Joelle Steele's Blog: A Writer's Thoughts ... - Posts Tagged "writing"

It would seem that writing a book, especially a novel, should be a very simple process. Well, it probably is for some writers. But for me, I write books that are more complex, with plenty of trivia to support my characters and the plot. I'm also very particular about the grammar and syntax and the other finer aspects of writing. This means that my process adheres to some of the stricter, more standard writing methods.

I don't ever write a book until I have thoroughly researched the market to ensure someone else hasn't already written a similar story or covered the same subject matter. No sense in reinventing the wheel. I want to write something original, something different, every time I write a book. I go online, to the library, and to bookstores to see what's being published and what's selling. I do this at least two to three times each year. A writer needs to keep up with the times, especially when it has to do with an investment of a few hundred hours of your writing time.

I then research my subject matter. So, I might read a few books on a subject or I might read several chapters or articles about several smaller topics that will play a prominent role in my novel. I try very hard to avoid online research unless it is for those smaller topics. There are just too many websites with inaccurate information on them. It's not that a book can't have an error in it, but most books have had some form of editorial oversight, and that is something that is missing from the Internet.

I create my characters by writing short profiles about who they are, longer profiles for primary characters – my next blog entry is about character development. Then I do a plot chart. This helps me determine how the storyline is going to flow from one chapter to another and what I want to reveal in each chapter. Using the plot chart, I create an outline. My outlines are not very formal in structure, and they vary dramatically in their complexity and detail from book to book and from chapter to chapter within each book.

I'm now ready to start writing my first draft, usually right into the outline. But I don't always start with Chapter 1. Sometimes I'm motivated to write a particular chapter, and so I work on that first. I write quickly without spending too much time on details. I just want to get the flow of the story in place.

Once I've completed this first draft, I do my first edit, which includes fleshing out the draft with more details. I usually do at least two more edits before I send the manuscript to my content editor. After I get it back from her, I make any changes she suggested that I think are valid ones. Then I do another edit before I have it proofed. My next step is typesetting the book to send to the printer. My final step is to make the ebook.

In my next post, character development.

In my last post I said I was going to talk about querying. This is something that every writer needs to be able to do in order to get articles and books published. Many books and articles have been written about querying, and the Writer's Market usually includes a section on querying methods. This is how I handle querying.

Query letters are almost entirely done by email these days. They require five things: 1) one short introductory paragraph that describes the article or book; 2) one short paragraph that describes why the publisher's readers would like to read your proposed article or book; 3) one short paragraph that describes your credentials for writing the article; 4) a short closing paragraph that says something along the lines of "Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you soon"; and 5) all your contact information – name, address, phone number(s), email address, and website address.

That first introductory paragraph does not need to be cutesy or "captivating." I start mine by simply saying "I am seeking a publisher for my (article/book) entitled "Blah blah blah." In the second paragraph I mention that my article or book might be complementary to or a good companion piece to certain articles or books they have published previously. As for the third paragraph, if you haven't been published, you should state that you have a degree in English (or some other subject), or that you write the newsletter for a club you belong to, or you write reports for your employer, etc.

If you have several article ideas for the same magazine, you can mention in the fourth paragraph that you also have some other ideas they might want to consider, and that they are at the end of the email where you can write just a very short paragraph for each, something along the lines of "Title: This article is about the ..." In that way, I have often sold as many as eight articles to a magazine in one fell swoop, although they will not all appear at the same time.

As for knowing what subjects to query and who to query, I go to the library and go through the Writer's Market once a year and write down the names of all the magazines for which I have sufficient subject knowledge to write an article. Every week, I go to the library to look at magazines, and I do the same online. I also subscribe to magazines that are not listed in Writer's Market and that don't publish everything online that is in their print editions.

For every magazine that I think is a potential market for my writing, I get a copy of their writer's guidelines. All this research allows me to familiarize myself with what everyone is publishing and how my article ideas might fit in – or not. I don't want to query a publisher for a subject they already published last year or last month. Publishers want writers who are familiar with their publications, the style of the writing, the subject matter, and who their readers are.

I query a lot of publishers on a lot of subjects, and I send out my query letters every month, often every week. This is especially important for those who are trying to get published for the first time, which usually means an article in a magazine. Trying to get a book published when you have no published credentials to back up your writing ability is a waste of time for most first-time writers. Although these days it is a little easier to get a book publisher's attention if your book is already written, and professionally edited, and proofed.

Querying monthly (at the very least) helps prevent sales slumps that occur when you query like crazy in March, get writing assignments from those queries in June, then write the articles from July through September that won't be published until November and December, for which you won't get paid until February. And during all that time, you have no writing income and have to start querying all over again, and a year has gone by! Get a good-sized desk calendar and map out when, what, and who you are going to query. Many or most magazines publish their editorial calendars that show the kinds of articles they will be publishing during certain times of the year.

Query them on those topics at least six months before the article would likely appear if accepted. The more often you query and the more publishers you query with a wide variety of article ideas, the more likely you are to get published and be able to make your living, at least in part, from your writing. In other words, query as if your life depends on it.

In my next post, I'm going to talk about building a support network for your writing pursuits.