Five New Year’s Resolutions for Writers

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In just two short days, 2012 will dawn, bringing with it the same promise of every previous new year. Many of us will make resolutions to ourselves and our loved ones: to eat less, exercise more, be nicer, become organized, etc.

If you are a writer, chances are good that by March, most of those resolutions will have gone out the window. When you are stuck on your storyline, that bag of chips or box of cookies will practically jump into your hands. When your creative juices are flowing, who has time to jump on a treadmill? Whether your writing is going well or poorly, the chance that you will snap off the hand (or various other extremities) of anyone interrupting you is close to 100 percent. And, of course, any writer who claims to be organized must be fooling himself.

Therefore, I present to you a few resolutions you might actually keep:

1. Avoid Gloating. That five-star review that’s got you over the moon today? Go ahead and share it. However, don’t assume that every reader will think you are the next (insert most-admired author’s name here). In fact, tomorrow you may suffer the crushing blow of a one-star review. Which leads to…

2. Don’t Lash Out in Anger. Remember, people, the internet is forever. Just because someone doesn’t like your work, doesn’t mean he or she is an imbecile or a monster. If you call him or her that, you are the one who winds up looking like a fool and probably losing readers as a result.

3. Finish that Novel/Novella/Short Story. I understand that not everyone writes at the same pace. However, endlessly polishing your work (yes, I am talking about that manuscript that is now in its fifteenth draft) is just another form of procrastination. It’s done. Publish it already. After that…

4. Write More. We are all proud of our first novels. When we finally put them out into the world, we can’t help but believe our baby is going to shine brighter than any literary star out there. And maybe it will, someday. In the meantime, it’s going to be overshadowed by the brilliance of other works. You know what will help your baby grow brighter? A few siblings. A cluster of stars always shines more brightly – think of the Milky Way.

5. Be Kind to Fellow Travelers. Writing is often a solitary road, even in today’s connected world. Therefore, when you read someone else’s good news on Facebook, Twitter, or anywhere else, take a moment to congratulate them. If someone is down, offer comfort and encouragement. If you know the answer to a question, share it. Try not to trample the dreams of others. That dream might be the only lifeline they have left.

 Happy New Year! Here’s wishing all of you a bright, productive 2012!

The Well Dressed Novel

Okay, so you’ve written a book and you are as proud as a new parent with your bundle of joy. You probably want to introduce it to your family, friends, and anyone else who will stop and have a peek. The first question you are likely to hear is: “What genre is it?” If you are lucky enough to have creatively birthed a book that fits neatly into one (and only one) genre, you can say, “It’s a (insert genre here).” If not, you will likely find yourself saying something like, “Well, it’s sort of a sci-fi meets horror thing,” which makes your book sound a bit like an evil alien baby. Appealing to a few, but not necessarily in the running for most beautiful.

How do you give your book an identity that will draw admirers to it? Even in this digital age where more and more readers won’t ever hold an actual book with your name on it, the cover art is still the best way to draw your audience in. No matter how charming your baby is, if you send it out into the world in a brown paper sack no one is likely to fawn over it. Similarly, clip-art covers cut-and-pasted together are likely to be shunned by all but the most forgiving reader. Now, if that forgiving reader happens to be a well-respected book reviewer, the cover art could become a non-issue. However, your baby book will need to have an exceptional amount of luck to be plucked from obscurity by such a reviewer.

So here is the lesson, dear writers: invest in cover art. Yes, it will cost you some money, but a good book-cover designer is an artist. Being a good writer does not automatically make you a good artist – nor does it make you a good judge of art. In other words, don’t trust your own judgment. Look at some book designers’ websites, find a few that you like, and ask your friends’ opinions. Set aside a decent amount of money and pay for your designer of choice to do your cover art. In the long run, your novel will thank you for it. More people will pick it up and give it a chance to charm them.

#Trust30: Enthusiasm

To be totally excited about my work, I have to believe that what I’m writing is worth reading. Maybe not every word – after all, that’s what the editing process is for – but most of them.

If I’m writing a novel and find myself bored, I stop writing and ask my characters what I’m doing wrong. Sometimes I’m writing from the wrong character’s perspective. Other times, I may be writing something that isn’t valuable to the overall story arc. When this happens, a well-formed character always seem to know how to fix the book. After all, the book is about him or her.

If a character can’t give me the answers I need, then the character himself may need fleshing out. I don’t always complete a character questionnaire (you can find some of my questions here), but it is an invaluable tool. After I’ve completed this questionnaire, my writing is usually back on track.

