Young Author: Alexis J.

Hello people of Novel Spaces! I'm young author Alexis J., here to offer a tip to the young writers out there. It's a tip about something that has happened to me.

Last year, I wrote a book called Bailey and the Bully, and after I wrote it I was thinking of making a whole series of books about middle-school issues, like cheating, lying, all of that good stuff. But then it seemed as though from out of nowhere, a new character just moved into my brain! It was like she was saying ‘Write about my life!’ repeatedly. Her name is Ty and she’s a . . . spy! I simply had to write about her because she was bugging me day and night. But if I wrote about her, that meant I would have to put my series on hold . . . and you know what, that’s ok. I think the main thing is to have fun, and just write.

The point is, if you were planning to write about something and something else just moved into your head, like what happened to me, by all means, let your muse have at the new one. The characters in your brain are waiting for their lives to happen and when they're ready, they're usually the loudest, so get them while they're talking. That other series of books just might have to wait a little longer for their birth date to arrive. And it will, just be patient. I know I am.

So please, young writers, take my advice, take it . . . and roll with it, run with it, sing with it, do whatever you need to, so you know what to do when it happens to you. Write it!

Thanks for giving me your time and for letting me be a guest on Novel Spaces. Have a great rest of the day! I'd better get back . . . Ty the spy is calling me!

-Alexis J.

www.authoralexisj.blogspot.com

 

 

Editorial direction

Read some old rejection letters the other day. Found them going through one of my famous anonymous boxes – taped to withstand nuclear holocaust but devoid of any hint as to what may be inside. In this case it was: all of my notes from the period in the early 90s when Valerie had convinced me to write romance novels with her – including the first third of one and detailed narrative summaries of two others; several notebooks of observations, ideas, experiments, etc. – none particularly interesting; eighteen 10x13 manila envelopes, each with a short story that never sold, complete with a checklist of publications to which I'd submitted them and all the rejection letters.

Let me first say that I will not be sending any of these stories out again. There are reasons they never sold. But I may retread some of the ideas – use them to launch completely different stories. But I did send each of them to at least six, and in one case nine, markets. I didn't realize then that I was giving up too easily – there were a lot of small and regional markets I didn't know enough to pursue. In my own defense, I didn't have the internet then and finding diverse markets of that type was difficult. Although that's not much of a defense – difficult does not mean impossible and lots of writers did build up publication track records with out-of-the-way and small markets. I suspect it was just lack of stictuitiveness on my part – or perhaps a hubris that allowed me to see only national markets – I don't now recall.

But the rejection letters were interesting reading. Even twenty years ago personal rejection letters were rare. I had one, which I'll get to in a minute. No, the interesting bits were the hand-written notes at the bottom of the form letters – or in some cases on the first page of the story. (In those days if you included a stamped and self-addressed #10 envelope the magazine would send you the rejection letter and first page of the story so you'd know what had been rejected. I assume they used the rest of the mss pages for ceremonial bonfires or something similar.)

"Not enough story here." Mystified me in '92, but now I see what he meant. The work in question was more a vignette or a slice of life than a narrative.
"Good writing." (Several times.) Significant in that one editor would write this and the next would send an unmarked form letter for one story and then they would reverse roles on the next story. In other words, each editor was an individual and each saw my work differently. No absolutes.
"Very, very close!" Both gratifying and frustrating; mostly frustrating. What made it close? What made it miss?
"Enjoyed the story. Totally wrong for us. Read the magazine and send something we can use." Esquire nailed me. Never, ever send a story to a market you haven't read – editors can tell when you don't do your homework.
"Better." This is pretty exciting – it means the editor remembered my name and thought my work was improving. (Or he could have thought I was someone else, but let's not go there.) Fact is, send enough stuff out and editors will start to recognize your name. Remember, every editor wants to discover the next Rowling or Collins or King; they pay attention to who sends them what.
"This is fantasy." Stanley Schmidt, editor of science fiction icon Analog, wrote that on the bottom of a letter rejecting a story about people who could cause things to be by believing in them – things that would break down or disappear if you doubted them. It was a story about self-delusion (I may use that idea for a different story).
Mr. Schmidt's comment led to my only hand-written rejection letter actually addressed to me. Acting on his assessment, I submitted the story to Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine. In a paragraph on the back of the story's first page Ms. Bradley noted a couple of things she liked about my writing (mostly my sentences) but concluded: "If there is an element of fantasy to this story we have failed to find it."

