Happy New Year, PubCrawlers! I know this last year was tough on most of us, so here's to keeping the faith that 2021 will be better!

Are you the type to set resolutions? Personally, I'm a goal junkie. I'm always focused on that next hill I want to climb. (I honestly get a real rush from crossing things off a list. It’s a thing I find a lot of writers have in common. I’m sure some of you know what I mean!)  Because I enjoy working toward goals, I always have a few resolutions as we kick off a new year. Here are three I want to focus on in 2021:

• More words per day. Some writers focus on this metric more than others. For me, word count is important. It keeps me on track. When I'm struggling, my word count per day goes down. It’s the first indication that something’s wrong and needs to be adjusted. When a manuscript I’m working on starts to go astray—either because the main character is not quite right or the pacing is lagging or whatever the reason might be—I unconsciously slow my progress. If I let myself slide and don’t address the problem right away, I can get farther and farther off track. In the new year, I want to work harder at maintaining my daily word count goal, and run some diagnostics on the manuscript right away when it starts to lag.

• Silence (or at least quiet down) my inner critic. Before I published Ivory and Bone, I'd written three other books, so when I&B came out, I had four completed manuscripts under my belt. All of them were written without ever thinking about what someone might have to say about them. Now, I find myself thinking about reader reaction as I write. That's a privilege, right? It comes with being published and having readers. But it can really dampen my creativity. In 2021, I want to silence that voice in my head, at least until the first draft is down.

• Share more of myself with my readers. If you know me in real life, you know I'm a talker. Most of my friends are a bit surprised when I say I'm introverted. That's because there's a huge difference between talking and talking about yourself. I'm naturally private, but the truth is, readers like to know about an author's writing life, especially the struggles they've had to overcome. Other writers, like the community here on PubCrawl, naturally want to hear those stories. We all struggle, and I think it's empowering to know we're not alone in that. So expect more of that from me this year! I'm hoping to post here on PubCrawl regularly this year, as well as on my author Facebook page, Instagram, Twitter, and my author newsletter. (You can sign up for my newsletter here: http://www.julieeshbaugh.com/)

So again, Happy New Year, fellow writers! May 2021 be a happy, healthy, and productive year for us all! If you would like to share your own writing resolutions in the comments, please do! I'd love to hear what you are working on!

Without beating around the bush, let’s get to the age old question that has been often asked and answered to death – do you need an English or creative writing degree to become a writer?

Almost every published writer would be quick to say no. Your parents will probably be happy to hear that too, and you can focus your roughly four years of college on something more “marketable.” After all, in this economy, who can take the chance?

And to a certain extent it is indeed true that you do not have to be an English major in college or go to an MFA Program to become a successful writer. Many established writers have been astrophysics majors and have gone to law college before writing our favorite books. In a world where we are constantly encouraged to double major and do multiple things for a truly interdisciplinary curriculum (which has diabolic capitalistic motives, but that’s for another day), it may seem wise to not focus on something so particular as creative writing. On the other hand, there is the whole idea that writing can never be taught in the traditional sense, and that you just read and write enough until you develop the skills through trial and error.

But it is also a take that is very centered around the belief that writers are equipped with enough resources to just…start writing. I am an international student in an American university studying English and Creative Writing. Growing up in my high school in Sri Lanka, I was taught English as a purely functional language. It took me college classes to actually learn some key structural, linguistic, and formal elements of storytelling. Yes of course, writing is a talent and a passion that cannot be taught in the way that a science class is taught, but creative writing classes cultivate the setting and provide the opportunity to truly challenge and learn the depths of your own writing and voice.

Creative Writing classes break down the essential writings about writing and create a workshop setting that encourages and challenges writers to give and take (and sometimes not to take) feedback. You learn how to write from everything you read, and the access to selected and personalized readings is an invaluable privilege. Personally, my creative writing classes have been the push I have needed all my life, to let aside my fears and actually open up my writings to be read by other people.

And there are so many little things that are inherent products of academic settings. Having to work on strict deadlines have shaped my writing discipline – and pace to be honest – and has given me the chance of valuable mentorship. At the University of Iowa – which is where I go – I have attended very niche writing classes that has introduced me to genres and writing styles that I would have never attempted otherwise. (I had to write a body horror piece for a class that terrified me of myself and my mind, and am currently taking a class on biographical fiction, that honestly teaches me something new in every session)

Now I am not ignorant of the privilege that I do have in the opportunity to take these classes all the way in another country – and so many writers like me around the world have been struggling with the very lack of resources and encouragement that is often taken for granted in American high schools and colleges. What I am trying to insinuate rather is that discounting the wealth of knowledge and exclusive benefits of creative writing classes is actually fostering the myth that writing is easy. Flash news, it’s not. If it is indeed easy, then it might be time to take a look back at your academic settings and trainings and then realize that you might have had privileges that not a lot of people have around the world.

Creative Writing classes are amazing, and I would recommend one take as many as you can without hesitation. But I also believe that a lot of these exercises, settings, and workshop experiences should be truly normalized across curriculums, or at least made more accessible to aspiring writers, before being discounted so easily as unnecessary.

Mishma Nixon is a reader, writer, and book blogger originally from Colombo, Sri Lanka. She is currently a junior studying English and Creative Writing at the University of Iowa, and her interests lie in diversity in children's literature, and elements of postcolonial and transnational experience in kid lit. When she's not reading and writing, she loves to watch sad movies, drink an unhealthy amount of tea, and binge her favorite sitcoms. You can check out her blog here, and follow her on twitter @chasingfaes.

Okay fellow writers, time to go out and build a fanbase from the ground up in order to catch people’s attention and get published! Except, you don’t have anything published yet, so how exactly are you supposed to build a fanbase?

Hmmm….

I know what you’re thinking, writing is hard enough without the pressure to build a platform. Unfortunately, the hard truth is that these days, not only are we required to improve our craft as much as possible, we are meant to be out there building up a platform…somehow.

Thankfully, there are websites out there that let you do both.

Years ago, a writing friend told me all about the site she’d just discovered, something called Wattpad. She told me how she updated chapters weekly and how she had hundreds of people reading along and commenting each time she updated. At the time, I had to admit to myself that the idea of someone reading what I wrote was actually really scary. But she said everyone on the platform was supportive, and that she’d been having a blast writing new updates to her stories, and I thought it sounded fun.

So in 2011—nearly a decade ago!—I signed up and started posting a new chapter every Wednesday. Slowly, ever so slowly, the number of readers began to go up, and up. Today, in 2020, I have over 100k followers on the platform. Wattpad has been with me through every up and down of the publishing industry. I have used it to get feedback, make friends with other writers, and discover readers who love my work.

There are quite a few websites out there where you can post your work and gain a platform before publication, and if this is something that appeals to you, here are a few things to consider.

Don’t expect instant results

It takes time for people to find you. Use this time to perfect your craft, and to connect with other writers on the platform. Read as much as you can. If you’re on a website like Wattpad, you may find other published writers, like Beth Revis, have uploaded helpful novellas of writing advice. Explore the site and read as much as you can.

In the meantime, make sure you are utilizing the site properly, post regularly, and at the best times for maximum engagement. Make your cover and blurb as eye-catching as possible. Learn how to write a hook and a compelling copy to describe your story. Pay attention to what you’re doing and how the numbers respond (you have analytics at your fingertips, use them!). In short, learn how to draw people in, and this will serve you well for the rest of your career.

Use the platform to improve your craft

Pay attention to replies. What are people saying about your writing, plot, characters? Sometimes the comments won’t be helpful, and sometimes you’ll find a thoughtful critique that hits home and improves your writing. Don’t be afraid to reach out to these people and make a connection. Help one another out. Make friends with fellow writers in order to swap critiques.

You can find beta readers this way, and mentors who will help you with your craft.

Give more than you take

Make sure to reply to every comment when you’re first starting out. Not only does that up the interaction on your story, but it engages your readers and makes them more likely to hit the “follow” button. Also, get out there and find other stories you love. Find ways to involve yourself in the community there, comment and share, give advice where you can, participate in contests and prompts, or trying running your own.

Learn to take the bad with the good

One of the most valuable things Wattpad gave me was learning what comments to pay attention to and which to ignore. When to recognize good advice, versus trolling. There are times when someone will comment because you have offended their ego in some way, or saying something nasty makes them feel good about themselves. And then there are times when you’ll realize that your own ego is getting in the way of learning something new about writing, and that you’ll have to chill out and take the advice in and find some way to apply it. Both things happen, learning to differentiate between them is very valuable.

Writing, often in real time, on a platform of millions, tends to expose you to every kind of critique imaginable. You learn fast, and then once you do publish, Goodreads doesn’t seem quite as daunting.

Make friends, not connections

Join an online writing platform in order to find fellow writers and make friends. Never set out with the intention of ‘making connections’. People aren’t stupid, they can tell when you’re hovering around like a shark scenting blood because you’ve marked them as some kind of “opportunity” instead of a human being. Don’t go into relationships demanding something. Yes, you do need people, you need your fellow writers now, to help you develop your craft, and you will need them later, when you’re struggling to get published, or when you do get published and get an absolutely blistering review from an online publication of one sort or something. You will lean on one another. You will cry to one another, and you will talk one another out of quitting multiple times over.

And yes, you will absolutely help one another. You will send their manuscript to your agent, or they will subtly mention you to their editor during a lunch. But that will happen because you are friends, and you have been through some serious crap together, not because you made a “connection”.

Find good writer friends and you can’t go wrong. Find good writer friends, and they may just save your sanity over the length of this whole “writing career” thing.

And lastly, don’t sweat the numbers

I know it’s easier said than done, but try not to watch the “reads” numbers, or the number of people who follow or “fan” you. A handful of hardcore fans are hugely valuable. Even if you only get ten dedicated fans, those fans are for life. They will buy every book you put out, they will hype you to their friends, they will message you and tell you how much they love your work and make a bad day into a good one.

When you first join a site like Wattpad it can be hard not to obsessively track reads, followers and votes, but try to remember you’re in this for other reasons. To improve your craft, to give back, to make friends. And if you do all that, it’s very likely you’ll collect a following of dedicated readers on the way.

E. Latimer is the author of the Young Adult fantasy novel WITCHES OF ASH AND RUIN (March 3, 2020; Hachette/Little, Brown) and a Middle Grade novel, THE STRANGE AND DEADLY PORTRAITS OF BRYONY GRAY (Tundra Books), which was nominated for the Red Maple Fiction Award. She lives with her partner in Victoria, British Columbia, and in her spare time, she makes silly vlogs with the Word Nerds about writing, and reads excessively. You can find her online at elatimer.com.

Julie: Thanks for being my guest today, Barbara! Can you start by sharing how you became a literary agent?

