A Book Recommendation

A friend of mine is getting a submission package ready for an agent, and it occurs to me that I should share the book recommendation I gave her to everyone:

YOUR NOVEL PROPOSAL: From Creation to Contract by Blythe Camenson and Marshall J. Cook.

Every time I sit down to write a proposal I review this book's chapter six: synopses (which, since much of the other information gets out-of-date quickly, is worth the price of the book). The book gives sample synopses, talks about what needs to be in a synopses, what it's used for, and how to format a synopsis. It's really awesome. It seems to be out of print, but I had no trouble getting a used copy a few years ago when I thought I lost my original.

I liked this book so much, I bought it twice! :-)

Web Site Updated

This hardly constitues breaking news, but I finally found time today to update my web page. There's now an excerpt of HONEYMOON OF THE DEAD available, as well as order information for ALMOST TO DIE FOR and the German edition of TALL, DARK & DEAD.

Newbie Question #22

22. I’m pretty nervous about writing my book and trying to get it published. I guess I don’t have much for self-confidence when it comes to this. Do you have any advice?

Unfortunately, Shelly, I think the one thing aspiring authors need is an abundance of self-confidence. Your belief in yourself and your writing is what is going to get you through those rough rejections that can feel so incredibly personal.

But even if self-confidence doesn’t come easily to you, I think there are things you can do as a writer to help bolster your belief in yourself and your abilities.

1. Always remember that writing is a learning process and, like any craft, it’s going to take time to master. Be in it for the long haul. People like to talk about talent, but I think the idea that some people are born writers (or painters or whatever) is a destructive, hurtful myth. You can learn to be a good writer, and, no matter how long you’ve been writing, you can always improve your craft. Even with nearly twelve published novels under my belt, I’m still learning – and, more importantly, I still stumble and fumble a scene or a character or a bit of plot. That’s why I still go to a bi-monthly writers’ critique group and listen to what my peers have to say when I hand out my chapters. (1 a.) Similarly, you should strive for it, but don’t sweat perfection. You can never write the perfect book for everyone. Someone somewhere is going to bounce off your work. Just write the best book or story you can at this moment, finish it, and send it off. Then go on to the next one with what you learned from the last. (1 b.) Hopefully, you love the learning process as much as I do, because this process should be fun. If possible, it should be one of the main parts of what feeds and drives you forward.

2. Dance on your rejections. Just yesterday I went to a party at a friend’s house where he was celebrating his first official rejection for his novel. As he put it in his invite, he’s now officially “in the game.” This is a healthy attitude, because as the old adage goes “persistence is more important than talent.” (I might not believe in the myth of talent, but I do believe persistence pays off.) I also believe in celebrating every moment of writing. I’d have a party for finishing, party for sending it out, a party for the first rejection, and, of course, a huge blow out if it ever sold.

3. Cultivate supporters. In order to have a party for every step of the way, you need to have people in your life who will show up to toot your horn (and listen to you whine.) Find other writers – on line or in person. Having fan friends or lovers is good for the ego to a certain extent, but only another writer will really understand all the ins and outs of “rejectomancy” (my friend Kelly McCullough’s word for the practice of trying to figure out how close you got to the editor’s desk by overanalyzing obscure clues – the yellow form letter? Blue?) If you’re a romance writer, join RWA. It’s an amazingly supportive organization. If you’re a mystery writer, join Sisters in Crime or Private Eye Writers of America or whatever local group you can find a chapter for. Science fiction writers have SFWA. If you can’t find a writers’ group, find a readers’ group at your local bookstore… or, if you live somewhere too small to support any of that, find a critique group on line. And remember that it goes both ways – you need to support your writer friends too!

4. Write for yourself. It’s tempting, particularly in romance (though I fell into this trap in science fiction too,) to try to “find the market and write to it.” I love to read descriptions of themed anthologies, but every time I sit down and try to write a story aimed at a specific market, I fail. I usually just can’t find that “spark” that keeps me going. Other people’s ideas aren’t mine. If I’m going to write, it needs to be important to me – my stuff, my ideas, my obsessions, my weirdness. If I’m writing about themes that matter to me, or about the things that make my juices flow – well, that first big hurtle of putting my butt in a chair becomes that much easier, you know?

I think if you can cultivate these four things, you’ll go a long way. If nothing else, you’ll be happy doing whatever it is your doing, no matter if you achieve traditional success or not.

Newbie Question #21

21. Do you have any favorite authors? Books?

Do I? OMG, do I.

