Alane Adams's Blog, page 5

The Writing Life: Beam Me Up Scotty!

In the television series Star Trek, Captain Kirk is always in some dire situation, about to be eaten by a galactic monster or blown to smithereens, but then, he pushes the button on his communicator and he’s magically whisked out of danger onto the safety of the Enterprise. It’s kind of a letdown, like the air going out of your balloon. You’re right there with Kirk as he’s using his phaser and fighting back, but then, just like that, he gets saved. Kind of feels cheap to me. Like the only way he can ever get out of danger is to have his atoms rearranged, although I guess that is a pretty cool trick. I’ve never had my atoms rearranged though as I get older, they seem to rearrange themselves. I wonder if Kirk could have found another way to save himself. Detonated the antimatter bomb without conveniently being whisked away at the last second. As a writer, you have to be careful not to offer an easy out for your character. They have to really, really want to win the prize, whatever your plot hook is. They have to battle, they have to face large obstacles, and they have to overcome them. Someone else can’t ride in and save them the way Scotty does when he beams Kirk back on board the ship. So as you craft those moments of great danger, be sure your hero, your main guy or gal, the protagonist in your story, is the one doing the rescuing. You don’t want to take your readers to the edge of their seat and then just tell them, “It’s fine! We pushed a button and we were saved! Yeah!”

Make your heroes suffer, make them bloodied and bruised, let them face death, despair, and a blackness darker than night. Then when all is lost, let them find a glimmer of hope, a way out, give them a second wind, then let them kick ass. Because that’s ultimately what we want from our heroes, to have them face the most insurmountable odds and overcome them. It gives us a sense of comfort that we, too, can face life’s odds and triumph. I’m sure Kirk fought plenty of battles he won with his fists, and we can forgive him for occasionally getting out of danger by beaming himself out of it. Just be sure in your manuscript, you let the hero do the saving.

Keep writing!

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The Writing Life: Winter Is Coming

If you’re a Game of Throne’s fan, the line “Winter is coming” strikes a deep chord of fear, even though the reader has no clear idea of what it means at that point. It’s the same way the soundtrack from Jaws duh duh duh duh duh duh….raises the hair on the back of your neck long before you ever see the shark’s fin. The words imply a darker meaning than a mere change of seasons. This is the Stark family motto. There is a portent of something deeper. Death. War. A chilling, merciless future is ahead and they know it. As an author, creating those signature lines of text help define the entire novel. “To be or not to be.” Who am I? Hamlet ponders. Why am I here? What is my life about? Memorable lines take a light touch. Martin didn’t write, “The icy, freezing, snow-blasted season is heading at us like a freight train.”

Sometimes less is more.

“Winter is coming” is a promise to the reader. It promises: if you take this ride with me, I will take you places you can’t imagine, dark and scary places, exciting places, dangerous places. There is a sense of inevitability. Winter cannot be stopped any more than the sun can be talked out of rising. Winter is not something we can control. “Is coming” portends the inescapability of it.

As you’re drafting that manuscript, use the power of less. Cut out unnecessary words. Strip your sentences down to bare bones. You can sprinkle the flowery stuff in here and there and it will be a welcome relief, a treat for the reader, instead of a gluttony of words written to fatten your manuscript. If you are sparing in your descriptions, your character’s actions will be the muscle that drives your story. Search for that signature line that will make the reader’s hair on the back of their neck stand up.

Keep writing!

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The Writing Life: Sting Like A Bee, Float Like A Butterfly

Writing is a lot like boxing. The path to success is a hard fought battle. In Rocky, we see how the challenge to be a champion, to race to the top of the steps, to emerge with the heavyweight belt, is an arduous journey. Boxers have to learn to jab and punch. Writing is the same way. Learning to punch with sharp lines, to jab with a scene that comes out of nowhere, requires intensive training. A boxer needs to stay light on his feet, dancing left to right. A manuscript which is bogged down with heavy writing will never win a fight. Sting like a bee, float like a butterfly… What does that mean for a writer? For me, that means giving the reader the zing they are looking for, offering a dramatic, near impossible barrier to success for my protagonist, then delivering a grand payoff that restores the reader’s hope and optimism. Reading should be like watching an evenly matched fight where you are waiting with bated breath to see who will remain standing. A good book carries you away to a world where surprises await, a random punch can take out a main character, and every victory is hard fought. Ultimately, you  want your readers to feel transported, like they are the ones in the ring fighting, throwing the punches, that they exist within your character.

