Scott Oldford Site

Tag: writing a novel

  • NaNoWriMo Rules You Need to Know

    NaNoWriMo Rules You Need to Know

    As soon as the seasons start to shift from summer to fall, it seems like every writerly corner of the Internet becomes consumed with one question and one question only:

    Are you going to do NaNoWriMo this year?

    If you’re asking yourself that question, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll talk about what NaNoWriMo is, the NaNoWriMo rules (official and unofficial), and some tips I’ve personally compiled to help you make the most of your NaNoWriMo experience.

    What is NaNoWriMo?

    Let’s consult the 2009 vlogbrothers video titled “NaNoWriMo!!!” In it, John Green defines NaNoWriMo like this: “In case you don’t know what NaNoWriMo is, it’s National Novel Writing Month, an annual event in which people try to write a fifty-thousand word novel in a single month.”

    That sums it up nicely! NaNoWriMo takes place during the month of November, and its goal is to get its participants to write a novel of fifty-thousand words by the end of the month. Participants make accounts on the contest’s site and enter their daily word counts there. The site also uses daily word counts to project how long it will take the participant to finish their novel (even if they don’t win NaNoWriMo), how a participant’s word count compares to others in the area, and, of course, how close they are to completing their goal.

    Often, online communities sort of drop everything to focus on NaNoWriMo. It’s nearly inescapable, and it’s not hard to understand why. Writing is often an intensely solitary activity, and while some writers might have in-person writer friends, a lot don’t. Events like NaNoWriMo give writers a real sense of community as they work towards their common goal, and this is the real magic of NaNoWriMo.

    The First Three Rules for NaNoWriMo

    We’ve talked about how to formally enter NaNoWriMo (setting up an account on the site linked above), but what are the rules? Surely it can’t be as simple as ‘write fifty-thousand words in a month.’

    When NaNoWriMo was first founded, there was a set of rules governing how the contest would play out and what participation counted towards the end goal. Kelsey McKinney, writing for Vox, outlines these foundational rules, which were put in place by Chris Baty in 2000:

    1. The writing project must be new
    2. It must be written by a single person
    3. It has to be finished by midnight on November 30th

    This is all straightforward, and the rules for NaNo haven’t changed much in the years since. Now, if you look on the Wikipedia page for current rules, they’re mostly just an expansion on the existing criteria. The contest begins at the start of the month and ends at the end of the month, the goal is fifty-thousand words, et cetera.

    Do I have to follow these rules to participate?

    What if you’re working with another writer or with a group of writers on a novel, or what if you’re working on a novel that’s going to exceed fifty-thousand words (almost all of them do)? What if you’ve got a project you’ve started, and you want to use NaNoWriMo to really focus on it?

    That’s fine!

    As the Wikipedia page points out, NaNoWriMo is a “self-challenge,” which means it’s mostly set up for participants to push themselves toward the goal. There’s not someone from the NaNoWriMo organization standing over your shoulder and going “uh, that’s not a brand-new idea. You already had that file on your computer. Pack up your pens and go!”

    As long as you have put fifty-thousand words in, you’ve won the contest.

    Does this cheapen the deal? Not really. The biggest reward participants get for completing NaNo is the achievement itself: writing fifty-thousand words in a month. Sometimes NaNo will offer to print a copy of the participant’s draft or something like that, but usually, you get a certificate and a pat on the back. Most of the reward is in the work itself.

    So if you want to follow the rules, follow them! If not, cool! It’s your life.

    My (very unofficial) NaNoWriMo Rules: Tips for Having a Good Time

    The existing rules for NaNoWriMo are just fine, but as someone who’s been a participant every year for a while, here are a few tips to making the most of your NaNoWriMo experience.

    1. Don’t set out to write a novel

    I know, I know, this is kind of the whole point of NaNoWriMo, but hear me out.

    You’re almost definitely not going to write a great novel in a month. First drafts are rarely any good, and the first draft of something you manically typed over the course of a month is probably also not going to be very good.

    John Green points this out in “NaNoWriMo!!!,” saying “as a rule, no great book can be written in a month.”

    This isn’t to say you shouldn’t try to do your best or you shouldn’t try to write a book. It’s just to say that you should keep your expectations reasonable. What you’re going to end up with is fifty-thousand words—that’s all you can be sure of. It probably will not be a complete draft, since most novels are much more than fifty thousand words, and it will definitely be rough.

    I like to approach NaNoWriMo as a giant word sprint. For anyone who doesn’t know: a word sprint is where you set a timer for a short amount of time, usually five to twenty minutes, and write as much as you can without stopping until the timer goes off. The objective of a word sprint is just to get something on the page—you can work with something, but not with nothing.

