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August 24, 2012 By 4 Comments

Creating Your Literary Ecosystem: The 6 Elements of a Fulfilling Writing Career

After forty years as an agent, here is the essence of what I believe you have to have for a fulfilling life as a writer:

Gaia, the Earth, is an ecosystem—a unique, miraculous, self-sustaining combination of elements that evolved out of each other. You can create a literary ecosystem: a balanced, organic, evolving, sustainable, inter-dependent, international, environmentally sensitive community. Your system will be unified by passion, interest, service, connection, and commerce. The six circular elements of your literary ecosystem will be

  • Products and services—as much scalable, first-rate work in your niche as you can generate in different forms and lengths that you re-purpose in other media
  • Pre-promotion–test-marketing your work in as many ways as you can
  • People—win-win relationships with engaged, committed, growing communities you serve who want to help you, because they know, like, and trust you
  • Platform–your continuing visibility, online and off, with your communities and potential buyers about your work   
  • Promotion—using your platform to share your passion for your work with your communities
  • Profit—what you need to achieve your personal and professional goals and maintain the system

Your ecosystem has to stay open to what it needs to learn from–and can contribute to–your communities, the human family, and the planet. Your system will continue to build synergy as long as you keep enriching the soil by producing content that sustains it. The importance of the six elements will vary, depending on what you write. If your mission is using words to create change, make cultivating your ecosystem a lifelong quest. You will accomplish more than you can imagine.

 

The blog aspires to help us both understand writing and publishing. To make the blog as helpful as it can be, please respond with your questions and answers. I hope you find it worth sharing.

 

Do one thing every day to make the world better .   –John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hitman

The 4th San Francisco Writing for Change Conference: Changing the World One Book at a Time

September 15, 2012 / Unitarian Universalist Center / Franklin & O’Farrell, San Francisco

Keynoters: Paul Hawken, Natural Capitalism, and Dan Millman, Way of the Peaceful Warrior

The 10th San Francisco Writers Conference / A Celebration of Craft, Commerce & Community / February 14-17, 2013 / www.sfwriters.org / sfwriterscon@aol.com /

http://sfwriters.info/blog /@SFWC/ www.facebook.com/SanFranciscoWritersConference

San Francisco Writers University / Where Writers Meet and You Learn

Laurie McLean, Dean/free classes/www.sfwritersu.com/sfwritersu@gmail.com/@SFWritersU

415-673-0939 / 1029 Jones Street / San Francisco, 94109

 

 

 

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Filed Under: Getting a Book Published, San Francisco Writers Conference, Writing Fiction, Writing for Change, Writing Nonfiction Tagged With: , ,

You and We the People: Writing for Change

July 4, 2012 By 12 Comments

One lazy man is called a disgrace, two lazy men are called a law firm, and three or more a congress.

John Adams in the musical 1776

Although America’s follies and problems approach in size and gravity its potential and stature, the United States is the best and greatest country the world has ever had. The signing of the Declaration of Independence is worthy of celebration, if only to remind us of how unlikely an enterprise America was at its birth, how remarkable its vision of America, and our role in keeping its ideals alive.

On the morning of America’s birthday, I want to recommend a speech and a musical comedy for you to watch. One may change your mind, the other your life. The first is a talk by John Perkins, author of Hit Man: An Economic Hit Man Reveals Why the World Financial Markets Imploded–an What We Need to Do to Remake Them. You can watch it at www.c-spanvideo.org. Perkins says that despite corporate bribes and paralyzing partisanship, we, as citizens, can determine America’s future.

America is a centrist country, but politicians and the public usually hear more from zealots at the ends of the political spectrum, rather than the middle. Parkins asked his audience to do one thing every day to make the world better, an idea as powerful as it is simple. More than ever before, writers have the opportunity, not just to make a living, but to make a difference. It’s easier than ever for the right idea and the right book to change the world, and the Internet enables you reach the world with your fingertips.

Perkins said that when Rachel Carson sat down at her small desk in her Pennsylvania home to write about how DDT was harming the planet, she had no idea that she would write The Silent Spring, a bestseller that became a classic that liberated the world from DDT and started the international environmental movement.

Whether you write fiction, nonfiction, or poetry, your passion and your gift for portraying the challenges we face, and proposing solutions, can make a difference. Knowing how big a difference you can make is impossible, but it’s much greater than you think.

