How I decide what to tell other people about

First, have y'all been to the Google website? It's musical today, and you can record your own little diddy. Check it out!

I've been oddly lucky this week to have won two of the two blog contests I entered. I'll be receiving Tess Hilmo's With A Name Like Love and Beth Revis' Across the Universe. I was already excited about getting WANLL because I really admire Tess' writing, and I already have a copy of ATU. But having two copies of each will let me pass on one copy to some other reader--or let me read two copies at once.

The duplicates got me thinking about how I decide which books/things I tell other people about. It's more complicated than me simply liking the book.

Over the last year or so, I'd say there were 3 things that I really pushed. These are the things that I told many of my friends about, that I tweeted about, that I blogged about, etc. One was the Not So Humble Pie blog, which now has over 3500 followers. I think I was one of the first 10 to follow it, but I'm not going to click through them all to find out for sure. This blog talks about baking and also has a lot of really beautiful pictures of the products. I remember passing images around and telling my friends about it, as almost all of my friends eat.

The second thing I told a lot of people about was a television show called Raising Hope. I just thought it was hilarious, and I wanted to make sure it stayed on the air.

And the third recent thing I told people about was a band called Foster The People, which, really, if you haven't already heard them, you should.

Why did I decide to talk about these things? Well, I liked them all. That was definitely an important criterion, but it wasn't the only one. After all, I also found this guy on YouTube after watching Bjork perform "Unison" about three hundred times, which was something else I really liked. I even contacted the YouTube singer and had a short exchange about what inspired us in art. He's really nice.

I realize that I tell people about some things more than others because I have to figure out how to communicate my message to the people I think will care, and some things are easier to talk about than other things. It's much easier for me to say, "You can dance to Foster The People" than it is to say, "This guy's cool because he covered a Bjork song, and has a really simple and elegant voice and accompanies himself with a soprano saxaphone." I don't feel like I can properly sell the second guy in a way that will motivate people to check him out.

So, it's a two step process. I have to like something, and I have to know how to sell that something to the people who might like it. And a lot of things get lost in the process. The strange and sad result is that I keep the things I like the most to myself sometimes.

Let's talk books.

Here are some books I have loved in the last few months: Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Never Let Me Go, Too Much Happiness, Moby Dick.

Here are some books I have pushed on people in the last few months: The Lovely Bones, Water For Elephants, The Book Thief, Never Let Me Go.

There's an overlap, but for the most part, the two lists are different. For the second group of books, I had to feel like I knew people who would like the product I was trying to sell.

For me, then, there has to be some sort of short message associated with the project that teaches me how to talk about it. I don't think that short message has to be about plot or about character or anything specific. But it does have to be about something. As part of my new journey to match writers with their Right People Readers then, my challenge is to figure out how to come up with those messages so that I can get more of the books I love into the right hands.

And, I should say, that I'm not always right about my predictions ahead of time, so maybe it's just a matter of me trying to communicate what I love, even if I don't feel like I know how to sell it. Have you checked out the YouTube singer I mentioned? Did I manage to sell him?

So tell me--and yes, this is for selfish reasons--what makes you tell other people about a book?

And also...
Oh, and also also, February Grace interviewed me here, and Tara Maya put up my first official book review here.

Read Like You Mean It

Read like you mean it. You may be saying, "What does that even mean and who are YOU to tell me I don't read correctly?" and this is where I ask, "well do you?"

Read like you mean it. I am a college student and all I ever hear about is close reading. Reading so that you understand the "text" as they say. Reading and marking things up; more than underlining and highlighting, I'm talking annotations, acronyms and yes, underlining and highlighting. They call this "marginalia" and as I stated, close reading. I call it reading like a writer. Let me explain.

It is all well and good to read for inspiration but did you ever question how or why someone has written that beautiful sentence or constructed a paragraph the way they have? How all those elements, the sentence, paragraph, rhythm of the prose relates to the theme of the novel? If you have, you are reading like a writer.

But I think it is important also to use the margins and no it is not because I'm Ms. Jo College. I can't tell you how many times I've read something, mentally noted that this sentence is constructed with the most fluid language I've ever seen, went to sleep and have totally forgotten not only where the sentence was located, but about the entire sentence. That kind of error impedes my growth as a writer. Why? Because I am not actively looking for ways to practice different styles, forms, ways of communicating that may benefit my work in some way, whether or not I use the same structured sentence as Amy Hempel or not it still helps. It is important to annotate and put into practice what you've annotated.

