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Wannabe novelists should do NaNoWriMo
Last week I met three people who told me they were novelists, yet when I asked about their novels, I started hearing all these qualifying statements: ”Well, I only have twenty pages…” Or “I haven’t written it yet, but I plan on writing it…once I’m done with school…once I’m a better writer.” And any other number of excuses.
Call me crazy, but I don’t really think you get to call yourself a novelist unless written a novel. Twenty pages of glistening prose is a fine start, but it does not make you a novelist…it makes you someone who has written twenty pages. Congratulations.
I think that anyone who has written a complete first draft of a novel deserves a pat on the back because so few people make it that far. However, if you ask anyone in the publishing industry, the term “novelist” only belongs to someone who has had several novels published. By those standards, I am clearly not a novelist myself (yet).
Whenever I hear some student touting on about how they are going to write a book “someday,” the first thing that pops into my mind is that if they haven’t already written a novel by now, they probably aren’t going to.
But I think my immediate response is a bit harsh. Who am I to judge? I don’t know that person or what they are capable of. There have been so many times when people have judged me, or told me something was impossible when what they really meant was that something was impossible for them.
Perhaps when people tell me they’re going to write a novel they’re actually trying out an identity, or asking for affirmation, for encouragement, maybe even for permission. I don’t want to crush someone’s budding dream before it gets off the ground. I believe that writing a novel is a worthwhile activity, even if it never gets published.
That being said, I think every person who thinks they want to write a novel should try NaNoWriMo–or National Novel Writing Month, which takes place between November 1 and November 30. How will you know if you actually want to be novelists unless you write one?
The funny thing about writing a novel is that often people discover that they don’t enjoy writing as much as they thought they would. I know a guy who thought he wanted to be a writer, until he actually wrote and finished a novel. He discovered that writing sucks, it’s hard work, and definitely isn’t as fun as reading. He said the whole experience was worthwhile, though, because it gave him a much greater appreciation for what novelists do. He has since moved onto other hobbies.
I guess when I hear people talk about wanting to write a novel, I want to tell them they should do whatever it takes to finish that first draft–outline, freewrite, do NaNoWriMo, buy a fancy notebook and fill up every page, create a writing date with someone, write a page a day for a year…do whatever it takes. You’ll never know if it’s actually something you want to do unless you try.
How to submit a short story
Congratulations, you’ve just finished a short story. Now what do you do with it? You want to be a published writer, but you have no idea how to do that. Well, here are some tips for what to do next:
Step One: Find magazines to submit to.
You can do this in several ways. The easiest way is to look at your bookshelf and pick out an author you like, whose stories are similar to your own. If you have a book of collected short stories by that author, look at the copyright page. There, you should find a list of magazines that first published your favorite author’s work before they were collected into the book. If what you’re holding is a novel, look online to see if you can find any magazines that have published the author’s short stories or novel excerpts.
You can also find magazines to submit to by looking at Writer’s Market or Poets & Writers. You can also go to your local bookstore and browse their magazine shelf.
Step Two: Read the magazines.
Do not skip this step because magazine editors can TOTALLY TELL when you haven’t read their magazine. You need to read the magazine to make sure your voice is a good fit. As you read the magazine, take note of any authors you like and look up their other publications (more fodder for step one.)
Step Three: Read the magazine’s submission guidelines.
The reason I have this step next is because occasionally there will be something in the submission guidelines that will disqualify the magazine from your list. For example: if they only accept manuscripts submitted by agents, or if they do not accept manuscripts that have been previously published on your blog.
Things to pay attention to are: the rights the magazine buys (most magazines want First North American print rights and an option on using your story in an anthology), whether they accept simultaneous submissions, their response time, and–of course–how you should package your manuscript and who to submit it to.
Step Four: Write your cover letter.
Do not spend more time sweating over the cover letter than you did over your story because cover letters are really pretty simple. Here is an example of the cover letter I use, with the variable items in brackets:
Dear [editor's name, correctly spelled],
Enclosed is my [4,000 word] short story, ["My Fantastic Story"] for your consideration in [Your Wonderful Magazine.]
[The next paragraph is where you include any notice about previous publications, or special experience relating to your story; for example: if you're a lawyer and your short story is a legal thriller. If you haven't been published before, don't be afraid to mention that fact because many editors take great pride in discovering a writer.]
This manuscript is a recyclable copy. I have enclosed a letter-sized SASE for your reply. Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely, [My name.]
Step Five: Start mailing your story.
This is where we get to the “wash, rinse, repeat,” part of the post. Expect to be rejected from most of the places you submit to, but don’t take it too personally. Even authors who have been published before still get rejected. Even BEST SELLING authors get rejected. It’s part of the business. My advice is to take a rejection slip as a reminder to put your story into a new envelope and mail it to the next magazine on your list.