Even though I'm a very slow reader (dyslexia), I read all the time. Some of the good ones that I finished lately are:

Cherie Priest, BONESHAKER

Neil Asher, GRIDLINKED

Daniel Key Moran, THE LONG RUN

But, beyond that, I'm reading a lot of my local authors too -- my fellow Wyrdsmiths who have books out are Naomi Kritzer, Kelly McCullough, Eleanor Arnason, and Doug Hulick (forthcoming). I could probably go on and on... and maybe over the weekend, I'll compose something a little less off the top of my head of people I'd recommend.

Newbie Question #20

20. What is the hardest part of writing for you? The easiest?

Sometimes the hardest part for me is the actual sitting down to write bit. But, after I've conquered the sheer discipline of making time and space in my life to write, I find plot the hardest.

This is one of those reasons why I tell my students to have some kind of plan before they write -- that's MY problem. If I don't have a plan/plot outline, I would very happily have my characters meander through a sort of endless soap opera. There would be a lot of drama, but no real movement forward, you know?

As I said at a talk I did at the public library on Sunday, I'm pretty good at dividing threads of plot, complicating things, making my character face hardships that require them to consider "what's at stake?" -- but I have a harder time pulling bits back together and tying up all the story lines. If I don't pre-think those aspects of plot, I can get really tangled up.

The easiest part is characters. I'm one of those people who have always shared a large percentage of my brain with imaginary friends. When it was socially acceptable to do so, I roped my friends into playing complicated games with superheroes (and their Barbies) and other kinds of pretend. When it became awkward to ask people to romp in the woods pretending to be knights and princesses, I started keeping those people in my head. There's only so much room in my brain, so they quickly dribbled out onto notebook paper. This is all that practice writing I talked about, but which I sometimes still do as I'm falling asleep at night.

Almost all of my characters have lived in my head for some time (some for years -- I had Sebastian since high school) before they appear on page. I think this is why I sometimes get the comment that my characters seem very three dimensional. They have an entire life already lived before they even become text in a book.

Newbie Question #19

19. Do you typically do a lot of research for your books?

I do... though the process is very different if I'm writing science fiction or if I'm writing fantasy/romance.

Remember earlier how I said that a good writer should be reading stuff all the time? When I'm writing science fiction, those things I've read in the past are often at least partially responsible for the germination of the idea of whatever I'm writing (novel or a short story.) Kind of like unfocused, pre-research. :-)

Science fiction often requires a person to have friends in specialized fields. I actually think that it's very difficult (though some do it very well) to write in your area of expertise. Physicists often make crappy science fiction authors because they know too much about how things really work and they have a hard time breaking outside of what is TRUE, acceptable or fact. Apparently, William Gibson famously wrote his cyberpunk novel NEUROMANCER on a typewriter. Often I think it's best if you know "just enough to be dangerous."

Because out there just beyond what is true, acceptable and fact is where the fun stuff lies. Here there be Dragons....

On the flip side, I think that books (science fiction or fantasy) come alive when you fill them with the bits of arcane knowledge you've gleaned over your lifetime. Like all those mysteries where the heroine is a knitter or a scrap booker or what have you, and your reader gets a glimpse into the life of whatever it is you're into. Because people read for a lot of reasons -- escape, yes, but to experience someone else's life, more, IMHO.

So it really helps make a book have life if you can offer up real bits of things. I once took a gun safety course so I could feel what it was like to shoot a big old gun as a smallish five foot something woman. People always talk about recoil, but I didn't experience it the way I was expecting and so being able to have an actual sense impression of spent casings (particularly smell), etc., I think added an extra dimension to my description. This is also, btw, how you avoid cliches in your writing. Cliches are shorthand for experiences, and if you have something different you can point out about something people have read a thousand times... it breaks through cliche.

Plus, research is fun. Just don't let not knowing stop you from writing. Find someone who knows what you want to know and talk to them, read books by people who have experienced things you want to know about, live a little, and then, make some sh*t up.

Newbie Question #18

18. How long did it take to publish your first book?

It typically takes a year from delivery of the manuscript to my publisher before it hits the shelves ready for you to read.

But, again, I think that's not really the question you're asking. I think what you want to know is how long did it take for me to sell that first book I finished.

Here's some bad news. I never sold the first book I finished. I worked on that novel (Sidhe Promised) for four years. I put it through workshop/critique group; I sent it to a dozen or more agents; I entered it in contests. It never sold.

