Business or Pleasure? Defining Your Writing Goals

As the term winds down, my students in the Business of Writing class will hold what I hope will be a spirited discourse on the pros and cons of self v. traditional publishing. But no matter which method any writer chooses, that writer must also determine if writing is a hobby or a business.
Writing Tip for Today: Deciding where your writing belongs in your life isn't easy. You love writing, are committed to learning your craft or you have this great breakout idea for a book. But at the end of the day, is writing a guilty pleasure or a fledgling business?

• What Am I Willing To Spend? No business succeeds without some sort of initial investment. Right now, you may be putting in mostly hard work. But at some point you'll need to decide: is writing (and publishing) important enough to me to shell out some cash? Whether you spend it on writing classes, conferences, editors or ads, every writer today must face this question.
• How Long Am I Willing to Wait? Success, however measured, usually doesn't come overnight. Are you willing to spend a few years (OK a lot of years) in a writing apprenticeship, learning your craft? Are you willing to practice, be rejected again and again until you finally get that first sale? Most successful writers have a drawer full of unpublished manuscripts they wrote before hitting the big time.
• Why Do I Write? Are you obsessed with seeing your novel in print? Do you dream of being interviewed by Oprah's Book Club 2.0 ***or GMA? Or are you content to leave a legacy for your family's enjoyment? The answer will tell you a lot about whether you write for the sheer joy of it or if you really are driven to publish.

***A special shoutout to Northwest author Cheryl Strayed, whose memoir, Wild, was chosen as the first selection in Oprah's new book club. Congrats!

Express Yourself! Using Colloquialisms in Fiction

I write for a market where often even mild epithets such as darn or heck are banned. How can a writer inject regional flavor and help round out a character if that character can't express him/herself freely?
Writing Tip for Today: I would never write offensive language for my market, but I want my characters to be human. What can any writer do when the character hits his thumb with a hammer?

• Metaphors/Similes. Many times, epithets, however tame, are cliche. Use metaphor or simile to create unique expressions for your characters.
• Be Creative. Most "clean" book lines would tolerate a regional or original saying. For instance, I know a wonderful older woman whose favorite expression is: frosted bellybuttons!
• Use the Surroundings. Your book's setting may offer opportunities to create flavor-packed expressions which don't offend. If your story is set in the desert, use references to the heat or the barren landscape. If it's a coastal setting, references to life being like the tides, the waves or the sand fleas might be appropriate. 

Foreshadows and Plants in Fiction

Any writer who produces a first draft of a novel will be faced with a really cool dilemma: by "The End," you'll acknowledge how much you've improved and grown as a writer, but now you'll also have to make sure the tone and the story are even. A lot of the time revision will include foreshadowing and planting characters or information so the reader won't be unpleasantly surprised as they read along.
Writing Tip for Today:  Here are some tips on foreshadowing and planting characters and info:

• Keep a Scene List. As you draft, keep a list of scenes. Use a one sentence tag line to describe the main action. Then, when you go back to plant or foreshadow, indicate where these elements are introduced and then repeated before the actual character or situation goes on stage. I sometimes color code these places so I can see at a glance how often the reference comes up. 
• Plant 'Em Early. There's an unwritten rule that readers don't like new characters (with substantial stage time) introduced to them past the first half of the story. One way to get around this is to plant the characters--either in dialogue references or by placing the characters in a scene but not letting them be part of the main action right away--much earlier. This way, when the main character begins to interact with the "plant," it doesn't feel as if it came out of nowhere. Not everyone agrees with this "rule," but I tend to want to do as little as possible to alienate a reader.
• Experiment with Foreshadowing. The writer's mind is so magical! Many times writers foreshadow an important development and don't even realize it. Foreshadowing might mean: a dialogue reference, the POV character thinking about something, seeing or hearing something, or even a metaphor that logically foretells of the coming situation or person revealed. Experiment with how obvious or subtle you think this foreshadowing needs to be. The trick is not to hit the reader over the head but not to be so subtle that the reader completely misses the reference.

Memorial Day: Writing About War

A fitting subject for today's post might be how writers write about war.
Writing Tip for Today: Occasionally a writing student will write about war in a novel or short story. The gravity of the subject is often difficult reading, but I offer some pointers that I think might help:

• Decide How Much Your Readers Can Take. If you're writing about war as a backdrop for a romance novel, you may need to take into account the delicate nature of your reader. Is she willing to endure a lot of violence or gore? If not, focus on bravery, morality, patriotism and sacrifice in the scenes you write. If your audience is predominantly male, you may be able to include more of the nitty-gritty, but use caution: as with sex, scenes before or after are probably more powerful than a bunch of bullets whizzing past.
• Be Accurate. Readers of military fiction are often veterans themselves and you can be sure they're going to spot any breach of etiquette, uniform, tactics or ordnance. Do enough research to get it right or else you'll hear from dissatisfied readers.
• Limit the Situation Room Scenes. Many times, I've read drafts of scenes where some military guy explains the mission to a bunch of his men. While this might seem better on the surface than the bullets whizzing, consider that most of these "situation room" scenes are as static as kitchen table scenes. Mouths move, and maybe those little battleships are shifted around, but other than that, very little action occurs. The reader may feels as though he/she is getting second-hand information.

REMEMBER THE FALLEN TODAY AND THANK A VET FOR HIS SERVICE!

