Writing 2.4 – Who Uses Outlines?

May 22, 2013

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I was recently asked about my writing process.  Do I use outlines?  Do you plot a story or just make it up as you go along?  Please keep in mind that what works for one person might not ever work for anyone else or even that one person ever again except that one time.

For my most recent title, Connecting Flight, here’s what happened:

In mid November, 2011, a plane carrying two coaches of the Oklahoma State women’s basketball team crashed.  After seeing the story on the news, I wondered about the last moments of the two coaches, one male and one female.  I wondered what might go through the minds of people on a plane that is plummeting to earth and death is certain or at least likely.  What do people think about?  What do they do or say?  Did they pray, cry, scream, or something else?  And then I settled on what I would likely say.  “I’m not ready to die.  I’m not ready to die.”

And then I wondered about that proverbial light we’re supposed to see upon death, and I wondered what would happen if I or they were truly not ready to die.  What if they refused to go into that good light?  What if they just wandered away?  And what if they lived (no pun intended) up to that ghost theory that some spirits are here because of “unfinished business”?  What if?

I had the beginning of a story, but I couldn’t use the basketball coaches because that would be wrong.  So I did what most writers do – I put myself into it.  I made the male ghost an uptight math teacher.  I needed the female to be different, so she at first she was a rather uneducated, stay-at-home wife.  However, after going through several drafts, I eventually realized that she needed something in her past to haunt her.  (Again, no pun intended.)  She eventually became a model/actress.  Then she became a model/actress of the kind with very little clothing.  That was because she needed to have something in her past to hide and something to make her resist going to “heaven” because of a fear of being rejected based on that past.  There’s more to it than that, but it’s enough for now.

I had people.  I needed reasons.  They are both on a plane together going from Philadelphia to Los Angeles.  He is going to spy on his wife whom he thinks is having an affair.  She is going on business, another “modeling” job, so to speak.  She also suspects her husband is having an affair, but he has provided her with a great amount of wealth and material things, and she shares a good deal with her less-fortunate family, so she quietly takes one for the team.  I had a connection between them, but they wouldn’t know that until the end.

ghost_patrick_swayze

But that’s not important right now.  What’s important is the process.  What I first did was treat the story as I always do – like a movie.  I write outlines and, unlike Stephen King, cannot work without one.  Mine begins with a setting followed by the important events that should happen in that scene/chapter.  Here are the first three scenes/chapters in the outline:

 A.  Philly airport

  1. Ann and Chris, nervous, getting on plane, Philly airport,
  2. neither happy, notice each other, assume fear of flying
  3. small talk, both hinting but hiding something,
  4. turbulence, distracted, notice wedding rings
  5. Plane going down, people freaking, ann and Chris hold hands tightly, repeating “I’m not ready to die”  intensity so great they can’t let go, plane hits, all goes dark

 B.  Airport runway or wreckage site

  1. smoke clearing, EMT all around, blood, wreckage, triage, yelling.
  2. Ann and Chris looking in disbelief, sounds muffled in and out, vision blurry at times
  3. They’re perfectly clean, most others are a mess
  4. Both know something is wrong, not sure what, see a few others like them
  5. Some others walking away, looking back at them, waving for them to follow
  6. Still holding hands, pull apart, big Zap!  Touch again, painful Zap keeps them away
  7. Ball of bright light, others going in, Ann and Chris refuse
  8. See man crying, bloody, next to lifeless body of wife, kids too
  9. Leave area, run quickly, not looking, ambulance goes through them.

 C.   Random places away from crash site

  1. Panicking, crying, debating what to do, to go into the light or not
  2. Agree they not finished on earth, things to do still
  3. Discuss movies, ghost clues, rules, what they can and can’t do?
  4. Ann tells him to be more of a “man” when he cries.  He admits he’s not.
  5. Do we eat?  Sleep?  Piss?  Guess we’ll find out.
  6. Where did others go?  why didn’t we go?  people say spirits don’t know they dead
  7. But we know.  But we not ready?  We need rest.  Tired.  Do we sleep?  Mental detox.

This is not exactly how the story went, but it was the first, maybe second version of an outline.  Although the original outline only had 14 chapters, I eventually ended up with 18.  I always print my outlines so that I can keep them in front of me on the desk as I type.  I constantly check each line to make sure I’m going in order, although there’s always room for changes and improvising.  I also print the outlines because I like the visual of crossing off numbers and letters as I progress.  It helps give me a sense of progress and accomplishment.  Another part of my process is basically “watching a movie.”  When I type, I imagine that I’m watching a movie in my head, and I am simply writing what I am watching.  It allows me to write a lot in a short period of time, but it does have drawbacks, such as a drifting point of view and too much dialogue.  Oh well.  That’s what revising is for.

