Category: Uncategorized

It’s always really interesting talking with readers about writing. Their questions are always really different from writers’ questions.

In the past I’ve never noticed much similarity in the questions I get, but recently, at different events, I’ve heard variations on the same question several times.

Do I write people I know? Do people I know wish I’d write about them? Do I write about myself?

Writing people we know: When the readers were asking about putting real people in books, they looked anxious–like they wouldn’t want to be part of a book. Which I can understand—you’d have no control over what was said about you. And maybe everyone who read the book would know you were the person the character was based on.

This is exactly why I don’t base my characters very closely on one person. My characters are usually amalgams of lots of different people—characteristics from five different people, personality traits from three others. And I know some writers would never base a character on a real person in any way.

Do people we know want to make appearances in our books? This is happening a little more frequently now. Usually, they want something that happened to them to be part of my book. Sometimes someone will say to me, “Let me tell you what happened to me—you should put it in one of your books.” So I’ll just say something noncommittal back: “Wow, that was some story! I’ll file that away…I’m always looking for new material and ideas.” But who knows?—maybe there’s some part of some story that will spark an idea for me.

Do we write ourselves into our books? I think I’m in the minority on this one, but I really don’t write myself into my books. I do add a few of my negative traits into some of my characters—maybe it’s therapy. :) So my frustration, impatience, etc, might make its way into a character. But other than that—no. My life and my personality honestly isn’t all that interesting to base books or characters on—I’d rather use my imagination.

How about you? Do you write about people you know? Do people you know want a cameo in your book? Do you write about yourself or your life?

The online community of writers is such an important resource for all of us. Writers share a ton of industry information, are supportive when we hit writing or industry snags, and offer tips and friendship through their blogs.

But sometimes, we all get a little burned out.

I was skimming through my Google reader and read this post writer Anne Annie ran on her blog, in favor of “slow blogging:”

BUT, and this is a big BUT—blogging takes a humongous chunk out of your writing time. Bloggers are usually advised to post every day. AND run contests and giveaways to bring in more followers. AND post on all their followers’ blogs. AND generally let the blog run their lives.

Which makes bloggers carry a little wad of guilt around any time they’re doing something else—like nurturing offspring, earning a living, or actually working on a manuscript. How many blog posts have you read recently that consisted of apologies for not blogging?

So I’d like to take this opportunity to say YOU DON’T NEED TO BLOG EVERY DAY. If you want to do a daily blog, and it’s not taking away from your creative work, that’s great. But if you’re just starting out, I recommend a once-a-week blog like this one, or even once-a-month.

Anne starts out her post being very supportive of blogging and gives reasons why writers should have a blog—so she’s definitely pro-blog.

I think, though, that writers are juggling so much anyway, then being creative on top of it—and then want to have a daily blog with top-notch content. I think that’s doable, but it’s tough to maintain.

If you’re a blogger who needs some ideas from time to time (and I think we all are), then here are some useful articles I’ve bookmarked (many from months ago) that I think are helpful:

The Massive List of Ideas for Blog Posts—from The Abundance Blog

10 Sure Cures for Blogging Burnout—from WordCount

The 9 Essential Posts that Every Blogger Should know—from NorthxEast

Need copyright-free images? 30 Free Image Resources on the Web: These sites are great—but make sure you’re in the copyright free section…sometimes there’ll be other sections.

Hope these help! I’d also add that if you find yourself leaving a really long comment on someone else’s blog post, that’s a sign that you might do well to write your own post exploring the subject—and link back to the original article that inspired your post.

Have you got any other blogging burnout ideas or thoughts?

I’m looking forward to meeting with a book club tonight at Uwharrie Books in Locust, North Carolina.

Book clubs are usually a lot more fun for me than signings. At most signings, the folks who come into the bookstore have no idea who you are (unless they’ve come out specifically to see you) and may not be interested in the types of books you write.

At a book club, you’ve got a group of people who’ve chosen your book to read. And the sales pressure is off, which is always a real relief. They’ve (usually) read your book and are eager to talk to you about it.

Usually book clubs fall into two different groups—the kind that takes a more casual approach where you participate as a book club member—by sitting as part of the group, listening to the discussion, and answering any questions the readers have about why you chose to send the plot in a particular direction or what inspired a particular character.

The other kind wants you to talk a little about your book—the inspiration for it, the challenges and fun of writing it, and things like cover selection, etc. and then open it up to questions.

I usually come prepared for either one. :)

I hear sometimes from authors who are interested in reaching out to book clubs and aren’t sure how to find them. Good places to check are usually libraries (my local branch has a book club that focuses on mysteries), bookstores (which frequently have book clubs meet in their cafes—and Borders has recently made a public drive to attract book clubs to its stores), churches, and clubhouses for different subdivisions.

Things I’ve discovered from talking at book clubs:

Find out if you should bring anything. I’ve been to book clubs where everyone brought food. They probably would tell me not to bring food, but I feel funny not bringing anything with me when everyone else is.