A Blog for Every Topic

Just when I think I have finally mastered my schedule of writing, teaching, blogging and social media-ing, my agent says I need one more task. Since I'm writing a book about dealing with addiction/mental illness from a loved one's standpoint, I need a blog about that too. Nothing too hard about that, right?
Writing Tip for Today: Over and over I hear about the pressing need to define oneself as an author. We need to brand ourselves like soap. We need to be "friends" with everyone on the planet. We need to work tirelessly to be known. Well, it's all true. Except, that as I prepare to jump off another cliff of responsibility, I should heed my own advice:

• Better a Little Well-done than a Lot Undercooked. I'm going to reduce my Writing Tips and Miss Writerly Crankypants blogs to twice a week, and see if I can squeeze in at least one Hope for Moms of Addicts post per week. I'd rather do a great job on fewer posts than put up a lot of disorganized or random stuff.
• Balance Connection with Relevance. In all 3 of these blogs I will work toward connecting with readers while offering them useful content. If one or the other of these elements takes over, I can't accomplish my mission. I may eventually have to have a 4th blog or site for my fiction, which seems to feature a lot of Native American characters.
• Writer Identity Crisis. As I attempt to define who I am as a writer, like many creative types, I'm having a tough time pinning myself down. I'm interested in a lot of things, but readers seem to want to remember authors not by their names as much as their stories. Especially if one of my books becomes a hit (I know, a big dream), I'll be forced to label myself. Am I an historical fictioneer whose interest lies in the Old West? Or a survivor and encourager of others who deal with addiction or mental illness? At some point, my readers will demand to know. And so will yours.

Book Review: Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake

My reading world has expanded considerably due to my signing up with NetGalley, a great way to read and review new books. One of the books I was excited to sneak preview is Anna Quindlen's Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, which has just released. Now I've been a Quindlen fan since her days as a columnist at the NYT. Okay I wasn't a "Paul girl," I was a "John" girl in the Beatles' heyday. But I love Quindlen's writing all the same.

My review:
I've always been a fan of Anna Quindlen. Anyone who loves the Beatles as much as I do is a winner. Quindlen writes a sweet and true memoir in Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake. In America it's so hard to be who you really are. But Quindlen gives me confidence to embrace my old womanhood and shout it from the rooftops. Her style is effortless as she shares particulars of a life well-lived. I think I want to be Anna Quindlen when I grow up.

About the Book:

It's odd when I think of the arc of my life, from child to young woman to aging adult. First I was who I was. Then I didn't know who I was. Then I invented someone, and became her. Then I began to like what I'd invented. And finally I was what I was again.

It turned out I wasn't alone in that particular progression.

From Anna Quindlen, #1 New York Times bestselling author and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, comes this irresistible memoir about her life and the lives of women today. Candid, funny, moving, Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cakeis filled with the sharp insights and revealing observations that have long confirmed Quindlen's status as America's laureate of real life.

As she did in her beloved New York Times columns, and in A Short Guide to a Happy Life, Quindlen says for us here what we may wish we could have said ourselves. Using her past, present, and future to explore what matters most to women at different ages, Quindlen talks about

Marriage: "A safety net of small white lies can be the bedrock of a successful marriage. You wouldn't believe how cheaply I can do a kitchen renovation."

Girlfriends: "Real friends offer both hard truths and soft landings and realize that it's sometimes more important to be nice than to be honest."

Our bodies: "I've finally recognized my body for what it is, a personality-delivery system, designed expressly to carry my character from place to place, now and in the years to come. It's like a car, and while I like a red convertible or even a Bentley as well as the next person, what I really need are four tires and an engine."

Parenting: "Being a parent is not transactional. We do not get what we give. It is the ultimate pay-it-forward: We are good parents, not so they will be loving enough to stay with us, but so they will be strong enough to leave us."

From childhood memories to manic motherhood to middle age, Quindlen uses the events of her own life to illuminate our own. Along with the downsides of age, she says, can come wisdom, a perspective on life that makes it both satisfying and even joyful. So here's to lots of candles, plenty of cake.

You can find out more or purchase here:
Anna Quindlen is the author of five previous bestselling novels (Rise and Shine, Blessings, Object Lessons, One True Thing, Black and Blue), and seven nonfiction books (A Short Guide to a Happy Life, Good Dog. Stay., Being Perfect, Loud & Clear, Living Out Loud, Thinking Out Loud, and How Reading Changed My Life). Her New York Times column "Public and Private" won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992. From 2000-2009, She wrote the "Last Word" column for Newsweek.

Writing Workshops in Eugene

Over the weekend I presented a workshop at the Oregon Christian Writers Spring One Day Conference. These things are always great opportunities to see old writing buds, listen to some motivational speeches and learn a thing or two.
Writing Tip for Today: Why should any writer attend a conference like this one?

• Easy Does It. A one day conference eases you into the conference experience. "Big" conferences can be overwhelming to first-timers, so a mini-conference helps you feel less intimidated. Most writing organizations either have quarterly conferences or monthly meetings where you can get to know other writers before you go to the BIG one to pitch.
• Network, Network, Network. Whenever I attend one of these events, I always plan to schmooze my way through. This OCW conference, I met in person several writers who follow my blogs or whom I have helped online. You never know where a connection will lead. Bring plenty of business cards to hand out.
• Nourish Your Writer. A conference is a great way to connect with other writers--the only other people on the planet who really really get you! You can swap stories, form a new critique group or ask experts the questions you've been dying to ask.The keynote at Saturday's conference was Karen Ball, an editor and literary agent. She gave a nurturing and entertaining motivational talk that inspired me to rush home and write. And her fiction workshop was very helpful. I've sprinkled in a few pix of the day's events.