by Alex Langley
Newbie writers are often so concerned with the act of getting their story assembled that they build what it essentially a screenplay, only bothering to denote character names, actions, and backgrounds the with barest of unornamented description. This sort of writing flows like a water fountain with someone’s thumb over it, sputtering, spewing, and spilling everywhere in a way which satisfies no one. For prose to truly flow, it needs emotion. It needs the colorful, wonderful thing we call metaphor. It needs to go beyond merely telling what’s happening— it needs to show it.
Every sound, no matter how minute, echoed along the unornamented walls of the Obsidian Room. Lancie suppressed a shiver as she stepped through the open archway.
Tyban leaned against a table covered with maps and notes and the little figurines he claimed helped him plan military strategies but were mostly there because he liked the look of them. Deep, purple grooves marred the skin beneath his eyes, as if his worries had spent the night pacing back and forth across his face. His lips were cracked, his beard unkempt.
It took him a moment to notice Lancie; he quirked a brow at her without a word.
She sighed and shook her head no.
While I’m certainly not claiming that the above section is the World’s Most Perfectest Prose Ever Written, I feel confident in proclaiming it to be better than the prose that preceded it. It’s a section that shows—rather than tells—you what the characters are feeling.
STARTING POINT: TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING
The publishing landscape spent most of its years fairly solidified. As with most industries, however, the advent of the Internet has thrown publishers for a loop. While the additional opportunities for connections afforded to you by the Internet are undoubtedly a good thing, with these opportunities come additional responsibilities that you, dear writer, will need to understand and undertake.
HAVING A SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE HELPS, BUT IT ISN’T REQUIRED
If you’re publishing traditionally these days, you can get away with being an offline recluse. Your literary agent will probably put together some kind of a shell of an online presence, like a minimalist Twitter account that mostly tweets publishing dates, interviews with you, and articles featuring your work. You’ll probably get strongly encouraged to get online, and, given that you’re reading this book, you probably already are online, so you might as well make the most of it.
DON’T READ THE REVIEWS
When your book comes out, it’s very tempting to read every review of it. Don’t.
For the love of Thor, don’t read the reviews, no matter whether they’re professionals doing full write-up reviews or quick Amazon reviews. We humans have a quirk called the NEGATIVITY BIAS, which is the tendency to pay better attention to, and remember, negative information than positive information. While from an evolutionary perspective this has helped us become better at deciphering dangerous situations, it also has the unpleasant side effect of making us retain negative memories more strongly than the positive. Magician Penn Jillette, on an episode of the Nerdist podcast, recounted how he’d had numerous positive interactions on Twitter with people telling him they’d enjoyed his work, and yet the messages he remembered most were when people were being jerks.28 Of all the reviews of my books, one that has stuck with me over the years was from a random goober who complained about my writing using a pile of grammar so abhorrent to look at that it was almost Lovecraftian.
The best thing to do with reviews is to ignore them until you can have someone you know, someone you trust, read them when you’re not watching them for their every reaction. Let them filter through the reviews more objectively than you can, sifting through the worthwhile critiques and legitimate positive points and angry ramblings. It’ll let you keep learning from your mistakes without sticking in your craw quite as hard. Critiques are an important part of building your skill as a writer, but not everyone with an opinion is going to give you a good critique. Bad reviews can be severely discouraging, no matter how far along you are in your career; when you’re a newbie writer, however, that discouragement can lead to the abandonment of your career.
PUBLISHING SUCCESS CAN BE ACHIEVED THROUGH SUCCESS IN OTHER FIELDS
If you have a successful-enough blog, YouTube channel, or, hell, even Instagram account, you may end up getting offered a book deal about your topic of choice. Being famous for one thing makes you an enticing property to people who sell other things. Just think of how many mouth-breathing celebrities have books (most of which were ghost-written for them by people who know the difference between a colon and a large intestine).
However, tons of terrific, smart people get book deals based on their other works, people such as Felicia Day or even my wife, Katrina “Action Chick” Hill, whose action-movie blog led to her first book deal. The YouTube series The Haunting of Sunshine Girl gained such popularity that it spun off into a series of novels based on the work.
If you do something well, don’t be surprised if you get a book offer someday. Still, if your heart’s goal is to write a book, don’t focus exclusively on trying to become a YouTube star in the hopes of getting a book deal. That’s a silly use of your time and energy.
GO TO BOOK CONVENTIONS, WRITING CONVENTIONS, ALL KINDS OF CONVENTIONS!
I’ve espoused the virtues of attending fan conventions elsewhere throughout the book; those benefits apply to professional writers as much as they do any other professionally nerdy career.
Writing-oriented conventions, the kinds with literary agents, publishers, and published authors as the main guests, are an invaluable resource for any up-and-coming writer. Getting face time with agents and the other people in power will help you learn the sorts of things they’re looking for, as well as becoming more memorable to them in the future (hopefully for a good reason, not because you were so nervous that you forgot your business cards and spit on yourself and tried unsuccessfully to laugh it all off like I did).
