From bestselling novels to unpublished manuscripts, what is the secret to literary success?
news.northeastern.edu – Thursday August 22, 2024
You might think releasing 20 books — including four American Girl books — carries some weight in the publishing world. Yet, Kathryn Reiss still has four books, including a thriller for adults, in her repertoire that remain unpublished.
Reiss, an associate teaching professor in creative writing at Northeastern University’s Oakland campus, has made her name writing suspense novels for kids and teens; she published her first novel, “Time Windows,” in 1991 after writing it while on a Fulbright Scholarship in Germany. But she’s bumped up against a wall when trying to branch outside her niche.
“(Publishers) have to think they can market it,” Reiss said. “So if I want to do an adult book, or if I want to do some literary fiction that’s not a typical Kathryn Reiss suspense novel … they go ‘Well, how will we market that?’ You almost get stuck.”
Creative writing is an art, but writers face the same problem many artists do: how they can create something they like that people will also want to buy. Like any other business, book publishers want to sell a good product that they can easily market, Reiss said. But this makes it hard for writers to break out of their shell, if they can even break into the industry at all.
“For a new writer, you have to prove to them you have a very marketable book,” Reiss said. “What people don’t understand is once you’ve had a book published, it doesn’t mean you’re a shoo-in for your next book. It means your publisher will look at your next book.
“You have a one-up on someone who hasn’t published anything, but it isn’t a given. They have to think they can market it. … Publishers are really about making money. They care about their readers, but they want to sell books at the end of the day. That’s what they’re in the business to do.”
How I wrote a book in 15 minutes a day
fastcompany.com – Monday August 12, 2024
The first time I tried to write a novel I was 23. I had all the time in the world. I was a full-time graduate student. I lived alone, I had no children, and it took me three years to finish a draft.
Five years later, I tried again. I was working full-time as a reporter and I lived with my boyfriend, but we had no kids. This time, it took me five years.
All that time, my technique, if you could call it that, was the same: set up my laptop at a coffee shop or a library or at my desk at home, and “write.” But, as New York Times best-selling author Meghan O’Rourke recently tweeted: “It’s really important to have at least three hours to write every day so you can spend the first two hours squirming and checking the internet and daydreaming before getting down to it.”
Touché. I thought I needed hours with nothing to do but write. But even with all those hours, I didn’t produce much. So I started applying for retreats and residencies, thinking maybe I needed long stretches—days, weeks—to do nothing but write.
I wrote three novels that way. Fits of progress followed by long lulls of nothing. And then I had a child.
Suddenly, there were no long stretches.
Shogun by James Clavell: A Commentary by G. Miki Hayden
By G. Miki Hayden
Instructor at Writer's Digest University online and private writing coach
firstwriter.com – Friday August 2, 2024
Writers need to read their own work as readers, to make sure readers will understand the piece as written; but writers must also read the work of other writers as writers, to pick up writing hints and to understand what these writers had in mind.
So, I have been reading Shogun like a writer and here’s what I picked up, both positives and negatives.
One Shogun positive, of course, is author James Clavell’s extraordinary and specific descriptions. He doesn’t shrink from the horrific, for sure, but gives the unimaginably awful in its full gory glory. He presents a lot of dreadful images in the opening setting, for instance, in which the few remaining sailors on pilot Blackthorne’s ship are starving and their teeth have fallen out from scurvy (not Blackthorne’s teeth since he has secreted an apple or two from which he takes regular small bites). Then comes the storm. Worse follows. Later, people’s heads are cut off quite frequently with sharp swords in the Japan of 1600.
But why is this a positive? The tormenting of characters and readers with unbearable happenings? This is the hook, guys, and given the fame of the novel and its sale of six million copies on its first run from 1975 to 1980, the initial drama did its job. Here comes the hero, and he’s taking a terrible physical and emotional beating.
But Clavell brings us beauty of every type as well, including that of the Willow World of the courtesans, an impressive look at the ritual of the tea ceremony, and the enormous overcoming of the clever hero who learns to appreciate the relaxation and cleanliness of a hot bath—along with the Japanese language and Japanese manners, which are detailed fairly explicitly.
