What I learned writing a book in a month

or how I learned to buckle down and actually write a damn book.

I fall squarely into the category of people who are "writing a novel."  You know the ones.  They say "I'm writing a novel," and everyone smiles and nods supportively because this person has been writing a novel for most of their post-adolescent life.  By my count I've started over ten novels.  My husband says my obituary will read "author of the twenty-nine most promising first chapters you'll ever read."  Ouch.

First, I was going to write a novel when I finished my B.A., then in grad school with all that spare time, then before we had kids, then before we had another baby....you get the idea.  I'm a novel procrastinator.  I was always getting stuck or not feeling the story or frying a laptop and losing the whole manuscript.

So when NaNoWriMo came along I thought why not?  A little competition might be the best medicine for me, so armed with a few hours a week at the library, a flashdrive, and a lot of coffee, I signed up.  And dear readers, what do you know, I wrote a book.

Ok, I wrote 50,000 words that need a lot of editing, revision, and rewriting.  There's still about 2-3 chapters to write before the story arc is totally complete and everything from plotting to character development to description needs an overhaul.  But I discovered a few things along the way that made me realize I have the ability to stop being the novelist I spoke of before and become a real writer.

1.  I'm a pantser.
I have wasted a lot of effort on outlining and plotting and scene by scene planning.  NaNo forced me to sit down and write.  If I wanted to stay on target to meet the 50k goal, I had to write even if I couldn't force the scene I was supposed to write out.  The result?  I learned that sitting down, picking up where I left off, and writing for 2 hours produced a lot more story than my self-inflicted outline.

2.  A blank page is scarier than one that needs editing.
I have 179 pages of typos, poor word choice and in-text comments to reread and revise and it is so much less scary than the blank page ever was.  A blank page offers you nothing.  A page that needs revision gives you things to build on, ideas that spark more inspiration, and the start to a story.

3.  My inner editor is my worst enemy.  
My inner editor was always keeping my word count down and causing me to give on MSS.  When I stopped fixing typos, chose the word that came to mind over searching for the perfect one and just let go, I wrote like the wind.  Striving for perfection slows you down and inhibits creativity.

So wish me luck.  I have a book to edit!

Literary Fiction is Repetitive

In grad school, we liked to play a game in which we guessed what writers would be considered classics in 200 years.  For some reason we were especially drawn to debating J.K. Rowling's chances at literary greatness.  I think most people don't think its fair to be such a successful writer and a "good" writer.  There were four ways to gain a reputation worthy of study by underpaid grad students:

1. be an undervalued writer during your lifetime (think Austen)
2.  have success during your lifetime but then fall out of popularity (think Frances Burney)
3. be someone no one has ever heard of (think dissertation)
4.  be Shakespeare or Dickens

Ok, I'm only joking a little.  As far as what living writers you were allowed to study, well, they needed to be literary fiction.  Which, of course, begs the question: what the hell is literary fiction?  You're welcome to peruse the wikipedia entry on this one.  The truth is I find the term literary fiction to be both repetitive and insulting, which reminds me of History of the English Language appropriately nicknamed HEL.

Back when they were putting together dictionaries and rules of the fledgling English language, there were two camps of scholars: prescriptivists and  descriptivists.  Prescriptivists wanted to prescribe certain rules regarding usage, correct spellings, incorrect grammar, etc.  In other words, they were your 9th grade English teacher.  Descriptivists saw language as more fluid and changing.  They wanted to merely describe the current trends in usage and grammar.  Most scholars and writers have to walk a line between the two.

The debate between literary and commercial fiction reminds me of the old prescriptivist v. descriptivist dilemma.  There are a lot of people out there that wanted to classify some works as literary and therefore serious or worthwhile or somehow better than other writing.  These types scoff at Stephenie Meyer's success and mock the Oprah Book Club sticker.  If poor Shakespeare was living today and was invited to be part of the Oprah Book Club, he'd probably be written off.

But the issue swings both ways.  Not only do we denigrate commercially successful fiction, we cannot concede that classic works fall into genre or commercial categories.  Try suggesting that Jane Austen would be considered chick lit if she was writing today in a grad class and see how long it takes them to build a scaffold and gather up a lynching crowd.  It's okay, even cute, for an undergrad to suggest this, but serious scholars know the difference. But I maintain that there's not much difference in the themes of Austen in comparison to someone like Jennifer Weiner.  Obviously there are differences in cultural and societal norms, but both writers spend a lot of time on women's psychology and relationships.  It's scholarly, though, to devote significant time to psychoanalyzing Austen.  After all, she is literary fiction.

