tionss - writersdigest.com · using contrived conflict to bring your characters together. part v:...

BoB Mayer

Solutions

to Common Writing Mistakes

68 70 Solutions to Common Writing Mistakes

Characters

Why this is a mistake: Think of your favorite book. What do you remember about it? The plot, or the characters? I would be willing to bet it’s the characters. Yet too many writers focus on the plot of their stories, emphasizing it to the detriment of their char-acters. When they pitch their story, the focus is on plot or situation, rather than character. But since all stories have been done, it’s going to be difficult to stand out doing this.

NotUnderstanding That Character Is Preeminent

Part V: Characters 69

The solution: Focus on character. Understand that your protag-onist and your antagonist (and to a lesser extent your supporting characters) are going to be what makes your story unique. The story you are going to write has indeed been done before. But your char-acters have not necessarily been done inside of that story. It’s that combination which will make you unique.

If you look at the books that sell and stand out, most of them

have very unique characters. Their protagonists have unusual

backgrounds, quirks in their personalities that draw

the reader in.

There is something about them that quickly engages the reader’s empathy. The great antagonists—Hannibal Lecter, for instance—also draw the reader’s emotions.

When you think about pitching your book, consider what you are leading with: Is it story or character? Optimally it should be both, but if you have to emphasize one, it should be character.


Why this is a mistake: Jennifer Crusie, a novelist (and my co-author on Don’t Look Down), sums up contrived conflict as: “I hate you. I hate you. I love you.” One of the problems of the heroine-as-protagonist, hero-as-antagonist plot is that he can’t be horrible, or why would she love him? This leads to wimpy conflicts like the ones romance novelist Teresa Hill describes as “rudeness and minor mis-understandings. It’s so annoying, and the characters just come off seeming unhappy or spiteful or mean.”

Using Contrived

Conflict toBring Your

CharactersTogether


Example: The hero and heroine meet in an airport fighting over the same unlabeled bag from the carousel. Instead of recognizing that both have a reason for grabbing it and finding a solution, like seeing whose key fits the lock, he assumes she’s a thief, she assumes he’s a bozo who doesn’t know what his own bag looks like, and they each treat a strang-er so rudely that I don’t want to spend a book with these people. Add to that the TDTL (too dumb to live) heroine who picks a fight or goes out into the dark night to see what all the screaming is about, and you have the basics of contrived conflict.

The solution: Go back to basic conflict analysis. Who is your protagonist? What does she need above all things? What must she have to protect her sense of self? Who is the antagonist? What does he need above all things? What must he have to protect his sense of self? How do their needs cross each other, bring them into a direct conflict from which they cannot resign? How does each character’s move to achieve the goal make the other character’s life more diffi-cult, make the other’s goal more distant?

Conflict is not people arguing on the page, conflict is people strug-gling with goals that are huge and vital to them, and by extension, to the reader who cares about the people.

Conflict is inherent in your characters, not created by situation.

And it’s the key to the success of your story.


Why this is a mistake: If you don’t understand your characters’ motivations, the characters will inevitably become cardboard cut-outs to the reader, there only to enact the author’s desire to make the plot work.

Readers want to empathize with the characters, and they have a hard time doing that with characters they don’t believe in. When char-acters act out of character, readers just can’t believe in them.

NotUnderstanding YourCharacters’ Motivations


The solution: Before you begin writing, make sure you under-stand your characters’ motivations, particularly each character’s primary motivator. Once these are locked into place, you no longer control your characters. They are going to act and react like real people. Sometimes they may surprise even you, the author, with their actions.

Be aware that your subconscious might even plant seeds

in your characters that sprout as the story develops.

Remember that your characters are not on Maslow’s fifth level of self-actualization; they have their own blind spots and subconscious motivations. Sometimes even your characters are not consciously aware why they are doing what they are doing. While they might consciously put forth one reason for their actions, subconsciously they have a dif-ferent reason. This underlying reason usually boils to the surface as the conflict in the story escalates, making for more conflict and drama.


Why this is a mistake: Because you are writing all your char-acters, it’s easy to make them all seem very similar to one another. They tend to talk alike, and their points of view seem to be the same. This is because most people have a hard time getting out of them-selves and into their characters. Your reader must feel that the char-acters in your story are distinct.

The solution: Use real people (with details changed), archetypes, templates, profiling, or any other approach that breaks people down into different types. Once you have created distinct characters, make sure you don’t start melding them together inside of the plot.

To ensure every character’s dialogue is distinctive, highlight each character’s dialogue with a different color. Then read each color one at a time to check for consistency.

Making All Your Characters Sound and Act the Same


Picking the

Wrong Character Names

Why this is a mistake: Readers have to remember your characters’ names. Not just remember them, but be able to tell characters apart from each other. The reader shouldn’t trip over a name every time she reads it. For example, in your science-fiction novel, don’t give the alien antagonist a name consisting of fourteen consonants that could never be pronounced. In the Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R. Tolk-ien kept all the names relatively short and easy to pronounce, even though he had invented a fantasy world and fantasy creatures.

The solution: As we’ve discussed, give names only to characters who are important to the story, and make sure each name you do use fits the character. If you have a “hard” character, then the name should be hard. Private investigators tend to have names that you bounce off of. A seductress would have a name that draws you in.

Try to avoid giving different characters names that start with the same letter unless you have a specific reason for doing so. It wasn’t by chance that Tolkien picked the names Sauron and Saruman. The latter, to his demise, was trying to emulate and become the former. But nor-mally alliteration is not a good thing. List out the letters of the alphabet, then put the names of your characters in place, with only one per letter.