    And as someone who has a really difficult time getting an imperfect something on the page (preferring the always-perfect-but-not-actually-real-and-therefore-unsellable-nothing), this makes NaNoWriMo a great opportunity for some actual trying. You’re going to have to revise your first draft no matter what you do.

    As John Green goes on to say in the video, “No great book can be written in a first draft no matter how long it takes you to write it…NaNoWriMo gives us discipline and it gives us permission to suck, which are the two things you most need if you’re going to be a novelist.”

    2. Use NaNoWriMo for stuck projects

    Speaking of getting an imperfect something on the page: I like to use NaNoWriMo strategically as a way to work on existing projects. This is in direct violation of the rules, but it works out nicely for me.

    Like I said before, NaNoWriMo is a self-challenge. There’s not a NaNoWriMo police and there’s not a NaNoWriMo judge coming to live with you for the next month to keep you in line. You can pretty much use this contest for whatever project you’ve got that needs to be worked on. I personally like to use it to get lots of words written—sometimes these words go towards one draft, but sometimes they go towards work, short stories, poems, or whatever I need to do that month.

    This might sound kind of antithetical to the spirit of the challenge. Couldn’t I do that any other month? Why use NaNoWriMo just to knock out my to-do list?

    Glad you asked!

    3. Get involved with the NaNoWriMo community

    Again, in my opinion, the biggest appeal to NaNoWriMo is in the community that comes up around it. People post their word count goals and share their works-in-progress (#wip) on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, probably also TikTok (somehow, I’m not on WriterTok, but I assume it exists since BookTok does), probably also everywhere else. It’s free to join and it invites writers to try and do an impossible task, which is something that just kind of appeals to most writers.

    NaNoWriMo also offers the ability to add friends on their website. This allows you to check on your friends’ progress, take a look at their projects, and generally connect with other people participating in the contest.

    When I look back on the years that I’ve done NaNoWriMo, I remember a little of the projects I worked on—the Pinterest boards, the character templates, PrepTober events, stuff like that.

    But mostly I remember the glow of my computer screen at one o’clock in the morning, my heavy eyelids and tired retinas, my hands steadily developing a cramp which would go on to haunt my mid-twenties with a passion (seriously, take care of your wrists, fellow typists). I remember telling my friends the moment I hit my word count goal and the moments my friends hit theirs.

    Like I said before, writing is often lonely. There aren’t a ton of opportunities to connect with other authors working on their own projects with a ferocity like people bring to NaNoWriMo. Take advantage of the community, and some of the friendships you find might last well past NaNoWriMo.

    Now, to my last unofficial rule…

    4. Use NaNoWriMo to develop some writerly discipline

    Before you get mad at me: I definitely am not saying that you should be writing fifty-thousand words every month. In fact, I would argue that you definitely shouldn’t be. Drafting is only one small part of the writing process, and not every day is going to be a drafting day. Fifty-thousand words is, respectfully, a crap-ton of words, and if you’re writing that many that often, they’re probably not great words (and I say this as a once-ghostwriter who used to crank out thirty-thousand words a week on the regular).

    That being said, writing does require a ton of work, mostly in revision. Being a capital N Novelist is going to involve writing when you do not feel like it and making writing a regular, structured part of your life. It might not be every day, but it’s going to have to be regular.

    So, use NaNoWriMo to develop habits that work for you. Take note of what time of day you prefer to write, or what sorts of drinks you like to sip while you work, or whether you like to write outdoors or inside.

    Does freewriting suit you best? What about typing? Maybe you love Microsoft Word, or maybe you’re really into Scrivener. Keep track of these kinds of things and make an effort to form some kind of schedule or regiment—this can be edited or changed as your needs fluctuate, but just as you can’t write a perfect first draft, you can’t become a disciplined author without at least a little effort.

    Bottom Line

    Use NaNoWriMo to ask yourself what it takes to get you to sit down and work on your novel regularly. Set monthly writing goals. Then, take these habits you built during NaNoWriMo into your future writing projects, and you’ll be well on your way to success.

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  • How to Prepare for NaNoWriMo: 7 Ways to Make Sure You Crush Your Goals

    How to Prepare for NaNoWriMo: 7 Ways to Make Sure You Crush Your Goals

    Every November, writers from around the world get together and work on cranking out an entire novel in a month. Originally founded in 1999 by Chris Baty, the goal of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is to write 50,000 words over the course of the month since that is roughly the length of an average novel. Over 400,000 (and growing) people buckle down every year to attempt the challenge.

    While it’s hard to write a fully polished novel in that amount of time, most of the focus is on simply sitting down and putting words to paper as fast as possible. For people with writer’s block, it can help them smash through the internal barriers that prevent them from getting their story on paper.

