My Husband's in the Philadelphia Film Festival! Yippee!

Okay, I know I said I wasn't going to blog again until after Thanksgiving, but I'm excited. He's all quiet and shy about it, but I don't have to be. My husband Mehran was just notified that his 25-minute short, The Hundredth Monkey, has been officially selected for inclusion in the Philadelphia Short Film Festival. If you work in that medium at all, you know how hard it is to get into a film festival nowadays. My husband rocks. So there.

Tip: Retype! (I know, but do it anyway) and Some Online Updates

First, note that Glimmer Train just sent out a notice that their next Very Short Fiction Award deadline is January 31. Contest fee is $10 per submission, which is reasonable. Also, re: my post immediately below, I've found you actually can check something under contact preferences if you don't want them sending you any notifications at all.

Plus, my favorite site Publishers Marketplace has a new feature included in the $15 paid services, "who represents." You can now search their database on an author name to find out what agent represents the author. Not everyone will be in there, but some people will. I think it needs time to grow to get more data, but it could prove to be a really great tool.

Now then, the tip: one of my writing teachers, Chuck Wachtel, told me this and it has proved invaluable. When you're revising, DON'T just go into your original document on the word processor and start tweaking. Make yourself print out the old version, mark it up if you want, and type it back in. You will be amazed at the fresh ideas you have and how much smoother it gets. I'm not sure why. A talented writer friend of mine, Philip Herter, posits that it's because the mind is relaxed while you're doing all that typing, so it's freer to be creatively inspired. I know it sounds like drudgery, but it works. Give it a try.

Will probably be absent from these pages until after Thanksgiving. I'm trying to give myself a computer-free holiday to reduce the stress level. See [figuratively] y'all in December!

Tip: The Glimmer Train Site Is Easy to Submit To

I've mentioned this site briefly in a previous post, but I wanted to go into more detail because I think it really is a model for online submission of writer's work. Glimmer Train Stories is a highly reputable literary review that publishes quarterly in a nice glossy hard copy format. As these reviews go, it's fairly open to new writers and to less traditional work. It sponsors lots of contests, including one for flash fiction, which they call "very short fiction."

The thing that's nice about submitting online, especially if it's as painless as Glimmer Train makes it, is that it cuts through some of the psychological obstacles to submitting. You know how that is - you've got the story done on your computer, now you have to print it out, rats the paper jammed, rats you're out of ink, rats you forgot to insert page numbers and now you have to do it again, now you have to do a self-addressed stamped envelope, but you keep feeding in the envelope the wrong way, and anyway you're out of stamps. All this gives our psyches wonderful excuses to just forget the whole thing.

With the Glimmer Train site, once you've got the story typed into your computer and an online connection, you can really do the whole thing in a couple of minutes. The first time you go to Glimmer Train Press Online Submissions you need to set up a little account, just with your email and a password. They don't sell your email, but they will use it to send you reminders of contest deadlines in case you want to submit to their contests (not too annoying - about one every two months). From there on the instructions are very easy to follow. There is a space provided to type in an optional short cover letter with your credentials, if any. If your story is very short, less than 250 words, like a flash fiction story often is, you can paste it into a space provided. If it's longer, you can choose a "download" option, browse to your story's location on your computer, and send it that way - very easy! You can click to all the guidelines and info you need. You can just do a standard story submission, or you can enter one of their contests, paying the entry fee (very modest, nothing to set off the scam alarms) with a credit card. You can even check on the status of what you've sent by clicking on the "My Subsmissions" link.

One weird thing is that every once in a while I get a notice that I am not using the "secure connection" and a "click here for better connection" link. I just click where it says and have no problems.

So what the hell, if you've got any stories hanging around on your computer, cybersend them on over to Glimmer Train. As Wayne Gretzky said, "You miss a hundred percent of the shots you never take."

Tip: More on Outlining, Planning, and Procrastination

I've heard from some of you that you write like I do - no planning, no outlines. Good for you. Once again, if you are one of those writers who likes an outline and a plan when you work, good for you, too. There is no one right way to approach this. You are writing, one way or another, and that is the important thing.