Writing conventions also offer real-time experiences you can’t get anywhere else in the form of lectures and workshops. DFWCon, a Dallas-area writing convention, famously has a Gong Show for its writers. The set-up? Writers submit their query letters to a panel of three agents. The letters are then read, aloud, in front of a crowd of hopeful writers and the agents audibly reject the letters the instant they’re no longer interested. Sure, it’s brutal to see your work potentially get ripped to shreds with people watching, but it’s a brutally effective learning tool for seeing where your query needs work, as each literary agent explains why they rejected your letter when they did. On the less nerve-wracking side of things, writing conventions also offer classes where professionals will share craft secrets and techniques, Q & A sessions with literary agents and other important literary folks, classes on nitty-gritty technical and financial details you might not think to research because you don’t know they exist, and workshops where the pros will help you get past that thing keeping your story stuck in chapter eleven. These are the sorts of experiences you can’t get without hitting the convention circuit.
WORDS FROM WORKING NERDS
Regina Richards, award-winning author of gothic historical romance and fantasy adventure with strong romantic elements, such as the gothic Blood Marriage and the fantasy-adventure The Blue Breeze, the first in the Hell Hollows series
Russ Linton, author of the gritty superhero Crimson Son series—Crimson Son, Motherland, and the short story collection Empty Quiver—and the “Kafka and Tolkien on the Ganges” fantasy series The Stormblade Saga—Pilgrim of the Storm, Forge of the Jadugar, and Wake of Alshasra’a
Annie Neugebauer, author of speculative fiction, literary fiction, poetry, and blog columns, and perhaps most known for horror
Dan Hammond, author of Delbert Judd, The Solomon Twist, and the short story collection Ice
Jennifer August, author of erotic romance novels such as Affair of Convenience, His Lady Thief, Knight of the Mist, and the Sexual Magic series
Lisa Bubert, a writer whose fiction and poetry
have appeared in Carolina Quarterly, Wildness, Barnstorm Journal, Spartan, and more; her story “Formation” was named a finalist in the Texas Institute of Letters Kay Cattarrula Award for Best Short Story
LANGLEY:
How did you get started as writers?
RICHARDS:
I knew I wanted to write from the moment I held my first book in my hands as a child, but there was no support for that desire from either teachers or parents. They were all certain I should be a lawyer or a politician. But those were their dreams, not mine. Anyway, life kept happening and writing didn’t. Though a tremendous amount of reading did!
In 2003, I agreed to teach a class on writing to a group of homeschool students. While doing research for that class, I discovered a community of writers online who were critiquing one another’s work. I sat down and wrote something and submitted it for critique. My inbox started to fill surprisingly quickly, but I was afraid to look at the critiques, so I allowed them to pile up for days. When I finally opened and read them, they were glowing beyond my wildest dreams. I laid my head on my desk and cried for joy.
From then on, I began writing and honing my craft. In 2012, I published my first novel to excellent reviews. I truly love this work. My only regret is that I didn’t begin sooner.
LINTON:
After college, I bounced around a bit between creative outlets, crazy adventures, and raising my son. In 2012, I decided to enroll in an online creative writing course through Stanford, and the feedback there was encouraging enough that I started submitting stories that year.
When I finished my first novel, Crimson Son, in late 2013, I’d been submitting stories to online magazines and anthologies for two years. With half a dozen published stories and articles under my belt, I’d had plenty of practice for the trad pub [traditional publishing] gauntlet to follow. But I’m maybe not known for my patience. I made the decision to self-publish then and haven’t looked back.
BUBERT:
I wrote my first poem at age eight. It was about buttercups, and my mom really loved it. My second manifesto was at age nine when I researched my family history in Texas (the obsession started early). I’ve written off and on, but only really got serious about it after I graduated with my library degree, got married, and found myself without any new items I needed to check off on the to-do list of life. It took me a long time to take myself seriously as a writer; I spent a lot of time waiting for someone else to bestow the title on me, kind of like they do when they hire you as a librarian and then hey! you’re a librarian now.
LANGLEY:
Where do you find ideas and inspirations for your writing?
AUGUST:
My critique partners and groups. Critique groups are great for gathering myriad responses to your writing—especially multi-genre groups. A lot of my male characters have been strengthened by critiques from the men in my critique groups because they provide insight into a guy’s brain. They give me the unvarnished truth and swift kick in the pants I need, whether it’s reworking a piece in the book or pushing me to write.