    A ton of writers also enjoy the camaraderie and the community that comes with joining NaNoWriMo, since everyone is in the same boat of working on hitting their word and page goals every day.

    Writing a novel is a serious undertaking, let alone trying to do it in a single month, so let’s break down everything you can do to prepare for what’s ahead. Here’s your guide on how to prepare for NaNoWriMo.

    1. Set your writing schedule

    If you want to hit your 50,000 word goal, that comes out to about 1,667 words per day. It can be hard to say how long that will take since everyone has a different writing pace, but the average is about 2 to 3 hours per day.

    Keeping all of this in mind, you need to take a hard look at your calendar and figure out how you can fit in the required time to get your writing done.

    Some people say it’s much easier to start with a higher goal, such as 2,000 words per day. That way, you’re ahead so when you have a bad day you don’t have to catch up with hundreds or thousands of words.

    You might be able to get up earlier or stay up later and fit in a whole chunk of uninterrupted writing time. However, if you have kids or other responsibilities on your plate, you might want to break your writing up throughout the day into 30-minute or hourly chunks.

    On top of that, you should schedule your writing sessions at your peak writing times. Some people have much more clarity when they first wake up or they love to burn the midnight oil and write while everyone else is sleeping.

    Planning your writing blocks during a time you know you’re always tired is just setting yourself up for a losing battle.

    2. Let the people around you know about NaNoWriMo

    No, this doesn’t mean you need to recruit people to join you (although you can), this simply means you should let people know that you’re going to be taking your writing seriously.

    This can mean they shouldn’t interrupt you during certain hours or maybe you set up a babysitter for your kids. What you don’t want to happen is to take on this huge writing commitment and then get mad at everyone around you when they interrupt you but you never let them know about your new writing journey in the first place.

    Make sure all of the people in your life know what you’re doing and why you need certain quiet, focused hours.

    3. Account for off days

    No matter how motivated you are, there will be days when the words refuse to pour out of your fingers and no amount of coffee helps.

    On the days you feel good, sometimes it’s worth it to go the extra mile and crank out a few extra words here and there to get ahead and account for the off days. While it would be nice to imagine that we’re all robots and can crank out pages of work every single day without a problem. Instead, you should plan for a few bad days throughout the month and plan accordingly.

    4. Have your writing easily accessible

    One key to succeeding at NaNoWriMo is to have your writing easily accessible. Whether you carry a notebook around or have a writing app, you’ll want it nearby and easy to write in.

    That way, when you have things such as missed appointments, are stuck in a long train commute, or have some spare time while your kids nap, you can crank out a few hundred words.

    You’d be surprised at how many small pockets you can find in a day to put in a little writing here and there. It might not seem like much at first, but you would be surprised at how fast it can add up.

    Ideally, you want it to also be quickly accessible because you don’t want to spend half that time just trying to open your app or find the notebook you’re using. Ideas will also come to you throughout your days so you will need somewhere to quickly capture them on the go.

    5. Track your progress

    Whether you choose to use software with built-in word counters or you choose to make something like a NaNoWriMo bullet journal spread, it’s a good idea to know where you are in your overall progress. Seeing the word counter continuing to grow can help keep your motivation going, even on your bad days.

    6. Outline your story

    If you want to go the extra mile, having a thorough outline and your ideas all in one place can help you write faster when the month begins. Unless you have a free and open schedule all month, you’re going to be writing in focused chunks of time and need all of your ideas ready to go, even if they change as you write during the month.

    You don’t want to sit down and forget your storyline or what you wanted to happen next in your novel. Then, you’re wasting 20 or more minutes searching for that note somewhere in one of your notebooks and poof, there goes time that could have been used for writing.

    If you prefer visuals, some people put storyboards on a whiteboard or other physical sheet in front of them so they can see where they are in their plot. Janice Hardy, a fiction writer and teacher, has suggested using Preptober in this way:

    Week 1: Focus on the novel’s setup

    Beginnings introduce the characters, story problem, and story world or setting to readers, and they set the stage for the rest of the novel.

    A strong start will provide you with solid scene goals, giving you something to write about every day.

    Things to determine:

    • How the protagonist is introduced

    What traits do you want readers to know right away? How might you show those traits in action? What likable qualities does your protagonist have? How can you show those qualities in your opening scene or first chapter?

    • The problem the opening scene deals with

    An opening with an interesting problem to solve gives the story drive and the characters reasons to act. What problem might your protagonist face when the novel opens?

    Remember, the goal of an opening is to a.) hook readers and b.) lead the plot to the core conflict of the novel.

