Interview with author Sarah Whelan

It is my great pleasure to host an interview on the blog today with author Sarah Whelan, with whom I had the privilege of working on her debut novel, The Struggle Within, an adult contemporary novel about a prison counselor who finds herself the unwitting instigator of a prison riot. Her book is currently available in paperback and ebook formats on Lulu and Amazon.

Congratulations on publishing your first book, Sarah! Thank you for making time in your busy schedule to do this interview. First things first: what was your inspiration for The Struggle Within?
Thank you, Sione. I appreciate the opportunity to introduce your readers to my debut novel. The concept for this book came from my love of stories with strong female characters and my lifelong ambition to understand and relate to people with diverse backgrounds. Since my work and interests revolve around the criminal justice system, the experiences of prisoners and the counselors who support them are particularly captivating.

I envisioned a situation where a well-meaning but idealistic advocate might inadvertently inspire a powerful, strong-minded prisoner to use violence to force the system change. This is exactly what happens to my protagonist Beth Sharpe and the formidable José Ayala.

Interview on Write Through the Roof

Last week I had the great pleasure of being interviewed by Madeleine D'Este on her podcast, Write Through the Roof, wherein we talked about writing, editing, and RevPit (among other things). To find out about "the beverage triangle," my advice for processing both praise and criticism of one's writing, and a strategy for reading for craft, head on over to Madeleine's site and give this episode a listen!

Writing vs storytelling

It should not have come as a surprise. After all, it had been ages since I'd had a similar epiphany about academic writing. Because my high school teachers and undergrad professors had almost only ever marked errors in style and mechanics (word choice, the use of "I", spelling, punctuation, grammar, etc.), I'd gotten the mistaken impression that a good paper was an error-free paper written in an academic style, but in reality my grades were based on the ideas I frequently failed to adequately develop. This made my undergraduate years as an English major incredibly confusing: despite being a strong writer, able to clearly communicate with few copy editing errors, my grades rarely rose above a B.

More than a decade later, I found myself once again confused. Despite having spent the better part of the last twenty years working on my writing, I had four self-published novels that weren't selling well. The reviews said the writing was good, but people weren't falling in love with my characters and world the way I had. Something was missing. Something was wrong.

It should not have come as a revelation, but it did. 

Being a good writer is not the same thing as being a good storyteller.

Guest post: Writing From Your Subconscious Mind by Michael Sussman

A little over a year ago, I read a partial manuscript that burrowed deep into my brain and set my mind on fire. For days I thought and dreamed about it, and every time I told someone about the book, this fire re-ignited, fueling my speech and gestures and turning me into a version of myself that my closest friends and relatives hardly recognized - I was that excited. This book resonated deeply with me and felt important. It contained a narrative whose underlying message was near and dear to my heart, presented with lit geeky humor and a transparent prose style that I love. I believe a large part of why the book resonated so deeply with me was because the author set out to let his subconscious guide the writing process. And when the manuscript found its way to me, our work consisted largely of naming what had come out of that process and identifying where the gaps in the narrative were. A reverse outline, if you will. That book was Incognolio by Michael Sussman, which I am THRILLED to say is now available on Amazon. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys funny surrealist literature or lit geekery, and/or who is on a path to reunite the pieces of themselves. You'll find info on where to find the book at the end of this post. And now, I am most pleased to welcome Michael to the blog to talk about his method of writing from the subconscious mind.

Writing From Your Subconscious Mind

by Michael Sussman

One way to approach writing fiction is to let your subconscious mind lead the way.

This is not to denigrate the conscious mind. It is a critical component of the writing process, especially once you’ve completed a first draft and must begin reworking and polishing your manuscript.

Your first 50 pages

Having looked at a lot of authors' pages back in March (and having had the incredibly good fortune of getting to work with several of those people since then), I began to notice some patterns in what grabs me and where manuscripts fall down. So far I've talked about the first 5 pages, the Darkest Moment, the word count, chapters (length, breaks, headings, etc.), and the novel's overall structure. Today I'm tackling your novel's first 50 pages, what I referred to in the structure post as Act I.

What should your first 50 pages accomplish? They should hook readers and set up expectations for the journey we're going to be on: the novel's tone and pacing, the setting (world-building), who the story is about, what this story is going to be about thematically, and what the primary external conflict involves.