Why this is a mistake: If the protagonist is exactly the same per-son at the end of the book as she is at the beginning of the book, then the journey she underwent through the story served no pur-pose. Yet many novice authors fail to give their protagonists ade-quate character arcs. One thing to consider is that the protagonist, as she is at the beginning of the book, would fail to triumph in the final conflict. The growth and change she experiences, and/or the community she develops around herself as she goes through the story, are what ultimately allows her to defeat the antagonist when she reaches the climactic scene.

Creating a

StagnantProtagonist


The solution: Three things signify growth or change for a charac-ter. The first is that the character must have a moment of enlighten-ment. This means that the character either experiences something she’s never experienced before, or experiences something familiar in an entirely new way. This is the lightbulb turning on. Characters—and people—have moments of enlightenment all the time (hope-fully you are having many while reading this book). However, by themselves these moments mean nothing.

Second, the protagonist must make a decision based on the moment of enlightenment. In a novel, this decision often comes at the point of no return for the protagonist. Sometimes the decision isn’t necessarily a good one, as it leads directly to the moment of crisis, that darkest mo-ment when all looks lost for the protagonist. However, even this deci-sion doesn’t mean the protagonist has changed.

The third and crucial signifier of change is sustained action.

The protagonist must continuously go down a new path,

continue to take new and different actions than she would

have before the moment of enlightenment.

This is what finally molds the protagonist into someone new. Then, in the climactic scene at the end of the story, the protagonist is able to defeat the antagonist because of all she has experienced.


Why this is a mistake: A story plot is a character trying to re-solve a problem. In most cases the antagonist is the one who intro-duces the problem.

A good antagonist should, therefore, have a good plan.

Creatinga Weak

Antagonist


For example, let’s say your antagonist wants to rob Fort Knox. Be-fore you write the book, you have to put yourself in the shoes of the an-tagonist and come up with the plan the antagonist would come up with. If you antagonist comes up with a stupid plan, the book is going to look stupid, and your protagonist is going to look less than heroic trying to stop the not-too-bright antagonist.

The solution: Take the time to really get inside the skin of your antagonist. Pretend you are the antagonist. Gather your cronies and minions together. Then develop your devilish plan for what-ever it is you are going to do. Going to rob Fort Knox? Okay. First thing to think about: Why? What’s the motivation? Make sure it’s a believable one. Then develop a viable plan. A smart one. One you would have a really good chance of getting away with in the real world. One so good the FBI might come knocking on your door if one of the neighbors saw it laid out on your table.


Why this is a mistake: If the curtain on a play opened and there were thirty people on stage and all of them had speaking roles, would you be able to identify and keep track of everyone? Or if you went to a party and opened the door and the room was filled with people you’d never met before, would you have a good time? Throwing too many characters at the reader creates the same sense of bewilderment and diminishes the reader’s ability to empathize

CreatingToo ManyCharacters


with any of them. Larry McMurtry can do it in Lonesome Dove and win the Pulitzer Prize, but we’re not Larry McMurtry. He’s able to do it because he makes each character distinctive. It’s a question of how much you’re able to change personalities with your characters. Most of us can only take on a handful.

The solution: Before you start writing, decide how many char-acters you feel you can handle in the story. You will have your pro-tagonist and your antagonist. Then you will have your named sup-porting characters. Named characters will be those who appear throughout the story.

It’s probably not a good idea to give names to characters who appear only once. Those characters might be described as spear carriers, analo-gous to those people on stage in the opera who stand in the background, carrying—you got it—spears. They’re window dressing, and you can describe them by their roles, such as “the taxi driver” or “the desk clerk” so as not to confuse the reader.

Make sure the reader can keep track of your named characters, and keep focus on the protagonist and antagonist.


Why this is a mistake: As noted before, characters are not walk-ing around on Maslow’s fifth level of self-actualization. Often, like real people, they are not consciously aware of why they are doing what they are doing. They give a reason, but it’s not the real reason. Recognize that characters are acting out of need, and that they have a corresponding blind spot associated with that need.

NotRecognizing

YourCharacters’

Needsand Flaws


The solution: Be aware of the triangle of traits, needs, and flaws. Every character trait has a corresponding need and flaw associated with it. A need is something a character has to have and can’t control.

The flaw is often the making of tragedy and the character’s

blind spot, a part of her personality that can be exploited

because she isn’t aware it is a weakness.

For each of your characters, then, list a trait, a need, and a flaw. For ex-ample, if a key trait for a character is that she is loyal, the need she has is to be trusted. The corresponding flaw or blind spot associated with this might be that she is gullible. If a character is decisive, she has a need to be in charge, and her flaw/blind spot could be that she’s impetuous.

You might also want to create this list for yourself. Identify what you feel is the strongest part of your own character and then consider the corresponding need and flaw. This will help you pinpoint your per-sonal blind spot and potential flaw both in your writing and in your business dealings.


Editing & Rewriting

Falling in LoveWith Your

Bad WritingWhy this is a mistake: There is going to be a part of your writ-ing that you love. And it’s going to be a really bad part of your writ-ing. Perhaps the worst part. That’s the reason you love it. It’s natural to become emotionally attached to things that don’t work, whether they are entire books, chapters, paragraphs, scenes, characters, or even just sentences.

The solution: Let it go. It’s difficult. I know it’s hard to think of all the time and effort you put in as “learning time and effort,” that the payoff will come down the line, but not now.

