Writer Unboxed

Therese here. Today’s returning guest is author Julianna Baggott. Julianna is multi-published with eighteen novels to her credit. Her most recent book, PURE–a dystopian, post-apocalyptic thriller–was released this past week. The reviews have been phenomenal. Said Publisher’s Weekly in their starred review:

Baggott’s highly anticipated postapocalyptic horror novel … is a fascinating mix of stark, oppressive authoritarianism and grotesque anarchy. Baggott mixes brutality, occasional wry humor, and strong dialogue into an exemplar of the subgenre.

And Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Olen Butler had this to say of PURE:

PURE is not just the most extraordinary coming-of-age novel I’ve ever read, it is also a beautiful and savage metaphorical assessment of how all of us live in this present age. This is an important book by one of our finest writers.

Julianna’s essays have appeared widely in such publications as The New York Times Modern Love column, Washington Post, NPR.org, and Real Simple. Please welcome her back to WU.

The Trick is to Breathe

I’m writing here for the Writer Unboxed and the first thing that came to me was this Harry Houdini quote,

There is no invention to it, there is no trick, there is no fake; you simply lie down in a coffin and breathe quietly.

I like applying this quote to writing. The novel, in particular, is a daunting challenge. I wanted tricks when I was starting out. And there are some bits of advice that do sound like tricks. Just this afternoon, I sat in on a Q and A with Pulitzer-Prize Winner, Jennifer Egan, who happened to be in town. She talked brilliantly about many things and there was one thing that really struck me. She loves the contradictions within characters. There’s often the advice to make characters consistent. The problem is human beings aren’t. She gave the example of a careless person who is hyper attentive in one area of his/her life.

Contradictions. After writing the word on my hand and a few ideas, I realized that I was going to need more paper. I dug through my purse, found a receipt and jotted about the major contradictions inherent in each of my main characters. (I’m presently deep into the revision process for FUSE the second book in THE PURE TRILOGY; the first book PURE published this week.) This new way of getting at my characters was really incredible. I knew immediately what their contradictions were and it was crystallizing for me to have those ideas in mind, in particular right now, as I’m trying to crystallize the entire novel.

But that’s not really a trick. Continue Reading »

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Therese here. Today’s guest is author Catherine McKenzie. Catherine’s debut, Spin, which was an acclaimed novel in Canada, has just been released in the U.S. What’s it about?

Katie Sandford has just gotten an interview at her favourite music magazine, The Line. It’s the chance of a lifetime. So what does she do? Goes out to celebrate — and shows up still drunk at the interview. No surprise, she doesn’t get the job, but the folks at The Line think she might be perfect for another assignment for their sister gossip rag. All Katie has to do is follow It Girl Amber Sheppard into rehab. If she can get the inside scoop (and complete the 30-day program without getting kicked out), they’ll reconsider her for the job at The Line.

Katie takes the job. But things get complicated when real friendships develop, a cute celebrity handler named Henry gets involved, and Katie begins to realize she may be in rehab for a reason. Katie has to make a decision — is publishing the article worth everything she has to lose?

Catherine is not only a talented author, she also spearheaded an effort to shine a spotlight on books she feels didn’t see enough attention, by starting a Facebook group called I bet we can make these books best sellers, because in her words, “who says Oprah’s the only one who can get people reading?” I’m so pleased she’s here with us today to talk about writing what you know. Or don’t know.

Have you been to rehab?

When my first novel, Spin, was released in Canada two years ago and I began making the publicity rounds for it, I started getting asked some version of the same question over and over again. Spin is about a journalist who follows a celebrity into rehab, and what everyone wanted to know was: what had inspired this book? Had I, in fact, been to rehab?

I admit that I was shocked the first time I got asked this question. It was at a bookclub. I was the first to arrive (a perpetual problem) and the host was pouring herself a glass of wine. She started to offer me one, then hesitated. Did I drink or …?