Your novel's structure

My current thinking about structure - which I use both for my own novels and for working with clients' books - is influenced primarily by the three-act structure as explained to me by my friend Diane Gilman, who wrote screenplays for many years, and by Viki King's description of the nine plot points in her book How to Write a Movie in 21 Days. Influenced being the operative word; what I offer here is not a straight mash-up of those two approaches. I'm not convinced that my philosophy is complete yet, but it's a start, and I think it's worth sharing at this point.

Act I: The Beginning
This is The Beginning of your story, starting on on page 1. It introduces the novel's setting, tone, characters, and theme(s) and includes two inciting incidents: the one that happens within the first five or six pages, and the one that heralds the end of Act I, around page 50.

Yes, that's right: Act I is only 50 pages long. If that.

Your novel's chapters

A combination of Twitter conversations, client work, and working on my own latest novel have put it in my head today to talk about approaches to chapters: length, breaks, and titles.

First let me say that there are no hard-and-fast rules in storytelling. As with any aspect of craft, choices about how to do chapters are driven by the experience we want our readers to have. It's about the effects our choices have on how readers understand and experience our stories. Decisions about chapter length and breaks are mostly about pacing. Since I like reading fast-paced page-turners, that's the effect that I go for in my own writing. I want my books to be unputdownable, so that's my mindset when I'm making decisions about chapters.

Chapter Length
There's no minimum. No, really. I've seen a one-word chapter done successfully before. (See also these examples, which include several chapters that one-up the one-word chapter by containing zero words.) That said, if I'm reading a book that has a bunch of super-short chapters, each one is going to have to be riveting and compelling to prevent me from getting frustrated or fatigued.

Your Pitch to Publication query letter

Query letters are tricky beasts, difficult for most authors to write. Going in, we know this. But your query letter is important because it's what's going to get me excited about reading your first five pages and, more importantly, give me a sense of what I'm not seeing: namely, p. 6 to the end. It's going to clue me into whether you know what your book is about, whether the narrative arc makes sense, and whether you have a story I can invest myself in.

There are LOADS of posts all over the Internet about how to write a tight, enticing query letter for an agent. See for example Jane Friedman's, the one on Writer's Digest, or the oft-cited Query Shark site. This post is about how to write an enticing query letter for Pitch to Publication.

How is the P2P QL similar to a QL for an agent?

It's not that writing a query letter for Pitch to Publication is entirely different from writing one for an agent; there are definitely some guidelines that apply to both.

Your Pitch to Publication query letter should include the book data (title, target audience, genre, word count, comps if you can/want to), hook, bio, and thank you.

As with any good hook, I want to know about the setting, MC(s), premise, goal, and stakes. The best query letters also have a strong voice that reflects the voice of the novel; it's a window into what I can expect when I get to the pages. Your hook is the mini-synopsis; it should be no more than three paragraphs, and aim for 7-11 sentences total.

Your novel's word count

Today I'd like to talk about a four-letter word: word count. (Okay, I know that's not literally a four-letter word. I'm being metaphorical.)

"I just hate how I 'come off as' as a debut writer with a super high WC, even when I'm doing a genre that has higher WC. I don't like agents to think of me as ignorant or judge my story because it is a longer work. And I hate that they just reject it on the spot without even reading sample pages or trying to have a discussion surrounding it." - Nicole Evans, fantasy & scifi author

Can you relate? Then this post is for you.

Thing is, you believe that your high word count is warranted. And maybe it is! But I saw a lot of submissions during this year's contests with word counts over 100K (one was even over 200K), and I came to see some patterns. Here are four factors that might be driving your word count up unnecessarily and how to check for them.

1. Starting in the wrong place.
Hands down, this is the most common issue I've seen in debut novels. Most of them start too soon, in a scene that lacks goals or stakes and isn't close enough to the catalyst that's going to make the MC(s) take their first steps on that road leading to the primary conflict, and thus adding unnecessary length to the book. I wrote "Your first five pages" to help with this one.

2. Too much backstory and/or world building unrelated to what's happening in the scene.
I won't go so far as to say that you should only include details that are necessary to understanding the scene at hand - there are definitely times when a well-placed sentence or two of backstory sets up something important without trying readers' patience - but it's quite common for authors to front-load their books with too much information under the mistaken assumption that readers actually need it all.

Your book's Darkest Moment

Today I want to talk about your book's Darkest Moment and give you some ideas about how to self-check that it's the best Darkest Moment it can be.