    • The inciting event

    If this event did not happen, there would be no novel. It either drives your opening, or is the bridge between your opening scene and the beginning of the middle (act two).

    Week 2: Focus on how problems get solved in the middle

    This middle is where the bulk of the novel unfolds as your characters work to resolve their problems and fail a lot. The number of attempts and failures will vary by the type of story, as thrillers have different expectations than romances.

    Things to consider:

    • How the setup transitions to the middle

    Everything in your beginning will lead to the middle, where the protagonist will make that all-important choice to accept responsibility for resolving the plot, and move into act two. The opening scene leads to the inciting event, which leads to this decision.

    • The major problem or event revealed in the middle

    Adding a big shake-up, problem, or reveal at the novel’s center can prevent the all-too-common boggy middle. The mid-point event creates the goal and problem the second half of the middle will have to resolve, and set up what will happen in the ending.

    • How the middle transitions to the ending

    The protagonist has failed, feels utterly lost and hopeless, and things are at their worst. What the protagonist does here will launch the ending and lead to the climax of the novel.

    Week 3: Focus on how the novel ends

    The ending is how the novel’s core conflict problem is resolved. It starts with the protagonist at her lowest point and drives her to the ultimate showdown with the antagonist.

    Things to determine:

    • How the protagonist plans to defeat the antagonist

    Although the plan may (and often does) fail, this is the goal that launches the ending and propels the protagonist to the climax. What are some of the steps that will take the protagonist from hopeless to victorious (or hopeless to defeated, if that’s how it ends)?

    • How the novel ends

    You might not know the details at this stage, but it helps to have at least a general idea of how the core conflict of the novel is resolved.

    • How the protagonist is changed by the experience

    In most novels, the protagonist grows and becomes a better person by the end of the novel. What changes for your protagonist? How is she better off? How is she worse off? What did she learn?

    Week 4: Focus on major turning points of the story

    Flesh out whatever you need to write your novel.

    If your story is character-driven, you might plan the character arc and focus more on the internal journey of your protagonist and discover the plot as you write.

    If you’re a plot-driven writer, you might prefer to map out the major plot points and figure out who your characters are by how they solve those plot problems.

    Whatever your process, look at the key turning points and elements you need to keep your story moving forward. I suggest aiming for three major points per act (beginning, middle and ending), but develop as many as you like to keep your plot on target.

    Final Days: Write a book proposal

    It might sound crazy, but I recommend writing a rough query pitch to make sure you have enough figured out to write your novel.

    The book proposal is a fantastic way to verify the necessary elements of your plot and characters, and find holes before you fall into them.

    7. Prepare your space and tools

    If you love to write in the same place so you can build the habit, setting up a dedicated space can help. Put your favorite plant on your desk, a good notebook nearby, and keep it clean so you’re ready to dive in and work.

    You want your space locked and loaded to dive in completely on November 1st so you can get right to writing without anything getting in your way.

    This might be the time you need to invest in some better tools to support your writing. If your keyboard is missing some keys or your pens always leak, you’ll want the best tools so writing is as easy as possible.

    Set up rewards for yourself

    Don’t forget to reward yourself along the way. Whether or not you hit your goal of 50,000 words, you should set benchmarks along the way to celebrate. Any words you can get on the page is a celebration, even if it’s not a full novel.

    As writers, it’s easy to overlook progress. When it comes to something like writing and publishing a novel, you have to understand how long it can take to make it happen. Novels are marathons, not sprints. That’s why it’s essential to celebrate every little benchmark.

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  • What Psychology Says About the First Page of Your Novel

    What Psychology Says About the First Page of Your Novel

    As a psychologist I might be biased, but I believe psychology is the ultimate complement to writing.

    Think about it: Psychology is the study of human behaviour and emotions, relationships and social interactions, psychopathology and human dysfunction.

    What do novels explore and ultimately mirror?

    You’ve got it; What characters do and feel, their relationships and interactions, the worst of humanity and our inspirational best.

    This means psychology can teach us a lot about our stories, our characters and how to engage readers.

    And these are all points we can use to hook our readers from the very first page of our book.

    We all know the first page is key. It’s a flooded market, and readers know they have choice. Give them a solid reason to dive into your words and stay there — rather than moving on to the next cover on their Kindle.

    Here’s what psychology says you need on your first page.

    1.  A question (or two)

    There’s one powerful motivator that led your reader to your first page — curiosity.

    Curiosity brought  us life-changing items like soap, the wheel and alarm clocks (with a snooze button for sleepy writers). Curiosity has us doing completely unproductive tasks like reading news about people we will never meet, learning topics we will never have use for or exploring places we will never visit.

