Book Bash and weekend stuff

Happy Monday!

Today's writing day will be truncated by a trip to the vet. My perfect pup needs a checkup.

Saturday was a writerly day for me - well after I left the gym following the six and a half hours of ball hockey games I sat cheered through. First I had dinner with a very good friend who also writes. We talked about our WIPs and shared frustrations and excitements. Then I headed to the annual Book Bash - hosted by Woozles and WFNS. It was in a cool quiet hall with paintings on the walls and artistic architecture... a very creative space. Several authors who had published books got up to talk about their stories and their inspiration, including me! Then I bought books. Ha. After that I went for fancy drinks in a fancy bar with three other writerly types.

Getting out with this crowd gives me a boost, a zap of energy. There's something almost supernatural that hovers around when creative folk get together. I remember it from my high school, and it's fun when I get out to feel it again.

If you're local you should go check out Woozles... it's a cozy little bookstore tucked away downtown. Books, toys, games, stuffies, lots of kidstuff and a friendly staff that knows all about it. And if you hate parking down there like me, they now take online orders and deliver on Wednesdays - pretty cool!

N

Writing day and pseudo-review

Happy, relieved, settle-back-into-the-couch, I-made-it sigh, it's Friday.

This week seemed looooong. Not bad, not different... work went well, my kids did well, we didn't have 1000 appts, just about 100, but Monday seems like forever ago. I'm happy it's Friday.

One thing I did this week that I'd never done before is read The Fault in Our Stars. I confess, I am a bandwagon reader. I've read all the trending ones - Twilight, Hunger Games, Divergent, 50 Shades, Harry Potter (does he really count as a trend? That's just brilliance I think)... so yes, I picked up The Fault in Our Stars knowing it was 'trendy' and sad. I was skeptical because I'm not convinced that ALL of the trending books really earn the millions of readers on writing quality. That's a polite way to say it, isn't it? So I went into The Fault in Our Stars with that reservation.

I read it in three days.

I read it at work (not a good idea). I had to stop every few paragraphs to look up at the ceiling to keep my composure b/c I was expecting a client any minute.

I am a sucker for emotional books, I cry easily if it's sad. What is amazing about THIS book, though is the way it is terribly sad but not melodramatic, not tacky or manipulative or sentimental. It even pokes fun at that typical way of yanking heart strings. The kid-aged characters who are both victims of cancer are precocious and verbose but still kids, flawed, scared teenagers - not pedestal riding saints. And the love story is real.

I loved every page. It's the kind of book that makes me say, "Gee, I wish I could write like that."

So jump on the wagon and check it out.

N

The Hard Part

Writing is easy. 

I just wrote that, see? Easy. Thought to fingers, it spreads out from a word or two to a sentence to a paragraph to a story, and there you have it.

The hard parts come next. 

Second guessing each sentence - is it good? is it clear? is it interesting? is it needed? 

Editing can be painful - line up all your children and decide which one is worthy to stick around for a bit. Which one will be culled for oblivion. Which one is not smart enough, not cute enough, not funny enough. Which one works too little? which one tries too hard?

(Maybe that's a bad example 'cause if I had 100K kids it may be easier to kick some out.)

And then, the whole selling thing. 

Chapters is a lie. Not really but try to follow me anyway... When I go into Chapters there are all of these rectangular objects that SING to me "Pick me! PICK ME!" It's not quite as bad as the SPCA cat room but close. What you don't see is the behind the scenes selling to get them there... The author had to sell the story first. 

1. To him/herself - is it good enough? If you think so, zip back a couple of paragraphs and see how that works out.

2. To an editor - is it good enough? And here's the tough part, the editor's job is to say "Well, not quite here, here and here," without handing the author that tiny bottle of WIP poison.

3. To an agent / publisher - is it good enough? Cause they're the ones that make it into that rectangular object in the first place. And they have a bazillion options besides that one story. 

4. To the readers - is it good enough? Even after a story is published the marketing and promoting is just beginning. Remember Chapters with the thousands of books screaming "PICK ME!"? how do I make my book sing loudest? 

Writing is easy. I sit at my desk alone with my cat and my diet Coke and push the thoughts from my head to my fingers and the story appears. I like the quiet, the solitude, the safety. But then I have to scrutinize it without squashing all the confidence with it. And once it's out there I have to find a way to yell PICK ME above the crowds, and drawing attention to myself on purpose? Not quite part of my introverted bio. That's where the hard work starts.

N