“People say, ‘What advice do you have for people who want to be writers?’ I say, they don’t really need advice, they know they want to be writers, and they’re gonna do it. Those people who know that they really want to do this and are cut out for it, they know it.”
“My cousin Helen, who is in her 90s now, was in the Warsaw ghetto during World War II. She and a bunch of the girls in the ghetto had to do sewing each day. And if you were found with a book, it was an automatic death penalty. She had gotten hold of a copy of ‘Gone With the Wind’, and she would take three or four hours out of her sleeping time each night to read. And then, during the hour or so when they were sewing the next day, she would tell them all the story. These girls were risking certain death for a story. And when she told me that story herself, it actually made what I do feel more important. Because giving people stories is not a luxury. It’s actually one of the things that you live and die for.” –Neil Gaiman
(advice comes from a published Canadian author of novels and short stories, take it for what you will)
Ignore anything that says NO MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS. Most publishers are resigned to the reality that if you’re submitting a piece to them, you’re shopping it around. There’s not much stigma to this anymore.
If you do get accepted, immediately inform everything else you submitted the story to that it is no longer available. Alsosend them another story in the same message. If you were good enough for one editor to run with…
Rejection is the norm. Do whatever you can to beat the odds. Have multiple stories queued up that can be fired off to different publishers with a little tweaking.
When submitting, always list your word count, the name of the editor, and any recent publications you have
Start trying to get published in a local publication, then work your way up. It’s important to establish credentials being published anywhere at first
Self-publishing is probably the exception. Editors know which “magazines” are basically “pay to be printed”, and will review your submissions accordingly
Things get easier. The more you get published, the easier the next sale will be.
The turning point is usually around 5-6 published works. Then you’ve got real momentum
Generally don’t bother following up for around six months.
Enter into writing competitions!
Though always check to make sure it’s not a pay-to-play scam
Paying to be judged, though, is not necessarily a bad thing. Gives you better odds of being published, and a publishing credit, and might be supporting a magazine
Join local writers’ groups and organizations, such as the Writers’ Union of Canada, the League of Canadian Poets, and CANSCAIP
Great freebies!
Maybe meet Margaret Atwood!
Attend literary festivals! These are all over the place, including at local libraries.
They often give you a chance to hear authors read aloud, which is a great opportunity to hear how an author intended a book to be read, cadence-wise
Chat up industry reps! They’re generally lonely, and you can follow up with them a day later with something like “hey, remember we were talking about my short story…”
Getting paid anything is a great start
Editors know how much different publications and contests pay, and if they see that you’ve won anything, they’ll look more favorably on your submissions
If you get accepted, negotiate an escalator – an improved % of the revenue that you get in subsequent publications.
Residuals should mostly go to you, not the publisher. 80-90% is the norm.
Resources (unverified by OP)
The Writer’s Digest Guide to Manuscript Formats is probably you’re best one-stop for submission formatting questions
placeforwriters.com – a website of Canadian calls for submissions, grants, funding, literary organizations
pw.org – Poets and Writers Magazine, which is a great magazine for professional writers
aerogrammestudios.com – The publication website for publishing in the UK
duotrope.com – free trial, but then a paid subscription which gives access to a database of publisher contacts and news
Now that NaNoWriMo is over, you may be wondering what the next step is. Revision? Rewriting? Today, writer and participant Madeline Wright discusses the importance of recovering from your November marathon before revisiting your novel.
Whether or not you’ve crossed that 50,000-word mark in November one thing is for certain. You are amazing for even attempting to crush NaNoWriMo. I hope that you took time to celebrate all that you’ve accomplished in the last month. Right now though, you may find yourself attempting to answer a question or two swirling in your head focused heavily on what’s next.
What happens when you’ve been writing for 30 days at a lightning-fast rate and then suddenly you’re not?
some highlights from my writing seminar with honestly one of my favourite authors of all time who shall remain nameless bc i dont want her to know i was spilling her secrets online
The first trick is to detach yourself from your idea. You don’t have just one novel inside you, and it’s not a big deal if you don’t finish this novel.
She was skeptical of the common advice “just write!!1!” – she talked about how long ideas for her most popular novels were marinating inside her before she properly wrote them
As a continuation of that, she was a big believer in knowing what you want to write before you write it. Not what you’re going to write, what you want to write.
The first thing she decides about a novel is what the mood is going to be, and this informs every other decision (e.g. the mood for Shiver was bittersweet)
Ideas should be personal, specific, exciting and they should exclude secondary sources. A personal idea isn’t necessarily autobiographical (which should be avoided), but it speaks to your emotional truth.
She said she had been read Ronsey fanfiction and she couldn’t view her car in the same way since.
Story is the thing that seems most important to reader but is most changeable to the author – story is subservient to your mood and your message. Change what you like in the plot as long as your book retains its sense of self.
Story is conflict, exploration and change. A good story has active tension -the characters want something, instead of just wanting something not to happen (e.g. wanting to kill an enemy instead of simply defending a stronghold against an enemy)
A story needs to have a concrete end, something to be done.
Satisfaction is important – deliver what you promise to the reader. The other shoe has to drop. Ronan Lynch doesn’t ever talk about his feelings, so its rewarding when he does.
Earn your emotional moments (she threw shade at Fantastic Beasts lmao)
Forcing a character to be passive is dissatisfying to the reader.
Characters are products of their environments, consistent/predictable, nuanced and specific, moving the plot, and subservient to other story elements.
She always starts with tropes for ensemble casts like sitcoms. Helpful for building good character dynamics.
Write scenes with characters saying explicitly what they’re thinking and then go back and make them talk like real people in the edit.