Even when I have a bad day of writing, it’s still better than my best day doing anything else. What can I say – I’m excited to be writing novels!

#Trust30: Giving the Finger

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Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Would-be writers generally fall into one of two categories. Some will tell you proudly that they have never taken a single class. Others continue attending workshops and courses long after they have any real need of them. There comes a point in every aspiring author’s life where he or she either must begin writing or abandon the dream.

I’m not saying that taking a few classes on the art of writing is a bad idea; in fact, I would recommend that everyone who seeks to be a writer take, at the very least, a grammar and rhetoric class and a creative writing class. Both of these courses put tools in the writer’s toolbox. Not learning the basic building blocks of good writing shows a lack of respect for the potential audience. This is one of the reasons I will not recommend a badly written novel, no matter how ingenious the plot is. For me, a weak plot is less egregious than talentless prose.

However, I’ve seen too many talented writers paralyzed by the opinions of a few readers. To be a writer is to cut off a finger and offer it to someone who might have preferred a toe. Not everyone will think you are brilliant; therefore, you must accept that when you send your work out into the world, some will try to send it back. There aren’t enough classes in the world to make every reader love your work – accept this and you are on your way to success.

At last, you must believe in yourself. If you are a good writer, you will find success.

Book Junkies: Where Everybody (Sort of) Knows Your Name

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Gertrude Stein with Hemingway's son

When I was a kid, I dreamed of moving to New York or London or Paris and becoming a writer. I thought I’d live in a tiny apartment and walk everywhere so that I could absorb the culture and really have my finger on the pulse of the city. I also thought I’d find a small community of other writers – possibly ex-pats, as I imagined I would be – who would support and grow with me. We’d be the equivalent of Hemingway, Stein, and the rest. We’d set the literary stage afire again.

Okay, so my dreams might have been a little far-reaching. At the very least, though, I pictured my own version of Cheers – a place where everyone knew my name and might even shout it out as I entered.

I’ll be forty in six months. I never moved to a big city – instead my city, Phoenix, grew up around me. I never was much of a drinker…probably a good thing. And I never found a place where I felt welcomed and comfortable in the company of other writers – until very recently.

I stumbled upon Book Junkies through the blog post of a member a few months ago now. I felt instantly welcomed. This community of writers and readers is truly like a gathering of kindred souls. You can almost feel the crackle of creativity when you read the posts in the various Book Junkies pages. One of our members, Helmy, even tackled a wonderful flash-fiction collaborative book which will be available for free on Smashwords sometime next month (I’ll be sure to post about it when it comes out). The readers have tackled their own projects, offering book reviews and a beta reader service to interested writers.

So why haven’t I blogged about this before? Honestly, selfishness has kept me silent. I love having a place where people are interested in one another’s thoughts and writing processes. I love visiting Book Junkies and feeling welcome in that small community. I feared that, as Book Junkies grew, it might lose that comfortable feeling.

No more. Book Junkies might not be for everyone, but we have writers and readers of every stripe – from Romance to Horror, from Mainstream to Steam Punk. If you think this could be the community you’ve been looking for, I hope you’ll join us. That’s the great thing about the internet – there’s no capacity limit.

What Writers Write and How They Write It*

*I wrote the following article at my publisher's request. In February 2011, Inknbeans Press posted it on their website. I am reprinting it below with a few changes in celebration of the completion of my fifth novel, Forsaking the Garden. Enjoy!



In July 2009, I sat down in front of my computer and made a promise to myself: I would write a thousand words a day and not worry about editing what I’d written until I had a complete novel. Four months later, I had the 120,000-word manuscript for what would become The Thief of Todays and Tomorrows. The sense of accomplishment was so much more than I could have imagined – like getting high without all the nasty side effects, save one: I was addicted.

It took me the better part of three months to edit my first novel down to a more reasonable size of 90,000 words. Editing my own work taught me a lot and changed the way I write forever. I try to avoid words I know I will later want to edit out, like probably, maybe, and perhaps. I keep a character name list in an effort to ensure I don’t switch names around as I write (this is still a stumbling block for me, even with the list). And I read my dialogue aloud as I write it.

My desk is a cluttered jumble of reference books, including one that boasts 30,001 baby names. Because I know that I prefer names that start with hard Cs or Ks, I now force myself to choose the first letters of names at random. If I find myself unsure of what happens next, I visit Pogo.com and play a game or two while I mull it over.

