Writing to a Market

My opinion. Don't.

Upon the sage advice of a well-respected agent, I invested over a year in writing to the series market. He liked the protagonist I created. I liked her, too. And publishing houses like series.

Several well read authors follow the series blueprint successfully. Clive Cussler has Dirk Pitt. For James Patterson, it's his detective Alex Cross, and Janet Evanovich writes Stephanie Plum.

The second manuscript in my to-be series featuring the same protagonist has only one slight problem. It sits, unfinished.

I use the tool of character boards. I have a plot in mind, and maybe even a detailed story outline, but before I can proceed to write a single page I must first have intimate knowledge of the characters I'm writing about. I have to love them and hate them before I can share them with my readers, or they aren't going to love them and hate them. I need to know my characters so that my readers can see, hear and touch them as I do. It has taken you a long time to find the forever-friendships in your life. You have spent years growing these friendships into a deeper existence of 'Namasté' . I need to speed things up a bit.

The process goes like this. First, I paste a barrage of photograph clippings from old magazines that closely resemble the physical attributes of each character. Then I interview each character, even secondary ones. I need to know where they went to school, where they've lived, what they graduated in, what their hobbies are, and what they like for dinner. I drill down further. I learn their quirks, their regrets, their nightmares and dreams. I need to know despicable things about the sweetest girl in class. Only then have I dug deep enough to discover the authenticity of GMC [goal, motivation, and conflict].

It doesn't take long to discover your enemies, does it? But to truly understand their GMC, the writer must treat them with the same amount of authentic intimacy. Sometimes that means finding a thread of tenderness in evil.

The parting of ways with a beloved or despised character is always bittersweet. But, as when I moved from my home state of Colorado, I took my beloved friends with me in my heart and soul, and all of what is me. Namasté .


'No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.'

                                                                                                                       -Robert Frost-



For me, I lose an element of surprise and emotion when I continue with the same characters facing new sagas.

Then again, there's my second humble opinion. Never say never.

The Critic and the Creative

I’m not an idiot. I’m not going to bite off the hand that feeds me. This blog is not about dissing critics and reviewers. Believe me, I have a boatload of my own not-so-humble opinions that I’m happy to divulge, and oddly, not everyone agrees with me.

Critics and reviewers have their place, rightfully. Judgment raises its voice every day, in the art world, the cinema, and in every written word. Even your inner critique engages you when you make your choice. Will it be Rice Crispies or Cocoa Puffs?

One of my manuscripts went before several ‘outside professional reviewers’. One person wrote, “I would read anything by this author”. Another wrote that he couldn’t get through my first chapter of crap. Hard to believe they were reading the same material!

It’s curious to me, this large percentage of C&R’s that have never pitched their own finished creations. Because they have none!
It’s curious to me, what power they yield. A critic sees a red vertical line painted on a black canvas and says it’s crap, but when he sees the red horizontal line on a black canvas, he knights it as genius. A star is born. Stephen King received the following critique/rejection for his bestselling novel, Carrie: “We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell.”

I was lucky. My mother and father both fostered my creativity. I would run to them and say, ‘Look what I did’, and always, I did GREAT! Imagine my surprise when I found out that some of what I did was crap.
To take a blank canvas and turn it into emotion, that’s the hard work. Hard work is taking an empty stage and creating life, and turning a ream of paper into comedy and tragedy.

For you, today, I wish creativity. Perhaps it’s the rock you position in your garden, just right. Maybe its adding a few lines to the store-bought greeting card you send out. Perhaps creativity is only a glimpse of inspiration today, that stirs you when you take a hard look at a crooked tree in silhouette with the inky skyline. You may not go home and paint it. You may not journal about your sighting. But your heart , somewhere down in there, has taken notes, and if you listen to it, may it sing.

Oh yeah. I still wait in judgment.

My Mom's Fridge

'Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.'

-Helen Keller-







Mom passed away last year. I'll spare you the details. No, I won't. She died 15 months, 30 days, 16 hours ago. My husband says I do grief real well.



I've moved on with my memories. Some good. Some bad.

I woke up this morning thinking about my mom's fridge.



Every cubic inch spewed with surprises. Leftovers of hearty meatloaf, potato salad, and jammed-in pizza boxes. A sticky bottle of maraschino cherries. Ingredients of churned butter, whipping cream, and eggs begging to go into Mom's hands, with a cupful of sugar, and baked into a mouth-watering pie. A spray can of whipped topping sometimes fell into my mouth before the pie was done.



Also inside, some bad surprises. Green blotchy cheese. Stinky trout with their heads still on, their eyes reflecting their last vision of certain death. And speaking of eyes, Mom would store cauliflowerettes in a tub of water. They didn't look like anything from our vegetable garden. I knew for certain they were disintegrating eyeballs!



I had the normal childhood. No pony for my birthday, but no dead bodies in the backyard, either.



In the opening quote Helen Keller infers we must endure the bad in order to become the good. As a writer of suspense I am constantly delving deep into my past, real and imagined, in order to bring a third, matrix-like dimension to the blank page. Keller's simple but poignant statement calls out to me to reign through each character, each setting, all dialogue and the absence of it.



