Crested Butte Coverage Continues and Other Goodies

Just when you thought I was done, head to Janet Lane’s site. She has blogged on part of James Scott Bell’s talk that I didn’t touch on here.

And speaking of conferences, contests and other alliterations, check out these opportunities:

The WriteOn Free Online Conference will take place August 10-12, 2010. It will be attended by HOSTS of agents and authors. For the complete schedule, go to the WriteOn website.

The 2011 Missouri Writer’s Guild Conference will be in St. Louis this year. Marcie Posner from Folio Literary Management and Kristin Nelson from the Nelson Literary Agency are just two of the many agents in attendance. I’m delighted to say one of the Masters Class presenters will be Jeannie Lin from All That You Desire. The conference will be on April 8-10, 2011, so save your pennies.

Addendum:

I just heard about this tonight, or I would have posted all of this together:

The 2010 Montezuma All-Iowa Writers’ Conference will be held in Montezuma, Iowa at the Montezuma Community School on Saturday, September 18 from 9 – 5, with registration starting at 8:30. It’s an all-day event where you can learn writing tips, get advice on how to choose a publisher and learn new ways to market your work. Iowa authors scheduled to attend and inspire include: Donald Harstad, Shirley
Damsgaard, Kathy Bacus, Leigh Michaels, Tamara Siler Jones and Kali Van Baale. Admission is only $25! If you have ever dreamed of writing a book, this is a must-attend event. Email debwrite [@] zumatel.net for more details or look them up on Facebook at Our Front Porch Books Publishing Company.

Details and a registration form will soon be available at http://www.ourfrontporchbooks.com/. Many thanks to Tammy Jones for posting this information!

Day 3: Janet Lane on Free Range Characters

This talk wasn’t just about characterization, but how proper characterization can become indistinguishable from plot.

Janet suggests plotting stories using Inner and Outer story questions, advice most of us should be familiar with by now, but we’ll go over it using the plot from Avatar because everyone’s seen it by now. Right?

The Outer story question is a specific, tangible action-oriented goal and the character must strive for (or against) it. In Avatar, the Outer Story question is: Will greed destroy Pandora?

The Inner Story Question must be stated as a question, involves the character’s need, each character has his or her own inner question that is resolved in yes/no fashion by the story’s end with a resolution that is satisfying to the protagonist. The inner story question DRIVES the Outer Story.

Avatar’s Inner Story question: Will Jake sell his soul and betray Neytiri and the Navi to walk again?

Now, how free are your characters? What are their turning points?

It’s only a turning point if someone acts. Most turning points are at the beginning of Act I and 2. (Sometimes there’s one in the middle to act as a buttress to your story arc.) Who drives the characters’ decisions?

In Avatar, the first Turning Point for Jake is when he abandons the scientists and the NAVI and joins the Colonel and the “Greed” team. He is motivated by his desire to walk again. The second Turning Point is when he defies the Colonel and the team and fights for the NAVI. He is motivated for a variety of reasons including love, revenge for the Colonel’s lies and the death of the NAVI, their spiritual center and the death of Sigourney Weaver’s character.

What are your story’s Turning Points and what are the character’s motivations for turning? In other words, who is driving the story? Are external events doing it, or are the changes brought about by your character’s decisions and motivations? Who is in charge of your character arc?

Another way of looking at motivations, is to examine what the character wants, why he/she wants it and why they can’t get it, their worst fear (which should probably revolve around the inciting incident) and how they accept the call to action.

See how this works for Jake: He wants to be accepted, believes “he’s just another dumb drunk”, he cannot get what he wants because he hasn’t yet claimed his life, his worst fear is that his naysayers are right and that he’ll never be more than a broken ex-marine, but then his twin brother dies, giving him an opportunity to fit in again. He accepts the opportunity and travels to Pandora. Do you see how most of that happens off screen?

Many thanks to Janet Lane and her exceptional handout sheets. I would never have been able to reproduce this for you without them. Make sure you check out Janet’s site as she was able to post on the part of the conference I arrived too late to see. This is my last blog on the Crested Butte Writers Conference. Thanks for joining me; we will now return to our regularly scheduled programming. ;D

Day 3: Holly Payne on Alternative Publishing

Holly Payne’s story began with a tragic accident and I’m not talking about her book. I’m talking about her life and the drunk driver who nearly ended it. Afterwards, she wove her tale of an Amish boy in need of forgiveness through her own need to forgive and arrived at “Kingdom of Simplicity”. She found editorial interest for “Kingdom,” but no publishers. As the 15th Anniversary of her accident loomed closer, she felt driven to publish the novel on that anniversary. Thus, Skywriterbooks was born.

Holly did more than self publish. She created her own editing, coaching and small press company and these are her thoughts on self-publishing:

• Never use a vanity press. All they do is print your work. No editing or marketing is involved, and you are your own warehouse. In short, your money pays for paper and ink. There are a variety of ways your money and work can gain greater results.
• Read “The Well-fed Self Publisher. It was Holly’s guide in creating Skywriters and I imagine would be an enormous help for anyone who goes for self publishing, let alone going the extra step to create their own imprint.