 

So, the crash was in November of 2011.  I had an outline finished by January of 2012.  Normally an outline doesn’t take that long, but I was still teaching then and didn’t have a great deal of time to work on it.  However, as January began, I knew that I was about to leave the profession, so that motivated me to work more quickly and enjoyably on the outline.

I started typing the first draft somewhere around February 1, 2012, and I finished that somewhere about the first week of March.  It was right about then that I started working more at blogging, having just gotten my first few followers.  That’s when I first started posting chapters as blog posts for feedback.  There were some incredibly nice people who seemed to be reading and greatly enjoying the chapters.  Not a lot of critical feedback, but a lot of polite praise.  A few people even tweeted out my chapters for others to read, and I was gaining more and more blog followers.  It was nice.

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Somewhere in June of 2012 I began revising.  The story was too short and the ending was too easy.  I had rushed it, nobody was interested in the very few queries I had e-mailed, so I knew I had work to do and spent the summer revising heavily.  But that’s when I was really starting to enjoy the blog following that was growing.  Between chapters, I was writing humor, essays, posting photography, and I had also gotten hooked on the flash fiction thing.  Writing and revising were pushed aside, far aside.  I had an audience to feed, and it felt nice.

I won’t recount that episode because I have already spelled it out in Writing 2.0, which brought me back to writing fiction.  It had been a year since I originally wrote the story, and it wasn’t going anywhere, and neither was I.  That’s when I did two things at once: 

1. Revised the chapters a second time in the form of a third draft. 

2. I posted the new chapters for a new audience who immediately helped me revise it further for a fourth draft.  It grew from 18 chapters and 50,000 words to 25 chapters and 76,000 words in about six weeks, and I could not have done any of it without an outline.  

I realize that some of this is a bit redundant for those who have seen the other posts, Writing 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3.  However, as I said in the beginning, someone asked about my process, my outlines and preparation, and I wanted to explain it as fully as possible.  Thanks very much for asking, reading, and putting up with me.

How about you?  Who Uses Outlines?

_____________________________________

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Posted by brainsnorts

Writing 2.3 – A Contract with the Reader

May 18, 2013

secret-window (2)

When I took a graduate class called “Writing the Novel” a few years ago, I learned two very important things.  First, if you tell a woman that she’s writing a romance novel when she thinks she’s writing literary fiction, be prepared to see a chair fly across the room.  Second, there’s something called “The Contract with the Reader.”  Let’s forget about throwing chairs for a while and focus on the contract, which was something I had never heard of before.

Let’s pretend you’re in a bar and a guy sitting to your left says, “You want to hear a story?”  Of course you don’t, but you say, “Sure.  Thrill me.”  He knows sarcasm, so he says, “Tell you what.  If I give you a four-sentence setup, and you agree that you’re interested in hearing the rest, then you owe me a beer.  How’s that?”  So of course, you say, “Sure.  Thrill me.”  So he says:

A lonely, 13-year old boy lives with his single mom in a trailer park and has a quiet place in the woods nearby where he feels safe from everyone else.  One afternoon, when his mom is working late, he goes to his place in the woods where he falls asleep until dark.  He wakes frightened from an incredibly strange dream and starts walking home.  Usually he snaps his fingers to break the silence because he’s afraid of the dark, but when he snaps his fingers this night, a painless but warm, candle-like flame comes from the end of his finger.

I don’t know about you, but those four sentences would have cost me at least one beer or as many as it would take for him to tell me the rest of the story, mainly because it begs for questions.  What was the dream about?  Was it really a dream?  What is producing the flames?  How is the dream connected to the flames?  What will he do now?  Is it like a super power?  Why is he lonely?  What kind of kid is he?  How will this change him?  Questions are important.  Without wanting to know more, there’s not reason to continue reading.  That’s why I like to end my chapters with little teases.  Yeah, I’m a tease.

To be clear, that setup was written by another student in the same graduate class as the chair-throwing romance writer.  Would love to take credit for it, but I can’t. 

The storyteller in the bar has just created a contract, and I am the reader.  He has said to me, “If you’re willing to hang in there for about 80,000 words, I promise I will deliver a story that explains everything.”  As the reader, I have the ability to accept the agreement, which means read the story, or not accept, which means I keep browsing the shelves or wait for another guy to show up on the barstool on the right who might have a better story.

