Writer Unboxed

If you missed part one of my interview with Kristina Riggle, click HERE, then come back. Kristina, who blogs at The Debutante Ball, is already gathering rave reviews for her debut novel, Real Life & Liars. This from Publisher’s Weekly:

With ease and grace, Riggle walks the fine line between sentimentality and comedy, and she has a sure hand in creating fun, quirky characters.

And this from The Grand Rapids Press:

Kristina Riggle’s debut novel, “Real Life & Liars,” is bursting at the seams with believable people.

Notice a common element? Characters. Kristina knows how to build them like few other authors I’ve read.

“If I have to go down, fine. But I’m going down with both tits swinging,” says protagonist Mira Zelinsky, stubborn to the end about her breasts and just what’s going to happen to them.

See what I mean? Let’s talk character.

Interview with Kristina Riggle

Q: By interweaving chapters from different characters’ POVs throughout the course of the novel, you crafted a delicious suspense—leaving us hanging on the edge of something in one character’s story to create tension in someone else’s. Chapters were generally short. Was this purposeful on your part? Why go for the short chapter? What did it buy you?

KR: Thank you. That was a fun benefit of the differing points of view. The short chapters are a hangover from my day job of journalism. Some people don’t like it very much, but it’s the way I’m comfortable writing. So I can’t say it was a deliberate choice so much as the only way I know how to do it.

Q: The matriarch and patriarch of the Zelinsky family, Mira and Max, almost never argued, yet a big argument marked a turning point in their lives just days before their children arrived to celebrate their anniversary; the latter marks the start of the novel instead of the former. Did you ever consider beginning the book with the argument? What made you decide to hold off on revealing what was said until the end of the story?

KR: One reason the argument doesn’t emerge until the end is that at the beginning, I wasn’t sure myself why Mira was doing the things she was doing (sorry to be vague, trying not to write a spoiler here) as I wrote the first draft. So I thought it would be interesting to have the reader discover this important turning point gradually, just as I discovered it during the writing of her character. Mira drops hints here and there throughout the book about this fight.

Q: You said in your interview at the end of the book that you “needed a crisis to drive the story, and breast cancer is singularly terrifying to women.” Could the crisis have been anything else? How did you use breast cancer specifically to propel the story and enrich its themes? Why was it necessary for Mira to be terrified? Continue Reading »

Recently I received a questionnaire via Facebook: ‘You have been selected to receive this meme because someone thinks you are a literary geek.’ There followed a series of questions about reading experience and preferences. I answered honestly, despite the fact that this revealed to my writer friends the yawning gaps in my reading. I may be a literary geek, but I’m an unbalanced one.

One of the first pieces of advice I give to aspiring writers is that they should read as widely as possible, not just within the genre they love / admire / want to write in. I am often shocked that some people who aspire to be professional writers read so narrowly. For young fantasy writers in particular, their book diet frequently stays within that genre, with perhaps a bit of science fiction or horror for variety. I do my best to explain that a broad reading diet allows writers to pick up a bigger vocabulary, a richer range of styles and structures, and a whole armoury of literary techniques and storytelling tricks. All this is valuable to a person, not as a fantasy writer or a thriller writer or a literary writer, but as a writer. Sure, you will learn something about writing fantasy by reading fantasy, especially if you select with some discrimination. This may enable you to turn out an acceptable, probably rather derivative novel. But you won’t write as interesting, as original, as satisfying a book as you would if your reading diet had been richer. Continue Reading »

Do you believe in vampires? No, seriously. You don’t, right?

Here’s a different question: Do you read vampire novels? Whether or not you do, a great many readers enjoy them. To do so they suspend their disbelief. They must. How do authors get them to do that?

The same question can be asked about novels in which justice is done, love triumphs and lone protagonists save the world. In real life those things don’t always happen, or at least not easily and despite the high odds posed in a well-plotted novel. Even character-driven stories such as sagas, coming-of-age novels, women’s and literary fiction portray events that are not everyday occurrences.

What happens in all fiction is to some degree preposterous and yet readers go along. Or not.

Have you ever felt that a novel you were reading got ridiculous? When fiction feels far-fetched we cease to enjoy it; indeed, we may even hurl it across the room. Then again, there are those novels in which the very premise defies logic and yet we breathlessly turn the pages.