The path to becoming  a writer means learning to take the punches and getting back on your feet. You’re going to hear things about your book that you don’t like. You’re going to have reviews that are less than stellar. You’re going to have critics. A glass jaw will shatter. An iron jaw takes the blow then fights back, improving, editing, and cutting where needed. A writer’s success depends on remaining upright, sustaining a sense of self-worth even as the blows rain down. Writers are full of doubt, insecurity, and a large measure of self-loathing over every word they write, worrying that it is never going to be good enough. They are vulnerable to punches. A single soft tap to the jaw can take them to their knees. “This book is derivative, a scrapbook of other stories told better…”  These words can cut like a knife. But the true writer stays on his feet, weaving, jabbing, punching, even as the brow is bloodied and the eye swells closed.

Rocky didn’t win that first fight. But he stayed on his feet. He took the punches over and over again and didn’t give up. You should do no less. If you’re going to write, you have to learn how to throw a punch. And how to take one.

Keep writing!

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The Writing Life: Fifty Shades of No

You’re not a writer until you’ve been rejected. The only way to know if you can hack it is to submit your work to an agent or editor. You have to send that manuscript out, face rejection, then swallow back the bitter tears. Every single author experiences rejection on the road to success. Here are a few of my favorite samples:

“We will not be requesting any more material at this time.”  But I have three hundred more pages ready!

“I’m sorry to say, it isn’t for me.”  Hey, that’s my baby you’re talking about!

My favorite, “I didn’t fall in love with these pages.”  Well, maybe it wasn’t love at first sight, but give it time!

The truth is, when you send out your manuscript there is about a 99% chance you will fail. Yikes! What kind of person takes those odds? You’d have better luck betting against the house in Vegas. But do it anyway. Because it’s the only way to test the waters. To find out if you have something. To prove to yourself that you’re a player. It’s kind of like playing the lottery, you can’t win if you don’t buy a ticket. But don’t just send out your manuscript to every agent on the list. If you’re looking to improve the odds, here are some tips to follow:

Research an agent in your genre. There’s no point in sending a sci-fi story to an agent who only handles romance novels or thrillers.
Make sure they are open to new authors
Look for someone who is up and coming and looking to build their client list
Be sure you have done the proper editing and polishing, don’t skimp!
Learn how to write a strong query letter
Have your query letter critiqued
Build your web presence by establishing an author website and fan page.
Don’t be shy, utilize your existing connections to start your fan base
Attend conferences  and take down names and email addresses. Most agents and editors will allow you to submit to them for up to ninety days after a conference they speak at
Most importantly, start writing the next book while you’re shopping the first. You need to live and think as a writer. Writer’s write.

Have a favorite rejection line? Send it to me.

Keep writing!

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The Writing Life: I Wish I Knew How To Quit You

No one in their “write” mind sets out to be a writer. Writing is hard. It takes countless hours to finish, edit and submit a manuscript. Rejection rates are sky-high. Writing goes deep into an author’s soul. It’s personal. We are so vulnerable to criticism our skin is as thin as tissue paper. And yet we write. We submit. We let others into our world. Why do we strive? Why do we stare down the wrong end of a gun barrel and write anyway?

Writing is the curse you wish you weren’t born with. The burning desire you would trade for an interest in knitting any day. Ultimately, we turn to writing because we crave it like a moth craves the flame. We need our characters brought to life, our plot twists gasped over by a reader. We know it’s an uphill battle but we push the boulder up the hill, sweating, praying, agonizing, and hoping when we reach the top, what we do will be valued.

If you persist, I can’t lie to you, it will be hard. You will doubt yourself. Doubt your talent. Doubt the universe will ever give you a break even as it is breaking your heart. It will be painful…but so what? Are you going to just quit? Give up because someone cuts you down? Stop trying because the universe doesn’t fall at your feet?

Don’t quit just because it’s hard. You’re made of sterner stuff than that.

You have to believe you have value as a writer. That your words matter. That with hard work, you can create a unique voice that an audience will want to connect with. You have to first find the voice and second find the audience. So when you’re sitting there alone in front of the computer trying to find the courage to write, don’t let fear and doubt creep in. When you feel like giving up, reread this and then write another paragraph. When you feel like you will never make a dent, will never be heard, never be noticed, then grit your teeth and write more. If you can hold to the fragile belief you have value as a writer, you will find a way to make a difference with your words. It may not be in the way you think, it may not be in the genre you picked, but you will find a way. It’s not just a matter of persistence it’s a matter of gut faith.

Never. Stop. Writing.

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The Writing Life: Writer’s Block Is For Sissies

Here is one fact I want you to take in: there is no such thing as writer’s block.