Sometimes we accept the contract that turns out to be worth every penny.  Whether it was 2000 pennies for the book or the beer doesn’t matter, as long as you get a story that delivers on its promise.  Sometimes we accept the contract, but the story doesn’t deliver.  Even if you wanted, you won’t get your money back.  Worse than that, you won’t get the time back either.  Those 75,000 words are stuck in your head, and you will probably search right away for another story to wash the memories away.  It was a bad contract and should never have been offered to you, but there’s no way you could have known without someone having warned you.  You don’t usually get that in books or movies, but it sure is needed.

secret_windowOne of my favorite examples of a bad contract is Secret Window with Johnny Depp, based on a story by Stephen King.  It’s got a four-sentence setup that’s so good you would be willing to buy the guy on your left a case of beer if the story worked out.  If you don’t know the story, the setup would go like this:

 Mort Rainey, a successful writer who recently split with his wife, retreats to a lakeside cabin to work on his next book but gets a mysterious visitor.  John Shooter, an angry man from Mississippi, insists that Mort has plagiarized his short story.  Although a typed copy of the man’s story is nearly word for word with the version Mort had published, Mort has printed proof that he wrote the story first.  Mort tries to ignore the man and hopes he’ll go away, but bad things start happening, like a house burning down, friends getting killed, and each bad thing gets closer and closer to Mort.

Sounds like a pretty good setup, right?  Begging for questions?  How did they write the same story without knowing each other?  Who really wrote it first?  Is there some way one could have accidentally gotten it from the other?  How far will this stranger go in tormenting Mort?  

You, like me, would probably have been okay with buying a few beers, maybe even a case, if the guy on the barstool would give you a good 70 or 75,000 words and bring it all together.  However, this is a contract you should not sign.  And if you haven’t seen the movie and don’t want to know the rest, you should stop after the next paragraph.

Secret Window is an excellent example of a broken contract.  The stranger, John Shooter, convinces both himself and the audience that Mort stole his story, and the consequences to Mort’s refusal are swift and strong.  Both the local sheriff and Mort’s lawyer investigate, and more lives are threatened and lost.  When Mort confronts his ex-wife’s new boyfriend about his involvement, he learns that the boyfriend stems from a town in Tennessee called Shooters Bay.  The coincidences grow, as do the close calls, some of which are deadly.  Wanna know how it ends?

xsecretwindow

Split personality.  John Shooter is really some kind of stupid alter-ego of Mort.  We’re supposed to believe that the divorce had shaken Mort so much that he developed another personality that turned around to terrorize himself.  Apparently, when we hear Shooter talk to Mort on the phone, the voice is imaginary – I guess.  Oh, they did some interesting things to plant clues, such as when Mort thinks shooter has broken into his house and, when Mort thinks he’s about to clobber him with a bat, it turns out to be a mirror.  That’s supposed to be a clever way of foreshadowing that Mort is really Shooter, but it’s kind of lame.  The only thing more lame would have been if it had all been a dream.  That’s the worst ever.  Or maybe the “deux ex machina” is worse, when an unseen force, usually referred to as “the hand of God,” reaches down and saves the day.  For that, you might check out Stephen King’s The Stand, in which after hundreds of pages and a final standoff between the good guys and Satan in a denim jacket, nuclear missiles are launched, only to be saved by a “mysterious” hand that rendered them harmless.

It is an unfair and misleading contract, and it is something you should consider when you are writing a story.  What exactly are you offering the reader?  Imagine you are the guy on the barstool to my left.  Thrill me.  Set up a story that makes me want to buy you a beer, and I will gladly listen to all 75,000 words.  However, you better bring it all together with a resolution that takes every loose end and tie them all into neat bows as if it’s my birthday present.  If you don’t, you might want to head for the door when my last beer bottle is just about finished because, like that woman with the chair in my graduate class, I just might tomahawk an empty one in your direction.  So watch your back.

01-26

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Posted by brainsnorts

Writing 2.2 – Getting it Ready

May 14, 2013

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The purpose of this is not to educate you or any other writer.  I don’t pretend to know things that you don’t because I’m actually hoping for the opposite – in that I am detailing this process in case someone knows more than me, has accomplished these things already, and can help me avoid the potholes in the road ahead.

With help, I revised for the fourth time.  That was Writing 2.0.  It also included cutting back on Facebook, humorous blog posts, movie reviews, and a few other things in order to devote more time to actual novel writing.  I discussed choosing to try traditional publishing instead of self publishing, but some misinterpreted me as criticizing self publishing.  To be specific, I didn’t say self publishing is a bad thing.  I said that writers should try traditional publishing first, knowing that they could fall back to try self publishing if traditional doesn’t succeed.