What’s really difficult to accept is that you have to kill your darlings. That’s a phrase you will hear at conferences and in workshops and writ-er’s groups, and it’s true. You have to back off emotionally from your writing and consider whether the parts you hold near and dear really have a place in the written work.

Ask yourself: “Are these parts necessary? Do they

support the overall work?”

Part VI: Editing & Rewriting 85

Overeditingand Removing

Subconscious SeedsWhy this is a mistake: There are writers who overedit what they write during the process of completing their work. Why is it a mis-take to polish a work-in-progress?

First, you are polishing writing that you might need to cut later on. This means that you are not only wasting time editorially, but making it that much harder to cut the material when so much time has been invested.

Second, you plant subconscious seeds in your early drafts. You put in things that sometimes seem to not quite belong. Yet. And if you ove-redit, you take them out too soon. Because later on, when you get stuck in chapter twenty-eight, if you go back and re-read what you wrote ear-lier, you’ll discover you need that seed, that your subconscious put it in way back when, “knowing” you would need it.

Third, you end up spending a lot of time editing and not getting to the end of your work.

The solution: Don’t overedit your early drafts of your work, no matter how tempted you are. Move forward in the project. Don’t wor-ry about those weird things in the early drafts that nag you. The nag-ging is good; you just might need those weird things later on.


Listening toToo Much

FeedbackWhy this is a mistake: It is possible to get so overwhelmed with feedback on your writing that you stall out. Everyone has an opin-ion. The question is whether that opinion is of any value. You may desire others’ opinions because you don’t trust or value your own. But remember that while others can often point out problem areas, they rarely can give you good solutions.

Another problem for book writers is that few readers will want—or even be able—to offer feedback on the entire book. If someone isn’t there from the beginning, it’s hard for him to give accurate feedback. Go to the bookstore, pick up a book, read chapter fourteen, and try to critique it without reading the previous thirteen chapters. Kind of hard, isn’t it?

The solution: Find at most three (optimally one or two) read-ers whose opinions you value and trust. Find readers who will stick with you through the entire manuscript, not readers who will chew up a random chapter and spit it back to you.

And when you do get feedback on your project, evaluate it careful-ly. Some early critique readers are pretty brutal, others sugarcoat their opinions, and some just aren’t honest. Keep an open mind. As the writ-er, you have a role to play: You have to be willing to listen to the feed-back without reacting negatively. And this is very difficult to do.

Part VI: Editing & Rewriting 87

Not Moving On

Why this is a mistake: A book is a large investment of time and energy. Often over a year’s worth. Simply just typing 100,000 words takes a long time. Most writers don’t want to let go of that much work. I’ve watched writers come back year after year to the same writers conference with the same manuscript, reworked and edited, trying to sell it. Rewriting can only fix so much. It can change story, but it can’t change an idea.

If the core idea of the book simply isn’t strong enough to sell, it doesn’t matter how many rewrites the manuscript goes through; it just isn’t going to be the one to make it. Sometimes it just isn’t the right time no matter how good the book is.

The bigger problem with not letting go of early works is that you learn by writing. The next book you write is going to be better. But if you never move on, then you can’t get better.

The solution: There comes a time when you just have to put that manuscript in a drawer and let it go. Start writing a new book. Con-sider it an investment in learning. Most published authors I know did not sell their first manuscript. Many did not sell their second. It was around number three that they started seeing success. A rough rule of thumb? Give it a year. Beyond that, move on and write something new.


Selling Your Work

Why this is a mistake: Most writers have a few blind spots when it comes to their work, and these negatives tend to come out in their business dealings. Insecurities are often most obvious in submis-sions and proposals, as in using the copyright symbol on cover let-ters and cover sheets for manuscripts. Writers might be quick to point out that they need to protect their work. But what they imply by using the copyright symbol is that they fear the agent or editor they are sending their work to will steal their idea.

Using the©Symbol

and OtherSubconscious

Negatives

Part VII: Selling Your Work 89

In the same way, many authors put subconscious negative com-ments in their cover letters. They will unwittingly say negative things about themselves or their writing, mentioning that this is their first ar-ticle or book, for instance. Or they will slam the genre or form in which they are writing. Some of them even say negative things about the agent or editor to whom they are submitting.

The solution: Review any written material before you send it, and examine it sentence by sentence for subconscious negatives. Give it to someone else to read and have the person look for these negatives. Examine your word choice. Examine your verbs. Do not put any-thing in writing that can be taken as a negative, either consciously or subconsciously.

Put yourself in the position of an agent or editor

reading your material.

Ask yourself how you would feel reading your material cold without any idea who the author of it was. What would be your initial impres-sion? (Remember that the initial impression is often the only impres-sion.) Would it be positive or negative? Make sure it is a positive one.


Why this is a mistake: Basic formatting in writing is a funda-mental of the craft. Hard as it is to believe, about 50 percent of nov-ice writers don’t even bother to learn this. They submit to their ven-ues in ways that guarantee that their writing won’t even get looked at. When book agents and editors see a manuscript that isn’t dou-ble-spaced, they know right away that the author hasn’t done the basic groundwork needed. When magazine editors see an article that isn’t the correct word count, they know the same thing. A badly formatted piece might be a diamond in the rough, but that possibil-ity is a remote one. In fact, all the agents and editors I’ve talked to say they don’t even bother to take a look.