Another way of looking at another writer's work is rewriting it after you've read and annotated the novel. For instance, I've rewritten one of my favorite short stories, "In the Cemetary Where Al Jolson is Buried" by Amy Hempel. This is similar to annotating in that you get the feel of the direction the writer wanted to go, how he/she uses language and it becomes a part of your own writing, but in your own style.

A suggestion for those of you who feel like it is a lot of work when you just want to enjoy a book, read the book first without annotating or underlining. Soak it in. Enjoy it. Then scrutinize the hell out of it later.
Reading like you mean it is essential to writing like you own the language. Now, feel free to chastise and debate me, if you wish. ;-)
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Tiffany White is a regular reader of The Literary Lab. She writes literary fiction which is also a testament to her insanity, her thirst for realism at the expense of a successful career. She bites kittens and puppies and wears her socks on the outside of her pants regularly. You can find Tiffany on her blog, The Inkwell.

I am very happy to have Tiffany as a guest blogger today. As an English BA major, I agree with her that reading as a writer can be a really important step in a writer's growth. I never read anything in college without putting in "marginalia." I was always taking notes, writing in my books, discussing the work with fellow students and my professors. Let me tell you, I learned so much about writing by involving myself like that. These days, I've found some of the books I remember the most are the manuscripts I review for other writers. Why? Because I'm taking notes and writing out my comments. I'm thinking critically about the work.

Thank you, Tiffany, for a great post today! I'm interested to see our readers' thoughts on this subject.

How To Tell If Your Writing Is Any Good - Part 2

(Read Part 1 Here)

I have had the most interesting experiences with my writing as of late. The most exciting experience has been what I like to call THE RIFT in feedback. Among many, many other reasons why I self-published my novella, Cinders, one reason I did so was to get feedback on my writing - writing I felt was the best I had done up to that point. I knew without at doubt that by keeping the book unpublished and handing it only to people I had some sort of connection with, that I would never find absolutely honest feedback. My way of thinking was that I would never know if my writing was truly any good. I thought it was good, but what did I know? Readers are who mattered.

Of course, hindsight is 20/20.

I see now that my way of thinking was terribly wrong. Although I would have never put my own work out there without feeling it was really good, I still ultimately put all my hope in the opinions of others more than in my own. Every time I read a crushing review or received less than 4 stars, my heart sank and my opinion of my own work withered. Then, on the other hand, every time I read a 5 star review by someone who really seemed to understand the work the way I intended, my heart soared and my opinion of the book blossomed. Talk about a roller coaster.

This is THE RIFT, and it will happen with every single word, sentence, short story, and novel I ever share with others.

If I'm not careful, I'll fall into that rift and never emerge. This is one of the reasons I don't feel reviews are for writers. It's good for me to know how readers react to my work, but one of the things I learned very quickly - all those reviews were the exact same reactions I received from beta readers and friends who read the book, just on a much larger, more dramatic scale.

So, with no further babble from me, let's look at the paragraphs from yesterday's experiment. We're the Literary Lab, after all. We like to experiment.

#1
The owl lives behind my home in a tall pine that is bald on one side and heavy on the other with frost-laden boughs that groan with every snow fall. At night, when flakes gather in drifts and heaps against my back porch, the owl plunges from his hunting perch, his sooty brown feathers driving tunnels through snow until all that is seen are whirlwinds of white—feathers and snow creating silence in chaos. I strain to hear any sound at all, but only succeed in finding the crashing thumps of my own heartbeat. Solemnly, after I know the kill has taken place, I enter my cabin, assured in the warmth of my small, but necessary fire.

This paragraph comes from a long short story I wrote in college titled "Sounding Light." I wrote it at the brink of my awareness with language, and decided to experiment with merging prose and poetry. I was really happy with the end product - a literary, quiet story, which oddly enough, was part of the inspiration for my spy thriller novel, Monarch. "Sounding Light" was published in the literary journal, Touchstones, in 2002.

