Rob Hart's Blog, page 11
June 28, 2015
Milwaukee Love
Thrilled to see the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had some very kind words for New Yorked.
“I loved this novel. It may be the most quixotic hard-boiled I’ve read in ages. With clever nods to Chandler (including giving Ash a fedora) and lots of muscular metaphors (“The two of them looked at me like I’m calculus”), Hart has written an achingly lovely farewell to one man’s past.”
Click here to read the whole thing, and see some other excellent books that were highlighted.
June 25, 2015
Three simple steps to a bulletproof novel outline
I went into New Yorked, my first novel, without an outline.
It took five years to write. Characters appeared, disappeared, and reappeared. Entire threads were added, removed, repurposes, rethought, and ultimately, trashed.
One of the lessons I learned over the course of those five years was: I’m the kind of writer who needs an outline. I knew the start and I knew the ending, but the middle—that’s where I was getting lost.
The second book, City of Rose, I wrote and delivered to my publisher in six months. Part of that was because I found my voice and my process. But a big part, too, was: I had an outline.
And it was a damn good outline. Because I took a cue from a friend of mine, who has this trick for writing short stories.
He writes the story, then trashes it. A day or two later, he rewrites it from scratch. The logic goes that he’ll only remember the good parts, and the rest, he’s had time to think about.
He trashes the second draft too, waits a few days, writes a third.
The third version is his working version, which gets subject to editing and rewriting.
So for City of Rose, I thought I would give that a try with the outline, because that’s where I was getting jammed up. I outlined the book in a Moleskine after I was done sorting out my notes and character sketches.
I went chapter by chapter, spelling out the place, the characters present, the conflict, and the hook to drive readers into the next chapter. No more than a paragraph for each.
Than I waited a few days. Without looking back, I rewrote it. And I only remembered the good stuff. The places where I hit a wall—I had fixes and answers, since I had time to think them over.
A few days later, I outlined again. That third version nailed the story, hit all the targets I wanted to hit, and guided me through the book.
Simple, right?
Write, trash, think.
Write, trash, think.
Write.
It’s important to note that an outline isn’t gospel. There were a few points where I veered off, or found in the writing that something needed to be moved or added or eliminated.
Think of an outline as a roadmap. You can cut around construction or take a longer route to get in some sightseeing—but you’ll arrive at your destination (the completion of the first draft) so much sooner if you’ve got some semblance of a plan.
What about you? Do you outline? Or do you write by the seat of your pants and hope you find the story in the process?
June 24, 2015
Roundup time
Two weeks out from the release of New Yorked, and things are chugging along nicely. Figured it was time to round some stuff up, for those who may have missed my incessant social media posts.
(And there’s a point to all this, as you’ll see at the end.)
First up, people have been asking about signed copies. You can order through The Mysterious Bookshop, and I will happily inscribe whatever you’d like. To do that, go here.
The Booked. podcast gave New Yorked some love—it’s a great show that features some really thoughtful, in-depth book talk. I like it a lot. Listen, then subscribe.
I wrote some guest posts, at Crimespree (on book promo), the Daily Beast (five books about NYC that I love), Criminal Element (page to screen on Death Wish), Chuck Wendig’s blog Terrible Minds (things I learned writing New Yorked), and Powell’s (disappearing New York City).
My hometown paper, the Staten Island Advance, ran a piece about the book (with a groovy photo gallery). There have also been some new reviews, over at Out of the Gutter and Pulp Fire.
Also—and this is too cool to not mention again—I had my first Barnes & Noble signing, and we sold out every copy of New Yorked they had. Woo!
This brings me to the point of all this—a new session of my LitReactor class, Sell Yourself, is starting July 14. In this fast-and-furious workshop, I run through the basics of marketing. All the stuff you actually need to know, with none of the bullshit filler people claim you need to know.
This will be the first session of the class I’ll be hosting after the launch of my book, so I’ll have a lot of exciting new things to add to the curriculum. Like, how I got some of the coverage I linked to in this post.
Check it out. It’s a fun class.
June 16, 2015
Booked. love
I’m a big fan of the Booked. podcast. The hosts, Robb and Livius—besides being nice guys—do some very thoughtful, in-depth book talk, which you don’t get a lot of these days.
Even better, they give time to a wide mix, from best sellers to small press stuff, shedding light on stories that often need all the love they can get.
It’s pretty thrilling to not only get the Booked. treatment for New Yorked—but to find that they really dug it. It’s a little trippy, listening to people break down and analyze your book. Awesome, too.
Listen to the podcast here. And if you haven’t already, subscribe to this thing.
June 11, 2015
Daily Beast love
Over at The Daily Beast, I shared five great books about New York City that inspired me to write New Yorked.
They are…
Wait, I’m not going to tell you. You have to go over there to find out!
Seriously though, these are some great books. All of which you should read.
Check out “Book Bag: Five Great Books About New York City” here.
Wendig love
If you’re a writer and you’re not reading Chuck Wendig’s blog on the regular, you’re missing out.
He’s an incredible resource, killing it on topics from craft to industry.
On top of that, he’s a fantastic author, so you’d do well to check out his books.
I’m very excited to have a piece up on his blog: Check out “Five Things I Learned Writing New Yorked” here.
Crimespree love
So I was sitting at a bar next to Jon and Ruth Jordan, the lovely couple behind Crimespree Magazine, and I’m talking about the endless slog of promo you need to do before a book launches, and Jon says, “You should write about that.”
So I did. And he was kind enough to run it.
Check out “Grist for the Twitter Mill” here.
It’s a guest post about guest posts. Truly, the snake eating its own tail.
June 10, 2015
Portland love
I love love love Powell’s. It’s the kind of bookstore you wish you could live inside, and I can’t walk out of there without an armload of books.
So it’s thrilling and wonderful that they’d give me some space on their blog to dish about New York and New Yorked. This is a personal one. I’m really happy with how it came out.
Check out “The End of Apocalypse” here.
Hometown love
Got a little love from my old employer, the Staten Island Advance, on the publication of New Yorked! Go here to see the article, which includes a groovy photo gallery and info on local events.
Signed copies
People have been asking where they can get signed copies of New Yorked. There are several options!
You can order from The Mysterious Bookshop—there are some copies left over from the event last night. Here’s how to do that.
Or, you can come out to the Staten Island Barnes & Noble on June 17. Details here.
Or, if we’re pals, you can just ask me and we’ll meet up and I’ll sign your copy.
But those first two options are good, too.