The solution: The simple mistakes weed out half of all submis-sions. These are the easiest ones to avoid, so take the time to ensure you don’t make them. Get the guidelines for whatever venue you are submitting to and follow them.

Failing toUse Basic

Formatting


ChoosingBad TitlesWhy this is a mistake: Novice writers often create titles that won’t make sense to anyone who hasn’t read through the piece. First and foremost, the title should invite the reader into the book, article, or essay.

The solution: Titles should do at least one of the following two things: They should give the reader a very good idea what the book or piece is about. And/or they should intrigue the reader by juxta-posing two things that don’t belong together. For nonfiction, titles consist of two parts. The enticing title and the subtitle that clearly tells the reader what the book is about. The best thing to do is go to the bookstore and study titles. Look in the section of the bookstore where your book will be racked when it is published.

For magazine articles, do some research into your target publica-tions. How do they title their features and columns? Do they use num-bers? Is the benefit to the reader clear? Title your work accordingly.


Why this is a mistake: Query letters are sales tools. Plain and simple. To hook an agent or editor into taking a look at your manu-script or article, you have to write a great query letter. If your topic or storyline is muddled and ambiguous, then the acquiring agent or editor is going to assume that your manuscript will be as well.

The solution: The first line of your one-page query letter must grab the reader, because it is the first (and maybe the last) line the person opening your submission will read. Next, grab the agent’s or editor’s interest with a paragraph on your book or article. Remember to in-clude some factual information like: “This is an 85,000-word sci-fi novel,” or “‘Ten Tips for Off-Roading’ is a 2,000-word article.”

In addition to a sales pitch for your manuscript, you need to include a sales pitch for yourself. The manuscript is an extension of you. What special background do you have that would make the editor want to see what you have done? This means not only any writing background you have, but also your background as far as the story goes. This does not mean you won’t get looked at it if your background doesn’t have much direct application to your subject matter and you have little writing ex-perience, but editors and agents also remember what Mark Twain said:

“Write what you know.” If your job or background in any way applies to what you’ve written, make sure you mention that.

Writing a BadQuery Letter


Why this is a mistake: A synopsis is a short summary of a novel, the key word being short. There is some argument whether you even need a synopsis. Agents and editors state in their guidelines whether they require one. Many writers have a difficult time writing a strong synopsis. They end up submitting one that goes on for too long or uses too many adjectives. One that’s too vague or too unfocused.

The solution: The best synopses of my books that I have read were my reviews in Publishers Weekly. In those, the reviewer gets the sto-ry down to one paragraph. Peruse PW and see how a book similar to your own is summarized. Another method is to go to your local bookstore and get some old publishers’ catalogues and see how they pitched their books. Don’t you think it would be very worthwhile to pitch your book to that publishing house in the same manner?

To get down to one page, write a really long synopsis and keep cut-ting. Remember, a synopsis is an overview. Psychologists say our short-term memory can hold seven facts. Therefore I think you shouldn’t have more than three names—protagonist, antagonist, and one major supporting character—in your synopsis. Add in the original idea, the hook, the main storyline, and the climax, and you fill up the reader’s brain. I’ve read synopses with so many names in them that I got so con-fused I couldn’t keep track of anything.

Writing a BadSynopsis


NotPutting

Together aStrong

NonfictionProposalWhy this is a mistake: Professionalism counts. While fiction writers usually have to have an entire manuscript completed before starting the submission process, nonfiction writers are required to submit a proposal first. The proposal includes the book’s topic, its potential markets, a detailed outline, the author’s qualifications for writing on the topic, and her personal platform on which to pro-


mote the book. There is a right way and a wrong way to do a pro-posal. If a proposal is done incorrectly, it doesn’t matter how excit-ing the idea is, it won’t make it past the first screener.

The solution: Take the time to do your proposal correctly. Get a book on writing nonfiction proposals, like the third edition of Mi-chael Larsen’s How to Write a Book Proposal, and follow the format in it. You may also want to consider attending a conference where there is a presentation or two on nonfiction proposals. There are even entire conferences geared toward nonfiction.

One thing to remember when seeking out conferences is that there

is a spectrum of nonfiction ranging from narrative nonfiction

to self-help to inspirational and so forth.

Make sure you find the presentation that corresponds to the niche you are working in. The best way to do that is to check the back-ground of the author or instructor.


Not Knowing the Magazine

MarketWhy this is a mistake: When it comes to writing for magazines, one of the biggest mistakes is not knowing the market well enough. Ed-itors want a new and fresh story, but they want the story within a con-text that appeals to their subscribers or audience. If you send a query to a magazine you’ve never read, odds are you’re going to miss the mark.

The solution: If you look at magazine racks, you will see that there are magazines for just about every subject imaginable. If you expect to be paid by any of these magazines, you have to make your-self familiar with their content. You can’t just go by the title of the magazine and blindly submit. Often there is a slant to their mate-rial. Do your homework. Research the market, find out which titles suit your work, and be able to articulate why.

You should also make note of the lengths of the articles. If a mag-azine typically publishes 2,000-word features, they’re not going to be interested in your 5,000-word masterpiece, no matter how great it is. When you make contact with editors, you have to work with them be-cause they have a deadline and a certain space for each piece they buy. If you establish a good working relationship, often you will find them coming back to you instead of the other way around.


