Writers' Roundup
July 10, 2009
Thanks to everyone who offered advice about getting over the fight with my manuscript. After a weekend break, I forced myself to get back at it, and completed drafts of chapters nine, ten and eleven! Largely because of that progress, I’m in back in love with the story. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!
Helpful links from this week:
- What’s a book club hustler? An author who markets her work to book clubs by showing up in person. Sounds fun, albeit a lot of work. On that same note, author Galen Kindley offers practical advice about how to find book clubs open to author visits and prepare for the meetings.
- Penelope Trunk on staying disciplined. More reasons why it’s important to stay focused and on track with my writing every day.
- While documenting her path to publication, writer Jody Hedlund explains the slew of committees her book has to go through before (hopefully) publisher acceptance.
- Lastly, a post from author Janice Hardy about why you should kill your prologue. This spoke to me because I killed my prologue months ago, after realizing that I fell into her category #3, thinking that it had more oomph to grab readers than the first chapter. But that was taking the easy way out. As she writes, instead “make your first chapter sing.”
Now put that pen to paper this weekend!
As usual, some excellent links here. Thanks. Glad to hear you are back into writing your book.
In the world of Now, into which I have stumbled, organization is even more important than in any previous life. So, I read the Penelope Truck blog with great interest. Here’s the line the struck me…”You need to give up perfectionism in order to get anywhere.” Yeah, how true. Get it to very good, then, let it go. It’s not caving to mediocrity, it’s practical reality.
Best regards, Galen
Imagineering Fiction Blog
Thanks for including my post about finding your writer’s voice, Alexis!
I really think the reason I don’t have a book contract yet is because my voice wasn’t strong and clear. But, to free your voice, you need to learn the rules of writing and let go of perfectionism…..and it all takes time and practice!
See you in cyberspace, 🙂
Laurie
Thanks for this wonderful collection of links, Alexis! I shall be spending time with them tomorrow morning with a cup of lemon tea. Glad to hear you’re back into your book. I became disenchanted with my story so many times. Perhaps that’s why it’s taken 7 years to finally finish it! Have a great weekend and keep plugging away!
Great links–thanks!
I know we SHOULD kill our prologues, but…the book coming out in August has one on page 1! I was really worried about it during the submission process, but the editors at Midnight Ink liked it and kept it in. I guess it just depends…but editing out prologues is definitely something to consider.
Elizabeth
Mystery Writing is Murder
Oops, my memoir has an introduction. Wish I’d known you guys during the 10 years!!! I worked on my memoir.
Karen
Elizabeth & Karen: Interesting to hear you both have an intro! I’m struggling to start my book without one, but I WILL do it…
Hi Alexis,
Thank you for the mention! And thanks for all of the other great links! It’s fun to share this writing journey with others who understand the hardships!
Glad to have you back. I appreciated the orgaizational aspect as I’m not the best at organizing my time. My thoughts, not so much a problem as I can write them down helter skelter and go back and organize them later.
Steve Tremp
Interesting read about the prologue. In my Pride and Prejudice and Angels story, I used it to set the scene that Elizabeth Bennet died when she was a week old and the present one in my story was a baby found by the Bennets and named after their girl. In fact she was an angel fallen from the heaven. I have been debating if I should use it. Now that I read this post, I think I will kill the prologue when I publish the book. Thanks Alexis for the heads up.
Bargain with the Devil