Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Q/t: Passion-Driven Writing

Quips & Tips

“Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about.” —Kurt Vonnegut

If you don’t care passionately about your book’s (or article’s) topic, why on earth would someone want to read what you write about it?

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Writer Uninterrupted

Sometimes we hit a point wherein the words we type taste stale – just the same ole, same ole. One way to call forth the muse is by taking our writing to different surroundings, as mentioned on Feb. 8th. Another method involves putting pen to paper for 10 or 15 uninterrupted minutes.

That’s called stream-of-consciousness writing (SOC), the purpose of which is to keep writing, nonstop, until your inner editor shuts up, at which point fresh material begins bubbling up.

Writing nonstop (and I mean moving your pen constantly) for 10 minutes feels awkward at best. You start with a “seed” phrase or sentence and just keep writing. Before long, you’ll feel you’ve said all you can. But you’ve got to keep that pen moving!

When that happens, you may have to resort to something like “This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever made myself do. Why ...” and so forth. That’s OK. Your pen is still moving. But your literary angel will quickly become disgusted with the mindless blather and leave, which is the point.

Soon thereafter, you will return to writing on a topic – maybe the one you began with, maybe not, laying down new, uncensored thoughts. Untidy sentences and phrases replace the neatly structured prose at the start of the exercise. The words may flow until the timer goes off and beyond or not. Either way, keep laying down ink until your time is up.

You may get restless and think the stupid timer will never go off! But practice helps. Try a SOC writing period once a day for a week, and chances are you’ll look forward to that moment when the Wicked Editor Within wanders off and lets you get on with creating.

~ Linda

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Q/t: Talk to Your Reader

Quips & Tips

“Your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one real person you know, or an imagined person, and write to that one.” —John Steinbeck

To achieve the personal style that so many nonfiction books and articles need, try this: Picture one reader. Now imagine that you’re sitting together over coffee, and you’re sharing the information in your book with her (or him). This technique leads to the conversational writing style that connects you directly to your reader.

~ Linda

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Writers & Publishers Organizations

There’s a silly rumor among those who have never worked in the writing and publishing industries that people in those fields jealously guard their information and business practices against any and all comers. Like I said, that’s just silly – and wrong.

At the St. Louis Publishers Association http://www.stlouispublishers.org/ and St. Louis Writers Guild http://www.stlwritersguild.com/ , I’ve had ample experience to the contrary, both in receiving and giving useful professional advice. But the clincher came when I attended the Publishers Marketing Association’s Publishing University a few years ago.

That organization, http://pma-online.org/, represents small, independent U. S. publishers in many ways, including a richly informational, monthly publication and the afore mentioned publishing university, which occurs each year in May immediately before the huge Book Expo America (BEA). This year (2007) in New York, they’ll offer 70 classes on various aspects of publishing and book marketing, all taught by successful, seasoned professionals.

When I attended a Publishers University in Chicago, I was stunned at how eager all of the attendees and presenters were to share their experiences to help others. You couldn’t get on an elevator without someone asking what you were working on, and upon hearing your reply, offering suggestions for target audiences, marketing, and sales “hooks.”

Should I go with independent contracts with book wholesalers or apply to an exclusive book distributor? Ask Joe. He’s tried both methods.

What kind of back cover copy (text) is most effective for selling self-help books? How do I maximize book sales on my web site? What can I do to make my book signings really outstanding? At that event, you’ll find a dozen or more people to share information on any question you might come up with. Even the workshops often become brainstorming sessions with attendees and leaders striving to find a solution to one person’s problem.

I’ve really never experienced the like. That kind of positive energy will send you back home on your own little cloud of encouragement.

So don’t let anybody ever tell you that writers and publishers are secretive and stand-offish. That’s one more dumb rumor you can safely put to rest.

~ Linda

A Writer's Truth

One of my book coaching clients has written about her past adversities, some of which have to do with family dysfunction. She’s understandably concerned that current family members will be angry, feeling she shouldn’t have aired dirty linens in public. Some may also be in long-term denial about the events described.

Whether to be honest and therefore vulnerable to backlash or to placate her family and soften her descriptions was a worrisome decision for her. Both she and her therapist felt that her painful honesty in writing had been cathartic – no more couching the truth in pretty words. Just the facts, mam. Or hiding behind the classic “but everything is fine now,” dancing the practiced dance of the co-enabler.

We resolved the problem in a way that feels right to her. Sparks may still fly when the book comes out, but she's forestalled specific arguments by stating on the back of the title page that what she wrote is her truth as she remembers it, and that others may remember things differently.

Writing, especially when we deal with personal experience, has to be what we see as truth. It seems to me like anything else would dishonor both the readers and the author.

If we can’t do that, we should avoid controversial material and write only what is comfortable for family, friends, and the rest of the known world.

~ Linda

Monday, February 12, 2007

Extreme Weather & Our Trees

Unarguably, certain events can synergistically escalate the rate of global warming. Besides the rises in air and sea temperatures, that can also increase extreme weather occurrences. The recent super cell tornado in Florida and the 2006 “freak summer storm” in St. Louis obviously fall into that category. In fact, it seems as though new weather records are being set at, well, a record pace.