Paying for an Agent

to Read Your Work

Why this is a mistake: There are numerous agents who charge reading fees to look at manuscripts and give feedback. And it is un-derstandable why writers would be tempted to go along with this; it is, after all, so hard to get professional feedback. Even writer’s groups don’t necessarily generate professional-level feedback. These agents say they charge these fees to cover their overhead costs. Since their slush pile is so large, they figure they can kill two birds with one read-ing by charging a fee. There are several problems with this reading fee, though. One is that fee-charging agents cannot be members of the Association of Authors’ Representatives (www.aar-online.org), a nonprofit organization of independent literary agents. The second is that a legitimate agent should be making her money by selling books, not by reading unsold manuscripts and critiquing them.

The solution: Don’t do it. When you feel you’ve revised your manuscript as much as possible, and it’s as close to perfect as you can get it, consult a directory like Guide to Literary Agents, do some research to identify appropriate agents, and start submitting.


Why this is a mistake: Nobody likes to be rejected. Rejection is not quite as bad as betrayal, but it’s still not fun. Yet rejection is an integral part of a writer’s life. You can’t take it personally. And you do need to learn to use it in as positive a way as possible. Most of the time rejection comes as a form letter or slip, so there’s little to be learned. But sometimes you actually get some sort of feedback.

Not UsingRejection in aPositive WaY


This is the time to try to read between the lines and glean

some sort of lesson.

The solution: If you are a writer long enough, you become almost inured to rejection. You learn what part of things you control—the writing—and what parts you don’t. And one part you don’t control is what happens once the manuscript or article leaves your hands. (Of course, to a certain extent you do, in that if you write to the best of your ability you increase your chances of success.)

If you do get that personal letter, try to see what the agent or edi-tor is really trying to say. Understand that these industry professionals rarely write personal rejection letters; they just don’t have the time. So if you do receive such a letter, someone saw something of worth in your writing. Try to find what, and then also try to see where you came up short. Keep this person in mind for the future. You never know where an agent or editor is going to end up years down the line. And publish-ing is a long-term business. Make sure you mention the personal con-tact when you query her again.


Comparing

Your Book to a Best-Selling

WorkWhy this is a mistake: Some how-to-sell books and articles sug-gest that you compare your work to something that is easily recog-nizable and best-selling. I’m not saying that doing so is absolutely wrong, but I am suggesting that it’s dangerous and potentially self-defeating. Agents and editors may have an immediate gut reaction and think, “No, your book isn’t as good.” They are also going look for ways your work doesn’t measure up to the work you’re compar-ing it to. And they will find them, because, frankly, your work most likely isn’t going to be as good as the best-selling work. In addition, the best-selling book or author is already out there selling, so why do they need your book, which is supposedly just like it?

The solution: Don’t directly compare your work. If you’re going to do this, perhaps say your work is in the vein of another book, and then explain how it is different. If you know that a particular agent or editor works with a particular author, and you can mention this, you will show you’ve done your homework. But compare in a way that shows how your work is different, not how your work is the same.


StalkingWhy this is a mistake: Who likes to be stalked? Agents and edi-tors certainly don’t, and neither do authors. Every editor and agent has at least one stalking story to tell. Most are humorous, but some of them are scary. And who hasn’t heard the infamous story of an overeager writer shoving her manuscript under the bathroom stall?

There are levels to stalking. Some people push too hard to try to sell themselves and their writing. Socializing is an important aspect of conferences, but that doesn’t mean you stand there pitching over cock-tails—no matter how tempting. No one will want to come near you.

The solution: There are obvious times when it is inappropriate to pitch your writing, such as when an editor or agent is with a current client. Don’t be overbearing. Let other people talk about themselves. Invite them in. Let them ask you about your book. Let the quality of your writing and your idea speak for itself. If someone isn’t in-terested in it, let it go. You can’t force your writing on an editor or agent. Let a social situation be a social situation and don’t force it to become an awkward business one.

I always say the difference between being aggressive and obnoxious is that the aggressive person has a good manuscript and the obnox-ious person has a bad manuscript. That’s not very helpful in that we all think we have a good manuscript, but the bottom line is not to hurt your good manuscript with obnoxious social behavior.


Why this is a mistake: In any gathering of authors, sooner or later you pick up a we-they attitude, where authors seem to be on one side, and editors and agents and publishers seem to be on the other, as if the two groups were enemies locked in an eternal battle. It’s almost as if would-be authors see agents and editors as allied to keep them from being published. But this just isn’t the case—without authors, who would agents and editors publish? Publish-ers need writers, and the agents and editors know that and respect writers. Well, most of them do. The majority of this we-they atti-tude seems to come from unpublished writers who see agents and editors, correctly to an extent, as the gate-keepers to the world of being published.

BuyingIn to the

We-They Attitude


The solution: Instead of seeing agents and editors as the enemy, embrace them as allies. Frankly, seeing them as enemies is profound-ly self-defeating. Everyone has the same goal: to publish good books. When an agent or editor gets treated as a partner in the process, she tends to become less a gate-keeper and more of a facilitator.

Remember that agents and editors are people, too.

They’re just trying to do their jobs in a difficult business.

Try to keep their perspective in mind when you approach

them. Doing so just might put you ahead of the pack.


Why this is a mistake: It’s already too late to write for today’s market. Book-length publishing is a three-year-ahead business for a writer. Even magazine writing requires quite a bit of lead time. So what’s hot now might not be hot when you’re ready to start submit-ting. In fact, it probably won’t be. Many people try to ride the latest writing fad, which means you’ll be lost among the crowd.

Also, when you’re writing for the market, you’re probably not writ-ing what is important to you, and this usually results in writing that’s shallow and not the best quality.

