Writer’s Mail
Tuesdays with Story
March 18, 2015
She said it . . .
“Description must work for its place. It can’t be simply ornamental. It usually works best if it has a human element; it is more effective if it comes from an implied viewpoint, rather than from the eye of God. If description is colored by the viewpoint of the character who is doing the noticing, it becomes, in effect, part of character definition and part of the action.” – Hilary Mantel, British writer of historical fiction, has won two Booker Prizes (1952-)
Who’s up next . . .
March 24: ???
March 31: Fifth Tuesday . . . meeting at Mystery To Me Bookstore
April 7: Alicia Connolly-Lohr (chapter 15, Coastie Girl), Pat Edwards (???), Kashmira Sheth & Amit Trivedi (chapter, novel), Mike Rickey (poems), Cindi Dyke (chapter, North Road), and Jerry Peterson (chapters 14-15, Rooster’s Story).
April 21: Lisa McDougal (chapter, Tebow Family Secret), Amber Boudreau (???), Mo Bebow-Reinhard (???), Kashmira Sheth & Amit Trivedi (chapter, novel), Alicia Connolly-Lohr (chapter 16, Coastie Girl), Cindi Dyke (chapter, North Road), and Judith McNeil (???).
Fifth Tuesday . . .
Two weeks away, March 31 at Mystery To Me Bookstore. This is a potluck event, so what are you bringing for the feasting table?
Have you written your challenge piece? Here’s what we want you to do, create a list of six writing prompts that you will read to the group. Go for laughs. The instruction from second-and-fourth group is that the prompts must be amusing, at least enough to help fight off sleep. Here’s an example offered by Ruth Imhoff: How to survive the Zombie Apocalypse!
Bring a copy of your six prompts with you. Also email a copy to Jerry Peterson, jerrypetersonbooks@gmail.com . He will bundle all the prompts together so we can post them on our web page.
TWS alumna Susan Gloss Parsons will be our special guest for the evening. She will share her experiences in getting her first book published.
What happened last night at B&N Westside . . .
Small group of first-and-thirders around the tables – six regulars – but we added to our numbers. Mo Bebow-Reinhard, a published novelist newly moved from Green Bay to Madison, joined the group.
Lisa McDougal (chapter 27-28, Tebow Family Secret) – Lisa gave us a brief summary of the story beforehand for the visitor of the evening Mo Bebow-Reinhard. Mo wanted to know if one of the main characters of the story would ask another to prove she’s someone else. Pat Edwards had a comment about chapter 27. She believed the first thing a character would have done was call a lawyer. Lisa assured us of rewrites. Jerry Peterson had a question about chapter 27. He thought one character would be more assertive and insist on going to Chicago when someone tells her not to. In chapter 28, Jerry thought the drugs – painkillers – would make it hard for a character to react to a phone call.
Alicia Connolly-Lohr (chapter 14, Coastie Girl) – Lisa had a question about some of the movie references, suggesting that a few of them might be over the heads of younger readers. Pat suggested some of the dialogue needs to be shortened and made more to sound like teenagers. Jerry remembered that the witness pointed to an apartment building so the characters can’t be told to go to a specific window. Lisa got a little lost wondering why the kids would be on the lookout for a person shooting dogs. Kashmira thought one character wouldn’t open the door all the way to strangers. Jerry wondered why one teenager continually refers to a character by his full name instead of ‘that reporter guy.’
Amber Boudreau (chapter 1 rewrite, untitled Urban fantasy novel) – People liked it more than last time, but they still had a lot of great questions and comments she wasn’t quick enough to write down for this report.
Kashmira Sheth and Amit Trivedi (chapter 16, untitled novel) – Pat wondered whether a couple words should be capitalized, but Kashmira said the words were not proper names, but just a description of their position in the family and who they are related to. Pat missed having more descriptions of the food, but Jerry pointed out that nothing really happened at the supper until the end. Pat thought the English face was funny. Jerry suggested a spot where more dialogue could be added. Alicia asked for some clarification.
Jerry Peterson (chapters 14-15, Rooster’s Story) – Pat pointed out that Jerry’s stories are all very character driven, but something in the main character of this story doesn’t sit well with her. The main character has lost an arm, but she doesn’t feel this character isn’t as well rounded as some others. Alicia noted that it seems Rooster’s a bit of a rock star pilot. Kashmira thought the chapters might have been a little technical which drew away from the human element of the story.
