Write That Book – Week 7 – Proposals and Agents
On February 28, 2012 · In Getting Published, Rewriting and Editing, The Writing Coach, Writing for Children
Welcome to week seven of Write That Book. If you’ve just stumbled upon this blog, weeks one to six, covering getting started, characters, plot and editing may also be of use to you.
Once you’ve finished your manuscript and have rewritten it many, many times and copy-edited it meticulously, you will need to find an agent or a publisher. I’ll deal with why you need an agent below (and in some cases you don’t), but first, titles.
Book Titles
Book titles are very important. They say a lot about a book. Some writers find titles easy, for others it’s like pulling teeth. And it can differ with every book.
In the world of popular fiction/romantic comedy, I’ve always liked Katie Fforde’s titles: Thyme Out, Practically Perfect, Highland Fling. Maeve Binchy’s titles are also excellent – simple and catchy – Tara Road, Nights of Rain and Stars, Circle of Friends.
On the children’s side, I’ve always loved the quirky Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret as a title. It shouldn’t work, but it does. How to Train Your Dragon, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Under the Hawthorne Tree, Ballet Shoes, Skulduggery Pleasant, Artemis Fowl – all fantastic, memorable…
Welcome to Write That Book, the free eight week online writing course. If you’ve missed weeks one to five, covering getting started, characters, plot and lots more, it might be helpful to read them first.
This week we’ll be taking about editing. Once you’ve finished the first draft, then comes the hard bit, the edits and the rewrites. Yes, plural. The first draft is just the beginning. Have patience. Rewrites make the difference between a published writer and an unpublished writer.
Before you even think of sending your book out to an agent or to a publisher, you must make it as good as you possibly can. Some people are excellent at editing their own work, others need help. Here is how I edit a manuscript before it goes anywhere near my agent or editor:
I print out the whole manuscript, read it and make notes as I go along in a (yellow) notebook. If you read this blog on a regular basis, you’ll know that I’m addicted to yellow legal pads.
Some authors suggest waiting a little while before reading. William Trevor puts his writing in a drawer for a year before taking it out to work on it again, and although it…
Welcome to week 5 of Write That Book. If you’re new to the blog, I’d recommend reading weeks 1 to 4 first. This week are are talking about motivation.
Sometimes writers get to around 30k or 40k words and then they hit a wall. They say ‘There is so much more to write, so much more work involved, I don’t think I can do this.’ It’s important to note that all writers have off days or weeks, published or unpublished, and it’s important to develop a ‘writing habit’ if you want to finish a whole book. As Clare Dowling says in this week’s excellent writing tips (below) ‘writing is a craft and the best way to learn it is to practice.’
But how do you stay motivated?
All writers find writing a book tough going. The average novel is 100,000 words long after all. I often hit a difficult patch roughly half way through a book, knowing that I still have a lot of work ahead of me. It’s perfectly normal to feel a bit overwhelmed at any stage of the writing process. You are writing a book after. And if you are a huge reader like me, you have…
Welcome to week four of Write That Book. So far we have covered motivation and getting started, genre, ideas and creating characters. This week we will talk about ‘plot’, or story.
The first question I am always asked regarding plot is how do you come up with a story in the first place, and the second question is how do you plan a book, and indeed, should you plan at all?
I’ll answer the second question first – there is no right or wrong way of plotting a book. Many writers – the crime writer James Lee Burke for example – never use plot outlines. They just write blind. At the other extreme the author Jeffrey Deavers outlines are almost as long as his books, and J K Rowling spent months planning each Harry Potter book carefully. For most people, plotting is a process of trial and error and it may take a while to find what suits you as a writer. Using a plot outline is a method that works for many writers starting out.
What’s a plot outline?
A plot outline is simply an outline of how your story is going to progress. There’s no need to stick rigidly to your…
- My Latest Book (UK, Sept)
So now we’ve reached week 3. The question is, have you been doing your homework? Good! If you’ve just joined us, it’s probably best to read weeks one and two before going any further.
In week 1 we dealt with motivation and starting to write, then we covered ideas and settings in week 2. This week we are dealing with characters. If you cannot write vivid, believable characters, then you cannot write good fiction, it’s as simple as that. Characters that linger in the mind long after you’ve read the last page make a book truly memorable. Think of Rachel Walsh in Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes, a highly flawed character, but a character readers identify with; or Bridget Jones in Helen Fielding’s wonderfully funny book (and film). Like her or loathe her, Bridget certainly continues to touch a universal nerve.
Creating believable characters is one of the most exciting and rewarding elements of being a writer. To write great characters you must know them as well as you know yourself. In her excellent book, From Pitch to Publication, agent Carole Blake says ‘To…
Welcome to week two of Write That Book. This week we will talk a little more about ‘genre’ and also ideas and where they come from.
If you missed week one (and I’d recommend reading it before you go any further – you can find it on this blog), we talked about motivation, making the time to write, and ‘genre’, or the kind of book you’d like to write, for example: romance, romantic comedy, family/relationship drama, historical fiction, saga, crime, thriller, science fiction or fantasy. These are pretty broad genres and within each one there can be many sub-genres, like paranormal romance (Twilight). This course is useful for anyone who would like to write a book, but is most especially suited to those who are interested in writing popular fiction. I have published ten popular fiction novels, the latest being The Shoestring Club (out on 1st February in Ireland, UK in September), as well as many children’s books, so it’s a genre I know well.
While you are thinking about book ideas this week (more on that in a second), I would also advise you to get reading the best novels in your chosen genre, the award winners, the ‘word…
Want to finally write that book you’ve been talking about for years? Then read on. For the next eight weeks I’ll be telling you how and, best of all, it’s absolutely free. From getting started, to creating characters, inventing plots, and how to catch an agent or publisher’s eye, I’ll try to cover everything you need to know about the book world. My tenth adult novel, The Shoestring Club has recently been published in Ireland (Sept in UK) and after over a decade of writing and publishing books I’d like to share some of that knowledge with you. And maybe once you’re published you’ll pass on what you know to other new writers. Just think of me as your own personal Writing Coach!
So without further ado . . .
Week 1: Getting Started
It’s terrifying, isn’t it, staring at a blank sheet of paper or a blank computer screen? The writer Gene Fowler once said ‘Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.’
That’s where I come in. Over the next few weeks I’ll try to demystify the writing process and help you find your writing…
I made three writing resolutions this week which I’d like to share with you:
1/ To put 100% into my work every single day. To hold nothing back for another day or another book. To use it all, straight away.
One of my favourite writing quotations on the topic of putting everything into your writing every day is this gem from the American writer, Annie Dillard:
One of the things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water. Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.
Annie Dillard, The Writing Life
She’s so right.
2/ To write scenes…
Archives
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