I still think it's a pretty good book, but it just wasn't the one that broke out. It's in my basement in a file cabinet. Taking the advice of Lois McMaster Bujold who I interviewed at an event at a Barnes & Noble, I started the next book while that one was shopping around. (Her point? It takes a long time for editors and agents to reject you, you might as well do something other than twiddle your thumbs.) So I started writing a science fiction novel I was calling "Dancing on the Head of a Pin" about some angels and a private detective.... it took me about a year and a half to write that one. It later became my first published novel, Archangel Protocol.

The process of what happened once I convinced an agent to represent me is chronicled in my alter ego's FAQ.

Newbie Question #17

17. What should my manuscript look like?

There's a lot of debate about this (much more than you'd expect, and people can get really wound up about it.) HOWEVER, it is my contention that knowing manuscript format *is* the very secret handshake that everyone is looking for.

Science fiction author Vonda N. McIntyre has made you a lovely .pdf in manuscript format that explains manuscript format. People like to argue about this. Do I have to? Courier is ugly! So and so says I can send it however I like on their website. To which my answer is always: suck it up and send it in manuscript format. If nothing else, sending it the "old-fashioned" way shows that you're at least familiar enough with the business of writing to have stumbled across the way everyone used to do it.

The exception being in those rare cases when you're writing for a specific market (I'm thinking of an electronic magazine, like weekly science fiction magazine, Strange Horizons,) which may have it's own rules. In those cases, do what they say.

I confess that I don't much like the way Courier 12 pt, double-space looks either. So I write the book in whatever my current favorite font is (Georgia) -- single space (because it looks more like a book to me, and I just find it more attractive. I've got to stare at it for months, after all). Then, just before I send it in to the publisher I switch over to Courier 12 pt, double-space.

This is one really simple thing you can do to look professional. Why not just do it?

Newbie Question #16

16. Have you ever doubted yourself while writing? If so, how do you get over it?

I doubt myself all the time, just ask the folks in my writers' group. I constantly complain that I don't know what the f**k I'm doing or that my stories suck, etc., etc. I get over my doubt by tapping my support network -- my writers' group and my partner. (Because, if nothing else, my partner will say these magic words: "We need the money." Works for me every time. :-)

But I think this is actually a question about writers' block, which is I think a more delicate and harder question to answer.

There are a lot things about this business that can freak people out to the point that they can't write. Most of the really hard ones, IMHO, come after you publish that first book, but there are a few potential killers early on.

One of the reasons I find writers' critique groups of any kind (in-person or on-line) so vital to a writer's career is because they help prepare you for the first and foremost challenge to your ego, and that is: criticism.

People are going to hate your precious babies your entire career. They just are. (I just stumbled across a rather nasty review of Tall, Dark & Dead just today.) But, before you have the cache of a New York publisher's approval, rejection is even harder to take.

If you can't handle criticism or rejection, surviving as a writer is going to particularly difficult. My advice is to find a writers' group and practice taking those slaps in the face and pulling yourself back up on your feet. It's a skill set you're going to use all the damn time.

The other big one you're going to face is rejection. Publishers (and literary agents) are going to turn you down, early and often. It may take several years and dozens of books before you break in. This is why it's important to love what you do. If you like to write, it's easier to pick up your keyboard after you have that big huge weep fest after the sixteenth rejection for your beloved book comes in the mail (when you were SURE this would be the one).

My advice is to practice this attitude: "OMG,I suck; Damn, I'm a genius!" Seriously, I think you have to be a bit unstable to be a good writer. You have to be able to accept that you suck (so you can LISTEN to critique and learn from it), while simultaneously believing you are the best writer who ever lived (so you can get the morning after a crushing critique/rejection and write once again).

The other things that I, personally, found nearly crippling is the stuff that happens after you publish. The first negative review hurts. There will be one and it will feel horrible. You'll believe every word (when, ironically, you didn't believe a word of the praise in the positive reviews.) If you're me, you'll memorize the meanest thing the reviewer wrote and be unable to forget it. Ever. Ask me if we ever meet. I can still give it to you verbatim.

The other thing is what I call "second book-itis" or pysch out. After the adrenaline rush has coursed through your veins after the sale of that first novel, you suddenly realize you're contracted for another book THAT PEOPLE ARE ACTUALLY GOING TO READ. If you're like most authors, you probably lived with that first novel for years before anyone bought it. You had lots of time to massage it and make it the best novel you possibly could. Usually, too, the publisher has contracted you for another book -- either a sequel or something else. Either way, you're sitting down to write that next book (usually before the first one has come out) and, if you're me, you're absolutely frozen by the idea that it could really, really SUCK and kill your career before it's even started.