    Curiosity is what captured a reader’s attention when they saw your book’s title, cover and blurb. Their synapses fired. Their mind wanted to know more, because when we actively pursue new information through our curiosity, we’re rewarded with a flood of pleasure inducing dopamine (just like when we eat, have sex or snort cocaine).

    And once you’ve sparked their curiosity, you need to maintain it — the best way to do this is to raise questions in their mind.

    Why does Harry live under the stairs? How will Frodo escape the orcs?

    Sow those little seeds throughout your first page (and every scene after that), and you’ve given your reader a reason to keep reading.

    We’ve all been there, it’s 4 a.m. on a weeknight, with children that are early risers…knowing we’ve run out of coffee — but we just HAVE to know the answer!

    2. Emotion

    Our brains are driven by emotion.

    I know we like to think we’re rational beings, applying the rules of logic calmly to those little and not-so-little decisions, but our every thought and whole perspective is colored by emotion.

    Rather than convince you by giving examples of emotion’s salience in our life, I thought I’d introduce you to a man called Elliot. Tragically, Elliot lost a small section of his brain during surgery for a benign tumour. Before surgery Elliot had been a model father and husband, holding a high-level corporate job, but the operation changed everything. Afterward, Elliot couldn’t make a decision; whether to use a blue or black pen, what to have for lunch and where to park his car. He lost his job, his wife and was forced to move back in with his parents.

    Why? Because Elliot could no longer feel emotion. As a result, he was completely detached and approached decisions as if he was in neutral — every option carried the exact same weight.

    It turns out, emotions are the weight in the scales of choice.

    What does this mean for your reader? Well, if the reader can’t feel what matters and what doesn’t, what’s important and what isn’t, then nothing matters.

    So as a writer, you need to convey not just what happens on that first page (the action), but also how this affects your protagonist, and how your protagonist feels about the events (the reaction).

    That is what your reader is going to connect with. Without emotion, your story will be neutral, boring, and perhaps put down and walked away from.

    3. A compelling character

    If you’re making a sandwich, one we want someone else to take a bite from, then these two previous points are the two slices of bread that hug your pastrami or Swiss cheese.

    The bread is important, without it you don’t have a sandwich. But without the filling, you have…well, bread.

    Who eats that on its own?

    Your pastrami is your character. The Swiss cheese is the protagonist we’re drawn to, that we want to explore.

    Research has shown we have a profound desire to try and understand the thoughts and feelings bouncing around the skulls of people we interact with (how many of us

    consider ourselves people watchers?), the characters on TV and the hero introduced on your first page.

    From an evolutionary sense, our fellow humans are pretty darned important to our survival. It’s why we get a burst of dopamine when someone smiles at us and the same part of our brain associated with physical pain lights up when we’re socially rejected.

    How do we create a compelling character? Luckily, there are multiple paths to this uber-important goal — conflicting characteristics, a challenging situation to handle, powerful prose, a secret, a vulnerability, a driving need, a questionable goal, a primal emotion we empathise with.

    This is where your writer’s mind gets to fly — but make sure you capture it on that all-important first page.

    Capture your audience’s curiosity, connect with their emotions and give them a character that does both of these and you’ve got yourself a first page trifecta — one that will engage, immerse and captivate your reader.

    Just have a look at the first page of your favorite book.

    Does it have all three? I’d love to hear your thoughts, or how you’re planning on capturing your first page trifecta.

  • 5 Common Plotting Mistakes to Avoid When You’re Writing a Novel

    5 Common Plotting Mistakes to Avoid When You’re Writing a Novel

    A plot is the series of events that illustrate a story. It’s not the theme, the characters, the character arc, or the idea behind the novel — just what the characters actually do.

    Because it’s so simple, it’s easy to overcomplicate the plot and get your manuscript into trouble (often right around page 50 or page 100).

    If you’re struggling with a troublesome plot (or lack thereof) right now, take a look at these common plotting mistakes.

    1. More premise than plot

    A great idea is a wonderful thing, but it takes more than a premise to create a plot.

    Many novels fail because all they are is a premise.

    For example, “Four siblings go through a magical wardrobe into another world” is a concept with lots of potential, but there’s no plot to be found. It’s what the siblings do once they get to that magical world that creates the plot.

    The characters’ decisions determine how a plot unfolds.

    In contrast to the example above, “Four siblings go through a magical wardrobe into another world and must defeat an evil queen enslaving the land” is a plot.

    Are you making this mistake? State your idea in one sentence. Does it contain what your protagonist has to do by the end of the novel?

    If not, you might not have the core conflict needed to drive your plot.

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    2. Not enough choices

    A series of scenes that describe how a character accomplished a task might technically be a plot, but it’s rarely a good plot.

