So You Think You Can Be a Novelist? - Part Four

So you think you can be a novelist? Really? Hmmm . . . you might want to ask yourself these questions before you commit:

• Are you a frequent reader?
• Have you written anything else?
• Are you an avid and daily learner?
• Do you have a writing support network?
• Have you published anything?

If you answered "no" to any of these questions, you might want to think again.

Part three addressed "Are you an avid and daily learner?" Today we'll address:

Do you have a writing support network?

"But Blogmaster Karen, I have this one covered. My mom says my stories are brilliant. Grandpa says I'm the next great writer of the twenty first century - and he should know because he went to high school with Joyce Carol Oates. And my daughter says the poems I write for her birthdays are the highlight of her year."

Whoa! Halt, there, writer friend.

I'm sorry to drag a skid mark across your writing dreams, but there are some people who just don't qualify to be inside your writing support network.

Family - unless, of course, your dad is Cormac McCarthy or your uncle is Stephen King or your mom is the creative writing department head at the local university. Most of us simply don't have the luxury of having a successful or well-learned writer in our family.

There are a couple of reasons family doesn't count. First, they can be unconditionally supportive making you think you are better than you really are. Second, some family members can be unrealistically harsh or critical causing you to lose inspiration or motivation - making you think you just don't have what it takes.

Friends - for reasons similar to family. If you have writer friends - from a writers' group or from school, for example, and you know they can be objective and honest, count them in. But generally speaking, most friends wouldn't be qualified to give you studied feedback.

Sure, they might be able to tell you the story is great, but they won't be able to address your writing - and there's a huge difference here. No matter how great your story is, if it's poorly written, finding an agent or a publisher is probably not in your future.

Coworkers - Your coworkers are busy people. If they get some extra time to read a book, they aren't going to want to waste it on your unpolished, uncut, five hundred page manuscript. If you ask them to read it, they don't want to be rude. But you'll put them in a position of having to not read it and say they did. They'll scan a few sentences in each chapter - maybe even the entire first and last paragraph. Then they'll tell you what a great writer you are. Why? Because they figure anyone who takes the time to write five-hundred pages must have something amazing to share. What coworker is going to toss the manuscript in your lap and say, "Your book sucked - please don't ask me to read another one."

What does the support network do?

If your book is bad or even if it just needs to be improved (and they all need to be improved no matter who you are), your support network is that group of people you can call on to help you fix it. A serious writer doesn't want to be gloated over - we want to know how can we emphasize our strengths and minimize our weaknesses?

Just give me the dirt so I can make this thing the best it can be and get it out the door. That's the attitude of a serious writer.

Your support network 1) helps you emphasize your writing and storytelling strengths, 2) helps you minimize your writing and storytelling weaknesses, 3) isn't afraid to be honest and direct, and 4)encourages and guides you when you are ready to take the next step on your writing journey.

Who is qualified to be in my support network?

Other writers, of course. Join an active and quality writers' group. If you are in the South Middle Tennessee area, I'm biased toward Living Writers Collective, but shop around and find one that works for you. Make sure they have a strong critique group. Make sure they inspire your imagination through creative writing exercises. Make sure they have a heavy focus in writing education. Make sure they are using current references.

If you cannot find a local group in your area, consider starting one. Network online with members of other writers' groups, and see if they might help get you started by sharing some of their group guidelines. If you are in a rural area where not a lot of writers would be, hook up with an online writing group or join writers' forums. Be careful with online networking - you'll want to research any advice that seems inaccurate.

If you are in college, you have it easy. Writing professors can be great mentors. Fellow writing students can be a tremendous support. There are probably writers' groups within your writing-student pool.

Though mom, dad, and your son's preschool teacher can provide a nice boost to your writing ego, they can't do anything to help you get published. Your support network must consist of fellow writers, mentors, teachers, or other writing professionals. Find these people and hold on tight because they are the on-ramps to your writing autobahn.

What are you waiting for? Your writing destination awaits.


Join me in a couple of days for part five of this five-part series. In part five, I will explore the fifth question on the bullet list above: Have you published anything?

By the way, if you happen to be an exception - a successful author (meaning you've quit your day job) who has never had a network of supportive people, my readers and I would love to hear from you.

Post by: LWC Director, Karen Aldridge. Visit her personal blog at My Writing Loft.

So You Think You Can Be a Novelist? - Part Three

So you think you can be a novelist? Really? Hmmm . . . you might want to ask yourself these questions before you commit:

• Are you a frequent reader?
• Have you written anything else?
• Are you an avid and daily learner?
• Do you have a writing support network?
• Have you published anything?

If you answered "no" to any of these questions, you might want to think again.