The solution: I was listening to a panel at a recent Romance Writ-ers of America event where participants were asking questions of a couple of agents and an editor from Harlequin. And all the ques-

Writing for the

Market


tions seemed to be a variation of the same thing: “What’s hot?” and “What’s selling?” which is the same as “What are publishers buying?”

I hear that a lot at conferences. And I’m not slamming it. But I’m not too thrilled with it either. Because underneath it is the feeling that if someone said, “You know, vampire-lesbian-nun-slasher-paranormal novels where the hero is redeemed and becomes a monk at the end are really hot and selling,” there would be ten such books cranked out with-in two weeks of conference, whether or not those authors gave a damn about writing V-L-N-S-P monk redemption novels.

I think the questions of what’s hot and what’s selling come out of a degree of frustration with publishing (which is bad) and also a degree of business savvy (which is good). But that business savvy can be taken too far, and often is.

I wrote military techno-thrillers in the late 1980s. That was stupid business-savvy wise. In the early and mid ’90s when those books came out, the military techno-thriller market collapsed. Only two or three writers survived, and even a lot of the ones who had been best-sellers went under or had to find new genres to write in. But—I got published. And I learned about writing. Even though my career kind of sucked because I was in a not-hot field. But I was writing what I wanted to, and I think that’s why I got published. Lawyer books were very hot then. I imagine I could have written one of those. But you know what? My lawyer book, if I’d written one simply because the market was hot, would have sucked and never gotten published. It’s a vicious catch-22.

Write what you really want to write, what you’re passionate about regardless of market.


Why this is a mistake: This is such a hard and crazy business that writers tend to take any deal a publisher offers. This is akin to taking the first marriage proposal you receive from the first stranger you meet. You wouldn’t do it in your personal life, and you shouldn’t do it in your professional life. And you know the

“til death do you part” thing? That’s what it feels like sometimes. Novice writers don’t understand that a bad deal is much worse than no deal. When you sign a contract, you are locked in. I know best-selling authors who have the yoke of a bad contract signed decades earlier still haunting them.

Taking Any

Deal


The solution: This is where it’s helpful to have an agent. But if you’re going it solo, remember to think long-term before you sign any deal. Don’t get greedy. Consider more than just the money. Consider a contract in terms of your career as a writer, even if you have no career to speak of at the time. Imagine that you do, and imagine what this contract will look like in ten years.

You do have a negotiating position. Many writers feel they don’t. They think that if they don’t sign the contract, the publisher will sim-ply offer the contract to someone else. Perhaps the publisher will. Then just figure that some other author will be stuck with the bad contract. It’s a hard mindset to develop as a writer, but sooner or later, preferably sooner, you’ve got to start treating yourself with some respect, because if you don’t, no one else will. I’ve found this particularly true when deal-ing with Hollywood.

You have to be prepared to walk away. And you have to walk away

when necessary. Hard as it is to believe, no deal is better than

a bad deal.


The Publishing Business

Staying HomeWhy this is a mistake: Writers tend to be introverts. We like to sit by ourselves and create with words. We’re not fond of crowds and gatherings of people. In a perfect world, we would create our masterpieces, send them out, have a check sent to us, and never have to leave our house.

That is also one of the biggest mistakes a writer can make. Early in my career I used to actually boast that I had never met my agent or my editor face to face. That writing was a business you could conduct without face-to-face meetings. It is, but not one you can conduct well in that manner. Writers tend to over-rely on e-mail. It has made us lazy. And it was stu-pid of me to sit at home and not meet my agent and editors face to face.

The solution: It’s always better to put a face to a person. It is worth the expense and time to make the journey to sit down and have a lunch with your agent, even if there is no specific business to be discussed. I’ve heard it said there are six hundred people in the publishing business. I think there are more than that, but the longer I’m in it, the more I keep seeing the same people again and again. I also know that I’m still in publishing not just because I learned the craft, but also because I got out of the house and made personal con-tact with people. I’ve gotten business deals because of some of these meetings. And it’s not just going to meet editors and agents. It’s also going to conferences, joining professional organizations, and even meeting other authors when they come through your town on their book tours. Get out there!

Part VIII: The Publishing Business 109

Not LearningPatience Why this is a mistake: If you’re a type-A personality, publish-ing just might beat that out of you. You can’t make anyone do any-thing faster than they’re going to do it. Trying to push agents or edi-tors to work faster than they’re planning on working can only earn you a negative image. Calling every day to check on a submission isn’t a good idea. In fact, it’s a terrible idea. While the saying is that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, in publishing it’s more likely the squeaky wheel gets tossed in the trash bin.

The solution: Let people do their jobs. Your job as the writer is to write. Let agents agent and editors edit. That isn’t to say you shouldn’t stay on top of things and check in, but don’t be excessive and irritat-ing about it. This also isn’t to say that when you get a window of op-portunity you shouldn’t leap. Every once in a while, something may appear. If you have an excellent one-on-one meeting with an agent at a conference and she wants to see your manuscript, don’t wait a year before sending it in. I watched a TV show season finale the other night that had a lot of similarities to a series of books I have the rights to, and I immediately e-mailed my agent to see if there was some-thing we could do as cross-promotion. Odds are nothing will come of it, but when opportunities do present themselves, jump.


