read the whole post for all the details.

We’ll have at least six (6!) editors from Entangled Publishing visiting the blog between now and Monday, January 16th. So if your pitch isn’t quite ready, never fear. We have almost a week to cross our t’s and dot our i’s.

The editors are as excited by this event as we are, so they’ve upped their promise. They guarantee they’ll make at least three requests from those who pitch here, and for the pitch that excites them the most, they’ll offer detailed feedback.

(*psst* Truthfully, they expect to be fighting in the hallways for dibs on pitches and requesting many more than three, but that’s the minimum number. This is more like a writing conference than a contest, and editors can request every pitch that interests them. Woo hoo!)

Submission Guidelines (Is Your Short Fiction a Good Fit?)

Entangled Publishing is interested in stories with strong romantic elements that end in a “happily ever after” or a “happily for now.” They’re looking for stories in the 10-60K word range and are open to many genres:

Contemporary
Historical
Romantic Thrillers
Science Fiction, Dystopian, Steampunk
Paranormal and Urban Fantasy
Fantasy

The editors are taking pitches for their Flirt (10-15K), Ever After (20-40K), and Lori Wilde’s…Indulgence (45-60K, “a smarter, hipper version of Harlequin’s lines”) imprints. If you don’t have anything that fits now, keep an eye on their Special Calls for Submissions for various anthologies in the works.

Meet the Editors

Adrien-Luc Sanders, Senior Editor

His current interests run towards sci-fi, contemporary, and urban fantasy—the darker, the better—with a love for gritty dystopian, cyberpunk, steampunk, supernatural, and that rare cross-genre gem. He likes stories falling into that gray area of the battle between good and evil, with strong antiheros and believable villains, or heroes who face temptation and corruption and don’t always get away unscathed, though he can also be won over by quirkiness, sweetness, and humor, with a love of oddball characters and whimsy.

He’s also interested in stories that portray people of color and LGBT people as mainstream characters whose cultural, ethnic, sexual, and gender diversity are enhancements to their character rather than the primary focus of the story.

Kerri-Leigh Grady, Associate Editor

She loves paranormal romance and UF worlds that aren’t complicated by numerous mythical beasties, smart romantic comedy, dark comedy, romantic thrillers/suspense/horror, dystopian romance including steampunk, reunions, BFFs falling in love, marriage of convenience, [strong] woman in jeopardy, man in jeopardy, supernatural elements, clever monster elements, multi-cultural characters, alpha nerds, high stakes adventure, and general hilarity. She’s open to F/M, F/F, and M/M pairings in all heat levels.

For Indulgences, she’s looking specifically for the following: reunions, BFFs, marriage of convenience, ugly duckling, [strong] woman in jeopardy, man in jeopardy, road trip, alpha nerds, high stakes adventure and suspense, forbidden love, fish out of water, and smart romantic comedy. I’d love to find a military hero where the romantic conflict rings true and is related to the challenges of being a mil-girlfriend or milspouse.

Libby Murphy, Associate Editor

Libby would like to see submissions for adults and young adults written with a killer voice, and she especially loves quirky characters and plots. She loves sci-fi with aliens, robots, and high tech; urban fantasy and time travel; contemporary romance; women’s fiction with a strong romantic element; and suspense and mysteries. She craves humor, anti-heroes, and underdogs, and strong, capable heroines are a must.

For Indulgences, she’s looking specifically for the following: Best friends, best friend’s younger sister, millionaire playboy, athletes, relationship because of a bet, arranged marriages, bad boys, revenge plots, reunions, adventure (Indiana Jones meets Bridget Jones!), romantic comedy, forbidden love, geeks (hero or heroine), and military heroes. I’m not likely to request sheiks or royalty, but if the royalty is the heroine, that’s definitely more likely. I’m a huge sucker for snarky heroines, funny heroes, and heroes who are the strong, silent type. Libby was interviewed here recently.

Libby is especially interested in Flirts and Ever Afters that fit the following:

Scientists or inventor-types who walk the line between good and bad (like Batman)
Paranormals with a villain hero/heroine who is redeemed by the end
Disaster or apocalyptic events in which people find love, despite everything falling apart around them (can be sci-fi, fantasy, or contemporary featuring a natural disaster, for example)
Quirky contemporaries or paranormals—humor is a must!
Sci-fi, especially if it has a Tron, I, Robot, or a Terminator type setting
Thrillers set in a small town
Zombie hunters
Romantic Comedy (would love to see a trilogy about a group of girlfriends finding love)

Lewis Pollak, Associate Editor

A student of philosophy, psychology, and the sciences, Lewis Pollak has an appreciation for both characters with complex motivations and stories that are thought-provoking. Find him on Twitter at @LewisPollak.

Lewis loves books that take readers to new worlds, whether they are alien landscapes, alternate histories, or contemporaries with a twist. He also enjoys books that strike a balance between serious and humorous moments. While partial to all sorts of speculative fiction from high fantasy and urban fantasy (but not Keith Urban fantasies) to science fiction and paranormal, interesting characters with genuine emotions and snappy retorts usually win him over regardless of genre.

Kerry Vail, Associate Editor

Kerry loves the whole spectrum of speculative fiction, from hard scifi to space opera to sociological. She loves dystopian futures and alternate histories, especially when combined with a compelling voice and an unusual twist. She also enjoys urban fantasy, high fantasy, and paranormal thrillers, and gravitates toward strong female leads who are intelligent and can save themselves and fall in love. She is open to stories of love in any of its many forms and any heat level.

Josh Vogt, Associate Editor

Josh Vogt has a passion for reading and writing speculative fiction. He’s seen all sides of the publishing industry, works as a freelance copywriter and editor, and is currently signed with a literary agent to get his novels published. He brings to the team his love for books, plus a desire to help aspiring authors in their quest for publication success. Find him on Twitter at @JRVogt.

Josh is interested in all types of fantasy and science fiction, from urban fantasy to steampunk to space opera to epic and YA fantasy. He loves stories that suck him in without warning and compel him to keep reading thanks to fascinating characters, great dialogue, twisting plots, and powerful worldbuilding.

How to Pitch Your Shorts—All the Details

Before midnight Eastern time on Monday, January 16, 2012, post the information about your story, your two-sentence pitch, and the first 100 words of your story in the comments of this post. Like so…

TITLE: insert title here
GENRE: insert genre here
WORD COUNT: approximate word count here

TWO-SENTENCE PITCH:
Insert your two sentence pitch here.

FIRST 100 WORDS:
Insert your first 100-ish words here. You’re allowed to end slightly before or after 100 words to finish with a complete sentence.

(Formatting Notes: This blog uses WordPress comments, so you won’t be able to edit or delete your comment after it’s posted. Boo, hiss, I know. So pay attention here.)

