You heard it here first.

I've been invited to speak at next year's DFW Con in May 2014.

Can't wait! It will be my first time at that conference but I've been recommending it to students for years, and have only heard good things about it.

In that spirit, I'll share this post from their website.

Don't assume anything.

You often will be wrong.

Fortunately.

Kindle and Fanfic and Profit

The Guardian* used this image without attribution to fan-artist. Irony intended or not?

So I wrote a fanfic that has, to date, way over two million hits.  I like fanfic. But the whole "Amazon is going to publish fanfic for a profit" news last week was at first glance, gobsmacking. It won't impact me or anything I wrote, because I did not write in a fandom that has a deal with Amazon, nor will it likely ever have a deal with Amazon, and in the unlikely situation where something like that panned out, my own flights of fancy went in directions unlikely to ever get the copyright-owners public seal of approval, so I don't have a dog in this hunt.

 But as it was quickly noted, so far the only participants are television shows. They have a vested interest in building viewership and encouraging fan participation, and making money from the licensing thereof. They already do this. The arena--fanfic--is new. Licensing the use of their universes and characters for a profit is not. It will be interesting to see if any authors join in.

If this is all new to you and you wonder, what is this thing, fanfic? As we know it, it started with Star Trek. Once the show was cancelled, fans couldn't let go. They started writing their own stories and sharing them through the mail. And almost immediately those stories included things that didn't make it onto a television screen, whether it was sexual content or non-canon relationships or "What if Captain Kirk was Kirk Douglas's illegitimate son?" or ... wherever the imagination took the writers. Fanfic is not always about sex or about non-canon relationships, but it often is. But most importantly, it's people who love a universe and characters they need to tell and read more stories about it than are already told, people who want to keep telling and reading stories about it long after the official story is told. It's legality is, if you'll excuse me, 50 shades of grey. But it exists. And that's why we are where we are today.

For those of you who are interested, here are some links to various discussions about the subject. Don't forget to read comments.

 John Scalzi Another red flag: “Amazon Publishing will acquire all rights to your new stories, including global publication rights, for the term of copyright.” Which is to say, once Amazon has it, they have the right to do anything they want with it, including possibly using it in anthologies or selling it other languages, etc, without paying the author anything else for it, ever. Again, an excellent deal for Amazon; a less than excellent deal for the actual writer.

  Laura Anne Gilman 6. This will hopefully finally teach people to HOLD ONTO THE DERIVATIVE RIGHTS ON EVERYTHING THEY SELL, FOREVER AND EVER AMEN.

 Matt Forbeck As a writer, it feels like splitting the royalty on the book with the owners, which seems fair. Standard royalties on work-for-hire tie-in novels range from 8% all the way down to nada. Of course, those contracts come with an advance, which Kindle Worlds (like all self-published Kindle books) doesn’t offer. There are some catches...

 Steven Harper Piziks Don’t like the way it works? Then write your own stuff. It’s that simple. And finally...

 *The Guardian Amazon selling fanfic may sound a great idea, but the whole point of these stories is they go where the powers that be won't. [See image above.]  

Why You Need Expert Representation Before You Sign a Contract

This is the shortest of shorthand and is only meant to serve as a single example of the minefield that awaits you.  It should be a launchpad for your own research.

But this is what happened last week, summed up (with links) in three short posts.

How Random House wanted to take advantage of writers' desperation to get published and ignorance about the business: 

Random Hydra and the Terrible, Horrible, Awful, No-Good, Very Bad Contract

How writers and writers' orgs stepped up to the plate to scream bloody murder so that Random House backed away in less than 48 hours:

Update on the Random Hydra Affair

Why what Random House did still left contracts no writer should sign.

Random Hydra Rides Again: Or, Why Better Isn’t Always Good Enough

A LIST OF ATTORNEYS THAT IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BUT WITH WHOM I HAVE NO EXPERIENCE.

Have fun!

When Writing Is Hard

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”
― Ernest Hemingway

Two blogs crossed my radar today. I don't know either of the bloggers but their points were interesting and I wanted to share with you.