A handful of people reacted negatively when I said that “self-published” authors should not refer to themselves as “published authors.”  I never said that self-published authors or their books are not as good as traditional, but I did say there is a level of achievement that deserves recognition for going through the traditional process.  It is not easy to run that gauntlet, and it deserves distinction.  Of course I recognize that, although rare, one can make millions of dollars and sell millions of self-published books, but you literally (no pun intended) have a better chance of winning a lottery.  I also recognize that it is entirely possible that the greatest book ever written is sitting undiscovered on someone’s self-published Amazon link.  However, those who disagreed with me should recognize that I could take all the letters from fifty-seven Scrabble games, toss them in a pile, type whatever letter is chosen next, upload that to a self-published Amazon link, and then I have the same legal right to call myself a “published author.”  But should I?  No.

Then came Writing 2.1 - Polishing up the query and preparing the pitch to agents, and this is the main reason why some self-publishing writers are avoiding the traditional route.  It is better to make every possible effort to publish traditionally instead of self publishing first.  There is no argument that a greater percentage of writers would prefer to break into traditional publishing instead of resorting to self publishing, but there are still a great many writers who don’t give traditional a chance and instead go straight for self publishing.  Why?

Some do it because they fear losing control of their work.  Some fear giving up too great a percentage of money.  But some go with self publishing because they fear the rejection of traditional publishing.  They fear the pile of rejection letters or e-mails that say things like “this project is not the right fit for us,” and “I’m sure that you will find success, but it isn’t our style,” and other polite ways of saying “No thanks.”  There are other reasons that push writers into self publishing, but the fear of rejection is clearly the strongest, and I know that from personal experience.

Here’s a good place to get help on a query - 

http://www.writersdigest.com/wp-content/uploads/2012-WM_QLC.pdf

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Agents have what is called a “slush pile,” a stack of unsolicited submissions that they dig through, and that is where mine will be.  Many self-published writers fear their submission will go from the slush pile to the trash can, and most will, but that is better than not going anywhere at all.

Enough of that.  What I really wanted to do here was share more about the next step – pitching to agents.  I wrote a decent query (new version below), the letter sent to agents in which you boil down 75,000 words to a description of about two paragraphs.  Then you toss in some stuff about yourself and why the book will sell so many copies.  It also helps to do some research, find the names of other authors working with each agent who also write what you write.  So I might have a sentence something like, “This story compares to Screaming Dead Guy by Artie Schlumm published last year by Rigor Mortis Press.”  Once the query is ready, you then have to find the agents.  I chose www.writersmarket.com.

WM 1

It’s a database of many things involved with writing, but the main reason for me is to find agents.  I took some screen shots to give you an idea of what’s involved.  Above is the home page on which you can see the menus of information available, but I am mainly interested in the agents.

There are various criteria you can use for searching, such as state, fiction, non-fiction, etc., but the trickiest for me was the genre of the story.  My story is about ghosts, but it’s not really a “ghost story” in the traditional description.  I was hoping for there to be a “paranormal” option, but there isn’t.  The best choice there is “suspense,” but I’m still not 100% certain, and that isn’t good because it makes me feel as if I don’t know my own story well enough.

WM 2a

After searching, I ended up with a list of forty agents whose information gathered by Writers Market indicates that they might be interested in my type of book.  I now have to visit each individual website to follow their submission guidelines.  Some just want the query, others may ask for the first chapter or three chapters.  Some might want a one-page synopsis or the entire manuscript.  The most important thing is to follow each individual agent’s instructions.  Some are very picky, and if you don’t follow their directions, they won’t even read what you’ve sent.  They’re not all like that, but you can’t take a chance.  If they want those first three chapters in Times New Roman 12 or Courier 12, then you better do it accordingly.  If they do not want attachments, then don’t send attachments.

WM 3

So, time to take the mound and start pitching.  Most agents, when queried through e-mail, will reply in about a month.  So in about a month I will have a growing pile of polite “No thanks.”  Hopefully, very hopefully, a few will ask for the rest of the story.  I will keep you posted.

Meanwhile, what I’ve also learned about writing is to always have two projects going at once.  While you are “pitching” one project, you should also be in the process of writing the next project.  That will begin as soon as round one of my pitches are thrown.  As for now, I have forty letters to customize.  So – time to get the ball and take the mound…

__________________________

Dear Person I Must Impress, 

Connecting Flight – 76,000 words, paranormal suspense

When a cross-country airliner crashes and all aboard are killed, two passengers resist crossing into the afterlife because of “unfinished business.”  Chris Babbage suffers guilt from not preventing the death of his 8-year old son.  Ann Camillo’s guilt is from abandoning her family for a failed modeling/acting career that became soft porn instead.  Additionally, both strongly suspect their spouses are having affairs.  These unresolved issues trap them among the living.  Together, these strangers struggle across the country, destined to complete a mysterious journey home to eventually discover that their unfinished business is secretly connected to each other.

