The New Assistant Editor: YOU!

One of the biggest challenges for new authors is getting that first book deal.  We cast our queries out into vast waters teeming with agents and editors hoping to get a bite…heck, even a nibble would do for most of us!

The problem is:  the agents and editors we submit to are already overwhelmed with hundreds—if not thousands of submissions.  This mountainous pile of proposals is what has become known as “the slush pile”.  Of course, the general idea (and every author’s hope) is that truly great writing and storylines will stand apart from the rest and shine like a diamond in a coal mine.

However, I intend to not be self-serving in this post.  Instead, let’s look at things from the agent or editor’s perspective, hmmm?

The publishing industry is in trouble.  No bones about it.  The costs of creating and distributing paper goods continues to increase, while demand for said-goods in our economically-depressed climate continues to drop.  Add to that the fact that the major book chains are promised full refunds of any materials they can’t sell, and one has to wonder how this business model ever worked at all!

Thanks to the accessibility of computers and online research tools in the last decade, book submissions have sky rocketed despite the decline of internal resources as publishing houses are forced to cut costs to stay in business.  As a result, there simply aren’t enough people to shovel through the slush.

[Enter stage right]   Authonomy (http://www.authonomy.com/), a Harper Collins project which I find extremely cool and exciting!

See, most of the publishing houses seem to by shying away from emerging technology—or change in general.  But HC is instead embracing the power of the World Wide Web and using it to help them discover fresh new talent.

Here’s how it works:  An author uploads his/her book to their website and allows people to read it online—for free.  Other authors or potential fans can then comment on it, make suggestions, or add it to a virtual “bookshelf”, which means it’s one of their favorites.

Scratching your head because you don’t get it?  …don’t worry, I was too—at first!

Step back a moment and look at the information Harper Collins has at their disposal with this tool:  they can know at any time what the most popular titles are on the website and see comments from prospective customers.  If they’re interested in an editor looking at the book, it’s already there for them to review, in its entirety.  On their website, they very clearly state that the top authors/titles will be reviewed by an editor at Harper Collins each month!

Essentially, what they’ve done is moved the slush pile online and hired (so to speak) other authors and various visitors and fans to be their assistant editors!  BRILLIANT!

I’m not 100% sure about posting my entire novel online where anyone can copy or plagiarize it.  Plus, it seems like it might be a bit hard to manage long-term—although their FAQ page states that the site is still in BETA, so they might address these concerns by the time it releases.

Nonetheless, I can’t help but feel certain warm-fuzzy feeling for Harper Collins!  In my opinion, this new initiative is absolutely genius and demonstrates the kind of creative mindset needed in order for publishing to survive.  It’s important for any business to embrace changing technology and not shy away from it or risk become stale and out-dated.

 

If you haven’t checked out Authonomy yet, I please log on and let me know your thoughts.  Do you think it’ll work?  If you’re an author, would you post your complete book there for the world to see for free?  Do you have any intellectual property concerns in doing so?

Creating Interesting Characters

How well do you know the characters in your story?

It sounds like a simple question—perhaps even a bit lame.  I mean, you are the author after all!  They can be whatever—or whoever—you want them to be, right?

Wrong.

Your characters need to be consistent throughout your project.  The person you start them out as needs to be the same person they end up as—minus the personal journeys and transformations that take place during throughout the course of the story.

Have you ever been writing a particular scene only to realize that you don’t really know how your character would react in the situation you created?  Or maybe your protagonist is walking through a crowded subway and you can’t seem to get him to do more than get from point “A” to “B”.  His actions don’t seem real or interesting in the slightest.  Perhaps you find yourself searching your manuscript for the model car they drive or the name of his ex-girlfriend from college.

Vagueness in your characters isn’t just something you notice—your reader will see it too!  As a result, they’ll appear less real to the reader and their connection to them and the situations they’re in will suffer.

So how do you combat this?

Personally, before I start on a new project, I complete a full biography of all major characters in the plot.  I use the bio page to remind me of characteristics about the character that I might have otherwise forgotten.  In addition to text, I also include a picture of what I envision the character to look like.  That way I can be sure my descriptions about their appearance are consistent throughout the work.

Below is an actual biography I use for one of my main characters in “The Veil”.

 

 

Special Agent Dana Cooper

35 years old
5’ 7” / 135 lbs
Caucasian and Latino
Brown eyes, brown hair-slightly wavy
Chestnut complexion reflecting Latino heritage
Mature, tough, wise
Power: Remote Viewing (evolves to include past events)
Joined FBI 8 years ago

“Coops”, as her coworkers call her, was raised by her adoptive father, James (Jimmy), who was a Jersey cop. He rescued her from drug-bust that killed her parents when she was only three. She immediately bonded with him, and the courts agreed that it would be in her best interests if he raised her. He raised her happy and healthy—but also to be a survivor.

