Nancy Christie's Blog, page 36
April 7, 2021
Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 4.7.21 from Margaret Atwood
Words for writers from Margaret Atwood
The post Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 4.7.21 from Margaret Atwood appeared first on The Writer's Place.
April 6, 2021
“Book Sales Question: Why Do I Sell Fewer Books with Each Release?” Guest Post by Arielle Haughee
Photo by Louis Hansel on Unsplash
It’s every author’s dream: having skyrocketing book sales for Book #1, and then repeating that outcome for #2, #3, and so on.
Unfortunately, for many if not most authors (myself included), that outcome remains a dream.
No matter how many books you write and release, you just don’t see the same number of sales that the first book earned, let alone exceed that figure. And if you’re one of those authors who writes both fiction and nonfiction, or across several genr...
April 4, 2021
Thoughts on writing and life for April 2021
This is an edited excerpt from my newsletter, The Writing Life, for April 2021. You can also listen to it on my Living the Writing Life podcast.
Yesterday, while I was writing my April newsletter, The Writing Life, I was also enjoying one of my favorite kitchen aromas: the smell of yeast bread as it rose.
I was baking Easter bread, or paska as my Slovak grandmother called it—a mix of real butter, eggs, vanilla, sugar, flour and enough dried yeast to give me four round loaves and one mini-rounder, just for me.
For those of you who have never baked a yeast bread, there is a necessary process that starts out with proofing the yeast. You mix the yeast with some warm water (not too warm and not too cold, but just right) and sugar and maybe a pinch of ginger. (I’m not sure why the ginger, but I throw it in because that’s how the recipe came down to me.)
Then you wait and see if it comes to life. Does it start to bubble a bit, or does it just sit there looking like dirty dishwater? If the latter occurs, then either your yeast was too old, or the water was too hot or too cold.
But if the former transpires, then you are on your way to success because that means the yeast has life. It’s bubbling over with life!
And as long as you follow the process, you should end up with a delicious loaf or two of bread.
So, in that respect, making bread and writing have a lot in common. Think of your initial idea as the packet of yeast. It looks like it should work. You think it has potential.
Then you start to develop it—"proof it,” as it were. At this stage, one of two things will happen: either it just sits there or it starts to bubble. Grow. Give off that definite air of literary life.
Of course, as you continue to write, there’s always the risk that the piece will ultimately fail to reach its full potential.
For instance, if you let it sit too long unattended, whatever life that yeast idea had will slowly die and you won’t be able to bring it back to life.
If it’s subjected to cold drafts of criticism and negative input (from you or others), it won’t grow.
The trick is to give that ball of “dough” (the words, sentences and paragraphs) just enough time and attention to keep it alive, until it’s ready to be “baked” after the final round of edits.
Then comes the delivery process: you submit your work to journals, agents, editors, publishers (whichever suits the project) and hope that your “recipe” is one that they enjoy. And want more of!
Writing is a process, just like baking bread is a process, with both delivering some form of nourishment: bread feeding the body and writing feeding the soul — making the activity well worth the effort.
(Did you enjoy this excerpt? Sign up for my newsletter, The Writing Life with Nancy Christie, and receive a free writing-related tip sheet as a bonus!)
Yesterday, while I was writing my April newsletter, The Writing Life, I was also enjoying one of my favorite kitchen aromas: the smell of yeast bread as it rose.
I was baking Easter bread, or paska as my Slovak grandmother called it—a mix of real butter, eggs, vanilla, sugar, flour and enough dried yeast to give me four round loaves and one mini-rounder, just for me.
For those of you who have never baked a yeast bread, there is a necessary process that starts out with proofing the yeast. You mix the yeast with some warm water (not too warm and not too cold, but just right) and sugar and maybe a pinch of ginger. (I’m not sure why the ginger, but I throw it in because that’s how the recipe came down to me.)
Then you wait and see if it comes to life. Does it start to bubble a bit, or does it just sit there looking like dirty dishwater? If the latter occurs, then either your yeast was too old, or the water was too hot or too cold.
But if the former transpires, then you are on your way to success because that means the yeast has life. It’s bubbling over with life!