Part two addressed "Have you written anything else?" Today we'll address:

Are you an avid and daily learner?

A writer should learn something new about writing every day. It could be as simple as picking up a new vocabulary word to something as involved as reading a twenty-page chapter on the period. Yes, writers will read twenty pages on the period because . . . well, we're an odd bunch. And we know, chances are, if we read twenty pages on the period, we're going to discover some things about it we never knew.

Is your mouth watering over this whole twenty-pages-on-the-period thing? Then you are a writer, my friend. And this little treat is for you: A Dash of Style: The Art and Mastery of Punctuation by Noah Lukeman. If, on the other hand, the thought of reading a single word about the period makes you want to take a melodramatic dive over Niagara Falls, what the heck are you doing reading this post? This is a writing blog, and writers love periods because they mean completion, finality, the end - even if it is just the end of our very first sentence in a four hundred page novel.

Learning something new in something as basic as punctuation usually excites a writer because a new technique in punctuation means yet another way we can express ourselves in our writing.

The next logical step following punctuation would be grammar and style - all of those things that would be considered the mechanics of writing. What do you know about:

• changing passive voice to active
• minimizing verbosity
• avoiding clichés
• subject-verb agreements
• syntax
• point of view
• smoothing transitions

And what about the comprehensive writing stuff like:

• showing versus telling
• writing great dialogue
• hooking and holding readers
• creating tension and conflict
• pacing
• plotting
• characterization
  

. . . and has it changed since you learned it the last time? If your last English or writing class was in 1982, and you haven't picked up a grammar and style book or a writing book since, I guarantee you a lot has changed.

If you aren't addicted to learning the craft of writing, I doubt you will find success as a novelist. The writing world, even things that seem as basic as grammar, is constantly changing. You have to change with it.

But let's dig a little deeper.

Learning to be a great writer is about more than just cracking the grammar and style books. You also have to have a curiosity about the human condition. So much so that you spend great deals of time observing people, psychoanalyzing them in secret and from a distance.

In secret is the key term.

People already think you're weird. Sorry, but they do - the moment you announced that you are a writer, you were branded "weird" by that banal non-writer bunch. If they catch you psychoanalyzing them, their perceptions of your mental status will be bumped to psychotic, and it's best to stay in the "weird" zone so they'll continue to invite you to their gatherings where you can psychoanalyze more of their type. After all, it's those people that inspire us weird writers to create vibrant characters.

And lastly, don't forget to feed your imagination. Part one dealt with reading. Read great works that take you to amazing places and introduce you to fantastic people. Watch imaginative movies with thought-provoking story lines. Listen to music - I've written entire stories around a single line or even a single word I heard in a song. Viewing artwork can be extremely powerful and can encourage the writer to disappear into another world.

Come to LWC creative writing sessions and do writing prompts that are outside of your normal writing style - writing outside of your normal style can spark your imagination, and help pull you out of a rut in your routine or a block in your story. Enhancing your imagination is a valuable learning gem.

What's the most important writing concept to learn? Now that I've decided to become an avid and daily learner, where should I start?

It's all important, and you start with it all. A scoop of grammar here, a pinch of punctuation there. Pepper it with some style, and the thread that runs through it all: observations of the human condition. Finally, bring it all to life with an imagination that makes it all soar.

This is how you make writing magic happen, but you can't succeed at what you don't know. So get busy learning - there's a beautifully written novel patiently waiting to burst through you.


Join me in a couple of days for part four of this five-part series. In part four, I will explore the fourth question on the bullet list above: Do you have a writing support network?

By the way, if you happen to be an exception - a successful author (meaning you've quit your day job) who never learns anything new, my readers and I would love to hear from you.

Post by: LWC Director, Karen Aldridge. Visit her personal blog at My Writing Loft.

So You Think You Can Be a Novelist? - Part Two

So you think you can be a novelist? Really? Hmmm . . . you might want to ask yourself these questions before you commit:

• Are you a frequent reader?
• Have you written anything else?
• Are you an avid and daily learner?
• Do you have a writing support network?
• Have you published anything?

If you answered "no" to any of these questions, you might want to think again.

Part one addressed "Are you a frequent reader?" Today we'll address:

Have you written anything else?

Sorry, but letters to Grandma, e-mails, texts, and Facebook posts don't count. Have you written essays, articles, short stories - fiction or nonfiction, poems, or meditations. Even journal writing or letters to newspaper editors count as little jump starts into the writing world.

Many of these writing forms are high-attaining art forms all on their own. Poetry, short stories, and article writing can become lucrative in the gifted or well-learned writer's hands. So I don't mean to minimize them by suggesting an aspiring novelist start here, but if you've never written before, learning with a shorter form of writing is manageable. Start small and build.