Why was I surprised? Why hadn’t I seen this coming? Continue Reading »

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Therese here. Today’s guest is Sarah Pinneo, whose debut novel, Julia’s Child, was published by Plume / Penguin earlier in the week, to terrific reviews:

Well written, well paced, and very absorbing.—Library Journal

Pinneo skewers the cult of the child with an insider’s eye. A witty, well-plotted fiction debut.—Publishers Weekly

That’s the happy ending. But like most novelists, Sarah had to pitch the book to dozens of agents before she got an offer. And then? She learned the hard way that pitching is not just for newbies.

Learn to Love the Pitch

How many times have you heard authors express pain over the pitching process? Dozens of times? Hundreds? Would-be novelists, clutching their first completed manuscripts, are often heard weeping over the seemingly impossible feat of conveying the brilliance and nuance of their work in a mere two paragraphs. It can’t be done, they howl. Queries are cruel and unusual punishment!

I used to agree.

Writing a pitch is stressful, because it requires learning brand new rules and skills. After the marathon that is writing a book, who needs one more hurdle? I used to sing the “I hate queries” tune too.

But a year or so ago my dear friend Abbey accidently gave me a crumb of advice she’d once received during her formative years as an actress. And Abbey’s wisdom entirely changed my opinion about pitches.

“Listen, kid,” my friend had been told. “If you want to be an actor, you’d better love auditioning. Because that’s what 90% of successful working actors do most of the time—they audition. They get up in front of strangers and perform with a smile, and then they do it again the next day.”

The truth of it hit me like a wobbly stack of unsold manuscripts. Writers are in precisely the same boat. Pitching is a part of every writer’s life. And it doesn’t go away once you land an agent. Continue Reading »

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For me, it’s character development. Interesting characters, those that are different, unusual, flawed: those are the ones I remember. I love reading about people who shine, who stand out from the literary pack. By shine, I don’t mean perfection. Flaws make or break the character. I remember reading one manuscript when I was judging a contest, and the heroine’s flaw appeared to be that she was too everything. Too beautiful. Too smart. Too rich. Too witty. It made everyone judge and hate her. In the right hands, this might work, but this rendition left me rolling my eyes: “Yes, we all feel so bad for you. It must be terrible to look like a supermodel, have a trust fun, and work as an expert in the field of artificial intelligence.”

There is no right answer to this, by the way, as this is a subjective question. For some people, the answer would be a unique idea, truly beautiful writing, or an original world. All of those things add to my enjoyment of a book, but are not the quality that makes it magical. Today, I’m giving my personal criteria. When I read, I will overlook flaws in worldbuilding and plot, if the characters are compelling. But conversely, if the characters are cardboard or I can’t relate to them, it doesn’t matter how strong the world or how meticulously the book is plotted. Every single time, I will put the book down, wander away, and not return. I prefer to read about people who feel tangible to me, and the way that begins is if they feel real to the writer.

Sometimes, a book strikes me as… “competent”. There’s nothing wrong with it, but it lacks the spark that fires my imagination and lets me fully engage. I never get lost in the characters’ lives or lose my realization that these are words on a page. What causes that barrier to immersion? Continue Reading »

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As many of you know, our first-ever WU auction was plagued last weekend due to a distributed denial-of-service attack, which took out our site, forced us to change hosts and IP addresses, and generally gave us a lot of gray hair and required the scheduling of massages. Because many of you were either –

a. not aware we were running an auction in the first place or
b. not able to access WU at all because of the static or messed up links
c. not able to access us even after repairs because of our new IP address, which required a cache-clear for many readers

– we want to offer interested parties a second chance at winning some of our offerings — at the final-bid price.

What’s up for bid?

1. Our four blog posts spot has sold out! Thanks to all who stepped forward. But we still have plenty of 2 and 3…
   
2. Space in a two-week rotating ad here at WU, at the winning high bid of $210.What’s a rotating ad? Continue Reading »

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My first baby is two months away from needing a name, but I’ve owned baby name books for more than a decade. It’s a writer thing. In the first short stories I wrote, way back in elementary school, I think I mainly named my characters for people I knew. Erica. Ben. Mike. Dawn. (My class at school had a lot of Dawns.)