NEUGEBAUER:
Everywhere and anywhere—isn’t that an infuriating answer? But it’s true; there’s no one source I go to for ideas. I live my life, consume art, think, and ideas manifest as a natural result of my interests, beliefs, and experiences. I might be researching one thing and watching a TV show that sparks a new combination. Or I could be struggling with something in my life and discover that a strange metaphor is the best way to capture that issue in fiction. The possibilities are endless, which is really the most beautiful thing about ideas: There are always more. And creativity is a muscle, so the more you come up with ideas, the easier it is to come up with more.
LINTON:
Friends and fellow authors. People exactly like me pursuing their dreams. Writers are an odd bundle of introverted souls with manic interests and exuberant opinions. Chances are, wherever you live, there is a group of like-minded souls on the same path, and I highly recommend seeking them out for advice, inspiration, and butt jokes.
HAMMOND:
Nothing inspires me more than working through plots with other writers or speaking in general about the process. I’m old-school, so I appreciate the dogged, write-everyday efforts of John Updike. I appreciate the passion for writing that Frank Conroy expressed.
LANGLEY:
What tips do you have for defeating procrastination and other obstacles as a writer?
LINTON:
There are a whole slew of mental obstacles to overcome as a writer. “Am I good enough? Will anyone read what I’ve written? How can I write another word on this damn book?” There are stigmas about self-publishers, impossible economic realities of an overcrowded industry, and relentless politics infiltrating even creative pursuits. Like most obstacles, you tear them down through plain old mental toughness.
Many people, however, face obstacles that they simply can’t think their way past or get tough about. As a writer, I do have my own bundle of quirks and issues that could possibly be described on some clinical scale. (I don’t think I’m overstepping by saying this is a common thing among creative types.) But I’ve learned to understand these to be not just obstacles but part of who I am, which informs my creative process.
NEUGEBAUER:
You have to feel deeply driven to write to make the effort and emotional expense worth it. It’s hard. I’ve been doing this for ten years, and it’s still so hard. If anything, it has only gotten more difficult. I imagine a lot of people start, realize the effort outweighs the benefits for them, and move on. I think that’s fine. No shame in not wanting to dedicate your life to such a specific and finicky pursuit. But if it’s what you want, you have to be willing to work through all the barriers and setbacks.
Ira Glass captures another reason many would-be writers quit: the gap between our taste and our abilities. If you’re an avid reader, as most writers are, you’ve probably developed fantastic taste. You know when a book is high quality, well written, beautifully paced, etc. But when you decide to write one of your own, it won’t be. Writing is a highly nuanced combination of skills that takes years to master; of course you don’t start out awesome at it. That’s frustrating and disappointing—to know what you want to create but not yet be capable of doing it. So a lot of writers quit, assuming they don’t have what it takes, when in reality they merely need to practice. Reading and writing, though related, aren’t twins. It takes a whole new set of study to become proficient as a writer. But if that’s what you want, it’s worth the work.
BUBERT:
There were plenty of exterior obstacles, but my biggest has always been myself. I’ve always known deep down that I wanted to write professionally, but I formerly believed it to be such an unreal ambition that for years I didn’t treat it with the respect it needed. I pursued other careers and other goals because it seemed so unattainable. I sabotaged myself by thinking that I would only be a real writer if I published something and then looked at everything I published with contempt for one ill-formed reason or another.
I ran myself off an anxiety cliff worrying about whether or not what I did was good enough. And then, in a phase of self-care, I told myself I would quit writing. And I did; I quit pursuing a writing career for three years. And what I found was that I still wrote. I wrote poems that didn’t seem like poems, essays that didn’t seem like essays, and eventually started a book that wasn’t a book. The difference was that I expected nothing out of any of it. I did it because I enjoyed it. I wasn’t sharing the work with anyone; I had no intentions of publishing any of it. It was only after three years of a monkish realignment of my perspective that I was able to gently tiptoe myself back into critique group, public readings, and eventually into the submission process.
LANGLEY:
How do you feel social media has changed things for authors?
NEUGEBAUER:
As with almost all new technologies, for better and for worse. The opportunities are endless: marketing, networkin
g, connecting, learning, teaching, selling, publishing, and on and on. But of course those things can all also be distractions and time-drains. Learning how to effectively utilize social media takes a lot of time and is a moving target. There’s also a potentially scary-ugly side to social media; we’ve seen authors mocked and torn down and careers destroyed. Ultimately, social media means more accessibility for—and to—authors, which can be beneficial and risky in equal measure. I have a love/hate relationship with social media.
BUBERT:
If you are someone who wants to connect with readers and is comfortable with self-promotion (and can do it well), social media is a godsend when you’re feeling pretty low but can receive feedback from a stranger that makes your heart pitter-patter and help you remember that you’re not that awful after all. Of course, this siren song of feedback can also turn into a feedback loop that your lizard brain isn’t equipped to handle, and the next thing you know it’s weeks later and you’ve made a lot of tweets and Instagram posts but haven’t started on your book.
LANGLEY:
What do you feel are the advantages of online publishing versus traditional publishing?