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What Are My Options?

September 9, 2012 by in category Archives tagged as ,

One of the big questions in every area of life is – what are my options? How do I want my hamburger cooked, what do I want on my pizza, how do I like my coffee – the smaller questions. What will I do for a living, how can I make ends meet until the work brings in the money, which of several directions should I take to get there – the bigger questions. (Why am I here, what is God’s plan for me, where will I go when I die – the most important questions, but not directly related to writing. 🙂 )
In writing, I’ve asked myself if I want to write fiction or nonfiction, business articles or romances, romantic comedies or superhero books with a romantic thread. While I like each of these ideas and many more, I have learned in life that you have to focus first to get started in any new endeavor. You can spread yourself thinner later. So I published a few nonfiction pieces, then focused on romance.
I went to Christian writers conferences in the early years because those were the writer friends I was hanging around. I got close enough that I was getting phone calls from an editorial assistant at Tyndale House, but I was writing just enough out of step that we could never quite get my work to run along on their track. Things never worked out.
A friend introduced me to her agent and soon I had representation. Surely my big break! It seemed the right thing to do was to continue with the romantic comedies (called chick lit at that moment, but shhh, don’t say that phrase any more). My agent and I talked about different things I could try when chick lit died. I chose not to pursue an opportunity with a Christian publisher who pays tiny advances. I was too insecure to try writing YA when my agent suggested it. I could see I had options, and – right or wrong – I made the best choices I could.
After four and a half years, I talked to my agent and decided to walk away. I was trying to do what I felt she wanted me to do, but my creativity was drying up by trying so hard. I needed a break. I’d been thinking about going to grad school for years, so when the opportunity came up, I took it. It was so beyond different from what I expected, not challenging at all, that I complained for a long time about what a waste of time it was.
But over the last couple of months, I remembered that I do have options. I can choose to live with disappointment over my grad school work, or focus on what I learned from it. For instance, I learned that I can write YA! I got some extraordinary feedback on a YA story I wrote. More excellent feedback on a spiritual dystopia/urban fantasy I wrote for my final project. And after flying to last year’s RWA National Conference the morning after my last class, and hearing a couple more editors tell me they weren’t sure they could sell my work, I knew I had another option.
I came home from that conference and decided, as an experiment, I was going to self-publish Little Miss Lovesick, the book my agent almost sold to two houses before chick lit died. When the process went a bit smoother than I expected, I considered my options again. I could keep trying to write and pitch my work to the current establishment, or I could start my own business again. The idea of running my own publishing company got my endorphins dancing.
One option that worked out for me was choosing to get involved in two self-published anthologies. The first one, Romancing the Pages, will come out in September as an ebook – see the lovely cover here. My superhero short story “Hero in Disguise” is one of nineteen short stories I hope you enjoy. In a few months, another anthology will be published with a dozen or so short stories written by my friends in my Sydney writer’s group. Another group of stories I think you’ll enjoy. My “Rescue at Loon Lake” is a fun little precursor to my novel Love at the Fluff and Fold.
It’s been a heck of a year. Several moves, several deaths, more months of unemployment than paid work between John and me, a lot of trials and testing. Career-wise, the worst part for me has been not being able to follow-through on my goals, my commitments to myself that I made end of last year. I’d planned to get Little Miss Lovesick into print by Christmas, finish and self-publish Love at the Fluff and Fold digitally and in print by March, and have the next book out in September.
Due to the weight of life this year, I’ve thought about sending my work to other publishers, let them do some of the work in return for some of the monetary rewards. I know I have options. Maybe giving myself a little break would help. It’s an awful lot of work to do all of the publishing work yourself. Several wise men in the Bible have said to count the costs before you start building so you don’t wind up broke, half-finished, and a laughingstock. I think I know the costs of continuing down my current path, and I’m willing to pay them.
I’ll continue to try to keep my options in mind at least once a year so I can adjust my course as necessary. It’s a good writing routine to have. In fact, because I love teaching and miss doing it more, I’m going to offer my Goal Setting and Time Management for Writers class again in January. We’ll start bright and early on the first Monday in January and get our ducks in a row for the coming year. I’ll remind you again when you can start signing up.
Whatever is going on in your life and your writing career, remember that you have options. Some will be better than others, but rarely is “I had no choice” true. What are some of your options?

