Wearing A Different Hat

As a writer, you learn over time to do more than one thing. If you write anything with a setting you've never been to or a historical backdrop, you learn to do your research. Nobody wants you to turn in unedited work, so you learn to edit. If you want your writing to be interesting, you improve your vocabulary. You have peers that you befriend and kibitz with that you can learn things from. You have to understand how and where to market your work. You might even dip a few toes into the publishing realm. Along the way, folks might invite you into review groups, convention panels, podcasts, or anthologies/novel series with multiple authors. So you add to and develop your skill set as you go along, increasing your circle of friends and business contacts while also hopefully growing a fan base. The more exposure you get, the easier it is for potential readers to find your material. So while you are trying to sell books, you're also marketing yourself as an author.

I am mindful of this with every post I make public online. While I am friendly and at times will express opinions, I keep in mind that I am also there to promote my books to all who are interested in reading them. So I tend to stay away from controversial topics and sweeping statements, though if asked I will certainly express my beliefs honestly and for the most part politely. I don't climb on too many soapboxes and I am careful what I say and to whom. I share some details of my life outside of writing, because not everyone is interested in just that and I think it's important to let other know that I'm not just a one-trick pony. I have friends and family online who just want to chat and catch up with whatever else I'm involved in. I'm mindful as well that I also represent the publishers who have allowed me to sell books through their business, and I am grateful for that opportunity. So I am careful of not only what I say, but what language I use when I say it. They don't need any negative publicity that something I spouted off about might bring them. Writing is my career that I have worked very hard at, and being published and read is a privilege. I have to handle myself in a professional way. I strive to do the best I can at being someone others are proud to know and work with.

Right now I am wearing my editor's cap. Over the holidays I am taking a short break from writing to carefully go over a very good friend's manuscript for an action/adventure thriller. To be asked to do this is a testament to being trusted with someone else's brainchild, and I take that honor very seriously. I don't do it often for others these days because I'm awfully busy writing and promoting my own work, but I take it very seriously when I do. Besides the usual copyedit stuff with grammar, spelling, typos, etc., I watch for redundancies, sentence structure and paragraph flow, awkward phrases and passages, and things I just can't decipher. Is the story complete and does it have a logical procession from opening to conclusion? Was there something in there that I know was wrong or that threw me out of the story? So it's a fine tooth comb readover with comments as well as editing. I don't charge for doing this so I can't do it for everyone or I'd have no time for my own writing. But this is a person I trust with my own manuscripts, someone I've worked with before and we know each other's style well. It's not easy to get a manuscript back and have it all marked up with changes and suggestions. So you need to have complete confidence that this person has your best interests at heart and that she or he knows what they're doing. This is another reason why I network with other writers. Nobody understands what we do like people already in the business.

When I'm done with this manuscript, it will get emailed back to the author with a cover message, and then he will go through it looking at the things I changed, suggested, or left notes about. It's up to him after that if he wants to make and keep those changes or not. I'm not the editor for his publisher so he can totally ignore what I did and just go on to the next stage. And yes, it will still be edited by the publishing house it was intended for. What he won't get there due to understandable time contraints is a lot of feedback, although all the conscientious publishers will send you a galley draft to have a final look at and make necessary changes before it gets published. Most likely once I am done with this manuscript, my writer hat will go back on for a while, until another project comes up. I can't give any details, but I happen to know that I and one other writer friend have a special project coming up at the turn of the year. We are going to collaborate on finishing up a partial manuscript by one of our peers who passed away earlier this year. So that will require reading, editing, and then ghostwriting the rest of the tale in the name of our deceased friend. Ghosting something unfinished is not easy, because you need to be able to decipher where the story was headed, and also pick up the style of the original author. It's an honor to be asked to do that, and so we both want to do a good job. It will take some time and attention to detail, and that's a whole different hat from creating your own fiction. Again, this is one of those things you get to do when you've been around the writing world long enough. While I'm working on that project I will also be writing my own stuff, likely on alternate days.

I enjoy what I do, and don't mind having all those hats to wear. Mixing up what I need to work on during the week keeps me from getting stale or bored with a project, and it helps in those times when the words just don't flow. That's what leads to the situation people call 'writer's block', where you need some time off from what you're working on to get past the frustration. Kind of like falling off one horse and getting back up on another one so that you don't lose your confidence in riding. This may not work for everyone, but it has for me, and I still manage to get things done in a timely fashion. A good part of that is the dedication I have to making writing, along with all the side projects that crop up, a regular part of my life. It takes some self-discipline and a willingness to shuffle things around so that the writing time is there. Fortunately for me at this age and stage of my life I am now an empty-nested in an all-adult household who doesn't work outside the home. Being partially disabled, I can't do a whole lot else. Sitting at my computer and typing is easier on my body so that's what I do. It gives me something to get out of bed for each day. Along the way, I've accumulated a bunch of hats as well. So I get to be someone different now and then.

Hope your writing or whatever it is you find joy in is going well, and that you've read something here that inspires. That's why I'm sharing my world with you, after all.

Be well,

~Nancy

Where Do The Words Come From?

There's a great Dave Mason song, called 'The Words' that really speaks to me as a writer. Very easy to find on Youtube in case you're curious and the link above gets cut off. The lyrics even mention John Steinbeck, who is one of my favorite mainstream authors and whose stuff I readily devoured as required reading back in High School English classes. But it is a puzzle sometime when you are writing, to figure out just how to phrase something so that it's clear enough to put the proper picture in the minds of readers. Other days it's about generating a unique idea for a new story that leads me to staring at a blinking cursor, wondering how to get anything on that page. When I find myself frustrated that I can't come up with a good opening for a project, I just type some random sentence that seems to lead in the direction I want to go and then let that drag me into typing another one. Before long that opening scene is done. I may revise it 5 more times, but the idea is to get the project underway in the first place.