That one is the hardest one for me. I don't have any good advice except to say that you'll just have to push through. I tend to get over the "OMG people are going to read this" thing (which I often still get) the same way a lot of actors get over stage fright. I lie to myself. I tell myself that no one is going to read the book but me and maybe my editor. I trick myself into believing this by writing most of my book in something other than manuscript format and in a file named something like "New stuff."

I'm sure there are other reasons people get hit with writers' block, but these are the ones I've dealt with. What about the rest of you out there? What freezes your brain?

Newbie Question #15

Does this process ever get easier?

Parts of it do, but on the whole, not really, no.

For me, every book is a new learning process. I never really have seemed to settled on "how to write a book." And, there's always some point at which I have an ah-ha moment that you'd think I'd have learned years ago.

BUT, that being said, there are a lot of things that do get easier. For instance, I no longer blink at the idea of writing 2,000 words in a day. Sitting down and getting started isn't the chore that it used to be (of course part of that may be because it's my job now in a way that it wasn't before, but I do find that a blank page no longer fills me with a low-grade terror.) I'm not scared I'm going to write myself into a corner. I trust my characters, my instinct, my story-telling, my audience.

One of the most helpful things about writing that I ever read was this idea of "killing your Muse." Stephen King wrote in his book On Writing that if you sit down to write every day at the same time, your Muse will find you. And you know what? He's right. For me, it doesn't have to be the same time of day any more (thank Goddess), but it does have to be every day.

My friend and fellow writer, Naomi Kritzer, and I have talked about the fact that if you get out of the habit of writing something every day, even as professional writers, it can be very hard to start up again.

When I first started writing, I set myself a very minor word count goal. I told myself I needed to write at least 425 words every day. I don't know where I pulled that number from, but it used to sit on my desk. I didn't always make it, life being what it is (and I had a full-time job then). But it was a good discipline to shoot for that. The more words on page, the more progress made.

Also, it helps to know that some days are just hard... for everyone. I interviewed Neil Gaiman for Science Fiction Chronicle several years ago, and one of the things he said that really stuck with me is that he had days when writing was really difficult, but when he looked back at the words he couldn't tell which were the hard ones to write and which flowed like honey from his fingertips. Words are words and words on page are progress forward.

So, no, things don't necessarily get easier, but writing every day helps.

Newbie Question #14

14. How & why did you become a writer

“Why” is a lot easier to answer: I became a writer because I write, which is to say that there’s a pretty high percentage that I’d be writing stories right now even if I had never sold that first professional piece (or, god forbid, never sold another one again.)

Hopefully, that’s the reason you’re a writer too. Because if you’re in it for the fame, the glory, or the wads of cash you imagine you’ll be getting, you’re going to be wildly disappointed. I mean WILDLY.

Writing is a job. It’s a really hard job to get, and it’s an even harder job to keep. If you love doing it for its own sake, well, at least no one can take that from you, you know? Just the other day, I was hanging out with some writer friends at a coffee shop where we’d all gathered to work together, and we were all engrossed in our writing. Every once and a while one of us would pop up and excitedly share some clever or funny line she’d written, and I thought, “damn, but this is the life.” I’m a writer because I love writing. The act of writing can make me really happy. I amuse the piss out of myself. In the book I’m working on now, I’ve written so many scenes where I think, “Wow, that is _so_ just for me.” That might not seem the best attitude when you’re trying to sell commercially, but I think, actually, it’s quite healthy. Because at the end of the day, you’re writing for yourself. If you can’t take pleasure in your own words, what the hell is it for, anyway?

“How” I became a writer has two parts. I started writing in middle school when I was also, not surprisingly, devouring books by the shelf-full. I got particularly into one series by and author (Katherine Kurtz's DERYNI boosk) who was publishing at the usual timetable of a book a year. I just couldn’t wait. I started making up what I was going to happen to my favorite character in-between books. This is what’s called “fanfic,” but I grew up before the age of the Internet so no one ever saw what I wrote but me and the zillions of notebooks I filled.

I did this also with Anne McCaffery's DRAGONRIDER series. So I did a lot of what you could call practice writing. I used someone else's well developed characters and world, and practiced dialogue and scene setting and plotting (although at first most of my stories were very soap opera-like). This writing was pretty dreadful. BUT it was a good start at learning the craft of writing.

I did this sort of practice on-and-off throughout my life until sometime after college, when it occurred to me that a person could take a class in writing science fiction and fantasy. (By this point, I should note, I'd mostly begun trying out original characters/stories.) I've chronicled what happened after that on the FAQ page of my alter ego's website.

Newbie Question #13

13. Will an agent expect me to sign a contract? Should I sign one?

You know, honestly, I don't really know. I know that I requested and signed a contract with my first agent, and I didn't with my second.

