Author or Writer, Which Do You Want to Be?

Many writers I know struggle with the idea of calling themselves an author. It sounds so official, like something that must be earned. That's because it is. There is a distinct difference between writing for fun and writing for a career. That is the difference between a writer and an author. What if you are one attempting to become the other, as so many of us are? Then you are an aspiring author.

There is much more to being an author than just a title though. The bottom line is professionalism. If you want to make writing your career you must be professional. Don't worry, this doesn't mean you can't have fun and be yourself, it just means you have to understand that everything you do and say could some day be under the public eye. With search engines like Google out there agents and editors have access to almost everything you've ever said or done on the internet. You want to be sure what they find doesn't give them a reason to reject you.

Part of being a professional is also ensuring that your work is the very best it can be. Don't finish in a hurry so you can start submitting as soon as possible because you have a hot trending topic or theme. When we rush we make mistakes and mistakes are what get us rejected. Part of taking your time is personalizing each and every query as if that agent is going to be The One. Make sure you carefully read and follow each agent's guidelines. Failure to do so is the quickest way to be rejected.

Be thick skinned when it comes to rejections and try not to take them personally. Learn from every tidbit of feedback that is given to you. Don't forget, many great authors like Stephen King and J.K. Rowling were rejected numerous times before they became successful. Use rejection to fuel the fire of determination. Learn, grow, and improve, that is the path to becoming an author.

For more useful tips on how to succeed check out this post by Writer's Digest: 10 Commandments of Fiction Writing. Best of luck!

~Heather

Don't forget to enter to win a copy of Flight For Control at this link. 

CHANNELER'S CHOICE, by Heather McCorkle (AND giveaway!!)

Hi everyone, and welcome to an interview with our very own Heather McCorkle about her new release, Channeler's Choice, the second book in her Channeler Series. I am deeply honored to be the first stop on Heather's blog tour for this novel.

Hi, Heather!

Heather: Hello! *waves* I'm excited to be here first, and before we talk about Channeler's Choice, want to first tell everyone that, in celebration, I'd love to give away an eBook copy of Karlene Petitt's Flight for Control to one lucky commenter and follower of the Critique Sisters Corner. This giveaway will run between now and Sunday, the winner to be announced here next Monday. Also, I'd like to invite everyone to stop by my Heather's Odyssey blog for a chance to win even more books! http://heathermccorkle.blogspot.com

Linda: Wow. That's great, and I know Karlene will be thrilled, too, not to mention the lucky winners from your Heather's Odyssey blog. :-)

On to your own great news, n the first book in your series, The Secret of Spruce Knoll, we found out that your protagonist, a girl named Eren, is a channeler. In fact she found out she was a channeler after her parents died and she had to move to a remote town and live with an aunt. Plus, she met this gorgeous guy, Aiden, there, who is also a channeler (and a heartthrob). And there's a powerful connection between channelers and the Earth and keeping the planet alive. Those are just some of the high points of the first book. With that background, so many questions come to mind about what might happen in your second book!

From this beautiful cover on Channeler's Choice, I'm guessing that Eren and Aiden are still together (whew!). I'm hoping they're not only getting to know each other better, but still working together to develop their powers. What is it that they're up against in this book?


Heather: The stakes are raised for them in this novel, in more ways than one. Now not only do they have to figure out how to be a couple and if they're meant to be, but they have to figure out how to be leaders of their kind. And a threat looms, possibly a new one, possibly an old one as well.

Linda: Coming of age in more ways than one. This definitely sounds like a powerful story. I'm guessing, too, from the title, that there's a dilemma Eren is going to face, besides anything personal with Aiden. If that's not the 'threat' you mentioned, can you tell us anything about that?


Heather: Well, since it's on the back cover I suppose I can. ;) *SPOILER ALERT* Eren discovers that she doesn't have to be a channeler after all. She has a choice to make.

Linda: Oooh, I love that! Tough choices in life about which road to take, especially if a choice is really challenging and difficult but you know it's important--those are gripping dilemmas that we can all relate to. Back to the personal between Eren and Aiden (you see where my mind keeps going)—is there something major in this story that could tear them apart? Can you tell us a little about that?


Heather: There is at least one new threat. Another girl has her eyes on Aiden and she's determined to get him at all costs.

Linda: Uh, oh. But I'll bet she doesn't really know what she's up against. Can't wait to see how Eren and Aiden handle that! (men can be so challenging!)

This is such a great idea for a series, Heather. Young lovers with huge responsibilities way beyond their years, the fate of the Earth in their hands; the protagonist a young woman who has to not only lead the way for the other channelers, but find herself, while all this is going on. Do you remember the moment when the idea formed in your mind? What was that like?


Heather: It was instantaneous. I was watching a show on the receding polar ice caps and Eren hit me, fully formed, purpose, needs, desires. It was pretty amazing. I wish it always happened like that!

Linda: Wow, that is wonderful. I love it when that kind of inspiration strikes, and you just know.  Thank you so much for sharing all this tantalizing info. I can't wait to get my hands on Channeler's Choice!