Hmmm, there were 15 solid votes for this paragraph as the best written and liked. It came out as the winner. General consensus:

• easiest to read
• too generic
• good imagery
• both poetry and prose
• strongest writing
• grammatically wrong
• good technical quality
• sentence structure is strange
• style over narrative
• compared to several classic authors (not in a good way)

#2
They questioned him the day after Naomi’s disappearance, although he didn’t know anything. Naomi hadn’t shown up to his house the night he asked her to, and that was that. “You were the last to speak to her,” the police kept insisting. “And you’re her best friend. Can’t you give us some clue to what could have happened? Would she run away?” Brad only shook his head, fear clawing at his heart. He was most likely more frightened than Naomi’s own parents, who believed she had just not come home for awhile. She was frequently away from home, but when that happened, she was with Brad. She was not with him now.

This paragraph was written somewhere between 1996 and 1997 while I was in high school. It's the beginning paragraph of my novel, The Breakaway, which I've rewritten more times than I can count. I am currently working on this novel to submit for representation. The paragraph above no longer exists, even remotely, and the beginning is now much altered.

This paragraph came in 2nd place at 12 votes as the best written and liked. General consensus:

• felt like newbie writing
• good sense of plot
• felt flat
• too telling
• was in the character's head strongly (in a good way)
• easy to read
• immature
• strongest story
• immediate hook
• author isn't trusting voice
• confusing narrative

#3

I buy a snakeskin bag today, lizard green and shiny patent leather and the silver accents catch the sun on a sunny day before the clouds decide to come. When they do, they split open and rain all hell down for five minutes, plaster my hair to my skin, soak through my white shirt so the boys on the corner smoking pot whistle and lick their lips and yell, “Nice tits!” and I roll my eyes and think immature and wish I’d remembered to bring my long jacket that goes down to my calves. At least my green bag looks good with my green skirt, my six-inch green heels and green toenails that are starting to chip and I need to schedule another pedicure tomorrow and pull out my phone to punch in a reminder. I feel like a walking lime tequila.

This paragraph was written in 2010 as part of Loren Eaton's Six-Birds prompt. It is from a flash fiction piece titled "True Colors." You can read the entire pieces on my author site, if you're interested.

This paragraph came in as the third best written and liked with 11 votes. General consensus:

• strong voice
• great sense of voice and confidence
• too much description, sentences too long and run-on
• felt flat
• great sense of character
• style over narrative (not good)
• last line was cheap
• last line was too cutesy
• last line was a treat

I think the most interesting thing was how several readers mentioned that they hated #1 or #3 because of the present tense or first person POV, yet didn't say that this bothered them in both of the paragraphs. This confused me. Did you not notice that both 1 and 3 were both in present tense and first person POV or was I misunderstanding what you said?

Moving on, I think it's quite clear from the general consensus lists that feedback overall (on anything) is extremely subjective. I don't wish to focus on that today, though. I want to point out that each of these excerpts was taken from a different period of my life. #2 was from when I very first started writing novels, #1 was from college when I started experimenting with language, and #3 was from only a year ago when I was really starting to feel confidence in my writing. I think from the general feedback given in the comments that many of you picked up on these things in my writing. Many of you seem to favor plot and a good hook over technique or prose - at least in a small excerpt like this. All of this tells me that feedback is helpful to hone my writing, but I should never rely on it to direct my writing, or even worse, tell me if my writing is good or not.

One of the most important things I have learned over the years is that it is IMPOSSIBLE to judge a writer's worth or abilities from a short excerpt, maybe even from a whole chapter or short story, or even an entire novel. I have read absolutely amazing pieces by authors I truly admire, and then read something else of theirs that fell completely flat for me. Overall, though, I still admire their work because I have read enough of it. What does this tell me? Simply that I must turn this around and see if from the other direction. If I get feedback that rips me to shreds, does that mean I'm a bad writer? I think the answer is obvious, and it leads directly into the question: How can you tell if your writing is any good?

If you can't answer that, go back and read this post again.

Great Expectations

First off, thank you so much to everyone who jumped in on Monday to give me advice. After thinking it over for a couple of days, I feel much more at ease. I realize I had a big fear of ending up homeless. Maybe that sounds extreme, but it was just a fear I had. I don't have that so much at the moment now, thanks to you.