About seven years after these letters and stories, in 1999, an editor wrote "rough spots lose readers" below his pre-printed signature. That insight led me to realize the "dramatic" and/or unexpected scene changes of which I was so fond were more jarring than exciting; they broke up the narrative flow and threw the reader out of the story as she tried to figure out what just happened. My next submission to that editor had solid transitions and eschewed pyrotechnics. He bought it.

My point is that while rejection notes may be maddeningly vague, they often contain useful information. Do not rewrite your story based on what you think the editor might have meant. (And remember different editors will have different takes on, different insights into your work.) Be alert to patterns and recurring themes – if you're getting similar notes from different sources there's an area of your work you probably should examine. By being alert and being responsive you increase your sales and get your name – and your stories – out to the world.

Guest Post - Anita Seymour Davison

Researching the 17^th Century

It might sound a strange thing to say, even for a writer, but the English Civil War was something I have always been aware of, its highlights and some of its tragedies - not all of them of course as it was a very involved conflict - but I seem to have absorbed the flavour of the times - like osmosis.

Every English historic country house I have visited, and I have been to lots, was involved in that war in some way, either as a Royalist stronghold or a Parliamentarian garrison. Many of them still have musket balls lodged in walls, and ditches, or shadows of ditches, dug to repel invaders outside the boundary walls. I like to walk the floors they walked, look through the same windows on the same landscapes where those events happened.

Ham House, for instance, is a classic example. Built in 1610, it is located about five miles downriver from Hampton Court Palace. The mansion has been restored to reflect the days when it’s most famous owner, Elizabeth Murray, lived there between 1638 and 1698. Much of her original furniture has been reclaimed, as have the paintings that hung there during her day.  In this setting, with no other houses close by and a frontage straight onto the River Thames, it’s not difficult to visualise Elizabeth moving through the rooms, issuing orders to servants, arguing with her family and rushing out of the front door to confront Roundhead soldiers lined up at the gates.

Research for me begins by placing an historical character into which space they occupied in history. My current work in progress requires me to keep track of the young King Charles II as he travelled through Europe between 1653 and 1660. As one by one, Holland, France and Spain signed treaties with Lord Protector Cromwell, Charles was forced to leave those countries, and move elsewhere, appealing for monetary handouts from royal relatives to support his entourage, and often hampered by reluctant ministers of those same relatives who held the purse strings.

I found a two-volume book online by Eva Scott, where Charles’ days of exile are written in impressive detail, together with letters and conversations between him, Cromwell’s spies and members of the European royal houses transcribed almost verbatim. My problem now is how much of this engrossing history should I include in my novel and which to leave out.

One interesting and amusing snippet involved Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, who was King Charles’ youngest brother and who tragically died of smallpox at 20, a few months after Charles regained his throne. Apparently a sweet and charming young man, at thirteen, his sister the Princess Royal, Mary of Orange was asked by her ministers to request her brother leave the palace at The Hague because of his habit of mounting his horse at the bottom of the grand staircase rather than in the courtyard! According to Ms Scott’s account, their discreet request was ignored by Princess Mary, though Charles acceded and Henry left soon afterward for Cologne.

I love it and wish I could include it in my book - maybe the king could mention it as an aside in one of his letters to my heroine?

Only a few of these facts, absorbing though they are, will find their way into my book - unfortunately - it’s easy to get bogged down by the trivia of these characters. However, they help me understand how twelve years of King Charles II’s nomadic life, the humiliation, penury and a constant nagging uncertainty about his future affected not only him, but the Cavaliers, those reckless, pleasure-loving men who formed the decadent values of the Restoration Court.

Anita Seymour Davison Bio

Born in London, Anita has always been fascinated with the history of that city. She began writing historical family sagas, then experimented with Victorian Gothic romance, though now she feels she has found her niche with 17th Century historical biographical novels with her latest book, 'Royalist Rebel' released by Claymore Press in January 2013.  She writes for several blogs, including English Historical Fiction Authors, [http://englishhistoryauthors.blogspot.co.uk/] Hoydens and Firebrands [http://hoydensandfirebrands.blogspot.co.uk/] and also reviews for the Historical Novel Review Blog.  [http://historicalnovelreview.blogspot.com]

Latest Release

Royalist Rebel,  Please leave a comment at the end of this post for a chance to win a copy of the paperback [after publication naturally and I could have trouble with the signing bit as I will have to send it via Amazon direct to the recipient - but I could organise a bookplate or something.]