Barbara: Quite frankly, my husband announced one day in 2007 that it would be the perfect career for me, as my "two favorite things are reading and telling people what to do". I mean, he wasn't WRONG.

That being said, I then took the invaluable step of tapping every relationship I had in order to set up informational interviews with both editors and agents in order to feel out what side I would gravitate towards. It became very apparent very quickly that my education and skill set fit ideally into the agenting side. I then decided to pursue female owned literary agencies which represented genres I was personally interested in. When Irene Goodman reached out to me for a job interview, that was the crack in the door that I shoved my entire weight against...and I exploded through that door nearly 13 years ago and the rest is history.

Julie: FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK is based on a column you've been writing for Writers Digest magazine for many years. How has the publishing industry changed over the course of time you've been writing the column?

Barbara: Ah! This is a great question, there are so many things that have changed for ALL of us over the last 7 years, amirite?!? However a key fulcrum from which I enjoyed watching the industry pivot was when the door opened wide on e books and self publishing. It has been such an exciting time to see all of the different ways artists are getting to reach their audiences and I continue to see growth and enthusiasm in these areas all the time. The questions I received at the magazine reflected this influx clearly and it was fabulous watching how the industry flexed and expanded against that backdrop.

Julie: What inspired you to translate your column into book form?   

Barbara: Honestly, it was casual- a conversation over a couple of beers with my previous editor, the extraordinarily talented Tyler Moss.  I have been so lucky to work with a slew of editors over the years like Jessica Strawser (now my client!) and Tyler and now Ericka McIntyre and Cassandra Lipp, so I had a solid foundation of work to build from. With the deft hand of book editor Amy Jones, the work started to take a clear shape and form- which was wonderful as I ended up delivering the book in October of 2019...for a publication date in January 2020! All of the things I used to yell at my clients about time management came right back around to nibble my hindquarters, but we got it done.  My hope is that FYSA becomes another tool in the writer's shed for folks to help demystify the publishing experience, and to continue to encourage authors to step into their storytelling with confidence and find that publishing path.

Julie: Thank you Barbara! I personally feel confident FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK will become one of those must-own books for aspiring and emerging writers! 

PubCrawlers, If you'd like a peek at the what's inside the book, here's an excerpt:

Dear FYSA,

Someone in my writers’ group is at the same publisher as I am. We write in similar genres, we are about to have our third books published. Lately she is passive aggressively making comparisons about our careers, her advance, what the publisher is doing for me versus what they are doing for her, and it is causing tension in the group. And also, secretly, why I am writing to you? It is working. I am starting to feel like she is getting the best of everything. What do I do?

Sincerely,

She’s Under My Skin

Dear Skinny,

[Opens bottom desk drawer.]  [Bends down out of sight.]  [Straightens up.] [Expressionless, presses air horn in an ear-shattering bray.] [Bends down.] [Straightens up.] [Places megaphone in front of mouth.]  [Slight feedback.]

“KEEP. YOUR. EYES. ON. YOUR. OWN. PAPER.”

Every story is different, right?  And careers themselves are stories. So why would any career be the same? Every single one of my authors has these days. Every. Single. One. Where someone is getting more of something, whether it is an advance or a marketing placement or publicity angle. Sometimes I get angry emails. Sometimes I get weepy phone calls. Sometimes both.

The world teaches us at a young age that there is only one first place in whatever we are competing in. However, that is just not the case in publishing. Someone can get an advance of $40K, earn it out in the first six months, and get five figure royalty checks for the next four years, while someone else got a six-figure advance and then … that was it.

Who is first place there?

Someone could hit the Times list first week of publication with twenty-three hundred copies sold and then drop off to 250 a week for a few months and then seventy-five copies a week the rest of the year, then vanish, while someone else could never hit the list, but sell fifty-two thousand copies in their first year.

Who is first place there?

Someone could get on the Today show and sell fifteen hundred books that day, someone else could speak at their sorority alumni event, sell four hundred copies, and then get asked to tour college campuses and speak at their house events and sell 250 copies per visit over fifteen visits.

Who is first place there?

Someone could have Barnes and Noble request four thousand copies of a special signed edition of their novel, and the publisher ends up shipping ten thousand total to all vendors, while someone else gets an initial order of two thousand copies from B&N, two book clubs of fourteen hundred each, three subscription boxes of 900 each, and an indie order of six thousand.

Who is first place there?

You are not going to get everything you want, not in life and certainly not in publishing. And I can 100 percent guarantee you she isn’t either. And—color yourself shocked—she might be exaggerating what she is getting. But even if she isn’t—you keep your eyes on your own paper. Tell your agent you feel needy and scared. Ask specific questions about things you’d like to see/have. Be prepared to hear, “You’re not there yet.” Or “The Publisher didn’t budget for that.” But at least you’ll get them out there.

And let’s be honest, anyone who is pass-agging at you is terrified of you for some reason. Next time she says something, what if you went totally bananas on her and just told your truth? “Gosh, it sounds like you are crushing it. It’s fun to have you ahead of the rest of us to pave the way. I still feel nervous sometimes. Can I ask you a few questions? Like, what is the one thing you still wish our publisher was doing for you? What is your one dream ‘get’?” Turn the conversation away from what she has and into a learning experience of what is still out there to get. That way you all can all scribble madly on your papers, too excited about what’s still out there to peep at anyone else’s.

From FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK by Barbara Poelle, published by Writer’s Digest Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright © 2020 by Barbara Poelle

Barbara Poelle is Vice President at the Irene Goodman Literary Agency, representing a variety of genres but focusing on suspense, thriller, upmarket and young adult fiction. Her book Funny You Should Ask: Mostly Serious Answers to Mostly Serious Questions about the Book Publishing Industry based on her Writer’s Digest column of the same name, arrives in bookstores Jan 14, 2020. You can visit her at funnyyoushouldaskbook.com or irenegoodman.com/barbara-poelle

This is the fifth and final part of the series. You can find the first part here, the second part here, the third part here, and the fourth part here.

Last month, I talked about getting feedback from your team and fellow writers you trust. Today, I want to talk about what happens when you get published, enter the public eye, and start getting feedback... from everyone else!

This is the part I felt least ready for when I got my book deal, after hearing so many horror stories and cautionary tales from experienced author friends. Here's a disclaimer: I can't tell anyone else what to do. I don't know you or your preferences, or how you prefer to handle reviews as an author. I have friends who avoid reading their reviews completely, and I also have friends who go and seek out all of their worst reviews on purpose because they want to know what people are saying.

For me, personally, I choose to never read reviews, whether they are good or bad. I never search for my name, I never search for my books, and I refuse to visit my works on Goodreads or Amazon or other retailer pages because allowing strangers' voices to get inside my head hurts me and my ability to write. Even great reviews mess with me because the reader's expectations will always differ with my plan and my vision for the book. Again, it is impossible to write a story that universally pleases the whole world, so I protect myself and avoid all of that.

Every time I talk about this, there's always some condescending person who butts in to say, "Well, little lady, you need to toughen up. You shouldn't have chosen this career if you can't take constructive criticism."

Here's the fallacy in that: reviews online are not constructive criticism. Reviews are opinions that readers share with other readers to help them decide whether or not to read a book. Feedback from random strangers on the internet will not help me be a better writer, especially when I have a team of publishing professionals to help me with that. I can most certainly take constructive feedback, but I must limit it to the people I trust, otherwise I will be trying to listen to every single person in the world.

So, you do you. I will say that the number one rule that should apply to all of us is: Do not engage with reviewers online. By that, I mean attacking or arguing with them, trying to correct them, attempting to explain why they misunderstood, etc. Just don't do it. Even if people tag me in a review or an Instagram post, I don't read any of it. Sometimes I will say "Thank you for taking the time to read and review!" to show my appreciation, and then I move on.

As an author, I promise you will always be the bad guy if you engage negatively online. There's an imbalance of power wherein you have protection and often greater visibility, and the reviewer does not. Also, it's inappropriate to try to stifle someone's opinion, no matter how much it hurts your ego. They have every right to think and speak however they like about your work because it doesn't belong to you anymore. It's theirs now, and that's the deal we make when we get published.

Oh, and this is another thing that is up to you, but I prefer not to be readily available via email or DM. I used to have an email form on my website, but took it down after I experienced harassment, and since then I no longer engage with readers in private spaces. And anyway, I'm an adult who writes for young people and want to maintain professionalism and caution when it comes to interactions with the teens I value and respect. If any important communication comes up, it can go through my agent and publicist and they will discuss with me if necessary.

That's it!

As I said, I'm not here to dictate how anyone writes, revises, or handles the public aspect of being an author. But I hope that this series will jump-start ideas about how you want to deal with both craft and the business side of writing, and give you a bit more insight into how one author thinks and handles her career.

Thanks so much for tuning in!

This is the fourth part of the series. You can find the first part here, the second part here, and the third part here.

Today's post is all about how to make the overwhelming revision process seem more manageable!

Last month, I discussed the importance of getting eyes on your work. I want to dig in a bit deeper with regard to feedback today. At writing workshops, I often get asked: "How do you know what advice to take and what to leave?" Learning how to receive constructive criticism, what to do with it, and which pieces of advice resonate (or don't) with you can be tricky sometimes.

So here are a few reminders for you:

• Remember that this is YOUR book.  No one knows it like you do. No one understands the exact vision of this story that lives inside your head.

• Think of the feedback as suggestions meant to help your book improve.  Nobody should be telling you that you have to do something.

• You do not have to do anything you don’t want to do. In the end, if this book gets published, it is going to have YOUR name on it. So make sure that whatever edits you choose to do will turn it the story you want to tell.

All that said, I want to talk about the two extreme types of reactions to feedback.

#1: You are so defensive and stubborn that you refuse to listen to anyone.

I once taught a workshop where I was asked to critique the students' writing samples. During the workshop, they each had the opportunity to sit down with me and ask questions about the critique. One person brought a list that refuted my entire critique, point for point. Every suggestion was challenged with "I don't need to do that" or "That wasn't what I was intending" or "The character seems unclear because I don't explain them until page 250, so you'll have to wait until then," etc.

They didn't want to even consider what I had suggested or listen to anything remotely constructive about their book. This was an instant red flag that told me this person was not ready to have an agent, let alone an editor.

It is going to be very hard to write a good book if you don't want to hear anyone else's ideas. I understand that even the kindest critique hurts sometimes, but refusing to consider it negates the benefit of having your work read by other eyes. So much of writing is a gut feeling. If you tend to be sensitive and defensive about critique, take a little time off to mull over the advice and see if it still doesn't resonate with you afterward. It's fine if it doesn't, but at least you gave it a chance.

#2: You are so eager to please that you try to take every piece of feedback.

