Note to Livejournal Friends: I apologize for the long post! I'm still trying to figure out how to use the "under the cut" feature. I will try very hard to master the skill before my next big post.
Helloooo Internetz!
Welcome to
Part Two of my ongoing series "Mentoring to the Internetz" in which I'm hoping to offer some small amount of guidance and wisdom to aspiring writers who have contacted me for advice on the business of authoring.
Find the introduction to the series here:
http://staceyjayya.blogspot.com/2009/10/mentoring-to-internetz-part-one-intro.html
Before we get started on The Basics, I'll remind you that I'm not pretending to be the ultimate authority on anything, especially writing. I've only been at this full time for five years, so I have a lot to learn myself. Feel free to take or leave anything you read here. These posts are my opinion based on my experience to date. That's it.
Also, I want it to be clear that this series is intended for writers who are considering writing as a career and want to publish and possibly earn a living making things up. I LOVE writing and feel unbelievably blessed that this is my job, but it is a JOB. I push myself and work very, very hard. This is not a "dream" I had that magically came true after I wished hard enough on an enchanted pen I found in my junk drawer. I am not making a large amount of money per book at this time--certainly not enough to provide for my family writing one book a year--so I really have to push myself to make ends meet as a stay-at-home-mom-writer (and avoid the EDJ--evil day job, as one of my friend's calls it.)
With those things in mind, let's get started with: The Basics!
Reading and WritingREAD:Okay, so I just said all this is opinion, but this part isn't. I maintain that it is a FACT that you can not write and sell successfully if you are not a reader. It's just a fact. You're not going to absorb the three act structure of a story, the hero's journey, or learn how to build suspense and create a readable book if you aren't reading. You need to read everything you can get your hands on--every story will teach you something about what you do and don't want to do in your own book--but it's especially important to read in your genre.
"But I don't want to copy someone else," you say.
It's not "copying" to be educated about current trends and storytelling conventions. For example--if most books published in the YA market at a given time are told in first person, past tense and you decide to write a third person, present tense book--that might be a hard sell. If your book is AMAZING, then it will still find an audience. But the fact of the matter is, most of us don't write a
Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (real book by Dave Eggers) the first time around.
Therefore, it is wise for beginning writers to know what's out there before we begin and then strive to create comparable work. Not copy a trend that's hot right now or write a book clearly derivative of Author X's masterwork, "The Princess Who Was Also A Pirate", but to make educated choices about what we will write based on the market. For example, three years ago I knew I loved romance and paranormal creatures and that those books were selling well, but I was getting a little tired of vampires (I'd been reading Anne Rice since I was ten years old). I wanted something different and boy did zombies scare the crap out of me. I thought it would be fun to write a YA romance featuring zombies and, at the time, no one had a book of that kind available. It was a fresh idea that incorporated my knowledge of the market. But it was also a book I was excited to write. It satisfied two of my major needs when it comes time to choose a project:
1. Do I love the idea?
2. Do I think the idea can sell?
So I went for it, and thankfully, sold YOU ARE SO UNDEAD TO ME to the lovely people at Razorbill.
Now, some of you might think you don't need to read within your genre for research purposes. You might be thinking: "But my ideas are so unique, I don't have to read to see if someone else has already written about a vampire rat/pink space alien made of bubble gum/conjoined twin pygmy trolls before!"
Scarily, even the weirdest ideas have often already been done. I just finished a partial for one of my editors that I was positive was so odd and creepy that no one had ever written anything like it before. *Foolish author!* Only
days later, I came across a book I hadn't found in my pre-writing google search with a very similar premise. Now this doesn't mean my book won't sell--or that your book on Popular Creature X won't sell--but it could make it more difficult. Especially if your book just happens to have a very similar plot and hook as a very successful book already on the shelves.
Even if you've been living in a bubble and came up with sparkling vampires all on your own, no one is going to care. You won't sell that book and will have misspent your time if your final goal is to publish your manuscript. No time spent writing is ever a waste, but we each have only so many spare minutes in a day, so many minutes in a life. Researching and reading in your genre can help you make wise choices about how to spend those minutes.
WRITE:
The second step in our writer's journey--writing. "Um, duh, Stacey," you might be muttering to yourself at this very moment. "I want to be a writer, of course I write. That's a no-brainer."
OMG! Yes. You are completely correct. It is a no-brainer that a writer should write, but I'm astounded by how many people tell me "I've been working on this book for three years and I only have two chapters really finished". WHAT?!! Three
years!!! You're telling me you've written about 5 or 6 thousand words, give or take a few hundred, in three years? Now, given, I do write for a living and am fairly speedy, but at my current rate of word production, I would have written close to 2 million words in three years. Maybe more if I'm not pregnant or caring for very small children.
So...you go to school full time or have a full time job. I feel you. So you have young children or a needy spouse/boyfriend or tons of extracurricular activities or organize the drama productions at your church or yada yada "insert thing that keeps you busy and exhausted here". I really do understand. But if you want to be a writer, these life things are no excuse to keep you from writing. You must
write to improve your writing, you must
write to get from chapter one to "the end" and have something to revise, you must
write if you ever hope to be published. That's it, no way around it.
As far as my own personal experience, I've found writing is a lot like exercising. There's no way I'm going to be able to make it through a Jillian Michael's exercise video if I'm not in shape and haven't been working out at least 4-5 times per week. Same with writing. I have to write every day--or close to everyday--or my speed and skill take a hit and I have to slow down and revise more. So, I would advise writing everyday. Yeah, I know, a little crazy, but I'll say it again: I advise writing every single day.
And not just writing everyday, but having a word goal you intend to reach before the sun goes down. It's not enough to sit down and stare at the paper/screen for thirty minutes. You need to put something down on the paper/screen. Five years ago, when I decided I wanted to be a published writer, I started with a goal of 500 words a day and I didn't let myself go to bed until those words were finished. I wrote during the baby's nap, I wrote early in the morning and late at night, I did whatever it took to get in my 500 words.
Over time, those words got easier and easier until I found I could finish them in half an hour or less. So I upped my words and then upped them again and again, until now I can get in 2000 words in about two and a half hours (on a good day...on a bad day that might take me five hours, but I find bad days are usually caused by a lack of solid plotting. I'm trying to learn from my mistakes and make more detailed outlines and save myself those five hour torture sessions, but that's a work in progress. I'm still working to improve my writing and my writing methods, to continue to grow as a wordsmith so that I can make each book a little bit better and more fun for my audience to read.)
Whew!! So I think we're off to a solid, if slightly preachy, start :). Tune in for Part Three where we'll be discussing Revising, Repeating, and Critique Partners.
And, as always, please feel free to post questions here or to email me at stacey.jay.ya at gmail dot com if you're shy of posting in public.
Happy Writing Everyone!
Stacey Jay
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