I've been thinking a lot about expectations. I used to think that the best situation was for a reader to pick up one of my stories with no expectations at all. I liked the idea of the person being surprised by the newness of the story. But, last week I started working on a sequel to the book I wrote for my nephew. For those of you who might not be familiar with this, two Christmases ago, I wrote a Harry-Potter-type story starring my nephew. It was meant only for him, but when I gave it to him, it turned out to go terribly wrong. Tears were involved. The good side to the whole situation was that my sister-in-law and her sister both really liked the book. They are big readers, and they thought it was really cool. So, I had decided to write a sequel for them, something that could be darker and scarier and more mature. Some ideas came together for me last week that excited me, and so I started working on it.

But, I had a problem.

I was including a bunch of family stories that the two women would already be familiar with. This wasn't a huge problem, but somehow it wasn't as exciting for me to imagine them reading something they already knew about. Then, it hit me. I figured out a way to present their stories without them really knowing they were their stories. Even though the sisters are the stars of the show, I'm telling the old family stories using other character names. The two readers will be thinking they're reading about other people until the dramatic turning point in the middle of the story when the fake characters names are transformed into the real ones just as we reach the climax of the family stories that everyone will be familiar with.

Instead of the readers not expecting anything, they will approach the book expecting some things. But, now I get to play with those expectations and surprise them even more. I'm so excited!

What sorts of expectations to you set up in your story? How do you play with a reader's expectations?

Do We Love Specific Books Partially Because of the Hype?

Davin is gone this week to D.C. so I'll be filling in for his days. Hope you have fun, Davin!
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There are a lot of popular stories out there. I've read several of them - Harry Potter, Twilight, The Secret Life of Bees, Romeo & Juliet...

My question today is something I've wondered for a very long time. When you pick up a book that you know has received a lot of hype, can you possibly read it without any preconceived notions? I think one of my biggest pet peeves is someone fawning over something to the point of ridiculousness. Mac products are the absolute best products on the planet. You just HAVE to see Inception because it was the best movie EVER made. EvvvErrr.

Yeah, okay.


First of all I don't think there is a best movie ever made or a best book ever written or a best product out there. When something gets too much hype, I tend to get really annoyed and tune it out and sometimes refuse to take part in it at all. For instance, I still haven't seen Inception. I probably won't watch it for three years. I might not ever watch it

This means I'll pick up a popular book with a relatively clean slate. I will try not to bring to the table every wonderful amazing thing (or sometimes it's negative hype, which is still good hype for marketing) I have heard about it. I like to form my own opinions. Most of the time the popular opinion isn't something I agree with.

Yet...

I happen to think classic literary pieces like Macbeth and The Great Gatsby are simply wonderful. They are hyped up in my world, but is it because I love them or because I love that millions of other people have loved them before me and I was socially conditioned in a way to think they are high quality masterpieces? Talk about eating my own words above! I get annoyed by current hype, but call it a classic 20 years old or older and I'm all over it. Sometimes I wonder if we can separate ourselves at all from what (for today) I'm calling hype. Sometimes I wonder how many other masterpieces are out there that I'll never read because they didn't catch any hype so I never heard about them. Sand through the cracks...

What do you think?

Compliments You'd Love To Get

So yesterday Domey asked about what compliments your work receives that you don't want to hear. Today I'm going to go the other way. What are the things you've labored over in your work that make you proud, that you want someone to notice and tell you is exceedingly cool?

I'll start. I work hard to create symbolic frameworks in my novels, where for example an action is repeated by different characters in different contexts and has different meaning, or where a single image runs through the narrative and gathers meaning and weight along the way. I want someone to say, "Ooh, and the thing with the eels! That was cool!" I also sort of do this with dialogue: a single word or concept will be batted back and forth by two or more people like a tennis ball and each speaker will change the meaning of the word and imply all sorts of things. Hey, this is really just the shaping force of my narrative structure; what I do is take a story and tell it over and over and examine it for different meanings depending on how you tell it. There, the secret's out. Anyway, I want people to notice the subtle structural things I'm doing with patterns and repetition and then congratulate me on my near brilliance.

I also want people to tell me that the jokes make them laugh.

You?