A writer is born with an endless imagination. Infinite possibilities exist. Everything’s been done a hundred zillion times, but authors find new ways to write about the same old stuff every day. Lord of the Flies becomes Hunger Games. Dracula becomes Edward Cullen. Writers block isn’t real, it’s an excuse, a convenient crutch. A way of explaining why you’re not writing. Why you’re not putting the time in. Why you stare at the computer and come up empty. Hey, I’ve got writers block. Jeez, that’s tough. Yeah, I wish I was writing but there it is, a case of writers block, like you’ve got a disease you have to recover from. So if writers block isn’t real, what is it? What’s going on? Why aren’t you able to write?

What most writers call writers block I call fear. Paralyzing fear of writing something that might not be any good. Fear that what you wrote last time was the only great thing you had. Fear that people will laugh. Fear that you will be told writing is not your thing. Fear that you will fail. Worst of all, fear you will just be mediocre. Fear paralyzes writers into a state of inaction, into believing they have lost their touch, their desire, their spark. This is a lie. The only thing stopping you from writing is the inner critic who shouts so loud it is all you can hear. No, don’t write, it might be bad! No, stay away from the computer, you might be laughed at! Don’t even look at what you’ve done, it’s all terrible! This is what the paralyzed writer hears every day.

When you can face your fear, stand up to your doubts, turn off your inner critic and accept we’re all mediocre at heart, even the greatest writers, and that the only way to rise above mediocrity is to let your words take shape without criticism choking them, then you can begin to give life to your inner writer. You must let your creative juices flow without being strangled by doubt, insecurity, and the cynic inside who is sure it’s not good enough. There is time for that in the editing process, but writing the book doesn’t need that, it needs fearless joy, like the kind of feeling you get when the top’s down on the convertible and you’re exceeding the speed limit, wind in your face. Fearless joy writing every word, not caring if they’re good, not caring if anyone is going to like it, not caring if someone will buy it, just busting out with joyful abandon as you find the heart of your character and let him roar with life. If you can face your fear of being less than, of being not good enough, of your writing being discovered for what it really is, a mediocre pile of crud, then you can stop trying to be so important and just have fun. Write from your gut. Laugh at yourself. Let your character sing off key in the shower. I’m not saying that mediocre writing will sell, I’m saying when its newly formed, it’s rough and raw, its plastic to be molded. If you just let it out, without judging it, the chances are with disciplined editing you can turn it into something truly unique and polished.

A note of caution: don’t confuse writer’s block with burnout. If you’ve just finished a novel, you absolutely must recharge your batteries. You have to let things rest in between books. You cannot write every day and never take the time to fertilize the ground, to let your brain rest and be fallow, to do other things, read other author’s books, refresh your energy and then come back for the next one.

So if you feel you are suffering from writers block, take heart. There is a cure. It involves doing the very thing you believe you can’t: writing. You must write the most painful words, the most awful sentences, the most poorly constructed paragraph, the most awful chapter you have ever seen! Now that that’s over, do it again, write the next page, and each page you write will be less painful than the one before until writers block is a thing of the past. Write through the pain, write through the fear, and one day, a manuscript will be sitting in your inbox.

Keep writing!

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The Writing Life: Don’t Rush To Self-Publish

You’ve just finished your first book and can’t wait to share it with the world. Self-publishing is only a click away with giants like Amazon waiting to distribute your book to the masses. “Forget traditional publishing!” you say, hiding those rejection slips in the drawer. “It’s a dying animal. I’m going to embrace this new revolution. Power to the author!”

But listen, just because you can get a book published doesn’t mean yours is ready. We are getting deluged with new books from eager authors who are bursting to share their words with the world. The problem is, they might not be ready yet. Finishing a novel is a huge accomplishment. Pat yourself on the back. But finishing it is only one part of getting a book in the hands of a reader. The editing process is time-consuming and tedious. It takes countless hours to weed out inconsistencies, fix timelines, refine word choice, develop interesting character arcs, eliminating he saids and she saids–the list is longer than my arm. Many new authors are so excited by the fact they’ve completed their novel, they rush to publish it, sure the world will stand in awe of their shiny new book and overlook the small typos because it’s just such a great story. Maybe it will be a best-seller. If so, it would be one in ten million. The fact is, many eager authors don’t realize how much polishing and editing needs to take place after the novel is written.

So don’t rush to self-publish when you hit a few rejections. Keep working on the manuscript. Write the next one while you’re submitting. Your writing will improve and you’ll have more product in the works. Don’t be over eager. Traditional publishing still has a lot to offer. Credibility counts and marketing is a lot of work. Self-publishing takes concentrated effort and time you could be spending writing. It can be expensive to build a brand on your own. Before you rush out and sign up for a full publishing package, send out some more queries, develop patience, and work on improving your book. Write the next one and the next. As your writing matures, your first book may get a big boost from your evolving skills. Carefully consider whether your book is ready to be published and then, when you’ve reviewed your options, you can choose to take control of your career and self-publish with confidence.