Rejecting writer’s block: rediscovering your writing passion this summer
theboar.org – Monday July 29, 2024
There is a sense of irony about writing whilst talking about writer’s block. But this frustrating struggle has been bothering me all throughout the summer months. Whether it’s a sense of burnout after exam season, or just the warm heat getting to my head, writing can be tough during such a long break. Every budding writer has experienced it, so where does it originate, and how do you get over this tendency found in every creative person?
The phenomenon of writer’s block is defined as the “temporary or lasting failure to put words on paper”, often provoked by worry, academic fatigue, or just the fear that your writing will not be good enough. Due to the fact that writing is such a creative process, relying on flow, passion, and courage, the inability to complete such a task is frustrating for the sufferer. Even successful authors, such as the Franz Kafka, have personal accounts of their frustration, with words in his letters poignantly phrasing that his personal worries and woes led to his despair and battle with creativity.
The antidote for writer’s block is often quite, dare I say, trivial. Many articles have told me to go on a walk, or remove distractions, and whilst I cannot deny this works to an extent, it will not hit the nail on the head. Returning to “the roll, the rise, the carol, the creation”, perhaps pretentiously put by Gerard Manley Hopkins, feels like it comes from within. The art of putting pen to paper is a personal thing, and overcoming that is tough.
Peng Shepherd On Writing A Choose-You-Own-Adventure Speculative Mystery
crimereads.com – Tuesday July 23, 2024
Having just survived writing a speculative mystery novel that allows readers choose what happens at certain points in the story, when CrimReads asked me to write an essay about the experience in the same format, I felt:
Terror
Excitement
TERROR
It’s already hard enough to write a book. But to write one in which there are multiple versions of the main character’s story, all of which make sense, and more importantly, all of which feel just as true, was a whole new beast entirely. What if I’ve bitten off more than I can chew? What if readers think it’s too weird? What if I fail? The writing of the manuscript really was like a microcosm for life.
And this is the thing, both about writing and about life: one of the best parts is getting to make choices about what’s most important, because that’s how you define yourself as “you”—and one of the hardest parts is having to make choices about what’s most important, because you might get it wrong. And if you do, how do you live with that?
Nostalgia
No Good Options
NOSTALGIA
Many of us are familiar with the children’s Choose Your Own Adventure series of books from our childhood, in which you start as a blank “You” canvas and are immediately launched into an outlandishly fun adventure in outer space or on the open seas or deep in some jungle.
Why did we all love that series so much as kids? What was it about those paperbacks that could transport us somewhere else for entire afternoons at a time? My personal theory is that choice is exciting to children because at that age, you almost never get to make them. Most of your life is dictated by your parents or your teachers, and so any opportunity to exercise some autonomy, no matter how trivial, is thrilling. If you put on a blue shirt for bed, will the aliens invade Earth? If you have the granola instead of the chocolate puffs, will a portal open in your basement?
But when you’re an adult, the game changes. Now you have entirely too much choice, none of which leads to extraterrestrials or SCUBA diving for lost treasure in the Bermuda Triangle. The responsibilities can be so much, we might almost wish that sometimes, the pressure of choosing could briefly be taken away from us again.
Then it was.
You can only go to “No Good Options”
Thoughts on writer’s block and other first word problems
auburn-reporter.com – Sunday July 21, 2024
“I once heard an anecdote about a writer who’d spent a week in his apartment working on his novel, without a break. Compassionate friends finally dragged him away to dinner for the sake of sanity, and for a much needed breather.
“What did you get done this week?” the writer’s chums inquired.
“In the mornings, I put in a comma,” he answered gloomily, “and at night, I took it out again.”
Perhaps the guy had a creative block, who knows? But I’ll wager he’d also neither read nor followed the great Ray Bradbury’s advice in his book, “Zen in the Art of Writing.”
“This afternoon, burn down the house,” Bradbury wrote. “Tomorrow, pour critical water upon the simmering coals.”
In other words: don’t judge what you’re writing while you’re at it. Reserve your critiques for the editing phase. That’s the time to correct errors.
Of course, Bradbury is saying, the creative and judgement moods must be separated. Failing to recognize this is one sure way to get nothing done but spin your wheels, like our unfortunate writer with his vexing comma. When the creative fire is under you, go nuts.
Working with Roald Dahl helped me find Harry Potter
bbc.co.uk – Saturday July 20, 2024
he publisher who discovered Harry Potter has said working with Cardiff-born children's author Roald Dahl helped him see the potential in JK Rowling's novel.