Also! Next week, I promise I will write more substantive posts! Honest! I'm revising on a deadline and very busy at work, so I haven't got a lot of brain left. On the upside, though, that makes me only a secondary target for roaming zombies. You are all in more danger than I am.

Compliments You Hate?

Happy Monday, everyone!

Is there a compliment you hate to get?

Lately, I've been hating it when people tell me that they love my details. I've been getting compliments on my details since I started writing ten years ago. I used to love hearing it. But, it just makes me wonder what people think about my characters, my plots, my emotions...in other words, everything else.

How Long Do Readers Remember?

I've been working on a couple of stories, a novella and a longer, novel-ish type thing, and in both I introduce some small story threads in the beginning that come up throughout the story. But, I'm wondering if the reminders of the threads are too infrequent, if they end up feeling disconnected because of how far apart they are. As an example, in one story I mention a rumor about a monster that's running around in the streets, a wolfman. I mention it twice in the first ten pages, but then it doesn't come up again until page 50, when we figure out how the rumor got started. Both times it's not a big announcement, and the story works just fine without it. But, I like it, and I'd love for readers to understand it.

Do you think 50 pages is too long for a reader to remember a small detail?

And, how do you feel about stories that you end up having to reread to fully understand?

Oh, also, I have a short story coming out in a new anthology and will be doing a reading at Skylight Books here in LA if anyone is interested. If you are interested, don't tell me though, I'm nervous enough about it as it is. It's hosted by Janet Fitch!

My best work under wraps?

Last week, I finished a new short story that I'm tentatively calling "Catfish Mother." This was something I started back in 2008, worked on through a good part of 2009, and was finally able to finish this year after getting some great advice from F. P. Adriani. (This has something to do with daydreaming that I should also post about sometime soon.) But, the important thing is that I'm very happy with this story. It may be the best short story I've written--at least in my opinion.

And, a strange thing is happening.

I'm realizing that I'm scared to share this story with others.

This has something to do with fear. I fear that everyone will say they don't like my story. And, it's not the direct criticism that I'm afraid of, but I'm afraid of losing my own vision after hearing too many outside opinions.

I'm a pretty insecure writer. I question almost everything I produce, and it hasn't helped that some of my favorite stories are often ones that other people don't like. (Vice versa, the stories that people tend to like are often ones that I'm not as emotionally attached to and haven't put as much effort into.) I think right now I'm actually at a point where I'm producing work that I really enjoy myself. And maybe that grasp on what I like doesn't feel secure enough for me to test it against other people's judgments. I worry that others will persuade me to stop liking what I actually like.

Has this happened to anybody? Is it real? Is it a good idea for me to keep this personal success to myself, or should I test my own writing by exposing it to the world?

Note: Check out Genie of the Shell's comment too! (Added later: There are several great comments here. Check them all out!)

The Minority Isn't Always Wrong

First off, I want to thank everyone who participated in the posts here last week. My heart is warmed by the thought that fellow writers would take the time to question and argue over our art form, its making, and its publication.

Today is set aside to honor Martin Luther King Jr. And, along with remembering this great man, I'm also reminded of the other minorities out there--socially and politically, and also in the arts--who are still being silenced today. In countries around the world, like China and Iran, there are writers who have been imprisoned for having opinions that are different from their ruling class or simply for searching for the truth. In our own country, so many people become restricted due to the way they were born or the way they think. So often it seems like the minority is wrong, simply because they are the minority. Of course, this is absurd.

The minority isn't always wrong.

So, today, for all the people who feel like they have opinions that are different from what the majority is shouting out, remember that you may be right; remember that you may still change the world, even if that battle seems impossible to win at times.

And, if you need to be reminded of the power of writing, remember that Martin Luther King Jr. (with Bayard Rustin) was inspired by the teachings of Mohandas Gandhi, who was inspired by the writings of Leo Tolstoy, who was inspired by the writing of Adin Ballou on non-violent resistance.

Note: Rick Daley announced that he's opened a new blog for critique exchanges. It's called, oddly enough, critXchange. Check it out if you're looking to give and receive feedback.

A Good Idea Is A Good Idea

In a way, convincing someone that you are a good writer requires backward logic. Readers must begin to read by paying attention to the details, word by word, sentence by sentence, and not until they are done reading your entire story can they judge it as a whole. While one person's story might be more solid as a unit, another person's writing might be judged as "better" when readers are initially trying to decide between the two based on opening paragraphs, or sample sentences, or anything other than the piece in its entirety.