Illustration: "Pay's good" by TPA

What is the Darkest Moment?
It's that moment when it looks like your main character (MC) isn't going to get what they've been after all this time. Despite everything they've tried and all the tears they've cried, it looks like they're going to lose. Your book's Darkest Moment should have that All-Is-Lost feel--meaning that, at least for a moment, there is no hope. It looks like your MC is going to die or give up, or they've hit some other obstacle that seems impossible to overcome.

Let's take the movie The Wizard of Oz as an example. Dorothy's goal is to get home. She travels far through a strange land, dodges terrifying flying monkeys and gray-faced Oh-We-Oh dudes with spears, passes the scary wizard's test by destroying the scarier wicked witch, discovers the wizard's true identity, gets her friends what they wanted, and is about to return home with the wizard, only to have him fly off in that hot air balloon without her. This is the Darkest Moment: despite everything Dorothy has been through and overcome, in this moment it looks like she will not get home because, as far as she knows, there is no other way home. In this moment, all hope is lost.

(Side note: Notice that if Dorothy had known before the wizard flew off without her that the shoes could get her home, it wouldn't have been a true DM because she'd still have had some hope.)

Your first 5 pages

You've heard it before, but it bears repeating: whether you start on a prologue or Chapter 1, the opening of your novel is important. It's what's going to either hook an agent, a publisher, and a reader or help them decide that your book isn't for them. A good first line is important, but if it's followed by several paragraphs of background information to set up your world or character, you're going to lose us. We want to feel something - shock, amusement, curiosity, fear, excitement - and we want to get invested.

As a result of my participation in a Twitter contest and The Work Conference, I've read a lot of people's first five pages in the last couple of months, which led me to reflect on what makes excellent first five pages.

And, in short, it is this:

The first five pages of your novel should be rooted in a scene with a goal and stakes; convey a strong sense of voice, emotion, and setting; either include a catalyst or the promise of one coming soon that's related to the primary conflict and/or include a mystery or question that the reader is invested in.

[Update 6 June 2016] One more thing. If your first five pages contains your main character, then we should also get at least a hint about what internal conflict or flaw s/he will need to overcome in order to triumph in the primary conflict.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Any questions about what I mean? Anything you'd add? Do you know of a novel published within the last five years that hooked you with its beginning but doesn't fit the above description?

Writing inspiration: A lesson in conflict

Nothing has been easy this week. And it's only Tuesday.

Case #1: I went to the gym this morning for the first time in three months. I got up early, braved the cold, spent what seemed like hours (but was probably only 10-15 minutes) scraping frost off my car windows. I thought about giving up several times, but in the end I got into my frost-free car and drove to the gym...only to find out that they couldn't unfreeze my account. They'd have a manager call me, they said. But she didn't, so it was on me to call back this afternoon. Sorry, but only the primary account holder (i.e. my friend) can authorize this. Friend contacted, but she's incredibly busy, so no idea when I'll hear back about when she can find time to go reactivate my account.

Case #2:  I just moved, so I called my health insurance company to report a change of address. They got a new system recently, and now the only way to change my address is to reapply. (Really?!?) But that's okay: you can reapply online! Super easy! Except I don't have either of the two supported browsers. But that's okay! You can print the application! Except that I don't have a printer, so I'd need to go down to a photocopy store and pay bunches of money to print it out, and then pay to mail it in. But that's okay! Here's a list of people nearby who can help you! Look, this one has an appointment available this week! Next page: No appointments available. Sigh.

Cool tools for writers: Timeline software

The other day I hit the point in my current WIP (a historical series) where I need a timeline to keep all the events straight: characters' birth dates, major events in their lives pre-Book 1, historical events relevant to the story, major events in the storylines of the books, etc.

On past projects I'd attempted to use paper and pen(cil) to draw my timeline but found that to be unwieldy. I changed my mind about when things happened, changed it back again, had a bunch of things happening in a short period of time and the writing got all cramped, the tape holding the pieces of paper together ripped, the tape prevented me from folding the timeline up into a portable size...you get the idea.

What I'd love is a home office with walls covered in whiteboard paint, but since that's not going to happen anytime soon, I decided to look into timeline app for writers. After researching several options and asking fellow writers for recommendations, I bought Aeon Timeline because:

The writing process: The hardest part

Pen & ink by Cara Christine Hubbell

One of my coaching clients is in the process of revising her manuscript in response to developmental feedback on her beta draft. This, for me, is the most challenging phase of the writing process for two reasons:

1. I have to switch back and forth between my analytical brain and my creative brain.
I don't know what it's like for you, but for me, this is SO HARD. While the creator's job is to provide a fertile ground, sunlight, and water to nourish all seeds, the editor's job is to spray weed killer on the plants that don't belong. Having both sides come out at once is like watering a plant and spraying weed killer on it at the same time. Very confusing.

