Mette Ivie Harrison's Blog, page 5

Stop Trying to Impress Your English Teacher

I see a lot of writers who seem to be still trying to impress their English teacher. By this, I mean that they think “good writing” is about good grammar and good spelling. They also seem to think that “good writing” is about using sophisticated vocabulary, about having a perfect metaphor or other literary device. Or about having a great descriptive paragraph. I think this is what Stephen King means in his book “On Writing” when he talks about writers who seem to be trying to write a Master’s thesis instead of a novel. They want to do a paint by numbers version of a book. They want someone to give them the rules, the template. And there isn’t any such thing.

“Good writing” isn’t going to look the same for you as it does for me. That’s one of the problems of writing. When I was first starting out, sure I tried to write exactly like some of my favorite writers. This is a pretty normal first step. It’s a great way to practice writing, don’t get me wrong. It just isn’t anything other than practice. It’s not a masterwork. It’s not anything that’s worthy of being published. Because it isn’t new. And that’s the trick of writing. “Good writing” is brand new. It’s something no one else has written yet.

It may or may not fit into a genre. It will certainly mess with expectations of readers and editors. It may make your agent shrug and say, “I have no idea what this is, but I love it.” Or it may make your agent say, “I have no idea who to sell this.” Some people are going to hate your good writing. Some of them will be English teachers who have no idea what to do with it, or how to analyze it. That’s OK. You’re inventing it as you go along. You should always feel like you’re on the top of a cliff, looking down, breathless and afraid that you might fall.

Writing may make you feel exhilarated. It may exhaust you word by word. But the thing writing should never do is make you feel like you are doing homework. It should matter to you in a way that homework never does, because homework is work that someone else has set you. Writing is work that you set yourself. Writing is real life. Writing matters. Writing changes the world. Writing changes you. It might change your English teacher, but who cares? Because you’re not looking back anymore. You’re looking forward. You’re already thinking about the next audacious, unbelievable, uncategorizable, rude, mind-blowing, weird thing you’re going to write next. And good for you! But you won’t get a grade on it, and if you did, it wouldn’t be an “A.”

Connections

When I was an aspiring author, I spent a lot of time lamenting the fact that I couldn’t go to conferences and have those chance encounters that other authors talked about being vital to them getting published. I had small children and no money, so all I could basically do was write a lot and occasionally send things out. I had connections, but I only ever thought of them as “friends,” some of them published authors, some of them not yet published.

Guess what? I sold my first book to someone I’d never met, got my first agent without ever having met him in person, and worked with editors for years without going to conferences out of state. I won’t say that my career wouldn’t have been better if I’d been able to do those things, but I have no proof of it. I didn’t go on book tour and I didn’t do book signings. Seriously, I remember I told someone in about 2009 that I was going to my first book signing ever. That was 7 years after I pubbed my first book. Again, I’m not going to say this helped my career, but I have no direct evidence it hurt it, either.

Now that my kids are older and I have a little more money, I can go to conferences. My publisher now sometimes sends me to conferences or on book tour. And that’s great in many ways. I even chair my own conference (Writing For Charity) that’s a one-day thing where all the money goes to charity and authors do on-the-spot critiques. I also manage Sundance One-Day Writing Retreats, where we invite editors and agents to come and meet with a select group of people whose first chapter they’ve read.

Over and over again, I watch aspiring authors get flustered, overwhelmed, embarrassed, or become speechless in these situations. Sometimes they are so anxious they have to lie down to recover or to prepare. They nearly have heart attacks worrying over whether or not they’ll ruin this “one-time chance” to land a big agent or to get an editor interested in their work. And I say to them:

Sometimes as writers, we focus so much on getting the words right (which we absolutely need to do) that we forget in situations like this that what matters isn't this moment, but the connections that we make with everyone we meet.

A consult isn't a make it or break it moment. This is just one step on a journey. And we're all your friends along the way. I can't tell you how many times I've ended up making a connection that really mattered without knowing it and thought that I was simultaneously blowing the connection that didn't matter at  all in the long run.

The agent you think you desperately want is probably not the right agent for you. They were the right agent for your favorite author, but you are not that author and you’re not publishing your book at the same time, in the same environment. You need the right person for you, for the publishing world now, and you know what? You will find the right person. You absolutely will. It just won’t be when you think it will.

Worry less about getting a book sold today and more about a long-term career as an author and finding the right match for the rest of your career, not just one book. Ask agents about the publishing world. Ask for advice about other good agents, specifically or in general. Ask other authors the same questions. Do your best and let that be enough.