How about writing and signing you own declaration of independence from whatever is keeping you from becoming the best, most creative and productive person you were born to be and that only you can be? Free yourself from beliefs, people, and activities that waste your resources, but don’t help you achieve your goals. That will be something for you to celebrate every day.

A revolution won is a revolution lost. When people believe there’s nothing more to fight for and just enjoy the fruits of victory, they begin to lose what was so costly to win. The only way to win a revolution is to keep striving to keep its ideals alive, especially at a time of political impasse, accelerating change, and the growing urgency of the problems we face. Our hyper-connected planet has only one economy and only one family: the human family. As Benjamin Franklin warned, we have to hang together, or we will hang separately.

For America to work, we have to do what we must to keep the vision of the Declaration of Independence alive and perpetually strive to fulfill its dream of a free, independent, thriving country, united by the compromises needed to balance contrary beliefs.

Every 4th of July, Elizabeth and I watch 1776, a Tony-winning  musical about the signing of the Declaration of Independence that has important lessons we ignore at our peril. The show brings to life the remarkable but all-too-human men who made it possible.  The show captures how divided and ineffective Congress was at its birth, how one vote made the difference, and the disastrous compromise on slavery required to make America possible despite overwhelming odds.

No matter where you are in your life or your writing career, remember Anne Frank’s words: “It’s never too late to start doing the right thing.” America’s only hope is to remain a revolution in progress that we keep alive with our efforts. Have a happy 5th. 

 

The 4th San Francisco Writing for Change Conference: Changing the World One Book at a Time will take place September 15th at the Unitarian Universalist Center, Geary & Franklin Streets, www.sfwritingforchange.org.

The goal of the blog is to help you and me understand writing and publishing. Rants, comments, questions, and answers needed to make the blog more helpful.

The 4th San Francisco Writing for Change Conference:

Changing the World One Book at a Time

September 15, 2012 / Unitarian Universalist Center / Franklin & O’Farrell, San Francisco

The 10th San Francisco Writers Conference / A Celebration of Craft, Commerce & Community / February 14-17, 2013 / www.sfwriters.org / sfwriterscon@aol.com /

http://sfwriters.info/blog /@SFWC/ www.facebook.com/SanFranciscoWritersConference

San Francisco Writers University / Where Writers Meet and You Learn / Laurie McLean, Dean/free classes/www.sfwritersu.com/sfwritersu@gmail.com/@SFWritersU

415-673-0939 / 1029 Jones Street / San Francisco, 94109

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Filed Under: San Francisco Writers Conference, San Francisco Writing for Change Conference, Writing Fiction, Writing for Change, Writing Nonfiction Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

D & N: The Chain of Endless Inspiration for Writers

May 14, 2012 By 4 Comments

What is essential is invisible to the eye.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Desires and needs.

We are a blend of nature and nurture, but also of what we want and need. Don’t people’s needs and desires, and how they try to satisfy them, tell you and your readers the essentials of what you need to know about them? Because D & N are unique and universal, portrait and portent, they can create and convey character. People are what they want, as well as what they do and say.

What are people’s lives but the stories of how they pursue their D & N? These  stories are  characters’ literary DNA, the blueprint of their real or imagined lives and a source of endless inspiration.

We are all born with the same basic needs. We prisoners of them. But, just as mistakes are the ornaments of freedom, desires are the ornaments of our lives. They’re what we add to needs to help make life worth living. Footwear is necessary; Jimmy Choo’s are optional.

And yet, D & N make us running around in circles like hamsters on a wheel. The moment of satisfaction may either end a need or desire, or only subdue it, in which case, it’s the beginning of a renewed need or desire, perhaps for something different, if not better.  Is this The Human’s Journey, and when we return from each quest, we bring back new knowledge about our D & N and how to satisfy them.

To be a successful writer, writing must be a need. To be as good a writer as you can be, make getting the words right a compelling desire. To be a successful author, you must know:

what your literary and publishing desires are

what you want to write and for whom

how you can satisfy the needs and desires of publishers and book buyers

how you want your books published

how well you want them to sell.

Your goals determine what you write, how you write it, for whom, and the platform and promotion you need.  Your goals determine who you become, so choose them wisely and change them when necessary. May your goals always inspire your best efforts.