I don’t create an outline before I begin to write because an outline ruins the story for me. The characters tell me where they want to go and I follow their lead. The end of one of my books is generally just as much of a surprise to me as it is to the reader.

Because I never want to be without an idea for my next novel, I keep a journal. Almost every day, I warm up by writing in that journal, usually using writing exercises to create short scenes. This journal has so far produced three novels: Circle City Blues, An Unassigned Life, and Forsaking the Garden, which will be published by Inknbeans Press in June 2011.

I still write a thousand words a day when I’m working on a new manuscript. If I don’t, I actually suffer from a kind of withdrawal. Writing is more than my job – it’s my addiction. And nothing feels better than finishing a book.

Editing Tips and Tricks to Strengthen Your Work

Originally, I intended to post a book review today. However, despite my best efforts to like the book, I simply don’t. It could be the genre; I’m not a huge fan of espionage fiction, though I love a good spy thriller now and then. Or it could be the fact that the book really needs an editor. In that vein, I’m going to share some tips for self-editing that I think authors could benefit from.

Misuse of Semicolons and Colons

Remember this: in general, a semicolon has a full sentence on both sides of it.

Example:

I went to the store to buy peanut butter; however, they were out of my favorite brand.

If you see a semicolon that doesn’t have a full sentence (a noun and a verb at the bare minimum), you’re probably not using the correct punctuation. While there are exceptions to this rule, they are rare – at least as rare as black-footed ferrets.

As for colons, you want to use them instead of semicolons in sentences like this:

Example:

I went to the store to buy my favorite peanut butter: Jiffy.

You see how that works? “My favorite peanut butter” and “Jiffy” are the same thing. The colon is used to show that they are equivalent. As a reader, I have noticed that the semicolon is frequently used instead of a colon in situations like this, and that is just plain wrong.

Homophones

In the last book I read, the author uses “site” when he means “sight” throughout the book. This is the only consistent error in the author’s spelling, which leads me to believe that he meant to find and replace one instance of “sight” with “site” and accidentally replaced every “sight” in the book. Nevertheless, a group of beta readers would have seen that error and pointed it out to the author.

As a writer, I keep a list of words that I frequently confuse. For instance, I have a problem with “where” and “wear.” When I finish a book, I search for all instances of those words and make sure I’m using the appropriate one. Everyone has their quirks – it’s just a matter of rooting them out and keeping a stern eye on them.

EditMinion

I highly recommend that you use editminion.com. This is a fantastic free tool that another author, Mari Miniatt, suggested. This tool will evaluate the strength of your prose and let you know the frequency with which you are using certain words. Just copy and paste a chapter into it and use its suggestions to tighten things up a bit.

Kindle

If you own a Kindle, you have a fantastic editing tool. When you’ve finished your manuscript, email the document to your Kindle email address and let the Kindle read your book to you. You’ll be amazed at how many mistakes you will catch simply by hearing your book read aloud.

If you don’t own a Kindle, I recommend reading your work aloud to yourself; I’d wait until the house was empty before I did it, though.

In conclusion, if you don’t have the resources or the inclination to hire an editor, at least attempt to edit your work yourself. Your readers will thank you for it by buying your books and recommending your work to others.

Great Advice from an Australian Agent

If you want to follow a blog written by someone in the publishing industry, Agent Sydney is a great choice. Responding to questions from authors, she tells it like it is.

Yesterday's post, Dude, where's your punctuation?, is a wake-up call for anyone who thinks that agents and publishers will overlook bad grammar, punctuation, and style if the story is good enough. Long story short, they won't. If you want to succeed, you have to know how to write clearly in your language of choice.

Trying to write a good novel without a grasp on proper grammar and punctuation is like trying to paint without knowing what size brush you need or how to hold it. If you find yourself in this predicament, I highly recommend you enroll in a Grammar and Rhetoric class at your local community college. Artists take classes to perfect their technique. Writers should, too.

Happy writing!

Fantastic Advice from Smashwords Founder

If you want e-book publishing success, read this blog:

Smashwords: The Seven Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success: "This past weekend at the Self Publishing Book Expo in New York, I presented my Seven Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success. I embedded the pr..."

Happy writing!

Susan Wells Bennett

The First Avondale Writers' Conference

I attended my first writers’ conference yesterday: the first Avondale Writers’ Conference. And no, that’s not the “First Annual” writers’ conference – please don’t make that mistake. Nothing is annual until it has happened more than once.

The highlight of the event was the keynote speaker, J.A. Jance. I will admit that I have never even picked up any of her books before. After hearing her speak yesterday though, I think I will. Her personal journey to becoming an author was inspiring and fascinating.