Connecting Flight is about ghosts but more than a ghost story.  Chris, a pragmatic math teacher, and Ann, an earthy artist, occasionally help the living, including a suicidal single mom, a bullying victim, and a teen prostitute.  Each time they help the living, they learn more about their own lives, fears, and selves.  But they aren’t alone in this realm of the non-living.  Other beings with bad intentions are stalking and waiting to take them to a dark and different afterlife.

Connecting Flight combines the paranormal style of Neil Gaiman with the head-butting dialogue of Nora Ephron and reads like a hybrid of the films Ghost and When Harry Met Sally.  The combinations of love, anger, humor, and loss will easily touch a vast audience, especially women.  Marketing plans include book signings, nationwide appearances, and reaching thousands of people in my blogging network.

I have another paranormal novel finished that was a finalist for last year’s Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award and outlines for four more.  I’ve had five short stories published by Piker Press, dozens of film reviews published by CineKatz.com, and essays published on CNN.com.  After having retired from 25 years teaching writing, I would love for you to assist me with my second career.

Thank you for considering Connecting Flight, which is a simultaneous submission.  I limited this query to a letter and the first 50 pages as per your submission guidelines.  If you are interested in reading more, I will send it ASAP, without any layovers, delays or transfers.

 ______________________

Thanks again to Mike and Heidi for your help on this letter.  

Beer in the fridge.  Help yourself.  Sorry, Heidi, no soda.  :P

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Posted by brainsnorts

The “Not So” Great Gatsby

May 11, 2013

gatsby-original-cover-artEither late in high school or early in college, I was ordered to read The Great Gatsby. I regarded it as the most boring thing I had ever picked up. However, roughly 20 years later, I decided that it may have been me who was boring, so I decided – through the recommendation of others – that I should read it again because I, as an adult, would now be in a better frame of mind to appreciate the literary genius of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Nope.

Why is it that so many writers, and especially so many writing teachers, are quick to proclaim The Great Gatsby as one of the greatest novels ever written? Shortly after its publication, H.L. Mencken – a rather significant writer and journalist – referred to The Great Gatsby as just a “glorified anecdote,” and I completely agree. It’s a worthless and boring piece of work that does nothing more than allow a handful of shallow-minded society folk to show off their ability to do nothing other than uselessly and wastefully spend money and pursue extra-marital affairs with people more dull than themselves. And without the convenience of coincidence, not even that could happen.

I must apologize however, because it is wrong to refer to this story as “fiction” since there is no driving plot and no likable characters. If Moby Dick could swallow the entire cast, the world would improve. Usually, good fiction can be summarized with the following statement: “Somebody wants something, but someone or something else is in the way.” So tell me, who in this story wants something? Or, to ask a better question, who in this story has a want or need that is so compelling that I actually want to read the book? Maybe Gatsby wants Daisy? Why should I care? Daisy seems to want Nick and kisses him several times, even though they’re cousins but while still proclaiming her love for both Gatsby and her husband Tom, who is having his own affair with Myrtle, the wife of George Wilson. Whew. Affairs can be interesting, especially when there is a great deal of tension between the cheating parties and their legitimate better-half is in the same room. However, it doesn’t take long for Gatsby to pop right up to say that Daisy never loved Tom at all. Tom’s reaction? Basically, “Yes she does.” Wow, that’s drama.

Or maybe what Gatsby wants is to be liked? People seem to enjoy his parties, but nobody really seems to like or respect him. They tell stories about him, but they don’t really care about him. Why should they? He never answers a question with a straight answer and basically bullies people while smiling and sending a butler to refill their drinks, possibly to keep them drunk so they can’t remember what a dullard he is.

The only time there was interesting tension or drama was when Tom realized that he was simultaneously losing both his wife Daisy and his lover Myrtle. However, I could not feel sympathy for Tom because he was a brut who broke Myrtle’s nose after she mentioned his wife’s name. That drama lasted about half a page, and before we could really get into a conflict between husbands, wives, and lovers, Fitzgerald did a very convenient thing: he killed Myrtle and made it seem Gatsby’s fault so that Myrtle’s husband would kill Gatsby. This was way too convenient and could only lead me to one conclusion: Fitzgerald was done. He had nothing else interesting he could say or do with those characters, so he killed them. And he started a pretty good trend. Did you see the film Love Story? How about Terms of Endearment? Those two highly regarded films are cleaned up the same way, and it shows only one thing of the writer. He or she had absolutely no ideas left, so they had to kill someone to end the story. It’s very hard to end a story in a way that makes sense and ties the whole plot together. Just ask Stephen King.

