To Outline or Not

Austin-based novelist and educator Brian Yansky has a wonderful blog that I recently discovered.  His most recent post from June 4th grabbed me because he explores some of the downsides of working from a rigid outline.  Here’s the link:

http://brianyansky.blogspot.com/

You should read it for yourself, but I’ll tell you he seems to be in the non-outliner camp.  As am I; though, I must admit that I am currently struggling through an outline for the novel I’m working on.  I have begun to suspect that my manuscript’s problems may lie, at least in part, in the way that I created it.  I’m confident I’ll have more to say on this in later posts.  In the meantime, I want to put the question out there for discussion:

Are you an outliner or not?  Why or why not?  Post a comment here and let’s talk about it.

The Backseat Writer on Writing Contests

So you’ve got a manuscript.  It’s ready.  You love it. Of course you do.  You’ve always loved it.  That’s why you spent the last [insert appropriate number of years] alone in front of your computer with it. And, truth be told, you’re critique group refuses to look at your first chapter “just one more time” because, even though they continue to be your best cheerleaders, it’s all they’ve seen from you in over a year and they’re a little sick of it.

What do you do?

Sounds like you might be ready to enter a writing contest.  Contests come in all shapes and sizes.  Some require reading fees, some don’t.  Some offer big cash payoffs, while some offer invaluable professional feedback, or trips to big name conferences.  Some even offer that elusive white whale that pretty much all of us “unpubs” are seeking:

THE BOOK DEAL!

How do you know which one is right for you?  Well, like pretty much everything else in the writing world, it takes research and patience and proper preparation.   And you have to decide what you’re looking for. Make sure the contest you enter is right for you.  For example, if you’re looking for professional evaluation of your work, don’t enter a contest that offers only a cash prize with no feedback.

Hey, wait a minute.  It just occurred to me that Yellow Bird just opened a contest where the winner gets a full manuscript evaluation from a professional editor.  What a coincidence!  Here’s the link:

http://www.yellowbirdeditors.com/services/contests/

But getting back to the sometimes confusing world of entering writing contests:  I am no all-knowing expert.  Wait!  Don’t stop reading, I’m going somewhere with this.  I’m no expert, but I can offer some perspective on how not to do it.  (Steep learning curves seem to be a life choice for me.)  Anyway, I made a fundamental mistake:  I ignored all the good advice I was getting and just took the random “scatter gun” approach to entering.  I didn’t bother to read what was already published in/by the periodical or publishing house sponsoring the contest.  I didn’t look at the past winner samples.  I didn’t bother to research the judges in any way.  I just opened my latest issue of Poets and Writers Magazine to the contest deadlines section in the back and went down the list.   I entered anything and everything that looked like I might be eligible for, regardless of whether or not my writing seemed like a good fit.

What did I get for my trouble?  I ended up spending a bunch of money on reading fees and accidentally subscribing to a lot of literary journals (some offer subscriptions in exchange for their reading fees).  But that’s all I got, besides a steady stream of heartbreakingly generic “thanks but no thanks” rejection emails.

So, if you’re interested in supporting the struggling literary publishing community with wasted entry fees, then, by all means, do it like I did.  But, if you’re looking to increase your chances of actually winning, then take the time to do the research before you enter.  Don’t enter your YA fantasy into a literary fiction contest.  If you’ve got a procedural detective story, you probably shouldn’t submit it to a historical fiction contest.  And memoirs rarely win short story contests.  Make sure you know what you’re spending your money on.

Or, you could just find a contest like Yellow Bird’s.  Did I mention it already?  I can’t remember.  Just in case I didn’t, here’s the link:

http://www.yellowbirdeditors.com/services/contests/

It’s wide open to any and all comers.  The only thing we’re looking for is good writing.  So send us your middle grade dystopian, your memoir of the years you served in Afghanistan, your bodice ripping romance.  Whatever!  If the writing rocks, then you’ve got a shot.  So polish up that first chapter and get it to us before July 31st.  You can’t win if you don’t enter!