There's a raging debate right now over literary fiction getting more respect than commercially successful fiction.  A lot of people saying that white males writing today are given more respect than women or minorities writing about similar things.  First of all, part of this comes from the old boys' club that still occupies a significant space in literary criticism, because even many of the forward thinking men and women in literary crowds today were educated under them.  Secondly, I don't think its purely a racial or gender specific issue.  This is really more about serious v. commercial.And truth be told nowadays if you write serious fiction and experiment with controversial issues or strange narrative structures or metafiction, you have a pretty good shot at commercial success thanks to critical reception and attention.  Commercial writers rely more on word of mouth and eye-catching covers.  Both groups are getting attention in different ways, so why do we need to keep up the pretense that some work is literary fiction?  All fiction is literary.  All we do by segregating them is create a false dichotomy that favors certain writers as better writers than others.  Because in the end, a good book is a good book.

What is a YA novel anyway?

I finally decided to read Hunger Games and in less than a week finished the series.  I liked it so much that I passed it on to my husband.  He reads a lot.  He's the adult male version of Rory Gilmore.  I'm pretty sure he took up smoking at work to get more reading breaks.  So its high praise to pass a "kids" book onto him.  Like many adults, he's read Harry Potter, but mostly he sticks to the grown-up sections of the bookstore.  He's not finished yet, but he's hooked.  And something's bothering him.  He keeps asking me what makes this book YA?

At first I assumed he was horrified at selling a book on this concept to teens.  Not that he's a censor, but its a far cry from Judy Blume, you know?  But that wasn't it.  He did thing the concept was adult, but he didn't care who read it, so I told him the age of the protagonist.  Turns out he's a little peeved that a book with such "simple, elegant prose" and interesting plot elements was being marketed to teens.  Remember the little debate going around online about teen boys and YA?  It's interesting the number of adult women I know who have read the books or Twilight or the Mortal Instruments.  It's not just teen boys ignoring YA, its adult men too.  Every time my husband mentions the YA novel thing I'm struck by his obvious misconceptions.  Hunger Games is too well-written, too compelling, too innovative to be YA.  So does that mean the average person assumes YA is "kids" books written for a less sophisticated audience and therefore not well-composed or interesting?  So do YA authors undermine themselves by labeling their books YA?  Or will really good books always breakout?

So you think you want to write paranormal romance...

Did you feel that?  I just virtually slapped you.  What are you thinking?  You must be nuts!

Ok, who's still here?

I wanted to get rid of the real softies first.  You see the thing about writing paranormal anything these days is that its a fad.  Now some of you are thinking, but mine is different!  I have a vampire-werewolf-fairy love triangle, and my protagonist is really different - she's strong with blue hair and a fashion sense!

Paranormal romance has exploded in the marketplace.  Now I'm not saying everyone's trying to cash in on the Twilight craze.  I think its more that a lot of people really enjoyed Twilight (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?) and/or they want to attract an already established market.  The problem, of course, is that for every 10 Twilight fans there are out there, one of them is writing a paranormal romance for teens, and considering you can buy Twilight themed toilet paper these days, thats a lot of fans and a heck of a lot of writers.

So what do you do?  Grab an entire chocolate cream pie, dig in and hit the delete button?

NO!  There's good news!

If you really stop to think about it, there are only about eight plotlines, the rest are all derivatives.  In other words, you can't reinvent the wheel, but you can make a better, shinier, faster wheel.  The question is how and the answer is obvious.  You have to set yourself apart.  But, Jenn!  I already told you about my strong, blue-haired protagonist fairy who is in love with a vampire and a werewolf!  


Ok, be honest, with yourself...are you really writing something new and different?
It's not enough to use a new and exciting mythological creature, because all those other writers are out there are pouring over cryptozoology websites too.  Even if you find a magical creature that isn't in a book at the moment, you can bet someone else is writing about it right now.  The hook has to be more than that.  Originality is more than switching out a vampire for a Sphinx.

In Writing the Breakout Novel, Donald Maas talks about taking storylines in new and interesting directions.  I'd like to try that now.  Please note if this storyline kicks-ass, I so call dibs.  If not, let's just let it fester here.  My son is prattling on about time machines and super heroes in his high chair, so let's start there.