If you want a blank line between paragraphs, hit “Enter” twice.
If you want italics, use this code: these words would be italicized. The code turns italics on, and the code turns italics off.
Don’t forget to turn italics off, or the rest of your comment will be italicized.
If you make a mistake, contact me via the Contact form on my blog or through Twitter and I will edit/fix/delete your comment as you wish. (I want us all to do our best.)
Comments will be moderated, so your pitch will not be public right away. (This will let me ensure that all comments are pitches and give you time to contact me with issues.)

I love conversations in the comments, but for the sake of this pitch session, I ask you to comment to this post only with a pitch. Just this once, restrain your brilliant thoughts and help me spread the word about this pitch session instead. *smile*

I’ll be closing the comment section at midnight Eastern time on Monday, January 16th. Until then, good luck to everyone and Pitch Your Shorts!

Pitch Prep: What Makes a Great First Page?

Jami Gold — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:30:43 +0000

It was a dark and stormy blog post. *snicker*

We’re continuing to prepare for the January 10-16th Pitch Your Shorts pitch session by tackling the issue of story openings. (Check out Tuesday’s post for everything there is to know about pitching.)

While the purpose of a pitch is to get a request, the purpose of a story’s first page is to make people want to keep reading. Whether the reader is an agent/editor looking at sample pages or a bookstore customer flipping open the cover, if they want to turn the page, we’ve succeeded.

Our number one goal with our first line, paragraph, and page is to pull readers along for the ride. So for everything we write on that all-important first page, we have to ask ourselves, “Will this draw a reader in or push them away?”

What Pulls In a Reader?

Instead of looking at story openings as writers, we need to look at them from a reader’s perspective. As a reader, the main question we have when we start a story is, will our time be well spent? Will we be entertained or informed?

Let’s go through the standard advice for story openings and look at why those tips help pull in readers.

“Start the story at the right point, just before something happens in the main character’s life that forces a change or decision.”

At their essence, stories are about change. Weather and settings don’t change much, which is why they’re too static for openings. We need to see characters encountering a problem.

These changes or problems don’t have to be big or be the main issue that will carry the story forward. Hints of impending issues or a gap between the expected and the reality tell us there’s something to look forward to, that there’s a story there.

“Start with action or conflict.”

This advice doesn’t refer to the Michael Bay approach to action with car chases and explosions. In fact, the conflict doesn’t even have to involve a character. The conflict can be within us, between what we expect and the words on the page.

Think of the opening line to George Orwell’s 1984, “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” Our “Wait…What?” reaction to that sentence grabs us even though no punch was thrown. Again, there’s a promise of more to come.

“Be surprising or mysterious.”

We keep reading to find out what will happen next and to learn the answers to our questions. Every time a story answers a question, a new one should be posed.

Opening with backstory answers our questions too quickly. We need to have just enough information to avoid confusion and understand we have a gap in our knowledge. Human nature wants to fill that gap—and keep reading.

“Make readers care about characters and events.”

We care more about our friends’ problems than those of strangers. Characters who are relatable make us more curious to find out how they deal with their problems and adapt to changes.

This doesn’t mean we want a physical description of characters or a dry backstory of their tale of woe. We want to see characters in action, showing us who they are, their strengths and weaknesses, and what matters to them.

“Have a strong voice.”

Sometimes an opening that breaks every rule can succeed if the voice is strong enough to pull us along. We all know those types in real life: a person with amazing charisma or a great personality.

Those people don’t lack for friends because they automatically seem interesting. The same thing applies to characters. We want to get to know them.

Curiosity drives a reader to turn the page. Readers don’t want to see ordinary, and any exposition or explanation that can wait until later, should wait until later.

(Other common problems, like clichés, overwriting, and sloppy craft, make readers suspect the author lacks the skill to fulfill the story’s promises. The edittorrent blog has a list of “marks of the amateur,” craft mistakes that make a manuscript look unprofessional.)

How to Prepare for the Pitch Your Shorts Pitch Session

My post here on January 10th will open the week-long pitch session with the Entangled Publishing editors. We’ll be leaving a two-sentence pitch and the first 100 words of our stories in the comments of that post.

(To be clear, that means the first 100-ish words. You’re allowed to finish slightly before or after 100 words to end on a complete sentence. *smile*)

100 words isn’t much. It’s a given the editors will be looking for proof that we have strong writing skills. But beyond that, we have to make them curious about our characters, their situation, their problems, and their world within those few words. It can be done.

Here are the first 52 words of Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games:

When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim’s warmth but finding only the rough canvas cover of the mattress. She must have had bad dreams and climbed in with our mother. Of course, she did. This is the day of the reaping.

The first line breaks a “rule” (Don’t have a character just waking up!), but it contrasts what the point-of-view character expected (someone in bed next to her) and what she discovered (an empty bed). That hint of a problem pulls us to the next line, where the bedding description gives us clues about this family’s situation (someone to care about). By the end of the first paragraph, we know something bad is about to happen.

A fantastic guest post by Natalie C. Parker at the Adventures in YA and Children’s Publishing blog examines the anatomy of a good hook. Like a hook, a story’s first line has to be sharp (“When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold.“), within a few lines, a barb should tug us forward (“She must have had bad dreams and climbed in with our mother.“), and then we need a sentence connecting that opening to a story question (“This is the day of the reaping.“)

Stina Lindenblatt analyzed almost 70 story openings (a project that appeals to my perfectionist nature) to see which ones made her want to read more. Her results?

“The first two paragraphs that made me want to read more involved a combination of introspection and action.”

Introspection and action, like the opening to The Hunger Games. (Yes, Katniss searching for her sister is “action.” It indicates change, want, and a problem.)

Introspection makes us curious about the character, and action makes us curious about the situation, conflict, or problem. That will keep readers reading.

Other Resources for Learning about Story Openings

Elizabeth S. Craig’s Writer’s Knowledge Base comes to the rescue again with the ability to search for posts about first pages.

James Scott Bell has a good list of “don’t”s.

Janice Hardy tells us how to fix various “don’t”s here and here (in this second one, she also analyzes the opening of her debut book to explain how and why she made her decisions for her first 250 words).

In a guest post, Janice Hardy explains the how and why of her first line.

What part of story openings do you struggle with? First lines? Starting in the right place? Resisting the information dump? Creating curiosity? Finding the line between curiosity and confusion? (*raises hand to that last one*)

(Feel free to list your first 100 words below to get feedback, and feel free to comment on others’ openings. Comments on this post are not part of the pitch session.)

Pitch Prep: How to Write a Pitch

Jami Gold — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 13:30:25 +0000

This week we’re preparing for the Pitch Your Shorts pitch session coming here January 10th. Even if you’re not pitching this time, stick around. Today we have The Ultimate Guide to Pitch Writing. (Thursday’s post will cover story openings.)