Bring bookmarks, postcards, and other small giveaways. Individually-wrapped chocolates and mints are always popular. :)

Consider doing a door prize giveaway for one book club member to win.

Bring a sign up sheet for your email newsletter, if you have one.

Consider bringing a cheat sheet with your book’s characters on it. I hate to admit it, but sometimes when I’m on the spot, I’ve been known to forget a minor character’s name. It doesn’t look good for someone else to know your book better than you do.

Be prepared that someone might not like your book and will talk about why they didn’t. It’s tough, but learn to accept it and not get defensive.

Be prepared for the book club to find deeper meaning in your book than you intended. :) It’s happened to me a couple of times and I loved their ideas about my book,although symbolism wasn’t my intention. A lot of book clubs are used to reading literary fiction.

Be prepared to talk succinctly about what you’re working on next.

Have you ever spoken to a book club or belonged to one where authors spoke? How did it go?

One thing that I noticed during my book tour was how many people would like to be writers or authors.

A couple of times, writers approached our table at signings. They wanted to know our secrets for getting an agent or getting a publisher. And, yes, the word “secret” was actually used by one of the people.

My mind boggled a little at the thought of boiling all the publishing advice down into the quick sound bite they seemed to be looking for. Avery Aames, who was with me, was very good to point to helpful reference guides for writers— Literary Marketplace (which you can also get an online subscription to) and Writers Market, and the need to direct queries to the right agent instead of doing a blanket search.

I was glad Avery jumped in because honestly, I’m not sure how I would have answered that question in less than twenty minutes (which was time I didn’t have.)

Thinking on it now, I’d also recommend that people read books in the genre they’re writing to make sure they’re in line with the market expectations for the genre, read industry-related blogs—written by agents and editors as well as writers, that they find an objective person to help critique their work, and that they learn how to write a query letter from sites like Query Shark, The Rejector, Rachelle Gardner, Literary Agent, and Pub Rants. This is all assuming they’ve really got their manuscript in excellent, submission-ready shape.

Avery also mentioned the need to develop a thick skin and persevere, which I thought was a very good point. She and I both got our share of rejections before landing our agents and publishers (I was actually rejected at least once by the agent I currently have.)

Avery might disagree, but I thought the writers looked a little disappointed with her on-target advice…and maybe were hoping for a magic bullet. Sad to say, there really isn’t one—it’s just a combination of luck, perseverance, research, and practicing the craft.

Then there were people I’ve spoken to recently who’ve looked at me sadly and said they always wanted to be a writer.

For those folks, I’m quick to respond, but I think I need to develop a more sympathetic approach. Actually, my approach is more reproach. If you’ve always wanted to write, you should write! It may not be the luxury of hours of writing (it’s not for me), but you can fit in ten to fifteen minutes a day if you really want to. That’s exactly what I did seven years ago with Sesame Street playing in the background as I scratched together a first draft. If you write a page a day, you can have a first draft in less than a year.

And these people clearly wanted to write. They really looked like they were on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams when they were talking to me about their hope of writing.

Plus—they spoke in the past tense as if it was too late to try to write. It’s never too late. I’ve not seen a single agent or editor who wants to know how old we are in our query letter. All they care about is a good story. It is too late, though, if we’re dead before we try to pen something. And then that is a shame.

What advice do you have for people looking for an agent or publisher? And what do you tell people who say they always wanted to write (because I think I need some sensitivity training for that second question.) :)

Here are writing links that I’ve posted to Twitter for the past week. (And there are fewer tweets—I went on a Tweetcation while I was out of town.) :) If you’re looking for a particular topic, just plug in your keyword into the search box at the top left-hand corner of the blog (on the black header right above my blog name…next to the Blogger symbol…the small search window is next to the magnifying glass) and the roundup with your subject will come up. To narrow your search down on the page, do a CTRL+F, type your subject, and hit enter.

Create a Web Banner in Microsoft Word: http://dld.bz/s6bW

Elevate Your Ending: http://dld.bz/s6bQ

6 Steps to a Prettier Blog (sans designer): http://dld.bz/s6bK

The Irony of Impossible: http://dld.bz/s6bG

10 Sunday Night Blues Busters for a Better Monday Morning: http://dld.bz/s6aU

How to Crush It As a Writer: The ‘Weird’ Trick: http://dld.bz/s6aT

Best Articles This Week for Writers 8/27/2010: http://dld.bz/tBMZ @4KidLit

Are you benefiting from the intimacy of pronouns? http://dld.bz/s6aG

Writers–what’s your specialty? http://dld.bz/tByS

The Death of Print Publishing: http://dld.bz/s6a9

How the media gets it wrong: http://dld.bz/tBy3 @victoriastrauss

The elevator pitch: http://dld.bz/s6av

A Post About Plotting: http://dld.bz/s6aq

Dealing With Rejection And Moving On: http://dld.bz/s6aj

The Writer Olympics: http://dld.bz/s6ah

Revisions are a messy but necessary beast: http://dld.bz/s6aw

How Can Writers Know if Their Writing Is Ready For Querying? http://dld.bz/s5ZQ

What Fiction Writers Blog About: http://dld.bz/s5YA

Windows and Mirrors: Stories That Cross Borders: http://dld.bz/s5ZP

23 (More) Websites that Make Your Writing Stronger: http://dld.bz/s5ZE

How To Be A Completely Authentic Tweep (Without Sending People Screaming in the Opposite Direction) http://dld.bz/s5Z4