And as long as you follow the process, you should end up with a delicious loaf or two of bread.
So, in that respect, making bread and writing have a lot in common. Think of your initial idea as the packet of yeast. It looks like it should work. You think it has potential.
Then you start to develop it—"proof it,” as it were. At this stage, one of two things will happen: either it just sits there or it starts to bubble. Grow. Give off that definite air of literary life.
Of course, as you continue to write, there’s always the risk that the piece will ultimately fail to reach its full potential.
For instance, if you let it sit too long unattended, whatever life that yeast idea had will slowly die and you won’t be able to bring it back to life.
If it’s subjected to cold drafts of criticism and negative input (from you or others), it won’t grow.
The trick is to give that ball of “dough” (the words, sentences and paragraphs) just enough time and attention to keep it alive, until it’s ready to be “baked” after the final round of edits.
Then comes the delivery process: you submit your work to journals, agents, editors, publishers (whichever suits the project) and hope that your “recipe” is one that they enjoy. And want more of!
Writing is a process, just like baking bread is a process, with both delivering some form of nourishment: bread feeding the body and writing feeding the soul — making the activity well worth the effort.
(Did you enjoy this excerpt? Sign up for my newsletter, The Writing Life with Nancy Christie, and receive a free writing-related tip sheet as a bonus!)
March 31, 2021
Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 3.31.21 from Hilary Mantel
Words for writers from Hilary Mantel
The post Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 3.31.21 from Hilary Mantel appeared first on The Writer's Place.
March 25, 2021
My Review of Fool’s Errand by Jeffrey S. Stephens
(This is an excerpt from my review of Fool's Errand that was posted on my Focus on Fictionblog.)
Fool's Errand
is about a young man who was given a letter written to him by his father Blackie who had died six years earlier. A father who, though charming, also lived on the edges of organized crime. A father that the son loved but didn’t want to emulate.The letter sends the son on a quest to discover what his father is referring to—“something really big” is how his father describes it in the letter—but the item in question is more of a MacGuffin: that mysterious object that everyone wants and that keeps the story moving forward. But that’s not really what the novel is about.
It’s about seeking that which is lost—not a thing, but a relationship.
And about understanding people—those who are still here and those who have gone—and their motivations and characters to a greater degree and to a deeper level.
Or about value—how one’s life experiences helped influence the worth placed on intangibles such as honor, friendships and beliefs.
That the book is well-written, entertaining and descriptive is a given. As the son seeks to unravel the meaning behind the letter his father left for him, his journey takes him from New York to Las Vegas, and ultimately to the south of France, with the kind of “you are there” details that a gifted writer provides.
But it’s also a journey into his past as memories crowd his mind, and, as he talks with people who knew his father, a journey into the shadows of his father’s past as well.
Fool’s Errand is about the illumination that comes when the son digs deeper into his father’s past and gains a more nuanced understanding of the man. It’s full of twists and turns, recollections and revelations, perceptions and misconceptions.
My advice? Read the book. You'll love it!
March 24, 2021
Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 3.24.21 from Grace Paley
Words for writers from Grace Paley
The post Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 3.24.21 from Grace Paley appeared first on The Writer's Place.
March 17, 2021
Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 3.17.21 from Margaret Atwood
Words for writers from Margaret Atwood
The post Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 3.17.21 from Margaret Atwood appeared first on The Writer's Place.
March 10, 2021
Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 3.10.21 from Marguerite Yurcenar
Words for writers from Marguerite Yurcenar
The post Wednesday Writing Inspiration for 3.10.21 from Marguerite Yurcenar appeared first on The Writer's Place.
March 9, 2021
Tuesday’s Tips: Updating Your Online Identity
Updating Your Online IdentityWhen was the last time you spent a few hours updating your online identity? If you’re like me, it probably hasn’t been recent enough—something I realized after reviewing my profile on one of the many sites where I have a presence.
It didn’t take long for me to see my information was out of date, since it referred to my latest book, PERIPHERAL VISIONS AND OTHER STORIES, as “coming soon” even though in a few months the book will have been out for a year.
How embarrass...