It's an ominous and exciting challenge. I am inspired by Keller to see more than the eyes can bare witness.

Hurry Up & Wait!

This frustrating phrase is never more true than in the publishing industry.



I once wrote an article about a 44 year old woman. To be fair, I was warned by my editor not to include anything that would time-stamp the material. The finished article was immediately approved for publication by the magazine. We waited 9 months to see it hit the stands. Upon reviewing it I noticed that my words had been changed to read 'a woman in her forties'. I guess even my editor wasn't sure when it would run.


Now I wait with one of my full manuscripts in the hands of what I believe is my dream-team literary agency.

I wait as they read every word. Interpret every space of white. For seasoned pros much of it is instinct, I'm sure, but they all use a similar rating system, if you will: Originality. Setting. Characters. Dialogue. Plot. Oh yeah, and quality of writing, too. Go figger!



This isn't exactly true in non-fiction books where you can pre-sell on an outline, assuming you have a strong platform. I've considered writing a non-fiction but I don't think it's for me. I like to lie and make shit up.

Oh, one more thing, I have a potty mouth that translates, I think rather well, to the written page. There are rules on that, too. More, later.




"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug." ___Mark Twain

Show, Don't Tell!

This blog is about a writer’s life. Mine, in particular.
Today I’m stumbling. Not writer’s block. Social etiquette.
Today I speak for writers one and all!
Have you ever asked your professor how much money he earned last year? How about your favorite grocery clerk? Your clergyman? Doctor, lawyer, Indian chief?
Why, oh why, does everyone want to know how much money a writer makes? Are they planning on writing the next great world-class novel, becoming an agent, or competing in the freelance market? Maybe they just want us to pick up the lunch tab.
They want to know if we are serious writers. When they see us out and about they deduce we're not working and therefore writing must be a hobby. If they don’t see us out and about they assume we’ve become recluses. Does The Shining come to mind?

I think Burton Rascoe, famous for his quotes with good reason, said it best.
“What no wife of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working when he’s staring out of the window.”

Hard to get paid by the hour for that.

Thank my lucky stars my husband understands. And it can't be easy!

BTW, I shop at Walmart and Neiman Marcus.

The 'M' Word

OK, guys, chill out! I'm not talking Marriage here. 'M' is for marketing.

But writers protest. 'Not me, I'm an artiste. Marketing is so bourgeois. Boring. Bothersome.'
Move over, ego. Get humble, get real, and get busy!

Everybody has something to sell. Shrinks sell hours with a lick, a promise, and serious pharmaceuticals. Garbage men sell out-of-sight, out-of-mind. Churches sell redemption.
The fact isn't going away. If you're going to succeed you need to sell. The sticky icky part is that you're selling your talent, true or imagined. That annoying little detail quickly rises to the top of the quicksand of procrastination.

I published an article on an extraordinarily successful living artist. An oxymoron at its finest. “Obviously he’s a huge talent," says a collector. "He doesn't hesitate to promote his work"..."in this competitive market you can’t sit around and wait to be discovered." Full article link below.

Is it beyond your comfort zone, this marketing? Probably. Johnny Mathis sings it best in my all-time favorite song, Arianne. '...what a writer has to feel like when suddenly he's discovered he's been read.' To listen to the lyrics see link below.

We are our commodity. Some will embrace our driven souls. Some will scoff. All will know we're up at bat!

My pitch today? I'm tweeting a character interview. Find me on Twitter @ lalacorriere.


http://www.tucsonlifestyle.com/index.php?category=Home%20and%20Garden&ref=HG_RegionalArtisan_Nov07&src=gendocs



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiOEOETObTs

Let's Get Cereus!

I get a lot of advice from sage publishing industry gurus. Some tell us writers to find our own unique voice. Others say to get commercial. Write stuff that pisses people off. Write stuff that shocks people. Write stuff that pisses people off and shocks them.
A highly touted New York agent once told me he loved my writing but wasn’t sold on the story. His equal in California said she loved my story but wasn’t ‘swept away’ by my writing. Same manuscript. What do I do? Write in a conforming genre to please agent number one, or change my writing voice to appease agent number two?
Get serious! I’m taking my lead from nature. Roses are aromatic long bloomers on the bush, but wilt quickly when cut. Growers found success in producing a rose with a wider, stronger stem, but the manipulation had its price. The roses were no longer fragrant.

Tonight is pure magic in the Sonoran Desert. It’s the Night Bloom. Occurring only one night each year, the magnificent Night Blooming Cereus Cactus unfolds and puts on its show. Tomorrow, except for the efforts of gifted photographers and inspired artists’ hands, their beauty is gone for another year. What keeps us longing for this fleeting beauty, and why do we tend the plant so carefully for a year when we know its gift is so short-lived?
I think the Night Bloom writes its own story, and it tells us that story in its own special way.

So what do I do about agent number one and agent number two? I’m cereusly thinking about cloning them together.