This is also one of those questions that may be different depending on the genre you write in. There seem to be to be a lot more "handshake contracts" in science fiction/fantasy, though I'm not saying this is necessarily a better thing.

A contract with your agent is, however, very likely a GOOD THING. It's wise to have certain things spelled out in black and white, particularly if you've never entered into this kind of relationship before. It's good to know, for instance, under what conditions you can terminate your relationship with your agent (and visa versa.)

I think just as critical is to have a conversation in which you discuss beforehand what sorts of things your agent will and won't do for you. Will they share rejections? Will they give editorial advice? How often can you expect to hear from them?

Those things won't be spelled out in a contract, but they're good to know for your own sanity.

Newbie Questions #11 & #12

11. How do I know which agent is best for me?

12. How much should I expect to pay an agent to represent my book?

Last one first: NOTHING.

Remember the rule that money always flows to the author. A literary agent works the same way a real estate agent does, which is to say that you should pay nothing until the book sells. Then, you can expect to pay a percentage of that sale. When I was agent hunting in the late Cretaceous that percentage was 15%, now-a-days it could be slightly more, but not significantly so. (The exception is foreign sales -- since your agent has to pay sub-agents – but that’s nothing to worry about until a foreign sale happens.)

If your perspective agent charges a reading fee, I say that agent isn’t for you. There may be legitimate reasons why an otherwise reputable agent might charge reading fees, but to me it’s a big red flag that says “run away, run away fast.”

Keep repeating the mantra: money always flows to the author.

As for finding a good agent that fits you, that will be a more personal decision. In the end, you should consider the fact that your agent is your face in the professional arena. After that, it becomes a matter of taste.

For myself, I don’t like agents that edit. Even though my first agent was also a consulting editor, he never asked me to do editorial changes before submitting my work to publishing houses. I like that. It’s my personal feeling that if someone wants me to significantly rewrite a novel, I want to be paid to do so (remember the mantra!)

I also don’t need my agent to be my friend. In fact, I prefer a shark. Someone who I know will go for the best deal possible, even if it means not being terribly nice.

On that note, I do want an agent who is excited about my work. When I was in the process of finding a second agent (the first changed career to be a full-time editor,) I talked to a lot of agents. I had one offer to represent me. It became clear, however, that this agent hadn’t really read my work. Even though it meant being agentless for longer than I would have liked, I told him I wasn’t comfortable having an agent who wasn’t 100% into me. Your agent has to be your go-to guy/gal, your advocate, your nag… someone who e-mails you to say, “what have you got!?” If you’re not on their radar, then it’s easy to be forgotten… and this is your career on the line. You need someone who is going to be with you through good times and bad… because there’s always some bad in this business, I’m sorry to say.

Speaking of being “on the radar,” I think a case can be made for having an agent in New York. I also think that a case can be made that it doesn’t matter one wit. Perhaps the bigger issue is the size of the agency. We all want to have the Big Name Agent (you know the one who wrote the book on writing a bestseller) represent us because just throwing around his name is impressive as hell. However, I’ve had friends get lost among the various cogs in that particular machine. My experience has been that it’s much better to be part of a smallish stable. Ideally, you can end up where I am, which is to have a big name agent in New York who has a relatively smallish, but impressive client list… or at least never makes me feel less than an A-lister (even if I’m really a C- or D-list writer. And, no, that’s not false modesty. I have no delusions that I’m anything other than a solidly mid-list author.)

You should also find an agent with a track record. It might be great to be someone’s start up client (and I actually know people who have had that work out great for them,) but it’s a safer bet to go with someone established in the business. Because this is a business where it helps to know people who know people… and a completely new agent is less likely to have those connections.

But this is really a matter of taste. There’s nothing wrong with trying to land the biggest name agent (in fact, I always tell students to start at the top and work your way down.) There’s also nothing wrong with having an agent who edits all your work, holds your hand every step of the way, and has an office in Peoria. As long as you are comfortable with the relationship you have and your agent is finding you work, I say do what you will.

My last note is this: don’t hesitate to say no and be picky. It’s tempting to go with the first offer, but you’ve got to believe in yourself. Believe that what you’re doing is worth being paid for, and that this is an important job that not anyone can do. Don’t sell yourself short.

Newbie Question #10

10. How do I go about getting an agent? Where do I look for one?

The first piece of advice I want to give is this: finish your book first!