Now full-grown, Coops is a Special Agent with the FBI and is known as shrewd and tough. She’s beautiful, but doesn’t spend a lot of time on her looks: little make-up, hair pulled back in a pony-tail, dress slacks and a plain button-down shirt or sport coat.

Coops has seen a lot of things, but nothing can prepare her for the things she’ll experience after meeting Robert and Julia. Troy finds her super-hot, but Coop wants nothing to do with him.

She doesn’t believe in the supernatural and will take some convincing if Robert and Julia want her help.

Journeys:

• Coop is on an on-going journey of self-discovery into her womanhood. She missed out on a lot because of only being raised by her father, but she’s aware of the woman deep in her and longs to be feminine and delicate.
• (Possible Journey) She could have some dormant abilities like Robert and Julia that have unknowingly helped her in her career in law-enforcement.

Partner: Paul Stanfield – partners for 2 years
Boss: Deputy Director Shawn Crawford

 

As you can see by the above example, I describe any pertinent visual cues that distinguish her from other characters in the story—including age, weight and height.  Obviously I’ll probably never refer to her exact weight in the finished work, but knowing detailed information about her like that can help make descriptions of her consistent throughout the story.

The visual cues are aided by the image of the character pasted into the bio.  You can find a picture of anyone on the web and use it…it’s only for your own personal reference (due to copyright issues, the picture of “Coops” is not included in this post.)

I also include a complete background of the character including dates (if appropriate), spans of time, important people to that character such as parents, siblings, partners, children, etc.  Other things to consider detailing include:

• What kind of car they drive, and what it looks like
• Where they work, what they do there, how long they’ve worked there, etc.
• Where they live
• Bars or clubs they like to hang out at

Basically, my bio sheet is a virtual repository of story-related facts and details that I can refer back to at any time.  Having specific details available at a moment’s notice will save you countless hours searching your manuscript!

Lastly, ever character has a “Journeys” section.  This is where I put a bulleted list of life-changing events that I want them to accomplish during the course of the story.  Lesser characters may have only one or two journey items, while primary characters will often have as many as four or five! 

It’s important that all your main characters grow and evolve throughout your story.  If they remain stationary, they’ll grow stale and uninteresting to your reader.  Readers relate to their personal struggles and inner demons and they’ll be much more likely to relate to them on a personal level, making the experience of reading your novel that much more enjoyable.

Spending the time to create character bios can actually help to shape your plot.  You may find that the story almost writes itself when you turn your fully-flushed out characters loose in a given scene or situation!  At the very least, knowing them in detail will help you create continuity that you simply can’t get otherwise.

 

How do you create your characters?  Is there a technique you use that you’d like to share?  Post your approach in the comments section!

Writing Yourself Into Corners

We’ve all heard that old idiom: “paint oneself into a corner.”  The image conjured is of a person painting the floor and realizing that there’s no way to exit the room without stepping in paint.  Essentially, you’re backed into a corner (interestingly enough, another popular idiom), unable to escape.

Granted, no one paints the floor these days.  We use carpet, tile, or linoleum—all of which are perfectly fine to walk on immediately after laying.  But bear with me here, the general concept is still relevant.

…particularly to us writers!

For us, it means creating plotlines and circumstances that our heroes/heroines cannot possibly overcome in a realistic or believable manner.

If you’re one of the diligent that creates a complete and thorough outline before typing the words “once upon a time”, you may not have ever run into this.  In which case, please allow me to extend my most heartfelt congratulations—and sympathies.

Without a doubt, trial and error is what makes us grow as writers and artists.  If you don’t allow yourself the opportunity to stray from your plot somewhat, you may be missing out on a really great tangent or angle you’d otherwise never explore.

Readers rely on us to provide the unexpected in our stories.  Where some might send little Johnny to the candy store to buy a 0.05 candy bar, the writer would send little Johnny on crutches into a candy store run by four cannibalistic brothers in the dead of night in the middle of a power outage.  Yes, we’re twisted at times.

But that’s what makes truly brilliant pieces stand out.  The experimentation with our characters, putting them in unusual circumstances and settings, can really make projects ‘pop’!

The down side of that is that we can often find ourselves written into a corner--a place where “little Johnny” couldn’t possible escape without super powers, an act of God, or the like.  For Fantasy and Science Fiction writers, this could actually work (though, it still needs to be believable in the context of the universe you’ve created for your reader.) 

For the rest of us, not so much.  We find ourselves throwing away countless hours of writing while we try and “unpaint” the story to a point where we can manage the outcome a bit better.

