Tip: A Note on Networking

Networking doesn't come naturally to many of us; it seems to connote creepy good ol' boy circles or even creepier elite secret societies, or at the very least give us a slimy feeling. We wonder if we're turning into some stereotypical 1950s used car salesman when we approach someone we don't know that well, asking for a contact or favor. But here's the thing: it's not that bad and it can be learned.

Does networking help you get published? Well, honestly, yes, I think it can, a bit. All the networking in the world won't help you publish something that has serious flaws, and most really good work eventually finds a home, whether its author is a good networker or not. But I do find that networking can help you open the door a little sooner than you might otherwise be able to, and that's worth something. Sometimes dropping a name will, indeed, be cause for an editor or agent to take your manuscript out of the slush pile. Sometimes another author, or an agent or editor or teacher, can recommend someone who might be interested in your work, even if they're not. And remember, you can and should return these favors later on, either to those who gave them to you or to newer writers.

Here's an important thing that I think helps: remember that every contact you make when networking does not immediately have to lead to a specific result. You don't always have to just give someone a manuscript to network. Just practice getting to know people in the industry. Don't think of meeting someone in the business as your one and only opportunity to approach them. Go to author readings, and if the line's not too long (often, if it's a midlist author, it's not) say hello, explain that you enjoy their work. If it doesn't feel invasive, ask for an email address or way to hear when they are next in town. Heck, if there's really nothing going on there and you're not too shy, take them out for a drink. If you go to writer's conventions, meet the editors and agents. Talk about the clients and writers they work with whom you admire, to show you did your homework. Ask for advice about how best to proceed in your career, how to describe your work to show its marketability. See if anyone wants to have lunch so you can ask them what publishing houses are premiere in your field or genre. Or to talk about the Lakers. Whatever.

As with anyone else, some of these people you won't click with, and some you will. Keep up with the ones you click with. Note when they are next in town. If you have contact info for them, let them know about your progress, telling them, for example, if you get a story published somewhere, or win an award, or stage a reading, or have an open mic success. Send nice thank-you notes if they help you with something.

Obviously nobody likes to be deluged. But with the same restraint and good manners you would show to any other work colleague, you can make helpful contacts, some of which can result in (honestly!) actual friendship.

Most editors, authors, and agents are actually pretty nice people, who are happy when writers succeed.

Just practice.

Howard Capeci, My Former Student, Is Published!

And I'm so proud. His story The Onset of Winter is up on the literary fiction website Vortical Magazine, and it's beautiful. Head on over!

And may you all be published!

Blogosphere Fun

Check out Whitney Pastorek's Blogging Off in the July/August Utne Reader(teased as "How Blogging Ruined My Life" on the cover). It's reprinted from an article in The Village Voice. Unfortunately you can't read the article online without subscribing, but it should be available at newsstands (and it's short, you can just stand there and read it). Very funny account of the Lure of the Blog.

Tip: It's Okay to Take a Break Sometimes

I often read exhortations that someone must write a certain number of hours every day, or write every day, to be a "real" writer. As you know if you're a reader of this blog, I do a fair share of telling people that the way to becoming a published writer is a regular, moderate writing schedule - and I firmly believe that to be true.

However, once of my best teachers, Thaisa Frank, once told the class I was in that sometimes writers are "silent for a while." And that's true, too. Sometimes you just have to fill the well, cogitate, let things simmer - and not just your plot or characters.

If you're exhausted, if the words just aren't coming, take a break. I find it works best to do it consciously, so you don't feel guilty about how you "should" be writing. And it also helps to set an end time for it, so you know you'll get back in the habit. Just say to yourself, "I choose to take a week [two weeks, month] off of writing to recharge my batteries. I'll start again [insert day]." And relax. Then, when it's time, start again.

Tip: A Word About Writers' Conferences

You've seen my guarded cautions about contests - some are reputable and perfectly fine, but you want to guard against scams and rackets. Some pals of mine have been going to writer's conferences lately, and it makes me feel that these cautions bear repeating about conferences, too.

It may be that you just want to go to a conference to workshop a story, novel, or poem, and that's fine. Many people, however, go to meet agents and editors. Here's what I would advise: check out the writer's conference you are applying or going to. See how many actual agents and/or editors will really be attending. Find out what your access to them is - do you actually get some one-on-one or small group time with them, will they merely be speakers? If there is a panel, how many questions will they be taking? Many conferences advertise the agents and editors who will attend. Check them out on the Web or on Publishers Marketplace. Do they sell/buy in the field you are writing in? (One thing I will say is that LOTS of agents seem to go to the yearly writer's conference in Maui - well, wouldn't you?)

Even if you are only going for workshops, check those out too. How big will they be? What is the prevailing "tone"? (Take no prisoners, encouraging, bloodfest?) Will they include some sort of moderator or guide, such as a published writer or writing teacher?

Some writer's conferences sound very alluring because they take place in lovely, exotic locales - and some of those may be great. But ask these questions first, and don't be seduced. You want to go to a conference that will really do you some good.

Good luck, always!

Thought this might be fun - me (goodness I've gotten blond down here in SoCal!) and filmmaker husband (he doesn't usually look that serious) at the wedding of his videographer pal Mike on Sunday. Weddings among filmmakers - more cords, wires, sound equipment and cameras than you can imagine! 

High on Nob Hill

Well! Blogging from the comfort of the spare futon of my writing pal Dorothy Hearst's (no relation to Patty, William Randolph, etc. unless she wants restaurant reservations) Nob Hill apartment, where I am staying for our self-made writer's retreat - which can be a really helpful thing if you can swing it and can find the right person. Sometimes being with someone else makes you sit and write, sometimes it makes you gossip about Viggo Mortenson. But if you find someone who makes you do the former, remember it, and hang out with them a lot.

I'm very excited because I've managed to complete two short stories in the last week, which is pretty unusual, even with my "the secret to writing is butt in chair" philosophy. They're surreal, almost fantasy; a Green Man encounter and a girl who works in a magic, and rather repressive, library. More on their progress as it comes. And of course almost every day I spend a little time on the Milky Way story, because hey, that's how you finish novels.

Everybody out there getting in their little bit if regular writing? Good. Keep it up.

And Off to the Wilds of San Francisco

Off to the Bay Area tomorrow for a week-long writer's retreat with a friend - looking forward to posting lots of audblogs. Plan to finish the rough draft of A Night in the Milky Way. Wish me luck!

Tip: It's Okay If You Don't Know How Your Story Ends Yet

Some writers gravitate naturally toward detailed outlines and lots of planning. Some don't. I'm one of the ones who doesn't. I often hear new writers say they don't want to begin writing down their novel or story because they "don't know how it ends yet." But here's the deal: often, the end will come to you while you are writing. Sometimes all kinds of things surprise you while you are writing. If you don't know the end yet, that's perfectly all right. Start writing and 99 percent of the time it will come to you. Really.

Ah, Contests

Contests seem to spur a bit of debate in emails I get about this blog. They do so elsewhere, too. From today's Publishers Lunch:

"The story about the cancellation of the Zoo Press fiction contest began with a blogger in April, moved to Poets & Writers Magazine recently, and is now back in blogs all over, including Maud Newton's, and you can follow the thread from there."

And here's the blog they're referring to: Maud Newton: Blog. (Actually even this one post on Maud's blog has a lot of links interesting to a new writer.)

So contests . . . sometimes useful, sometimes . . . sometimes something else.

I will say that while winning a contest or two can help, what's really important is to keep writing and keep submitting your stuff. There's no substitute for that.