Janice Hardy says: "I've been working on a novel for a while (okay, two years, ugh) that's a growing pains novel. I'm stretching myself, trying new and challenging things and half the time I want to toss the manuscript out the window and work on something else.

"But I can't, because I love this story and want to write it the way it deserves to be written.

"Which means I need to grow as a writer and master some genre aspects I've never done before."

And she goes onto to discuss the painful process and how she is approaching it, complete with advice on how you can approach it as well.

Laura Lee writes: "I know I run the risk of offending indie authors when I say this but here it goes: most self-published books are not novels but drafts of novels." 

Why? Because the authors call it ready before they've gone through the hard work. Why? Because they can. I can assure you that I knew my books were better than most of the books published when nobody would buy them.  I was wrong, of course. I can see that now, just as I can see that the books that did make it through the hurdles of finding an agent and then a publisher have their flaws. But at the time I wrote them I didn't see it.

Because it's now such an easy thing to turn a manuscript into an ebook or POD book, writers no longer are forced to get better, to grow and learn and put in the hard work. The fact that there are successes in self-published books that go onto sell well and lift their authors above the crowd simply means that these authors were ready for the marketplace when most aren't.

I love Laura Lee's comment: "To jump to yet another metaphor (really where are those editors when you need them?): As stones are polished by the friction of ocean waves, novels are polished through resistance."

Writing when it's hard and rewriting when it's tedious are part of the process, part of what will ultimately make your writing worth someone else's money, time and imagination.

But ore importantly, it will make it worth YOUR time, imagination and passion. Your story deserves the best you have to give it. Your dreams, your goals, your passions deserve your best efforts.

Go for it.
 

Tarot for Writers

Diane Patterson [author of You Know Who I Am (The Drusilla Thorne Mysteries)] noticed my entry on ideas and shared this book with me:

Tarot for Writers, by Corinne Kenner.

From a review of the book: Corrine Kenner, author of “Tarot for Writers”, explains that well-known writers, such as John Steinbeck and Stephen King, have used tarot cards for inspiration. She adds that Italian novelist Italo Calvino went so far as to call the tarot “a machine for writing stories.”

Really? I had no idea. But I'm not surprised.

In our class we just used the images themselves to inspire a 3-sentence story. This article delves more deeply into the meanings and symbolism of the cards, which can be interesting but isn't necessary.

To my astonishment, I find that there is a Tarot of Jane Austen Deck.

And a The Zombie Tarot.

The Science Tarot. (Is that an oxymoron, or what?)

I'm going to stop now before I spend the entire morning surfing the web looking at weird and wacky tarot decks and leaving evidence to prove I did so.

Where do ideas come from?

Good answers are here. Go read. Then come back. Or read here first, then go read there. I'll let you choose, because I'm easy like that. Bossy, but easy.

My good friend Carol Jerina wrote a book, Tropic Gold, inspired by a half-inch news story buried in the back of the Dallas Morning News about an heir being found by an heir-hunter.

Really, it was that one word--heir-hunter--that grabbed her attention.

That book had one of the greatest covers EVER.  My copy is in a box somewhere. Damn, I'm going to have to hunt down another copy of that book just because.

My western, now titled La Desperada, began when a sentence popped into my head: "Once there was a woman who was so desperate to escape that she held a cold-blooded murderer at gunpoint and said, take me with you."

I have an idea for a writing exercise for class about ideas.

I hope nobody is offended by the use of tarot cards for a writing exercise because this should be fun!

When I spoke about cover design in class...

I had no idea that Dave Smeds was going to single out La Desperada in his blog entry on the same subject.

And speaking of cover design, my friend Diane's new murder mystery, You Know Who I Am (The Drusilla Thorne Mysteries)has a great cover.

It's also a lot of fun and a very twisty tale. Check it out!

Mad Scientists and Evil Geniuses

This week the writers at Book View Cafe are blogging about Mad Scientists and Evil Geniuses.

I want to point out a particular entry (which is actually a re-post) where the Evil Genius is a horse.