BUT, we as writers must trust that the reader is able to judge the story as a whole, eventually, because the alternative, leading someone through 300 pages of smooth-flowing prose only to reveal a story void of quality ideas is...sucky.

The idea. Coming up with a good idea is something writers often forget to do. I say this because I've read at least 300 short stories in 2009, and many times a piece will impress me until I stop to actually think about it. And, sadly, I often don't bother to come up with good ideas myself. My desire to write is so strong that I just want to get words down on a page, and then my drive to make those words engaging pushes me to revision, and before I know it, I have spent two years (or seven) polishing a book that doesn't have that critical good idea at its center.

What do I mean by a good idea? That depends on what you are writing about. A love story, for example, won't be an interesting story if the love isn't interesting. Even if it's written in beautiful prose, mundane love will feel mundane. Or, if one is writing a story about a criminal mastermind who tries to steal the nose off of the Statue of Liberty, a pathetic plan to get that nose (a really big saw!) won't feel satisfying. (Okay, okay, unless you're going for some sort of irony.)

If my own writing practice is any indication of other people's writing practices, we are not spending nearly enough time on developing that initial good idea--or the other good ideas required throughout a story. And, a dumb idea garnished with a grand sprig of parsley will only impress for so long. Eventually, the leaf gets lifted.

So, I'm sorry. I'm sorry because the FIRST thing we need to work on, the thing that takes the most brilliance, is the LAST thing a reader will see, if they ever see it at all. And, I'm sorry that pushing yourself so that the heart of your story is solid doesn't necessarily result in a reader's recognition that your writing is good when they are browsing through your book before committing to read the whole thing. A solid foundation is necessary to write a good book, but that good book will often be judged by its adornments. Still we press on, hoping that someone will see our vision and heart. And, our ultimate goal is to make everything exquisite, so that the lovely prose does not cover for a bad idea, and the good idea is not hidden by bad prose.

Learning The Language of Your Book Reviewers

I've had the luxury of taking several writing classes in the last few years. Mostly, critique sessions within those classes take on a standard structure: Writer hands out the story. Reviewers read it and give comments on what they think is working and what isn't.

But, occasionally, I've found myself in groups that like to mix it up a little. Some alternative critique styles include:

A) Only saying positive things

B) Only asking questions

C) Letting the reading start off another conversation, any type of conversation.

The first two methods probably seem at least sensible, even if they aren't your preferred method. You may think that it isn't helpful to not get direct comments on what isn't working, but I'd argue that sometimes these alternatives let us see our work in a different way. The third method, at first, seemed completely pointless to me. I wrote a story, and the group started talking about Thai food! Then, I stepped back and remembered that the people leading the discussions were writers that had been working for decades. Like, four decades. Maybe they knew something I didn't know.

When we let someone read our work and they give us feedback on it, this isn't a one-way road. Remember that who the person is affects their response as much as your actual writing does. Rather than take a comment at face value--"I didn't like your protagonist"--figure out why your reviewer didn't like the protagonist. It may because the reader doesn't like anyone who isn't a vegetarian, or anyone who isn't from Jupiter. As objective as a reviewer tries to be, they come to your work with expectations, and you should try to know what those expectations are. Learn the language of your book reviewer.

Getting back to my third example of critique styles, what I realized was that these digressions my teachers allowed to happen were pretty good reflections of what non-writing readers would do after reading a story. Rather than thinking about how it could be better--which also happens, I'm sure--many readers will simply let the piece sink in and affect their thoughts and their moods. That's good to know, and if I didn't want the conversation to stray a certain way, I had to think about what I was putting into the story that triggered those thoughts. To this day, this reviewing style helps me when I write. Almost any review, as cryptic as it may seem at first, has the potential to be helpful.

What's the most mysterious comment you've ever gotten on your writing? What did you do to make sense of it? In the end, was it helpful?

Harriet Potter

I am writing this particular post today for three reasons: First, it's Friday and that's the day when the fewest people seem to read/respond to blogs (I don't take it personally, really I don't) so I can just pad out the week with something light; Second, tonight Mighty Reader and I are going to go see the new "Harry Potter" film (which is nearly three hours long, for gosh sakes, meaning MR and I will get home around 2:00 AM and we are therefore very brave HP fans); Third, I've noticed something in my trolling of query letter sites and I must ask about it.