Heather: Thank you so much for hosting me and for being the first stop along my tour. It only seems right since you've been such a huge part of this journey. ;)

Linda: So glad you made a stop with us! And that is fantastic about your generous giveaway. Thank you.

When you head over to Heather's Odyssey, everyone, you can order a copy of Channeler's Choice there, too, besides checking out the other giveaways. Enjoy!

~ Linda 

Writers Advice

"Either write something worth reading 

or do something worth writing"

Benjamin Franklin

Today I'm doing part two... something worth writing about. 

Scheduling called and I'm on a Seattle, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Seattle, trip. The adventure never fails, despite the obstacles dropped in my lap. I had 600 books to take to the Western Washington Aviation Trade Show... but to my surprise I got called out on this trip, and will miss the show and the opportunity. 

Does this mean another opportunity is on the horizon? I'll know soon, as I will be flying toward many horizons in the next few days. And who knows... I'm sure I will be finding something to write about. 

Enjoy the Journey!

 

XOX Kalrene

Method To The Madness

Writing and editing are two different things. It’s important that you allow yourself to write a rough draft by writing all the way through to the end without editing heavily. A little bit of tweaking here and there is alright, but if you stop the momentum, well, you’ve stopped the momentum. It may never pick up again, or could be disjointed or discordant.

Whether you’re a pantser (write by the seat of your pants) or a plotter, there must be a method to your madness, a routine that you follow to help you reach the end.

While editing it’s even more important that you have a structured system of your own design to follow. Yep pantsers, that means you too. Having a system for editing makes it faster, easier, and much more thorough. Chances are, even if you’re a pantser, you probably have an editing routine that you follow. I have a five step editing process that helps me polish to a shine that keeps my editor happy with me.

Your editing method should be tailored to what works for you. Maybe five steps is too many, maybe it’s not enough. It all depends on how you want to do it. Some authors I know print out their manuscript and lay it out on their floor with sticky notes on each page (so cool, I’d love to try this method!), others use editing software that allows them to list things out and rearrange, and even other print out and do a red pen edit. The important thing is to try different methods, ask other writers, and find what works for you.

So what is your editing method?

~Heather

Keeping it Fresh—Writer's Craft: Color

Sometimes we forget how important it is to refresh our writing process. We develop our approach and our routines, we find what feels like it's working for us, and we pour our energies into that. Each day that we perform these efforts successfully, we reinforce the power of the approach and routine. This is good stuff—important for us as developing writers, and even as established writers. But, of course there's a hitch, a trap, a paradox here, as with everything else about process: the more skilled and comfortable we become in our familiar creative process, the less fresh and imaginative we are.

The key word in the above sentence is familiar. We need to nip this sinking-into-familiar-pleasures business in the bud before familiar transforms into rut. Every once in a while we need to shake things up. I'm not talking about throwing out the baby with the bathwater (cliché, anyone?), but simply taking a deep breath, walking away from our project, and spending an hour releasing what we know and opening ourselves to discovery.

I know. . . work, work, work. But there's an easy way to do this, which dovetails beautifully with the whole paradoxical nature of this conundrum: go back to basics for a little refresher in some specific area. Just for today, let's choose color.

A favorite guide of mine for doing this is a wonderful teacher and author named Priscilla Long. Here, from her book, The Writer's Portable Mentor, is an idea about how to reinvigorate your writing by incorporating a fresh approach to color in your verbiage.

Long says, "We've heard the phrase,"gray prose." Gray prose is general prose, colorless prose. Put color in your prose."

How to do this? Long's suggestions*:

• Look around you. What colors do you see? If you were to paint the scene in front of you, what pigments would you squeeze from the tube?
• Describe what you see. Use concrete nouns where you can. Rubies, urine, e.g.—carry color onto the page without further elaboration, and are powerful; stronger than adjectives.
• Remember the color verbs: to blacken; to yellow; to purple.
• Identify colors from a classic, sophisticated, color lexicon. Long suggests we go to an art supply store and get sample sheets from purveyors of pigments, like Winsor & Newton. The sheets have daubs of color painted on them, which are called by stable names that have evolved over centuries, like burnt umber, and yellow ochre. This is preferable, she suggests, to colors of house paints and printing inks, which are named by advertising writers and impossible to identify without looking at them (e.g. Autumn Purple). Burnt sienna is burnt sienna, no matter who manufactures it.
• Any common object, substance, or living thing that has a stable color can be used as a color word: an item may be 'wheat' or 'blackberry'  or 'ebony' colored, e.g.
• Colors derived from objects or living things become instantly metaphorical, in that they compare one thing to another. Instantly, then, the writer needs to . . . make the metaphor intensify the character or setting or situation rather than detract from it. (You wouldn't describe a flower in the tropics as 'snow white,' for example. There's no snow in the tropics. You might instead say it is 'ghostly white,' as if deprived of color by dark, dense growth that surrounds it.)

Exercise: Do what Long has identified as "the Here and Now" exercise: Go to a café, a park, a library, down to the river (you get the idea). Write for fifteen minutes at a steady pace without stopping. Describe what's in front of you, paying close attention to color. Write slowly and mention the color of everything you see. Use as many different words for colors as you can think of (words for brown, e.g.: dun, auburn, burnt sienna, umber, chocolate, turd-colored, straw-colored, molasses. Her eyes were the color of molasses.) 