Why this is a mistake: People have a tendency to be afraid of losing out to others, and they sometimes sense they are competing in the workplace. However, I have not found that to be true in pub-lishing. Yes, at one time Fabio did get a two-book deal from Avon at the same time I was rejected by Avon for a book, but I really don’t think it came down to them deciding between the two of us. Okay, maybe it did, and his hair was better.

There are writers who feel protective of their work and their tal-ent, whatever it might be. They feel that if they share it, somehow they are giving out gold bullion from a secret stockpile that cannot be re-

Not Sharing

Your Knowledge and Expertise


placed. Which is, of course, wrong. Because any writing advice given, any knowledge shared, will be processed through another writer’s own experiences and craft and artistry and end up being something com-pletely different.

The solution: Because writing is such an individual and lonely business, it can be easy to slip into a bunker mentality. There is also a tendency in certain genres for writers to develop a good ol’ boy, in-cestuous network that keeps others on the outside. This works all right for a chosen few, but not for most. The reality is that the world of writing is so diverse that competition really doesn’t exist.

It’s best to share your knowledge and expertise with

other writers and in turn learn what they have to

share with you.


Why this is a mistake: Too many writers view conferences sim-ply as a place to sell their work. They march in with their cards printed up, with a stack of cover letters and synopses, and plan on going home with a book contract. And 99.9 percent of those people go home very disappointed.

The odds of landing a book contract at a conference are miniscule. Yes, you hear those urban publishing legends. And that’s what they are: legends.

Writers also go to conferences focused too much on editors and agents and not enough on the writers on the faculty. Too often editors and agents will sit on panels and spend the entire time telling you what they don’t want and how to make their jobs easier.

Writers also tend not to look left and right at the other attendees—overlooking a wealth of knowledge and networking possibilities.

Not Using

Conferences Correctly


The solution: You should look at conferences primarily as learn-ing experiences. Go to workshops based on whether the speaker has something you want.

Be open to learning something new.

If a speaker says something that bothers you, focus on it. The more it bothers you, the more you should focus on it. If it makes you very an-gry, write it down, because the odds are, it’s hitting your blind spot as a writer and touching on a truth you need to delve into to become better.

Treat the volunteers—and they are almost always volunteers run-ning conferences—well. Volunteer yourself. They are usually looking for someone to make runs to the airport to pick up presenters. What better way to get some time alone with an editor, agent, or author?

You also should view the informal conference time as very valuable networking time. Make a list of everyone you make contact with, both professionally and personally. You will be surprised who you will run in to again, even many years down the line. Make notes about the people. Unpublished people you chat with now will be on the best-seller lists years from now. Perhaps you will be, too.


Why this is a mistake: Like any other business, publishing is flu-id. Things change. I’ve seen authors and even agents get left behind in the business as the marketplace, technology, and even consumer tastes changed. Too often writers work off of out-of-date templates. A magazine writer, for example, has to see what a magazine wants now, not what it wanted a year ago, and, actually, what the trend for the future is, as the magazine is actually buying a half-year to a year out. Publishers are buying books that they will be publishing years into the future.

Not Staying Up-to-Dateon the

Business


While I noted elsewhere that you shouldn’t necessarily write to the current market and you can’t predict the future market, you should still stay abreast of the market and the business.

Writers frequently feel like their job is simply to write, and

the business end will sort itself out. These writers end

up getting sorted out of the business entirely.

The solution: Stay informed. Subscribe to free e-newsletters like the one from Publishers Lunch (www.publisherslunch.com), and read industry publications like Publishers Weekly. Conferences are also a good way to stay abreast of news inside your particular area of writing. Networking, of course, is important, as noted elsewhere. Online chat groups that are linked to your type of writing can be valuable as well. (See Appendix I in The Mini Market Book for a list of helpful Web sites.)


Why this is a mistake: Many writers feel frustrated. And des-perate. They look at other writers who get published and they tend not to see much difference between their own work and published authors’ work. Frustrated and desperate people are easy targets for scammers. There are plenty of people out there more than willing to relieve wannabe authors of their money. Just consider some poetry contests, certain vanity presses, book doctors, fee-charging agents, and numerous other agencies all promising to help the writer gain the ever-elusive goal of publication.

It is difficult to tell the difference between those who can

really help you and those who just want to take your money

without Providing substantive aid in return.

GettingScammed


The solution: Caveat emptor were the watchwords in the Ro-man Empire, and they still ring true. Let the buyer beware. The first thing I would really be leery of is anyone who promises to get you published. Unless they flat out tell you up front that they are a van-ity press, they are trying to pull some sort of ruse on you. If you just want to see your name on a book jacket, then go to a self-publisher and do it straight up. There’s absolutely no reason to play a game with a fee-charging agent who gets a kickback, or a press that waf-fles on the point of whether they are a real publisher.

I always recommend getting references from whoever wants to take your money. Talk to others who have used the service in question and see what level of satisfaction they have. If the service is not willing to give you references—whatever the excuse—walk away.

The key to not getting scammed is knowing your goal and then comparing that to what is being offered. Don’t be in a rush and allow your emotions to overrule your good reason. Put aside your frustra-tion, no matter how hard that is to do, and avoid taking the easy road to publication. Getting published, no matter what the format (magazine or book), is not easy. Yes, there is a degree of luck involved, but there is also a large degree of craft and persistence, so focus on the factors you do control, which are learning the craft and sticking to it.


Why this is a mistake: Writers tend to think that promotion and marketing is the job of other people, and in a perfect world it would be. Unfortunately, this isn’t a perfect world. Sometimes you may find you’re the only PR department your book has.