For Amanda and anyone else who loves horses.

Smart Horse Tricks.

Enjoy! 

Pavlov's Soundtrack

I assume you know about Pavlov's dog.

If you don't, go check this out; I'll wait.

::whistles politely::

::provides illustration for the rest of us, while you're reading::

Back?

All righty, then.

I have learned to create soundtracks for my writing, because once my brain associates music with the writing process, it becomes easier to actually--you know--get into it.

Do you know what a blog tour is? (Does this sound like one of my typical digressions where I wander away from the topic and leave you going "wtf?" Well, this is exactly like one of my typical digressions--because it has a point! Wait for it.*)

(*Well, you always wait for it, and when you're lucky, I still remember it when I get there.)

(This is the best advertisement for my teaching EVER. Because clearly everybody will want to take a class from someone who can't stick to the topic without wandering around the world taking sidetrips, right?)

(Right.)

A blog tour is when an author promotes a new book by taking a tour of other people's blogs and writing new entries for all of them, so that a wide new potential audience of readers will be exposed to them, their work, and hopefully go buy their new book.

(See, even though this is a digression, it's still educational. But, I digress.)

I mentioned Marie Brennan's new book before, when I mentioned it's an illustrated novel. Well, I'm mentioning it again, because she's on a blog tour promoting the new novel, and I keep tripping over interesting things she's written.

Which is when we get back to the soundtrack theory. She describes the soundtrack she created for a "Natural History of Dragons" here.

She describes the process she used in choosing music.

The first time I had a soundtrack was quite by accident.  I discovered that playing Christmas music helped me write a script that took place on Christmas Eve, even though I was writing in July. It was quite brilliant, really. Plug in the earbuds and suddenly I'm in my imaginary world where it's always Christmas Eve... until midnight, I mean, when it's Christmas. Yay!

Next project was about a group of women from South Carolina who end up in England. That was trickier, until I discovered Carolina Beach Music.  Not only did I have a new view of the world I was writing about, but I also had a kind of music that joined four generations of South Carolina women and the secrets they were hiding.

And since then, the beat goes on. I now always create a soundtrack. This is no guarantee that the muse will cooperate, but it certainly pleases her more often than not.

What about you? Do you use music to tempt the muse?

Chills.

In class we touched upon--merely touched upon--the ability of an image to inspire an entire world of possibilities for story and character. Hopefully you found that fun.

Today I was googling for something else and stumbled across this image.

I saved him, because seriously, how creepy is that? Of course I know who it is and where it came from, but that doesn't mean he can't show up in my own fiction in an entirely different way.

What about you? Can a person's picture inspire a thousand words? A world? A universe?

That Kiss

Another thing we touched on in class.  Three-act structure. Even in commercials.

This one prompted this response from Laura Anne Gilman on twitter:

@LAGilman: As an Audi driver, I hope the girl was the one who socked that kid for grabbing-without-asking. #commercials

Grabbing without asking. I think I know where they got that inspiration from, and there is still discussion over whether this was an inappropriate reaction or not. I loved it. I also understand that it could be seen as demeaning, that an Academy Award-winning actress, Halle Berry, is reduced to "the prize" that is available for manhandling. Although she was pro enough to go along with it.

On the other hand, it was a beautiful acceptance speech.

So. What do you think?  Inappropriate, inexcusable, or part of the game of show biz?

And which commercials did you find that had a three-act structure?

An Illustrated Novel

This subject came up in class last week and lo and behold, what should come across my screen but an illustrated novel that happens to be written by one of my fellow authors at Book View Cafe.

Here is a guest blog Marie wrote about her new book, A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent.  I haven't held it in my hands, yet, but I intend to. It looks fun.

What is Middle Grade? What is Young Adult?

Leviathan is one of my favorite novels from recent years. It happens to be a young adult novel, but there's nothing childish or immature about it. Some of the best fiction written these days is written for the younger markets.

What is Young Adult? What is Middle Grade?

SFWA and Malinda Lo will tell you the difference between MG and YA fiction here.

