Tip: Finish Things

Seems like a no-brainer, right? You would be amazed, astounded, at the number of new and emerging writers who do not finish what they start. Yet finishing your projects is what separates the pros from the hobbyists (not that there's anything wrong with being a hobbyist - it's just that I want this blog to be helpful to people whose dream is to get published). Neil Gaiman, author of Coraline and The Wolves in the Walls, among many other books, talks about this in his blog, too, in his FAQ.

Many of us begin, say, a novel, or a screenplay, get a third through it, go back, tinker with the first part, read it over, tinker with it again, repeat. Then we get what seems to be a better idea and abandon the project altogether. Stop that! Slow and steady wins the race, guys. It's hard to keep momentum when the first flush of a creative idea is over and you're dealing with the day-to-day writing, a few pages a day, every day. I know. I really do know. But do it anyway. Push yourself through. If you know you have to write a chapter in which someone gets from New York to Paris, and you're uninspired, write it. Just write it. I don't care if it's crappy and unpoetic and has nothing but short, declarative sentences: "She got on the plane. She went to Paris." You can fix it later! Or skip ahead to another part and fill that one in later. Just finish the whole thing. Then you can start another one.

It is finished plays, novels, and screenplays that get consideration for beginners. Even if you are already published, unless you already have a very successful track record, or a big name, or an idea that's so clearly commercially viable houses are bidding all over the place for it, in fiction you still often have to finish the whole novel or story collection before a publishing house will buy it. In nonfiction that's less true, but you still typically have to finish your first project.

And beyond all this, there's amazing psychological benefit to finishing something. It gives you a sense of accomplishment, legitimacy, achievement, and confidence. You build a portfolio of work. When you don't finish your projects, they hang over your head, eating away at your self-esteem. When you finish them, if someone says, "I can't take this one on, but I love your style, do you have anything else?" you can say, "Why, yes. Yes, I do."

This is one of the reasons I teach flash fiction - because people can finish it fairly easily. Then you get all these psychological benefits, and can move on to longer things, if you wish.

But whatever you write, try to finish it! Your writing life will change for the better, I promise.

A Fantasy Trilogy in Haiku

I was moving right along on my Flash Fiction Fantasy Trilogy in Three Paragraphs, in fact had done two and half of them, but suddenly wanted even more brevity, so I decided to try it in Haiku.

I. The Quest
Approaching manhood,
orphan is told by fairy
he must seek a sword.

II. The Sword
Villain with horns is
defeated, but wait, there is
yet more. A princess.

III. The King
Crushes usurper;
fights with, then marries princess.
Takes his rightful place.

Epilogue
Movie rights; X-box
games aplenty. We all await
the action figures.

Don't get me wrong - I love fantasy trilogies!

Bragging Rights: Husband Won a Film Fest Prize!

Can't help myself - my husband, filmmaker Mehran Saky, found out this morning that he won the Jury Award for Editing for his short, The Hundredth Monkey, at the Philadelphia Film Festival. Does this mean I'm married to an award-winning filmmaker? I think it does!

Back in Glendale now, more tips and new fiction to come! I'm going to try for a flash fiction fantasy trilogy . . .

Off to Northern California

I'm off for a long weekend in Marin and Berkeley - will try to do an audblog or two from there. Write on!

More Suspicious Room

audio post powered by audblog

From Deep in Glendale

audio post powered by audblog

New Flash Fiction: "Forgetting Sagittarius"

Took a break from The Suspicious Room last night and popped this out instead. Based on a true story!

Forgetting Sagittarius

It was only an entry-level job at the major metro paper The Times, but Josephine was glad to have it. Seven years she had worked in Chico and Visalia to get up to this level. Her most important duty was checking the Entertainment Datebook and the daily crossword and horoscopes before they went to press at three in the morning.

She thought everything was there. She counted twelve entries. Twelve signs in the zodiac, right? She pressed the button to send it to composition. She didn’t know there was a special entry for If Today Is Your Birthday.

The calls started at 6 a.m. By the time Josephine got in at noon her boss had a list of people for her to call about the missing Sagittarius Horoscope for Today. Other papers were complaining, too. The Times syndicated its horoscopes in one hundred and eighteen cities.