Now, assuming you've followed the above, finding an agent is an arduous process, but the single most important thing you're going to do as a writer (besides write the best book possible.) There are a few things you can be doing while you're writing your book, and they are --

1) read books you like and keep notes of any names listed in the acknowledgements; 2) subscribe to professional magazines <(for science fiction writers, Locus Magazine/ for romance folks, Romantic Times) and check listings to see who is selling what/who. In Locus, you can easily see which agents are selling a lot and a lot of new authors -- make special note of those names; and 3) attend conventions.

In science ficiton, there are plenty of panels where you can go and listen at the feet of actual agents and ask questions about the sorts of books they're selling, etc. In SF/F, however, DO NOT harass any agents or attempt to give "elevator pitches" unless specifically asked. Romance writers have it a little easier. At the romance conventions, you can actually sign up to pitch prospective agents and there are workshops you can attend to teach you how to do so effectively. (Note: you can find a list of conventions in the professional magazines listed above. SF/F writers could attend a convention every weekend, if they had the money and the time. Romance writers, you get a couple of big ones a year -- RT Convention and RWA's convention. Probably there are others, but I have to admit knowing much less about the romance process for finding an agent.)

Once you've got your list of prospective people, I recommend checking out their web pages, if they have them, and see what Predators & Editors has to say about them. If they have a web site, be sure to take note of what kind of package they want sent, whether or not you can simultaneously submit, etc, and FOLLOW THE RULES.

I should say that I found my first agent the old fashioned way... I got a recommendation from a professional writer friend. These are hard to come by because you have to be the sort of person who can effectively schmooze (without oozing) professional authors and get them to lend their name to your cover letter.

The cover letter is probably worth a post of its own, though you can find lots of advice out there. A quick search produced this: writing tips: the cover letter/query. I'm sure there are dozens more out there.

The other piece of advice: come up with strategies to deal with rejection. It's a fact of writing life. Persistence is more important than talent.

Newbie Question #9

9. How do you decide on a title for your book?

Titles are funny things. My first agent told me, “Don’t get attached to the title you picked.” My first agent had a famous client who recognized that he just wasn’t any good at titles and sent each of his novels in to his publisher named “n1”, “n2,” etc. (“n” being “novel.”)

Yet, with three notable exceptions, I’ve always ended up with the title I picked.

Again, I’m mostly working off anecdotal information, but my sense is that first novels often get re-titled. It’s hard to think like a publicity/marketing committee, and that’s who ends up approving the title. The original title for my alter-ego’s debut science fiction novel about angels was, “Dancing on the Head of a Pin.” It was sort of clever, but as my editor pointed out – if I wanted my name to appear on the spine of the book, it had to be shorter. Good motivation!

The marketing department came up with some alternative titles to consider, but I felt that they, well, sounded too marketing department-esque (no offense to marketing committees anywhere!) So, I begged my editor for forty-eight hours to come up with something snappier. I asked my friends who had read the book. I asked my partner for help. I got some great suggestions, but in the end I went with my partner’s suggestion: “Archangel Protocol.”

The way Shawn came up with the title was simple. She’s naturally a list-maker, so she sat down with a pen and paper and made one column of words related to angels. The second column had computer terms. Anything she could think of. Then she started putting them together until she got one that fit. This worked beautifully for the entire series: “Fallen Host,” “Messiah Node,” “Apocalypse Array,” and, the one I’m currently working on, “Resurrection Code.”

This method worked less well for my romances because we were saddled with two problems – the marketing folks really wanted the word “dead” to appear in every subsequent title and for it to be sort of a twist on a familiar cliché, like “Tall, Dark & Dead.” (Which, incidentally, I just came up with on my own by looking through a common phrase book for ideas, and then I did the all important Google search to see how many other books already had that title. I found one from 1958 and thought it would be okay to use again after all that time.) When we got stuck, I polled my FB friends; I posted a request for help here and on my other blogs. One of my favorite titles, “Dead If I Do” came from my friend Susan Harris’s response to a LJ plea.

I ended up having to change two of my Tate titles. The first one was “Dead Sexy,” which I’d originally called “Drop-Dead Gorgeous,” which you probably recognize as a recent MaryJanice Davidson title. I was two thirds the way through writing that book when I happened to read a recent releases column in Romantic Titles, which sent me into a scramble to re-title.

The second time, I was simply out-voted by the marketing folks. I’d initially wanted “Romancing the Dead” to be “Dead on Arousal” (my friend Sean M. Murphy’s most-AWESOME suggestion.) In the end, I think people thought the original was maybe a bit too provocative/sexy… who knows?