However, once more, I want to warn you about the dangers of "planning as procrastination." There is something in the nature of writing that makes the unconscious - and I include my own pesky unconscious here - do loops around itself to think of anything, anything, to keep us from actually sitting down and practicing our craft. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because it's high stakes; most of us have ambitions for our writing, and some fear that whatever we're about to put down on paper won't measure up. Maybe it's because it's emotionally draining. (A famous sports journalist once said, "Writing? There's nothing to it. Just pull up a chair and open a vein.")

There are as many ways for the unconscious to trick us into not writing as there are writers. Some people must have their writing space just so; any deviation, any little nicety that they think they need is absent, and that's it, they tell themselves they can't work. Some people must be "in the mood." (Any work at all in journalism will soon cure you of that.) Some people "can't " write while there are still dishes and laundry to be done. My own unconscious's method is to hit me with a wave of fatigue the minute I turn on my laptop to work. Doesn't matter what time of day it is, how much sleep I've had, or how much energy I had thirty seconds before. Suddenly, just as I'm about to type my first word, nothing seems quite so appealing as a nap. We all do this; I have writer friends who call me saying, "Hi, I'm procrastinating on getting started on my next chapter so I thought I'd chat." We chat for a few minutes but then they have to go start writing.

And yes, sometimes, we tell ourselves that unless we know exactly how our story is going to end, we can't start it. That unless we know exactly how the hero is going to meet the heroine over the exploding gas tank, we can't put down a word. This ignores the fact that very, very often what the story should be, and what should happen in it, reveal themselves as we write. Somehow beginning the work frees up our minds to be open to ideas.

It strikes me that we are being very hard on ourselves if we don't allow ourselves to begin writing without a locked-down outline or plan - kind of like demanding that the story already be written before we're allowed to begin writing it.

So here's the point. Only you know if your planning for your story (or novel, or poem, or whatever) is in fact making you procrastinate or not. Really think about it. If it is, or the procrastination gremlins have an unbreakable grip on you in any other way, lighten up. Relax. Plan all you want, but also make yourself write five minutes a day. Just that. That's all. Even if all you get down is one sentence. (Hey, at the end of year, that's a short story.) You can usually slip this much past the procrastination demons - it's not enough to make you tense up. It's manageable. When you're ready - whether it's days, weeks, or months - move up to ten minutes a day. It will make a difference. Things will start to shift. I swear.

Tip: Name-Dropping, Its Practical Uses

Blogging a little less frequently this week as house and schedule are in a bit of an uproar. My husband, as I may have mentioned, is an independent filmmaker currently shooting a "no-budget" (the new "low-budget") vampire flick. Spent all Sunday dressed as a Goth in a club scene. Went pretty well except we think that three of the extras who showed up, the ones no one else knew, stole the club owner's penis-shaped ashtray, which we feel pretty bad about. Hanging around movie sets is one of those things that sounds very jet-setty but, as anyone who ever does it knows, is actually amazingly tedious. As my husband's favorite film teacher, Larry Clark at SF State, once said, "Making a movie is as glamorous as changing a tire." And sometimes there's no jack.

But anyway.

I wanted to talk about name-dropping as a help to new writers, especially in query letters. Believe it or not, and whether or not it's fair, a judicious amount of quiet, unpretentious name-dropping can indeed make you stand out from the crowd as literary reviews, zines, publishers, and agents look over your work, trying to find a reason to look at your stuff instead of the other ninety-nine unsolicited manuscripts on their desks. A lot of gratuitous self-aggrandizing won't help, but there's an acceptable way to drop names.

Go though these questions and see if you can come up with any names: What writing classes have you taken? Were any of your teachers published writers? (Usually they are.) Have you attended any seminars taught by published writers? Have you had a friendly connection with any published writers at readings, conferences, or via email?

