Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Recently tweeted writing tips
Here are a few good writing articles I picked up from twitter this week:
Five good editing tips for that rewrite
How to write a 7-paragraph synopsis
25 reasons a reader will keep reading your book
10 Commandments of writing
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban script breakdown
My favorite tip of the week comes from the 10 Commandments:
2. Thou Shalt write passionate first drafts
Don't
edit yourself during your first drafts. The writing of it is partly an
act of discovering your story, even if you outline. Write hot. Put your
heart into it. Let your writer's mind run free. I edit my previous day's
work and then move on. At 20k words I "step back" to see if I have a
solid foundation, shore it up if I don't, then move on to the end.
There's magic in momentum.
As always I remain--
Pooks, braving the twitter so that you don't have to.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Breaking News Alert--Professional Suicide
I don't care how smart you think you are (and nothing in this open letter convinces me that he is) or how right you think you are (and lots in this open letter is sadly true about how the publishing business operates)--
Never do this.
And be glad you aren't this guy's agent.
An Open Letter to Simon and Schuester CEO Carolyn Reidy
[Note to self: This just might be the time to recommend this book to anyone who doesn't understand why the following is a problem. Or even those who do.]
Tuesday, November 08, 2011
Act Fast, Free Writing Books!
ATTN: The free book offer has ended. Sorry if you missed it!
[I feel like I should be offering extra books if you act fast enough, and throw in a ginsu knife to boot.]
There are six Writers Digest Books available for free download right now on Amazon. I have no idea how long this will last.
One of them is Getting the Words Right: 39 Ways to Improve Your Writing
, by Theodore Cheney. I use this one in class. One of your handouts comes from it.
In print it's almost $11.00, but check the Kindle edition. Today it's free. If you don't have a Kindle that's not a problem. You can download the free Kindle software from Amazon to read Kindle books on your computer, your iPhone, your iPad, your iTouch, blackberry, etc.
I don't know how long this will last, so be sure you check the price before you download, just in case you missed it. Or if you prefer, buy it in print. It's a good reference book for writers.
ATTN: The free book offer has ended. Sorry if you missed it!
[I feel like I should be offering extra books if you act fast enough, and throw in a ginsu knife to boot.]
There are six Writers Digest Books available for free download right now on Amazon. I have no idea how long this will last.
, by Theodore Cheney. I use this one in class. One of your handouts comes from it.
In print it's almost $11.00, but check the Kindle edition. Today it's free. If you don't have a Kindle that's not a problem. You can download the free Kindle software from Amazon to read Kindle books on your computer, your iPhone, your iPad, your iTouch, blackberry, etc.
I don't know how long this will last, so be sure you check the price before you download, just in case you missed it. Or if you prefer, buy it in print. It's a good reference book for writers.
ATTN: The free book offer has ended. Sorry if you missed it!
We've got ya covered.
Ever wonder what goes into designing a book cover?
John Scalzi has revealed his new book cover for the book, Redshirts.
And Tor has allowed Irene Gallo, their creative director, to take us behind the scenes to see what they were aiming for and three of the designs they didn't use.
The Awl looks at iconic book covers, and six contemporary writers tell us all about their reactions to covers and blurbs.
The Enchanted Inkpot shows Fall 2011 YA covers and discusses the trends. (Interesting how few of the people on the covers actually look like young adults.)
And this may be a bit out of date but it's interesting--a look back at cover trends in 2010.
However lovely the covers, drowning girls looks like a disturbing trend, doesn't it?
John Scalzi has revealed his new book cover for the book, Redshirts.
And Tor has allowed Irene Gallo, their creative director, to take us behind the scenes to see what they were aiming for and three of the designs they didn't use.
The Awl looks at iconic book covers, and six contemporary writers tell us all about their reactions to covers and blurbs.
The Enchanted Inkpot shows Fall 2011 YA covers and discusses the trends. (Interesting how few of the people on the covers actually look like young adults.)
And this may be a bit out of date but it's interesting--a look back at cover trends in 2010.
However lovely the covers, drowning girls looks like a disturbing trend, doesn't it?
Sunday, November 06, 2011
Revision--from the editor's and the author's pov
Tonight I was on twitter and someone introduced planetalvina, Alvina Ling, Editorial Director at Little, Brown Bks for Young Readers. Editor of picture books, MG, and YA. How could I not #follow another planet in the literary solar system?
I went to her blog and found an entry about the same subject I discussed in class last week--revisions, and how she edits--and couldn't resist linking. So go, read, digest.
The task of writing an editorial letter to me is daunting, and I certainly had no idea how to go about doing it when I edited my first novel (sorry, Libby!). But I learned as time went on; I learned from my mentors, and I learned from reading the correspondence files that circulate in my department: each week, everyone in editorial (when we remember) places copies of our editorial letters and other outside business correspondences into a centralized folder which is then circulated throughout the editorial department so that we can be aware of other editors' projects, problems that other editors are having that may be similar to our own, and also so the junior staff can read many different editorial letters to start to understand how to write them. I found this to be a crucial learning tool when I was first starting out as an editorial assistant.
I think you'll find the entire process more human and less daunting!
bloomabilities: How I edit 2.0
I give my students advice on how to deal with revision letters. It's pretty simple.