    Predictably watching someone do exactly what’s expected is boring. The more choices you give a character, and the harder you make those choices, the more unpredictable the plot (and the story’s outcome) will be.

    Readers should feel that anything can happen, and they need to keep reading to find out how this story turns out.

    However, choices won’t hold a reader’s interest if the outcome doesn’t matter. Each tough choice should have consequences attached to it: punishments for failure and reward for success.

    Are you making this mistake? Look at the turning points in your novel. Are there tough choices at each point? Do the options have consequences?

    3. It’s all in your protagonist’s head

    Stories that are too internal and focus too much on how a character feels and thinks often lack a solid plot because there’s nothing for the character to actually do.

    For example, if the protagonist’s goal is to “be happy,” there’s no direction to help you create the plot. But if the goal is to “find a higher-paying job and move out of his parent’s basement,” you have clear steps the protagonist can take and choices he can make to create your plot.

    Are you making this mistake? Can you pinpoint what your protagonist has to do to be happy or achieve a goal? Can you list the physical or external steps needed to achieve that goal?

    4. No reason to act

    Plots often get derailed because the protagonist is only doing what the author told them to do. They have no personal reason to do it, no goals driving them, no stakes hanging over their heads.

    They could turn and walk away and nothing in the story would change. Imagine the movie Die Hard if John McClane’s wife wasn’t a hostage in the building. He’d have no personal reason to risk his life and go to the extremes he does to stop the bad guys.

    Are you making this mistake? What happens if your protagonist walks away? Could you use the second most-important character as the protagonist with little to no change in the novel?

    5. No one worth fighting

    Stories are only as strong as their antagonists, and a weak antagonist makes for a weak plot. The antagonist (be it a person, society, or nature) creates the obstacles the protagonist will need to overcome to succeed: the plot.

    He, she, or it sets the conflict in motion and presents the first choice the protagonist will have to make. Which in turn makes the antagonist react and make a choice, forcing another protagonist choice, and another action and so on until the climax.

    Are you making this mistake? Does your antagonist have solid reasons to do whatever it is they’re doing? Are they trying their hardest to defeat the protagonist, even if that makes it harder for you to get the protagonist out of trouble?

    No matter what type of story you’re writing, if you remember to keep asking “What is my protagonist doing?” “Why are they doing it?” and “What happens because they did it?” you’ll rarely lose your way between page one and the end.

    Have you ever made one of these plotting mistakes? Are you struggling with one of them now?

    Want a chance to win a ten-page critique from Janice? Leave a comment to enter (don’t forget to click to submit on the widget!). The winner will be randomly chosen at the end of the month.

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  • The Powerful Case for Developing Your Fiction-Writing Platform

    The Powerful Case for Developing Your Fiction-Writing Platform

    There are tons of articles out there with tips to help authors build their platform.

    There are almost as many articles explaining why fiction authors don’t need a platform to get an agent or publisher.

    Most of this advice is completely accurate. So should fiction authors just cross “platforming” off their to-do lists?

    Heck no.

    As a marketing pro and a fiction author, articles declaring there’s no need to build a platform make me facepalm. Articles expounding on this point are built on the premise that your platform is intended to get you a publisher.

    But that’s not what a platform is for.

    Forget publishers. An author’s platform is for connecting with readers.

    It’s a crowded world out there

    Most books, traditionally or self-published, never sell any more than 2,000 copies in their lifetime. Not a month. Not a year. We’re talking entire shelf life.

    How’s that possible? It’s a crowded world out there for a book. About 750,000 new books are released every year, according to Tim Grahl’s research.

    So sure, an agent and maybe even a publisher might pick up your book without a platform, but what about when your book is squeezed onto the massive shelf along with all those others out there in the online abyss?

    Your fans are the key

    The average American adult reads 12 books every year. Compile all those different people and all those different book choices, and that’s a lot of opportunities for your book to get read.

    Every time a reader looks for their next book is an opportunity for you to be discovered.

    But different readers are looking for different types of stories. Not all of those readers will want to read your book.

    But others will adore it. There are readers out there right now, just waiting to love your book.

    So how do you find those readers? The answer to this fundamental author question is platforming.

    Benefits beyond readership

    As I began platforming online, I paid more attention to the online writing community because it was right there in my Twitter feed.

    I made invaluable friendships with other writers and bloggers, which have helped me learn and develop as author. It’s also given me awesome opportunities as I launch my first book.

    The result: Long before I had any books to promote, platforming was already well worth the effort.

    I also became part of a community of enthusiastic sci-fi and fantasy readers. Again, this happened naturally over time, simply because as a fantasy writer, I was sharing content that interested me and that I thought would be of interest to others in this community.  And it’s really a blast to have those people there to geek out with when something exciting happens, like a new season of Daredevil drops on Netflix.