There are other ways that convenience rules here. Without the narrator, Nick Caraway, there is no story. However, there are times in the story where Nick tells of scenes that he cannot possibly know about. Yes, I need to back that up, but I’ll have to find it later. For the attempt of drama to begin, we had to know that Tom was messing around with Myrtle. We learn this because Tom needed to mention it to Nick, his wife’s cousin. Why would a man tell his wife’s cousin that he’s cheating? Because either he’s plain stupid – leading me to not care about him – or the writer is plain stupid if he or she expects me to accept that.

So, let’s review. There is no driving conflict. There is no clear protagonist for me to follow and wait to see if that character achieves success. There is no clear antagonist to hinder the unclear protagonist. There are no likeable characters. Nobody wants or needs anything that I care enough about to see what happens.
Someone please tell me why this book is often called one of the greatest works of American fiction?

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Posted by brainsnorts

Writing 2.1 – Getting Help

May 9, 2013

stock-footage-a-man-in-a-fedora-typing-on-a-vintage-manual-typewriter-film-noir-style-lighting Roughly a year ago, I posted 18 chapters and about 50,000 words and thought I had a really good story about two people in a plane crash.  Not so.  Over the past two months I revised those same 18 chapters and, with the help of some great people, I now have 25 chapters, 75,000 words, and a really good story.  Some of the nice words I was given include “spectacular” and “wonderful.”  The chapters have since been removed just to protect the story from being “borrowed.”  It’s happened before.

To those who started the story but did not stick with it, I am sorry and wish I knew why it wasn’t good enough to hold your interest.

To say that I got “help” is a great understatement.  Help is “you typed her but I think you meant he.”  The help I got was more like “in this chapter, the character’s vocabulary is rather casual and contemporary.  But back in other chapters, his speech was more formal.  You need to be consistent.”  I like to think I’m smart, but I never would have noticed that.

When I stopped regular blog posts back in March and focused on preparing a fourth draft of a novel, I could not have imagined the in-depth, razor-sliced critique and feedback that I was lucky enough to find.  It might have only been about five people, but it was a fortunate thing that they turned out to be five brilliantly caring people.  There were discussions, disagreements, but no disparagement.  Well, maybe a couple of sharp e-mails, but that’s about it.  I’m not sleeping with one eye open, let’s put it that way.

So, what’s next?  I prepare a query (see below), which is a letter that takes about 75,000 words and boils them down to about two paragraphs.  Then another paragraph about why I think the book will have mass appeal.  Then a final paragraph about me, what I’ve done, what I plan to do.  Funny how I can write 75,000 above-average words but can’t write a 300-word letter about the 75,000.  Thanks to Mike for going to town on that part.  Just waiting for one more set of eyes to get back to me on the query, but I’m including it below if you’re interested in what it’s like.

Then, I scour websites for agents who work with this kind of story.  Some agents just want the letter.  Some want the letter and the first chapter, few chapters, something like that.  From what I hear, you better follow their directions down the last word because some will disregard your query for the smallest mistake.  I also hear that they just want to read a good story.  I’m clueless on this part of the process, so I would love to hear anyone’s experiences or advice.

Meanwhile, I will keep you aware of what happens as I hear back from the agents I contact.  I expect many rejections because that’s the reality.  However, a rejection is better than nothing because it at least shows that you’re trying.  Also, less than a week from now, I hope to start posting chapters from the next story. Thanks again to these amazing people – in random order – for their comments, questions, suggestions, and generosity:

http://valentinelogar.com/

http://elappleby.wordpress.com/

http://kindredspirit23.wordpress.com/

http://en.gravatar.com/catherinelumb

http://tadalena.wordpress.com/

http://mikecalahan.wordpress.com/

http://thebutterflyhatch.wordpress.com/

http://faithhopechocolate.wordpress.com/

http://buddhakat.wordpress.com/

http://lifeofawillow.wordpress.com/

I looked all of you up through the comments.  If I missed anyone, I greatly apologize.

_______________________________

Query:

Dear Person I Must Impress;

When a flight from Philadelphia to Los Angeles crashes and all aboard are killed, two of the dead, Chris Babbage and Ann Camillo, are granted the heavenly light that invites them to cross over to the afterlife.  However, they are confronted with a gnawing pull of the proverbial unfinished business and choose to remain in the disconnected realm between the living and the dead.  Together, Chris and Ann find no shortage of opportunities to affect the living, including a lonely child who communicates with the dead, an elderly man on his last living day, a single mother contemplating suicide, and a victim of sexual abuse.  Chris and Ann also must be aware of the evil beings pursuing them, “lost souls” that would love nothing more than to drag a few do-gooders to Hell.

