by Sandra Gulland | Sep 28, 2012 | Adventures of a Writing Life |
{Photo: Daughter Carrie and grand-daughter Kiki.}
Fall is upon us, which means, chez nous, that the suitcases have been hauled out and long To Do and Packing lists placed on the kitchen counter. We’ve begun to prepare for the annual migration south—but this year the voyage is complicated (enriched!) by a trip to Europe immediately after Thanksgiving, a raucous and fun-filled meal for twenty-four of our nearest and dearest.
Some time ago I thought it might be nice to go to the Kingston WritersFest immediately before Thanksgiving and departure. A crazy if lovely idea—it is, after all, a great festival—but somehow I managed to catch a nasty cold. (Me: who never gets sick!)
And so I’ve decided to leave Kingston in the morning and nurse my cold at home—alas! I did attend memorable workshops by Charlotte Gill and the amazing Helen Humphreys, among others. I also finally met historical novelist Eva Stachniak (author of The Winter Palace); we’ve corresponded by e-mail and through Facebook for a very long time. Writing is a solitary vocation, and it’s wonderful to meet other writers.
A Book Report
I finished reading Canada by Richard Ford (thumbs up!), and then plunged frenetically into one-two-and-then-three books on book promotion. They are:
Make a Killing on Kindle by Michael Alvear—which I read for obvious reasons. I learned quite a bit from it, and recommend it to anyone who is publishing on Kindle.
What to do Before Your Book Launch, by M.J. Rose and Randy Susan Meyers. Excellent! I’ve been through this book-launching process four times, and I’m amazed how much I’ve forgotten. The time-table alone (what happens when) is worth the price of admission. I recommend this book for all published and to-be-published authors.
And then, if these two weren’t enough, I dove into the book promotion-wizz M.J. Rose (above) referred to as “her bible”: Publicize Your Book! by Jacqueline Deval.
I’m exhausted at the thought of all I should be doing. No wonder I came down with a cold!
by Sandra Gulland | Apr 23, 2012 | Adventures of a Writing Life |
{Photo by Jason Rosewell on Unsplash.}
The Net Promo for Luddites workshop I gave this last February at the San Miguel de Allende Writers’ Conference was recorded. It’s a wonderful service they provide. I was not only able to get the recording of my own workshop but of two workshops I hadn’t been able to attend.
One of them was C.M. Mayo‘s workshop. Catherine is not only a fantastic writer and teacher, but my go-to Tech Expert.
I had the CD, and I was able to load it into iTunes, but where to go from there? Catherine immediately emailed back simple instructions: drag file to the desktop, load into podomatic.com. Presto! Here is it:
It’s long, and I doubt that any of you will, in fact, wish to listen to it, but I’m showing it off as a technical accomplishment.
If you want to see how a pro does it: sign up for Catherine’s e-book, Podcasting for Writers. I know this e-book is going to set off creative fireworks in my soul!
by Sandra Gulland | Mar 24, 2012 | Adventures of a Writing Life |
I woke at 4:00 this morning, and went to work. I broke for one hour to have breakfast and dress, then carried on until 1:00, pushing until I’d read/edited the outstanding pages. Soon I went back to work again, revising, making changes. It’s going on 9:00 pm and I know I must stop.
Kenneth Atchitey wrote a wonderfully practical book on writing titled The Writer’s Time: Making the Time to Write. It was one of the first books I read on writing, and I heed his lessons still.
Today I was remembering what he had to say about “End Time”:
End Time is characterized by high energy flow and pressure to finish … Lock yourself up if necessary, turn off the phone, leave home, anything to allow End Time its way once you’re sure its way can lead to the end. … The rule then is: If you’re wondering whether you’re experiencing End Time, you’re not. True End Time displaces all other thoughts.
I’m forcing myself to call it a night, but I’ll be back again early, I know, determined to finish this draft (the 6th), and send it off to my editor in a few days.
The really good news is that I’m pleased with it. The novel is starting to flower, and I like that. There will be changes, no doubt — I’m haunted by a suspicion that there are critical scenes missing. There will be drafts 7 and 8 to come, and perhaps even a 9th, but it’s beginning to fill out, connect. As Robert Olen Butler would say, it thrumms.
Good night! It’s time for me to thrumm to sleep.
Update (the next day): woke at 3:00 am, to work at 4:00. Worked like a demon & sent the MS before 1:00 pm. Happy Sunday to me! Very pleased. I’d promised it to my editor by the end of this month, and delivered it ahead of schedule.
by Sandra Gulland | Nov 3, 2011 | Adventures of a Writing Life, The Shadow Queen |
Here’s what NY agent Betsy Lerner had to say about my first line:
Winter was coming – I could smell it.
I liked the simplicity here, too. We have no idea who the speaker is, who the first person narrator is, but I feel like I do. I think this simple sentence is filled with foreboding. Winter is coming, no doubt, but what else: Trouble? Pain? Violence? To me, it’s pregnant with possibility.
And so, given this and what many others had to say, I’m sticking with it. Happily, I should add. (See my post below for the alternative.)
Do check out Lerner’s blog: The Forest for the Tress. She’s irreverent, poetic, caustic, shocking and moving. Her book by that title, on writing, is also very good.
Now: back to the rest of the puzzle of The Next Novel — which I’ve now titled: This Bright Darkness.
What do you think?
by Sandra Gulland | Jun 27, 2011 | Adventures of a Writing Life |
I’ve been working hard on the revision of The Next Novel, combing out tangles—only to have new tangles emerge. There’s something at the heart of this novel that eludes me, and the more I stare at it, the more mysterious it seems.
When I get to this desperate stage, I gobble up books on writing. I must have almost one hundred now, for when I hit this wall only a new book on writing will do.
My bibles now:
The Breakout Novelist by Donald Maass.
I actually think this might well be the only book I’ll ever need, it’s so good. Maass, a NY agent, is extremely articulate on what makes a novel work. I usually ignore the writing exercises in books on writing, but these I like (and am using).
But of course, I had to get just one more book on writing, and it proved to be essential as well:
Do the Work, by Steven Pressfield (cover at the head of this post), is very short but powerful: a one-two punch on the creative process, a tremendously bracing Hang In There diatribe—just what I needed.
Someday I intend to put my short-list of fantastic books on writing on a spearate page on this blog.
But for now, I’d like to know which books you recommend.
(Other than From Where We Dream by Robert Olen Butler, which we all know is great.)
