Adventures in Writing

Titles are Important, but how important?

Everyone knows that the title of your book is important, but how crucial is the title of your manuscript?  I've been playing around with titles for my WIP and have come up with a few that I like but nothing that I'm head-over-heels about.  It made me wonder though...while querying how important is a title, so long as the work (the writing) is good?  Can a title break a deal?  To me, it seems like one grain of sand in the sand castle that is your manuscript.  Later on, it matters a lot, but not during the query process.  Just my thoughts.  Here is Rachelle Gardner's take on the issue of titles.

Her basic belief is that your title should be good and you should take some time in making it the best you can, hence her blog post.  Your thoughts?  Was the process of titling your WIP a breeze, a battle or somewhere in between?

Be a Warrior and then...hey, where'd you go?

That video clip featuring Ira Glass was the last thing I wrote.  Or so it seemed.  The message was meant to inspire but it had exactly the opposite effect on me.  "Keep plugging away.  Be a Warrior," it said but I got a little lost.  

My then-current WIP was out on submissions.  I had two fulls and a request for an exclusive full, which I couldn't fulfill until the other two agents got back.  One did so rather quickly with a 'no' and the other languished in no-man's land.   I didn't do much better.  I didn't start anything new even though I had intentions to do so.  I stopped reading my writing blogs.  I didn't beta for anyone.  And I didn't write.  At all.  

I quilted.  i redecorated a bathroom.  I mothered.  I celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and finally Valentine's day and still, I didn't write.  

I felt zapped and overwhelmed.  I felt defeated.  At some point I nudged the agent that still held my full and got nothing.  It had been too long to hold out hope, so I considered it a 'no'.  I could have sent the full to the agent asking for an exclusive, but I didn't.  I just did nothing.  Why?

Honestly, I think I just needed to assess what was important.  i loved writing but when I write, I lose myself in the story.  it eats up all of my extra time and some time that isn't extra.  I needed balance.

Here's the sunshine in all the doom and gloom.  I think I've found some balance.  I am writing again.  I try to write a little every day but the majority of my writing is done on Tuesdays and Thursdays when my youngest is at preschool.  If I don't write much on the other days, I let that be okay.  I still have a life outside of writing.  I enjoy my family time without looking longingly at the laptop.  Maybe to some that sounds like I've lost my fire, but I think the opposite is true.  

Before, I burned bright and fast and went out just as quickly.  Now, I hope to sustain a long glowing fire indefinitely, sustained, not distracted by my family and life outside of writing.  

Balance, people.  It has saved me from myself.  

What works for you?  How do you keep your writing fire burning bright?

 

Well Said

I'm probably opening myself up to a whole lot of hate mail from either side of this issue, but I just have to put in my two cents.  The Twilight Series.  It's funny to me how polarizing this specific series of books has become. I will freely admit that I've read it and liked the series overall.  There is something about the pacing and the escapism that I really enjoyed, plus I'm a real sucker for love triangles––what can I say?  However, I wouldn't call Twilight literature. 

  The interesting part was that as the phenomenon grew to a fevered pitch there arose a choice--you either had to love it or hate it.  There was no room for appreciating the book for what it was.  Either it was total crap or the greatest thing ever written.   

When I read this post by Nathan Bransford about the Writing vs. Storytelling, I almost stood up from the computer to say 'Amen'.  

"What I meant by last week's post is not that every popular book is written phenomenally well, but a popular book is doing SOMETHING very well, and it's far more valuable to try to pinpoint what that writer is succeeding at rather than simply dismissing a book as being horribly written just because you don't like it or just because the prose isn't top notch.

It might be the suspense, it might be the tension, it might be the pacing, it might be the setting, it might be the characters, or even more likely a combination of several different elements. But if a book is phenomenally popular, something is working that is attracting readers, and no, it's not just the marketing....

Yes, good writing aids storytelling, you need a certain level of writing for a book to work. But just because you don't care for the prose doesn't mean there's nothing that's working and nothing to be learned."

Thank you Mr. Bransford, for again stating so clearly what I have been wanting to hear.

I Wrote a Book: Part Two

I've gotten this question quite a lot lately:  "So what is your book about?"  In an effort to answer this questions I will post a part of my query letter.  The purpose of a query letter is to introduce your book to the agent in a form similar to a book's jacket cover synopsis.  Here is mine query paragraph describing the essence of my book.

There isn't much Kate Donovan hates more than to draw attention to herself, and yet that's just what she does when she foils an attempted high school shooting; a feat made possible through Kate’s ability to read minds.  The ensuing glances and pointed thoughts from her fellow students invade and bombard Kate, shaking her like a rag doll.  For this and many other reasons, Kate has spent years striving for a life inconsequentiality, but the shooting changed all that.  

Kate’s life grows even more troubling when Alex, a mysterious stranger, appears.  He reveals that he shares Kate's ability and that she is in serious danger.  Alex explains that Kate’s mother, a woman she hardly remembers, could Read too and that she was murdered by assassins that target Readers.  These killers will return for Kate to either recruit or kill her.

Alex offers to teach Kate the skills she’ll need to survive and Kate accepts with the hope that she can return to her normal life afterward.  Once immersed into the world of Readers, Kate finds that nothing is as she expected.  She is forced to trust without Reading and is asked continually to stretch her ability into realms she couldn’t have envisioned.  Kate comes face to face with the truth behind her mother’s death and the betrayal nearly kills her.  Yet, in the end the choice remains with Kate.  Who will she be:  one who will hide––or one who will stand and fight?

So would you read a book like this?  Would your daughters or sons?

 

The Shortest Distance?

When I first heard about this book, I thought "I should read that."  Then I did nothing.  The second time it was recommended, I thought "I really need to read that."  And I did nothing.  The third time, I was told that if you want to learn about the process of publishing a book, read this, I didn't think, I clicked over to Amazon and bought a copy.  By Susan Page, The Shortest Distance Between You and a Published Book is supposed to be the best resource for people like me who are unpublished.  When it arrived today, I felt all giddy and excited.  Not that I expect a miracle, by any means, but I'm very anxious what this book can offer.

Have any of you out there, read this and if so, what did you think?

Book Review: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

 
 The Help by Kathryn Stockett is my most recent read.  Set in Mississippi in the mid-1960s, The Help addresses the civil right movements through the prospectives of three protagonists––two black women that serve as maids in white households and a young white woman raised in such a home.  The voice is perfect, the characters vivid and the setting interesting.  

I don't have a lot of negatives, except for one thing.  One chapter is written almost like a newspaper article--third person and withdrawn.  It bothers me because all the other chapters are written in the voice of one of the three women.  This single chapter felt out of place and reminded that I was reading something someone wrote--it pulled me out of the world the author had created.  I don't know why she did that and I'm sure she has her reasons but I don't know what it would be.  This is the one and only real complaint I had with the book.  I'd highly recommend it and gave it 5 stars.