This isn’t a contest. It’s not the lottery because your chances are way, way better. In fact, though we talk about luck in the publishing world, that’s only about luck regarding one specific book at one specific moment. As an author, you’re going to be writing a lot of great things, and one of them is going to be absolutely right, eventually. Just don’t stress about the one right in front of you.

Listen, learn, be kind.

Just Regular People

At my writer's group last night, we talked about this idea we all had that published writers were somehow gods, that we couldn't talk to them because we weren't worthy, and that our first drafts must somehow be so much worse than real writers. It turned out to be completely untrue. Writers are just regular people. And this was super important to becoming writers because unless you realize that, you will never believe you can be a writer.

Published writers don't somehow learn how to skip the revising process. They write crappy words the first time around, too. Or they spend months/years thinking things out in their heads before they even start writing. Published writers are nervous about what other people think about their writing: reviewers, friends, their agents/editors. Published writers have writer's block. They sometimes feel like they're just writing the same thing over and over again (which might be true or not). They write things they think are really good, and some thing they don't (even sometimes their bestselling stuff).

Most important of all, what I've learned is that unpublished writers often have things to teach published writers. Just because you're published doesn't mean you know everything. It doesn't mean that you are the best writer in the world, either. Many unpublished writers I know are superb writers. They are unpublished for a variety of reasons. Some don't care about being published. Some are writing things that have a small audience but are beautiful and brilliant. Some just haven't made the connection that will soon make them very, very big.

When Your Magic System Isn’t Working:

Is it too powerful?
Is it a metaphor for something in our world, but you don’t carry through on it?
Do you have an explanation for how you get it that seems racist?
Is it all rainbows and unicorns and no dark consequences?
Does it turn off and on according to the whims of you, the author?
Does it never, ever fail? Is it almost too scientific?
Is it all about gaining knowledge from books and not about spontaneity or experimentation?
Do people get more of it who seem to deserve it?
Do you explain things in a perfectly straight forward way?
Is there a past related to the magic system that isn’t acknowledged openly?

Sometimes, I think that magic needs to mirror the injustices of our real world. Good people don’t always get rewards. Bad people aren’t always punished. Following the rules doesn’t always result in doing better.

How long does it take for a book to be published? And why?

When I got an offer for my first book, The Monster In Me, I was astonished when they said that the book was slated for publication in 2 years. 2 YEARS!!! What could possibly take that long. I’d already worked on four different drafts of this manuscript. I had a PhD in language and had written a dissertation all by myself. I had been the editor of a college newspaper. My grammar (in English and German) was impeccable.

And so I found out. It takes about 6-8 months (and this is if nothing goes wrong) for an editor to get an editorial letter back to you on the first round. And then even if you are super fast and revise in a month or two, the editor will take another 4-6 months to get you another letter. And most of the time, you will go through at least 3 revisions on a book. Often, you will go through 4 or 5 or even 6. Your book may actually be pushed back if this happens, because you are working so hard to get it as good as it can possibly be in order to be published and get the send-off it deserves. This is particularly important if you are a debut author. If you don’t get good reviews, it can be nearly impossible to sell a second book under the same name.

Now, do you REALLY need to go through that many rounds of edits? Yes. Yes, yes, and yes. When someone asked me what the main difference was for me between publishing traditionally and trying my hand at self-publication on some sequels of my traditionally published books, what I regret most is not being able to hire an editor who isn’t being paid by me to go through that many rounds of edits. Every editor I’ve worked with has made my book better. Some have made my book so much better that I think they are akin to gods.

Then what? The book has to be copyedited. Yes, they hire an entirely different person than the previously brilliant person who worked on your book before. This person is persnickety at a level you, as an English major, have never even met before. Believe me. Even if you work as a copy-editor, I guarantee someone else’s fresh eyes on your work will find mistakes you didn’t realize were there.

Then there are the galleys/proofs. This is your very last chance to find minute errors. They always sneak their way into the manuscript. When I have people occasionally complain about how bad editors are in the book business because they find an error once in a hundred pages, I laugh. That is when it’s been edited six or seven times. It would otherwise be riddled with errors. I have also changed a few more substantial things, yes, even at this stage. Because I want may book to be the best that it can be.

Then what? The book gets made into ARCs, paperback versions that may or may not have the right cover on them. These are made to send out to reviewers. Do you really need this stage? Well, I’ve heard of authors delivering books so late that there were no ARCs before publication. Maybe big-name authors can survive this, but my books sure can’t. I want to make sure every reviewer possible has a chance to look at my manuscript in advance. Even if they don’t write a glowing review, at least someone is talking about it.