A lot of people seem to be writing the same book. Or, I should say, the same couple of books. I get around, you know, and read a lot of writers' blogs and see a lot of queries for books people have written, and there seem to be two premises that crop up a lot:

1. Sort of downtrodden youngster discovers he/she has magical powers, enters world where he/she learns to use said powers, and must then battle Ultimate Evil.

2. Sort of shoe-gazey young girl, feeling isolated, meets handsome mysterious male who turns out to be paranormal evil person, who tempts girl to dark side (usually because she has paranormal powers she doesn't know about, and handsome evil boy wants to steal her paranormal energy).

3. There's also a third premise I see a lot that I just remembered, where young protagonist (usually female) discovers she has magical or otherwise unearthly powers and either a) must choose between the life of a close relative (sister or mother in most cases) and her own life as a superhuman powergrrl, or b) must use her superhuman powergrrl powers to save her close relative.

So we have, essentially, Harry Potter and Twilight and Superman (or maybe Wolverine in a Hello Kitty t-shirt) as premises that are being used A Lot Around Here.

So what's the deal? Are people deliberately trying to be the next Rowling or Meyers or whomever (I don't know, maybe Neil Gaiman on the last one), or are these just the sorts of stories that YA and MG readers like, and we write what we read and it's all just that "Harry Potter" and "Twilight" are the sorts of stories we want to read more of?

I'm not complaining or saying any of this is bad. Personally, I think premise is the least part of storytelling, as long as the premise and the story are solid and compelling; it's how you tell it that matters most to me. But I am asking. Why are these the stories a great lot of writers are choosing to tell now? If this is you, dear reader, what's up? Spill it.

Trust

I've had the word TRUST on my blog post list for awhile now. But I was never sure what I wanted to say. Natalie's post helped guide me in the right direction. When someone begins reading your story, they may feel like this frog:



Natalie says it better than I can:

What does [not trusting your reader] mean? It boils down to not trusting that your audience will "get" what you're trying to give them. This leads to over explaining and repetition, which is annoying to a smart reader (and guess what, I hear most readers are smart people).

Backstory, Flashbacks, and Extraneous Scenes
Look at all of these closely. I recently did a post on my writing blog about how your reader might not care about most of this stuff. How do you present it? Is it ripping your reader out of the real story? You may care deeply about all of that information, but how much does your reader really need to know?

Scott wrote an excellent post on backstory here.

Fillers
Most of the time, scaffolding is unnecessary. If your reader screams "I know!", you don't have to put a dialogue tag after it that says she screamed loudly.

He was just plain downright annoyed. He stomped his foot and clenched his fists.

When he looked deeply into her eyes, he whispered softly and lowered his voice.

The cool breeze flowed into the small room and rustled the lacy curtains until the stagnant air felt refreshed.

These are obvious examples, but I see this all the time. Adverbs. Extra adjectives, etc. Wordiness!

Repetition
You. Don't. Need. To. Repeat. Things. Except for this phrase: You don't need to repeat things! This is my biggest problem. I like to pound things into my reader's head. Symbolism. Metaphors. Obvious things. A good example is from Natalie's post:

"That's not a good idea," he said. He seemed sure we shouldn't go in the cave.

Yes, and then I would probably repeat again in a later paragraph that he seemed sure we shouldn't go in the cave. The dialogue said it all. Just leave it at that.

Oh, Hate Them!
If one of your characters is a downright mean, ugly person. Let them be. Don't make excuses for them. Don't try and make them likable because you've read somewhere that all characters need to be likable.

In my first novel, one of my main POV characters is a terrible person. The other main POV character hates her. So why would I try and make her likable from the get go? I have no idea. But I did. And the character rings false.
_______

These are a few things that hinder trust, which can lead to you looking like a poor storyteller, a weak writer, and someone who doesn't trust their own work and abilities. Trust me (haha), I'm barely learning all of this. I know I have a long way to go in strengthening my writing. I think a follow-up post is in order for things that help the reader trust. Scott? Davin? Any volunteers for a guest post?