Think of comparisons to objects in the world as you write. What objects are the same color as this person's hair, e.g., or his eyes? List these, or phrases describing them, such as, his eyes were blue like the sky, no, brighter, like robin's eggs, etc. Later, choose the one that's most accurate not only for the color, but for the character and situation. A character with steel blue eyes differs considerably from one with pale blue eyes.


Remember, nouns and verbs are strong, adjectives and adverbs are weak. Do not proliferate adjectives in your color practice. Use color verbs: Dusk reddens the sky. Use nouns that emit their colors: walnut, eggplant, cherrywood. Add a color adjective, but force it to earn its keep by deleting two adjectives and one adverb.


When you come back to your project, I promise you'll see it differently after this exercise. Fresher and brighter or darker. Definitely deeper. Enjoy!

~ Linda
*combination of quote and paraphrase

WNBA: Seattle Event

Women's National Book Association

Seattle Chapter

Please Join us for a program featuring Professors Joanna Gregson and Jen Lois as they discuss their social-scientific study focused on the craft, career and culture of romance writers. 

When: Saturday, February 25, 10:30 a.m. 

Where: Elliott Bay Book Company

1521 Tenth Avenue, Seattle WA

(Between Pike and Pine on Capitol Hill) 

Tenth is between Broadway and 11th in this part of Capitol Hill. Parking is on the street, metered and paid parking is available in the garage in the building. (Beware... if you park past your pre-paid time, you will get a ticket!)

Bring a friend!

Program:  

Since April of 2010, Professors Joanna Gregson and Jen Lois have been conducting sociological research on the authors of romance novels. By interviewing romance writers and attending local and national Romance Writers of America (RWA) events, Professors Gregson and Lois are examining the craft, career and culture of romance writers. In so doing, they hope to understand how writers construct romance, gender, and sexuality through their writing, how they experience their careers in what has been called “the most popular, least respected literary genre,” and how romance authors’ shared subculture is shaped by their gender. With the vast majority of existing research on romance fiction coming from the field of literary criticism—focusing on the content of the text and analyzing the books for latent messages about femininity, masculinity, and sexuality—this project breaks new ground as the first social-scientific study focused on romance writers themselves

Speaker bios:  

Joanna Gregson is a sociology professor at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA. She teaches and conducts research in the areas of gender, family, and deviance.  Dr. Gregson has published on such varied topics as teenage motherhood, incarcerated women, and women’s divorce experiences.  Her book, The Culture of Teenage Mothers (SUNY Press, 2009), explores how young mothers experience and respond to the stigma associated with teenage parenthood.

Jen Lois is a sociology professor at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA.  She teaches and researches in the areas of gender, family, emotions, and heroism.  Her first book, Heroic Efforts, examined heroism, emotions, and gender in a mountain-environment search-and-rescue group (NYU Press, 2003).  In 2006 the book was honored with the Outstanding Recent Contribution Award from the American Sociological Association’s Sociology of Emotions Section.  Her second book, Home Is Where the School Is (NYU Press, 2012), is based on ten years of research with homeschooling mothers, and focuses on how homeschooling can be a way to meet the high standards of good mothering in our culture.

Sincerely, Judy, Cathy, Barbara, Leslie, Linda, and Karlene
 

Your WNBA Seattle Chapter Board Members

 

How Your Writing Can Benefit From Travel

Traveling somewhere new can widen your perspective and spark new ideas, not just in your life but in your writing. Every place I visit is an opportunity for me to study different cultures, traditions, landscapes, and even weather. Each year (finances allowing) I find a writer's retreat or workshop that I feel compelled to attend. I do my best to take in everything I can while I'm on one of these trips. It isn't just about the classroom for me. I like to go out and see the area, listen to the people, feel the climate. I absorb it all and store it away in my mind for later use in writing.

There are a few breathtaking tropical places I've been over the years and they certainly hold a special place in my heart. However, a place doesn't have to be dynamic to be memorable and useful for your writing. A few years ago the Critique Sisters and I attended a writer's workshop in Tulsa Oklahoma. I can hear you all groaning and I know you're wondering, why the heck Tulsa?! Well because that's where the fantastic William Bernhardt holds his yearly classes. Believe me, I wasn't thrilled about the venue either. But I decided to learn what I could, not just from the workshop, but from Tulsa as well.

Oklahoma is somewhere I would never visit without good reason. I'm really glad I had one. There is a lot of great history in Oklahoma. Many of the streets of Tulsa are lined with beautiful brick mansions that harken back to an era when oil was plentiful there. The Kennedy Mansion B&B (no, not those Kennedy's) we stayed in was one such house. Everyone we met was exceedingly kind and while it was windy, the weather was actually pretty mild for us. This year we're planning on our own personal retreat on Maui and I couldn't be more excited. We've opened our arms to new sisters who will be joining us this year too, which is even more exciting!

No matter where you travel to, even if it's to a local B&B, take it all in because all of it can enrich your writing. Where have you been that's helped your writing in some way?

~Heather