Are You Ready To Submit Your Novel? http://dld.bz/rHmu and http://dld.bz/s5Z2

When Christian fiction becomes preachy: http://dld.bz/s5Zd

Do e-readers mean more book reading? http://bit.ly/b9EaWE @MermaidHel

Five Simple Things Agents Can Do To Make Writers’ Lives Easier (and Three Things Writers Should Do Regardless): http://dld.bz/s5Zc

The Query Critique Group: http://dld.bz/s5YY

Ten Reasons To Keep Writing: http://dld.bz/s5YT

Keywords: A writer’s guide to attracting more traffic to your blog: http://dld.bz/s5YC

Writing — When Things Go Wrong: http://dld.bz/s5Y8

How Important is Blogging For Unpublished Writers? http://dld.bz/s5Y2

9 Ways to Use Social Media to Inspire Your Writing: http://dld.bz/s5Yn

The Two Laws for In-Person Critique: http://dld.bz/s5Yj

The importance of having our characters *want* something: http://dld.bz/s5Yd

Better to wine than to whine: http://dld.bz/sxGs

Untying the knot while weaving the tapestry of a novel: http://dld.bz/s4pB

The Key to Forming a New Habit: http://dld.bz/sxNx

What is dynamic? http://dld.bz/sxNq

Why digital publishing didn’t catch on 10 years ago–and why it might now: http://dld.bz/sxNp

The 5 Best Start Page Services to Start Your MorningThe 5 Best Start Page Services to Start Your Morning: http://dld.bz/sxNe

Today’s Tweak: Show Don’t Tell: http://dld.bz/sxNa

Writing to meet your Needs: http://dld.bz/sxMX

Writing today for tomorrow’s world: http://dld.bz/sxMS

Where We Write: The Merits of Making Do: http://dld.bz/sxMP

Poets & Writers releases list of top 50 MFA programs for 2011: http://dld.bz/ttEx

Agents Tell All at RWA National: http://dld.bz/sxKw

Writing the Basics. Sentence Structure, Paragraph Structure and Why they Matter: http://dld.bz/sxJu

“Delicious and Suspicious” giveaway on The World of Book Reviews blog: http://bit.ly/aFtZie @Babslighthouse

The Changing Face of Publishing: http://dld.bz/sxJn

The Wastefulness of Decluttering; or How to Make Less Count for More: http://dld.bz/sxJm

The tao of novel pacing: http://bit.ly/bmoRUw @HeatherMcCorkle

How to Stay Productive When the Internet Is Down: http://dld.bz/sxJf

Are You Making It Hard for People to Comment on Your Blog? http://dld.bz/sxHQ

60 Tips to Improve Your Nonfiction Writing: http://dld.bz/sxHH

Strengthen your story with proper framing: http://dld.bz/sxHx

Your writing business–tips for running it: http://dld.bz/sxGr

Nurturing talent in writers: http://dld.bz/sxHY

What will future generations of writers relate to? http://dld.bz/sxGh

When You Simply MUST Finish: http://dld.bz/sxGc

5 Time Management Tips for Those Writers & Freelancers Who Can: http://dld.bz/sxFX

When Are Characters Off Limits? http://dld.bz/sxBN

How much do writers make? The Rejecter explains: http://bit.ly/d417ee

How to sign an e-book (Baltimore Sun) : http://dld.bz/sxBu

Crime fiction fashions and trends–do trends affect you, if you’re a mystery writer? http://bit.ly/csQtMJ @mkinberg

5 keys to realistic dialogue: http://bit.ly/cuEdjZ @clarissadraper

The Power of an E-mail Network (10 Years in the Making): http://dld.bz/sxBr

Unblock Your Writing Through Visualization: http://dld.bz/sxBm

What Makes a Good First Sentence: http://dld.bz/sxAT

Ten top tips for new writers: http://dld.bz/sxAK

The Perks of Being Unpublished: http://dld.bz/sxAD

Be a better beta: http://dld.bz/sxAA

5 Resources for Tracking Your To-do Lists: http://dld.bz/sxA8

How to Write a Query Letter: http://dld.bz/sxAz @victoriastrauss

The tussle over Barnes & Noble (LA Times): http://dld.bz/sxAv

How To Have Zen In Your Pen Again And Again: http://dld.bz/sxAk

5 tips on using social media to market yourself: http://dld.bz/sx9Z

How to Use Tone To Your Advantage (Zelda Style): http://dld.bz/sx9x

8 Ways Writers Can Push Themselves To Grow: http://dld.bz/sx9t @jodyhedlund

Simple ways to streamline your writing life: http://dld.bz/sx9k @jillkemerer

Voice, voice, voice: http://dld.bz/sx77 @RoniGriffin