I have a spreadsheet that keeps track of where I submitted my stories, when I mailed the story, and when to expect a reply. That way, if I don’t get a reply from an Editor, I know that I can mail the story to the next magazine on my list.
Personal rejections.
Should you be lucky enough to get a personal rejection from an editor, it usually means that your story came very close to being considered. Editors are busy people and they don’t take the time to write you a letter unless they think you have promise. If the editor gave you some advice on how to fix the story, seriously consider implementing that advice before you send your story to the next magazine on your list.
A word about simultaneous submissions:
Simultaneous submissions is when our send your story to more than one magazine at the same time. It saves the author time, but it can also put the author in a pickle if the story gets accepted to more than once place. The protocol for this situation is to immediately call or write to the magazine you don’t want to sell your story to. If the magazine’s guidelines explicitly states “no simultaneous submissions” than you can get into a huge amount of trouble and the editor may bad-mouth you to his colleagues.
The best way to avoid the whole mess is to divide the magazines you want to submit to into three categories:
- Magazines that accept simultaneous submissions. Mail your story to all of these magazines at the same time. If none of these magazines accept your story, move onto the next category.
- Magazines that do not accept simultaneous submissions AND want first print rights. Submit to each of these magazines one at a time. Keep track of when their response dates are, that way–once the date has passed–you’ll know when you can mail your story to the next magazine on the list.
- Magazines that accept reprints. Ideally, someone has bought your story by now, and now it’s time to submit to a magazine or anthology that accepts reprints. Any story that has been published once is probably good enough to be published again, right? If your story has not been published yet than by all means submit to these magazines before you retire the story.
Books that make you feel better
I was just thinking today about the stories I want to write and the stories I enjoy reading the most. I was trying to think about the common thread. It isn’t that I love fantasy or literary fiction or even non-fiction the most because I love reading all of them. It’s hard for me to choose one genre that I love over the other. What is the common thread?
Then, it occurred to me as I was watching a documentary, The Science of Healing, that healing is the most common thread that runs through the stories I love.
I love adventure and fantasy stories because they distract you from the pain of being alive. A well-told story will have you so swept up that you no longer think about divorce, or death, or pain, or fear. There is nothing wrong with escapist fiction because sometimes the burdens of life are too heavy to bear and you need to set them aside just to remind yourself what joy feels like. I loved reading Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight books because they really captured that feeling of falling in love.
A good book doesn’t just distract you from pain, but takes your hand, like a trusted physician, and leads you through the complex labrynths of the human psyche. Authors can be your guides on your journey to heal your soul. The very best books give you the language to understand your world at the same time they entertain you.
Of course I want to write commercially successful fiction…that’s just a byproduct of technique: being able to capture someone’s imagination. But I would never be satisfied with only being an entertainer. Entertainment is a venue. It makes people trust you so that they become more receptive to the deeper stuff. It’s just lie medicine: 90 percent of it is the performance. Think of someone who postponed suicede because she wanted to finish your stor…wouldn’t you want to keep the story going as long as possble and then have the ending resonate with why they should stay alive.
What I hope to gain from this creative writing program is mastery over craft. I want to master the entertainment skills so that my readers will take my strusted hand and feel that I will carry them safely to a better place. I need feedback from people who are better than me to help me get to that place.
In my small way, I want to make the world better. The books I have loved are:
- East of Eden by John Steinbeck (literary)
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (science fiction)
- Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein (science fiction)
- The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver (literary/fantasy)
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera (literary/meta fiction)
- Twilight by Stephanie Meyer (young adult fantasy)
- Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris (fantasy)
- The Stand by Stephen King (horror)
- From Proust to Camus by Andre Maurois (non-fiction)
- Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind (fantasy)
- Stern Men by Elizabeth Gilbert
- Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach (non-fiction)
- The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (literary/horror)
- A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (non-fiction)
- Ordinary People by Judith Guest (mainstream literary)
- Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (literary/horror)
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It’s New Year’s Day!…all year round.
I wanted to say a little something about discipline because people have asked me what my writing schedule is like. I know some writers work every day at the same time of day. Joyce Carol Oates writes from 8:00 to 1:00 every morning, and Somerset Maugham wrote for four hours after he woke up. I have always aspired to be one of those writers.
The truth is that every other week is like New Year’s Day for me. I make resolutions. I vow that I am going to change. I pledge myself to writing a thousand…nay, FIVE-THOUSAND words a day. I tell my husband and my family that the first four hours of my day are dedicated to writing so please don’t bother me when I’m in my office.
Inevitably, I do really well for about the first week. And then life starts interrupting and sneaking in during the second week. By the third week my writing schedule has deteriorated into chaos and I’m making new vows and by Monday of the fourth week.