I think that having a good title to start with can be a good thing, but, obviously, it’s not necessary in order to sell. I tell title stories in classes I teach on writing, because I think it’s important to remember when you’re first starting out not to “sweat the small stuff.” You could waste a lot of time tweaking a perfect title only to have the marketing department tell you it’s a no-go.

It’s much, much more important to write a good, strong book. And remember: zen and the art of novel writing -- you’re responsible for the stuff between the covers. Make it the best you can, and let go of the rest.

Newbie Question #8

8. How do you decide how long a book should be?

I stop when I get to the end of the story.

But I suspect this is actually a question about industry standards, so here's what they are, according to the Nebula Awards:

Novel: a work of 40,000 words or more*
Novella: a work of at least 17,500 words but under 40,000 words
Novelette: a work of at least 7,500 words but under 17,500 words
Short story: a work of under 7,500 words

I should note that for anyone other than the Nebula judges 40,000 words is actually a really, really short novel. I don't think many publishers would accept a novel that was only 40,000 words -- though readers of this blog should feel free to prove me wrong.

My sense is that the average novel length these days (which, during the course my career to-date, has actually grown a lot shorter) is 80,000 words or longer (with the exception of young adult novels which can be as short as 60,000.)

I know that a lot of newbie writers have a hard time visualizing how many pages 80,000 words is -- but you can pick up any of my Tate Hallaway books and see how it translates into a printed book. A manuscript will, if you follow manuscript format, be a lot longer.

Questions? Comments? Spam?

Newbie Question #7

7. How do you set up your books? Do you outline them first or do you have an idea and just go with it?

That question has changed for me as my career has advanced, and, in some rare cases, on a book by book basis. So my initial answer is, "Yes. Both. All. None."

Before I go into an explanation of that, I will tell you that I'm a big fan of "pre-thinking," however you might choose to do that. It's my anecdotal experience that successful writers "pre-think" on some level. For some, this means a detailed synopsis/outline. I know of another writer who writes out idea trees/notes on butcher paper stuck to his walls. I've been to workshops that promote an organic brainstorming system.

I think all these methods have varying degrees of usefulness for me. There are some I personally resist: note cards (I lose them), strict outlines (I abandon them with glee.) BUT, just because they don't work for me, doesn't mean they won't work for you.

However you choose to organize your thoughts, I think it's incredibly helpful (particularly for a new writer) to have a pretty good idea of where your story is going before you write it. A dear friend and mentor, Joan Vinge likens her process to a road trip. She says she might not even know who is coming with her (characters), but she's planning to go from New York to California (just to stretch the metaphor a bit.) All sorts of unexpected things might happen along the way, but as long as she keeps her destination in mind, she can keep going forward. The story may end before they get to their metaphorical California, but the idea of going there has kept the story on track. For someone like me who is very organic in my thinking and process, I loved this idea because it freed me from the restriction of a rigid outline, but allowed me to consider the bones of my story and where I wanted to go with it BEFORE I STARTED.

I know, too, that a big concern for a lot of new writers is the idea of writing themselves into a corner. First of all, it has always been my contention there is no corner so tight that an author can't break a wall to get their characters out... but I also understand that the root of the fear is based on worrying that you'll get stalled because you don't know where to go with a certain plot line. "Pre-thinking" helps. If you have a note card, note book, scribbles, a diagram, an outline to go back and refer to, you less likely to get stuck.

Anything that keeps the story moving and the writer writing is a good, good thing.

But, back to your original question. These days I outline. Most of the books I write are sold on proposal. The proposal is a detailed (usually for me about 12 pages) synopsis that tells the beginning, middle and end and hits the emotional highlights for the main characters. What's left out is the subplots (and the surprises, because, with me, there are always some.)

However, I'm also writing a novel for a small press right now where, as I told my writer friend Naomi Kritzer, I'm writing without a net. I have no idea where the story is going.... and it's working. It's the kind of novel, however, that I have to mentally work overtime on. Literally. I dream about it. When I'm working out, ideas hit me. It's a very different (and much messier) process than I've gotten used to. But it tells me something, too. The just running with the idea method works for me for this book. So it might work for you.

I will leave you with this thought, though. I often encourage my students to try some method of pre-thinking because, let's face it, new writers have a lot of challenges to face. These questions you ask are just the surface of them. So, if you have an ace up your sleeve of a solid storyline that you know has a beginning, middle, and end, that's one less thing to worry about, you know?

Just a thought, Mr. Fox.

Newbie Question #6

6. How do you, when writing dialogue, make sure that each character sounds like a unique person?

Start with distinct, unique characters.