When I first decided to enter the writing world seriously, it was because I wanted to write a novel. In fact, I already had thirty thousand words written on my first novel when I took my first step - joining this writers' group, Living Writers Collective. I wanted to get my story out there. I wanted people to tell me how brilliant it was, how elegantly written.

Through my interactions with my writers' group (we'll explore more on this in part four), I quickly realized how poorly written my novel was - there were some great writers here, and I was just a writer wanna be - not so brilliant after all. I had some serious work to do. I put that novel aside, and I started writing short stories. Lots and lots of short stories because I became addicted to them and because I was just so determined to get it right.

Some of the best stories I've read have been short stories. Great short stories often jab a good gut punch, are vivid and emotional, have active plot lines, and throw in some fun twists. They have to be powerful. Short stories have to accomplish in a tenth or less of space what an entire novel takes around four hundred pages to do.

Short stories are challenging, but the prep work is less demanding and you can usually knock out an entire short-story rough draft in a day or two or a week at the most. So they're a great place to start. Meet the challenge by mastering the short story techniques. And best of all, short stories aren't wasted - you can submit them to short story markets or contests and make a few bucks. Or save them all and try to get them published as a collection.

Practice poetry writing to build your vocabulary and enhance your ability to make words flow. Novel writing is more than just putting a story on paper - the words have to flow.

Writing articles builds your writing form and structure and is a great way to start writing if you have special skills that you feel others can learn from - gardening, parenting, mechanics, true motivational stories, crafts. And freelance article writing, which we will explore more in part five, is a great way to earn some cash on the side while you work on that novel. Many freelancers actually make enough money to quit their day job.

And once you've started writing, find avenues for critique. You need this on a local level and on a professional level to truly learn great writing. Living Writers Collective has an open critique session once each month. Within our writers' group we have a critique buddy service where we buddy up with other writers outside of that one monthly meeting and utilize each other for a more thorough editing process. I also host professional critique webinars outside of LWC so LWC writers who wish to dig deeper can see how professional writers and editors provide critiques. Make sure your critique group or partner isn't afraid to be honest. We like to hear the good stuff, but you want the focus to be on areas you need to improve.

Are you still not convinced you can't just start writing a novel with no prior experience? Have you ever gone snow skiing? If the answer is yes, pretend for a moment that it's no. Would you pop on the rental skis, buy a lift ticket, ride to the top of the mountain, and ski down the double black diamond slope (this is the serious, real friggin' scary, big-daddy slope) on your first ever attempt at skiing? Of course you wouldn't, unless death was your intention.

Starting with a novel when you've never written anything else is where potentially great writers' dreams go to die. And it's a sad day when that happens, so start small and build, and make your fellow writers proud, 'kay?

So, have you written anything else? If not, get busy - you have a lot of writing to do to prepare for that next great novel.


Join me in a couple of days for part three of this five-part series. In part three, I will explore the third question on the bullet list above: Are you an avid and daily learner?

By the way, if you happen to be an exception - a successful author (meaning you've quit your day job) who never wrote anything before your first novel, my readers and I would love to hear from you.

Post by: LWC Director, Karen Aldridge. Visit her personal blog at My Writing Loft.

So You Think You Can Be a Novelist? - Part One

So you think you can be a novelist? Really? Hmmm . . . you might want to ask yourself these questions before you commit:

• Are you a frequent reader?
• Have you written anything else?
• Are you an avid and daily learner?
• Do you have a writing support network?
• Have you published anything?

If you answered "no" to any of these questions, you might want to think again.

Are you a frequent reader?

Find me a successful novelist (by successful, I mean one who actually quit his day job) who wasn't first a reader and I'll kiss your feet. How could you possibly know anything about writing if you don't read? And if you don't read books because you think it might detract from your own writing style (I've actually heard this one before), I just have to ask: Seriously?

Just like a child's behavior is heavily formed through a plethora of observations of life, a writer's style is heavily formed through a plethora of observations of other storytellers' work. And reading both the good and the bad sets in your own writing mind what to and not to do.

Don't read, that's fine. Sure, your style might be raw and original, but your grammar, punctuation, and technique sucks. Oh, and your story's likely already been told . . . and told . . . and retold (which you would have known had you been reading the kind of stuff you like to write). Then there's your writing theory, flow, format, characterization, redundancy, verbosity - do you even know what these are? If you've been reading, you have a pretty good idea. If not, well . . . at least you have that raw, original style.

I'm not trying to be insulting. My goal is to help you be successful in your writing endeavors. Take a hard look at your writing skill level. You just can't wake up one day and say "I think I'm going to start a novel today" when the only books you've ever read are the CliffsNotes for assigned high school reading.