I used to beat myself up about how I could never keep a strict writing schedule, but I’ve come to realize that this is just part of my creative cycle.
“As for discipline – it’s important, but sort of over-rated. The more important virtue for a writer, I believe, is self-forgiveness. Because your writing will always disappoint you. Your laziness will always disappoint you. You will make vows: “I’m going to write for an hour every day,” and then you won’t do it. You will think: “I suck, I’m such a failure. I’m washed-up.” Continuing to write after that heartache of disappointment doesn’t take only discipline, but also self-forgiveness (which comes from a place of kind and encouraging and motherly love). ” –Elizabeth Gilbert
I keep coming back to writing after all those disappointments because I’ll get the spark of an idea that I really want to share. I try not to see my writing time as some awful task I need to accomplish, but as something I love…something I can’t wait to do and it’s only a matter of arranging the rest of my life so I can do it.
328,560 words
I wrote 2,801 new fiction words this week. I spent a lot of time editing and doing research.
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers
So you’ve just finished the first draft of a short-story or novel. Now what do you do? There are different theories about this.
If you are a Heinlein Rules of Writing purist, than you’ll probably run your story through a spell-check, stick it an envelope, and mail it.
However, if you are a little more timid about sharing your stories, I would suggest reading Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself Into Print by Renni Browne and Dave King.
This book has checklists and exercises to help you craft stories that read with a little more polish. I really like this book I’m one of those people who get stuck in endless rewrites. Browne and King’s checklists are fairly objective; they stop me from thinking, “This story isn’t as transcendental as I wish it was,” and gets me counting how many -ly adverbs I have (and deciding which I should keep) and thinking about whether the words I used match the voice of my viewpoint character. Best of all: editing this way can be done very quickly so it doesn’t slow me down from getting my stories in the mail.
Working with Self-Editing for Fiction Writers feels like running a spell-check for your story: “Do I need speaker attribution here?” “Would this piece of information be better shown in a scene or explained in a narrative summary?” “Are my paragraphs thick and dense or are they thin and fast-paced…and is that appropriate for the kind of story I’m telling?” Those are just a few examples of the things you’ll find in this book.
Another helpful part of Self-Editing for Fiction Writers is that it was written by editors, so it gives you an idea of the kinds of things and editor might tell you to change after they’ve bought your story. These suggestions are purely craft-related so you don’t have to worry about it “ruining” your story; it might actually make your story better.
The Art of Fiction
One of the books that has helped me the most as a novice writer is The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers by John Gardner.
For several years I’d heard writers talk about The Art of Fiction, yet I resisted reading it because I thought John Gardner wrote like an academic snob. I was afraid that he would load me down with aesthetic rules and talk about how there hasn’t been a single great novel since 1700. Once I was about five pages into it, however, I was kicking myself for not having read this book sooner.
John Gardner is a brilliant writing teacher and the kernels of his wisdom have been distilled into this slender, yet useful book. This book has writing exercises and notes on genre, plotting, and technique.
I was astonished at how practical and useful The Art of Fiction was. One of the chapters that most helped me was the one on plotting. Before this, I was following Stephen King’s method by writing two thousand words a day with nothing planned ahead of time. Writing that way was a real struggle. I never knew where I was going and my stories suffered from their lack of focus.
In his chapter on plotting, John Gardner has an exercise where he suggests starting at the end of the story with the feeling or scene you want to leave the reader with, and figuring out what scenes need to happen to set up that final climax. A light went off in my head. This single exercise instantly made writing easier for me. And there were many other lessons in his book that were just as useful.
I would definitely suggest The Art of Fiction for any writer starting to get serious about craft.
“Mastery is not something that strikes in an instant, like a thunderbolt, but a gathering power that moves steadily through time, like weather.”–John Gardner
How to Give Feedback
When I hand out early drafts for people to read my goal is to see if the movie playing in my head is the same movie playing in my reader’s head. The best kind of feedback I can get from a reader is usually the simplest: a synopsis of what happened, who it happened to, where it happened, and when.
Other useful things to mention are where you were confused, where you were bored, and if there was anything in my story that seemed far-fetched or out of character.
Also, let me know if there were any scenes or details you liked, so that I don’t get rid of them during my rewrites.
Keep in mind that the works-in-progress I post online are rough drafts and they won’t be as polished as a finished piece (I’m particularly bad with typos, homonyms, and homophones…the kinds of things spell-check doesn’t catch.)
325,759 words
This was a slow week since I only wrote 4,010 new words. I spent most of the week transcribing chapters of a novel that I hand-wrote a couple of weeks ago. I enjoy handwriting, but transcribing sucks.