Steve Weddle invited me to do a guest post on Do Some Damage today.
Check it out:
Thanks to Steve and the rest of the crew at Do Some Damage for letting me vent–er–visit.
Forget writing a novel–what about the pitch'? That one perfect sentence designed to describe the plot and provide an emotional hook so that whoever you're telling it to says "I want to read more!"
I've struggled with my pitch Diary of Bedlam, but the reason I'm writing this post today is because I'm formulating my hook for my second novel. I'm hoping it helps me solidify the theme and give me a broad idea of the direction I'm going in.
In television and film it's called a logline. Today I spent some time at the Internet Movie Database reading loglines of films I've seen so I could get a feel for it.
Training Day:
On his first day on the job as a narcotics officer, a rookie cop works with a rogue detective who isn't what he appears.
Donnie Brasco:
An FBI undercover agent infilitrates the mob and finds himself identifying more with the mafia life to the expense of his regular one.
The Silence of the Lambs:
A young FBI cadet must confide in an incarcerated and manipulative killer to receive his help on catching another serial killer who skins his victims.
Point Break:
An FBI agent goes undercover to catch a gang of bank robbers who may be surfers.
A History of Violence:
A mild-mannered man becomes a local hero through an act of violence, which sets off repercussions that will shake his family to its very core.
Body Heat:
In the midst of a searing Florida heat wave, a woman convinces her lover, a small-town lawyer, to murder her rich husband.
After looking at some of these examples, I realized I've made the process of coming up with a logline way too complicated. When I knocked my story down to the essentials, it was right there waiting for me.
I'm not going to post it here because the new novel is in its beginning stages and I want to keep it to myself for now. I will, however, tell you the logline for Diary of Bedlam:
In 1678 London, a fortuneteller's client is murdered and she must find the killer amid the politics and intrigue of Charles II's court before she becomes the next victim.
Of course, Diary of Bedlam is about much more than that, but at its core, this is the plot. I'm hoping it will make my potential audience say "Hook me up with some of that!"
Did you know April is National Poetry month? I didn't either until a few days ago.
Back in the day, I used to write a lot of poetry. Long before I ever found the courage to write a novel, I used poetry as an outlet for my feelings. And boy, did I have a lot of feelings back then. Feelings I really didn't know what to do with so I splattered them on the page.
The poems touch upon a variety of topics; unrequited love (all my love was unrequited back then), war, social justice, whimsy, God. I was very religious until my late twenties, and I pursued religious truth passionately because if I was going to give over my life to God, it had to make some sense, I had to understand it to the best of my ability.
I'm an atheist now, so that should tell you how that went. But that's a subject for another post.
During my senior year of high school, we studied the Shakespearean sonnet, and boy, that was a form of poetry I could get behind. All that structure! The couplet at the end! Iambic pentameter! I find my creativity needs a structure to flourish, whether it's pre-defined or I construct it myself. I don't do well with unstructured creativity–all that freedom leads me astray. Must be my Catholic upbringing.
I wrote a lot of sonnets after that. And I snagged my husband with a personal ad that began with Shakespeare's sonnet #130: My mistress's eyes are nothing like the sun…
I owe a lot to the Shakespearean sonnet, yes I do.
In honor of National Poetry Month, I offer you Sonnet #3, by Holly West:
Blindness is a trait of humanity
A condition that seems to come and go.
We only see the things we want to see
And we only learn what we want to know.
What does it take to see the sad man smile?
We turn away from those whose hopes have died.
If we could only stop for a short while,
And look about us, blind eyes open wide.
Those whose eyes were born blinded to the light
Can often see better than those who aren't.
They do not seem to need the gift of sight–
The see not with their eyes, but with their hearts.
Blindness is our own human tragedy;
Not enough men are born able to see.
I'm not sure how old I was when I wrote this, but I couldn't have been much older than 18. One of the most interesting things about reading my old poetry is comparing the young me to the older me. In so many ways I haven't changed much.
Do you write poetry? If so, share it with me!
Originally posted April 26, 2010.