March 3, 2021
Thoughts on writing and life for March 2021
The other morning, I went out early for my walk, even though despite the sunshine it was still cold—really cold. (That’s the thing about Ohio. How it looks from inside the house is vastly different from how it feels when you go outside!)
But I went, not because I was particularly enthusiastic about doing my 2.7 miles but actually because of the reverse. Lately, I’d been feeling sluggish, tired, generally pooped out, and I hoped that at least doing some cardio (such as it was) might rev me up, physically and mentally.
While I walked, I went through my list of what I had to accomplish: a couple of client projects, a redo of the Powerpoint slides for a webinar I’m giving next month, new strategies to generate book sales. But it all felt a little too “been there, done that” like I was spinning my wheels but going nowhere fast.
Then, as I walked up my driveway, I saw it: the first early blades of something green (crocus, maybe?) poking through the still-cold ground. How brave of that plant to stick its little nose out (so to speak) when there was a very good chance that in the next day or so, snow might fall again!
When flowers like irises, snowdrops and hyacinths emerge, it reminds us that, no matter how cold and dark the winter may have been, there is still life ready to appear, and that spring is just around the corner!
And I suppose that also applies to our writing life. While in theory we should have been very productive since COVID eliminated the possibility of going anywhere but to our home office, the fact is that all that enforced restriction and isolation has led many of us (myself definitely included!) to feel burned out and bummed out.
It’s hard to be optimistic about anything when it seems like all we are doing is waiting. We pitch a story idea and wait. We reach out to reviewers and wait. We submit our work to competitions and wait. We query agents or publishers and wait. And the longer we wait, the more we believe that it has all been in vain, that no one wants what we are writing, that what we have written isn’t good enough to win an award or get us representation or be published.
That’s how I was feeling when I spotted those brave little stems of green. And ridiculous as it may sound, that’s all it took to make me feel a little better, a little hopeful, a little more like there might still be something ready to blossom for me. There was just a tiny stem of hope, a tender blade of enthusiasm, poking through the frozen soil that was my spirit.
Tomorrow when I go out, I’ll look for more signs of spring in my flowerbed. And when I get back in my home office, I’ll do my best to keep that reminder of possibility alive. And maybe, just maybe, something will bloom.
But I went, not because I was particularly enthusiastic about doing my 2.7 miles but actually because of the reverse. Lately, I’d been feeling sluggish, tired, generally pooped out, and I hoped that at least doing some cardio (such as it was) might rev me up, physically and mentally.
While I walked, I went through my list of what I had to accomplish: a couple of client projects, a redo of the Powerpoint slides for a webinar I’m giving next month, new strategies to generate book sales. But it all felt a little too “been there, done that” like I was spinning my wheels but going nowhere fast.
Then, as I walked up my driveway, I saw it: the first early blades of something green (crocus, maybe?) poking through the still-cold ground. How brave of that plant to stick its little nose out (so to speak) when there was a very good chance that in the next day or so, snow might fall again!
When flowers like irises, snowdrops and hyacinths emerge, it reminds us that, no matter how cold and dark the winter may have been, there is still life ready to appear, and that spring is just around the corner!
And I suppose that also applies to our writing life. While in theory we should have been very productive since COVID eliminated the possibility of going anywhere but to our home office, the fact is that all that enforced restriction and isolation has led many of us (myself definitely included!) to feel burned out and bummed out.
It’s hard to be optimistic about anything when it seems like all we are doing is waiting. We pitch a story idea and wait. We reach out to reviewers and wait. We submit our work to competitions and wait. We query agents or publishers and wait. And the longer we wait, the more we believe that it has all been in vain, that no one wants what we are writing, that what we have written isn’t good enough to win an award or get us representation or be published.
That’s how I was feeling when I spotted those brave little stems of green. And ridiculous as it may sound, that’s all it took to make me feel a little better, a little hopeful, a little more like there might still be something ready to blossom for me. There was just a tiny stem of hope, a tender blade of enthusiasm, poking through the frozen soil that was my spirit.
Tomorrow when I go out, I’ll look for more signs of spring in my flowerbed. And when I get back in my home office, I’ll do my best to keep that reminder of possibility alive. And maybe, just maybe, something will bloom.