One Less Thing I’m Scared Of

My email box has been deluged with offers of online writing classes and workshops and seminars since I started entering writing contests a couple of years back.  I’ve alternately been skeptical of and tempted by them, with my skepticism always winning out.  Until this week.

I finally registered for a Writer’s Digest “boot camp” being put on by four literary agents from Dystel & Goderich Literary Management, mostly because one of them was on my list of potential dream agents.  I had the $200 and I had the time, so I figured I’d give it a shot.

The three day webinar was called “Vital Insights on Writing and Selling Your Story Boot Camp” and it lived up to its name.  It featured a one hour live lecture from one of the agents and then a three hour live chat (via Blackboard) with all four agents.  All of this was geared toward getting my query letter and first five pages polished and ready for submission.  I sent both items off to my assigned agent (the one I was already interested in) this morning.  And I’ll get a critique back by the end of the month.  In addition to that, the webinar came with a one year online subscription to the Guide to Literary Agents atwritersmarket.com.

Even if my assigned agent hates my submission and I only get to scratch her off my list, I’m glad I participated.  I learned so much in that tight little window of time.  Mostly from the incredibly generous agents that somehow didn’t wilt under the machine gun-like questions my fellow students and I fired at them for three hours, but also from the other participants.  And it was comforting to see so many other unpublished novelists who share my fear and confusion over how to approach an agent.  All of that aside, the best thing I came away with was my query letter.  It has yet to be read by anyone outside of my critique group, but I have never been happier with it.  For the first time I feel ready to send it out into the world.  That alone was worth $200 and a few hours of my life.

So, if one of these Writer’s Digest University classes looks like something you want to try, I encourage you to give it a shot.  Sure they’re offering them to make money off of you, but now I also believe that they’re trying to help folks like me who just want to figure out how to get their book published.

The Backseat Writer reads Katherine Catmull

If you’re reading my personal blog at bradleypwilsonliterary.com, then you’re familiar with my new Backseat Writer series. In it I invite you to read along with me as I satisfy my fiction addiction. The basic idea is that I will periodically post about what authors do that works well. In other words, I’ll read like a writer and write about it. I encourage you to join in the discussion so long as you keep your comments positive. This series is not about bashing anybody. It’s about delving into what authors are doing right, so that we can all learn how to write better.

This is my second post aboutKatherine Catmull‘s debut novel,Summer and Bird. I’m now about a hundred pages in to this middle-grade fantasy and I continue to be amazed by her use of language.  In particular, near the beginning of her tenth chapter she employs a wonderfully apt metaphor to describe the thoughts of one of her protagonists: “She pushed and dug at the pain in those stories over and over, the way you dig at a loose tooth, tasting the blood.” Nice. Visceral. Even without knowing the context, you get a pretty good idea of what the character’s feeling.

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Advice for Young Writers

Hello readers! 

I spend a lot of time talking with young writers about writing.  Whether it’s the art of putting a novel together or ways to break into the industry, I get asked a lot of the same questions.  So I thought I’d compile a list of tips here for writers getting started at any age.  Maybe you’ve heard some of these before, maybe not.  Either way, I hope they help you along your path.

1. Show, don’t tell.

Yes, you’ve definitely heard this before.  A million times over.  But what does it mean?  The difference between showing and telling is the difference between sitting in a cafe in Paris sipping a latte and reading a menu online.  You want to immerse your reader.  If I’m telling, I’m over-describing, maybe even listing scenery.  If I’m showing, I’m slipping in details where they fit naturally.  If I’m telling, I’m talking about how my character feels.  If I’m showing, the character does things characteristic of his feelings.  Yep, it’s a hard rule to figure out, but once you do, it’s going to make your writing one hundred percent better.

Buffy is skeptical of your tell-y exposition. Try SHOWING her.

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