Ack! I wrote this post nearly two years ago and NOTHING has changed except I've gained more weight. My pop is running the Boston Marathon this morning–he would not be amused.
The good news is I've got a finished novel–almost feels worth the added poundage. But as I start my new writing project today, maybe it's also time to start re-incorporating some good eating/exercise habits into my life.
Fellow writers (and everyone else) how do you keep Butt-in-Chair-itis at bay?
Actually, I should really call this post the "Upside" of Butt in Chair, or perhaps the "Backside."
There are loads of writing tips on the Internet. Heck, there are even some here on this blog. But one of the most simple (and yet ironically hard to do) is this: Keep your butt in the chair and write.
If you do this daily you will almost certainly have something at least resembling a first draft, a polished novel, or whatever other goal you set for yourself. In fact, keeping your butt in the chair and writing is the only way you'll accomplish these goals.
But I'm not here to discuss the effectiveness of keeping your butt in the chair as a writing tool. I'm here to talk about a wicked side effect: Keep your butt in the chair long enough, and not only will you have a finished novel, you might also begin to notice that chair has gotten smaller. Because you, my dear, have gotten bigger.
And I have. I've struggled with my weight my entire life, but five years ago I lost about twenty-five pounds and kept it off for about three. In the past two years, I've gained most of it back, and coincidentally, that's the time I've been working on my novel.
Obviously, it's not the writing that's making me fat, it's the eating. And the not moving. One of the ways I lost that weight and kept it off was a pretty rigorous running schedule, and right about this time last year I was diagnosed with achilles tendonitis. I haven't really been a runner since. To top things off, I tore my ACL two weeks ago while skiing and my capacity for exercise has diminished even further. So yeah, I'm going to have to find a way to keep moving while not damaging any of my already wonky body parts. If you have some suggestions, let me know.
Back to the eating part though. I definitely eat more now that I'm writing, and here's why: it takes mental energy to be continuously creative, and the first thing I think of when my mind freezes is "I want a snack." I don't think "I want to go for a brisk walk," I think "I want a doughnut." Unfortunately, my mind freezes (by this I mean you're happily typing along and you hit a point where no words come and you want to get out of the chair, surf the internet, or in my case, have some ice cream) a lot.
I'd love to offer some solutions beyond "Keep the pantry door closed and KEEP YOUR BUTT IN THE CHAIR" but really, isn't that the only real solution? It's no fun, but it's a fact.
My fingers, at least, are still skinny–they get plenty of exercise on the keyboard.
Well, sorta.
I'm officially querying again and so far, so good. My only real complaint is that it takes awhile to get responses, and since I'm not generally known for my patience, I've resorted to even more obsessive-compulsive gmail refreshing than usual. Stay tuned though, I'm sure I'll have plenty of complaints later.
Yesterday I spent some time on QueryTracker.net looking for agents to query. This is a good task for me, as it feels sort of like time-wasting and yet is a necessary part of the book-writing process. It's certainly easier than actually writing a novel, and anything that feels like progress in my quest to get published that doesn't actually require the gut-wrenching task of writing is okay by me.
Should I not refer to writing as gut-wrenching? Perhaps not. Except for me it often is.
Anyway, back to QueryTracker. My search yesterday was broader than I'd done in the past and thus included many agents I hadn't heard of before. As part of my research, I went to their websites, read the QueryTracker comments, and generally did my homework to decide whether I wanted to add them to my list.
Since I started writing Diary of Bedlam nearly four years ago, I've learned quite a lot about what agents are looking for when they sort through queries. So much of it is subjective, but there are a few things, like following of submission guidelines and professionalism, that are expected across the board. But yesterday, I realized that as a writer, there are a few basic (and possibly superficial) things that I'm looking for as well.
First impressions definitely count.
1) If an agent uses a hotmail address, he/she is probably not the agent for me. Heck, at this point, I'd have second thoughts about doing business with anyone who still uses hotmail for business purposes.
2) If an agent still has the equivalent of an AOL circa 1997 website, I'll probably skip sending them a query. I certainly have nothing against AOL–heck, I met my husband via that service in 1996, but a professional web presence counts a lot. I'm not saying an agency has to spend loads of money on a fancy website, but I draw the line at websites using Comic Sans as a primary font.