I take that back. Anyone can write a novel, but if you're not first a reader, don't sit around wondering why in the world the darn thing isn't getting published.


Join me in a couple of days for part two of this five-part series. In part two, I will explore the second question on the bullet list above: Have you written anything else?

By the way, if you happen to be an exception - a successful author (meaning you've quit your day job) who doesn't read, my readers and I would love to hear from you.

Post by: LWC Director, Karen Aldridge. Visit her personal blog at My Writing Loft.

Education Coordinator Named

In order to expand our opportunities in education, the LWC Advisory Committee has created the role of education coordinator, and we are excited to announce that Cece Dockins has accepted this role.

Cece graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in English and a minor in writing in August 2010. She is currently applying to MFA programs, and plans to write full time and teach. Learn more about Cece and her writing by visiting her blog (The Black Ichor Blog) and Web site.

Cece's primary role will be to plan and coordinate our 5th Thursday sessions and to be your point of contact for education-related ideas and needs. She will also be a new addition to our advisory committee.

Mary Ann Weakley will continue to share educational opportunities through our monthly newsletter and other information, and Karen Aldridge will still manage educational opportunities through creative writing and critique.

Education has become a key area for our group. LWC members have always learned retrospectively through critiques. But over the past couple of years, education has evolved into a more proactive and direct approach through creative writing lessons and prompts and now into entire education-focused meetings with our 5th Thursday sessions. Our attendance at our last 5th Thursday session hit an all-time high at twenty-two present. So I know you all are hungry to continuously absorb all there is to know about writing.

Please welcome Cece into her new role the next time you see her.

Post by: LWC Director, Karen Aldridge. Visit her personal blog at My Writing Loft.

Rome Wasn't Built in A . . . Well, You Know

I don't know who you are, but I can tell you something about yourself. If you cringed when you read that title - you're probably a writer. If you thought Well, isn't that the most clever title ever?, then thanks for the compliment, but you, ma'am or sir, are NO writer.

I can take it a step further. If you cringed, you're probably a member of Living Writers Collective because if I've taught you people nothing over the past couple of years, I've at least taught you to take a big, old, jagged knife and gut those clichés, then toss their horrid, kicking, and screaming forms into a raging fire pit.

Whew! That feels better. There's nothing quite like taking out a little aggression on the cliché.

So, please, for the sake of my writing sanity, no clichés please.

Unless, of course, you're Stephen King or Cormac McCarthy or Joyce Carol Oates or J. K. Rowling or Anne Rice or one of the many other uber successful authors who can get away with such things.

Clichés are also okay if it's a character trait. For example, if you have a character that just likes to speak in clichés. In this case, use it in that character's dialogue, and make sure it's the character's speaking style and not forced in. And whatever you do, don't overdo it.

There are exceptions, but make sure your exception is successful, otherwise your writing will appear unprofessional.

Can you think of other times when a cliché might be okay?

Post by: LWC Director, Karen Aldridge. Visit her personal blog at My Writing Loft.

How Much Should I Get Paid?

All writers who aspire to be professional writers want to know, "How much should I get paid?" Of course, that answer depends on your experience level. I sill consider myself a beginner, but I can say at the beginning of my beginnerness (yes, I know that isn't a word), I submitted to nonpaying publications so I could build my clips. Clips are published writing samples you can use to build your writing portfolio and use as leverage to get you noticed by the paying publications. So if you are at the beginning, consider finding some quality nonpaying publications to get you started.

Once you've had two or three freebies published, then start knocking on the doors of some paying publications. At this point, you're going to get paid a predetermined amount - find that publication listing in the Writers Market, and most will list their pay rate.

Once you've mastered the process of submitting and selling, consider seeking out some freelance opportunities - publications or companies that want to publish your writing or utilize your writing skills regularly. These could be magazines (nonfiction or fiction), newspapers (community, city, regional, national), company newsletters, or even books that publish meditations (Chicken Soup for the Soul). At this point, some will still have their own pay rates (Chicken Soup for the Soul for example pays $200 + 10 books), but the more experience you have the greater the chance you will be able to negotiate rates.

To determine fair pay, read the "How Much Should I Charge?" section of the *Writers Market. In the 2011 printing, the article starts on page 67 and includes a pay table on pages 67-77. It lists the low, average, and high pay rates writers can expect in everything from copyediting to novel writing, from business writing to screenplay writing, from grant writing to ghost writing...

So get busy - you have a lot of writing to do if you want to get paid.


*If you do not have a Writers Market, you NEED one, but until then, feel free to browse our LWC copy at any of our meetings.

Post by: LWC Director, Karen Aldridge. Visit her personal blog at My Writing Loft.