Simple and Logical

That's how you know I didn't write it!

Titles are hard. Truly hard. And often the title you love will be replaced by the publisher whose marketing department has a different idea about what sells.  This is not always a bad thing, mind you.  Margaret Mitchell's original title was, Tomorrow is Another Day.  It was the editorial staff that came up with Gone With the Wind.

As hard as it can be to come up with a good title, agent Rachelle Gardner manages to break it down in some simple and logical steps.

I highly recommend you read her suggestions here.

Have a great writing week!

Stealing, aka, Where Do Stories and Characters Come From?

You may know exactly where the idea for your book or character came from.

That annoying relative you want to put in their place.

A book you read and loved--until the last chapter, when your entire reading experience was ground under that author's unrelenting heel.

The life you might have led, had you chosen a different road.

Maybe.

Or maybe an idea, a piece of dialog, a character just popped into your head so fast, you knew you had to write it.

What if you are working on your beloved MIP (masterpiece in progress or mess in progress, depending on the alignment of the planets) or maybe you've finished it, and you catch a glimpse of an old movie or dig an old book out of the corner of the closet and--

Uh-oh.

Suddenly you know where the idea for this situation or that character or the entire premise came from.

Somebody else's work, something you saw or read and then "forgot."

It happens.

As Sherwood Smith describes here.

When is it stealing and when is it creating, and how do our brains work anyway, and oh by the way, what about that pesky copyright issue...?

Read it. You'll find it interesting.  Don't forget to read the comments, too! 

And while you're at it, look at this, too.  He's an artist, but everything he says works for writers, too.

Have a great week and go write something!

Former Student Checks In

I love when this happens.

Go read what's up with Rick DeMille!

Here is a hint:

So you think you don't need to rewrite?

Too many writers are convinced that their books are ready to go to press long before they are.  And yes, I am guilty of that.  It's why I rely heavily on editors, and if the day comes that I self-publish new fiction as so many people are doing, I will still employ a dynamite editor to push me when I get complacent, and to spot where I've gone wrong, whether it's grammar or story or style.

Rewriting is hard.  But it's the most important part.

To put this into perspective, Ernest Hemingway wrote at least 47 different endings to A Farewell to Arms . 

“I think people who are interested in writing and trying to write themselves will find it interesting to look at a great work and have some insight to how it was done,” said Sean Hemingway, a grandson of Ernest Hemingway who is also a curator of Greek and Roman art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The new edition concludes that the 39 endings referred to by Hemingway are more like 47.

E.B. White rewrote the beginning to Charlotte's Web about the same number of times.

And if you wonder, "Is it really worth that much rewriting?" I give you the first line of Charlotte's Web:


"Where's Papa going with that axe?" said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast. 

The answer is... to kill a newborn pig. A runt. The violence juxtaposed against the warm, family kitchen is definitely worth all the trouble.


Rewriting.  It's where the magic often happens.


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Writers Groups

I am a big believer in writers groups.  I've always been in one.  At this point instead of a group, I'm part of a circle of friends who beta for each other, possibly brainstorm together, are on the same creative wavelength.

On the other side of the equation, not everybody needs or wants a writers group.  Many people write alone and don't want any feedback.

There is no right or wrong here.

My own advice about writers groups is whether you are part of one online or in person, watch and listen before you put your own work up for critique and review.  Figure out how the group works. Listen to (or read) the critique and decide what you think about it.  Does it feel helpful to you?  Would you think it was helpful if you were on the receiving end?

Or does it feel brutal?

The great Neil Gaiman says, "On the whole, anything that gets you writing and keeps you writing is a good thing. Anything that stops you writing is a bad thing. If you find your writers group stopping you from writing, then drop it."

I say, follow your gut.  There is no right or wrong here. (Okay, there may be, but in many situations I'd say there isn't.)  I have had students come from the very same critique group with opposing reactions.  "I loved it. I've gone three more times!"  "I hated it. I thought they were mean-spirited." Both reactions were valid, because both writers were reacting with their guts.  Remember what Gaiman said. If YOU think this group is negative and will have a negative impact on your ability to write--that is not a good group for you. End of discussion.

Holly Lisle has some excellent advice on this subject.  I suggest you check it out!