Connecting Flight is a 75,000-word novel about two strangers thrown together under extraordinary circumstances and learning to survive in an unseen and disconnected world somewhere between the living and the dead.  Chris and Ann have a charming and witty rapport that ranges from contentious to congenial, including times when they might even try to kill each other if they weren’t already dead.  Readers will immediately compare the biting and witty dialogue to When Harry Met Sally.  If you loved Harry and Sally, you will love the head-butting and love-hate relationship in Connecting Flight.

With three full revisions and five beta-readers, Connecting Flight is ready for publication.  I also have four other titles, four outlines ready for first drafts, and ten short stories – so there will be no shortage of work or writer’s block if you choose to work with me.

After teaching English for 25 years, I am now writing full time as well as supervising a local writing group. My publication credits include a few dozen film reviews (CineKatz.com), four short stories (Piker Press), and a handful of social commentary (CNN iReport).  If you are interested in seeing either sample chapters or the entire manuscript for Connecting Flight, I will gladly make sure you have it immediately.  I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely yours, 

Guy Who Wrote It

_______________________

31 Comments | writing | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by brainsnorts

Writing 2.0 – Getting Started

March 26, 2013

not-welcome-doormat-israel

I was once kicked out of a social group for being too social.  Sociable.  Whatever.  The point is that I have trouble not talking to people, regardless of online, such as Facebook or WordPress, or in line at the supermarket.  It’s caused problems.

Roughly a year ago, I stopped teaching in order to start writing, and start is what I did.  Within two months, I had finished a first draft of a novel about two people who meet, as ghosts, after dying in a plane crash.  In short, it’s like When Harry Met Sally in spirit form.  I posted it one chapter at a time here for feedback, which was nice, especially from a few people who seemed to adore it.  Okay, it was really just that one lovely poet in India, but the encouragement prompted me to post other stories and get more pats on the back.  It was nice, too nice.  I branched into other forms of writing, such as social commentary and film reviews.  Someone found me interesting enough to suggest I write about myself, which I did for about 16 chapters.  That brought even more “likes” and attention and friends.  That was bad.  I was supposed to be writing novels, not shaking hands and waving to the crowd.

Several people warned me very nicely that each time I wrote 500 words for a film review, that was 500 words not added to a novel.  Each of those 16 autobiographical chapters, times 2,000 words, was 32,000 words not added to a novel.  I had lost sight of my goal, which was to make a living through writing.  Blogging is fun, and I would never dare criticize it, but it’s not going to be a career, not the way I had approached it.  Blogging is writing, of course, but it’s different writing.  As ready as I might feel now to begin what I consider more serious writing, I could not possibly feel this ready had it not been for blogging.  It was necessary, but it needs remodeling.

Recently I visited a friend’s blog and apologized for not having visited much lately, and he respectfully told me I was wrong.  He said, and I paraphrase, “You have your writing to do.  You provide people with entertainment, and that takes a lot of time and effort.  You have no obligation to read anyone else’s work.”  That too easily made sense.  I had been spending a great deal of time reading, commenting, visiting other blogs in order to get more people over to my blog as well as to just make more friends.  That was a nice thing to do, but it doesn’t help write novels.  I visited another blogger who actually has made a living as a writer, both with published books and features in publications like the New York Times.  She said, “Don’t get sucked into blogging and Facebook.  Those things are too distracting and will drain your time and words in the wrong direction.”  She was right, but I didn’t listen because I was too busy watching my followers reach 400, 500, 600, and now almost 700.  I’m not saying that blogging is “goofing around.”  I’m saying that if you want to write books, then you need to refocus your time and effort.

Trumping both of those situations is the editor who read some of my work and was very willing to help me fix things up to assist with pitching my work to agents.  That is the kind of thing that writers are dreaming about – someone working in the industry noticing your work and reaching out to you instead of you having to solicit and hope for a positive answer.  What did I do with that offer?  I worked on it for about a week, and then I fell back into the immediate gratification of blog posts.  I was given great advice and a gift, and I ignored it all.  At this point, I’m even too ashamed to ask her again if she would help.

Back in September, I joined a writers group managed by a published author.  I attended two meetings, each about 2 hours, but for 1 ½ of those hours the author told us aaalllll about herself, what she’d written, how, when, why, etc.  She brought copies of her books for us to buy, some kind of romance I think.  I’m not criticizing, just giving details.  She brought useless handouts and writing exercises not worth doing.  We were supposed to send her writing samples that she was to distribute to other members.  What I got back were some suggestions for different word choices.  Then I stopped getting e-mail invitations to the meetings.