1. Wait at least 3 days before you do anything but thank the editor for them. No matter what your first reaction is, you need to think about them and live with them for a few days before you're really ready to address them, much less discuss them with your editor.
2. Take 3 colors of highlighters. Highlight the easy, no-brainer stuff in one color. Highlight the, you're not quite sure you understand this/you need to discuss this a bit in another color. And finally, highlight the, if I do what you want me to I'll break my book and it will never be the same again!!! in the last color. (There really shouldn't be much of this, if any, and you need to limit this reaction as much as possible. And yet, sometimes, this is the reaction you have and it has to be dealt with.)
3. When you do talk to your editor about revisions, first cover all the easy, no-brainer stuff, and be sure you thank your editor for seeing these things you missed, for bringing a different and often more-experienced perspective to the table, for making your book so much better in so many ways. Then talk about the things from the second group, the things you need clarification on, the things that you don't necessarily disagree with but need more discussion to make sure you do understand them. (Honestly, you may not.) And finally, last, you deal tactfully (without the drama queen hysteria you might have felt on first reading) with the note that you would really, really like to dismiss because you simply don't think it's going to work. Hopefully by now your editor recognizes how much care and thought you've put into her suggestions, how much you appreciate her contributions to your work, and is open to your thoughts that may disagree with hers.
How do you deal with this? Well, perhaps once the editor has explained his or her issues with the problem, you may have better ways to alleviate those concerns without making the particular change you want to avoid. Or perhaps just knowing what the concerns are, you can do your rewrite and take great pains to make sure they are dealt with, short of changing what is important to you.
The one time I had to deal with a situation like this, I told my editor that now that I understood her concerns, I'd like to go ahead and do my rewrite and and see if I could make the scene work for her. If it didn't, I would cut it.
But it did work, second time around. So we found a way to compromise and we were both happy, and it was a better book. In fact, it was nominated for the Romance Writers of America Rita that year.
Never forget that the editor is on your side. Her goal is to make your book better. Together, you can rock the casbah!
What about you? What is your process for responding to editorial notes? Or giving them, if you're the editor?
I went to her blog and found an entry about the same subject I discussed in class last week--revisions, and how she edits--and couldn't resist linking. So go, read, digest.
The task of writing an editorial letter to me is daunting, and I certainly had no idea how to go about doing it when I edited my first novel (sorry, Libby!). But I learned as time went on; I learned from my mentors, and I learned from reading the correspondence files that circulate in my department: each week, everyone in editorial (when we remember) places copies of our editorial letters and other outside business correspondences into a centralized folder which is then circulated throughout the editorial department so that we can be aware of other editors' projects, problems that other editors are having that may be similar to our own, and also so the junior staff can read many different editorial letters to start to understand how to write them. I found this to be a crucial learning tool when I was first starting out as an editorial assistant.
I think you'll find the entire process more human and less daunting!
bloomabilities: How I edit 2.0
I give my students advice on how to deal with revision letters. It's pretty simple.
1. Wait at least 3 days before you do anything but thank the editor for them. No matter what your first reaction is, you need to think about them and live with them for a few days before you're really ready to address them, much less discuss them with your editor.
2. Take 3 colors of highlighters. Highlight the easy, no-brainer stuff in one color. Highlight the, you're not quite sure you understand this/you need to discuss this a bit in another color. And finally, highlight the, if I do what you want me to I'll break my book and it will never be the same again!!! in the last color. (There really shouldn't be much of this, if any, and you need to limit this reaction as much as possible. And yet, sometimes, this is the reaction you have and it has to be dealt with.)
3. When you do talk to your editor about revisions, first cover all the easy, no-brainer stuff, and be sure you thank your editor for seeing these things you missed, for bringing a different and often more-experienced perspective to the table, for making your book so much better in so many ways. Then talk about the things from the second group, the things you need clarification on, the things that you don't necessarily disagree with but need more discussion to make sure you do understand them. (Honestly, you may not.) And finally, last, you deal tactfully (without the drama queen hysteria you might have felt on first reading) with the note that you would really, really like to dismiss because you simply don't think it's going to work. Hopefully by now your editor recognizes how much care and thought you've put into her suggestions, how much you appreciate her contributions to your work, and is open to your thoughts that may disagree with hers.
How do you deal with this? Well, perhaps once the editor has explained his or her issues with the problem, you may have better ways to alleviate those concerns without making the particular change you want to avoid. Or perhaps just knowing what the concerns are, you can do your rewrite and take great pains to make sure they are dealt with, short of changing what is important to you.
The one time I had to deal with a situation like this, I told my editor that now that I understood her concerns, I'd like to go ahead and do my rewrite and and see if I could make the scene work for her. If it didn't, I would cut it.
But it did work, second time around. So we found a way to compromise and we were both happy, and it was a better book. In fact, it was nominated for the Romance Writers of America Rita that year.
Never forget that the editor is on your side. Her goal is to make your book better. Together, you can rock the casbah!
What about you? What is your process for responding to editorial notes? Or giving them, if you're the editor?
Tuesday, November 01, 2011
I hate numbers.
Rachelle Gardner posted a rather horrifying but "this is where we live, folks" post about what publishers want to see from writers.
Yes, it's about facebook and twitter and more.
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