I found myself in one of those “oh crap” moments while writing “The Veil”.  I was completely enthralled in the big battle at the end and just allowed the writing to take form on its own.  As the confrontation progressed, I could taste the tension, the sense of urgency, the helplessness—and the writing reflected it beautifully!  To this day, I go back and reread that chapter, and the words literally jump off the page and paint the scene with such detail and emotion!

But then I realized that in all my excitement at throwing everything I had at my hero, I’d gotten him into a situation where he couldn’t possibly hope to survive.  With disappointment, my finger poised over the Delete key, mind racing wildly to come up with some way—any way to keep the pages I’d just churned out.

Luckily, there was a way out for my character that I hadn’t seen—one that actually helped tie up a loose end from earlier in the book.  So, it actually worked out beautifully…that time.

I learned a lot from the experimentation with that scene.  The spontaneity of it elicited an emotional response in me that helped strengthen the writing in a way that wasn’t present in chapters that rigidly stuck to the outline.

I guess what I’m trying to say is this:  outlines are great for keeping the general structure of your work straight, but a little spontaneity now and then might just give your project the fresh point of view you’ve been looking for and take you in directions you’d never dreamed.

 

What are your thoughts?  Have you ever written yourself into a corner?  How’d you get out of it?  What do you do to try and keep yourself out of that situation?  …or do you worry about it at all?

Chime in with your comments!

Standing Out in the Dark

While taking a much needed break from the routine that so frequently consumes my days, I thought I would try to find other authors to connect with on Facebook.  (Shameless plug: you can find me at http://www.facebook.com/danielallenbooks.)  Since it’s one of the best networking sites out there, I assumed that it would be a virtual treasure trove of other professionals looking to network and build strong business relationships.

Okay, so maybe it's a little sneaky, but I found myself an editor’s Facebook profile and pulled up their 2500+ list of friends.  Surely if anyone had a comprehensive list of authors and other literary professionals to network with, it would be them, right?  I believe this technique is called “friend poaching”…though, I personally don’t see anything wrong with it if you're genuinely trying to network and not just sell stuff.

To my surprise, only a small number of the profiles I pulled up had any information about the person at all!  They were all set to private—even the ones whose profile picture were the cover of a book!

Am I alone here, or does that just seem crazy?!

If you’re trying to build a name for yourself, there’s no better way than to create a profile on Facebook (or another networking site) and start adding friends.  It gets your name out there in front of the world.  Not to mention every status update or thing you post ends up being pushed out to (potentially) thousands of people!  You simply can’t buy that kind of advertisement!

If your profile’s set to private, you might be missing out on some really great opportunities to connect with other people.  Agents, scouts, publishers, producers, or anybody really who might run across your profile and never know any more about you than they can get from the picture and your name.

Okay, I understand that some people have some wacky friends who have been known to post things that you wouldn’t want your mother to see—let alone a prospective business partner.  So why not create a second account, one for your business persona? 

That’s what I’m doing, and it seems to work just fine.  My personal profile is an absolute mess—and is definitely not something I’d want the world to see.  But my professional profile is kept clean and tidy—and public!  That way I know that if an agent or publisher happens upon my Facebook profile, they’ll see my public face—not my personal one.

What if your personal friends want to be friends on your public account?  Should you let them or would their posts spoil whatever image you’re trying to cultivate?

I guess it depends on your friends and how much they respect what you’re trying to do.  Of course, Facebook has fabulous account control features that will allow you to choose what gets seen and what doesn’t.  There’s also email notifications to tell you when something gets posted to your profile so you can delete it if you don’t want it there.

In the end, it’s up to all of us to put ourselves out there in order to be seen.  If you want to be successful, you have to be visible to the public.

It’s impossible to stand out in the dark.

Reacting to Criticism

You’ve just finished your manuscript.

The countless hours in front of your computer, manual typewriter, or (God forbid) Blackberry has finally paid off!  The crisp pages the teenager at Kinko’s handed you are still warm from the monstrous copier that only moments before spit them out, page by beautiful page.

Your next step is to send your creation—your child—off into the world to be read by someone else.  After all, this is what you penned it for, right?

Palms sweaty and nerves on edge, you hand the pristine cardboard box housing your work off into the unknown.

After what seems like an eternity, the reviewer contacts you.  He’s finished with your book.  You stomach sours slightly as you sit down to hear the feedback, not quite sure what to expect, but hoping for the best.

After everything you’ve been through in creating your masterpiece, how do you react to criticism?  How should you react?

I’ve recently been through this very process.  Some of the feedback has been great…some, not so much.  Suggestions have ranged from killing my main character at the end of the story (mind you, it’s the first in a trilogy), to adding raw, gritty details that would make a porn star blush.

So, how do you weed through the mass of information that you are inundated with?  I’m not sure, but here’s how I’m approaching it.