How do those authors pull that off? Continue Reading »

Christina Katz recently sent a message to me on Twitter:

Can you do #platformchat this friday from 2-3 EST? I’d love to have you talk about your pre-pub. platform development.

I said yes. Later, I realized this chat would have only two guests: Jane Friedman, the Publisher and Editorial Director at Writer’s Digest, and me.

No pressure.

The event itself went well, though. Christina asked thought-provoking questions about life as a nonfiction writer, fiction writer and blogger. Many of those who’d tuned into the event spread the word and retweeted lines that resonated with them; others asked smart questions, made insightful comments. Once finished, I had about 60 new followers–most of them writers. (You can read the transcript HERE and learn more about Twitter chats HERE.)

Since a lingering effect of the chat has been platform-on-the-brain, that’s the subject of today’s blog post.

What is platform?

In easy terms, platform is what’s available to you so that when you have something to say, you’re heard. In our interview with Christina Katz, she described it like this:

A platform is a promise, which says you will not only create something to sell (a book), but also promote it to the specific readers who will want to purchase it. A platform-strong writer is a writer with influence. Your platform includes your Web presence, any public speaking you do, the classes you teach, the media contacts you’ve established, the articles you’ve published, and any other means you currently have for making your name and your future books known to a viable readership. If others already recognize your expertise on a given topic or for a specific audience or both, then that is your platform. Your platform communicates your expertise to others, and it works all the time so you don’t have to.

How do you build a platform that will stand out?

You build a platform by building a specific reputation, developing a niche, and connecting with others, regardless of what you write. But take care if your plan is to latch your name to a big genre label. Continue Reading »

Regular post coming up in a few, but Kath and I didn’t want to wait another day to tell you that we’re not only working up details for a new contest (with excellent winnings), we have a fabulous new contributor!

Ann Aguirre is the author of the Grimspace series, a cross-genre blend of sci-fi, suspense, urban fantasy and romance. She’s prolific, hilarious and one of the sharpest writers out there. Get to know Ann in a few clicks by visiting her WU page HERE, her website HERE, and her WU Q&A HERE.

Excited yet? So are we. Her first blog date with us is next Wednesday, 7/8.

Stay tuned for a post on platform.

Ken sent us the following question:

“What’s the difference between a prologue, a foreword and a preface?  Also, I’ve heard that fiction writers should avoid prologues and incorporate it into the backstory.  Thoughts?  Thanks in advance.”

Great question, Ken.

Prologues, I’ll tackle in a minute as there is a bit of disagreement over a prologue’s usefulness in fiction.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t have an easy answer for the difference between a foreword and a preface, but Google came to my rescue and I found a handy cheat-sheet at writersandeditors.com.  I’ll steal from them thusly:

The foreword, says the Chicago Manual of Style, is usually written by someone other than the author or editor, usually someone eminent (to lend credibility to the book), and although the title page may say “Foreword by X,” if the foreword is only one or two pages (which is normal), the name of the foreword writer normally appears at the end of the foreword.

A preface, according to writersandeditors:

Continue Reading »

I’ll be honest with you–I wasn’t certain how I’d feel about Kristina Riggle’s debut novel, Real Life & Liars, because I knew the story involved the “C” word–and I don’t mean Chocolate. Cancer in a book is a hard thing for some to warm up to, especially when you’ve lost loved ones to the disease, as so many of us have. But Kristina’s novel isn’t so much about a woman coming to terms with her own mortality as realizing her tornadic impact on the world around her–and in a very short span of time following her diagnosis, after deciding not to treat her breast cancer.

I loved this book. Kristina is truly gifted, not wasting words, but using each to reveal character with a clever, smart and humorous delivery–and even the occasional Monty Python joke. A “cancer book,” humorous? Just wait until you meet the members of the Zelinsky family, each of whom needs to learn that the ideal in life–perfection–is as sterile as symmetry and not a reflection of the lumps and bumps of reality at all. The question of what they’ll choose to believe–real life or the liars–drives this fantastic novel.

Interview with Kristina Riggle

Q: How do you describe your novel to people who ask what it’s about?