Barry Cunningham has worked with some of the most well-known children's authors in the world.
He said Roald Dahl was "a tall, quite grumpy, rather heroic, very frank author" who was adored by children.
"He was occasionally extremely grumpy and short tempered with adults, but never with children," he told the Books That Made Me programme on BBC Radio Wales.
Roald Dahl was born on 13 September 1916 in the Llandaff area of the Welsh capital, and died on 23 November 1990, aged 74.
As marketing director for Puffin, Mr Cunningham travelled around the country with him.
It was during one of those marketing trips that Dahl revealed what he believed was the secret to the success of his books.
J K Rowling and the magic of her writing ‘shed’
spearswms.com – Tuesday July 16, 2024
Authors have traditionally been seen as 'gardeners' or 'architects' but J K Rowling puts forward a new metaphor for the writing process
‘Are you an architect or a gardener?’ That has become one of my go-to questions for authors of fiction. The framing is that of the fantasy writer George R R Martin, who says that all writers fall into one of the two categories: architects plan meticulously and know exactly how the story is going to be shaped before they write a single sentence. Gardeners just drop a seed in the ground, water it, and wait to see how it’s going to grow.
You might be surprised by how many literary writers are architects – William Boyd always knows exactly how his story is going to end – and how many genre writers (whose twisty plots might seem to imply a bit of planning) are gardeners. Maybe the most successful thriller writer in the language, Lee Child, absolutely makes it up as he goes along, and refuses on principle to go back and tinker with the story: if he writes himself into what looks like a dead-end in the plot, he enjoys the challenge of writing himself out of it. I once heard (though I can’t vouch for it) that Agatha Christie used to wait until the closing pages of the book before deciding who the murderer was.
E M Forster, who liked to complain that his characters got out of hand and told him what to do: gardener. Vladimir Nabokov, asked whether he shared Forster’s struggles with unruly characters, responded with magnificent hauteur: ‘My knowledge of Mr Forster’s works is limited to one novel, which I dislike; and anyway, it was not he who fathered that trite little whimsy about characters getting out of hand […] My characters are galley slaves.’ Architect, then.
Why so few men take up the pen
thecritic.co.uk – Sunday July 14, 2024
With publishing now such a female-dominated industry, it’s no surprise that there are so few men writing fiction
I’ve just finished a very unusual book: Caledonian Road by Andrew O’Hagan. Its themes, characters and the author’s style of writing are all exceptionally good but that’s not why this book is unusual. It’s more because it’s a new and critically acclaimed work of literary fiction written by a man.
If you’ve seen the inside of any bookshop in the last few years, you’ll know how rare this has become. The vast majority of new fiction and its most praised and promoted authors are female. And yet the principal reason for this is seldom discussed.
So let’s discuss it, shall we? Let’s bring the elephant into the room. The publishing industry is suffering from a damaging gender imbalance. According to a recent UK publishers’ survey, 83 per cent of marketing, 92 per cent of publicity and 78 per cent of editorial staff in Britain’s publishing industry are female. Taking an average of those three figures suggests an industry whose employees are 84 per cent female.
Writing Suspenseful Scenes: Techniques for Keeping Readers on the Edge of Their Seats
rollingstone.com – Saturday July 13, 2024
IN THE REALM of literature, few elements captivate readers quite like a masterfully crafted suspenseful scene. It’s the literary equivalent of a roller coaster ride — heart-pounding, palm-sweating and utterly addictive. But what techniques do authors employ to create these nail-biting moments that keep readers glued to the page? Let’s delve into the world of literary suspense and uncover the secrets behind keeping readers on the edge of their seats.
At its core, suspense is about the art of withholding information. Like a skilled magician, authors must constantly misdirect, hint and tease. The real magic happens in the reader’s mind as they attempt to piece together the puzzle. Pacing plays a crucial role in this dance between revelation and concealment. The key is to provide just enough information to keep readers hooked, but not so much that they can predict what’s coming next.
One technique that many suspense writers swear by is the slow burn. This involves gradually increasing tension throughout a scene or chapter, ratcheting up the stakes bit by bit until the reader is practically squirming with anticipation. Think of it as slowly turning up the heat on a pot of water. You start with a simmer, then gradually increase the temperature. By the time you reach the boiling point, the reader is fully invested and desperate to know what happens next.
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