Question For The Day: How important do you feel it is that your reader trusts you? Do you have any other examples of how a writer can hinder trust?


~MDA (aka Glam)

The Reader

I've been thinking about readers. I assume most of us writers are also heavy readers, if for no other reason than to learn our craft. But, the readers I'm wondering about are the people who read heavily without trying their own hand at writing. How large is this group of people? Are the majority of book buyers truly people who just enjoy reading with no aspirations of their own?

When I think about my own friends and family, I know about two dozen writer/readers. On the other hand, I only know about six people who read regularly (say, at least five books a year) without writing. Granted, I'm biased. I seek out fellow writers, so this uneven ratio makes sense. But, it makes me wonder where all the readers are. Or, perhaps more accurately, I wonder who's buying books.

So, let's take a little poll. How many heavy readers do you personally know who don't also write?

Take It All Off

Taking your clothes off might be a daily occurrence. But how often do you do it in front of other people with whom you are not intimate?

I do it all the time.

Yep. I stand in front of groups of people and strip it all off. It's embarrassing, let me tell you. In fact, I blush. I cry. I start with the outer layers and move on to the ones closest to my skin - closer to revealing what I try to hide so often. Each article of clothing drops to the floor. I shiver under the lights that should feel warm, but they don't. Denim. Cotton. Silk. I'm revealing more and more skin. Layer after layer . . .

Until I'm standing with nothing to hide behind.

And that's it. Now how long I decide to stand there letting people gawk and admire and laugh and criticize is up to me. But at least I do it. At least I'm brave. Right?

Oh, come on! You know I'm talking about letting other people read your work. Sometimes it feels just like you're naked, doesn't it? Haven't you sent your work (querying might be a similar experience to some) out to some readers and a few days later you regret it? You think, "I shouldn't have done that. It could be so much better. Maybe I should ask for it back? Tweak here and there and send it out again? Maybe?"

Don't.

I've been getting feedback on my novel, Monarch. It's a second draft. I know that in many respects, it sucks. It needs help. I took off my clothes to show the few extra pounds I'd rather were not there. I'm still standing naked, letting it all show. And it's great. I'm getting used to it, bit by bit.

(I would never really strip in public, I promise. I'd be labeled all sorts of things I'd rather not say here. . . . And I'd be arrested, but that's beside the point.)


Here's a few pointers for those of you who can't "bare" to strip down yet:

(1) If you don't let others read your work you're doing yourself a disservice. Few people can write in a vacuum. Let others who are willing read and critique your work. Often.

(2) Read Scott's excellent post from yesterday and take all that criticism in stride.

(3) Take that criticism and be honest with yourself. Rework. Write. Edit. Layer. Grow!

(4) Then send it out again. And again. Until you feel like it's solid and the critiques you get focus more on nitpicks than huge issues like plot holes and character inconsistencies.


Here's a few pointers for those of you who strip down all the time with no fear:

(1) Make sure you let your viewers - I mean readers - know where your work stands. Let them know if it's polished, a first draft, almost-there-draft, etc. This makes a difference in the kind of feedback you'll receive.

(2) Please tell your readers what kind of feedback you're looking for! You don't want a line edit when you're only looking for overall advice. That's a waste of your time and theirs.

(3) Don't overburden your readers. Seriously rework your piece before you send it to them again. They don't want to read a draft with just a few sentences changed here and there. If all you have done is changed grammar or minor things - and you think it's as polished as possible - your work might not need critiquing anymore. Save the line edits for a close beta reader who doesn't mind reading your work fifty billion times (I'm lucky to have a few of these readers. They're gold and I love them).


If you need help or have questions about where or how to find Beta and Alpha readers, see my post over on my blog, here.

On an ending note, I loved Jessica's advice over on BookEnds a few days ago about knowing when it's time to start/stop querying. She said:

I made the suggestion that authors should never even start querying until they finish their first book and have started on the second. At that point, continue querying until the second book is done and ready to go, if you still have no bites, put the first book under the bed and start querying the second while writing the third.

That's tough advice, she says. I agree. But patience is key in this business. Apparently, it helps to work naked, too. I come up with strange analogies.

Now, if only we could perfect our bodies just sitting in our chairs in front of the computer . . .


~MDA (aka Glam)