KR: A family of screwed-up grown kids comes home for an anniversary party with their lives falling apart, and their mother has a secret which will change everything. It takes place over three days in Charlevoix, Michigan.

Q: One of the book’s lead characters has cancer, yet I don’t view this as “a cancer book.” Have you felt any resistance to your book, simply because it features a protagonist with a disease? How have you handled that?

KR: I worried about it, but so far it’s not been an issue. Most people seem to understand it’s an ensemble piece about family, foremost. Amazon does list it in the category of Breast Cancer Books, but it doesn’t seem to have turned people off. Reviewers seem aware of the possibility though, and I’ve read a few people saying, “Don’t be scared away from this book because of cancer…”

Q: How did this book evolve for you–from idea to sold manuscript to published novel? How long did it take? How many books, if any, are tucked in a drawer? Continue Reading »

I’ll be one of two “experts of the week” for Christina Katz’s platform chat on Twitter today, which runs from 2-3 p.m. EST. This opportunity transpired after Christina visited my website and decided I’d done a pretty good job of reflecting my brand via the site. The other expert is Jane Friedman, a publisher with Writer’s Digest, who’ll be representing the nonfiction side of platform building. (Yes, I’m representing fiction.)

If you’re a Twitter person, and you’re interested in watching me try to appear brilliant err squirm publicly err try my very best to speak sense after drinking a few G&Ts, then you can access the chat by doing the following:

1. Go to the bottom of the main Twitter page, where you’ll see this footer:

Footer© 2009 Twitter About Us Contact Blog Status Apps API Search Help Jobs Terms Privacy

2. Click the Search button

3. Enter #platformchat

You’ll be taken to a scrolling Twitter page with conversation that’s dedicated to the chat. When I post anything during the chat, I’ll have to use the #platformchat hashtag; and if you post anything during the chat, you’ll have to use the hashtag, too.

Clear as mud? Hope to see some of you there!

One of the regular commenters on my own weblog asked me recently to write about genre. She wanted to know if an author starts out with a particular genre in mind, and if so, how is such a thing planned? How do you write yourself into a genre?

I’ve been thinking about this for days, and getting crankier by the minute (which has nothing to do with the person who asked the question; she just hit one of my buttons). Genre is not one of my favorite words. Before I go on, a confession: I know what I’m wishing for is impossible.

This is what I want: abolition of the idea and practice of genre in writing and shelving fiction.

Think about this for a moment. You walk into a bookstore because you want the latest Walter Moseley or Eloisa James or A.S. Byatt, and you head straight for the section where you’ve found those authors before: hard-boiled crime, romance, literary fiction, respectively. Once you get there, you pause to have a look at what else is new in that section, and then you pay and leave.

On the way out you may be passing a novel you would fall in love with, but you don’t see it. You’ve got genre blinders on, and it doesn’t occur to you that there might be something worth reading in science fiction or horror or historical fiction. I can almost feel you shifting uncomfortably in your seat. You’re thinking: but I don’t read horror. Horror is for … other people. I read serious fiction. I read fiction with literary merit.

You know it’s true: Many people will simply refuse to browse in the horror section (or crime, or romance etc) because they’ve been told that so-called popular fiction is inherently less valuable, and they don’t want to be seen there. Theoretically, of course, a novel sitting in the horror section could be very serious, and even fulfill some of the self-aggrandizing characteristics of literary fiction. It might have both complex, evolving characterizations and plot.

Genre is a marketing convenience; it is also a straight-jacket for creativity.

Continue Reading »

When my eldest son was about six or seven months old, he had a milk bottle toy. You’ve seen them—a plastic bottle with colored plastic balls that go inside. The idea is simply to put the balls in the mouth of the bottle.

One afternoon, Ian sat on the floor of our apartment, playing with the bottle. He wasn’t sitting up perfectly yet, so he was a little wobbly, but that bottle had his complete, undivided attention. He held a ball in one hand and I held the bottle still. He wobbled, lifted his arm, aimed for that opening—and missed. Tried again. And again. Over and over and over. When we started playing the game that day, I hadn’t yet discovered a critical part of his personality was tenacity. It never occurred to me that a baby wouldn’t give up eventually.