A couple of writing friends and I were talking about that recently, discussing how we come up with certain characters or series of stories. It's kind of hard to explain the writing process in simple terms because everyone does it differently. For me, I am a visual thinker. I usually get a cinematic picture of some sort of scenario and then have to find the words to describe it. Occasionally I will have a vivid dream that sticks with me long after waking. Or some random scene from a TV show or movie strikes me as worthy of my own sort of retelling. I might hear a song or even a piece of instrumental music and the writer mind kicks in. Now and then it's a new line of dialogue from a well-established character in one of my books that just kind of pops into my head. I've built stories—and in fact entire novels—around small vignettes like that. For many tales, I have some aspect of the character's life and times that I want to get across. The seminal idea is often a tiny fleeting spark, but it's the craft of writing that makes it come to life. The writing itself takes a lot of hard work, perseverance, and self-discipline. You have to have a will to see a longterm project through and the interest and passion to stick with it on those days when nothing goes right, there are constant interruptions and distractions galore, you want to do something else instead of write, or the words just don't come easy.

Maybe I was just born to write, because the words seem to come easier for me than they do for others. I was first and foremost a reader, and so I have a love for books and stories that take me out of my world to places where I never imagined going before. I was a pretty decent writer all through school. Still it wasn't until I was well into my adult years, raising a family of my own and thinking of some later life career goals, that I started to think about writing. I have only a 12th grade education, and no college. We didn't have the time or the resources to send me back to school and there were so many hoops to jump through to get a degree I just didn't want to face all that. So I took a couple of correspondence courses in writing, and they helped me quite a bit with the basic knowledge I'd need. The rest was all up to me. That was prior to getting a home PC and well before email and the internet became a big part of life, so assignments were typed and mailed back and forth. Once we did have a computer and an internet hookup, an entire new world opened up for me. I eventually found other writers online and learned a lot more about the business from them.  I wrote my first book in those days, a ponderous manuscript of over 850 pages that that took me 2 years of pounding keyboards, and saving on various disks. That along with some short stories were all rejected by every place I sent them to. I'd take some time off to de-stress and lick my wounded ego, but I kept writing. It would be another ten years or so before I got published, by chopping up that big book and ramping up the action inside. Currently I have 19 books and 15 short stories in print with more in the wings waiting to be published and others in various stages of being finished. Not too shabby for an intense 10-1/2 years of work.

While I can write to someone else's idea and will give people who invite me in on projects what they want, normally I am not one of those writers who plots and plans everything out. I'm what we call in the business a 'pantser', as in I write by the seat of my pants. I sit in this chair and I type something, and that leads to more ideas to type. I might have a general idea of where I want a story to go and who should be involved, but the story just evolves as I work on it. That kind of open-ended process isn't practical for everyone, so if you're more comfortable with outlines or some sort of guide to what to do when, go for it! Don't let the experts sway you, there's no right or wrong way to write. Whatever keeps you motivated and gets the project done is fine. I'm not here to tell you how to do it. I'm just saying that if you want to do it, you have to stick to it. If you wait for the spirit to move you, you're not going to get much writing done. The words don't come out of thin air, there has to be a will to get something down on the page on a regular basis. Just like thinking about a garden doesn't plant it, or having a guitar doesn't teach you to play. You learn by actually writing, and that includes making mistakes and getting feedback, both positive and critical.

Scary isn't it, thinking about sharing your words with other people? Yet with writing anything that will be read by potential readers, that's the ultimate goal. I started writing knowing that I wanted to be published. You need to be sure that's what you want too, because you work will get critiqued at some point, either by editors at a publishing company or fans. Unless this is just a hobby you're pursuing for kicks, others have to see it and then you are going to get feedback. Now some folks are kind and they're going to tell you it's wonderful, and they may well mean that without really thinking hard about what you just shared. Others consider themselves literary critics and will pick every sentence apart just to be thorough. Some just won't get what you're writing at all and turn up their nose. As for who I share with, I find it's best to pick a group of peers in writing who at least have some interest in and knowledge of the kind of writing I'm doing. For instance, I write a lot of action/adventure fiction in the fast paced pulp style in numerous genres. While all writers appreciate a good tale well told, not everybody reads the kind of stuff I love to write. So if I shared this with folks who read and write romance fiction or highbrow literary stuff, they're not going to enjoy it as much and that often results in rather dismal observations. My closest peers all write stuff that is similarly categorized as mine. That way we can share and they will at least understand how the pacing and storytelling is supposed to be, and so they will listen attentively and give me criticism that is tailored for my style. I find they have the most helpful observations I've ever gotten, and they catch things I hadn't thought out well, but it's delivered with an understanding of what is needed for this type of writing as well as in a kind way. That makes me a better writer, and I can head off potential problems before they show up in print. At the very least, find a beta reader (someone who reads the manuscript before you submit it) that you trust, and reward that person for their time and efforts. I've been doing that for years now with fellow writer and sometimes collaborator Lee Houston Jr., and I go through his stuff in return. If he mentions something that bothers him, 9 times out of 10 I will alter it, because I figure other readers will feel the same way.

So that's where the words come from folks. There's no magic formula, you just have to sit down regularly and pound them out. The more you do it, the better at it you will become. If you have a will to write, you will make time for it somehow. If you want to be published, you have to learn to write well. 

Writing Onward,

~NANCY