One thing I'm probably going to end up saying over and over during the course of this series is that conflict = drama. My suspicion is that if you're getting the critique that your characters all sound the same it's because they're difficult to tell apart for other reasons as well. They all come from the same socio-economic class. They're all the same ethnicity/race/(or in the case of science fiction/urban fantasy) species. They have the same agenda/goals. In other words, they have too much in common.

Romances are rarely exciting (to me, at least,) if a lady is marrying a lord she's perfectly suitable for. Better, IMHO, that she's totally smitten by the gardener/slave-gladiator/space pirate/rogue, etc. who is not only so WRONG for her (on the surface, of course), but completely outside of her expected socio-economic pairing.

If you've got a high class princess and a slave-gladiator in the same room talking to each other and they sound the same, then, I'm sorry to say: you're just not thinking.

The slave-gladiator isn't going to use fifteen dollar words, because he likely wasn't educated (if he was, your princess ought to be shocked and there better be a fascinating reason for it). Even if he was once a great lord/general/etc., his life now will probably be rougher and his language ought to show it. More swear words (or their equivalent). Less philosophical debate, more show me the money, as it were.

And, honestly, that's one of the easiest "tricks" (if you really need one). Make your heroine a space commander who uses crisp, militaristic sparse sentences. "Come. Now."

Meanwhile, your hero is a total fop of a space pirate that he uses twenty, lovely poetic words when he could use two. "Darling, only if you press those pert lips against my lily white a$$."

If you really KNOW your characters and their background this won't be difficult. Even if by some accident of plot you have two people (or more) together who are all from the exact same place and time, as long as they all have different agendas they will "sound" different because the reader will know who is who by who wants what.

Newbie Question #5

5. What do you consider the most important principle of fiction?

This is a good one, and I'd love to start a discussion about it because I'm not sure I have a ready answer.

My first impulse is to quote Stunk & White: Be Bold. Be Clear.

But I'm not sure that's a "principle," per se. I know that when I was first starting out, I spent a lot of time arguing with other genre writers about the importance of clarity. Some people thought that it was more important to be clever. They thought my preference for understandability meant that I wanted to appeal to the least common denominator, sell my soul for commercial success, and otherwise abandon the craft.

For me, the issue was that I wanted to tell a story that would be heard/read.

Ironically, the people with whom I had this argument are also commerically published now, so I guess that in the end clever and clarity aren't nearly as mutually exclusive as I first thought.

But I don't think that's really what's being asked here. I think you want to know what aspect of the craft you should concentrate on the most: plot, character, or what have you.

My answer is still the same. In the interest of being bold and clear, focus on story telling in general. Maybe for you that means you need to strengthen your characters. For me, it meant learning everything about plot... (because that's my weakest area.)

What do the rest of you think?

Newbie Question #4

4. How do you get ideas for stories?

A lot writers have weighed in on this question, but I love Neil Gaiman's response, and I respectfully suggest you read what he has to say.

The joke answer "from an idea factory in Schenectady [New York]" has been attributed to a number of science fiction writers from Ray Bradbury to Harlan Ellison.

My own answer builds on what Gaiman says in his essay, which is, essentially, ask questions and let those questions lead you to more questions. My addition is: cultivate a sense of wonder.

I will admit that I'm not one of those writers that complain of having not enough time for all the ideas brimming over in their mind. I often actually have to sit down and coax ideas out of my head. (Characters... now THOSE I often have to spare -- all waiting impatiently in my head for their story to come to me.) When I'm starting a proposal, I'll pull out pen and paper and start scribbling out thoughts. If I have a character in mind, I might just start by asking myself the simple question: "What's the worst thing that could happen to this person?" and start there. Because in order to answer that question I have to know what's important to the character, the "what's at stake?" question which leads nicely to conflict which is the heart of drama.

But when I'm not on a deadline for a story idea, I cultivate a sense of wonder by reading everything I can get my hands on. I read fiction. I read non-fiction on any subject that attracts me (I have a whole book, for instance, on the history of grave robbing that, believe it or not, has worked into my vampire stories.) As a former science fiction writer, I also read popular science -- well, literally, as I'm a long time subscriber to the magazine Popular Science.

I also think that story generation is easier if you're the kind of person who looks at the world and automatically thinks: "Huh, I wonder why things are this way?" or "Why is that person who s/he is?"

So the short answer is... be open, ask questions... and wait. My friend and mentor Maureen McHugh once said that ideas are like pearls. They start as a grit of something that gets into your mind and slowly other thing attach themselves to that initial bit, becoming nacre. Sometimes you just end up with a dirty oyster, but sometimes you get pearls.