This is another red flag that would tell me someone wasn't ready to get published. The #1 rule of writing is: you cannot make EVERYONE happy. There's that saying: "You could be the sweetest, juiciest peach in the world, and somewhere out there will be somebody who hates peaches." You will never, ever, EVER write a book that is universally loved, no matter how talented you are or how amazing the story is.

But you have to know your own worth. You have to be confident in your story and your vision because again, you know it best. Being a writer is all about balancing pride in your work while recognizing that you can always get better.

If you take every single piece of feedback, you will get confused and lose the heart of your story -- not to mention, it's virtually impossible to please everyone. I've gotten feedback from one agent that said "Your book needs more romance," and feedback from another agent that said "Tone down the romance; that's not your focus." It would not be possible to take both of these pieces of advice.

Do not be afraid to admit that feedback doesn't resonate with you, even if it is from an expert like an agent or an editor. They're just people, too, and you know your book best. The same advice applies here: take a few days to let feedback sit and let your gut decide whether the suggestion rings true with you before you apply it.

Here is what I do when I get feedback, no matter who it's from:

• I sleep on it. I take the time to step away from the book and the critique, and I let the comments sit. Sometimes I'll give myself 24 hours, and in other cases, I'll give myself a weekend or even a whole week.

• After the necessary time has passed, I make a list of everything the person pointed out. No emotions, no judgment, no defensiveness. It's just a grocery list of the things they have suggested, from big to small.

• I look over each bullet point on that list, one by one, and ask myself three questions.

  • Do I agree with this suggestion?

  • Do I think this suggestion will make my story better?

  • How doable is this suggestion?

• Based on my answers to those questions, I decide what to do. Sometimes I flat out don’t agree with a comment, BUT I take a good, hard look at why the person said that. Maybe they missed my point because I didn’t explain it well enough or wrote unclearly. See if another fix can be applied, because there is always a reason for each piece of critique.

• I think about whether the suggestion is going to change my book COMPLETELY. Will I end up with a better product if I make that huge, rippling change? Or will I have a book I didn't want to write in the first place?

Being deliberate and thoughtful about feedback, as well as keeping an open mind, will help you understand how people are reacting to your story. That's what critique really is: a look into potential readers' minds and what they're thinking as they encounter different aspects of the book.

So, once you figure out what pieces of the critique resonate with you, what next? I like to break the book up into workable chunks: specifically, chapter by chapter, as I mentioned in the second post of this series on revision. What is helpful about getting multiple people to critique your work is you can see which chunks or sections have similar feedback. Are they all commenting "WOW!" on one particular scene, or are they all saying that it moves too slowly?

One good rule of thumb I use, if all my CPs are saying that one scene isn't working for them, is asking myself:

• What is the point of this scene?

• What does this scene accomplish?

• Does this scene move the story forward?

Asking myself these questions helps me either pinpoint what needs to be fixed OR decide whether this scene needs to be in the book at all. (I know, it hurts!)

I hope these tips on taking feedback, applying constructive critique, and tightening up your book will help make the revision process seem more manageable!

This is the fourth post of a five-part series on revisions. Here's the schedule for the remaining post:

Monday, December 16: In the Public Eye - I'm going to talk about handling feedback and reviews as an author and a public figure, and how to deal with your book being out there and all the opinions/viewpoints that ensue!

I’ve been a middle school teacher longer than I’ve been an author. While 2019 marks my debut year, it also marks my twentieth year teaching middle school literacy. Juggling these two careers is challenging, but I also benefit from the overlap between both roles. What I’ve learned being an author helps me teach writing better. And what I’ve learned as a teacher has made me a better writer. Some of the principles I use to write YA fiction, I learned from teaching and spending my days with young adults.

Young adults are in the early stages of figuring out who they want to be

These early stages of self-discovery have always been one of my favorite parts—and one of the most challenging parts—of teaching. Because while some teens have a clear vision of who they want to be, they struggle to be that person consistently. I keep this in the back of my head when I’m creating characters, especially when I consider “what a character wants” vs “what a character needs.” Those two ideals always conflict, especially during adolescence.  Another favorite activity involves filling in the following blanks: My main character is ___________ until _____________. “ Lia is strong until she gets near crowds and her past traumas overwhelm her.” Or “Lia is savvy until she can’t figure something out and her obsessive, reckless nature takes over.” Both exercises help me define my characters’ personalities and how they will react in challenging situations. Naturally, once I figure out their triggers, I love to push them to their limits. Obviously the journey of self-discovery can last a while. I turned forty-one this year, and I’ve finally figured out who I am. Still, there is something very appealing about creating characters in the beginning of it.

Young adults are often influenced by outside factors beyond their control

By the time a student arrives in my classroom at 8:30 a.m., their availability to engage and attend to my class has already been influenced by hundreds of factors. This is because their story begins before my first encounter with them as their teacher. Breakfast, for example, can have a dramatic impact on their frame of mind: whether they ate, with whom they ate, whether their company was in a cheery or foul mood during breakfast, whether they had to make their own breakfast, whether they had enough food in the cabinets to make breakfast. The list is endless. I love to consider this when my characters—especially my secondary characters—enter a scene. They are walking into that scene with a back story that began well before that scene takes place and often times with young adults, the external factors impacting their day or frame of mind are beyond their control. The decisions of adults in their lives—parents, guardians, teachers—play an influential role in YA stories. This allows writers to develop characterization through the teen’s reactions and attitudes to the limitations placed on them.

Young adults need and want exposure to dark topics handled responsibly

Many of my students over the years have faced dark challenges. Others have witnessed friends and loved ones battle them. I’ve seen so many of those teens turn to books and stories as a coping mechanism or a way to make sense of their own experiences. As authors, we have to keep those readers in mind. It’s our responsibility to write about dark topics with authenticity, but without the sensationalism or glorification of the topic. If you write about suicide, for example, you have to consider your audience. You will have teenagers reading it who have thought about suicide, attempted suicide, lost a loved one to suicide. Because of it, you have to consider what those readers will take away from your book.

Young adults tend to be both more reactive and more resilient than adults

Adolescent behavior often comes down to brain science. Teens are more likely to take risks and act impulsively because of brain development. But taking risks and impulsivity don’t have to be negative qualities. In fact, heightened risk-taking and impulsivity can develop a character’s heroic qualities as we often see in YA fiction. These qualities can also make for exciting, active characters, as long as it isn’t at the risk of intelligence or maturity. More brain science to consider while writing characters: the adolescent brain is also remarkably resilient. Recent studies have emphasized the importance of connections in fostering resiliency. The more a teen connects, the more resilience they demonstrate, especially after trauma. That makes your secondary characters pivotal in your main character’s arc.

Young adults need diverse stories told from authentic perspectives

As a teacher, I need stories to reflect the diversity in my classroom. I want students to see themselves represented and reflected on the page, and I’m so happy when I find strong books told from diverse perspectives that I can put on my shelves. That said, teens deserve authenticity. When my students choose books hoping to see themselves on the page, they feel the deepest connections with the characters who have been created by authors with similar experiences. Authors should tell the story they want to write without shying away from difficult topics. But authors also need to ask themselves if they are the right person to tell that story. I made sure when creating Lia that her struggles felt authentic because they reflected my own experiences with anxiety and PTSD. If readers see themselves on the page in my book, I want their connection to be valid and authentic.

Having both teaching and writing in my life gives me a heightened understanding of my students, my audience, and even my own children. While it can be chaotic, I find myself constantly learning and striving to be better because it’s what young adults deserve.

Kimberly Gabriel is the author of EVERY STOLEN BREATH (November 5, 2019; HarperCollins/Blink), a fast-paced and immersive Young Adult thriller that shows just how hard one girl--who is struggling with both her father's death and debilitating asthma--will fight back, knowing that any breath might be her last. She started writing in fourth grade when she penned, bound, and gave away books of terrible poetry to family and teachers as holiday gifts. Today she is an English teacher in the suburbs of Chicago who still squanders all free minutes to write and uses it as the best scapegoat for her laundry avoidance issues. You can visit her at www.kimberlygabriel.com

It can be difficult to write about some things, and some of us are drawn to writing about difficult things, but that doesn't mean we need to suffer for our art. Here are five things to remember when you decide to write something that, one way or another, evokes intense emotions.

Come up for air (or Netflix), but remember to go back in.

I write dark shit. An entire collection about loss and grief, and a novel about a polygamist commune that practices systemic child abuse. I had different personal stakes in each book, and some of my research into predominant polygamist cults would literally leave me nauseous and exhausted. There were times I just had to put it down, go on a walk, or take a night off and binge watch The Office. I would wait until I just couldn't take it anymore, but I wish someone had told me to quit just before that point. Over time, I've learned to be more aware of how I am feeling as I research and write, and to leave it when I started getting to that point of utter despair, but not there yet. I think coming up for air before you are choking makes it less scary to dive back in the next day.

Remember your responsibility.

We live in a world that values compartmentalization (see: work/life balance). As if when I sit down to write, I am in a vacuum and only use my experiences and knowledge in a calculating way to better my craft. But I recently watched interviews with Ernest Gaines and Toni Morrison and was struck that they both talked about being acutely aware of their responsibility to real people, in both cases people from their past, when they wrote. Gaines has made it his personal mission to return to the plantation where he grew up and reclaim and care for the unmarked graves of his family. When writing about difficult topics, no matter what they be, think of this responsibility as a mooring. When I was writing about suicide, I thought of all my loved ones who have suffered dearly as a result of suicide. I wanted to represent their pain, but also the complexity of that kind of grief. When I was writing about polygamy, it was difficult in a different way. I wanted to reveal some of the potential for violence embedded into the religion, but I also wanted to show the characters not from a point of view of pity, but as people with agency who believed in their culture, like the people I met during my research—I felt to do otherwise would do an injustice to my subject. Staying focused on these real-world connections and experiences helped me when I would hit a difficult point in my writing.

Look to loved ones for their experience, and their support.

If you are writing nonfiction about an experience that others close to you shared, ask them about their experience too. They may have a totally different account than yours, reminding you that the truth is subjective, and everyone has their own version of what happened. Don't look at this as a weakness, but rather an invitation to explore the complexity and polygonic nature of your subject. My husband and I have very different memories of our shared experience of his father's suicide. None of them conflict, but they do point to appropriately different experiences. He was in the midst of the nightmare, and I was more a witness to it. Writing or thinking about the event or subject from different points of view might help you to understand it more. And talking with others gives you the opportunity to let them know you are diving into some difficult territory, and might need a little extra support.

Be aware of the effects of PTSD, so you can recognize them for what they are, and move through them.