The Ultimate Guide to Pitch Writing

Pitches fall into many categories, from loglines and elevator pitches to queries and pitch sessions. Essentially, they all perform the job of letting an agent or editor “speed date” through many submissions.

Pitches aren’t about selling a manuscript. Their sole purpose is to get to the second date—a request.

Basic Pitching Advice

Let’s first start with the basics. These tips can apply to all of our writing, but are especially important when we have only a sentence or paragraph to make an impression.

Be specific: Details can make even the most formulaic story sound interesting. Avoid cliches by being less vague.
Be brief: Whether we’re pitching a short story or a novel, we have to make every word count. (“bully” vs. “mean kid”)
Be clear: Our audience hasn’t read the story. Convoluted sentences and subtext/allusion don’t work with speed-reading or listening.
Be appropriate: The tone of the pitch should match the story and genre (comedies should have amusing pitches, etc.).
Be narrow: Focus only on the main characters and the core conflict of the plot. This tip goes double for any pitch shorter than two paragraphs.
Be visual: Instead of character names, create a picture with adjective noun combinations (tax-evading fireman, vegetarian vampire, etc.).
Be active: Use active verbs to describe the plot conflict (“struggles” is better than “decides,” etc.). Themes and character arcs aren’t a story.

Core Elements of a Pitch

Stories have characters, goals, motivations, and conflicts. We see the same elements in pitches. All pitches, no matter their format, give us an idea about:

the protagonist (character),
the antagonist (person or situation to overcome) (goal),
what’s at stake (motivation),
and the obstacle (conflict).

In addition to making all that clear, pitches should also:

focus on what changes (not what happens),
show the story world (genre, romance potential, etc.),
include a hook or unique element,
and show emotional appeal (the “why should we care” factor).

Easy-peasy, right? *smile*

Methods for Writing a Pitch

There is no “perfect” pitch, so rather than trying to come up with something brilliant (that I can’t duplicate with my own stories to save my life), I’ll touch on the various pitch-building methods out there. Some stories might lend themselves to certain approaches more than others.

(Click on the links following some of the methods for more information about how to put a pitch together using that approach.)

Focus on the Stakes:

Complete this formula: An ADJECTIVE NOUN (protagonist) must ACTIVE VERB the ANTAGONIST before BAD THING HAPPENS (which would prevent the protagonist from reaching his/her goal).

Focus on the Goal:

Complete this formula: An ADJECTIVE NOUN (protagonist) wants GOAL WITH ACTIVE VERB because MOTIVATION (why the protagonist wants it), but he/she must first OBSTACLE/ANTAGONIST WITH ACTIVE VERB and STAKES WITH ACTIVE VERB.

Focus on the Conflict:

Complete this formula: When OPENING CONFLICT happens to CHARACTER(s), they have to overcome OBSTACLE to GOAL. (via Nathan Bransford)

Focus on the Obstacles:

Identify the protagonist and what they want and why. Describe what keeps him/her from getting it. Think along these lines: SOMEBODY wants SOMETHING and has a HARD TIME GETTING IT. (via Jane Friedman)

Focus on the Twist:

Identify what’s unique about the protagonist and what connects that to the core conflict and the inciting incident or first turning point. That plot point is where the story changes to put the protagonist in a bind and is often a “gotcha.” (via Janice Hardy here and here)

Focus on the Choice:

Identify the protagonist, the choice he/she faces (conflict), and the consequences of that choice (stakes). (via Query Shark)

Focus on the Inciting Incident

Identify genre/setting, what makes protagonist unique, inciting incident, core conflict, and consequences of failure. Unlike the Focus on the Conflict method, this approach often only hints at the goal. (via Stina Lindenblatt)

Focus on a Question:

Identify the Character, Situation (why the protagonist has to act), Objective (goal), Opponent (antagonist), Disaster (obstacle). Sentence one states the character, situation, and objective. Sentence two is a yes/no question asking if character can overcome the opponent and disaster. (via Camy Tang)

(Note that Camy mentions using the Black Moment for the Disaster, but many sources say to limit pitches to the first third or so of a story, so this might instead be the first turning point in the plot.)

Focus on the Emotions:

Brainstorm all the themes, events, climaxes, and words that describe the story, main characters, struggles, and emotions. Pick the most important and compelling words or phrases and combine in the pitch. (via Nicola Morgan)

Focus on the Character:

Identify the protagonist’s flaw, the job or situation that forces him/her to deal with that flaw, the action he/she takes to overcome the flaw, and what he/she wants (and is prevented from getting because of the flaw). Flaw + Situation + Action + Goal (via Cyndi Faria)

Focus on the Theme:

Complete this formula: When a ADJECTIVE NOUN (protagonist) wants GOAL, he/she must learn THEME in order to FINAL OUTCOME.

How to Prepare for the Pitch Your Shorts Pitch Session

Okay, now that I’ve filled your brain with all those options and formulas for pitches, let’s talk about the specifics for Pitch Your Shorts.

My post on January 10th will open the pitch session with the Entangled Publishing editors. We’ll be leaving a two-sentence pitch and the first 100 words of our stories in the comments of that post.

Did you catch that? This is a two-sentence pitch. Not a one-sentence logline or a five-sentence query paragraph.

Some of the formulas above are geared more toward single sentences, so we’ll need to tweak them if that’s the method we use. Maybe the formula skipped some of the pitch elements listed above and the second sentence can mention those aspects of the story. Or maybe the two sentences would each focus on a different character (think romantic hero and heroine).

Remember that Entangled is looking for 10-60K stories with strong romantic elements. That means the pitch should make the romantic potential clear.

Again, some of the above formulas focus more on the antagonist or conflict, so they’ll need to be adjusted if the romance is separate from those elements. An awesome pitch filled with goals, motivations, and conflict won’t work if there’s no hint of romantic potential.

I went through the pitches selected by the Entangled editors at a previous pitch session and noted the methods used by each “winning” pitch.

one used Focus on the Inciting Incident,
one used Focus on the Conflict,
one used Focus on the Inciting Incident for the first sentence about the hero and Focus on the Character for the second sentence about the heroine,
one was closest to Focus on the Emotions,
and one used Focus on the Goal.

Obviously, the authors all tweaked the formulas in some way, but I think it’s valuable to see there’s no “one right way” to write a pitch that will catch an editor’s eye.

Other Resources for Learning about Pitches

For general research, check out Elizabeth S. Craig’s Writer’s Knowledge Base and Pitch University. Other helpful posts that include pitch examples are: The Writer’s Alley: The Elevator Pitch and Literary Rambles: Basics of an Elevator Pitch.