Kitty Bucholtz decided to combine her undergraduate degree in business, her years of experience in accounting and finance, and her graduate degree in creative writing to become a writer-turned-independent-publisher. Her first novel, Little Miss Lovesick, was released in September 2011 as an ebook and will be available soon in print format. Kitty has also written magazine articles, devotionals, and worked as a magazine editor. She is the co-founder of Routines for Writers where she blogs every Monday. Her next novel, Love at the Fluff N Fold, will be released in late 2012.

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September Online Class

August 26, 2012 by in category Archives tagged as , , , , , ,

“Deep Story Structure & Techniques” with Carol Hughes

September 10 – October 7, 2012

Enrollment Information at http://www.occrwa.org/onlineclassSept12.html 

COST: $20 for OCCRWA members, $30 for non-members
If you have specific questions, email occrwaonlineclass@yahoo.com 

ABOUT THE CLASS:

What does Nora Roberts, Stephen King, George Lucas (STAR WARS), Stephen Spielberg (E.T.) and all of those other blockbuster creators know about writing that makes them the mega stars that they are?

Learn about the 18 scenes that every story contains, no matter its length or genre.  Find out how to identify your character’s mental gender and what impact that has upon readers.  Discover how your character’s arc drives your story and how your story drives your character’s arc.  Learn the four throughlines of every story and how to weave them together.

Every successful story contains characters who come alive for the reader.  Every successful story is built on a solid, easy-to-master, story structure that works every single time.  Every successful story lives on in the hearts and minds of readers because their authors have mastered the simple secrets needed to turn them into writing super stars.  And you can, too.


ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:

Writer/director/producer Carol Hughes has been a driving force behind some of Hollywood’s most financially successful media franchises.  Carol was the studios’ “go to person” when it came to helping her fellow writers turn their uncut diamonds of rough stories into some of Hollywood’s most memorable and financially successful projects.  Over the years, her projects generated in excess of $1 billion in profits for both the studios and the leading Networks.

Now she enjoys writing and working with her fellow novelists by sharing the powerful secret writing techniques and tricks behind some of Hollywood most successful films and television series that had made her a much sought after story development consultant and writer for so many years.

Enrollment Information:

COST: $20 for OCCRWA members, $30 for non-members

Coming in October 2012: Conquering National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) with Alison Diem


Challenge yourself.  This course is designed to help both new and veteran participants understand the NaNoWriMo program and use it to push their careers forward.

Check out our full list of workshop at http://www.occrwa.org/onlineclasses.html

Want to be notified personally two weeks before each class? Be sure you’re signed up for our Online Class Notices Yahoo Group! Sign up at the bottom of http://www.occrwa.org/onlineclasses.html or send a blank email to OCCRWAOnlineClassNotices-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

********** permission to forward **********

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One More Olympic Observation

August 19, 2012 by in category Archives tagged as , , , ,

Monica Stoner
Member at Large

Feel like you’ve had enough Olympics to last at least four years? Had your fill of water cooler discussions about quarter point deductions or spiking the ball? Really tired of references to Olympic goals and ideals, relating to writing? Yeah, me too.
But bear with me, because this one has stuck better than any landing. Actually, it’s not about the Olympics specifically. It’s a commercial.
Surely you saw this commercial, seems like it played at every break. A variety of athletes worked out, and the voice over listed everything they had not done in preparation for the Olympics: no dessert for two years, hadn’t seen the latest movie, and what I really remember was “haven’t read that book everyone’s talking about.” I don’t know about you, but not being able to read seems like cruel and unusual punishment to me.
Obviously not to someone who has a goal in sight and a deadline to meet. Their goal is to be bigger, stronger, faster, better than anyone else in their sport, and to be at their peak at the Olympic Games. To achieve that goal, they’re willing to forego what most of us think of as our inalienable rights: Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of the ultimate fried food.
Aren’t we fortunate we only have to give up some of our time to write more? Granted those who don’t work out regularly add inches to their body as well as words to the page. But the analogy is still valid.
Sacrifices need to be made in pursuit of any goal worth achieving. We can’t go to every midnight movie or every holiday sale and sometimes we’re going to miss that neat town event, because we’re chasing dreams and building characters. We try to maintain a good social life but the fact is time we might be spending with our real friends needs to be spent with the friends we create.
Is it worth the effort and sacrifice? After all, only a very small percentage of those who qualify for the Olympics stand on the medal podium. And those people represent a minuscule number of those who tried out and failed, or who didn’t even make the trials. Of the many writers hunched over their keyboards instead of spending a lazy afternoon in the malls, how many will see their names attached to a published book, whether digital or in print?
Well, a lot more than those who gave up their dreams to do something else. And that is the real lesson of the Olympics.