After my father-in-law's suicide, which was an event shrouded in mystery with many odd details, when I tried to explain to people what had happened my throat would literally close. As I talked, my inner monologue would say, "They don't believe you." It wasn't until later when I read about trauma and writing that I learned how normal this experience is. And yet, I don't think it's a reason to quit writing. Instead, take breaths, take a walk. Think about writing sentence by sentence. When I finally wrote an essay about that experience, I wrote it in fragmented form, writing just one bit at a time. I would write just small concrete memories, one line at a time, over days. Later, I arranged them all in a way that to me felt like an accurate reflection of the experience. And then I hid it away for the longest time, until I was ready to enter into the dialogue that I knew the piece would start. It's important to acknowledge that whatever your process is, however long it takes you, is fine.

Believe in the importance of what you are doing, and know that it might help others.

Ever since I read Beverly Clearly's Ramona as a kid, I've believed in the value of the private readerly connection one can have with a text that is talking about that thing no one talks about. In my case, I wanted to write about grief and loss in terms that surpassed clichés and to uncover some of the nuances of the experience. I believed, and hope I'm right, that someday someone might read this book and feel a kinship with the sentiments it expresses and perhaps even feel less lonely in their own experiences. Similarly, I hope in writing about polygamy I draw attention not only to communities fraught with very real problems but also to the people whose lives are affected profoundly by their belief system. This hope that writing is a beacon in the night, or mechanism for change, acted as a buoy for me when the writing got tough.

I think all of the above are important, because it's important to take care of yourself. But also I hope these tips give you courage to tackle that thing you've been avoiding writing about because writing difficult topics can in fact be a way to take care of yourself. Not shying away from something because it's painful or challenging can be a way to turn something hard into something manageable, a way to create a narrative around a traumatic event (a story that you can live with), and even a conduit for healing.

Sadie Hoagland is the author of AMERICAN GRIEF IN FOUR STAGES, a collection of stories that explore the inability of our culture to communicate grief, or sympathy, outside of cliché. Her novel, Strange Children, is forthcoming from Red Hen Press. She has a PhD in fiction from the University of Utah and an MA in Creative Writing/Fiction from UC Davis. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Alice Blue Review, The Black Herald, Mikrokosmos Journal, South Dakota Review, Sakura Review, Grist Journal, Oyez Review, Passages North, Five Points, The Fabulist, South Carolina Review and elsewhere. She is a former editor of Quarterly West, and currently teaches fiction at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette where she also lives with her family, and they do their best to eat beignets whenever they can. You can visit Sadie online at sadiehoagland.com.

Hello! I am doing a series that is all about revising books and I hope you'll check out the other posts.

This is the third part of the series, and you can find the first part here and the second part here.

  Welcome back! Today I'm going to be talking about how to get eyes on your work. To lead in, I'd like to share some realities of getting published:

• Your book no longer belongs to you.

• Almost anyone in the world can go online or into a store and buy it.

• Readers will bring their opinions, baggage, and life experiences to your book.

• Some may even read your book with the sole intention of not being happy with it, no matter what. This is what I believe the kids call "hate-reading."

Can you do anything about this? No. The definition of traditional publishing is to lose control.

However, you do have one thing you can control, and that is to write the best possible book you can. I tell you with complete frankness that my debut, FOREST OF A THOUSAND LANTERNS, was the best book I could have written at that point in my life and career. Was it perfect? Absolutely not. But knowing that I did the best I could made it easier to let go of the things I couldn't control.

Revising and giving the world your best book is the only thing you can control.

In order to do that, you need to get other people's eyes on your book. Here are a few different types of readers you may decide to seek:

• Critique partners (CPs): These are fellow writers with whom you exchange manuscripts. You read each other’s drafts and help each other out, and this will hopefully be a long-term relationship.

• Beta read: This is a person who reads your work, but an exchange isn’t necessarily expected. Generally, I think of these as readers you bring on when your book is VERY close to querying and/or submission.

• Expert read: This is an expert you hire (and pay a fee) if you’re writing about an experience that is not your own. For me, this is both mandatory and worthwhile. I don't think anyone would dare write about a complicated medical procedure without getting a medical professional to read it for accuracy and authenticity, and it's the same exact idea for someone else’s lived experience or culture.

I'm going to talk about CPs. To me, they are people who are going to hopefully stick around for the long term. I have had mine since my pre-agent days all the way up to now, with soon-to-be three published books under my belt, and these folks have truly helped me become a stronger writer.

What kind of CP should you get, you ask? Here is my take:

• This depends on your personality and experience level

• Find a CP you trust who knows you, your personality, and your preferences

• Some writers are more sensitive and need people who will point out what they did well and VERY gently tell them what they could do better

• Some writers have dragon skin and want the absolute brutally honest truth

I fall somewhere in the middle. I want my CPs to be completely honest with me when something is not working, but I feel it's important for them to do it in a constructive way. Constructive criticism is given with an eye to helping you and your book get better, while destructive criticism is meant to tear you down, whether it's jealousy or competition or something else. I have had many CPs over the course of my writing life, and have experienced both types.

Finding a CP is like making friends or falling in love; you want someone with whom you are compatible, someone who makes you better and builds you up. And as with friendship or love, this process can take time, and you will find some relationships that just don't work. This is normal and okay.

Here are some basic guidelines for finding a CP:

• They should be at about the same experience level as you. It can be frustrating to swap manuscripts if you’re an advanced writer and your CP is just learning the basics of grammar. Likewise, it can be stressful if you’re just starting out as a writer and your CP is far ahead of you.

• They should have about the same ambition level as you. Some people just want to write and swap manuscripts for fun, with no serious eye on publishing. This is totally valid and okay! But there can be a disconnect if YOU are serious about getting an agent and a traditional book deal, because you’re looking for higher-level edits and someone to commiserate with. A CP who is on the same leg of the journey and understands what you're going through is invaluable.

• They should be someone you trust. This comes with time. I’ve heard horror stories of CPs stealing stories, telling other people your secrets, and so on. I advise swapping a few chapters at most when starting out with a new person. Give them a trial before you commit fully.

• They should respect your preferences, whether you want kindness, brutal honesty, or something in between. Keep in mind how I differentiated constructive criticism from destructive. Your CPs and writer friends should always seek to help and build you up. There are people in whom publishing brings out the absolute worst, so be cautious. This takes time to find out, so take care who you entrust with your stories, your time, and your mental and emotional energy.

Now that we've covered all that, where might you find a CP or beta reader? You could try a number of different places:

• Social media: I've met so many of my closest writer friends and CPs on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and blogs. If you chat with someone and find yourselves to be like-minded, it could be the start of a great CP relationship! Exchange a few pages or chapters and see what happens.

• Online writing contests: I found a lot of my CPs through communities and contests like Pitch Wars and #PitMad. If you're involved with either of those contests, look for folks who write in your age category and see if they're up for swapping a few pages to start.

• Local writers’ and readers’ groups in your community: Check your local newspaper or the bulletin board at your local library or university for literary events. Attend them and meet fellow bookish people. There is sure to be at least a couple of other writers you might be able to swap projects with!

• Similarly, go to book festivals: Check out SCBWI, which has chapters in different parts of the U.S., and local book festivals. For Boston, off the top of my head, I can think of the Boston Book Festival and the Boston Teen Author Festival. See if there's anything like that in your area and meet people when you're in line for the same author or attending the same panel.

I hope this post helped shed insight onto the importance of finding CPs who can help you take your book to the next level!

This is the third post of a five-part series on revisions. Here's the schedule for the remaining posts:

Friday, November 22: Making Edits Manageable - I'll discuss what to do when you get your edit letter (and how that sense of fear and dread when you get it is NORMAL) and how to break it and your book up into chunks, to make the whole process a little bit more enjoyable for yourself in addition to being productive.

Monday, December 16: In the Public Eye - I'm going to talk about handling feedback and reviews as an author and a public figure, and how to deal with your book being out there and all the opinions/viewpoints that ensue!

Hope to see you in November!

Stock photo via Pexels

I talk about author websites on Twitter Dot Com fairly often (as do my rockstar friends Patrice Caldwell and Dahlia Adler, both of whom you should be following for brilliant advice), and for a good reason. As someone who is involved in the industry as an agent, they're so wildly important. They serve as a landing page for you, as a writer. And down the line, when your book is out in the world, a personal author website allows librarians, booksellers, readers, conference organizers, reviewers... the list goes on, but a website basically lets everyone who is involved in making a book successful get to know you. They can check our your homebase. See what you're all about. Whenever I dig into this, I often hear from writers who don't have a book out yet, and are wondering why they should have a website now. Is it necessary? If you don't have anything to promote yet, why have a website up? Well, there are a couple of reasons, especially if you're writing non-fiction. So let's talk about building a personal website, for you, the soon-to-be-published author. This post is for those of you PRE-book. Maybe you're out there querying, or preparing to do so. It's a good idea to have a site ready now, and it's a lot less complicated and work-intensive than you might think.

Fiction

Look, one thing that hangs up a lot of writers when trying to launch a personal website pre-book and pre-agent, is the idea that they don't have anything to talk about yet. Let's relax on that front. Because even if blogging isn't quite for you, having a personal website isn't all about that. Nothing says it has to be an active page. It just has to be a present one, that showcases who you are. If you don't want to blog or create a whole community around who you are, that's fine. You can keep the website simple with a handful of core things.

• About: Who are you, as a writer? As a person? Don't overthink this. Just dish a little bit about you and your life outside of writing. My favorite author bios from querying authors don't just dig into their books, but discuss fun little tidbits about their life. I have a cute dog. I play video games. I live here, I've traveled there. How do you introduce yourself to new friends? There's your bio.

• Blog / Updates: This section isn't for everyone. Not everybody wants to blog frequently, and you know what? That's okay. But if you want to post from time to time about your writing process, what you're ready, and the like... go for it! Just don't feel like this is an absolute must.

• Contact Info & Social Links: Make it easy to get ahold of you, and to stay updated. Have a newsletter link ("but I don't have anything to talk about yet" "YOU WILL!"), links to your social media platforms.

And there you go. That's literally it. Your first author website can seriously just be a single page website if you want. Examples? Sure. Using Wayback Machine, I went to a few of my authors' websites who are debuting next year, and pre-book, their websites were pretty simple. In fact, they're still pretty simple, and that's what makes them effective. Adam Sass is the author of Surrender Your Sons (Flux), and his pre-book author website just had a nice landing page and a bio.

That's it. Look how simple this is! Under Adam's books section he talked about what he was reading, even had a Goodreads library linked, and then later... he got to add his book. And look at that bio! And let's take a look at Mike Chen. The author of Here and Now and Then (Mira) and the forthcoming A Beginning at the End (Mira) and some other fun upcoming books, Mike's also a web designer! His playfully nerdy website showcased his personality in a fun way, and this was all long before his book.