    See how it works? Platforming is a win-win. But this isn’t even where the benefits of platforming end.

    Setting yourself up for long-tail success

    Your author ambitions don’t stop with one book deal, right?

    Most writers consider a book release a stepping stone, rather than an end goal. You want to keep growing your audience so your next book sells even better, and so on.

    This audience growth over time is called the long tail. A platform is key for this.

    First, it helps you maintain long-term relationships with the readers who love you most: The ones most likely to want to buy your next book because they loved your first book so darn much.

    This list inevitably grows over time as more people read your work and find you online, allowing each new book to be more successful. Each book launch, in turn, helps you gain more exposure, which helps more people find you. It’s a lovely cycle.

    Secondly, the sales success this cycle leads to helps you maintain agent and publisher relationships.

    Sales are your responsibility as much as your publisher’s. If your book flops, you’re not likely to get a second chance.

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    Platforming can be pleasant

    With so much to gain from platforming, why would authors avoid it so adamantly? There’s a stigma to platforming it doesn’t deserve, though I understand where it comes from.

    Promoting your writing can make your feel icky, or even like you’ve sold out. But platforming isn’t about making sales pitches all day. It’s about making connections — sharing what you love with the people who love what you create.

    Another barrier is the idea that platforming takes a huge amount of time. But it doesn’t have to.

    If your time is limited, start with just one or two social media networks. Even if you post just a few times a week — an effort that should take just minutes — you’ll see more growth than if you do nothing. Free tools like Buffer and Hootsuite can help.

    And sometimes, writers get frustrated with the slow nature of the audience-cultivation process.

    I know, I’ve been there myself. It’s rough to see your followers inch up from 0, 10, 30 … but hey, we all start there. Stop putting so much pressure on yourself and have some fun with it.

    But please writers, I’m begging you, do something.  

    Consider it an investment in your writing career. Your future self will thank you.

    What advantages have you found to developing an author platform? Or, if you’ve procrastinated on this task, tell us why!

  • Writing a Novel: 5 Lessons From One Author’s First Book Deal

    Writing a Novel: 5 Lessons From One Author’s First Book Deal

    If you’ve ever dreamed of getting a book deal, don’t be dissuaded by the talk about how no major house is publishing debut fiction anymore, or that you need insider contacts to get published.

    I got a deal with a top publisher within a year of starting my novel.

    With some determination and a thick skin — I got rejected by 60 agents along the way — you can get published from the slush pile as well.

    Here I share my best lessons learned on the journey:

    1. The bigger your idea, the more you’ll be rejected

    One of the biggest conflicts every debut novelist has to endure is figuring out how to approach your genre.

    If you write a predictable novel — yet another damaged CIA agent story or young-adult dystopian fiction — you’ll find it hard to get published because you’re competing for the same audience as established authors in the genre.

    On the other hand, the bigger and more unexpected your story, the less willing a major publisher will be to take a chance on it.

    My novel, about a man confronting his questions about mortality, is less self-help and more of an adventure story. There is no established, clear-cut genre for such a book. As a result, I consistently got lukewarm responses from literary agents.

    Both approaches are hard, and ultimately, you can only write what you can write. But if you do go with the latter approach of a big, unexpected idea, do know that there is light at the end of the rejection tunnel.

    Identify literary agents who deal with high-concept fiction versus genre fiction on Publisher’s Marketplace, and query until you find a match.

    Once you do, the agent will know exactly which editors to pitch your book to at the major publishing houses.

    For perspective, it took me eight months of rejections to find my agent, but only six days after that to land multiple offers from the top-five publishing houses.

    2. You don’t need a platform to get a literary agent

    I’ve always had a corporate career, so I wasn’t exposed to the writing community in New York until I got a book deal. I’m glad I wasn’t, because I would’ve probably been sucked into wasting time on rite-of-passage activities I’ve heard other writers talk about — activities that don’t move the needle at all.

    For instance, take the idea of building a platform.

    I don’t think a random blog post here, one Facebook post there, and a few Twitter updates constitute a platform that will attract a major publisher. To build an authentic platform, you need to devote genuine attention to it and touch hundreds of people’s lives with your words. And that’s hard to do when you’re trying to write an impactful novel.

    Hanging out at book readings with other unpublished novelists who are hoping to get noticed by agents or publishers is another killer waste of time. I advocate a rather monastic approach to meaningful fiction: Commit your full undistracted mental energy to it.

    Make your novel and pitch shine so much that it stands out of the slush pile. Every editor will tell you that debut fiction eventually sells on the strength of the idea and the writing.

