AWP 2012 | Now That’s a Novel Idea: Marketability (Gasp!) and Creative Writing Programs (Part 4)
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Welcome to Part 4 of my blog series on the 2012 AWP Conference session titled, Now That’s a Novel Idea: Marketability (Gasp!) and Creative Writing Programs. I’m assuming you’ve at least read my introductory post, so I’ll just jump right in today and talk about the panelists’ views on query letters and agent-hunting.
First of all, what is a query letter, and why do you need one? Well, these days most publishers do not want to see your entire novel manuscript if they don’t already have a working relationship with you. In most cases, they want nothing more than a query letter, and possibly a short synopsis. The publisher will then use that information to decide if they think it’s worth their time to request a copy of the full manuscript. So, it’s important to write a query letter that really sells your manuscript.
Our session panelists provided the following tips for writing an effective query letter: (more…)
AWP 2012 | Now That’s a Novel Idea: Marketability (Gasp!) and Creative Writing Programs (Part 2)
Hilton Chicago (Photo credit: Diorama Sky)
Yesterday, I began my discussion on the 2012 AWP Conference session titled, “Now That’s a Novel Idea: Marketability (Gasp!) and Creative Writing Programs.” Today I’d like to share some of the panelists’ advice on approaching the early stages of writing a novel.
Before I start, I should tell you that I arrived at this session late after getting lost trying to find my way to registration upon arriving at the conference. So, I missed out on the introductions and am unable to attribute some of the quotes I wrote down during the session. (Thankfully, I’m no journalist; otherwise I would probably be in big trouble!) I’ll do my best to give credit where credit is due, but if I get something wrong, please tell me so I can fix it.
One of the speakers at this session recommends that you write a synopsis of your novel early in the process to make sure you have a clear picture of what your novel is about. The synopsis will also help you sell your story to potential buyers (agents, editors, publishers, etc.) Remember, they won’t be interested in your novel if you can’t sufficiently tell them what the novel is about. (more…)
AWP 2012 | Now That’s a Novel Idea: Marketability (Gasp!) and Creative Writing Programs (Part 1)
publish #01 (Photo credit: mediamolecule)
It’s been more than a week since I attended the 2012 Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference and Book Fair in Chicago, IL. So far, I’ve only barely scratched the surface of the convention. Today I’d like to dive into my notes and talk about one session I attended, which was titled, “Now That’s a Novel Idea: Marketability (Gasp!) and Creative Writing Programs.” (more…)
NaNoWriMo Wrap-up
As another National Novel Writing Month wraps up, and NaNoWriMo participants around the globe rush to validate their completed novels, it is time for me to admit the fact there will be no NaNoWriMo “win” in my near future. But while my current 11,654 words do not a novel make, I am not quite ready to concede defeat.
Regardless of the fact that I will not have 50,000 words of a novel written within the next 2 days, I still view this year’s NaNoWriMo event as a success. In fact, I’m quite certain I got far more from the event this year than I have put into it.
For example, NaNoWriMo inspired me to get organized and create a complete novel outline, something I have never before managed to accomplish. So even though my novel is nowhere near complete, I have a solid outline to work with in the coming months. What I got out of NaNoWriMo this year is the knowledge that I do have what it takes to sit down and plan a full and complete novel, including a beginning, middle, and end. I also feel like I have worked out a process that I can use again and again for future novels. (more…)
NaNoWriMo | Day 1, Post 2: My characters need names
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12:15 p.m.
Wow, two posts in one day. This is totally not me! But anyway, Day One of NaNoWriMo is going swimmingly. I’m up to 2,492 words. But it is bothering me that my characters don’t have names. In fact, it’s not just bothering me, it’s slowing me down. (more…)
NaNoWriMo: Starting from scratch on Day 1
This is my actual notebook where I began my novel!
Isn’t it just like me to change my mind at the last minute and start over from scratch? Well, that’s exactly what I am looking at, Day 1 of NaNoWriMo. After all the preparation I did, planning for my original novel, I was having a very hard time being passionate about the story. I think I had some good ideas, but I really wasn’t happy with where the story was going. I was dreading getting up this morning to start working that outline into a novel. (more…)
NaNo-NaNo-WriMo-WriMo… It’s almost here!
Happy Halloween! This is your last day of relative sanity before the frenzy of NaNoWriMo. Are you taking a deep breath and relaxing today or rushing to get your loose ends tied up before jumping into your NaNoWriMo novel tomorrow?
I have a huge pot of chili bubbling on the stove already this morning, so I at least have my meals planned out for the week. Otherwise, I’m just now remembering all of the little details I meant to take care of the past few weeks so I could concentrate on NaNoWriMo… the KTG blog posts I meant to write in advance and schedule to post on their own while I’m busily typing away at my novel… the lesson plans and PowerPoint presentations I meant to throw together for my classes, the poems I meant to write in advance for my poetry class… you get the picture, right? Are all writers this discombobulated or is it just me? (more…)
Gentlemen (and ladies,) we have a NaNoWriMo novel outline!
For the first time ever in my writing career, I have developed a full and complete outline for a novel (shocking, I know.) How many times have I just sat down and started writing without giving much thought to where I am taking my characters? At least as many times as I have abandoned manuscripts in drawers and on hard drives, that’s for sure! But I want to be really prepared for NaNoWriMo, so I decided yesterday to do a little research and remind myself of the story structure lessons I learned when I took my novel writing class a few semesters ago.
In my research, I found the following video on storyboarding from Mary Carroll Moore, an award-winning author and master writing instructor:
The “W Storyboard structure” Moore details in her video was tremendously helpful. I had already decided on the characters I wanted to use for my NaNoWriMo novel, and even had a short story written about them. But I need to decide on an appropriate conflict to set my story in motion and then determine the trajectory of the story. (more…)
Preparing for NaNoWriMo: Day 2
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Last spring, I wrote a short story for a course I was taking on literature and humor. It’s the story of a girl who is told by a boy that he spray painted something on a train trestle; something she would be very interested in seeing. So this girl and her best friend decide to ride their bikes out to see what he wrote and, as with any good work of humor, hilarity ensues. (more…)
Just signed up for NaNoWriMo
It’s that time of year again. Time to sign up for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) if you haven’t already done so. What is NaNoWriMo? Well, the purpose of NaNoWriMo is to kick yourself in the behind and write! To be precise, when you sign up for NaNoWriMo, you officially commit yourself to writing 50,000 words of your novel in the month of November.
So, I’m sitting here reading your mind, and I can hear you thinking, “Damn, 50,000 words… that’s a LOT!” and “What happens if I don’t make it to 50,000?” “Is this going to cost me some money?”
Don’t worry. (more…)
It’s time to narrow my focus
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So, I’ve decided to choose one specific story to write and devote the rest of the year to getting it done. My next step is to narrow it down to just one. Which story do I really want to tell most? I have several manuscripts in various stages of unfinish to choose from. How to decide?
These are the stories I am currently contemplating:
- A trashy, cheesy romance novel that is fun to write, but not exactly what I want to do with the rest of my life. It’s one of those things I pull out and work on once in a while when I feel like having fun without working too hard to write the next great American novel; the type of thing I would definitely publish under a pen name! (more…)
Write to me!