Editing Explained

A book acquired by a traditional print publisher goes through several stages of editing.

Self-published books need the same.

Welcome, Basics classes of Winter 2015!

I'm looking forward to seeing you tonight and tomorrow morning.

In the meantime, let me share this for you and for everyone else following this blog.

ConDFW is coming up in a couple of weeks, Feb 13-15, and it's going to be fun, as always.

Early registration for hotel and conference ends Jan 31.  Check it out!

In addition to many other fascinating presentations, The Cushing Memorial Library Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Collection will be represented.

And I'll be there participating on panels, reading from my books, and signing.

I hope to see some of you there.

Write Like Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway's 1923 passport photo

Some writers begin with a character in their heads who won't shut up until the writer starts writing, and then hopefully, still won't shut up.

Some writers begin with a "what if" that captivates them in amazing ways, and makes them want to play with the idea as it tangles and untangles and leaves the reader in a puddle of amazed delight.

Whatever is in your head, you may sometimes find yourself sitting in front of the keyboard unable to find the words to begin.  Sometimes a writer gets frozen by the blank page.

Here is some advice that begins with Hemingway, spins off to McKee and beyond.

Great advice, whether it's something you do before writing a word of your novel, or something you do a few chapters in when the first burst of energy has burnt through.

But How Do I Keep People From Stealing My Ideas?

This is one of the biggest newbie fears, and the one pro writers worry about least. In classes I've given examples of how seemingly unique ideas all got bought within weeks, from writers who don't know each other and have no idea other people came up with similar.

I sometimes tell of a writer friend who was convinced an acquaintance 'stole' her story premise, rewrote it, and sold it to a different publisher, because the acquaintance's book came out a couple of years later and did start off in a different location but with the same sequence of events, not particularly going off in its own direction until about chapter ten.  But when I mentioned this to a mentor, my mentor laughed and said, "If you're going to use the oldest chestnut in the genre, don't be shocked that others use it, too."

My friend was convinced that her idea was new, but it wasn't new at all. It was new to her, but people who had been reading for many years had seen it before. And before. And before. It still made a good story, but it wasn't unique, and it's doubtful that the acquaintance stole it.

This comes back to me after reading the following on agent Kristin Nelson's Facebook page:

And it never ceases to amaze me when I see trends in that query inbox. It's like suddenly all writers have hit on the same concept independently. 

This month's zeitgeist? Young adult stories where the main narrator has to train as an assassin in order to protect a family member or the whole fam. 

Just in the last 3 weeks alone I've read over a dozen query letters with this theme.

And there ya go. No new ideas. In publishing what sells is how YOU write it. What you bring to it that's new and fresh. 

So, are you writing in 2015? If not, why not?