As I got older, I went to the other extreme, picking names I’d never encountered in real life, or even making them up. Kali. Sarajean. Abner. Gillespie. Finally in college I decided I should name my characters the way people name their kids, and picked up several baby name books, some of which I still use as resources to this day.

However.

Now that I have some experience with both, it has become clear to me that naming your children is actually not at all like naming your characters.

In what way? Well, here are three:

The last name, for starters. When you’re naming characters, you’re free to swap around last names until you find something that has the right sound or meaning. Not so with your own name – you’re usually pretty stuck with the last name, and no matter how much you like the name Bryce, if your last name is Pryce, you may think better of choosing it. There are other constraints, too. With characters, unless you have a co-author, yours is the only opinion that matters. With kids, you’ve got to factor in the other parent’s preferences. You love the sound of Magdalena, but it turns out that was your husband’s ex-girlfriend’s name, and he’s got some pretty unpleasant associations? Well, no Magda for you. Continue Reading »

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Tags: comic

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The glowing Twingly vision of "social" media flaring in real time around the world.

 

 

O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power
Dost hold Time’s fickle glass, his sickle, hour…

Sonnet 126

The so-called “social” media, currently our lovely boy of communication, hold in their darting packets of data, surely, unimaginable power.

• They collapse distance across continents and seas we once showed on no maps. Ariel, himself, would weep.
• They erase the time — days, weeks, months, even years — we once waited for letters.
• They spin across the planet’s surface to survey, sift, locate, tag, follow, and bond us to people we’d never have met in earlier times. Our ability to convene global salons of cohorts in real time is unprecedented in human experience.
• They pump ready reservoirs of information into deserts of ignorance and await only curiosity to be tapped.
• They open to us possibilities of collusion and cooperation, contrivance and collaboration, calumny and camaraderie, catastrophe and compassion.

So where do we get off being so trite when we speak of these forces? Continue Reading »

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Therese here. I’m so pleased to bring you today’s guest: author Sarah McCoy. Sarah’s second book, The Baker’s Daughter, about the daughter of a German baker during WWII and her continuing story in the present day, was released just last week by Crown (and with a deckle edge; I love a deckle edge). Said Tatiana de Rosnay, bestselling author of Sarah’s Key, of the work:

A beautiful, heart-breaking gem of a novel written just the way I like them, with the past coming back to haunt the present, endearing heroines and a sunny, hopeful ending. You’ll wolf it up in one delicious gulp.

Sarah’s official bio will tell you some impressive things–about her first captivating novel, The Time It Snowed in Puerto Rico, and that she’s taught English writing at Old Dominion University and at the University of Texas at El Paso–but it won’t tell you that she has a love of hot chili peppers and wasabi, or that she’s possibly the most effervescent and lovely person you’ll ever meet. (She really is.) You should know her, and you will a bit once you read her post on book birthday celebrations. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday, Book Baby

The on-sale date of an author’s book is akin to a birthday. And like the bearing of a child, I’ve noticed the way in which we commemorate the occasion often falls into one of two camps: the Father’s versus the Mother’s celebration style. Both are noble outpourings of devotion and not at all particular to author gender.

The Father’s celebration is boisterous and communal, marked by great expectation of fun to come now that his book baby is in hand. The father/author pops champagne over the crowd and passes out cigars to relatives and friends. He’s waited a long time for this day and is ready to share it. There are cheers and laughs. The bubble of chatter is punctuated by the father’s hearty thank-you’s, sighs of relief, and invitations to come and see—come and experience this shining, new extension of himself that did not exist yesterday and does today.

I’ve attended many launch parties in the Father’s style and always have a marvelous time. I raise my glass in toast as we strike up the band and applaud the honored guest until my hands tingle. I thoroughly enjoy being part of a book’s exuberant welcome wagon, and the champagne is nice too.