We sat there for a long time. Over and over. And over and over. But that child did not give, not one inch, no matter how many times he failed. Or fell over. He would lie on the floor, furious, then roll over and grab for a ball, and I would sit him up, get him stable, hold the milk bottle. He didn’t want my help, either, thank you. He knew exactly what he was doing, it was just that his understanding of the task outstripped his physical capacity to achieve it.

Eventually, he actually did get a ball into the mouth of the bottle. He looked at me, startled, cheered, and of course, I praised him to the ceilings. And Ian, being Ian, reveled in his success for exactly 3.5 seconds, then turned and looked for another ball.

As writers, that kind of persistence is the most important quality we own. Persistence is far more important than talent or native ability. Showing up, day after day, even though there might be rejections or bad reviews or really crappy writing (I know what I should do, but I can’t seem to actually accomplish it), keeping focus on whatever the next task at hand is, shutting everything else out. Trying again, and again, and again.

Ray Bradbury says you have to write a million words before your work is publishable. Malcolm Gladwell’s Outlier puts forth the idea that anyone who succeeds has put in ten thousand hours of work before they actually make a breakthrough (as in selling a novel). If you divide those hours down, an hour a day equals about 27 ½ years.

Don’t let that scare you. Continue Reading »

Today’s guest blogger, Anna Louise Lucia, is someone I’ve come to know through a super supportive goal-in-a-month (GIAM) writing group. Anna’s latest book, Dangerous Lies, was recently released, and I was intrigued to know more about her publishing experience, as she’s published with an indie. She graciously agreed to illuminate all of us.

Thanks for being here, Anna. Take it away!
_____

When Therese kindly invited me to blog on Writer Unboxed, she had one request – can you give us a perspective on writing for an indie?

At which point, naturally, my mind went blank.

And, as usual, when my mind goes blank (guys, this happens WAY too often!) I turned to friends and colleagues for answers. “Why did you choose an independent publisher?” I asked, and “what’s your take on writing for one?”

My first reply, from Phil Bowie, (whose latest release KLLRS was called, “Good, solid, face-paced adventure fiction,” by Stephen Coonts) was, “how are you defining an Independent Publisher?”

Thanks Phil.

Good point, though. There’s a lot of confusion out there about different routes to publication. I’d be a fool if I thought I could take you through all of that. But I think I can define what an indie is.

Medallion Press is adamant they are neither a “small press” or a “print on demand” publisher. They are not, emphatically not, a vanity press. They are an Independent Publisher – a publisher that isn’t part of a large conglomerate or multinational. They have print runs and sales figures that qualify them for RWA recognised status, and they, crucially for professional writers, offer advances and competitive royalties.

Independent presses are small, though. They don’t have the entrée to Walmart’s book aisles, and they can often struggle to get books on display on the shelves of major bookstore chains. However, collectively, independent publishers make up approximately half the market share of the book industry.

So that’s an Indie. But why choose one? Continue Reading »

Here in the northeast, we’ve had three solid days of rain, but that won’t stop me from California dreamin’ and the promise of summertime reading.  Yup, I like to gorge on books in the summer.  But this year, I’m also on a budget.  So I’m trying to hook up on cheap reads while still supporting my local bookseller.

In a down economy, the deals out there are killer.

As always, Powell’s Books is in the forefront of creative marketing.  Their Children’s Summer Vacation Education promo hits the sweet-spot for parents desperate to keep their kids amused while massaging their brain cells at the same time.  They’re offering a 30% discount on DK Books for kids.  DK Books, for those not in the know, is a line of educational/fun books distinguished by high-quality visuals and presentation.

Dr. Frankenstein’s Human Body Book: The Monstrous Truth about How Your Body Works provides education and the essential gross-out factor that keeps kids fascinated.  I’m intrigued by Cook It Together, a cookbook for kids, because I have an evil plan to shunt some of my kitchen duties off on my daughter now that she’s old enough to use a knife safely.  Muah ha ha!

Barnes & Noble is aggressively courting the summertime reader by offering a 40% discount on their list of beach reads.  They’ve helpfully organized their webshop by category, and the 20% discount on the Complete Idiot’s Guide To line is also tempting.

Continue Reading »