Other than that, much of what I heard yesterday was a rehash of what I already knew. The man who spoke about self-publishing was a non-fiction author who was so out of touch with the current ebook market that his opinions on the subject were obsolete. He still thinks the height of ebook technology is a PDF. The woman who presented the seminar on creating great dialogue basically gave us an hour’s worth of movie quotes. While entertaining, this really did nothing to enhance my ability to write great dialogue.

And finally, one of the speakers offered this little gem: don’t use adjectives or adverbs. Having recently read a romance novel by an author who took this to heart, I would like to clarify this advice. Here is a sample sentence:

 “I love the amusement park!” he said happily.

If you are replacing the single adverbial word “happily” with a phrase like “with a smile on his face,” please go back to the adverb. Adverbs ARE NOT the enemy, people. If you want to target something for elimination, “said” and its equivalents – from here on referred to collectively as “saidisms” – are the ones to aim at. Instead, try this:

“I love the amusement park!” He bounced on his toes at the thought of riding a rollercoaster.

If you find that you use a lot of “saidisms” in your first draft, don’t worry about it. That’s why it’s called a first draft. When you review your completed manuscript, carefully consider whether the “saidism” can be replaced by an action or gesture the character is making.

Remember, it is not necessary to completely eradicate “saidisms.” This should not be a categorical genocide. After all, “saidisms” are not inherently evil; they can’t help it if they have been misused by bad writers the world over.

All in all, I was left with a favorable impression of writers’ conferences. I look forward to attending more of them in the future. While some might have found it disheartening to realize how many aspiring authors are out there just in the Phoenix area, I truly enjoyed the opportunity to chat with others who share similar aspirations.

Happy writing!

Susan Wells Bennett

The Folly of Imagination

"Having imagination, it takes you an hour to write a paragraph that, if you were unimaginative, would take you only a minute. Or you might not write the paragraph at all."

---Franklin P. Adams, Half a Loaf (1927)

Don't be embarrassed if you've never heard of Franklin P. Adams. I found this quote in a thesaurus of quotations published the year before I was born, and I had to look the guy up on Wikipedia. The truth behind his words made me laugh, so I thought I'd share it with you.

For your edification, Franklin P. Adams was an American columnist best known for his column, "The Conning Tower." He was also a member of the famous Algonquin Round Table, a society which yielded one of my favorite writers: Dorothy Parker. If he has been lost in the shuffle of the last fifty years or so (he died in 1960), it certainly isn't because of any lack of on the part of his imagination.

As a writer, I have been guilty of years of procrastination which I conveniently laid at the doorstep of "writer's block." I claimed that my imagination was essentially clogged -- like a rusty old pipe in need of a good Roto-Rootering. The truth is that I am the one who allowed my imagination to rust: I stopped writing.

The moral of the story is this: if you want your imagination to flourish, write every day. You'll be amazed at how much better your imagination flows.

Okay...enough with the plumbing analogies. I need to go write.

Susan Wells Bennett

Welcome!

A little over a year ago, I had a great idea. After years of writing and editing for others, I decided it was time to actually do that which I had been claiming I would eventually get done: write a novel.

In July 2009, I made a promise to myself that I would write 1,000 words a day toward achieving my goal. To date, that promise has resulted in three complete novels and one half-done manuscript (which will get 1,000 words added to it today).

Along the way, I discovered three things that helped me achieve this goal:

1. Daily Journaling. As a writer, the most important thing you can do is keep a journal. What you write is less important than the fact that you are writing. I use my journal to contain the results of my writing exercises and, when I'm frustrated, to vent. So far, my daily journal "seeds" have grown two novels.

2. Stop Re-Reading. For me, the process of writing flows best when I don't spend a lot of time reviewing what I've already written. If I try to edit as I go along, I get bogged down in trying to fix it. Here's a hint I should have learned from my mechanically gifted father: you can't fix something before you've got all the pieces. Wait until you're done writing and editing will be a snap.

3. Create Good Writing Habits. Set a goal of a certain number of words a day and stick with it. If 1,000 sounds too daunting, start with 100. make an effort to reach your writing goal every day for a month. After that first month, you'll feel like you're missing something when you don't sit down and write.

I invite all writers to join me here. I'll be providing writing exercises daily and reviews of indie-written novels as I read them. I look forward to getting to know you.

Susan Wells Bennett
The Thief of Todays and Tomorrows
Circle City Blues
The Prophet's Wives