All such disasters are massively destructive to trees. Gale-force winds, heavy ice and snow, and super twisters wreak havoc wherever they touch land. Palm trees, evergreens and all kinds of deciduous trees – large and small – are yanked up by the roots. At least 350 trees in St. Louis’s historic Tower Gove Park were destroyed in a 4 month period, with hundreds of others mutilated. Hurricanes and tsunamis are equally devastating. It’s nature-made deforestation.

It finally occurred to me that this tree loss exacerbates the whole process of global warming. One of the causes has been the wanton, human deforestation of places like the Amazon basin. Fewer trees mean less conversion of CO2 to oxygen and less shade to reflect and defuse the sun’s rays. Humans are to blame for that.

Now man and nature are both destroying our leafy protectors.

The resultant extreme storms are destroying still more trees, further escalating the loss—storms destroy trees which further exacerbates global warming. How many other “direct results” are already contributing to this vicious cycle?

And why is it that not one of the largest polluting countries – the U. S., India and China – is willing to step forward and bite the bullet on manmade pollution?

That would be true, bold leadership ~

Thursday, February 8, 2007

This Writer's 2nd Office

That’s another thing about working at home, especially if that work is of the creative type. Looking at the same four walls 24/7 can get boring. You feel stale. The Inspiration Inn is festooned with dusty cobwebs.

My favorite solution is to head for a neighborhood coffee shop. For the first few books, it was Starbuck’s. The change in scenery and aroma of fresh ground coffee reset my brain cells and the words started flowing once again.

The problem with Starbuck’s is that their teensy tables allow very little space for papers and notebooks. Thank goodness, help arrived a couple of years ago in the form of Kaldi’s Coffee Shop just a few blocks south of here.

Like my previous hang out, Kaldi’s has great coffee. But it’s also offers delicious food, wi-fi connections which brings in a lot of laptop workers, and roomy tables, both booth and free-standing. I’ve found my second home office.

Scott Ginsberg, author of Hello, My Name is Scott, wrote an article while sitting in the produce section of a local health food store. Yesterday, I read that some woman wrote her first novel in the bathroom stall during breaks at work. Just think of all the potential “offices.” I can imagine how my writing style might vary according to location – Missouri Botanical Garden, Steak n Shake, the church library, or Chucky Cheese. Each place certainly puts me in a distinctly different mood!

The moral of this almost-story is that when a writer feels stale, she can make friends with a particular local hangout or experiment with the potential mental energy of a wide range of settings. Any of which are less boring than those same, dear 4 walls of home.

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Journal Writing for Businesses

This morning, a former stranger emailed me asking if I knew of any books on journaling for business purposes. I didn’t. Although I did mention my own book, The Many Faces of Journaling: topics & Techniques for Personal Journal Writing, which is a great resource for writing more interesting entries.

But the idea of business journaling began playing through my brain (which adores brainstorming!). It’s easy to see how one might keep a “goals” journal, entering both effective and disastrous steps toward specific goals. Keeping a record of what worked and what bombed, both large and small efforts, could be invaluable in almost any business, including mine.

That former stranger and I are now batting emails back and forth, developing starter sentences to get the business user on the right track for recording the appropriate stories in depth. And perhaps depth is the key to the ultimate usefulness of such journals.

Recording the cold, sparse essentials will reveal nothing of how close the effort may have come to success or of how even the failures sparked ideas for future tactics. Business journal entries need to be 3-dimensional, including the who, where, why, what and how. It may be that changing just one aspect would dramatically alter the outcome. But if those points aren’t down on paper (or computer file), later analysis will suffer for lack of information.

So today I learned (am still learning) that journaling has a powerful place in business, both the profit and non-profit kind. Who knew ...

Monday, February 5, 2007

"Organic" Writing

As I’ve often told my nonfiction writing classes, a book outline is organic. It continues to grow and develop well after you’ve put plans to paper. Which is what happened to me yesterday.

Thanks to a TV interviewer on Sunday morning cable, my next book, now in the scribbled notes stage, has a new, tighter focus. It’s a direction about which I feel far more passionate than the original book concept, and I’m ever so grateful for the eye opener. Of course, I now have to go back to pre-outline brainstorming. Not back to square 1 – just close to it.

And that’s exhilarating! A lot of my old notes will go into the revised version – some with a slightly different slant. But the fresh passion I feel for the topic is tapping into a whole reservoir of mental notes from the past.

Organic is good. As my book grows and becomes more beneficial to the readers (and fun to write), I get more excited about writing it. And that energy is the absolute most effective incentive for sitting down to the keyboard and working!
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Book Writing Tip #1: Only write a book about a topic that stirs your passion. If you aren’t especially interested, your readers won’t be either.

Book Writing Tip #2: If your book-in-progress starts growing in a new and improved direction, go with the flow – even if it means starting on the basic outline all over again. It’s usually well worth that effort.