Does your website have to be complex and designed like this? No, but it certainly gave me a fun introduction to Mike as a geek. Your site's layout can be as simple as you need it to be, from an example like Adam's, or clean and simple author sites like my own, or a writer like Nita Tyndall. So there you go. Pre-book, pre-agent? A landing page that just tells us a little something about you, is an easy thing to put together, and doesn't require that much.

Non-Fiction

Here's where having that pre-published-book author website matters so much. When you're working on non-fiction, whether you're writing on pop-culture, personal or critical essays, memoir, cookbooks, you name it... you want to show your platform in your pitch. Showcase that you're the expert in whatever it is you're writing. And while your personal website might not necessarily be part of your platform (unless you run a blog that pulls in tens of thousands of visits every week, or you're a food blogger with your own dot com), what it does do is showcase that expertise in a single, easy-to-access location. When your non-fiction query hits an agent's inbox, we're going to want to visit your personal website. And it's there, that we should be able to find your clips and bio pretty easily. Working on a collection of essays? A pop-culture book? Awesome. Your homebase should showcase your work, in your bio and a roundup of your publications, to show off your expertise. Sure, you'll bring this up in your query letter, but having an easily accessible portal where someone who potentially wants to work with you can find your stuff, isn't just good advice for pitching around a book. It's good advice for anyone writing essays, articles, etc. period. Look, I can ramble about this all I want, but I feel like examples are going to be a bit more helpful. Let's check out a few author websites that showcase this well, from writers I'm lucky enough to work with. And while these are published non-fiction authors, their websites are largely the same from when they were pre-book. Brianne Hogan is the author of Friendship Signs (Adams Media), and when she sent a query my way, it was really easy to see her expertise as a non-fiction author right away on her website. And you can still see that now.

Right away, on her website, under her writing section, she digs into her clips. Right off the bat, we know Brianne has written for some huge places, like The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, Elle, HelloGiggles, and more, and further down, she showcases those articles in an easy-to-click-through way. Do you have to break down everything by category like this? No, but it sure looks nice! Remember, these are just examples of this being done well. It's not a step by step guide for what you have to do. Take Sam Slaughter's website for example.

The author of Are You Afraid of the Dark Rum? (Andrews McMeel), Sam is an accomplished spirits writer, with clips published everywhere, from Thirsty to InsideHook to Chilled, he writes in all the places you'd want to see someone writing about cocktails to be. And his clean, simple author website showcases that really easily. Nice and simple, in a long list that breaks down the outlets where he's been published and some of the sample pieces. You can visit his website here, and check out that clips page here. And the last example, is Mary Kenney. Mary's a non-fiction author who you likely know from her work in video games. Right away on her splash page, she digs into who she is, and the website hands out details regarding her platform, clips, and credits in her industry.

Honestly, it's pretty perfect, and the way she dished out everything about her credentials and platform is what helped me find her for whatever the secret thing we're working on is. So! Using those three examples, it's pretty easy to see what a solid website looks like for the up-and-coming non-fiction author:

• Bio Page: All about you! Your bio, which talks about who you are as a writer and an expert in your category. "WRITER has written for X and Y, and can be seen featured on Z" and so forth. Sam, Brianne, and Mary all have great author bios, that you can check out via those links.

• Clips & Publications: A page that breaks down where your articles, essays, recipes, etc. have been published. You can check out Sam, Brianne, and Mary's via those respective links, where they list all their pieces.

• Contact Info: A way to get in touch with you. Keep it simple. Your email address, and maybe dish your social media links. Make this easy to find.

While Sam, Mary, and Brianne all have extra links on their websites, to their books, press, different freelance services, advice, those three core pages are the most important. No book yet? No problem. You're writing non-fiction, so you already have the publishing credits. You should be showing them off. In chatting with my friend Erik Hane (are you listening to Print Run, because you should be), he brought up how "having a website inherently makes you look more professional and together, all the more reason to have one before the book." Show you're serious.

-#-

And there you have it. Launching a personal website pre-book, is a great way to introduce potential agents and editors to who you are, and can easily be put together in a day or two. Now go. Stop overthinking it, and get your launchpad ready.

Hello! I am doing a series that is all about revising books and I hope you'll check out the other posts.

This is the second part of the series, and you can find the first part here.

Today I'm going to be talking about exactly how I revise a book, from the moment I get an editorial letter to "The End."

I'm going to preface this post with the disclaimer I give every single group of students I teach: no writing process is going to work for everybody. Take every piece of advice you come across with a grain of salt, including and especially mine. I am not here to tell anyone how to write, or what you should or shouldn't do. Everything I say or do is from my own experience, which is specific to me.

That being said, I've found it helpful in the past to read about how other writers work. Sometimes I've adopted their techniques into my own process, but if I see something that doesn't suit me, I leave it. And I encourage you to do the same!

So, without further ado, here we go!

1. The edit letter arrives. I read it through once and feel varying degrees of dread, horror, shame, and the inevitability of my failure as a professional writer. THIS IS NORMAL TO FEEL. It's never easy to receive a 5-15 page letter about everything that is wrong with your book, no matter how kindly and gently it is written, because you're literally getting hit with it all at once.

2. I read the letter through again, and then I put it away. I allow at least 24 hours to sit with the feedback and let it sink in. I recommend sleeping on it, because things always seem less dire when you're well-rested. Sometimes, if it's a particularly big edit, I'll let the letter sit for a whole weekend. I need time to process the suggestions, and figure out what I do or don't agree with.

3. I make a list. There's something comforting about lists, or maybe that's just me. I go through the edit letter yet again, and I pull out every suggestion in it - from major ones to smaller line edits - and put them into short, sweet bullet points. When I'm finished, I will have a one-page laundry list of things that the other person thinks I ought to address.

4. I figure out what I agree with. Often, but not always, there will be changes that don't sit well with me, either because they would take the book in a direction I don't want to go or they simply don't resonate with me. I will sometimes schedule a chat with whoever gave me the edits to get clarification, or just email them questions. But after that, usually by the end of the day, that laundry list will be even more condensed and cohesive.

5. I read through my manuscript. I don't edit. I just read the whole thing through in its entirety like I'm reading a book. (Which I technically am, but you know what I mean - a book for pleasure). Along the way, I will jot down notes with a pen and notebook: things that stick out that I want to change, sections that echo the edits in the letter, scenes I need to rework, etc.

6. As I read, I type up an outline in Word. I draft with an outline, but it always changes during the process, so my book will generally be different when it's in completed rough draft form. I'll type "Chapter One" and put 3-4 lines about what happens in that chapter, and so on. Then I'll print out the whole outline (usually around 15-20 pages) and lay it all out on my office floor.

7. When finished, I pick out 4-5 different colors of sticky notes. I use a lot of Post-Its when I'm revising. There's something about putting pen to paper and physically moving the stickies around that really helps me. I decide what color means what, and this changes depending on my mood. For the last manuscript I revised, blue was world-building, pink was characterization, orange was plot, green was line edits, and standard yellow was everything else.

8. I write my edits on the sticky notes. I take that laundry list I made and the notebook where I jotted down all my thoughts while reading, and I go through them, top to bottom. I write the world-building edits onto the blue stickies, characterization edits onto the pink stickies, and so on.

9. I put the post-it notes on my printed outline. I stick them wherever those edits are supposed to go, or where I'd like them to be. This always changes as I begin revising, but it gives me a good place to start. By the time I have stuck down every post-it note, I will see my entire book laid out on my office floor, with every edit I need to make, exactly where I need to make it.

10. I gather up the pages of my outline and work from Chapter One. I'm a very methodical, organized writer, and I work from beginning to end. It's so helpful to take one page of my outline a day and glance at what happened in that chapter, as well as what I need to change in that chapter. It also helps me make goals and hit them as I go; I can say, "I want to edit Chapters 1-5 by the end of the week" and then I'll try to get through that many pages of the outline.

As I said before, this process is not going to work for everyone. But it's the technique I've used for the last five books I've written, so I think I'm going to keep it! Hope this look into my revision method gives you an idea of how I tackle edits, and perhaps inspires you to try parts of it yourself (or confirms that what you're doing works for you)!

This is the second post of a five-part series on revisions. Here's the schedule for the remaining posts:

Wednesday, October 23: Getting Eyes On Your Work - I will talk about why a rough draft is important, and how to find the right eyes for your manuscript, whether those belong to a critique partner (CP), a beta reader, or an expert reader. I'll also talk about cultivating a CP relationship that works for all parties.

Friday, November 22: Making Edits Manageable - I'll discuss what to do when you get your edit letter (and how that sense of fear and dread when you get it is NORMAL) and how to break it and your book up into chunks, to make the whole process a little bit more enjoyable for yourself in addition to being productive.

Monday, December 16: In the Public Eye - I'm going to talk about handling feedback and reviews as an author and a public figure, and how to deal with your book being out there and all the opinions/viewpoints that ensue!

Hope to see you in October!

Photo by Rebecca Cain

As an author of historical mysteries and thrillers, I am drawn to the darker side of the past and find that truth is often stranger than fiction. I search for unusual and unsolved cases of murder, corruption, and organized crime to center my novels. Including select portions of the historical record lends realism to what would otherwise be an overly sensational story.

While I enjoy true-crime novels (my most recent obsession is I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara), nonfiction often leaves much to be desired in revealing the true nature of the people involved and the emotional toll of a crime. We cannot know a killer’s thoughts from reading the court transcripts. We cannot see through a victim’s eyes by reading a coroner’s report. Even in the most meticulously researched accounting, we never get the whole story behind a crime. At times, we will never even know the identity of the killer.

My novels aim to fill the gap between the known facts of a case and the untold story behind it. By researching historical crimes, I have the luxury of studying the official record and developing my own resolution and sense of closure for an otherwise unsolved mystery.

Finding the perfect crime

Looking through old newspapers, an author may find thousands of unsolved and unsettling crimes to consider, but murder in and of itself doesn’t make a story. To be the basis of good fiction, a real-life crime needs an element of intrigue, historical context, and a hint of deeper truth. It may be the nature of the crime itself that captivates, or it may be the extraordinary people and circumstances involved. The key is to find a crime that asks deeper questions than the police report can answer.

A novel ripped from the headlines should ultimately give the reader a deeper understanding of the times and the people involved as well as aspects of the crime outside the official record. To this end, my third novel, The Unclaimed Victim, gives voice to the often nameless and faceless victims of Cleveland’s infamous Torso Killer. I also provide a plausible solution to these thirteen unsolved murders that the police never considered.

Similarly, my latest historical thriller, No One’s Home, examines two real murders in Shaker Heights, Ohio from the inside of a mansion located at the center of each crime. By studying this close-knit community through several generations, I was able to weave two seemingly unrelated killings into a sinister pattern of despair and desperation. Both of my most recent novels touch on themes of power, corruption, and isolation, not just murder.