An action can also prove what they’re thinking, instead of making them say it or another character guess it (e.g. Ronan punching a wall).
Move the reader’s emotional furniture around without them noticing.
All her books follow the three act structure. Established normal -> inciting incident -> character makes an Active Decision -> fun and games -> escalation -> darkest moment -> climax.
Promise what you’re going to do in the first five pages.
Read your book out loud. Record yourself reading it.
If you have writer’s block, it’s because you’ve stopped writing the book you want to write. She likes to delete everything she’s written until she gets back to a point where she knew she was writing what she wanted to write, and then carrying on from there.
This, in a nutshell, is what I did to get a book with my name on it.
NOTE: This is just my personal way of making the words go. Other people have different ways to make their words go. In the world of words, there are no right answers. There’s just lots and lots of tea/coffee/tear stains.
1). The Idea
When I get an idea for a story, I open up a document, label it “Brainstorming,” and start making a bullet list of events that consist of the plot.
It has to be an idea with tangible weight. A stray bit of dialogue or something vague like Halloween, that doesn’t give me much to work off of. Halloween creatures living on the same street where it’s Autumn every day– now that’s something I can build from.
What kinds of creatures are they? What do they do? What do their houses look like? The best ideas are the ones that spark more.
2). First Draft
This is the easy part- and the most challenging. Easy, because there’s literally no bar. I just sat there and typed. But it’s a huge mental challenge.
When I was in first draft mode, I wanted that story out. I thought that by making it such a rough, far-away version from the concept in my head, I was only delaying the day where I’d hold it in my hands. Turns out, that’s what got it to take on physical form in the first place. So I quieted down, grabbed my laptop and some hot tea, and typed.
3). Dissecting the First Draft
After I finished draft one, I printed it all off and highlighted the scant amounts that were passable for the next phase. Dialogue, descriptions, setting- anything that didn’t look like it was up to par was scratched out and omitted.
I call the above pictures A Slow Descent Into Madness.
4). The Second Draft
On a fresh document, I rewrote the story altogether- and it make a difference. I was coming up with things I hadn’t even thought of previously. And it was surprising how much better the plot was than the first time around. But it was still rough.
5). Draft Three
My method was to start with the bigger, more obvious issues and work my way down. Any plot holes I found were noted, and my outline was constantly under revision. I cut out entire scenes and made mental notes on ways they could be fixed/replaced.
This is where I started cutting chapters in half to make the story flow better- but I didn’t bother writing in usable chapter titles. Instead, I improvised:
6). Drafts Four and Five
These were dedicated to correcting the smaller, less obvious plot holes. This was the point where the story finally started to look close to what would become the final version.
7). Drafts Seven Onward
With the story line looking how I wanted, I then moved on to sentence structure. That one song that looked terrible? Rewritten. Over-the-top descriptions and excessive prose? Gone.
8). Editing and Proofing
This is where I had outside help. Besides this useful tool, I had two people check for spelling issues and the overall story. Once it was in decent shape to be made public, I asked for some additional help.
9). Betas
My betas were in the age range that my novel was geared toward, along with a couple of teachers and parents (as it was middle grade). I gave them the full manuscript, along with seven basic questions like “Which characters were your favorite/least favorite and why?” and “Was there a part of the story that didn’t make sense?”
I gave my betas three months to read a 42,590 word story, and by the end they gave me back the review sheets.
10). Final Adjustments
After I read over the reviews, I let the comments sit for three days so that I could proceed with a clear head. I smoothed out any flaws, scanned over the MS twice to make sure everything was right, and that is how I got to the end of writing my first novel.
Next comes publishing- which is a different beast entirely.
For future reference. Wow, what a comprehensive post.
It’s all about the front cover While printed
books can be identified by their spines, an eBook only gets attention up
front. Think about how you can make your cover stand out in a grid of
competing books.
Make the reader feel something Choose colors, imagery and typefaces that help evoke a key emotion in your readers and also offer a sneak peek into the plot.
The shrink test Readers often buy eBooks based on a small image. Make sure your design is legible as a thumbnail.
Ditch the details Your eBook cover only needs
the bare minimum: a title, author name and cover art. Everything else
will be on the book’s landing page.
Is your cover mostly white or very light? Add a
border. Most website backgrounds are white, and a thin border will make
sure your eBook cover doesn’t disappear into the background.
for everyone who might need to hear that right now (which reads as mostly me I guess because I am like that):
What you share about your WIP(s) – be it OneShots, drabbles, posts on worldbuilding and characters – is not set in stone. Just because there is a OneShot somewhere going deeper into a minor/major detail you now decided to discard doesn’t mean you can’t discard the detail. (read: any variants of this; characters, locations, plot points, etc.)
I haven’t seen this on my dashboard yet but I like to think that things are only truly canon when they appear in your final draft; the one you are done with and ready to send out to agents or publishing houses, the one you intend to self-publish. That one. Everything else is just testing the waters and exploring things.
So if you are like me and frequently end up trying to find a way around a problem in the plot just because there is this one post you once made about this piece of plot and you feel unable to discard or change it as needed: stop it.
You can change whatever the heck you want, no matter how many posts you’ve written about it already.
Of course, that’s what I want myself to remember. It’s okay to change things even after having them included and introduced as a part of your WIP. That’s basically what editing is there for; to adapt everything else to changes you made along the way or to find things that need changing.
(You might have a different stand on this maybe and that’s fine. After all, no one writes the same way and every writer has their own set of “rules” and advice they prefer following.)
But if you needed to hear that, this post is for you (and for me)
Nikki Bradley 