• If you do self-publish, consider Lightening Sources. They’re a print-on-demand (P.O.D.) service and they will list your work in the publishing catalogs of Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Ingrams and public libraries. There is no need for warehousing with P.O.D., but if you’re sure (i.e. you have orders) you can sell more than 500 copies , then print more than 500 as this will help offset the cost of printing and you’ll receive a financial bang for your book. (Thought I was going to say “buck,” didn’t you?) Printing in paperback is cheaper, so ask yourself how important is it to see your work in hardback. Selling 1,000 copies on your own marks you as a success, since 93% of all books published sell less than 1,000 copies. Is that a kick in the head or what?

• Ask for blurbs and reviews and sent out advance reading copies (ARCs) six months in advance of the book’s publication.

• Have friends go to Barnes & Noble, Borders, Rainy Day, etc. and request the book from the store. This generates tremendous word of mouth because the stores TALK.

One of the many things Holly learned from her experience was, “You’re not, in the end, selling a book. You’re selling an emotion, an inspirational experience. What is it?”

Aside from the words: “I want to see your first 50 pages,” I thought this the most profound thing said at the entire conference. If we are not sure of the emotional power and focus behind our book, how will anyone else recognize it? That’s why today’s somewhat unrelated question is: What is your book’s emotional point?

Crested Butte Writers Conference Day 3: The Dreaded Synopsis – led by Joanne Stampfel-Volpe

Many thanks to Joanne Stampfel-Volpe of the Nancy Coffey Literary agency, who made this mind-numbing topic interesting and fun.

First off, she suggests focusing on making your query and sample writing sparkle. The synopsis tells editors and agents where the story’s going and helps them prioritize their reading list, but out of everything writers send out, the synopsis is likely the last thing read. She said don’t sweat it, because “The synopsis doesn’t draw in anyone.”

Basic rules:

1. Title and author’s name need to be in the header. Genre and word count are nice additions.

2. Two pages max, one page preferred.

3. Single spaced, double spaced between paragraphs.

4. Times Roman 12 pt.

5. Number your pages.

6. Present tense – regardless of story tense.

7. Beginning, middle, end.

Rules of thumb:

All capping characters names is a film industry convention, but is acceptable. Characters must be in the beginning, middle and end to be included in the synopsis.

She had us give the characters and plot for Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone: Harry, Ron, Hermione, Hagrid, Voldemort, Dumbledore, Quirrel, etc. Then what happens? Harry discovers he has powers, goes to school, makes friends and enemies, learns magic and defeats the bad guy. That laundry list is a synopsis for J.K. Rowling’s first book. Joanne pointed out, we don’t even have to know Harry’s friends’ names, we just need to know he has them.

Do you have two main characters? Try revolving your main characters paragraph by paragraph. Have you had a chapter by chapter synopsis requested? Stick with your synopsis outline and use two sentences to describe each chapter.

I won’t say it’s a piece of cake, but even Hagrid’s fudge was edible. Anyone want to try it in the comments?

Day 2: How Twitter Can Work For You

Before I go any further, I wanted to thank Janet Lane for her wonderful handouts from the Crested Butte Conference and also for allowing me to post so many of her suggestions here.  If you all haven’t already done so, please head over to Janet’s site and see her take on the Crested Butte Conference and if you ever get a chance to hear her speak, run, don’t walk. She’s personable and about as helpful as they come.

As promised, here are the notes of the last “Twitter Handout.” I know I appreciated the last remark the most and have obeyed it the least. 🙂

1. Get published. Janet Lane, the author who gave this talk, mentioned that she new one person who got published as a result of her Twitter presence. It’s also true Diana Gabaldon found her agent through a literary chat group during the early days of Internet chat. But are these likely events?

2. Find people who can help you. Need a good editor, critique group, writer’s group(s)? Use Twitter (and other Social Media) to find such groups and get connected.

3. Make new friends. You can meet and befriend anyone from beginners to industry professionals out here. The professionals will share useful information about how to get published, the hottest trends, what’s selling. Janet mentions on her handout how she found a friend with a hearing problem who loaned Janet a book to aid in Janet’s search for information regarding a hearing-impaired character.  This kind Twitterer lived in a different COUNTRY.

4. Gain readers for your blog. Tweet about your new posts, and ask your friends to tweet about it. Take advantage of the viral nature of news.

5. Get feedback. Ask for help and invite people to make suggestions on your website, scene development etc. Make your twitters about this specific and easy to respond to.

6. Notify your readers of events where you’ll be appearing, new book releases, or share wonderful news if an agent or editor requests a full manuscript.

7. Develop your brand. Your followers will get to know you, perhaps come to rely on your updates about a particular area of interest or expertise, and if you can find a way to engage them in your writer’s journey, you can develop a presence.

8. Give your followers 98% useful content and 2% promotion and never Tweet when upset or angry. Share interesting aspects of your writing life, but not your personal life.

Here’s the part I mentioned earlier that I love, but don’t follow well: Set a limit on your social media marketing! Set a timer. Half an hour a day. Don’t sacrifice your writing time to Tweet. Or blog. Or Facebook. Find a way to integrate marketing into your life without letting it take control.

That said, what are some of your best/favorite Social Media Moments?