Setting the scene

Understanding the context of a real-life crime in time and place allows me to paint a more vivid picture as well as consider character motivations and alternate theories to the official case record. I read the entire front page of every newspaper I pull to get a better understanding of the community and other notable events taking place in and around a crime. I continue to research the setting to the point where I can see it in three dimensions through the eyes of the victims and criminals.

The labor strikes of the Great Depression and the surrounding political unrest at the time of the Torso Killer give a compelling backdrop to a fictional story and provide an unexamined motive for the murders in The Unclaimed Victim. The financial ruin of the Great Depression combined with the organized crime prevalent in Cleveland during Prohibition helped me explain an inexplicable murder in No One’s Home.

Examining the victims and the suspects

I act as an unofficial detective when researching a real crime. What suspects were overlooked? What evidence doesn’t match the official theory? What got missed? My research often includes reviewing newspapers, police reports, coroner’s reports, and court proceedings even though the final story will ultimately be of my own invention. Review of these documents not only provides the official record, it also educates me in police, medical, and courtroom procedures, which ultimately makes the story more believable.

While sifting through the horrifying details of a real crime, I try to keep the faces of the victims in the front of my mind. The temptation to see these people as puzzle pieces to be solved must be overcome for me to tell a compelling and humanistic story. I don’t write crime stories to merely unmask the killers. I write crime stories to understand the darker side of human nature and the nature of crime itself.

Drawing the line between fact and fiction

Authors differ on the exact point real life stops and fiction begins. When writing about real people and real crimes, respecting the privacy of those involved and avoiding libelous characterizations are critical concerns. Dramatizing a real crime with the consent and cooperation of the victims, the suspects, and their families is quite different than inventing a fictional story inspired by true events.

Out of respect for the innocent and the guilty, I never write a real person into my novels unless they are public figures, and even then, I rarely put words in their mouth by writing dialogue for them. To avoid potential libel, I change the names and identifying details of my characters where appropriate, and I consult with an attorney when I have questions. While writing the truth (according to official documents like court proceedings) can never be considered libelous, I do my best to maintain the privacy of any living persons involved in the crimes that inspire me.

Turning a real crime into fiction gives the author the chance to tell the deeper story not found in any police report or court transcript. A fictional accounting of such crimes allows the dead to speak, gives agency to the victims, and provides closure and justice where in real life there often is none.

D.M. Pulley is the author of No One’s Home (Sept. 1, 2019; Thomas & Mercer). Her previous books are The Unclaimed Victim, The Buried Book, and The Dead Key (winner of the 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award). Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked as a Professional Engineer rehabbing historic structures and conducting forensic investigations of building failures. She lives in northeast Ohio with her husband, two kids, and a dog named Hobo. You can find her online at www.dmpulley.com and @DMPulleyAuthor.

In late May of 2016, I knew I was going to finally be a published author, but I couldn't tell anyone until October. Almost FIVE MONTHS of silence, of unreleased energy and excitement that had to be channeled somewhere. So, being me, I decided to spend that time and nervous energy researching and learning everything there was to know about being an author.

I read up on Bookscan and how sales are reported. I studied the blog posts of established authors, hoping to get a clue on what life was like after the deal. I looked up Twitter threads and articles discussing how to handle reviews, how much money to save from your advance for taxes, and whether you really need a different signature for autographing books (the consensus? It's a good idea).

Most importantly of all, I watched YouTube videos. I studied the way other authors communicated with the interviewer, spoke in front of an audience of anywhere from three to three hundred people, how they dressed, how they held themselves, how they answered questions, deflected questions, and what sorts of questions readers or interviewers were asking them.

Despite all of that preparation, when I was finally thrown into the ring and started doing events of my own, I was asked over and over again about my revision process. It kind of threw me for a loop, because most of the videos I'd watched had people asking "What inspired you?" (easy, I could handle that) or "How young were you when you first started writing?" (simple) or "Did you always know you wanted to be a writer? What other jobs did you have first?" (no problem, I could wax poetic for hours on end about my journey).

But the question I repeatedly got, to my surprise, was: "How do you revise a book?"

Here's my dirty secret: I hate revising. Most writers love it because it feels productive, it's often less scary because you have something on the page to work with (as opposed to drafting), and it produces a manuscript that is heads and shoulders above what the rough project once was. I understand why other people love it, and I appreciate these aspects.

But I find revising so M-E-S-S-Y. You're shuffling scenes, you're deleting entire paragraphs if not pages, you're fixing one small detail only to have to search for the ripples that will inevitably occur throughout the book as a result, you're rewriting, you're rephrasing, you're tearing your hair out and crying into a bucket of wine (that last one might just be me. But you get the picture).

However, I get asked about revising a LOT, and I've grown to have a tough love sort of relationship with the process. And because it's something I routinely teach at most of my workshops, from the ones at the Highlights Foundation to other opportunities like the Ireland Writer Tours retreat, I thought it might be a good idea to do a whole series on revisions here on Publishing Crawl.

How do I revise? Where to start? How to handle editorial letters or critique partner feedback? How to decide what advice to take and what to leave? How to parse all of that into a somewhat coherent book?

So this post will be the first of FIVE that will discuss all of those topics. And, of course, if you have any questions or anything else you'd like me to cover, please feel free to put your suggestions in the comments and I will try to tackle those if possible! I hope you'll stick around for each post, but just in case there are particular subjects you're most interested in, here is the posting schedule:

Monday, September 23: My Revision Process - No one method of revising will work for everyone, but it can be helpful to see how another writer does it. I know I've read about another person's process and borrowed what worked for me or left what didn't. So I'll share exactly what I do, from getting an edit letter to completion.

Wednesday, October 23: Getting Eyes On Your Work - I will talk about why a rough draft is important, and how to find the right eyes for your manuscript, whether those belong to a critique partner (CP), a beta reader, or an expert reader. I'll also talk about cultivating a CP relationship that works for all parties.

Friday, November 22: Making Edits Manageable - I'll discuss what to do when you get your edit letter (and how that sense of fear and dread when you get it is NORMAL) and how to break it and your book up into chunks, to make the whole process a little bit more enjoyable for yourself in addition to being productive.

Monday, December 16: In the Public Eye - I'm going to talk about handling feedback and reviews as an author and a public figure, and how to deal with your book being out there and all the opinions/viewpoints that ensue!

Hope you'll check these posts out, and I hope they'll provide a bit of helpful insight and encouragement, if you're in need of either of those things.

See you back here in September!

I'm also back with another sports training metaphor. Y'all ready?

Okay, good. Let's go.

When you train— and literally this is any kind of athletic pursuit— what you're often going for is finding a place that is just beyond what you've done before. A way to push your body further. To make your muscles stronger. But not to push your body too far. That way lies injury. And trust me when I say, I've been there before.

Now, different sports have different ratios for this because they've got different goals. With boxing, you've got to learn to take a hit before you can punch someone else when you spar. This is truly never not scary the first time. Or even the third time. With distance running, you've got to do most of your runs at a comfortable, easy pace, while still being able to do a few workouts really outside of your comfort zone. You want to be able to go farther and also go faster. You're building strength, but also endurance.

You are constantly proving you can to yourself, with these little victories, with these little tests. With every workout.

Writing is like this. Creative work is like this.

You want to push yourself with every work. But not too far, and not too fast.

You want to do the next thing, the thing that hasn't been done before. But you don't want to find yourself in the middle of a writing problem with no ability to get out of it.

And also, it depends on the work, doesn't it?

If you've got a year to write a book, you're going to push yourself in different ways than if you take two, or three years. Crunching down your writing timeline is its own unique form of challenge, which means, you may be sacrificing other additional challenges you would otherwise be able to reach for in terms of craft.

That's okay, by the way. You're allowed to give yourself the challenge of finishing a book faster than you have before instead of, say, attempting to write the next Great American Novel.

You're also allowed to decide that you'd rather dive into some heady and new craft problems. And, usually, that means you'll need more time. More space to give yourself the ability to learn and grow as a writer. That's okay, too. Different goals means different challenges and different ways to push yourself as a writer.

There's that great quote about how Stephen King writes ten good pages a day like a machine, producing book after book like he's made of words.

Which, by the way, good for him.

But I have a feeling he didn't start in that place. I have a feeling he slowly built the endurance and the stamina and the strength to be able to write that way. I have a feeling he pushed himself out of his comfort zone, little by little, until he was able to write in what is— to me at least— in this nearly superhuman way.

And just like in physical, athletic training, when you write you have to learn to listen to yourself. Learn when you're quitting because you've given up. Learn when you're going, going, going and you're quickly approaching burnout. Learn that the rests are just as important as the time spent actively writing. Learn that you have to life a life in order to make interesting art.

You've also got to keep putting your butt in the chair and keep putting words down on the page.

Writing and training, to me, are inextricably linked. They're things I do that are often uncomfortable— and occasionally painful— in order to get to a goal. I want a finished book, so I keep sitting down to write. I want to be able to one day do a triathlon, so I get on the bike and I train. I go out and I run. I still haven't gotten to adding the swims to my schedule. Not yet.

That's okay. I'll get there.

The only substantial difference between the two for me is that I train to get out of my head and into my body, while I write to get back in my head again. But they're both these enjoyable forms of suffering that I've chosen to spend my time and my energy and my life pursuing.

I've learned that the edge of discomfort in a bike ride or in a run is very similar to the edge of discomfort when I write.

There's this space where you've put yourself in a position where you don't know what the outcome will be. You sit down and you don't quite know the book you're going to write. You have a vision for what you could write. You know what you want to explore— the characters, the themes, the setting, even your timeline to get it done.

But you haven't done it yet. You don't know you can. You have to prove it to yourself. Every time you go out there, you have to prove it to yourself. Every time you sit down to your keyboard, you've got to prove it to yourself again.

So go out and prove it. Show up when you need to show up. And, not incidentally, take breaks so that you're giving your brain space to reload again— with ideas and with words and with the ability to use those all important glycogen stores.

Keep finding that edge of discomfort. Maybe you too will become the ten good pages a day writing machine. Maybe you'll write the next Great American Novel. Maybe you'll write some entertaining books that make people laugh when they need to. I don't know what you want or what your goals are. I'm just here to tell you that the only way I've learned to achieve them is by getting comfortable with being a little bit uncomfortable most of the time. By committing myself to these little challenges along the way to larger goals.

So keep trying things before you know you can do them. It doesn't have to be climbing Everest. It can just be by going a little further than you've gone before. Sometimes just a little further is all you need to prove it to yourself that maybe one day you can climb a mountain.