Have you written a pitch before? Did you use a formula or one of the methods above? Do formulas help you structure a pitch? Did I miss any pitch-writing methods? Do you have questions about any of those methods?

(Feel free to list your pitch below to get feedback, and feel free to comment on others’ pitches. Comments on this post are not part of the pitch session.)

How to Use Holidays in Our Writing

Jami Gold — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 13:30:19 +0000

*Quick Reminder: I hope you’re all getting a 10-60K story ready for the Pitch Your Shorts pitch session coming January 10th.*

Most of us have a favorite holiday (or two). Sometimes we love a holiday because of the meaning behind the day. Sometimes we love a holiday because of the celebrations (fireworks, being with family, wearing costumes). And sometimes we love a holiday for the trappings (music, parades, TV specials).

But what really makes a holiday special, year after year? Why do we look forward to it?

In a word, memories.

We remember the celebrations of years past and how much we enjoyed it. Those memories are what make us anticipate upcoming holidays.

We’ve lived through thousands of Thursdays, but we probably can’t pick out any particular one unless something unusual struck us about that day. Similarly, the events of a holiday are different than our normal everyday life, so the memories stick out in our mind.

Christmas always stands out in my memories because there are so many “extras” I love about it. Above and beyond the gift-giving and family time, I enjoy baking Christmas cookies (584 this year!) to share, and I get warm fuzzies from Christmas songs.

One of my favorite Christmas memories from when I was a child is the Heat Miser song from The Year Without a Santa Claus TV special. Unlike other Christmas specials, this one wasn’t shown very often, and in the years before the powers that be released it on DVD (or even videotape), those who remembered this song felt like they belonged to a secret club.

A Writer’s Approach to Holidays

As writers, we can tap into the memories of our readers when we include holidays and celebrations in our stories. Susan Sipal recently blogged about the recurring recognition of Christmas in the Harry Potter books, and how the events and tones of the scenes reflected each story.

Our readers have strong emotions about holidays and we can use that to our advantage when we write holiday-themed scenes. Sometimes we might want to play into the stereotypical happy feelings, but other times we could go against type.

Imagine a heroine struggling for acceptance from her overly picky mother. A scene with them arguing about the heroine’s cooking ability could have extra punch if it took place during Thanksgiving, Christmas, or another food-centric holiday. (Are there any holidays not about food? Not according to my family. *snicker*)

Or imagine a a hero faced with a choice that has been foreshadowed by one of his New Year’s Resolutions. We all know how often those are kept. *cough* So the reader won’t know which way he’ll decide until he acts.

In January, I’ll be revising one of my stories that I think could benefit from this tactic. I’m already ripping out the heart of one of the characters, but setting the scene during a holiday could make the emotions even more poignant. Hee.

Setting—the time and place of a scene—can be used to increase the tension and emotion for the characters and the reader. The next time you’re writing a scene that feels flat, see if changing the setting, like to a holiday, improves how events play out.

On an unrelated note:

January 1st is the deadline for nominating your favorite writing websites for Writer’s Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers. Several of my friends were finalists and winners in the Write to Done awards, and I’d love to see the same happen in this one.

To nominate a blog or website, send an email to: writersdigest@fwmedia.com. Put “101 Best Websites nomination” in the subject line. Write a brief note asking WD to consider the site for the 101 Best Websites list. Provide both the name of the site, as well as the URL.

For example: “Please consider adding Jami Gold, Paranormal Author at http://jamigold.com to your list of 101 Best Websites.” (And no, I’m not asking for votes. That was strictly for example’s sake. *smile*) So please take a minute and nominate your favorite writing website/blog.

And I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season, no matter what holidays you celebrate. *hands you a plateful of cookies*

What holiday memories stand out in your mind? Why do they stand out? Have you written any holiday scenes? Did you go “with” or “against” the stereotypical emotions of the holiday? Was anyone else a member of the Heat Miser/Cold Miser secret club? *smile*

How to Force a Story to Evolve: 6 Revision Tips

Jami Gold — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 13:30:27 +0000

*Quick Reminder: Don’t forget the Pitch Your Shorts pitch session coming January 10th. Get your 10-60K stories ready. More details to come.*

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season, no matter what holidays you celebrate. While I’m enjoying some time with my family, I’ll share this post originally written as a guest post for the Writers on the Storm blog.

Forcing a Story to Evolve—From First Draft to Finished Draft

Previously, I’ve talked about how it’s fascinating to watch a story evolve from a story seed into a full-blown draft. By the time we type “The End,” we often forget how small the seed started and have a hard time recognizing how the two are even related.

Similarly, stories evolve a great deal from first draft to finished draft—especially when we’re still climbing a steep learning curve. If we analyze the ways a story can evolve through the editing process, we might know how to focus our revisions.

I’m not talking about the editing we do to make a story prettier, cleaner, or faster paced. I’m talking about the big picture revisions that change the essence of the story behind the words.

Types of Story Evolution

Tone

A story’s tone greatly affects a reader’s experience. The Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris (source material for the True Blood TV show) deal with many dark subjects, but the tone of the books is light and fluffy for the most part, despite the threat of mortal peril. While revising, we can control the reader’s experience by changing the tone.

Voice

Related to the above point, changing the voice of the story will often change the tone. A chatty or jokey voice tends to make the story less dark and serious. This doesn’t mean a serious story can’t have comic relief, but maybe the source of the jokes would be from a non-POV character, or maybe the one-liners would be along the lines of gallows humor.

Point Of View

If a scene isn’t working, we might be able to fix it by using another character’s POV. Or we can try to switch a story from first person to third person, or vice versa. Similarly, making a third person POV into a deep third person POV affects how a story reads.

Motivation

Character motivation is like a magic formula for changing the feel of a story. Think of all the reasons a character could be speeding while driving: impatience, escaping, rescuing, obliviousness, arrogance, etc. Each of those would lead to different interpretation for the reader. Same action, different reader reaction. Then if we take it to the next level and add complex or competing motivations, or subtext, the story changes again.

Theme

When we have a strong theme, our story naturally feels deeper and more serious. During revisions, we can tweak wording or sentences to accentuate the themes. Check out this post for ideas on how to bring out themes in your story.

Depth

This can mean anything from adding subtlety or subtext to going deeper into characters’ emotions. Real people are complex and act against logic or their own best interests sometimes. We have competing needs fighting for control over which way we react in a situation. Adding that element of unpredictability to our stories helps them avoid being cliché or formulaic. Readers will believe in characters who do something stupid if those motivations are laid out for them to piece together.

Being Deliberate with Our Writing

When we write, everything we type is a choice. We not only choose between this word and that word, but also how we use the above elements to affect a reader’s experience. And even though these aspects seem subtle, they make a huge difference in how a story reads.