Keep writing!

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The Writing Life- Seven Steps to Envy Detox

Ever stood in a bookstore with some other writer’s book clutched in your sweaty palm, seething with irritation that their book is sitting on the shelf while yours is idle in some drawer or sitting deep in a slush pile, never to see the light of day? Envy is a toxic emotion but we are knee-deep in it every day. We admire people with better lives, more money, fancier cars, nicer kids, and greener lawns. We envy what we don’t have, imagining somehow that we deserve it more because we work so hard in our own right. When we hear someone share good news about their kid’s SAT scores or job promotion, part of us cries out, why not me? When is it my turn? For wanna-be writer’s, we deal with it every time we see other people’s books getting attention while ours is shuttled off into no man’s land. We read a book that has inferior writing and our irritation grows. I once tried to read a certain book about a vampire that has gained world-wide popularity and I couldn’t get past the first chapter. Obviously I didn’t get it.

There is no defense against envy so the best you can do is embrace it. Here are seven tips to dealing with writer’s envy:

Don’t compare yourself to other writers. Keep your eyes on your own work, not the success of others.
Focus on your accomplishments. Meeting writing goals. Completing pages. Sending in submissions. Give yourself small rewards, virtual pats on the back whenever you cross a threshold.
For every rejection, send out three more submissions, then figure out how to strengthen your craft.
Don’t try to write something big. Write something small that you love and maybe it will get big all on its own.
Speaking of big, don’t try to be the next big anything. Try to be you. If you are any good, you will become the next big thing because you were authentic.
When you finish a manuscript, don’t stand back in awe of it. Sure you did it, very cool, now the hard work begins. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re better than you are. Stay humble. Hire a damn good editor. Take the criticism to heart. Work hard at revising your perfectly awful first pass. Take more criticism. Evolve. Get stronger and better.
Accept that envy is a part of the human gene code and use it to motivate yourself to become a better writer. The reason other people succeed is because they don’t skimp on craft, they don’t stop sending out queries, and they end up putting something out that other people want to read.

Keep writing!

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The Writing Life: Show No Mercy

Characters sometimes meet untimely ends. It’s tragic. Just when you think things are going well, suddenly your nice guy takes a bullet to the head or a sword through the heart. It can be just as surprising to the author. Often, I have absolutely no idea my character is about to die until suddenly, as a scene unfolds and my fingers tap it out, there it is, an untimely and shocking death. I wonder, did I cause that? Or did it just happen? Nonwriters will say to me, of course, you have control, this is your story, but when I am putting words on paper, what I think is going to happen and what comes out can be shockingly different. I can have exact plans for a character and find him annoyingly dead two scenes before he is supposed to be. I have had completely innocuous characters suddenly offering their head to the chopping block in a searing scene that leaves even me gasping for air.

“Why? Why did they have to die?” we cry.

Because sometimes it’s necessary. Overdone? Sure, I mean, you can’t have a Red Wedding every day. But characters meet untimely ends, and sometimes it’s the secret guilty pleasure of writing and reading. We root for the good guy to win, but along the way, the higher the price that is paid, the more satisfying the pay off. So don’t be afraid to commit fictional mayhem in the name of raising the stakes. Just be sure to give your readers someone to root for or you won’t have anyone left to carry on the sequel.

Keep writing!

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The Writing Life: Hug a Writer Today

Writing is lonely, full of angst and self-doubt. A completed novel takes countless hours hunkered down in front of a computer immersed in the world of your story setting. Most writers like to lock themselves away, so as not to be disturbed. They don’t like interruptions. They scowl when you ask them how much longer. Their eyes glaze over staring at the screen, fingers frozen while they process the next scene and then furiously type away. Even when they’re not writing, they’re thinking about writing, coming up with plot twists, researching background and authentic details to weave in the story. Writing is lonely because to be a good writer, you have to isolate yourself from the people around you in order to escape into that other world. You can’t bring people with you because they don’t belong there. There is nothing worse than unsolicited advice about how you should write a scene. The cold look of disgust you give the other person who clearly doesn’t know a thing about your characters could put you in jail if looks really could kill. I dated a successful writer once and over dinner he said, he just didn’t understand people or how to be around them. We didn’t have a second date because I kinda felt the same way. Writers can be like negatively charged magnets that repel the things around them instead of drawing them in. Get away. Leave me alone. Let me just finish this.

But don’t forget we’re human. Writers get lonely, frustrated, overwhelmed, exhausted, and eventually when they crawl out of their cave, they need people again. They remember they have a family. They recall something about fixing dinner. So if you know a writer, hug them today, they probably won’t acknowledge you until they emerge from their writing coma, but do it anyway. Then run for your life.

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