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In Anticipation of Wednesday

Wednesday, as you know, is my designated “Face off with Wordsmith.org” writing challenge day. While I love, love, love the word of the day challenge (really, I do), I’m taking a break this week.

The purpose of Wednesday’s Word of the Day challenge is more about a commitment to write – without a plan, on the spot, even when I don’t feel like writing – than on being a die-hard fan of Wordsmith.org. Though Mr. Garg’s theme this week – words on food and drink – will be tough to ignore, another exercise awaits me (and you) on Wednesday. And, the hope is that you will be inspired to participate as well.

Linda Lappin, courtesy of pokkoli

Back in October, I wrote a post wondering how other writers develop a sense of place in their stories. Do they simply visualize the place or actually draw it out? In that post, I referred to an article in The Writer, by Linda Lappin, called “See with Fresh Eyes.” Linda wrote that creating a “deep map” of the setting not only draws more material for the story, but also gives the story a deeper level of meaning.

I am honored to host Linda here tomorrow, at Writing Under Pressure.

Linda will explain how creating a map of a place can help the writer discover the spirit of that place. She will also share a writing exercise from her new book, The Genius Loci: A Writer’s Guide to Capturing the Soul of Place.

For someone like myself, who’s in the middle of a novel rewrite, Linda’s visit comes at a perfect time. While writing this introduction, I thought back on a post by Mary Campbell about treating setting as another character, about how a well-developed setting is critical to the success of a story.

Tomorrow, Linda shows us how to bring setting to life.

Come back, read her guest post, try her writing exercise, and add another dimension to your story.

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Suspended in Time

Have you ever carried around a passage of writing by an amazing author and hoped that – maybe, through osmosis – one writer’s craft will meld into yours?

I can dream, can’t I?

I read a passage recently, in James Salter’s Light Years, that made me immune to the sounds of life at my house — kids running around, washer spinning, grandfather clock ticking.

Immersed in the life of a character so unlike me, I hung on each word as the images unfolded on the page.

Her father in distant Pennsylvania towns already had within him the anarchy of cells that announced itself by a steady cough and a pain in his back. Three packs a day for thirty years; he coughed as he admitted it. He needed something, he decided.

‘We’ll take some x-rays,’ the doctor had said. ‘Just to see.’

Neither of them was there when the negatives were thrown up before the wall of light, dealt into place as rippling sheets, and in the ghostly darkness the fatal mass could be seen, as astronomers see a comet.

…

The usual prognosis was eighteen months, but with the new machines, three years, sometimes four. They did not tell him this, of course. His translucent destiny was clear on the wall as subsequent series were displayed, six radiographs in a group, the two specialists working on different cases, side by side, calm as pilots, dictating what they saw, stacks of battered envelopes near their elbows. Their language was handsome, exact. They recited, they discussed, they gave a continued verdict long after Lionel Carnes, sixty-four years old, had begun his visits to the treatment room.

…

The Beta machine made a terrifying whine. The patient lay alone, abandoned, the room sealed, air-conditioned because of the heat. The dose was determined by a distant computer taking into consideration height, weight and so forth. The Beta doesn’t burn the skin like the lower-energy machines, they told him.

…

It hung there, dumb, enormous, shooting beams that crushed the honeycomb of tissue like eggshells. the patient lay beneath it, inert, arranged. With the scream of the invisible, it began its work. It was either this or the most extreme surgery, radical and hopeless, blood running down from the black stitches, the doomed man swerved up like a pot roast (pgs. 126-127).

Just words.

Black print on off-white paper.

Yet, the way James Salter wove them together had me frozen in time.

My husband asked me what was for dinner, so I had to look up from the page. But, the moments with Lionel Carnes, the doctors, and the machine stayed with me.

That’s what I strive for in my writing: storytelling that suspends the reader, and then leaves them with a lasting image long after the book is closed.

Amazing.

***

Salter, James. Light Years. New York: Random House, 1975.

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From Self-Published to Harper Perennial

Last night, Redbird Studio and RedBird-Red Oak (both offer classes and writing retreats in Milwaukee, WI) sponsored a panel of five published authors. Each author spoke on their experiences and their individual approaches towards publication. The discussion ranged from self-publishing (where the author fronts all the costs) to subsidy publishing (the author pays a fee to a POD publisher) to the traditional route of a book in print released by a major publishing house.

Some of the authors’ experiences, and the advice they offered, stuck with me and warranted a post.

Karen McQuestion was already a successful freelance writer – with articles in Newsweek, the Chicago Tribune, and more – when she branched out into fiction. She shared that though she was an agented writer for several years, her books were not picked up by a publisher.

“I couldn’t get in the front door of publishing, so I went through the side door.”

She published her first fiction novel on Amazon’s Kindle. She uploaded the manuscript herself, used the free marketing on Amazon, and had amazing success. Now, she has six novels on Amazon’s Kindle, one of which (Scattered Life) has been optioned for film. To publish on Amazon’s Kindle, she said, you are responsible for designing the cover art and ensuring your work has been professionally edited. However, she spoke highly of her e-publishing experiences. While Amazon keeps a significant percentage of the royalties, one of her stories has sold 25,000 copies. I don’t have a Kindle. I hope to go the traditional route of publishing. Yet, Karen’s story certainly caught my attention.

Kirk Farber, a Wisconsin native, climbed to success through traditional means: published short stories, an agent, a book deal. With just a few short stories published in the literary arena, Harper Perennial still took notice of his first novel and decided to release it. Kirk’s debut novel, Postcards from a Dead Girl, has received rave reviews. His experience proves that an emerging writer with only a few writing credits can still succeed in the traditional print world. He emphasized that, for him, his success was also a result of simply getting out of his comfort zone. Even with great writing, authors must be willing to step away from the corner table in the coffee shop. Go to writing conferences and meet agents face to face. Show your work to other writers. He suggested two sites for those interested in fiction:

  • Fictionaut, where writers post short stories for critque by other writers.
  • Authonomy, a site designed by book editors at HarperCollins where writers showcase their work for editors, readers, and publishers.

The discussion also dipped into whether or not a writer should post essays or short stories on a personal blog. As is the custom, the worlds of nonfiction and fiction differ in perspectives.

For nonfiction, posting essays on your blog may get you noticed and will likely help cultivate your audience and build your platform. Later, those same essays can undergo a few rewrites and still be valuable for publication in a book.

For fiction, however, the answer came with shoulder shrugs and a look of “it depends.” Posting short stories, or chapters of a novel, on a blog will still get a writer noticed. However, the work may be pushed aside in lieu of a writer whose work is unseen by the public eye. Of course, never say never. If the writing is steller, it may not matter that the story has been viewed online before. Another side of the “to post or not to post” coin for me, is that if I continue to showcase my stories here, I have to pump out more creative writing elsewhere. Talk about accountability….

The last important piece of advice I took away reminded me, again, that I have to make social media my friend — get my name out there, find my own community, step out of my comfort zone. As a writer, I am rarely a social creature. The fact that I attended the panel last night, sat near the front, and actually spoke to published authors proves that I am committed. But, it isn’t always easy. Still, places like Twitter, Facebook, GoodReads, and She Writes offer portals of support and connection that writers, ten years ago, couldn’t tap.

I could go on about the evening, but instead I’ll leave you with a few more links to suggested sites for writers:

Phew! That’s all I’ve got folks. It’s Friday, and I’m diving back into my novel tonight. Watch out.

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