2. It's time to let go of the original vision.
This is the hardest part of all, the part where I have to shed all my hopes and dreams and expectations for the story and look at it through a totally different lens, one that allows me to see (with help from my beta readers, of course) not what I hoped or intended to accomplish but what is actually there.

Writing uphill

I had a deadline, but the stories wouldn't come.

Getting to butt-in-chair in itself was a challenge because I had so many other things going on. And every time I sat down to work on the stories it was like trying to squeeze water out of a rock. On a good day, I could write several paragraphs *about* the story - who the characters were, what I wanted to the story to do, what I thought the narrative arc should look like - but very little of the story itself. Writing these stories was taking a ton of effort, and to show for all that effort I had maybe a few sentences. It made getting to butt-in-chair even harder.

Being an indie author has its perks: I moved the deadline. But they still wouldn't come. Feeling discouraged, feeling like a failure, I moved the deadline again. And again. Still next to nothing. A flash of dialogue or scene here and there; I'd get excited, sit down to write more, but nothing more would come.

Writing prompt 65

You know how sometimes a couple of words or a phrase pops into your head and your mind gloms onto them? It rolls them around, feeling their shapes, and explores all the random memories, images, and other experiences that your brain somehow associates with them. This happened to me while I was driving the moving truck up to Portland, and I thought these two words might make a good writing prompt for other people, too. I'm guessing they occurred to me because I'd spent the last week packing up and making decisions about what to keep and what to discard.

Prompt

Guest post: Jolene Haley on the characteristics of good writing

First off, I’d like to thank Sione for having me today. I’ve been a follower of her blog forever and I’m just delighted to contribute to it!

As an avid reader and writer who works hard at my craft, I’d like to offer up one piece of advice that I’ve learned while writing, publishing, and working for publishing houses. The most important thing you can do for your writing and your writing career is this: Write well.

Now, this piece of advice may seem elementary but really, it’s not. In the age of Amazon, where anyone can publish a book, this is the simple magical ingredient that will set you apart from others. It doesn’t matter if you have the most brilliant cover art in the world or if you’ve spent a million dollars on marketing, if your book isn’t well written, you’ll run into problems.

How can you create brilliant words? Well, some of the great authors and poets like Hemingway, Fitzgerald, or Joyce may tell you that the secret is a typewriter and a strong drink (or five). That certainly may get the words buzzing but here are characteristics of great writing in my book.

The writing process in charts & graphs

Every so often on Facebook I see someone else's clever depiction of the writing process. For example this one:

Or this one:

Guest post: Rebecca Faith on voice

Last quarter I ran a guest post series on this site about what it means to be a successful writer. This quarter I'm pleased to bring you a series about the characteristics of good writing. I intend to bring you a variety of perspectives on this topic over the next couple of months and am excited that my editing colleague Rebecca Faith has agreed to kick off the series with her thoughts on voice - what it is, what it does, and why it's crucial to her enjoyment of a book. Enjoy!

In March I spent three days at the 2015 PubSense Summit—a conference focused on innovation, trends and technology in the publishing industry. In nearly every panel I attended, including the one I sat on, someone in the audience asked a version of the question on every author’s mind: How can I sell loads of books and be successful? And in nearly every panel I attended, including the one I sat on, someone provided a version of the same answer: Produce incredible content, and success is all but inevitable.

Divorced from genre, demographic target or mode of publication (indie, traditional or hybrid), content reigns supreme as the #1 factor determining your success. And in my seven-year experience as a freelance book editor, I’ve found that what transforms “moderately good” writing to really excellent prose boils down to one thing: voice.

Ray Bradbury & writing prompts 44-63 (or 73)

This week I stumbled upon this article containing 12 pieces of writing advice from Ray Bradbury. I like all the advice there, but this one in particular caught my attention:

"List ten things you love, and ten things you hate. Then write about the former, and 'kill' the lat[t]er — also by writing about them. Do the same with your fears."

It's a writing prompt! Or twenty. Or thirty, if you also list ten fears.

When I started thinking about listing things I love/hate, the obvious things occurred to me: chocolate, wine and writing/talking about writing would go under love, while things like spiders, kale and being woken up from a good dream would go under hate.