I’m a queer, Black woman working in a very white homogenous industry. I’ve been burnt out multiple tomes. I’ve struggled with depression and anxiety. I’ve had a billion reasons to give up, to not try again another day, to say sorry for taking up as much space as I have. But, I never do, I have to say that i had help dealing with my anxiety, I used cbd and I still do from time to time. I like to get the best deals with a CBDistillery coupon code.

As writer, we’re told to be our number one fans. In other words, we should believe in our own work before anyone else does. (And, of course, we love/crave/need those loyal people in our corners—I think my grandfather believed I’d be a writer before I even knew I would <3) But so many of us don’t really embrace that. Or, if we do believe in ourselves, our actions don’t support that. I understand that sometimes you need a pep talk—I need pep talks constantly. Let’s acknowledge that and move on because I’m not here to talk about what others can do for you, I’m here to talk about what you can do for you.

I always see authors say “sorry” for tweeting promo. Or “mute me now” in the week leading up to a book release. I've even known people who've been asked to share a thing on social, by their publisher, only to preface it with a rambling apology. I'm not trying to be that woman telling others to not say sorry, I know how annoying that gets. That said, tweeting about your book, instagramming others’ cute photos of it, pitching it to the TSA agent who’s asking you too many questions at 8am in the morning, is your job.

When you’re “just a writer” it can be this super personal, creative thing. You don't have to tell a soul. When you get that book deal, you’re now basically a small business owner. It’s still hella personal—again, this isn’t a massive corporation, everything is going to affect you—and it’s part of your paycheck.

It is your job to promote your work.

If people have a problem with you doing your job, they can unfollow you, etc. No need to say “mute me now," they know the mute button exists. Do your work. Own your shit.

It is so normal to have insecurities, sometimes massive one. I’m constantly having to work through and around my anxiety and telling myself, no everyone doesn’t hate me and yes I’m pretty and take deep breaths, every problem isn’t as life-shattering as it seems, most of the time I find myself looking for a cannabis dispensary in order to get CBD as it is one of the things that help me the most. We all have insecurities. But it hurts me when I see writers saying things like, oh I have this book I really want to write but it’s a tough YA market or this genre is dead so I’m not even going to try. That is ridiculous. It’s one thing if your editor passes on your next book, but self-rejecting yourself!? Come on, y’all. You will get rejected so many times in this business. There are well-known, bestselling authors who you would be shocked to hear still get told, hey this book isn't going to work for us. Self-rejecting is more than cruel, it’s hindering yourself and your career.

I want to see more authors cultivating confidence.

About a couple years ago, I had this book I really believed in and was working on it with an agent. And then we parted ways and when I queried, I had agents say, oh we don’t think this genre is coming back...I’m not confident I could sell this. It hurt but it was fine because I don’t want an agent who’s not confident in my work. That confidence spreads. My confidence for my own work allowed me to find my amazing agents. Agent confidence spreads to editors in the way agents pitch books to them. Editor confidence spreads to their whole team. I’ve seen it happen; I’ve done it myself. The key thing is that the confidence starts with you. My confidence allowed me to do revision after revision on it. On days when I literally had lost faith, when I was like this might not sell, I still believed deeply in what I was working on. My confidence has allowed me to win auctions as an editor, against people much more senior than I. You've got to dig into that confidence well, or fill it up if it's empty.

I’ve been asked before what I think makes a great author, what allows people to have that “elusive” long, successful career. And when people ask this, it’s typically at a conference and it’s often writers looking for insider secrets. And there are lots of things I think help. Having cool ideas help but trust me the ideas aren’t everything. Being hardworking, but hey sometimes you work hard and don’t get what you want. Being nice but also, guess what, some of your favs are actually assholes. (this is not me encouraging you to be rude, not okay!) What I’ve noticed is that a big part of that longevity is some ridiculous confidence. And I say ridiculous because I’ve sat down with authors I’ve really admired who’ve been doing this for a while and when they start talking, you know when we’ve really started talking the ambition just flows out. I’m like holy shit these are BIG dreams. Seemingly impossible, scary big dreams. And in this very unpredictable industry, are you just setting yourself up for failure by having such big dreams? Isn’t it better, safer even, to have smaller, more manageable dreams?

I often think about how Octavia Butler basically manifested her career by first journaling her dreams, by first believing deeply in herself. So, no—you’re not setting yourself up for failure. No, you shouldn’t have “more manageable” dreams. This industry is unpredictable, you never know what time you have, how long your platform will last, so why hold back?

We are dreamers, that’s what so much of being a writer is. You should encourage yourself to dream as wildly as you like. And again, when you become an author you're running a business. You need to believe your ideal career can be yours. You need to strategize and works towards those dreams. Who cares if you fall short? Who cares if your idea of success changes? Mine has many times already within only the past couple years. Success should be defined on your terms, too.

Maybe, for me, part of this mentality is that I didn’t have the luxury to not have confidence in myself and my work. I wasn’t supposed to be a writer, my mom aggressively tried to stop me from doing anything creative, I gave up on multiple dreams to try and make her happy, to fit into the mold of the daughter she wanted, so she could be proud of me. I made myself really small in doing so. I stopped doing things I was good at that I enjoyed. I reached a point where I had one dream left. This ember. And so, I stoked that fire. I had to for my own survival, I was miserable otherwise. And it was hard. Being an editor was hard. Trying to balance a budding writing career with a flourishing editorial career was fucking hard. It’s really hard to try to succeed at a thing when the very person you feel should be in your corner, is aggressively not. When I first started as an editorial assistant, I couldn’t imagine what failure looked like. I didn’t have the luxury to not be confident because I’d used up the last of my eggs and they were all in that basket. I think the only reason agenting feels less hard is because of how hard everything else was, because of the confidence I cultivated being an editor and as a writer.

There are so few writers of color, so few agents of color, and at some point, I realized I was someone people also looked up to. So, I decided I had to keep being confident. I wanted to inspire, to empower anyone I could. But also, I had to balance that confidence with truth-telling with vulnerability and that’s when I learned that you can be confident and have doubts, you can be confident and vulnerable and honest about your struggles. Confidence doesn’t mean lying to others about how hard it can be to get to a place, to maintain—to sustain—a career. So, I won’t lie. I deliberately had to let people slip away from my life. People who weren’t okay with this confident me, people who thought I should embrace more realistic dreams.

I’ve worked too hard to say “sorry to bother you” with my promo. To tell you to mute me when I’m doing my job. If an editor wants to pass on me, okay. But I’m not going to reject myself. I think especially because I’m a queer, Black woman, confidence became an act of resistance. White bosses thought I couldn’t do a thing, well let me show you. People thought I got ahead as fast as I did because of my race? Oh honey, I’m not sorry that you’re bitter that I’m much better at my job than you are.

Cultivating confidence became a lifestyle. Battle armor. It feels good to be confident. Confidence is sexy. I love the energy boost that comes when I tell myself I’ve got this and then I go ace that thing. Even when I don’t ace that thing, even when I “fail,” my confidence picks me back up it allows me to take that “failure” as a lesson learned, as ways to improve--or not improve, sometimes (a lot of times) you don’t need to read that much into a rejection. My confidence is like a cozy blanket in my ever-chilly A/C home.

When you believe in yourself, it’s like a ripple effect. You see the people around you for who they are. You distance yourself as best you can from toxic people. But know that even if you rid your life of everyone toxic today, there will people who want you to quiet yourself. To dream less boldly. You have to also cultivate thick skin and believe in yourself first. Be so confident that what you don’t give as much, or any, weight to what negative people say.

And here’s “the secret.” Sometimes what others say will always matter. The comments my mom still makes about me a writer, my unstable financial life choices, they still hurt. But I have a book coming out next year that I got paid for so while my mother will always be her, money really does help. Money, for me, is a massive confidence boost. She can say what she wants, I’m getting paid. Hilariously, when I started not caring as much, she stopped making as many comments.

But again, the fact is that it has to be about you. You have to believe in yourself. You have to get better at ignoring naysayers. You have to scream about your work.

Opportunities are going to come knocking, opportunities that you want, and you need to shoot your shot and say yes.

Be your best advocate. Let other people tell you no; don’t tell yourself no. Another secret, I don’t always have massive confidence. Though I’ve always believed in myself I haven’t always believed I’m right for something. As in sometimes I feel I’d be great at a thing but I don’t meet the “job requirements.” It doesn’t matter. You have to put yourself out there. You to say, okay I’m worthy of this [fellowship, writing opportunity, whatever] and put your ALL into going for that thing even if there’s some doubt (even if there’s a lot of doubt) within you saying omg I’m not good enough.

And yes, the great thing about having an agent is that they can be that person. The great thing about a close writing community, is those people can be that person.

But long before I had an agent, before I had my circle, I cultivated this attitude. I worked my butt off on job applications for positions that weren’t “at my level.” I have doubts all the time; I just don’t allow myself to hold me back. Working in publishing working with authors and writing is dream I’ve had for years; it makes me happy…I will not be responsible for taking away my own happiness.

I believe in all of you. But I need you to believe in yourself.

Those of you reading this, who have a thing they’ve been wanting to do or go for, make more than a promise to yourself. Commit. Set aside time today, even if it’s just 5 minutes, to put towards doing that thing.

Stop apologizing for tweeting about your work. Stop encouraging people to ignore your self-promo tweets.

Cultivate confidence like it’s your job. Because, well, it is.

I'm trying little mug, I really am. Photo via Pexels

“You’re so disciplined.” People say this to me a lot, and it’s not entirely surprising. In my group of friends, both in the bookish world and not, I’m known for not sleeping, writing in cafes half the week, and being the first one at my coworking space, hunched over my laptop before the lights are even turned on. I’m your writer friend that’s on Google Chat when you wake up, and I'm still there when you’re about to go to sleep. During my undergrad, one of my favorite professors used to say that a lot of writing was just “showing up to do the work” and that “you really have to want it.” It was advice that stuck with me for a really long time and had a pretty profound effect on how I treated my time once I started pursuing writing books. I had to be disciplined. I had to find the time to show up. But lately, I’ve been rethinking what being disciplined really means, and if I can even call myself that. Over the past few years, in my wild push for my career in books, there have been a lot of sacrifices in the name of discipline. And that’s part of being disciplined, right? Control. Sacrifice. Staying up late instead of relaxing. Ignoring dozens of Facebook invites so you can get that last chapter written. Going to the bar for happy hour? I can spend an hour happily editing, thank you very much. And the result of this, is that I’ve been lucky. My new novel publishes next year, and I’ve got another book following it in 2021. But lately, the words just aren’t coming. I have an option book that I need to write. And I’m stuck. Because I’m terribly unhappy. When we talk about discipline, we tend to talk about sacrifice. What we give up pursuing our art. But something that gets left out of that conversation in a really big way, is the discipline for self-care that nurtures that art. That sustains our drive to create. That pushes us to go out and find ourselves surrounded by what inspires us to write in the first place. I’ve been sitting back and thinking about this a lot lately. The events I’ve skipped. The backyard barbeques I’ve missed. The date night I’ve postponed or the trip to see hometown friends I’ve put off. Moments with the people that bring the light that makes me want to tell stories. Who I playfully name characters after, or leave inside jokes for. Where is the discussion about discipline that says you should set aside time to log off, watch bad movies, eat good food, party with friends, and enjoy quiet moments that belong to you and no one else? So, I’m sorry if I’m not there on Google Chat as often anymore. And that I’m canceling that writing day at the local café. I need to go drink a beer, and shout about wanting more Bruce Springsteen on the jukebox. I need to go on a hike along the Schuylkill. I need to go to your BBQ and comment on what you’re making on the grill without actually helping. I need to go to a concert. I need bad pizza with my childhood friends and good wine with my wife. I want to write. But I need all of you more. I think true discipline when you’re an author, is making time for the things in life that inspire you. That drive you to create in the first place. I'm off to rediscover that.