3) I hesitate to mention this last one and I'm certain there will be people who disagree with me, but at this point, I'm skipping agents who do not accept queries by email. I understand they have their reasons for it and there are a few top-notch agencies who only accept queries by post that I'll probably end up querying, but for now email makes more sense to me.
I have other criteria, of course, but these are the things that stop me in my tracks almost immediately. As writers, we are all looking for the best agent to represent our work, and to me, the first two items mentioned speak to an agency's ability to represent me in the way I expect to be represented.
What do you think? Am I being too picky?
Book Promotion:
Eric Beetner
Rebecca Cantrell
Interviews:
Eric Beetner
Rebecca Cantrell
Hilary Davidson
Sue Ann Jaffarian
David Liss
Sophie Littlefield
Stephen Jay Schwartz
Kelli Stanley
Path to Publication:
Writing:
Stephen Jay Schwartz
Kelli Stanley
Off-site:
50 Famous Author Interviews that Shouldn’t be Missed
Hello fellow slackers!
Procrastination is a problem for me, so I asked some of my author friends how they shake off the lazies and get to work:
Eric Beetner
“When I finally commit to a novel or even something short I like to get it done and not lose momentum. I find inertia plays a big part in getting through a novel and keeping an even tone to the writing.”
Kris Neri
“Shortly before I fall sleep, I remind myself where I left off and what I’ll want to tackle the next day.”
Thomas Pluck
“It’s important to set aside time to daydream, as much as it is to have writing time. After all, you need something to write about.”
Print:
NEEDLE: A Magazine of Noir
Featuring my story, Once a Loser
Online:
Pass the Peanuts – Shotgun Honey
Hello there. Welcome to the insane asylum.
My name is Holly West and I write crime fiction. I recently completed my debut novel, Diary of Bedlam, for which I’m currently seeking representation.
I also write short crime fiction, which you can find here.
I am a writer seeking representation for my novel, DIARY OF BEDLAM, complete at 80,000 words.
Synopsis:
“Lady Isabel Wilde, a former English spy and occasional favorite in the royal bedchamber, has a secret: she makes her living disguised as Mistress Ruby, a fortune teller who caters to London’s elite. Charlatans, rogues, villains and swindlers lurk in every dark corner of 1678 England, and Isabel concedes she is one of them. But hard experience has taught her that women have few advantages in this world, and her conscience does not often bother her.
Everything changes when Sir Edmund Godfrey, a popular London magistrate, seeks Mistress Ruby’s counsel and reveals his accidental involvement in a covert Jesuit plot to murder the protestant King. Despite their estrangement, Isabel’s first concern is for her royal lover’s safety, but soon after Sir Edmund’s visit, her diary is stolen. It’s the sole record of her activities as a soothsayer and Isabel must locate it before anyone connects her to Mistress Ruby.
When Sir Edmund’s corpse is discovered a week later in a remote area north of London, Isabel suspects whoever committed the murder also has her diary. Unwilling to trust the investigation to a court infamous for its schemes and intrigues, she begins her own inquiry, re-entering the cutthroat world of London politics and reluctantly resuming her turbulent romance with the King in the process. After a series of increasingly violent threats against her and her loved ones, Isabel learns that Sir Edmund’s murder is only a small part of a conspiracy that leads all the way to the throne and promises to alter the future of the British monarchy forever. With everything she holds dear at stake, Isabel knows she must find Sir Edmund Godfrey’s killer before she becomes the next victim.”
My short story, Once a Loser, appears in the Fall 2011 issue of Needle: A Magazine of Noir. My short fiction has been featured online on Shotgun Honey and is forthcoming on Dirty Noir. I am an associate member of the Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. I also write a blog geared toward aspiring authors called Adventures in Bedlam.I am a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America.
I live with my husband Mick and two dogs named Stuart and Stella in Southern California. In my spare time I like to read, knit, run, pet dogs, and decorate my house.
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