Okay. Do you have at least a couple of names now? In your query letters, where you would list any credentials you have (don't worry if you don't have any yet and these names you're about to drop are it) put down that you have studied with [insert the names of the writers whose classes or seminars you have taken]. Put the titles, publishers, and years of their books in parenthesis after their names. For example,

I've studied with Author Bigname (The Best Book in the World, Simon & Schuster, 2003).

This can be helpful wherever you're trying to get published: agent, short-story mag, publisher, whatever. It just lets them know that you have something of a professional background and know some people in the industry.

Now then, how about any friendly connections with other authors? Publishers and agents are interested in who might give your proposed project a blurb (literary reviews, magazines, and zines won't be interested in that, so don't bother with this where they're concerned). So, you might write, "I believe I could get an endorsement for My Book from Author Bigname, who has been very encouraging of my writing." No one will sue you if Author Bigname decides not to blurb you should it come to the point (and in point of fact many authors try to help each other out this way).

None of this will guarantee that you will get published. But anything that shows your commitment, seriousness, and involvement in the writing/publishing world helps.

As always, good luck!

New Flash Fiction: Converse, a Brand Name

Well, first, pal Robin's Dutton's Brentwood event for The Wild Irish was a raging success, as was her San Francisco stop, so thanks if you were one of the folks who stopped by. She spend last weekend and early this week in Chicago, where I'm sure she also hit the city by storm.

As for me, now that Halloween is over, I'm doing the desperately needed revisions of the first drafts you've all seen of my Halloween prose poems/flash fiction (they're better already, I swear). In the meantime . . .

Converse, a Brand Name

I know you of old. I sit on this covered pool table well after midnight in this five-buck cover place. You stand up there on the stage with your five-buck cover band.

You’re thicker. Not heavier, exactly, just . . . thicker. The skin around your eyes doesn’t look the same as it used to in that harsh light.

You smile at me. You know me because I like your band. You remember me buying your CDs a couple of times, your T-shirt once.

I am not a groupie. I am the oldest member of your audience.

I remember you lean, I remember your shoulder blades and face sharp, not that long ago, I’m sure.

How many times have I seen you look down at that play list handwritten on lined notebook paper set on the stage in front of you? How many times have I sat here in thick Doc Martens and flimsy black dresses, absently twisting one of my fourteen earrings?

“Ein, zwei, drei,” you count, like Johnny Rotten before you and John Lennon before him. I’m not your stepping stone.

What’s up with you, huh? What’s with that shot glass of Wild Turkey straight up soda back sitting on your amp instead of your old Rolling Rock? Where’s that bleached blond bass player you used to cut up with on stage? Where’d he go?

Look at your feet. Don’t you know they’re all wearing Converse One Stars now? Don’t you know they already only wear the All Stars in memory of us?

Say something to me. Play me “Sister Goldenhair.” I never loved you before tonight, and now it's hitting hard, a sea storm welling up from somewhere in the middle of my body to smash me against a covered pool table shore.

Tip: On Getting Published

Neil Gaiman, who I think I've mentioned in this blog once before, is the author of the big bestseller Coraline, as well as other bestsellers Neverwhere, American Gods, Stardust, The Wolves in the Walls, and more. In the FAQ section of his Web site and blog at www.neilgaiman.com, he gives the best, most straightforward advice I've seen about getting published. Note especially his comments about finishing what you write, and how things that keep you writing are good, things that stop you writing are bad. A timeless truth. Here's his answer to the question, "How do you get published?" used, of course, with his permission:

How do you do it? You do it.

You write.

You finish what you write.

You look for publishers who publish "that kind of thing", whatever it is. You send them what you've done (a letter asking if they'd like to see a whole manuscript or a few chapters and an outline will always be welcome. And stamped self-addressed envelopes help keep the wheels turning.)

Sooner or later, if you don't give up and you have some measurable amount of ability or talent or luck, you get published. But for people who don't know where to begin, let me offer a few suggestions:

Meet editors. If you're into SF, Horror or Fantasy, go to the kinds of SF, Horror or Fantasy conventions that editors go to (mainly the big ones - look for words like WORLD or NATIONAL in the title). Same goes for Romance or Crime. Join associations - SFWA or HWA or the Romance Writers of America or The Society of Authors. Most organisations like that have an associate membership for people who wouldn't qualify for a full membership.