I wrote this? That slithering voice in your brain asks you. The one that's never kind and the one that's always asking you rhetorical questions as a way of putting you down. Maybe I'm alone with this voice and that's alright, too. I know my own inner demons well by this point.

So there you are, staring at your first draft. Wondering why it's so filled with problems and plot holes, why the characters aren't leaping off of the page, wondering why you haven't figured out how to perfectly say exactly what this book is about yet.  And if you're me, all you can think really is how you put yourself in this position by writing a first draft with So Many Problems.

"All I can see are problems," I told my partner one night. "And I can't even half-solve them."

"Good," he said.

"Good?" I asked, quite incredulous and also very, very miffed.

"Yes," he said, about to drop some knowledge on me. "If you could solve them easily, you wouldn't have written very interesting problems. I'd be worried for you and your work if you solved them in one draft."

Reader, I just about keeled over and died. Or at least my ego did.

He's right of course. Annoyingly, in that way that all true and necessary advice is typically the thing you never want to hear. Good problems are hard to solve. If you— or I— could solve them easily in our writing, someone would have likely already done it and we would have already read it.

We write about the problems we're working through in real time (or at least, again, I do). As a reader, fictions is often my space to play, to learn, and to grow. As a writer, that's doubly true. I'm always trying to work through problems I don't quite have a grasp on. Ideas that I've yet to come up with a solution for. They're questions with no answer. Problems with no solution. Vague ideas rather than fully fleshed out themes.

And if you've done your job properly, they will not be solved in one round. Often not solved in two. Great ideas are layered. Great problems don't have simple solutions. In fiction, we're playing with points of view, with storyline, with character, and even with narrators.

So at the end of the day, you've got to give yourself the time to work through whatever you've been layering into your own fiction. You've got to give yourself permission and give yourself space to take time with the work. As long as you keep showing up to the work, it will be done, I promise. Don't rush what on it's own timeline anyway.

The work will be better for it. You will be much less angsty for it. And if you ever need a reminder, this post is here to tell you that good problems take time to solve.

I'm back on the other side of launching my second book! Woo hoo! I did it, right? I can chill out, relax. Maybe take a nice long bubble bath.

[cue the laughter from other published authors]

The truth is, launching a book is the start line not the finish line.

I know that's a hard thing to hear. So much work— so much y'all— goes into before launching a book. First there's the writing the whole thing. Then the editing. And then, figuring out a strategy for your advanced reader copies. Figuring out swag. Deciding your marketing strategy. Planning what kind of media outlets you're going to pitch.

And yes, if you're at a larger publisher, they may help with many of these things. But you'll still be called upon to decide. You'll still be the one writing the blog posts, talking to bloggers. You'll still be the one writing personal essays or reaching out to new readers on social media.

There's so much work that goes into before your book even comes out into the world.

And the thing I think we often forget as writers is this: pub day is really Day One of that books life. The first day that someone can go into a bookstore and actually buy your book.

As an author, you've probably been working on your book for ten to eighteen months by this point. You are, most likely, sick of thinking about it. Even if it's just a little bit.

And I'm here to tell you that you've got to rally, because all of that work was really just pre-season training. Sorry to bring in another sports and training metaphor, but if you've been reading my posts before, that shouldn't totally surprise you.

A lot of work goes into pre-season training by the way. It's the foundation for everything you're going to do. You can't race or win games or win fights without adequate pre-season training. It's where you build your base. It's where you provide the foundation for all of the work that comes afterwards.

But the thing is, a lot of work still comes afterwards. You still haven't raced a single race. You still haven't fought a single match. Your season is still ahead of you.

Which is why you've got to save your energy and you've got to pace yourself before you get to launch day. You've got to accept that you've worked so, so hard to get to this point and you're still not done.

If you don't believe me, by the way, there's a great thread over on Twitter from Margot Wood about how book marketing really lies in the eight weeks after (rather than before) a book launch. She used to work in marketing at a big publishing house and her findings are based on real data.

The best advice I can give about launching a book is to not spend all of your energy before the book comes out. To learn to manage your promotions and your marketing in smaller chunks before your book comes out—so that they're slowly distributed over a longer timeline. Because you've got to save that big push of energy for right after the book has launched.

Your book release day is something that you should honor and celebrate on your own terms. You worked so hard to get to this point. Pat yourself on the back, throw a party if you like. Or maybe just order a large pizza and watch your favorite adventure movie (my favorite way, honestly).

And then dust yourself off and remind yourself that there's still work to be done. There are still readers out there, who may not have heard of your book yet. Because that's the real joy in all of this work— your book just launched into the world and it's time for the world to meet it.

There is one genre convention in romance that may never be broken: the happily ever after. Hearts must flutter at the close or heads will roll (or both, in the case of my Tudor books). But how do you pull off a romance serial—following the same two lovers—in which each novel features a happily ever after, yet keeps the story going, and is set in a different time period? I faced this conundrum while writing my trilogy that begins with Emmie and the Tudor King, a YA time-slip romance (think Outlander for teens, and with crowns not kilts). After solving the puzzle, I pitched my novel directly to a small press publisher who ended up buying three books. Here's how (and why):

(Writing and Pitching) With a Love That Shall Not Die…

I picked a historical era packed with drama queens

My books are mostly set in the sixteenth century during the reign of the Tudors. You need only pull up the Tudor family tree to see that this real-life Dynasty drama was a hot mess, strewn with backstabbing, beheadings and baggage. Few haven’t heard of the capricious king Henry VIII with his six marriages, or Anne Boleyn—the first young wife he executed (there were two). How about the conflict between Henry’s daughters Mary and Elizabeth, who had different mothers, different religions, and the same ambitions to rule England? This was an era I could sink my teeth into that would provide a thrilling backdrop to an angsty love story able to sustain three or more books.

I only tried to sell the first book in my series

Even though I saw more than one novel in my writerly-mind’s-eye, I didn't even mention additional novels in my query letter. I’ve consumed enough romance to know that I could come up with plots for more books in my angsty series. Complicated love is never not-complicated. However, I wrote Emmie and the Tudor King as a standalone novel with the showdown beginning and ending within the book. If I’d plotted out the entire series in advance, I’d have risked the first one becoming a 300-page preamble. Furthermore, because I targeted a small press publisher, I didn’t have to prove all three books to sell the first one. And on that note…

I skipped the agent and went right to the publisher I totally get that many authors dream of finding an agent who can sell their work to a major publisher. I, too, saw only this path, and began trolling Twitter for compatible manuscript requests by agents. There, I found tweets gushing about swoonish YA romance, written by Literary Crush Publishing. I flew to their website, found more to love, and followed their guidelines to submit a query letter and sample pages—just as I would with an agent. You can read my query letter here. After a requested full manuscript, a video call, and a publication offer, I took a chance and never looked back. I knew I’d have a collaborative relationship with Literary Crush and I wanted to work with people who were as in-love with love as I am. Spoiler alert: they have been brilliant for both my series and my brand.

But There’s the Rub…

Make sure you understand your contract

If you pursue a publisher without an agent, you’ll receive pages of legally binding gobbledygook concluded with a dotted line for your signature. I hired a literary agent to negotiate my contract for me and she did a wonderful job; however, I’m an Australian author who sold my book while I was living in Asia, and my publisher is in the United States. Given my publisher didn’t have connections in foreign language markets (that I knew of) I retained my foreign language rights, but…oh right…no international territory agent wants to work with an author directly, so what exactly do I do with these foreign language rights now? I probably would have been better leaving all the language rights with my publisher so they can pursue other territories if the book sells well in English. My bad. Know how to make the most of your contracts.

Consider where you want to live and work

When I wrote and sold Emmie and the Tudor King, I was living overseas and considering a move to North America. Many Australian authors dream of becoming published in the United States and I regret nothing, but now that I am living back in Australia, I have few opportunities to push my work in my own country. Most people move around less than me (I have ants-in-my-pants syndrome), but more foresight about my plans could have benefitted me in the place where I’m most available to market my work.

Get good at your own marketing, and in haste

I know authors with major publishers that have hired external publicists, so when I made that move myself, I didn’t chalk it up to being published by a small press. Having a larger publisher is no guarantee of a strong marketing budget. Nonetheless, if you sign with a small press, it’s almost a guarantee that you will have to do a lot of work to push the book yourself. My publisher has been truly amazing from a creative perspective, but there’s little budget for aggressive paperback distribution, major advertising, or press tours. Again, larger publishers will also vary in this capacity. Be prepared to get to know your social media apps really well and become a marketing ninja, which is a feather I’m thankful to now have in my bow.

Overall, my goals out of the gate were: to write the sort of book I’d love to read, to give it serial potential but look at it as an independent work, and to have it traditionally published by people that I’d want to hang out with and chat about books and tropes we both love. In that capacity, I’m totally sweet on my writing journey.

How about you? Have you been working on a historical romance serial, a different genre of serial, or are you considering small press publishers? Please feel welcome to leave any tips or share your comments! 

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Natalie Murray is the author of EMMIE AND THE TUDOR KING (June 11, 2019; Literary Crush Publishing). A fast-paced YA time-slip romance, Emmie and the Tudor King follows an American high school girl to a reimagined Tudor England, where she meets a doomed, but utterly dreamy, Tudor king. Books 2 and 3 in the series will be published in 2020 and 2021, and Emmie and the Tudor King has already received acclaim from Foreword Reviews, YA Books Central, and popular YA authors Brigid Kemmerer (A Curse So Dark and Lonely) and CJ Flood (Infinite Sky), among others. You can visit Natalie at nataliemurrayauthor.com.

Would love to continue this discussion, ask me questions and share tips in the comments or find me on Twitter, @whimsicallyours!