Royalist Rebel by Claymore Press, an imprint of Pen and Sword, is released in January 2013

For a little background on the novel and it’s era.

http://royalistrebel.blogspot.co.uk/

The National Trust Website of Elizabeth Murray’s former home, Ham House, at Petersham near Richmond, Surrey

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ham-house/

Anita’s Blog

http://thedisorganisedauthor.blogspot.co.uk/

Exercises in creativity

I've been working on the fourth book in the Caribbean Adventure Series for over a year. The cover is just about ready but the book is not. It has been delayed by many distractions; other books detailing Chee Chee's earlier adventures, Seascapes and then books that I have published for others. I recently received the push that I needed to complete it, an actual deadline, and so I have dedicated the last week on completing this book.

I tried everything. Setting aside particular time for writing, a particular space, a target number of words, but the issue has never really been a lack of time or dedication. The main reason that I haven't finished this book lingered. I had several ideas for the ending and no clue of which lead to follow. So tonight I took a break, and spent the evening writing (clean) limericks and 17 syllable haiku-like poems with my son. Here is one of our more serious efforts (it's tough to be funny and find rhymes for Trinidad at the same time):

There was a young babe born in Trinidad
To a man who had never yet been a dad
But he bathed him and dressed him,
Hugged him and carressed him,
And that was all the baby needed in a dad.

We wrote many more and although it may seem a bit silly and random, but when I went back to book four, I found that the exercise had awakened some hidden part of my imagination and suddenly I saw the way out and polished off my ending in record time.

E-Book Experiment

In my last post, I shared the cover for my upcoming paranormal thriller The Mummies of Blogspace9.  So this week, I'll tell you about the marketing experiment I have planned.  

It's bold, it's dangerous, it's potentially disastrous, but as my wife always tells me - this is what you do for fun, so if it stresses you out, stop writing and find something that doesn't stress you out.  

I've briefly considered the following alternative non-work activities: macrame, yoga, darts, and scrapbooking.  And I concluded that I still very much want to write.  So it's time to be bold and not stress too much about the consequences.  That being said, let me know what you think, and if you have any suggestions, I'm half ears.

To date, I have five books published; four novels and one archaeological tome.  Three were published by commercial presses, and two I did myself.  All are available on Amazon.com, and all have middling sales.  So I'm going to do something new for Mummies.  

I've been following the wisdom of Joe Konrath, the master-blogger and writer who compiles the Newbies Guide to Publishing.  He suggests the following steps for publishing success (and I'm paraphrasing here): 

1) write a truly great book; 

2) produce a truly great cover; 

3) offer the book exclusively in e-book format using Amazaon KDP Select; 

4) price the book at 99 cents; 

5) offer the book free for the first week; and finally 

6) pay to have your free book giveaway promoted.  

So that's my plan.  The final draft of The Mummies of Blogspace9 is currently being tuned by the experts at KindleGurus.com.  When I get it back, I'm going to shell out $230 to have it promoted on Bookbub.com, as Konrath suggests.

The hope is that the initial offering creates a bounce and results in more sales.  Of course, offering the book at 99 cents on Amazon will result in only 35 cents in royalties.  But as the economists tell us, it's all a matter of volume.  I don't know if I'm going to get rich from this, but like I said, it's an experiment, and I'm not going to worry too much about it or my wife will make me knit or weave something instead of writing.

But I'll still worry a little.  So if you have any thoughts, let me know.

Something different

I know I keep referring to Eugenia’s February post about the business of writing.  I can’t seem to get past the suggestion of writing 1000 words per hour.  I have responded to that post both with a comment and a post of my own.  I have even tried writing 1000 words per hour and came to a conclusion that it was burn out central.  But I can’t seem to shake the nagging feeling that I need to approach my writing a little more like a business.