So when we revise, now that we no longer have to do the drafting work of puzzling over plot, subplot, and tying everything together, we can go back to the drawing board and figure out what type of experience we want our readers to have. Do we want the story to feel light or serious? How intimately do we want the reader to experience what the characters go through?

If the story we want isn’t the story we have, but we can’t figure out why, we might be tempted to toss it. We might even worry that we’re not capable of doing the subject justice. But maybe it just means that one of these big picture things is off a bit. In other words, it’s fixable. *smile*

Which of the above elements have you changed when revising a story? Were the changes big or small? What about the results? How much did the changes affect the readers’ experience, the essence of the story behind the words?

Write Fiction? Why You Should Try a Short Story

Jami Gold — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 13:30:00 +0000

My regular readers know I typically write novel-length stories. However, during one crazy four-day stretch, I wrote a long-ish short story/short-ish novella (novelette?). For those of you following along at home, I’m referring to my story inspired by spam.

I’ve blogged before about how the experience was a great way to stretch myself, but even beyond that, attempting shorter length fiction can help us understand the basics for novel writing.

A novel is big. Really big. So big it’s hard sometimes to see the full picture of the story and know how best to shuffle the pieces.

But a short story is…well, short. By necessity, short stories don’t use complicated subplots. They don’t contain several reversals. They are story structure at its most streamlined. And by working in the short story format, we can learn to recognize and strengthen the structure of all our stories.

Why All Writers Should Try a Short Story

The lack of subplots and complications in a short story makes it easier to see the story’s bones. In a short work, we can more easily see:

the three acts (setup, confrontation, and resolution)
the first turning point (where the story world gets turned upside down and the reader is introduced to the big story question)
the second turning point (climax/confrontation with the antagonist)
the story question (with no subplots, there’s only one main question driving the story, and this can be as straightforward as “will the protagonist survive?”)
the steps of the hero’s journey

When we have issues with a shorter work, we can find the problem more easily because it’s not buried under the complexities of a novel. And as we get better about recognizing structure, we’ll be able to solve problems with novel length work. We’ll know if the bones of a story are good.

Once our stories have good structure, we can add length, fix sagging middles, and speed up pacing by adding:

Reversals: setbacks for the protagonist.
Pinch points (as defined by Larry Brooks): reminders of the nature and implications of the antagonistic force (how bad is the bad guy?).
Turning points: revelations that change the context of the story.

Understanding how to develop short stories also helps us develop story ideas. We’ll be able to take a story seed and know what we have to do to grow that into a bigger story. Novels are simply short stories with more subplots added and more of those aspects listed above.

The Best Reason to Challenge Yourself with a Short Story

(Okay, I’ll admit I’m biased here.)

Announcing the Pitch Your Shorts (hee) online pitch session! *releases confetti* Yay!

Several editors from Entangled Publishing will be visiting my blog in the second week of January to take pitches for shorter length works. They’re interested in stories with strong romantic elements that end in a “happily ever after” or a “happily for now.” They’re looking for stories in the 10-60K word range and are open to many genres:

Contemporary
Historical
Romantic Thrillers
Science Fiction, Dystopian, Steampunk
Paranormal and Urban Fantasy
Fantasy

If you have stories already completed that would fit those guidelines, get them polished. If you have ideas along those lines or if you’ve thought about attempting a short story, get writing. (Another great thing about short stories is they’re quick to write and revise.)

The editors have promised they’ll make at least one request from those who pitch on my blog, and for the pitch that excites them the most, they’ll offer detailed feedback.

Do you notice that phrase: “they’ll make at least one request”? That means this isn’t a contest, where only one pitch can win. This is more like a writing conference, where editors can request every pitch that interests them. Yes, really.

This is a fantastic opportunity, and I want you all to consider pitching something. I’m asking for you to help spread the word about this so everyone has time to get something ready. I love helping my friends and readers out, and this could be a way to start a publishing career, experiment with a new genre/point-of-view/verb tense, or try out a new format.

Even if you consider yourself a novel writer, try writing a short story for this pitch session. Get a head start on a New Year’s Resolution to work toward a publishing credit with a buzz-worthy publisher. Plus, this is a chance to improve our skills. In one shot, we can practice our structure, learn how to write a short story, pitch to several editors, and have a chance at a request and/or feedback. How cool is that?

Mark your calendar: Pitch Your Shorts will begin January 10th

Have you written a short story before? Have you ever developed a short story into a longer one? Is it easier for you to see story structure in shorter works? Will you be preparing a short story for Pitch Your Shorts? (Please say yes!)

Are All Cheap Ebooks Crap?

Jami Gold — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 13:30:31 +0000

In my last post, I asked how much people would be willing to pay for ebooks. Most comments agreed with my thoughts: Ebooks should be less expensive than paper books because of DRM, ownership, quality, and physicality issues. What surprised me, however, was the number of people turned off by $0.99 ebooks.

The comment section of that post turned into a great conversation about how new owners of ebook readers typically go through a phase where they jump on all the free and cheap ebooks they can find. I know I did. I even wrote a post last year about where to find legal copies of free Kindle ebooks.

Yet once I filled my Kindle with more ebooks than I’d be able to read in a year, I stopped looking for those bargains. I still haven’t read most of those free and cheap books I picked up, and I probably won’t ever read them.

Like many other people, I’m too busy to waste time reading a so-so story, and many of the free or cheap books aren’t worth my time. This attitude was reflected over and over again in the comments of my last post.

People have been burned by low-quality cheap ebooks and are now wary of buying any ebook priced at $0.99.

What Does that Attitude Mean for Readers?

I fear some self-published authors will increase their prices simply to create the appearance of quality and avoid any $0.99 stigma. However, cost does not create value.

If a story is worth more than $0.99, great. Those authors aren’t doing themselves any favors by branding themselves as a $0.99 ebook writer. But if a story isn’t worth the increase, the higher price will move the stigma line and create an incentive for disappointed readers to post bad reviews.

If the new cost floor for ebooks becomes $2.99 instead of $0.99 as everyone rushes to avoid the stigma, readers will have to become more discerning with their purchases. Most of us don’t want to throw away several dollars on a dud.

How Can We Separate the Good Stories from the Crap?

This is the question of the year, and sometimes it seems as difficult as the brain teaser in the picture. I’m not the only one who’s learned not to trust Amazon reviews because too many authors have their friends stack the deck. (Besides, I’ll admit I’m pickier about grammar than most, so what a random reader might not notice might drive me crazy—er, crazier. *smile*)

From now on, I want to see a sample of the writing first. Authors should enable the ability for Amazon to show a free sample and/or use the “look inside” feature. Book listings on other sites should include a link to the author’s webpage with the first chapter.