    If you can build an authentic platform around it, that’s a nice bonus. But your platform should never come at the expense of your writing.

    3. Your novel should combine meaning with entertainment

    You’ve thought about your idea for years. You’re convinced it’s the one story that has to be told.

    But it may be too meaningful.

    I was so possessed with Eastern mysticism while writing The Yoga of Max’s Discontent that early drafts of my novel looked like a Ph.D. thesis on meditation. The result: Rejections.

    My story hadn’t liberated itself from the author.

    In subsequent drafts, I focused on the character’s journey from drug dens in the Bronx to hidden yoga ashrams in India. Without trying to communicate any message, I allowed his journey to open windows to new secret worlds for my protagonist — and for my readers.

    Success immediately followed. Are you able to immerse your reader in an alternate reality, or is there too much of your own voice and your own motivation present in the story?

    Good fiction liberates itself from its creator. It does have meaning, thanks to the protagonist’s lofty, all-consuming goal, but it’s simultaneously entertaining because it opens windows to exciting new worlds for readers.

    Just think of Harry Potter, a story layered with meaning about a kid realizing the depths of his own potential, yet constructing an elaborate secret world right from the start. The moment I was able to combine the two, I got multiple agent representation offers.

    4. Hiring a professional editor is the best money you can spend

    Jake Morrissey, my editor at Random House, accepts fewer than 0.5 percent of manuscripts that land on his desk, despite them being vetted by top literary agents.

    With odds like these, there’s zero room for error when your manuscript finally makes it to a top agent’s desk. That’s why I highly recommend hiring a professional editor to polish your manuscript at two stages of the writing process:

    • A developmental editor for broad comments on story, structure, and character trajectory right after your initial drafts
    • A line editor or copy editor when you’re done with your final, final draft to polish sentences, grammar, and copy

    Like in any endeavor, in writing you have to spend money to make money. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be $50,000 on an MFA.

    I spent $700 on a developmental editor after two drafts of my novel, and then $2300 on a line editor after I got a stream of rejections from literary agents.

    Not only did they both shine new light on my manuscript; they also taught me a lot about the craft of writing which will guide every book I write in the future. My publishing deal was an excellent return on the investment.

    If you’re trying to break into the “A” league, don’t rely on friends and family. Invest in a professional editor to elevate your game.

    5. Modify your query and manuscript when it’s not working

    I’ve seen a lot of “failure porn” in the writing industry — writers celebrating how Harry Potter was rejected 12 times, Chicken Soup for the Soul was rejected 134 times — as some kind of proof the publishing industry doesn’t know what it’s doing.

    But if you’re querying the right people and getting rejected again and again, you have to consider the possibility that your query or your manuscript may require work.

    The moment I changed a significant portion of my query, my response rate doubled. After completely revamping the first 30 pages of my manuscript so readers were thrown into the story’s secret world right away, I got three agent representation offers in just one week.

    Based on my trial and experimentation over eight months of querying, I’ve arrived at the following method:

    • Submit your query in batches of 12
    • Set your goal at a query acceptance target of 25 percent. If three or more agents out of the 12 you queried ask to review your partial or full manuscript, then you know your query is working. If you get zero positive responses in 12 submissions, rework the query.
    • At least one agent among every 10 who read your manuscript should extend an offer. If they don’t, you need to rework your manuscript, especially the beginning.

    How to survive the querying process

    Now, a final tip to speed up the inevitable rejections in the query process: Create a sense of urgency in the submission process.

    This is the exact follow-up letter I’d send to all the agents in my round of 12 if I got a bite from another agent:         

    Dear (Agent Name),

    No intention to hurry you whatsoever as I know it takes more time to evaluate a query and I fully respect your process.

    I just wanted to keep you in the loop that two of the agents I sent my first set of queries to responded with a request for a full manuscript, somewhat surprisingly for my understanding of the longer timelines in the U.S. publishing process.

    Since you were at the top of my desired list because of your confluence of interests in commercial fiction and religion/spirituality, I was really eager for your response. If at all your time allows, I would be very grateful if you could tell me of your interest.

    Thank you,
    Karan

    Eighty percent of the time, agents would respond immediately, cutting down wait time and getting more eyes on my manuscript.

    Ignore the rules that say you need to wait six weeks or six months before following up with an agent.

    Agents are drowning in queries. Create your own hype — your own scarcity triggers — to rise to the top of the pile. This principle may well be the key to the whole journey of getting a top debut publishing deal in record time.

    Ignore the rules. Write a big story. Believe in your own hype. Create scarcity. Selling debut fiction is hard, but it’s also democratic — you can break in on your own steam!

    Novelists, what are the most important lessons you’ve learned on your writing journey?