Natasha Rhodes's Blog

Baby-Steps #1 – Picking A Title That Doesn’t Suck

When you think of all the great books that are out there, what do they all have in common?

A great title, I’m sure you’re thinking.

True. But for most books, the title is so memorable because of one thing: it was a great book. The book became popular first, the title got known, then the title became ‘great’. Not usually the other way around.Many writers use the title as their main reason for never getting off the starting block. “Yes, I’ve got a thousand great ideas, but what am I actually going to CALL it?” I hear them cry. Or my other personal favorite, “If only I could come up with the right title, my book would sell itself.”

Let me tell you this. The title is of secondary importance next to the actual  content. You can come up with the best title in the world, but if your content is pure doggy-do, people are still not going to read your book.  Unless you call your book “How To Get Popular, Get Thin Fast, Get Six-Pack-Abs, Get Free Beer, and Get Laid,” in which case you might just stand a chance.

Let’s look at some of the titles of the world’s biggest-selling books…

War and Peace The Color PurpleLolita The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn War of the WorldsHamlet The Great GatsbyA Midsummer Night’s DreamWuthering HeightsMiddlemarch

I’d bet that if written in today’s buzzword-happy, keyword-toting market none of these books would particularly inspire you to pick them up if you saw them on the bookstand at the airport. Yet these books have sold millions of copies and are regarded as some of the greatest novels ever written. Did their titles help them become so popular? No. They’re greatness is entirely due to their content.

THE LEAST YOU NEED TO KNOW

Don’t stress out if you can’t immediately think of a spectacularly great name for your novel. Often, the best way to get a title for you book is to simply start writing it. The most likely thing that’ll happen is that you’ll be mid-book when you’ll find a word or phrase jumps out at you from what you’ve just written. Voila! You’ve got your title. It’s better to let the title ‘happen’ to you this way, oirganically, rather than trying to force it.

Good luck!

The Fine Art of Procrastination: or How To Get The Damn Thing Started

So go on, let’s hear your excuse. Is your day too full of other commitments? Kids on your case? Dog ate your laptop? Too tired/ broke/ drunk/ confused/ depressed/ incontinent and/or overworked? Or (my personal favorite), There Just Aren’t Enough Hours in the Day. Right?

I’ve heard them all. That’s because I’ve made them all.

Let’s face it. Creative writing is hard. It’s harder than filing your tax return, harder than mending that annoying drawer in the kitchen whose bottom always falls halfway out when you open it and drops a carving knife through your left toe. If just the thought of typing CHAPTER ONE and staring at en empty screen brings you out in a cold sweat, take comfort. You are not alone.

So here’s the good news. Thousands of published writers feel the exact same way you do. They’ll use every conceivable excuse to put off writing a new book, and a few inconceivable ones. Writing a new book is like getting up five hours early in the morning when you’ve got a big important plane flight to get to. It’s so cold and dark out there, and so tempting just to hit the snooze switch a couple more times, savor those precious last few minutes of coziness, of Not-Writing.

Not-Writing is easy. Not-Writing also means that the great book that’s been brewing inside you all your life is never going to get Out There, to the unwashed and traditionally ungrateful masses. Not-Writing means you’ll never have to face your fears and do it anyway. Not writing means never having to say you’re sorry, because you never offended anybody in the first place.

It also means never knowing if your book could’ve hit #1 in Oprah’s Book Club and made you millions of dollars in royalties. Aren’t you even just the tiniest bit curious about that?

I’m hoping this blog will be your own personal wake-up call. I’m writing this primarily for my mother, who has been threatening to write a book for years (in much the same way that Mount Vesuvius has been threatening to erupt for years and end life as we know it), but feel free to tag along for the ride and see where it takes you.

THE LEAST YOU NEED TO KNOW:
Writing is hard.
Not-Writing is easy.

But there are ways you can go between the two stages without opening up a vein. Curious? More coming up soon…

So What To Write About?

Good question. In fact, that’s such a good question that the vast majority of writers spend many years pondering it, paralyzed by doubt, fear, and occasionally by the good folk at the local Wheel Clamping service after spending too long in Starbucks downing caffeine shots in order to fuel their next bout of pondering.

And in all those years, they are Not Writing. No published book for them.

I understand the worry. After all, the world is a big place. There are an infinite array of things you could potentially write about, and an equally infinite number of ways you could write about them. What if you pick the wrong subject? What if you pick the right subject, spend years crafting your masterpiece, then the week before you are due to proudly send your finished novel to the publisher, some a**hole releases a terrible comedy version of your *brilliant idea* at the box office and makes a hundred million dollars from it.

All valid concerns. With one solution. To wipe away all this paralyzing worry, you just have to ask yourself one question:

WHAT MAKES ME UNIQUE?

No, I’m not talking about the fact that you have a club foot, the fact that you still wear a crash helmet when you drive your car on the freeway or that your mother thinks your handmade pottery ashtrays are darling. What I mean is, what can you give your readers that NOBODY ELSE CAN?

In order to answer this question, we need to put the spotlight on YOU for a few minutes. Grab a notebook and a pen, and answer the following questions for me as briefly as you can:

1) What is my personal background?
2) Why do I want to write a book?
3) What do I think I can achieve by writing a book?
4) How will my life be different if I get a book published?

I will talk about each of these things in greater depth in later articles, but for now, congratulations, you’ve passed the first test. Pat yourself on the back, and get ready for the next stage….

How To Write a Great Book

Think you’ve got what it takes to write a book, but don’t know where to begin?

I originally started this author blog as a way of encouraging my highly literate yet nervous-of-writing mother to put pen to paper and have a shot at writing her first book. The rest of you are welcome to come along for the ride.

My goal is to guide you through the basics of planning and writing your book, and help you answer mind-bogglingly important questions such as: What do I write about? How do I know if I’m good enough? How do I get published? And (most importantly), When do I get paid? Read on…

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