If I’m going to pay $2.99 for an ebook, I want to know if craft or formatting issues will impair my enjoyment. More importantly, I want to see whether I’m hooked by the story. A good beginning is critical for all authors, including those who self-publish.

No free sample on Kindle or author website? No “look inside”? No purchase.

How to Keep a “Try Me” Price and Avoid the Stigma

I’ve read several good self-published stories, and yes, they were priced at $0.99. So I don’t think a cheap price automatically indicates bad quality. However, those authors were ones I got to know through their blogs and Twitter, so I had a pretty good idea of their potential for quality.

On the other hand, the chances of me buying a random $0.99 ebook are fairly low. A low price might be enough for a new Kindle owner caught up in the shiny, but for most readers, $0.99 isn’t enough to get readers to try an unknown author. All the platform advice of blogging, Twittering, and whatnot applies here for the author to make themselves known. But what’s most important is a book so good that those who read it want to tell others about it.

Buzz from others, real recommendations from people I know, tweets gushing about the great book they just read, all those things will get me to check out a book. Only then will the “try me” price of $0.99 come into play to tempt me to take a chance.

Yes, it’s hard for authors to get their names out there and to convince readers to give them a try. No one said this was going to be easy. But the good news is if an author is good enough to justify higher prices, readers are willing to pay for quality.

What do you think? Are all cheap/free ebooks crap? If you’ve found some good ones, how did you discover them? Have you used the “look inside” or free sample options to check out a book before buying it?

How Much Are You Willing to Pay for an Ebook?

Jami Gold — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:30:57 +0000

Readers come in all types. Some buy hardcovers, others wait for paperback, some only borrow from libraries, and still others buy the super-deluxe collector’s edition of their favorites.

I’ve always thought of myself as a paperback reader who would spring for the hardcover for “keeper” books, but the ebook revolution is making me take a closer look at my reading habits. I’m adding more to my to-be-read pile (in both the ebook and paper book versions of that pile) than ever before. And that means I have to analyze how I’m spending my book money more than I did before.

Are We Too Reluctant to Spend Money on Books?

A while back, Roni Loren had a great post on her blog about the price of books and why a good story should be worth more than a cheeseburger. She pointed out that we often spend twenty bucks for a two-hour movie or a mediocre meal, and yet we balk at spending that much for a book that will entertain us for hours upon hours. Why?

Roni gave a lot of reasons, from this being the Walmart discount generation to the many self-publishers listing their books at $o.99 while hoping readers give them a chance. But she also mentioned the downside of authors going along with these low-price expectations:

“[W]e’re teaching people what we’re worth. Authors are undervaluing themselves and their books. Something that takes you six months or a year to write … shouldn’t be the same price as the Christmas pencils in the dollar bin at Target.”

Print books have built-in expenses preventing the race to the bottom, but ebooks don’t. We’ve quickly gotten used to the idea that ebooks can be cheap. So the question my wallet has been asking me is, how much should an ebook cost? Should it be the same price as a paperback or cheaper?

Personally, I hate paying very much for an ebook and I wondered why I had that attitude. After all, as a writer, shouldn’t I be supportive of other authors wanting to make a living? My answer was “Yes, but…” *smile*

How Do We Judge the Price of an Ebook?

Ebooks do have a different intrinsic value than paper books. If I have a choice between a paper book and an ebook at the same (or even close to the same) price, I’ll choose the paper book every time. And yes, I love the smell and the feel of real books, but my reasons go deeper than that.

DRM: DRM (digital rights management) is what prevents us from being able to copy a book from one format or computer to another. I shouldn’t have to worry about whether I’ll feel like reading a book on my desktop computer, my laptop, or my Kindle before buying it.
Ownership: This goes along with DRM in that we don’t feel like we own something if we can’t do what we want with it. Also Amazon has taught us that we don’t really own ebooks, as they’ve pulled books out of users’ Kindle libraries before. *loads gun* I’d like to see someone try to take one of my paper books off my bookshelves. Hah!
Quality: Too many ebooks have formatting errors and are of general poor quality. This goes for self-published and traditional published books. As Jane pointed out at the Dear Author blog: “[I]f the higher priced goods are crappy, then readers might as well pay $.99 instead of $7.99.” And don’t get me started on authors who figure that because they can easily upload corrections, they don’t have to even try to make their books perfect.
Physicality: I like being able to easily flip back pages to remind myself “who was that character again?” I like being able to turn a book that I didn’t enjoy into something positive by giving it away or donating it, rather than the pfft-gone nature of deleting unwanted ebooks. In other words, I like books to be tangible.

All that said, I love my Kindle and have no plans to give it up. But there are definite “cons” against ebooks that I take into consideration when deciding how much to spend.

My Take on Ebook Prices

I buy many of the $0.99 ebooks, figuring that something has to be pretty bad for it not to be worth a buck. (And there have been some at that price that I didn’t buy after checking out the free sample.) I don’t usually question spending $1.99 either. At $2.99, I expect professional quality and the book has to be at least a decent-sized novella or I’ll feel ripped off. At $3.99 and up, the book had better be a full-length novel and any mistakes will be judged harshly. And I don’t think I’d pay more than $6.99 for an ebook because I believe they’re worth less than a paperback for all the reasons I listed above.

But I wonder if I’m off-base in how I view ebooks. I’m also the type of person who pages back on ebooks so I start “properly” at the cover and not at the content page where Kindle usually opens files. (Yes, I really do that.) So share your thoughts in the comments and let me know if you think I’m crazy (about ebook stuff, if you go off on tangents about other ways I’m crazy, we’ll be here all day). *smile*

What kind of a book-buyer are you? Hardcovers, paperbacks, or ebooks? Is there an upper limit to how much you’ll spend on an ebook? Is it different than your limit for paper books? If so, why?

What Is the Internet Missing?

Jami Gold — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 13:30:53 +0000

That seems like an odd question, doesn’t it? After all, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out Google knew what I had for lunch on Wednesday five weeks ago.

In fact, computers and the internet have captured so much information that we sometimes don’t want to memorize facts, figuring we’ll Google it when we need it again. But if we stop and think about it, I bet we could come up with a whole list of things we wish existed out there for us to research.

Writers of historical stories run into this problem all the time because only a small percentage of historical knowledge and documents has been digitized. The rest of us only think we have the world’s information at our fingertips.