"Get on it," said Josephine's boss, a wizened woman who smoked cigars. "Now. The first lady’s birthday is December 3 and she is hopping mad. Get on the phone and read Sagittarius to the White House press secretary. Now. Now. Now."

The sun had set, though, before the missing persons reports started to come in. Little by little, in every town and hamlet in America, people born between November 22 and December 21 weren't showing up at home, school, work. One by one, they were disappearing. Come to think of it, the First Lady hadn't been seen for hours.

Omaria, who wrote the horoscopes, sighed and said she had foreseen that something like this would happen today.

"What sign are you, dear?" she said to Josephine.

"Scorpio," answered Josephine. "November 21."

"Oh, no, dear!" said Omaria, looking concerned behind her beads and turban. "That's not Scorpio. That's on the cusp. You could go either way. In fact, dear, you seem more like a Sagittarius to me."

"Oh, no, I'm a Scorpio," Josephine opened her mouth to say, but before she finished half the sentence she found she couldn’t speak. Her tongue seemed to dissolve like chocolate in her mouth. She looked down but she couldn’t see her fingers. As Omaria calmly looked on, Josphine’s arms, then her legs, then the rest of her, slowly faded away, headed for whatever place the First Lady and the other Sagittarians had gone.

Tip: Do Not Be Scammed

One of you intrepid readers mentioned via email a reluctance to give any money to anybody for anything to do with reading or publishing a writer's work, including contests. Well, this is a healthy instinct. There are many scammers out there preying on writers who just want to realize their dream of getting published. Now, there is a difference between a reputable contest charging a nominal fee to cover administrative costs and prize money, and a scammer. But be careful. Here are some rules of thumb:

1. Never pay an agent or publisher any money to read and/or publish your work. Ever. Reputable agents do not charge reading fees. Reputable publishers do not extract money from their authors. EVER. If you want to self-publish, more power to you, and you can do it at a fraction of the cost that "scam" publishers demand. (I'll post something about that someday soon.)

2. The running rate for contest entry fees is currently about $5 to $15 for a poem or short short story, $10 to $20 for a short story, $20 to $35 for a novel. If anyone wants any more than that, do not enter. (And you don't have to enter contests if you don't want to. They can be good for your resume but many very successful writers have never entered or won a contest.)

3. Prizes for contests should include publication in a reputable magazine or by a reputable publisher without any more investment on the writer's side. A new scam is for a "contest" a writer has entered to send a letter saying the writer's work "almost" made it, and if the writer coughs up, the work can be included in some other publication.

4. Contests, agents, and publishers in Poets and Writers and Writer's Market publications are usually safe. If you encounter any problems with them, tell Poets and Writers or Writer's Market immediately. They will want to know.

Poets and Writers has an excellent article on this at Poets & Writers, Inc. - Basic Info for Writers. Click "How Do I Avoid Scams?"

Here are two good sites where scammers are reported (these are taken from the Poets and Writers article): The Worst Poetry Contests of the on-line poetry contests and Writer Beware--Index Page.

Be careful out there. Remember, you are a good writer. You are worthy of professional, scam-free treatment.

Write on.

Comments Are Back

Goodness, I was surprised that some folks objected via email to the comments function going away. I thought that with a few exceptions y'all weren't into them. Maybe more of you want to read them than write them? That's cool. Anyway, they're back at the bottom of each post, my apologies to those who didn't like them being gone, and please feel free to use them to talk back at me, give me feedback on the writing samples I put up here, ask for advice, or whatever else you would like to do. And if you want to contact me more privately, my email is over there in the links at the right. Blog on. Write on. Just on.

Steve Jobs, What Are You Thinking?

Okay, a bit of a non sequitor, but as a Mac fan whose writing career has been supported and nurtured by Apple products (I'll never forget finishing my first writing contract on an old, dependable Apple II because my brand-new fancy shmancy Sony Vaio had died - I'll never buy PC again) I just have to ask Steve Jobs, what's up with the lame mini Ipod announcement at Macworld yesterday? Four gig for $249? Why would I buy that when for $299 I can get a normal Ipod with fifteen gigs of storage? Even if mini Ipods are littler (but not that much littler) and come in pink. Silly, silly Steve. Knock a hundred bucks off the price, just for starters. Then maybe we'll buy some of them.