The solution: Promotion is the bane of a writer’s existence but also an absolute necessity. Even if your publisher is 100 percent behind your book, you should still do everything possible to promote it.

Not Marketing

Yourselfand Your

Book


You can use any of a number of techniques to market your book. (See also the books written entirely on this topic.)

• Web site: An absolute must. • Blog: An inexpensive, but time-intensive endeavor. • Direct mailings: Probably not cost-effective for fiction. • Media outlets: The best bang for your buck, time and cost wise.

But it can be very difficult to garner media interest for fiction unless you have a unique hook. Think about how many times you see fiction writers on media. However, there is a magazine out there for everything. Talk radio is also good if you can fig-ure out a reason a show would want to book you.

• Hand-selling: Very difficult unless you have the personality to do it.

• Book signings: Not as fun as you think they are. Mostly done to meet the booksellers.

• Controversy: Depends on whether you’re willing to sell your soul to the devil.

There is a balance, though, that needs to be struck between market-ing your published book and writing your next book.


Why this is a mistake: Some people almost seem apologetic when they say they’re writers. Especially if they’re not yet published. If you don’t respect yourself as a writer, who will?

The solution: Writing is a strange job. Most of the time we’re sit-ting around, staring off into space. If someone wanders by, he thinks we’re doing nothing. I’ve held several different jobs, including being

NotRespectingYourself as a Writer


an A-Team leader in the Special Forces, and I can say that writing is overall more intense than any them because it is self-generated. There really isn’t an outside pressure. The only downtime I get as a writer is when I make a decision to have down time.

Still, even after hitting the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly best-sellers lists, I get sort of a blank stare when I tell people I’m a writer. They ask my name, and then comes the inevitable response: “Never heard of you.”

Many people don’t think it’s that hard to be a writer. They see a book that they can read in a couple of hours and figure it can’t have been that difficult to knock out. They don’t understand it takes a year or more of bleeding onto the page to create it.

Ultimately, it’s up to you to re-spect yourself as an author and

to draw your own boundaries.

If you write, you’re a writer. To a certain degree, being published is a matter of luck, so don’t let that get you down. Call yourself a writer and respect yourself.


Why this is a mistake: A Web presence is a must for a writer. Yet too many writers have none, or they consider it a secondary pri-ority and put forth a presence that shows minimal interest or effort.

The solution: Your Web site is probably going to be the way most people get an impression of you, so it behooves you to put time, effort, and money into making sure it represents you well. While there are

NotHaving

a ProfessionalWeb Site


do-it-yourself kits available, there is an art to Web site design just like there is an art to writing, and if computers really aren’t your thing, it might be worth it to consult with those who know the art.

Consider the goal of your Web site. What are you trying to achieve with it? Are you primarily promoting yourself, or your writing? The two are not necessarily the same thing. For a while I was doing too much with my Web site, trying to promote my books, my speaking ca-reer, my teaching, etc. When your message is too broad, it doesn’t get across. So the first thing is to decide what your goal is. As with most other things, less is more. There is often a desire to go with all the bells and whistles that can be loaded on a Web site these days, but think about how you feel when you hit a site that takes forever to load. You want an opening page that is just that: a single page that requires little to no scrolling.

A good spin-off marketing tool from your Web site is an e-mail list you can use for a newsletter. This is another very cost-effective marketing tool.


QuittingWhy this is a mistake: If you quit, then you’re rejecting your-self. I’ve seen many people with a lot of talent simply pack up and go home. They quit. I’ve seen others with perhaps less talent keep plugging away and eventually make it.

There’s the classic story of the young violinist who managed to wrangle an audition with the master he had always admired. He went in and played his heart out. When the young man was done, the master


simply shrugged and said “Not enough fire,” and turned his back. The young man was crushed and quit his career as a musician. He went on to do other things with his life. Many years later he met that master at some other function and relayed this story. The master was quite sur-prised and shrugged once more and said: “I tell everyone that. If my simple words stopped you, you really didn’t have enough fire.”

The solution: The only person who can stop you from being a writer is you.

So don’t quit. You never know what’s going to happen. Have a back-up plan. For instance, I failed as a solo writer several times, but had a backup writing career going under various pen names, so I was able to stay alive in the business. I think a big mistake many novice writers make is thinking they have it made. You never have it made. Jenny and I are probably working harder than we ever have right now.

You’re never okay. You’ve got to keep pushing. Study the lives of those who have succeeded in the entertainment business, because writ-ers are part of the entertainment business. Watch Inside the Actors Stu-dio and shows like that. Get rid of the mindset of the overnight success. If Don’t Look Down breaks out, I’ll be an overnight success after thirty-three books and sixteen years. And even then I’ll still be at the begin-ning of really pushing it hard to make it even further. In a way, I’ll have just begun. But writing is a lot of fun also. Sometimes we get too gloom and doom. I’d rather be doing this than anything else.

Simply put, if you want to be a writer, never quit. Keep writing.

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Discover new ways to brainstorm for article ideas; find the right magazine for your work; and keep editors coming back for more!

ISBN-13: 978-1-58297-334-0; paperback; 256 pages; #10970

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Beginning Writer’s Answer Book: 30th Anniversary Edition, edited by Jane Friedman

Find the answers to more than 1,000 of the most commonly asked writing questions organized by specific subject area and covering such topics as publishing jargon, market research, submission guidelines, and more.


The 3 a.m. Epiphany: Uncommon Writing Exercises That Transform Your Fiction, by Brian Kiteley

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