For years writing has been a hobby and a passion and I treated it like that.  I wrote when I wanted to.  I wrote what I wanted to.  I wrote how I wanted to.  It made me happy, but if I was to live by the fruit of my writing, I would be happy but impoverished.  Eugenia’s post got me thinking (more like obsessing) about what would happen if I treated my writing more like a business than a hobby.  So for this month I decided to try something different; something outside my comfort zone.  I decided to write a 30 000 word novella in three weeks.  Not only that, I decided to write suspense, a genre that I have not written before, and using characters based on popular fiction. 


That required some change in my writing process(es) and my organization.  Since characters were based on popular fiction I had to first do a total immersion in the fiction. I had to read lots of suspense/mystery novels and watch suspense movies galore to get into the mode. Normally I write by the seat of my pants.  My working outline is the story in my head, I know how it’s going to end (though nothing is written down) and I see the characters and scenes like I do a movie.  However, for this project I had to write a detailed outline, character sketches, and relationship maps to see how the characters related to each other. 

Remember I wanted to do 30 000 words in three weeks?  Well that means 10 000 words a week or about 1400 words a day (note I said day not hour).  But with the first week spent in total immersion and planning and outlining, it only leaves two weeks for actual writing.  That’s a little over 2100 words a day.  Now I know you’re thinking that’s not much.  But throw in work, three young kids, and a household to run, and writing time is as precious as it is scarce.

I was determined. So I reorganized my day, measured the amount of time spent actually writing (I don’t have the Facebook distraction problem many have) vs. the amount of keepable words.  I have found ways to occupy my kids that allows me to work for longer than a few minutes at a time, without resorting to television as a baby sitter.

It has been two weeks since I made the commitment and guess what? I am over 20 000 words with a nicely developing story.  I know I didn’t do a thousand words an hour, but I have managed to carve the time out to write efficiently and effectively.   And you know what?  I am enjoying it. 
One of my New Year’s resolutions was to get out of my comfort zone and try something that I haven’t tried before.  I guess I can put that resolution down as QED and I love it. 

And an important lesson I have learned: I can treat writing like a business and still be passionate about it.

What's your creative process?

The teacher of a poetry writing course I'm currently taking asked the class to discuss our individual creative processes, and thinking about it made me realize I don't have a process: I have several. I write commercial fiction in several genres, memoir, and literary fiction, and my process is different for each.

For commercial fiction, I begin with a situation and a character within a particular setting and the story takes form in my imagination before I put fingers to keypad. This taking-form period can last from several days to several months. When I decide to write the story I begin with an outline which is modified as the characters and storyline develop.

My process for short literary fiction is different. Stories come to me in their entirety, sometimes while I’m in the middle of writing something totally unrelated, and I have to stop and write the new, compelling story before I lose it. This happened with the second story for the prose fiction writing course I took last semester. To paraphrase Joan Baez, the story just crawled down my arm and onto the keyboard. The point here is that when I write short literary fiction I never sit down and think: What shall I write about today? The story comes straight out of the workings of my subconscious for which I hold the most profound respect.

For longer literary work (my novel in progress and the memoir) the processes are less clear-cut and involve varying degrees and combinations of the following: spontaneous inspiration, deliberation, plotting via an outline, storyboarding, exploration of themes, character studies, and background research. That's not to say I don't do these things for other kinds of fiction, but that the process is far more painstaking and I have to dig much deeper than I do for, say, romance. Chronology and narrative perspective are also less linear/more complex when I write in this mode.

I do not consider myself a poet although I have written poems intermittently for most of my life. These tend to take form when I’m deeply moved by something such as beauty in one form or another, or deeply disturbed by something such as a betrayal or, in one instance, the suicide of a colleague.

I initially had no intention of doing the poetry writing course because, as mentioned, I’m not primarily a poet, and I have no desire to attempt to measure up to the brilliance of the ones I love. After doing the prose fiction writing course, however, I decided to take the poetry challenge. The first course was immensely rewarding as we were privileged to have Merle Hodge, a legend in Caribbean fiction writing, teach it. That course was not particularly challenging for me, however, as I was so much more experienced in the form than the majority of the class.

The lure of a challenge is not the only reason I signed up for the poetry writing course. The prose fiction course kept my mind in the creative space to the extent that I was more productive for its duration than I had been in years. I’m hoping to build on this momentum with the poetry course.

What is your creative process like? Is it straightforward and unchanging or does it shift with different genres, different stages of your development as a writer, or other factors?