Having gotten back on track with those dreams, Monica Stoner, writing as Mona Karel, has two books published and more on the way. 

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e-maginings: Changing Times

August 16, 2012 by in category Archives tagged as , , , ,

As some of you know, I still work part-time at Fullerton Public Library as a substitute librarian. My job is to sit at the Information/Reference Desk, now casually labeled the “Ask Here” desk, and answer patrons questions.

The other morning, a patron came in looking for books by an author I’d never heard of. We didn’t have any of her books in print or as downloadable books, but the woman told me she had read the first book in a paranormal romance series read it and was hot to read the next. She’d gotten the first book as a Kindle freebie, so I went to Amazon and discovered that the books were indie published. Apparently, the author in question, H.P. Mallory, had been such a success with her two indie series, she now has a contract with Bantam for more books in the series.

This all reminded me of Stephanie Laurens’s Keynote Speech at the recent RWA conference. She talked about how the publishing industry has changed and is in the process of changing. The writing process is the same; the reading process is the same; but the distribution system has been upended. Authors now have more options than ever before, including going directly to the reader. If you missed the speech, it’s at Laurens’s website.

There’s an ancient Chinese proverb that says, “May you live in interesting times.” which is sometimes taken more of a curse than a blessing. Whatever you may think of the changes in the publishing industry, you can’t deny that we are living in interesting times.

Linda Mac

Linda McLaughlin 
aka Lyndi Lamont
Twitter: @LyndiLamont

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WHAT A CHARACTER

August 15, 2012 by in category Archives tagged as , ,

One of the nicest compliments I ever received was from a reviewer who called “Josie Bates (heroine of my witness series) one of the best characters ever”. For an author, that is the highest praise.
Think about the millions of words written about thousands of fictional people, and then ask yourself how many stuck in your mind, reside in your heart, or continue to haunt you years after reading the book? If you’re like me, there are a handful of such characters in your memory. My list includes:
Gone With the Wind: Scarlett O’Hara, Rhett Butler and Miss Mellie.
 Princess Bride: Buttercup, Inigo Montoya, Westley 
The Hunger Games: Katniss
Girl With the Dragon Tattoo: Lisabeth Slander
Johnny Oops: Johnny Oops (a fine Indie book)
Analyzing these characters helped me become a better writer, and here’s what I have learned. Memorable characters are:
Spiritually Unique: Villain or hero, each one has his or her own demons and desires, strengths and weaknesses. Strength on its own is uninteresting without weakness.
Physically identifiable: A great character manifests his or her uniqueness in dress, mannerisms, and speech patterns. Imagine an actor tackling your character on screen. Can you hear them? See them? Are they so real you would know them walking down the street?
Logical: A character with a unique speech pattern may amuse your reader for a while but if the words coming out of that character’s mouth aren’t appropriate to story, plot and core of that character,  the affectation is illogical.
Unapologetic: Readers may not always embrace your vision, but if you give a character an unusual life, let them live it. Do not be swayed by fear of political incorrectness or tempted to take the safe route. Writing is about nurturing your bold voice.
Purposeful: A character’s journey is guided by principles born of experiences. In Josie Bates’ case, she is formed by her mother’s abandonment (personal) and her belief that the law and justice are two separate things (professional). The author’s objective is to create a passionate character willing to go to great lengths to protect what they believe in or secure what they desire.
For Example…
•   Katniss’s (Hunger Games) and Scarlett’s (Gone With the Wind) fight for basic survival.
•   Westley’s (Princess Bride) relentless search for his lost and true love.
•   Salandar’s (Dragon Tattoo) desperate desire for self-determination.
•   Rhett Butler’s (Gone With the Wind) code of honesty.
•   Melanie’s (Gone with the Wind) passionate belief in Scarlett’s inherent goodness.
•   Johnny Oops’ (Johnny Oops) wry but heartfelt search to define his teenage self.

Don’t be afraid to refine your characters. We are not born the people we will become; neither are those who populate your books. Nurture them, define them, polish them and they will live in the reader’s memory for a very long time.
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