After that, there are tours to plan, if you’re lucky. Blog tours if there’s less money in your promotional budget. Advertisement money has to be allocated and just at the right time. You want to plan a launch party, possibly other book signings and appearances at appropriate conferences.

And don’t forget, during all of this, you’d better have the next book written because if it’s going to come out a year after the first one, it will already have to be sent to your editor before book #1 comes out.

So, yes, it turns out that two years is not an unreasonable amount of time from a book being accepted for publication and it actually coming out. Rushing it is not a good strategy.

You'll Have Time

At my event at the Huntsville Library last night, I was asked about what to do if you're a shy, introverted type and you don't know if you You'll Have Timecould do book signings, promotional stuff, interviews,or anything out in public like going to conferences or even schmoozing people at dinner.

This is what I said:
1. Almost every author I know is an introvert. we figure out how to put on a face and pretend we're extroverted for a couple of hours a day.
2. And then we crash. It's not abnormal for me to spend a day before and after an event just relaxing and getting nothing done because I have to recover from expending so much energy.
3. For your first book, it is extremely unlikely that you will end up having to do much in the way of self-promotion. Mostly, you're off the radar. Sure, a couple of book signings and a talk to a handful of people.
4. If you want to do school visits, practice on your own kids' classrooms. It's hard to be too nervous looking into the shining faces of a group of 7 year olds.
5. Do social media (if it appeals to you). For many introverts, social media is the panacea. You get to have as much social contact as you want while you want it. Then you just turn it off and live in your own head again.
6. It is a reality that successful authors in this day are expected to do yearly touring and interviews and other stuff. If you get all that, before you panic, remember to be grateful for the attention. Then feel free to panic.
7. Talk to your agent and editor about what their expectations are. If you are really unable to do anything, they can work around you.

So basically, there's time for you to get better at it. No one is really good at it, but we fake it with practice. It takes a lot of energy and you have to build that into your equation.

Typical School Day Schedule for Writing:

6:30 Wake up and get kids breakfast/sack lunches
7:00 go back to sleep
8:00 wake up and look at emails/social media
8:30 actually start writing
11:30 time for my workout
1:00 lunch break
2:00 goes back to business things, such as conference stuff, writing posts, etc.
4:00 time for errands and family stuff

Why Do I Care about Him/Her?

(A main character needs to be sympathetic in one way or another, but they don’t always have to be kind or likable in ordinary ways. Here are a few that I think work.)

1. Competent
2. Passionate
3. Pitiable
4. Honorable
5. Suffering
6. Kind
7. Smart/clever/brilliant
8. Beautiful/wealthy
9. Funny
10. Far-sighted/visionary
11. Connected/loving
12. Lonely
13. Creative/gifted
14. Madness
15. Charming
16. Quiet/self-deprecating/humble
17. Driven/ambitious
18. Self-aware
19. Negotiator/compromising
20. Risk/taking/brave

metteharrison @ 2015-06-11T09:33:00

When You Should Self-Publish (IMHO)

If you have a niche audience you are uniquely situated to exploit.
If you have 30-40 hours a week to spend promoting your book smartly
If you have $ to spend promoting your book your book smartly.
If you have connections with cover artists, editors, designers who can help create the book itself.
If you have sent it around to publishers and they have responded with something like “this is great, but we don’t publish this kind of thing.”

How to do a Book Signing:

1. Have no expectations about number of people who will be there.
2. It's nice if the bookstore has a poster up about the event and a table ready for you. But be warned: they won't always.
3. There should be books for you to sign. You shouldn't have to bring your own. (Nonetheless, sometimes I've had to do this because a bookstore was just plain stupid.)
4. Speak nicely to the bookstore people (or library people). These are the people who will be selling your book for you after you're gone. This is probably the most important part of a book signing.
5. If people come to your book signing, make sure they feel they have gotten your attention. Don't act bored.
6. If possible, sign with other authors so you have someone to talk to. But don't talk while people are waiting for a book to be signed.
7. If people treat you like you are staff at the bookstore (it happens all the time), just gently direct them to the actual staff to deal with their questions.
8. Offer to sign stock before you leave, but don't be offended if they don't take you up on the offer.
9. Send a nice thank you note or email to whoever invited you afterward. Even if you didn't sell a single book, it was nice for them to invite you.
10. Start planning what you can do better at the next signing. It's partly your responsibility to get people there.