Thanks, I feel better now.

My Hair: A Prose Poem

Fun little prose poem I did warming up this morning. Interpretive reading on audblog directly below.

My Hair

When my hair was brown, I kissed Tommy on the white rocks by the lake. It was my first beer.

When my hair was blond because I wanted him to love me, I kissed Mark on the pavement outside the University Theater, and later in his room.

When my hair was short and black and gold like a leopard’s pelt because I was getting over Mark, I kissed Angelo in the garden in Mexico.

That was fun.

Now my hair is brown again with tasteful highlights, and I kiss my husband.

When my hair is silver, I will kiss whoever I have a mind to, and no one will tell me any different.


audio post powered by audblog

Oh, What the Heck, Write for More Than Two Hours If You Want

It occurs to me I should not have said flat-out (in the New Year's Resolutions post) that you shouldn't try for more than two hours of writing at a stretch or you would burn out. It's just that often new writers get very over-ambitious, and set up unrealistic writing schedules that leave them discouraged. I have since been reminded that some people - not many, but some - can in fact write all day if they've a mind to. So you be the judge. It it really doesn't exhaust you, or if the only time you have to write regularly is nine to noon Sunday, or whatever, go ahead and write for a long time. Just stay realistic with what YOU can do. And remember, even fifteen minutes five times a week, or three hours once a week, is a whole, whole lot better than no writing at all.

Keep it up!

Tip: One Page at a Time

See, I was way too tired to write last night after I'd promised myself I would. So I stared at some TechTV reruns for a while. And then I said, "One page. You can do one page." And I did. And I felt much better.

Even when you think you're too tired or don't have enough time or are drained or whatever, write one page. Three paragraphs. You can do it. Really. And you will feel so much better. Remember, writing is fun. Writing is a birthday party. That's why you do it. It's not some Calvinist duty, you like it!

In fact, go write a page right now.

One hundred ninety-nine more of those and you've got a book. It's that simple.

More Suspicious Room

audio post powered by audblog

A Couple of Deadlines Coming Up - Why Not Submit?

Sorry the resolutions below weren't up until January 2, but I was felled by a nasty cold. Still am, in fact. Shortly going downstairs for a cup of tea by the fire.

Meanwhile, remember that the deadlines for Glimmer Train's Very Short Fiction Award and Fiction Open are coming up: January 11 for the Fiction Open, January 31 for the Very Short Fiction Award. What the heck, make this part of your New Year's resolutions! Go to their site, Glimmer Train, click on Online Submissions and set up your account (very easy) and follow the instructions to submit. You pay your contest fee with a credit card. Easy as pie. You must have something kicking around to submit, or something you could pull together. Five minutes from now, you can have entered a fiction contest. You never know, sometimes the stuff you just send out there without sweating over it too much is your best work, and gets you the most attention. Go for it.

Your New Year's Resolutions

1. Spend a regular amount of time each week writing. It doesn't have to be a lot and if doesn't have to be every day, although every day is nice if you can manage it. If you can't, don't sweat it. It can be fifteen minutes every day, or a half hour five days a week, or an hour five days a week, or two hours two or three times a week. Don't try for longer than two hours at a stretch or you will get burned out. The important thing is to make it regular, realistic, and inviolable.

2. Spend a lesser but equally regular amount of time doing the work inherent in getting published - writing your query letter, looking up addresses of places to send your stuff, etc. Fifteen minutes two or three times a week, or an hour once a week, or whatever is, as mentioned above, regular, realistic, and inviolable.

3. Get yourself one resource for your writing that you have been telling yourself costs too much or that you can do without or that you shouldn't really get because you're not a real writer yet (hah!). This can be a book like a Writer's Market book, or a Natalie Goldberg (Writing Down the Bones) or Julia Cameron (The Artist's Way) book, or a set of new blank books or even a laptop to take to cafes for writing in, or new pens you need, or a new battery for your laptop so you don't always have to get a table with an outlet, or whatever. But spend some money on your writer. He or she deserves it.

Write on!