 

The goal of the blog is to help you and me understand writing and publishing. Rants, comments, questions, and answers are needed to make the blog as helpful as I want it to be.

Just Announced:

The 4th San Francisco Writing for Change Conference

Changing the World One Book at a Time

September 15, 2012 / Unitarian Universalist Center / Geary & Franklin, San Francisco

The 10th San Francisco Writers Conference / A Celebration of Craft, Commerce & Community / February 14-17, 2013 / www.sfwriters.org / sfwriterscon@aol.com /

http://sfwriters.info/blog /@SFWC/ www.facebook.com/SanFranciscoWritersConference

San Francisco Writers University / Where Writers Meet and You Learn / Laurie McLean, Dean/free classes/www.sfwritersu.com/sfwritersu@gmail.com/@SFWritersU

415-673-0939 / 1029 Jones Street / San Francisco, 94109

 

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Filed Under: San Francisco Writers Conference, San Francisco Writing for Change Conference, Writing Fiction, Writing for Change, Writing Nonfiction Tagged With: ,

4 Keys to Guaranteeing the Success of Your Book

May 1, 2012 By 1 Comment

On publication day, because your book is new, it’s news. Books are on bookstore shelves, reviews start to appear, and you begin carrying out your promotion plan, which includes arousing media interest. Writing, publishing, bookselling, reviewing, and marketing are migrating online, but publishing is a hybrid business that requires your best efforts online and off.

Depending on your publisher’s commitment, your book may have a launch window as short as two weeks, after which your publisher will focus on the next book on its list. Your goal is to help generate enough sales momentum for your book to sustain the interest of booksellers, the media, and your publisher. You need to be visible in as many ways and places as possible, online and off. Visibility is not a spigot you can turn on because you need it. You have to prepare for your book’s launch window by maximizing its value before you publish it or sell it to a publisher.

Here are four simultaneous, overlapping ways to guarantee the success of your book that you must integrate for maximum impact:

  1. Write the best book you can. Only books that fulfill their promise succeed.
  2. Test-market your book  in as many ways as you can to prove it works, including a blog, videos, podcasts, a website, talks, teaching, articles, self-publishing, and media interviews.
  3. Build your platform–your continuing visibility with potential buyers, online and off, on the subject of your book or the kind of book you’re writing.
  4. Crowdsource your success by building win-win relationships with engaged communities of people who want to help you, because they know, like, and trust you: writers, fans, mentors, techies, bloggers and other media people, reviewers, booksellers, and key people in your field.

Technology forces publishing to reinvent itself. Before the Internet, books were the beginning of the information stream. Writers wrote them; publishers published them; and whatever happened–usually nothing–happened. Then writers wrote their next book. Because it keeps getting harder for publishers to launch writers, for new authors, the system is broken.

Now, books have to be the end of the information stream. The only time to publish your book, or sell it to a publisher, is when you have met the four challenges above as well as you can. This is only way to get the best editor, publisher, and deal for your book or ensure it sells, if you keep  publishing your edition. Sell enough copies, and publishers will find you.

Although a publisher can add great value to a book, technology empowers you to control as much of the process as you wish. If your book delivers enough value to your readers, social media guarantees bestsellerdom no matter who publishes it. If you’ve got the goods, technology makes it faster and easier than ever to become a successful writer. Good luck!

 

The goal of the blog is to help you and me understand writing and publishing. Rants, comments, questions, and answers most appreciated.

Just Announced: The 4th San Francisco Writing for Change Conference

Changing the World One Book at a Time

September 15, 2012 / Unitarian Universalist Center / Geary & Franklin, San Francisco

The 10th San Francisco Writers Conference / A Celebration of Craft, Commerce & Community / February 14-17, 2013 / www.sfwriters.org / sfwriterscon@aol.com /

http://sfwriters.org/blog /@SFWC/ www.facebook.com/SanFranciscoWritersConference /

San Francisco Writers University / Where Writers Meet and You Learn / Laurie McLean, Dean/free classes/www.sfwritersu.com/sfwritersu@gmail.com/@SFWritersU /

415-673-0939 / 1029 Jones Street / San Francisco, 94109

 

 

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Filed Under: Getting a Book Published, San Francisco Writers Conference, Writing Fiction, Writing for Change, Writing Nonfiction

A Shameless Guide to the Joys of Not Writing

April 10, 2012 By 1 Comment

Weeding is the flossing of gardening. It’s essential, but it only encourages them. Elizabeth and I visited our friends, Denny and Diana, in Vacaville for the Easter weekend. We dyed five dozen Easter eggs and spent time with them and their kids and grand kids. 