We have a time machine and some sort of plot to save something.
Obvious direction: Boy invents time machine and travels back in time to save girl, parents, planet, etc
BOR-ING
How can we make this new?
Well, let's switch boy to girl (seriously, why do only boys get to build time machines)
And let's make her mission less apocalyptic:
1.  She wants to take back something she said or save herself from a huge embarrassment (bit vague but promising)
OR
2.  She wants to stop her parents divorce (bit depressing and how do you work in the romance aspect?)

Let's go with #1 - She wants to take back something she said or save herself from a huge embarrassment

What did she say or do?
Obvious direction: She's alienated a friend with her actions or ruined her chances with her dream boy
How do we spin this?
1.  How about she said something to her teacher and he/she quit her job?
OR
2.  Se missed her kid brother's birthday party/soccer game/school play
OR
3. She got really drunk and did something she can't remember at a school function, which has earned her the reputation of Wild Thing

I like #3, it can be made fun and edgy and be something teens can relate to without having to be cliche.

Now stop for a second, none of the aspects of the plot - time travel, wanting to undo a mistake, making a scene of yourself, avoiding humiliation - are new.  It's the combination of them that is key.

But what about the love interest?
Obvious direction: She thinks he will like her better if she can undo or her bad reputation or conversely, he winds up liking her better for being herself
YAWN

How can we intro an entirely new paranormal love experience?
1. She misfires and winds up in a different time and he helps her get back to the future (wait, isn't that a Michael J. Fox movie?  Don't worry about it, if it was made before they were born)
OR
2. Her best friend stows away to save her from changing the past, because he loves her the way she is (ok, its not great, but maybe)
OR
3.  A boy she never noticed before realizes she has come back to change things, begins helping her, and boom - love is in the air (let's go with this)

So ultimately she...
Obvious direction: decides she's found love and doesn't need to change her past.


How about no.
Instead she changes the past, which has disastrous consequences.  It's not entirely new, but it opens up possibilities.  Much more than if she learns her lesson and lives happily ever after.

So hey, what do you think of our story so far?  I may call dibs on this one.

Crafting a Query

In a past life (okay it was two years ago), I taught lit at the University of Missouri.  This was a great gig.  Not only was it like getting to host a book club I could pass judgment on, I learned a lot about writing.  That's right, I learned more about the craft through teaching than taking classes.  When you are expected to teach others, you begin to examine methodology more deeply.  You can't just write, you have to show someone else how to do it themselves.

So naturally as I begin to think about what happens when the revisions are done, I've starting to think about  the query and what better way to approach it then with a little lesson plan.

Successful queries are ones that convey your story and writing ability using an economy of words.  The first step is to have a good story, a good query is dependent on it.  The second step is to have a concise, well-written synopsis.  One bad paragraph or poorly structured sentence and you are in the slush pile.

A query should contain these elements:

1.  It should be addressed to a specific agent, no sirs or madams here!  And make sure you actually have done your homework and this is the best person.

2.  The first paragraph should contain all the vital info of the story in 2-3 lines, AND it should have a hook.  Start looking at your DVDs and books for blurbs, then try your hand at writing a blurb.  NOTE: While this may be the first thing in the letter, it doesn't have to be written first!  It may be easier to come back, read your synopsis and then boil it down to two sentences.

3.  A one to two paragraph synopsis of your entire plot NOT your every scene.  Focus on the good stuff.  That scene where your heroine slips into a vat of pudding might be hilarious, but unless she uncovers a body in the pudding and begins hunting the killer, it doesn't belong in your synopsis.

4.  A little about you.  You don't have to have fancy degrees or published stories, but if you do toot your horn.  If you don't, don't talk about how you wanted to write a book since you learned the alphabet song or wax poetic on your love of libraries, we could all say that. What makes you a unique and valuable voice in the literary world?

Got it written?  Great!  Go back and cut 25 words.

You heard me.  I know you think you need it all, but one of the greatest tricks in a writer's toolbox is the ability to delete and combine.  I know you can do it.

Done?  Fabulous.   Print 2 copies and go grab your neighbor, friend, husband, literate 8 year-old and have them read it out loud to you.  If they stumble over words, underline the spot. Circle the things that sound wrong.  Listen to how it sounds read by someone else.  Repeat with someone else.

Hate me yet?

Good.  Now go post it to your writing support group.  Chances are they'll rip it to shreds.  Wonderful.  Address concerns and keep revising until it sounds eloquent read by someone else and the writing group is gushing about its clarity and tone.

This is your first step in the publishing process.  Make sure you are the wheat not the chaff.