If you want to make a million dollars writing books . . .

If you want to make a million dollars writing books, start with two million dollars. That was one of the pearls of wisdom I learned from screenwriter, Randell Nall, at my first writer’s workshop.

Writer’s Workshop 2012

Regretfully, I arrived late and only caught the tail end of the screenwriting session. Thankfully, Mr. Nall provided an extensive outline detailing the structure of a screenplay, a flow chart diagraming the flow of a screenplay, 40 plot points and an example of a screenplay. He also recommend the book Killer Instinct by Jane Hamsher for the inside scope about the Hollywood character and the roadblocks they cause to prevent your movie from being being made. He also recommended using the screenwriting software Final Draft if you want to be taken seriously by industry professionals. He was smart, funny, and entertaining as well as informative. After another session, he even returned and informed the group that he would contact the organizer of the workshop and invite us the next time he would have a “table read” so we could have a chance to watch the process of actors reading a script in front of the screenwriter and the director.

Kathy Mayeaux

The next presenter was the organizer of the workshop, Kathy Mayeux. Due to time constraints, she gave a brief presentation on writing Sci Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Even though I haven’t written in any of these genres, she spoke about how they are all under the same umbrella of mystery writing. Her most most poignant advice was:

Don’t stop writing.
 Don’t stop reading. 
Don’t quit your day job.

She also gave the link to the submission department for Analog – Science Fact and Fiction magazine. For reading, she suggest the work of Dr. June Pulliam Instructor of English and Women’s and Gender Studies at LSU, author of Hooked on Horror III: A Guide to Reading Interests in the Genre and Read On . . . Horror Fiction editor of Dead Reckonings: A Review Magazine for the Horror Field. As much as I’ve enjoyed watching sci-fi and horror movies over the years, I’m surprised that I’ve never tried my hand at it. I’m looking forward to reading more sci-fi and I may even try penning a story here or there.

Katie Wainwright

The next session was by Katie Wainwright on writing Memoirs. I’d never thought about the difference before, but a memoir chronicles a period of your life while an autobiography is more of a chronology of your entire life. Her book, Cuba on my Mind, is about her growing in pre-Castro Cuba. This project started as a series of short stories. A publisher told her they would considering publishing her if she combined all of the stories into a book. From there, she linked the stories but having a grandmother (her mother) relating the stories to her grandson. Cuba on my Mind was the result and it was published in 2010.

As far as advice, she recommended:

1. Start with an great attentions getting first line.
 2.Paint a picture with words, makes the people feel and see what you felt and saw. Here she suggested reading the first page of the Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men.

3. Study the great authors on how to give your story depth and motion. Pay attention to how the greats move a story along.

4. Read and reread.

5. Make an outline of main events you want to address.

6. Connect first sentence to what is going on at that time historically.

7. Have a hook at the end of each chapter to keep the reader going.

She has two more book in the works. The next will be about a young girl adjust to life after the revolution with the final book being about the main character fleeing Cuba to the U.S. Wainwright said that she plans to only write those books, but she did tell an interesting story of how one of her former teachers, who was in her 90s, had copies of poetry written by her father all those years ago in Cuba. Another workshop attendee suggested that project could be a another book. As her time ended, almost as an afterthought, she threw out a prime clunk of information, “Fidel married my next door neighbor.”

Now THAT would be an interesting book!

Wainwright was followed by Adult Inspirational Authors Catherine Clifford and Gladys Ford.

Clifford is the author of  The Journey Begins and Journey to Redemption. 

She advises beginning writers to:

Catherine Clifford

1. Constantly grow as a writer by reading and writing.

2. Read outside of your genre and don’t put yourself in box.

3. Get involved in a writer’s group. It’s good to go back and forth with ideas as you brainstorming with someone else. Listen and accept criticism with an open mind.

4. Read your manuscript out loud.

5. Write everyday. – SOMETHING. Practice does make you better.

One thing I didn’t realize was that when quoting bible scriptures, you can use NIV, NKJV, KJV – without permission. With all other translations, you need to check their websites to find out how much you can use or pay for. 

She also spoke on the importance of research in making your project more believable. Also, as writers, others aren’t going be as excited about ours books so we need to let the offenses roll of you and have fun writing. As I am, she is a proponent of the Marshall Plan of Novel Writing. For better or worse, that book made me the writer I am today. She further stressed the importance of patience by saying, “When you plant the seed, you won’t have fruit the next day.  You have to do the work – water it, fertilize it, let it grow.”

She ended that part of her with a quote from the great C.S. Lewis – “Imagination is heaven’s whispered messages.”