Internet Searches Take Us Only So Far

I’m proud of my Google-fu, but no matter how cleverly worded, there are some things an internet search can’t tell us. There’s no eHarmony for writers where we answer questions about our personality, strengths, and weaknesses, and where we weigh the importance of those qualities in others so we can find our perfect match of:

Critique partners: “Mary is the ideal blend of kick you into gear and supportive friend.”
Beta readers: “Joe can find all the spots where you missed writing down the thoughts in your head.”
Agents: “Susan is trustworthy, will go to bat for you, and likes you as much as she likes your story.”
Publishers: “Brian will make sure you get best-seller-level marketing and publicity.”

And yes, I’m joking about this, but there’s also a very real wish to get harder data on agents and editors. Those writers who want more editing help would love to know which agents have editing experience and are willing to bring clients up to speed. Other writers want an agent more knowledgeable about contracts. While those who want a particular publisher would drool over a database listing every agent who’s sold to them in the last year in that same genre.

Our Knowledge Has Holes

More seriously, some agents have entered the publishing game, triggering a conflict of interest fear among writers. Yet as far as I know, there’s no master list of which agents have gone down this path.

For some writers, agents who also publish would be a deal-breaker, but short of doing several searches and asking in forums, there’s no way for us to know upfront which agents do it. And there’s certainly not an easy database to check.

What about publishers and contracts? We’d probably see fairer contracts if we could learn about a publisher’s standard clauses ahead of time. Instead, we see only our own contract and have no way to compare its terms.

If a master database of publishers’ standard contracts existed, we’d be able to avoid publishers that paid less than all the others. They’d soon find themselves having to adapt or run out of submissions.

Personally, I’d love a ranking of which publishers still do a decent amount of editing, or marketing, or what have you. Or for those self-publishing, wouldn’t a list of the strengths and weaknesses of freelance editors be useful? Or a place to rate the services of various outsourced tasks?

The Writing Wiki Is Community

So much data exists in the experiences of others, but there’s no way to access it without asking. This is yet another reason why the writing community is important.

We can find the answers to some of our questions by asking around on Twitter or by digging into forums like the Absolute Write Water Cooler. But this method works only if we’re willing to help each other. So for every question we ask, we should go out of our way to answer a few more. Our virtual writing wiki will be stronger for it.

What information would you love to be able to find on the internet? Do you know of any databases that answer my hypothetical questions above (Is there a list keeping track of which agents are publishing too?)? What’s your favorite source for finding answers to those tricky questions?

How to Keep Readers on Your Side

Jami Gold — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 13:30:54 +0000

We’re all being told that we need to have a platform, that we need to grow our platform, and that we need to use our platform. Gah! Does anyone else want to throttle the word “platform” after hearing it for the fifty-bajillionth time?

The word diminishes the meaning of what a platform really is. Our platform isn’t made of robots, willing to follow orders. Our platform is made of people. People who spread the word about our work because they’ve decided we’re worth it.

And for writers, the people who make up our platform are our readers, those who read our stories, blogs, tweets, and status updates. Our readers decide which items they share with others.

I’m not saying anything we don’t already know, but sometimes it’s good to remind ourselves of who holds the power behind a platform. It’s not us. It’s our readers.

That means our ability to succeed isn’t dependent solely on the size of our platform, but also on the willingness of our platform to spread positive messages about us and our work. Ooo, positive messages. That’s important, isn’t it?

What would be worse, ten thousand followers on Twitter never talking about us, or a mere hundred followers spreading negative messages about us or our work? Yikes.

Today I’m at Susan Sipal’s blog, Harry Potter for Writers, sharing tips on how to prevent our readers from turning against us. It happens, even to JK Rowling.

If you’re not familiar with Harry Potter fandom, you might not have heard about Pottermore. The Pottermore website was announced last summer to great anticipation. JK Rowling was finally going to have ebooks? And she was partnering with Sony to have an online interactive website?

Fans salivated over the idea of an online Harry Potter world. Die-hard fans spent a month guessing how they were going to choose the lucky one million users invited to participate in the beta version. They stayed up all hours to figure out the clues during the invitation hours. They impatiently waited for their activation emails.

And then… You’ll have to click over to my guest post to find out what happened next with Pottermore and what lessons all writers can learn from it. *smile*

Does the talk of platform drive you crazy? Would you rather concentrate on the people who support us? Do you disagree with me about who holds the power? What would make you spread negative messages about an author?

How to Squeeze the Most out of Scenes

Jami Gold — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 13:30:49 +0000

Whether we’re a plotter, pantser, or somewhere in between, we all eventually have to take the time and make our scenes the best they can be. This week I have a guest post at the Girls With Pens blog on how to do that.

We’re talking about how to make sure that scene is really needed (includes a list of the legitimate reasons for a scene to exist), as well as how to get at the emotional heart of a scene. Once we know that, we can pump up a reader’s emotional response to create more tension, more worry, more dread, more everything. *smile*

You might also want to check out a great older post from Janice Hardy about how to mix and match scene elements. She gives some helpful guidelines to make sure our scene has a strong enough point and isn’t just about backstory or an information dump with some conflict thrown in to make it look good.

I hope you’ll join me for some tips on how to make the most of our scenes at the Girls With Pens blog.

Also, it’s the time of year for nominating your favorite writing blogs for the annual Top 10 Blogs for Writers Contest over at Write To Done. Think about the writing blog that has helped you the most and spread the love by nominating them:

Head over to Write To Done’s Nomination post.
Leave a comment with the name and link of your favorite writing blog.
You must include information about why you think that blog deserves to be in the Top 10 Blogs for Writers (just leaving the link doesn’t count).
The deadline for nominations is December 10th.

I’m not bringing this up because I’m begging for votes (although I wouldn’t mind them), but because there are so many great blogs out there that don’t get the recognition they deserve. I want to see some new faces on the winner’s list this year. *smile* Personally, I nominated Janice Hardy’s blog because she has tons of helpful posts.

So go nominate your favorite writing blog and then head over to the Girls With Pens blog and give your brain the squeeze it needs to make your scenes rock.

Have you nominated a blog over at Write To Done yet? What are some of your favorite writing blogs? Any blogs you want to put in a good word for here and see if you can drum up more support?

What Writing Skill Do You Suck At?

Jami Gold — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 13:30:00 +0000

That’s right. I’m asking you to expose your biggest weakness. *locks the door so no one can escape* *evil grin*

We all have weaknesses. I’m one of the biggest perfectionists around, but that doesn’t prevent me from having oodles of imperfections. It’s only by knowing where we need more work that we can improve.

In other words, admitting our weaknesses is good for us. *smile*

This is especially true when we have a career like writing that requires a complex skill set. To be a successful writer, we need skills varying from practical to creative and left-brain to right-brain. Truthfully, it’s a wonder any of us accomplish anything.