Even if you haven't met any editors, send your stuff out.

The "slush pile" of unsolicited manuscripts is not always a bad thing - publishers take enormous pleasure in finding authors from the slush pile (Iain Banks and Storm Constantine are both writers who simply sent out manuscripts to publishers), although it occurs rarely enough that it has to be a special thing when it happens.

If you write short stories, don't worry about agents, just find places that might print the stories and get them out there. If you write novels, I think it's six of one, half a dozen of the other. I'd written and published 3 books before I decided it was time to get an agent.

Writers groups can be good and they can be bad. Depends on the people in them, and what they're in them for.

On the whole, anything that gets you writing and keeps you writing is a good thing. Anything that stops you writing is a bad thing. If you find your writers group stopping you from writing, then drop it.

The other thing I'd suggest is Use The Web.

Use it for anything you can - writers groups, feedback, networking, finding out how things work, getting published. It exists: take advantage of it.

Believe in yourself. Keep writing.

Tip: Plot Planning (or Not)

Okay, first I want to say: don't forget that my dear friend, wonderful person, and author of the bestselling page-turner The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn, Robin Maxwell, will be reading from her terrific new book The Wild Irish in the Los Angeles area tomorrow night, Thursday, November 6, at 7 pm at Dutton's Brentwood, 11975 San Vincente Blvd. Apparently there will be live Irish music there! The Wild Irish is about the real-life Irish pirate queen Grace O'Malley, her adventures, her husbands, and her relationship and rivalry with the most powerful woman of her age, Queen Elizabeth I. Now doesn't that sound like a fun evening? I'm going so I'll see you there.

Okay, now on to the tip.

A friend (hi!) emailed me, "Maybe you can write something on your blog about how you outline a story--e.g., how detailed you get, how much forethought you put into the plot before you start writing."

Well, here's the deal. I honestly don't put that much thought into it. I don't outline, not even novels, although sometimes when I'm partway through I look at what I've done and organize and try to plan a little. But I don't begin with an outline. I often don't know how something is going to develop or end until I am writing it. I see where my energy goes, and what seems to drive and interest me about the characters and the situations, and let the story kind of reveal itself. Someimes I definitely write things that I toss out later because of this. They were explorations, and I learned something from them about the piece, but for whatever reason they didn't go where, in the end, I felt compelled to go. If I don't know what to do next, I stop, let it simmer, and pick it up again when I get a new idea.

I have since learned there is a fancy name for this: organic writer. So thank goodness it is not simple laziness, as I first suspected.

Not all writers are like this. Some of them begin with clear, detailed ideas about exactly what they want to have happen, and very clear plans. They need to think it out, make notes and get an outline on paper before they begin. If you are one of those writers, it is perfectly okay. Everyone has a different process.

In fact, you may do far better than me at plot, which is my weak point. I constantly need to struggle to put in enough complexities to satisfy the reader, instead of just indulging my own emotional needs in the writing. For some writers (including my filmmaker screenwriter husband), these plot twists and turns come more naturally than they do to me. (The buzz is that J.K. Rowling has known the basic outline and plot of the entire Harry Potter series, including the remaining unwritten ones, since the very first book.)

I will say that if you are an outlining writer, you want to make sure that you aren't so wedded to your outline that you adhere to it slavishly even though you get other ideas. You should explore those ideas. And also, you shouldn't spend so much time getting your outline perfect that you never get around to writing your story or novel; this is a common diversionary tactic among our kind. Yes, it is.

Hey, has anyone gotten around to staging their own readings/events yet? Fall is such a good time for this. See my entry about it on Oct. 14 - it's easy and it so much beats sitting at home watching Seinfeld reruns. If you have, email me and let me know how it went, I'd love to hear. My email's under the links over at the right.