Sharing Experiences

L&L Dreamspell just contracted for my two non-fiction books, Made-up Mayhem and Adapting Your Novel for Film. As I ready them for their debut in print, I am reminded what a good experience it was to write them in the first place.

Sharing what you've learned seems to be a integral part of the human experience, or there wouldn't be so many self help books out there, but there is a personal benefit to the experience that goes way beyond the money, IMHO.

When I first started to try to share what I'd learned, my thoughts were all over the place. Being forced to order and organize my thoughts, experiences and lessons was really good for me as a writer--and I also think it helped in my own writing. I know that thinking about my personal writing process helped me to push my own boundaries when working on the books that followed.

It also reminded me, once again, about why I write. This is such a tough business, I find I need to get back in touch with my writing roots on a regular basis.

And last, penning the books helped me to look back and see how far I've come, as an author and as a person. I don't wallow in it, because that doesn't get anything done, but I do pause to think, "Dang, I did all this."

Others besides me will also point out that non-fiction articles can help sell or at least introduce others to your fiction. Sharing what you've learned or what you are particularly good at is a win-win part of an other all career strategy.

If you're looking for what to write about, look at what excites you about writing. Have you given talks for writers' groups? If you feel passion, if you get good feedback, those topics are a good, first place to begin.

Another place to look for ideas is your own reviews. I noticed that many reviewers commented on my characters, so that's where I started. Made-up Mayhem grew out of talks and questions from writers about how I managed to ratchet up the suspense. Adapting Your Novel for Film was written, again, because of questions and advice. While there are books about there on the subject, mine is a "quick and dirty" way into the process for novelists.

If someone reads your book or books and asks, "How did you do that?" That's a good place to start sharing what you've learned. :-)

The last reason I did it was because it was the only way I had to thank all the people who helped me when I was starting out. I once heard a published author say, "Why should I train my competition?"

My answer to that question would be because craftsmen have always passed their knowledge on to those behind them. It's a time honored tradition and the right thing to do. IMHO.

And keep in mind that writers are readers. Not everyone you help will buy your books, but they will be grateful to you and that's not a bad thing. :-)

Perilously yours,
Pauline

“Why do you do that?”
“Do what?” she said, even though she knew what he meant.
He arched his brows. She felt his hand on her chin. He tipped her face up.
“Hide from them if you must, but don’t hide from me.”

Recycling....

I've been procrastinating for several months. Our chapter is putting together our second anthology and I wanted to get a story in, but life intervened and there is that procrastinating component. So, the deadline is the end of the March and there I was, with not a single word written.

In theory, puking up five to ten thousand words is possible in a month. I mean NaNo participants write whole books in a month. But that's not me. I need to time to get to know my characters.

In that dark time, just before dawn, when I typically worry at all the things I need to do during the day (and wish I wasn't), I realized I have two, perfectly good proposals that I put together for my agent some years ago (when I still had an agent). While the proposals were written to be novels, I learned when writing The Key, that you can migrate characters into new stories, if you do it early enough in the process.

So, I opened up both proposals and have started looking at them in terms of shorter stories. One will have to be changed a lot and both will have to be moved from New Orleans to Houston (the anthology is called A Death in Texas).

I might have been discouraged about giving up on the novels I'd planned to write, but I'm not. For one thing, migrating characters into short stories doesn't mean they can't be moved back into a novel.

And I'm not sure I'll ever write either novel.

When I created the proposals, they were fresh and alive in my head. While I had to come up with synopsis for both possible novels, I keep a lot of my plot in my head, because I'm an "into the mist," seat-of-the-pants writer. I'm not sure I can go back and write those books, so many years (not to mention about four books) later.

So, whether I rediscover my novels in this process or not, I'm glad these characters will get to live in a story, even if it wasn't the one I originally planned. (If you've read any Jasper Fforde, you'd realize how cruel that is!)
So, recycling doesn't have to be limited to aluminum cans and plastic bottles. Your words, your characters, your ideas can all be recycled, re-emerging onto the page better and brighter--and just in time to save the day.
Perilously yours,

Pauline

“Why would a beautiful woman choose to be a soldier?” he asked.

“Some pukes in a movie said it best," Sara said. "I joined to travel, meet new people…and kill them.”