We have to be psychologists to analyze our characters and give them depth.
We have to be storytellers who know how to spin a good yarn.
We have to be craftsmen with words and grammar.
We have to be ruthless self-editors to create tension and a fast pace.
We have to be able to summarize our story in a synopsis.
We have to be organized to meet deadlines.
We have to be researchers to understand our agent and publishing options.
We have to be business people to understand contracts.
We have to be accountants to understand royalties.
We have to be marketers to spread the word about our books.
We have to write queries and back cover copy.
We have to make our bios sound interesting.
Etc., etc. (Seriously, I could go on all day with this.)

It would be impossible for us to be great at all those things. We’re all going to suck at some (at least one) of them. Over the years I’ve been writing, some of my weaknesses have changed—and one item has stubbornly, pathetically, shamefully stayed the same.

My Confession

When I first started, my grammar and general writing craft was somewhere between lacking and non-existent. I worked on that weakness, and now it’s one of my strengths.

Then my big problem was word count. My first novel came out at 136K words, and I thought I was drawing blood to get it down to 120K. The more I learned about how to write tight, the more I was able to trim, and now that same story (no cut scenes!) is at 93K.

After that, I tackled my long, passive descriptions. Now my descriptions are almost too short, and what I have is active and in the character’s point of view.

Next, I had to learn how to include sensory details and emotion. I still have to consciously focus on that one a bit, so it’s not to the “unconscious competence” level of knowledge like I’ve talked about before, but it’s about 80% there.

So what’s my ongoing and forever nemesis? Queries. I suck at queries.

I’m not very good at summarizing my stories for synopses either, but at least they’re not horrible. My synopses are possibly even mediocre if I write them before writing the story. (Yay! Mediocre.) But when it comes to queries (and by extension, back cover copy), I fail with a capital “F.”

If I come up with something decent-ish sounding for a query, it’s invariably the wrong tone, or focuses on the wrong conflict, or gives the wrong impression about the story, or is just plain confusing. *sigh*

I’ve read—no joke—about a hundred blog posts or articles about how to write queries. Nothing helps because my suckitude isn’t caused by a lack of knowledge about what should go into a query or anything like that. No, I just have a hard time boiling down the characters and plot in a clear way without losing my voice and the tone of the book.

My fiction voice naturally uses a lot of subtext, with things implied rather than spelled out. Subtext doesn’t work in queries, though, because agents skim read them. Also, my stories always have a unique premise that’s hard for me to explain in a sentence.

I keep plugging away at it though. Even if I decide only to self-publish, I’d still have to write up something for the book description. Back cover copy requires the same type of writing as queries, so I need to be able to do this.

Oh yeah, and I suck at titles too, probably for similar reasons.

Can You Confess Your Weaknesses?

Did you notice how I recognized and worked on several weaknesses over the past several years? If I’d been in denial, I wouldn’t have been able to overcome them.

We usually try to keep our weaknesses hidden, but there’s a benefit to admitting them.

We might find others with that as a strength who can help us.
We’ll see that we’re not alone.
We might discover motivation and/or resources to improve in that area.

On the other hand, we don’t want to focus only on our weaknesses, so let’s end on a positive note and share our strengths too. As I mentioned above, one of my greatest strengths is the ability to come up with a unique premise for my stories. Everyone from contest judges to beta readers tell me my story premises are amazing. If only that didn’t make querying harder. *smile*

What weaknesses do you have as a writer (like those bullet items above)? Can your critique partners, beta readers, agents, or editors help you overcome those weaknesses? What strengths do you have? Would you be willing to help others here with a weakness that matches your strength?

Do You Enjoy Fantastical Stories?

Jami Gold — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 13:30:14 +0000

We’ve talked about the importance of keeping our stories believable, but the fantasy genre (and all its subgenres) require certain aspects to be unrealistic.

Character types and plot points involving dragons, superheroes, vampires, etc. are all beyond the reality of our world. What does that mean for the reader?

A few weeks ago, my friend Wendy Sparrow tweeted a link to an interesting post on MSNBC. This article claimed there would always be haters of Twilight because some people can’t enjoy fantasy.

That’s an interesting thought. Many people will readily read non-fiction, but never touch a fiction book. The study cited in the article explained:

“People who were comfortable with fantasy tended to be more absorbed by what they read and saw. They also tended to have an emotional reaction. Many said they felt good after reading the narratives or looking at the paintings.

Another interesting feature of the fantasy prone people was that even when they were confronted with a realistic narrative or painting, they inserted fantastical elements when they mulled things over. ”

I thought this study was fascinating. It touches on our ability to daydream, empathize, project, and have a rich imagination.

What causes the differences? Are some less empathetic? Less imaginative? Do some have difficulty stepping into someone else’s shoes? Is it due to brain wiring or socialization?

The study makes me wonder where those on the Autism/Asperger’s Syndrome scale fall in relation to these abilities. Can someone unable to decipher social cues understand the purpose of fiction—embedding ourselves in someone else’s life? Or do those on the scale still have a rich imagination, but it’s focused differently?

In first grade, I remember telling a classmate she’d enjoy stories more if she turned the book into a movie in her head while she read. She wasn’t able to do so. Was that because she was still struggling to learn to read? Or is there a brain difference, even at that young age?

Even the scientists don’t have the answers. As the article went on to say:

“Webster [the study's co-author] isn’t sure why it is that some people aren’t comfortable with suspending the rules of reality so they can lose themselves in a fantasy story. That’s a subject for future research he says.”

I love stuff like this because brain function is so interesting. This recognition of the unknown encourages me embrace the weird and unnatural. I write paranormal stories for a reason, and those are the stories I most enjoy reading as well.

I love the world-building of urban fantasy and paranormal romance, and I love being wrapped up in a world that is not quite this one. Historical romance is my second favorite genre for those same reasons—world-building and escaping to another world, in the case of historical romance, the past.

It’s difficult for me to imagine that some people aren’t able to escape in a book like I can. Do they find other ways to escape, or do they remain in practical-mode their whole lives?

On the other hand, if there are brain differences, maybe this explains why some think romance novels are “evil.” Someone incapable of understanding fantasy might believe readers think the stories are realistic and are setting themselves up for disappointment in real relationships. *smile*

No matter the cause, this is yet more proof that a book will never be for everyone. Some literary agents work only with non-fiction books, so this is not a reader vs. non-reader issue.

Rather, some people are more willing to let authors take the lead in dictating the characters to care about, the dialogue to overhear, the setting details to notice, the emotions to feel, etc. While others don’t want to immerse themselves in something not real. So sometimes, whether someone enjoys a book is out of the author’s hands.

Do you (or someone you know) not enjoy fiction? Do you have insight into the questions this study brings up? If you do enjoy fiction, are some genres too unrealistic for you? Why do you think that is? How would you rate your imagination and tendency for daydreaming? Does your brain create a movie in your mind while you read?