A scary, easy way to help us find passive voice . . .
From the Grammarly Blog, posted by Rebecca Johnson: “I finally learned how to teach my guys to identify the passive voice. If you can insert “by zombies” after the verb, you have passive voice.”
New words by the handful . . .
Word Spy Paul McFedreis once a week posts a set of new words that he has come across in his reading. Here we go:
Are you procrastinating by reading this? Are you wondering how you can turn this procrastination into multicrastination? Two words: bubble wrap.
Words Spied
automation complacency n.
The lack of engagement and reduced attention that a person feels when using an automated system, such as an airplane’s autopilot system. [Rough Type]
bubble wrapture n.
Intense joy caused by popping bubble wrap. [Twitter]
extimacy n.
The sharing or exposure of private thoughts or experiences (cf. intimacy). [The New York Times]
folx n.
Collective term for people who are transgendered. [Mic]
leaning rail n.
A horizontal bar placed at the side of the road for cyclists to hold while waiting for a stoplight. [CityLab]
multicrastinating pp.
Procrastinating by performing multiple non-work tasks simultaneously. [The New Yorker]
Word of the Week
mantouching n.
The unwanted, gratuitous, or inappropriate touching of a woman by a man.
You can call this behavior whatever you like. The Internet’s preferred euphemism is “handsy,” as if Joe Biden is manhandling a Christmas ham instead of a married female human. But I prefer the term “mantouching.”
– Nico Lang, John Travolta, Joe Biden, and why men touch women’s bodies without asking, The Daily Dot, February 27, 2015
To self-publish or go traditional . . .
YA author and blogger Nathan Bransford has done both, so in this post he looks at some questions that will help you decide which publication route is best for you:
To self-publish or traditionally publish. That is the question.
Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of agents and publishers or to take arms against a sea of books on Amazon, and by being among them, rise above? To die, to sleep (oh wait you won’t), to sleep perchance to dream of fame and riches… aye there’s the rub.
Ahem. Sorry.
So. You have yourself a book. Should you just go ahead and self-publish and see how it does? Should you try your luck with agents and publishers? Should you try agents and publishers first and then self-publish if that doesn’t work?
Having traditionally published my Jacob Wonderbar series and self-published How to Write a Novel, I’ve seen both sides of the publishing world.
Which way should you go? Here are seven questions to ask yourself:
1) Is your book a niche/passion project or does it have broad, national appeal?
In order to attract a traditional publisher, especially one of the major ones, you’re going to need to have a book that fits squarely into an established genre, is of appropriate length, and has mass commercial appeal.
Be honest with yourself. Is your book something that has broad, national appeal or is a niche? Is it a potential bestseller or something you just wrote to, say, have your family history recorded for posterity?
If it’s hyper-specialized, you might want to either try for a similarly specialized publisher, or just go ahead and self-publish. And if it’s a passion project without commercial potential, you’re probably best-served going straight to self-publishing.
2) How much control do you want over the publishing process?
If you go the traditional route, you’ll have an agent who will likely want you to edit your work before submission. You will (hopefully) have a publisher who will want you to revise your work. You won’t have approval over your cover, and you’ll probably only have mutual consent on your book title, meaning if your publisher doesn’t like it you’ll have to think of a new one that you both can agree upon. You’ll probably have limited control over how and where your book is marketed.
Traditional publishing is a group process and you absolutely cede some control over your book. This can be a good thing. Chances are you’re dealing with experienced people within the publishing industry who are experts in their fields, but you may be frustrated at times with decisions you don’t agree with.
Meanwhile, with self-publishing, everything is up to you. Edits, cover, title, fonts, marketing, whether or not you want to include that stream of conscious sequence about the philosophical implications of cotton candy… all your choice.
3) How much does the validation of traditional publishing matter to you?
The stigma surrounding self-publishing has largely dissipated, but it’s not gone entirely.
And there’s still something gratifying about doing something as hugely difficult as making it through the traditional publishing process, having your work validated by professionals, and being paid for your efforts. The names Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster… they still matter to many people.
Success is success, and in the end it’s the readers who are the ultimate validators. Do you want the validation that comes with traditional publishing? Or are you cool going straight to readers?
Read the entire post at http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2015/03/should-you-self-publish-or.html
Tuesdays with Story 
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