We also ate too much. We went to Murillo’s, an excellent Mexican restaurant, off Highway 80 across from the outlet mall. Diana makes a killer chocolate cheesecake with a recipe created by Elizabeth’s mother Rita. Denny and I crushed the Oreo Cookies, with filling, for the crust. (Baking tip: the 100-calorie package of Oreos doesn’t have the filling.)

I pruned calla lilies and pulled weeds in Denny and Diana’s beautiful garden, immersive jobs that, like writing, are flow experiences that make me forget about anything else by forcing me to concentrate on doing the best job I can. Like editing, weeding is also purgative: taking away what doesn’t add to the effect you wish to create.

Just as silence helps gives music its value, having time away from the laptop makes me appreciate that not writing is as important as writing. Time away gives you the chance to

  • Come up with ideas for your work
  • Let your subconscious help you solve writing problems
  • Give yourself time away from your work so you can return to it with fresh eyes
  • Let yourself be stimulated by new surroundings, people, and ideas
  • Try new things
  • Meet challenges presented by what you’re doing

Even if you don’t have the luxury of leaving town, visiting other parts of where you live will give you time away from work, especially if you have the strength not to peek at your smart phone. San Francisco is a city of inviting neighborhoods, each with its own character. Since the city’s independent bookstores have miraculously survived the chains, many neighborhoods have an indies worth visiting.

Progress didn’t stop in my absence. There was a story in the Vacaville Reporter about Google’s chic glasses that will be a tablet you wear. I returned to find a story in the San Francisco Chronicle about a flying car that can land at 5,000 airports, and the online prediction that in five years, Barnes & Noble, like Radio Shack and Best Buy, will be gone.  

Just another weekend on the accelerating path to an unknowable but limitless future that gives you ever more to write about. Meanwhile, doing anything you love will help your writing. Variety will spice up your work. Taking time to develop all of your potential as a human being will make you a better writer.

 

The goal of the blog is to help you and me understand writing and publishing. Rants, comments, questions, and answers most appreciated.

The 10th San Francisco Writers Conference/A Celebration of Craft, Commerce & Community / February 14-17, 2013/www.sfwriters.org / sfwriterscon@aol.com / http://sfwriters.org/blog /@SFWC/ www.facebook.com/SanFranciscoWritersConference

San Francisco Writers University / Where Writers Meet and You Learn / Laurie McLean, Dean/free classes/www.sfwritersu.com/sfwritersu@gmail.com/@SFWritersU

415-673-0939 / 1029 Jones Street / San Francisco, 94109

 

 

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Feedback on the Page: How to Give Feedback in a Writing Group

March 13, 2012 By 2 Comments

Our thanks to Vicki Hudson for the following handout from her session at the San Francisco Writers Conference about how to give feedback in a writing workshop:

In a writing workshop or critique group, the reader has an important partnership with the writer. The writer hands over pages that represent his or her heart, soul, blood, sweat, tears, hopes and dreams to the reader. The reader’s part is to provide feedback and constructive criticism that will support the writer in improving the final product of his/her hard work.

What if you don’t like the work? What if you hate the story? What if you can’t find anything redeeming in the main character that you can relate to in your own life? None of that matters. Because it is not about you or about the writer, it is about the words on the page, the movement of the story, the flow of events, the development of the characters, and more.

Tools for Feedback

Tools for providing written feedback:

First read the story without critical thought. Just read it through like any story or article you might pick up. Then sit with it for a few moments. Turn it over in your thoughts.

  • What remains when you put the pages down?
  • What are you still curious about at the end?
  • What question pops up for you or what unexpected turn of events makes you chuckle?
  • What are you still curious about?
  • Nothing? Well, that is also important.

After you’ve read and then sat with the piece for a few moments, get ready to read it again. This time, you’ll make comments. Just don’t use that red pen. Red is a loaded color for many writers. Returning the poor writer to freshman English is not a positive experience. Write comments in the margins (writers: make sure to have one inch margins all around) and use the space between lines for recommended language (writers: double space your lines).