Then there is the Mother’s celebration, which is no less enthusiastic, albeit predicated on all that comes before that blessed day. Continue Reading »

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It never feels good to set a manuscript aside when the writing’s going well. Sadly, because I’ve never mastered the art of working on two books at once, I’m putting my half-written YA novel on hold for the next few weeks while I attend to the editorial report on a historical fantasy for adults, Flame of Sevenwaters. This is a busy year. Did I mention that the YA novel has a submission date of April 30?

Before I talk about the challenges of the current task, let me put in a good word for editors. With two books going through the publication process in 2012, I’m currently working with three different editors from three of the major publishing houses, one in Australia, two in the US. They’re not junior staff; they are the influential people who negotiate with agents and who convince the publisher to take on a new manuscript or a new writer they believe in. My editors, on opposite sides of the world and working for different publishing houses, are prepared to work cooperatively in order to provide me with a single combined editorial report for each book. End result, the same text (apart from a few regional differences in spelling and word usage) appears in Australia and the US at around the same time, and for me the editorial process is significantly quicker and easier than it might be.

I mention this because, of recent times, social media sites and other forums have seen a rise in scathing comments about traditional publishing houses, mostly coupled with pro self-publishing arguments. People who make those derogatory comments generally disregard the huge amount of support a traditional publishing house offers a writer, and completely overlook the critical role an editor plays in helping that writer produce the best book she can.

Folks, whether you are self-published or mainstream published, please understand that producing that ‘best book’ includes having the manuscript professionally edited. Yes, there are some readers out there who won’t notice (or who will forgive) your clunky prose, your typos, your misuse of words, your flaws in continuity, your gaps in logic, your weirdly random choice of character names. Maybe errors in your work don’t bother you. They will bother the majority of your readers. Get your ms properly edited. A good editor is worth her weight in gold.

Even for an experienced writer, the editorial report can spring some surprises. What you expect often isn’t what you get. The report on Flame of Sevenwaters gave me a lot to think about. Continue Reading »

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Do you research your novels to the point of obsession or do you not research at all? 

Historical novelists are research junkies. Coming-of-age novelists mostly rely on memory. The majority of fiction writers fall somewhere in between: They study just enough so that their settings are accurate and their characters’ occupations feel real. The rest is write what you know.

There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just that heavily researched novels can be lacking observation of the ordinary. Conversely, realistic novels are frequently are too ordinary to be fascinating.

To create high-impact it’s necessary to both observe people as they are and also discover through research that which readers could not possibly know about them and their world. Don’t you love learning new stuff as you read? Don’t you also love it when you totally recognize the characters with whom you’re spending time?

Research means not just getting the setting details right. It means getting the people right. Have you met a character who got bullet shot but wasn’t psychologically changed? Ever run across a protagonist who adapts to their handicap, special gift or paranormal ability with no trouble whatsoever? Those are failures of research.

Failure to observe people as they are results in overly familiar characters, actions and emotions; that is, stereotypes, predictable events and hackneyed prose. It’s a paradox. When you write what you think you should, it doesn’t feel wholly real. When you write from life, characters become quirky and unique. Their actions have a better shot at surprising.

Here are some things you can try, depending on your proclivity: Continue Reading »

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Thanks to all who contributed logos in the Writer Unboxed logo contest. The competition was fierce, with forty entries vying for our affections. In the end, we gravitated toward a few logos that used imagery to show a sort of unboxing. Here’s what we loved, now you tell us what you love.

Take a look at our top three picks, then vote using our PollDaddy poll below. (Votes left in the comment section will not count.) One vote per person, please. Polls close at 8 p.m. tonight, EST.

UPDATE: The poll is now closed. Congratulations to Logo #1 and its creator, the talented Kristy Condon! Missed all the action and want to see the original contenders? Check below the fold. Continue Reading »

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