 In closing, she talked about what I feel is the worse part of being a writer – the marketing. She recommended going to the big writing conferences and be prepare with a good fifteen minute pitch and a three minutes elevator pitch to grab the attention of prospective agents.

78 Inspirational Testimonies

Clifford was followed in the session by Gladys Ford. Ford’s book, Along the Pilgrim Pathway is a treasury of Christian testimonies and Bible expositions written, compiled, and published for the betterment of fellow believers and contains 78 testimonies of real people.

She started and ended her session with powerful and inspirational stories of faith, read from her book.

As far as writing advice, she tells the writers:

1. Begin with a hook and draw in the reader’s interest.

2. Make sure to use spell check because typos happen. And it’s not always spelling errors that you need to be wary of. As an example, she used a newspaper article touting the greatness of a newly discovered self author that used “sail” instead of “sale”. Not taking herself too seriously, she cited an example in own writing where she had a solider marching chin deep snow instead of shin deep snow.

3. Always keep your audience in mind.

4. When she has brain freeze, her antidote is a list of 430 words and phrases that she can pick from to inspire her.

5. Use shorter paragraphs.

6. Donate copy of your memoirs to local libraries. That the really the only way to leave your history for future generations.

7. Eliminate the excess and avoid too much description. Be concise.

8. Don’t expect the people who you expect to like your book to like your book. They will never understand all the work you put into it.

Her work is self published and uses Instantpublisher.com and Bookbaby.com. She advises if you chose to publish with Amazon, the retail price has to be printed on the ISBN.

 She stated her new favor bible verse was taken from the King James Version of Psalms 68:11:

The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it.

Gladys Ford

For me, her most powerful quote was, “The book is not supporting me, I’m supporting the book.”

Surprisingly, one of my favorite sessions was with former military man and former homicide detective Michael Verrett.

Michael Verrett

It’s only a surprise the session guided by Verrett, President of Livingston Parish Arts Council, was on writing and illustrating for Children. He is the author and illustrator of fifteen books. He describes dealing with with online publishing companies was like dealing with a relative who doesn’t have a job. 

In writing for children, you have to ask your one big question. Everything is shaped by the question:  Who is my audience? You have to show what age group you are targeting because the same thing that appeals to a five year old is not going to appeal to a twelve year old. The characters are what make the story engaging.

He then talked about the process of creating a children’s book as far as pictures, words and page layout.Because of the printing process, children’s books are 32 pages. Every thing needs to be divisible by 8.

With his work, he likes to add a little humor to his copyright page. 

Also in working with pictures, the digital images need to saved at 300 dpi.

As far as printing, he recommended working with Lulu because they can print soft and hardcover (Amazon will only sell the paperback).

He advised the writers of the workshop, “To get that one book done.You never know where your books will get to – but it won’t happen if you don’t write it. Don’t turn your back on your talent – you don’t know when it will be needed.

” He also said, “Don’t worry about writing the next great American novel. Write something short and get it out of the way.

Writing is going to be difficult and at particularly tough times, he looks back at a quote by his former partner when faced with a crime scene with little to no evidence.

“I love it when they make it hard – gets the juices flowing.”

Deborah Lynne

The final session, and most anticipated for me, was mystery and romantic suspense by Deborah Lynne.  

As a writer, she explained the importance of reading the same type of material that you write. She suggests getting story ideas from the newspaper or watching the evening news.

In her opinion, the storyline or plot is the most important thing. With plotting, the writer has to be mindful of the external plot as well as the internal plot. How does the character change during the course of the book? Your mystery should also include convict, tension and proper pacing tension. She cited author T. MacDonald Skillman to says, “Pacing is like water flowing downstream. It starts slow, get faster and had times when it slows down then builds again.” One of most important things is building up toward a satisfying climax and tying up all of the loose ends. 

She warned against having too many red herrings. If they have nothing to do with the story, it’s not believable. Your suspects should have a clear means, motive and opportunity. For research, she mostly uses books from the Howdunit series released by Writer’s Digest. Though sometimes a bit too technical, she also uses an FBI manual. 

She believes the first thing a writer should do is create believable characters. You should know your hero, killer and victim before you start writing. 
Weave a thread through each book – your theme, be it forgiveness, waiting on God, etc, should be weaved throughout the entire book. 

Her ending advice was:

1. Don’t quit.

2. Let creative juices flow – get the whole things written before tearing it apart.

3. Get a couple of good critique partners, and be a good critique partner to them.

4. Join a good writers group.

5. Attend writer’s conferences.

6. Have fun while you’re doing it.

The day was filled with great contacts and information. I plan to follow up with the writers who attended and provided their time and energies to making the writer’s conference at great success.