 

Negative Feedback
Negative feedback is still feedback.  It’s just not what we want to hear (hence, that nasty little word “negative” in front of it.)  For me, it’s important to realize that you’re going to get the good with the bad and it all needs to be absorbed and processed in order to grow.  Sure, you may have had a perfectly good reason for your main character to flip-off an elderly lady trying to cross the street.  But if your reader didn’t understand it, then maybe something didn’t quite click like you thought it did.

Imagine for a moment a magical place where everyone loved everything you wrote and never said anything was wrong or needed improvement.  How would you ever grow as a writer?  As painful as it may seem at the time, it’s our failures that make us stronger—not our successes.

At the same time, keep in mind that it’s only one person’s opinion.  I recently had someone comment that she was so horrified that my story involved the death of a child, that she wouldn’t even consider reading the rest of the book.  Sure, the comment stung a bit, but I later learned that she works with troubled children and abuse victims, which added context to her objection (which is why it’s important to follow-up and get details!)

I revisited the scene in question and asked myself if I could have worded it differently so it was less offensive to her while still maintaining the plot’s integrity.  I couldn’t.  Considering the ghost of the boy haunts the main character throughout the book, his death is a necessary evil.  Since the scene wasn’t overly graphic, I opted to leave it as-is.

And that’s a difficult decision to make.  Of course we want our work to appeal to everyone—but common sense tells us that goal simply isn’t possible.  First and foremost it is your work, it is your story.  If you lose your authentic voice, then it becomes something else, something less.  It’s a challenging lesson to learn, but one that all writers must face at some time or another in their career.

 

Suggestions
Suggestions are interesting in the sense that they force us to see our work in a way we’d never considered—thinking outside the box, so to speak.

It’s a funny thing:  when you write a book, everyone seems to have suggestions about what should stay, change, or be added to make it better.

Some of the suggestions I’ve heard for my manuscript, “The Veil”, are pretty mild while others are downright outlandish!  They vary from killing my main character at the end of the first book to ending the book in the middle of the climax to making it so the ‘good guys’ are really ‘bad guys’ (and vice-versus.)

Here’s the thing: some of those ideas are cool and all, but they don’t necessarily fit into the overall story being told.  A plot really needs to be designed around large-scale decisions like that.  Throwing them in at the end just to add a splash of drama feels like nothing more than a cheap parlor trick—and I can’t help but feel that the average reader above the age of twelve will see right through that and be insulted.  Tackier yet is a shameless hook into your next book.  Will I consider crafting a future project around one of those ideas?  Absolutely!  But it will be something that I plan from day one—not something thrown in at the last minute.

Not all suggestions should be discarded, though.  The best, in my opinion, are the vague ones.  Ones that suggest that you’re missing something that would make the work more interesting or somehow better but allows you to incorporate it in a way that still works for the piece as a whole.

 

Making Sense of it All
So, what do you do with all the feedback you’ve amassed?  How do you organize it and digest it so you can tackle it without losing your mind?

Good question!  …I don’t know.  But here’s what I’m doing:

• Try to break down suggestions and feedback to what doesn’t work.  Oftentimes people are ‘fixers’.  Instead of telling you what is wrong, they try to tell you what to do.  There’s a reason they suggested that the main character should cut off his right arm in a fit of rage.  Perhaps they feel the plot needs more action or drama.  Whatever the case may be, there’s probably something at the root, driving the reaction.
• Look for common themes.  If you have several people saying essentially the same thing, then it’s probably something that you should take a closer look at.  Provided your readers enjoy reading the style of book you wrote, it’s probably valuable information and should be taken seriously.
• Ask follow-up questions.  If you can keep in contact with the people who’ve reviewed your book, you can ask them clarifying questions to help you narrow down any vague responses they gave.
• Don’t settle for “it sucked” or “it was awesome”.  Follow up with your reviewers for more detail.  What did they like about it?  What did they hate?  Was there anything they had a hard time understanding or reading?  How did they feel about the characters?  The setting?  Most people don’t understand why they don’t like something…they just don’t until you force them to analyze it.

 

Loose Ends
Finally, there’s some things that should be taken into consideration.

• How will the changes you’re making impact other chapters in the book?  The plot in general?
• Do all the changes you’re planning support the work you envisioned or detract from it?  Do you lose your authentic voice if you make them?
• Will you end up pleasing a few readers only to alienate the rest?
• And most importantly, how do you feel about the changes and the way they will impact your work?  Do you feel it makes the work stronger, or weaker?  Will it still feel like your story?

 

What do you think?
I’d love to hear your opinion on this subject!  What do you do with feedback and criticism?  How do you manage the changes and edits that are thrown at you constantly?  How do you weed out the good/appropriate from the bad/ludicrous?

Add comments to today’s entry and let’s see how many ideas we come up with!