24. February 2010 by Gore Wehner.

The other day an old friend I hadn’t heard from in years wrote an email asking me to explain the process of getting a book published. She followed up the question with: I’m getting a divorce, so I need to get published quickly because I need an extra source of income.”

First of all…writing a book is not something one can do on a whim. It takes years of study, many failed attempts, and thousands of hours of editing and revision. Second of all, there is no such thing as getting published quickly. Even after a publishing house has accepted your work there are further edits, cover designs, marketing…a book doesn’t even make it onto the shelf for another two years. Perhaps longer if it’s a picture book. Third…very few people make much money writing books. If you add up all the time spent writing a novel and editing it, the hourly rate would be in the negatives (unless your name is Stephen King, for example).

But my friend is not alone in thinking she can pump out a book and sell it quicker than the time it would take to plan the book signing party. I come across people all the time who tell me, “I have a ton of books. They’re all in my head. As soon as I have the time, I’m going to write them and get them published.”

Really?

I wish time was the only obstacle.

The point is, having an idea is great. Wonderful, really. But without acquiring skill and hands-on practice, the book won’t amount to much more than a bunch of wrinkled paper in a drawer. You must have training.

Would you expect to pick up a guitar and strum out “Hard Day’s Night” without learning how to play it? Do you think you could do the Tango without lessons? Why would you expect to be able to write without studying the craft? There is such thing as innate talent, yes, but then that talent must be honed.

Don’t expect to write a story with little effort involved and see it on the bookshelf within the month. It won’t pay your alimony. It won’t solve your problems. But if you stick with it and work hard, your reward will be the chance to create, to invent, to become good at something that matters to you.

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20. February 2010 by Gore Wehner.

One of the questions raised in the creative writing class I teach is: how do you prevent becoming sick of your story as you revise/edit/improve it?

Excellent question. As someone on my third rewrite of the same novel…a novel I’ve spent over 300 hours  on editing alone…the only answer I have is you’d better really like your characters. I know I’m with mine more often than I am with my own friends. Which may be why I know them better than I know my own friends.

But I digress.

Here is what I do in order to plod on, despite the fact my eyes have glazed over and drool has dripped off my chin. I take one scene…just one itty-bitty scene, and plump it up. I increase the tension. I create a bigger reaction from a character. Or maybe make a reaction smaller, more subtle. I fool with it, sometimes for days, almost as if it was its own story. By taking off small bites, I can eat the whole enchilada. And sometimes give it extra spice to boot.

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4. February 2010 by Gore Wehner.

Time to sharpen your pencils.

Last night I taught my advanced creative writing class and we discussed novel/story beginnings. I read several first lines from novels I’d read (or were on my reading to-do list) and gauged my students’ reactions. The students who wrote more…er…violent stories seemed to favor the stories that promised death. The students who wrote character driven stories enjoyed sentences hinting at the person behind the voice.

As most of us know, the first sentence…and, in fact, the first paragraph…can make or break the beginning of a novel. You want to keep the reader reading. Do not bore us with heavy setting description or give us something we can’t learn from. We want to be captured and taken away immediately.

The homework assignment? Write ten different sentences you might use  to begin your novel/story with. Be clever, silly, strange. But see if you can create interest. And, when we read them back in class, we’ll see which students think what sentences are the most intriguing.

I challenge you to go back to your WIP and create ten different sentences you could use. I’ll bet you find the perfect one to begin your novel with.

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