Their writing class

not my writing class, but it felt like it

Back in January, I joined a different group after being on a waiting list since September.  Good people.  They had a “Meet the Author” night with a gentleman from a Philadelphia college with a book about something unimportant to me.  I searched his book title, and it was available on something called SBPRA: Strategic Book Publishing & Right Agency.  I searched that, and it’s actually worse than self-publishing.  It’s a company that you pay, and then they self-publish for you.  Also, they’re under investigation for fraud.  Every time I came across a “published” author, it was less impressive and more discouraging.  However, the discouragement has been a good push, and I realized it was time to stop goofing around.  

If you – like me – want to write books, then you should STOP:

1. ranting online that you’re not published

2. complaining that “it’s not what you know but who you know”

3. self-publishing without trying traditional publishing

4. tweeting a link – 24/7 – to your book on Amazon

5. tweeting/blogging/FB-ing about your “exciting new release!”

6. calling yourself a “published author” for self publishing

7. begging people to read your selfpub book on GoodReads

8. hoping that a publisher or agent will notice your selfpub book

9. recruiting more followers to your blog

10. touting false stats to get attention on Amazon

11. fearing that you are going to fail

______________________________

If you – like me – want to write books, then you should start:

______________________________

1. reading things similar to what you want to write

2. comparing your writing to those books – can you do that?

3. cutting back on Facebook and blogging for social fun

4. reading and commenting on fiction from other bloggers

5. asking – after you’ve commented – for them to read your work

6. writing flash fiction for quicker, specific feedback

7. finding a writing group and sharing your work

8. joining sites like writersmarket for agents & publishers

9. realizing that “good job” is not good feedback for your writing

10. writing one book while preparing and marketing another 

___________________________________

To wrap this up, here’s a short list of what I must do now:

1.  I post fiction.  Please read and critique ONLY IF you want to.
2.  I will gladly do the same for you.  Just ask.  No problem
3.  I take your suggestions seriously.  You improve my writing.
4.  I am getting queries ready to pitch to agents.

This is what I need to do to be the kind of “writer” I want to be.

Several people recently complained that I do not read or comment on their blogs as much as they read and comment on mine.  That is unfortunately true.  I don’t.  I can’t possibly do that while accomplishing what I need to accomplish.  However, here is what I have always done and will certainly always do:

If you have something you want me to read, please tell me.  E-mail me or send me a link through my comments.  Say, “Rich, can you tell me what you think of this?  I will never fail to read and comment because I know how valuable that is, but I can’t regularly browse through blogs and read everything like I once did.  That is the best I can do, and that is completely fair.  If I am asking you to read my work, I better be equally ready to read your work.  I am, and I will.

The only way to do it is to do it.

Thanks very much for putting up with me.

SmokingJacket_KindHearts3

___________________________________________

114 Comments | writing | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by brainsnorts

The Quiet Keyboard

March 22, 2013

4917197-bird-on-typewriter

Someone said…

“Hey, you don’t do those New Yorker cartoon things anymore.”

“Hey, what happened to those Friday Fictioneers things?”

“No more movie reviews?  How will I know what to watch?”

“Those Language Pet Peeves.  That shit rocks!”

“Those Language Pet Peeves.  You’re better than that.”

“You suck.”

“You are brilliant.”

“I read your short stories, why don’t you ever read my blog?”

“I was on your blog.  What happened?  It used to be – good.”

This feels very trite and deserving of an eye roll, but I’m in the midst of something that’s kind of like a chrysalis moment.  I’ve been listening to advice and suggestions from various people.  No, not the ones who said “You suck.”  Others.  The ones whom I’ve asked for writing advice, and even those of whom I have not asked advice but generously offered.  They have told me things that I’ve ignored.

One thing I have often been good at is knowing when I don’t know something, knowing when I need to turn to someone else for assistance.  Not only do I need to evaluate their excellent writing advice, but I also need to package it correctly, add a little bit, and then pass that on to those who are willing to listen.  It’s good, and it came from good people.  And if it is good enough for me, then it is good enough for me to share with others who might be following behind me.  BTW – if you’re following behind me, I suggest you see what happened to the trombone players in the parade scene in Animal House.

Even just writing this much seems self serving, but it’s necessary.

I’ll explain in a day or two.    Until then, Happy Friday.

animal-house

49 Comments | writing | Permalink
Posted by brainsnorts

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