What to write about? That’s a long list that includes plot, dialogue, scene, summary, balance of scene and summary, character development, timing, cadence, pace, transitions, technique, point of view, perspective, humor, seriousness, and emotional impact…

Time and Language

If you don’t know where to begin, start with time.

  • What is the chronological pace of the piece?
  • Does that chronological pace make sense?
  • Is it confusing?
  • Does it carry the reader or create obstacles for the reader?
  • Why? (Get used to answering why. Why is a big part of what works or what doesn’t work regardless of what you write about.)

If not time, look at language. Are there phrases that really stand out? Lines that grab and pull the reader into the piece, stopping time and space for the reader or lines that bring the reader back to reality, breaking the hold of the story? Highlight, underline or circle the lines that strike you as bold, chilling, hot, fevered, delicious, enticing, inciting…(you can fill in more).

Look critically not personally. You can find stuff that you like. Zeroing in on something that didn’t work for you, that you didn’t like, or weren’t comfortable with, or didn’t sound right in your head or feel right in your heart when you read the words is vitally important. Why was that your response? And some of that stuff may actually be the gem of the piece. Dive into the dark waters of discomfort.

Editors Edit

A word about editing: Editors edit. Unless you have a pet peeve about a grammatical mistake, and the writer keeps hitting the one thing you hate – leave the copyedits to someone else, down the food chain of the writer’s progress. When she/he has the story at the place where mechanical aspects are crucial – it won’t be a piece brought to workshop for copyediting by committee.

Remember what your mother said, watch your language.

A writer has given you the honor of helping him/her hone the craft. Take that seriously. Be nice. Be truthful. Be honest. Give feedback in a manner that you would hope feedback will come to you. Use real words, not labels, or code because those terms (politically correct/incorrect, clichés, trite, culturally descriptive words that end in ist or ism) mean different things to different people, so define the response you experienced that you want to shorthand by using those terms.

You’ll have comments along the margins, but the meat of your feedback is at the end of the piece or on a separate page.

A four part formula to keep in mind

1. Start with positive comments.

What works well, quote back language, strong character development, solid pacing or cadence – anything you can say that is positive. If you can’t find something positive, look again at language, chronology, or answering what emotions the piece creates for you.

2. Ask questions.

What created a question in your mind? “I felt this at this part. Is that what you wanted to create?” for example.

3. Give constructive feedback about what didn’t work.

What are the areas for improvement in which you encountered an obstacle?

4. Sum up again something that was really positive, that you really liked and a general good point for the writer to remember.

Then sign your name, because when you do, you are saying you stand by what you are saying. You are giving the writer your truth of experiencing his/her story. Take pride in your feedback making a difference.

The simple truth of being part of a writers group or workshop is some people have useful, helpful information to give in feedback, others won’t. Some will just want to hear themselves talk or show off their “wisdom and experience.” You learn over time which members will have something to offer that is worthwhile and who will not. Which comments are worth reading and which to disregard. Be the reader people want to hear from.

(This handout is available online at http://www.scribd.com/Vicki%20Hudson)

(A free download of the book No Red Pen, Writers, Writers Groups, and Critique is available at smashwords.com using the coupon: KL78N which is valid until March 15, 2012.)

 

Vicki Hudson P.O. Box 387 Hayward, CA 94543 510-200-8749 ©2010 Victoria.a.hudson@gmail.com www.vickihudson.com www.throwrockpaperscissors.com

T/@vickigeist, @Vicki_Hudson

 

The goal of the blog is to help you and me understand writing and publishing. Rants, comments, questions, and answers most appreciated.

The 10th San Francisco Writers Conference/A Celebration of Craft, Commerce & Community / February 14-17, 2013/www.sfwriters.org / sfwriterscon@aol.com / http://sfwriters.org/blog /@SFWC/ www.facebook.com/SanFranciscoWritersConference

San Francisco Writers University / Where Writers Meet and You Learn / Laurie McLean, Dean/free classes/www.sfwritersu.com/sfwritersu@gmail.com/@SFWritersU

415-673-0939 / 1029 Jones Street / San Francisco, 94109

 

 

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Filed Under: Writing Fiction, Writing for Change, Writing Nonfiction Tagged With: , , ,
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