Here's some of the top YA fiction of 2012.

Harry Potter started it. Twilight picked up the baton. The Hunger Games sealed the deal. You don't have to be a young adult to buy, read and love YA fiction any more.

But you do need to read today's YA and see what today's readers want in a novel.

This is true of any kind of novel, though. You must read the new material that's out there, the books written by new writers who don't sell books just because they are already popular writers.

You need to see what readers want to read today and then decide if that's what you want to write, can write. And believe me, there are a lot of wonderful new writers out there waiting for you to discover them.

Jenny Crusie's Whiteboard System and Collage Pre-Writing

Maybe This Time

New York Times Best Selling Author Jennifer Crusie's approach to finding her plot and working out the details is the most unusual I've run across, and fascinating and pretty!

Read, look and marvel.

Collage as Prewriting and Inspiration -- The Explanation

Collages for Various Books -- The Illustration

Her Whiteboard System of Outlining

Homework Week One

1. Take yourself on an Artist’s

     Date.

2. Try “morning pages.”

3. Read the “first pages.”

4. Use your “capture device.”

5. Watch Witness .

6. Be a writer.

Got questions?  Ask!  (Or email me.)  And don't forget to sign up for email delivery of this blog.

Go write something!

It's January and That Means...

Tonight is my first class of the fall semester, and tomorrow morning I have another. If you are signed up for classes, have googled and tracked me down and found me here--tell me!

And welcome!

It's going to be a great semester, and you're going to write a novel.

Ready? Set? Go!

Why a Writer Who Doesn't Need an Agent Wants One

Laura Anne Gilman explains today, as she announces her partnership with her new agent.

I know that it's popular now for writers to decide to go sans agent, and handle their affairs on their own, or with a lawyer's assist (especially if they've been burned in the past). I'd never say "don't do that" because for many people that is the right decision. But not for me.

Ironic, perhaps, since my previous career as an editor gave me the skills to go solo (I have no fear of negotiations, contracts or paperwork).

Read why.

Jim Hines Reveals All

No, I'm not talking about Jim Hines copycatting extreme cover-poses from paranormal/science fiction novels, although he certainly does that for both fun and charity.

I'm talking about his continuing honest sharing of his publishing-related finances.

Here's his breakdown of what he earned writing last year, along with comparisons to previous years.

If you don't already follow Jim, you should.

I have new classes starting Jan 28 and 29. Are you in them? Let me know. I'm glad to meet students ahead of time here!

Books You Didn't Like?

I was glad to read Sherwood Smith's blog entry today about books she didn't love in 2012.

As a teacher I'm constantly having people tell me how much they love books that I don't, or haven't read and don't want to. The reasons are varied. It has nothing to do with quality of work and everything to do with, "It's subjective."

I don't care how many people rave about Cormac McCarthy; his books sound so dark and depressing to me I haven't gotten to a point where I want to give them a shot.  I know he's a hugely respected writer, an award-winning writer, a writer my students often find inspiring. That's all good and wonderful and I won't mock anybody for loving Cormac McCarthy.

I will mock Twilight because it's fun to mock Twilight but I honestly won't mock readers who love Twilight. Some of my best friends love Twilight!

Anyway, I suggest you read Sherwood's thoughts and join in the discussion.

She definitely has a few thoughts on the subject!

No, I haven't forgotten you.

Though if you want to keep up with what's going on in my world it's best to follow planetpooks and/or me on facebook and/or twitter.

But I do post writing things here that don't make it to the other places, so if all you want is the occasional writing thing, you are in the right place! (Or, if you're taking a current class and want to be sure you are getting any info I might find to share between classes.)

So what am I sharing today?

From Laini Taylor: Cultivate the attitude that every word you write need not end up in the book. Some things are just exercises, part of the process of discovery. Be willing to do more work than will show. The end result is all that matters. Be huge and generous and fearless. 

Go. Read her blog post. Be prepared to understand what being a pro writer is all about.

And while you're at it, make 2013 a grand year for writing!