Words on the Page

A Primer for Clients

Posted on by lwidmer

Dear Clients, I love you. Yes, I do. I love that you have faith in me to deliver your project your way. You know I’m bending over backwards to make you happy, right? No? Well, I am. It’s not just my job – it’s something I take seriously. However lately, dear clients, I’m not feeling…

I Surrender

Posted on by lwidmer

That would be a white flag I’m waving. I’m giving up, and it’s only Tuesday morning. After losing those two great regular jobs this month, I was hopeful because here came a new client just on the heels of the old one leaving (literally seven minutes between their emails). As you read yesterday, I was…

Meet the Author: Colin Galbraith

Posted on by lwidmer

What a nice way to end the week; I’m pleased as all get-out to introduce my readers and friends to a truly neat individual. Colin Galbraith, whom I first met in a cyber way (and yet to meet in a real-time way) about 5 years ago. Details of our first acquaintance are iffy – it…

Random Wastes of Time

Posted on by lwidmer

Don’t you hate when you spend time crafting a killer query sure to attract attention only to find out the employer failed to fill you in on the most critical details? Like last week, I spent some quality writing time answering an ad that passed my BS Litmus Test (or BLT). The test parameters: 1….

Where is the Love?

Posted on by lwidmer

Riddle me this, Batman – if you’re a salesperson and you come upon someone who isn’t buying what you’re selling, what do you do? Do you A) automatically turn off the sales pitch, the charm, and leave that person standing? Or do you B) continue to treat that someone as though he or she is…

Fake It Until You Make It

Posted on by lwidmer

Having once survived a divorce, I picked up a little mantra we divorcing people repeated to deal with the onslaught of divorce-related depression: Fake it until you make it. Fake like you’re okay until that day when you wake up and don’t want to stay in bed. Paste that smile on your face until the…

Monthly Assessment – May

Posted on by lwidmer

Many thanks again to Devon Ellington (aka Jenny Storm) for spending time last week with us answering writing and publishing questions and sharing her process with us. If you have any more questions, you’re free to ask them here or visit her on her blog. Another month, another assessment of how things went. May was…

The Vendor-Client Relationship: Real World Style

Posted on by lwidmer

Many thanks to our own Copywriting Maven for sharing with me this hysterical video. If you’ve ever wondered if you’re doing the right thing in sticking by your price, wonder no more:

Guest Post: Pulling it Together

Posted on by lwidmer

Today, a mid-week treat for you: I’m thrilled to have Jenny Storm (also known as our own Devon Ellington), author if Dixie Dust Rumors, give us a primer on her novel-writing process. Many thanks to Jenny for sharing her tips and insights with us! It starts with characters that appear and lead her to the…

Jenny Storm

Thanks so much for being such a lovely hostess!

Lori

Thanks for offering your expertise, hon! We’re pleased to have it!

Lori

Actually, I had a question – what made you decide to e-publish? What advantages would writers have over traditional publishing?

Jenny Storm

I wanted to see how life was in the new technology. I think there’s room for both print and epublishing, and I’m investigating the pros and cons of each.

Some of the pros of epublishing are that the houses are smaller, which means there’s more individualized attention. The turnaround time from acceptance to publication is also faster. You’re not dealing with production teams and print houses and shipping books, etc. The production process is quicker; the book gets out there quicker; and, when the customer purchases the book, it is downloaded immediately and the customer can start reading. You don’t have to wait for it to ship.

On the minus side, there’s still some stigma attached to ePublishing, that it’s not ‘as good” as print. There are plenty of authors in print who aren’t to my taste, and plenty of authors in digital-only markets who are great.

Also, again, because the houses are so small, even more the marketing burden is on the writer than there is at traditional houses.

How it shakes out financially is yet to be seen — I won’t know until I’ve got a couple of royalty statements.

I’m also curius as to whether children’s/YA fiction sells well in digital. The work I publish for adult sells well, but I’m curious as to the difference in numbers between adult and YA markets.

That’s a topic we can revisit in a year or so, when I’ll have some personal numbers to compare.

Kristen King

Great article, Jenny. I love the way you describe your process of finding and developing stories. Something I struggle with is plot. I write awesome dialogue, but I have a heck of a time finding a plot to hang it on. Any suggestions?

Kristen

Jenny Storm

Kristen, in the first draft, I trust my characters, and they lead me with dialogue. DIXIE DUST was a little different, because the plot formed with the characters, but usually my first drafts read more like plays than novels.

When I re-read them, I start seeing themes emerge, and then I pick the action that either supports or contradicts the themes.

I keep asking, “Why are we with these characters at this particular moment in their lives? What is pivotal about being here NOW?” and the plot emerges from that.

It has to be an important moment for them (or series of moments) in order to work dramatically.

But I usually work first from character and let the plot emerge, then shape it in subsequent drafts.

Georganna Hancock M.S.

Do you ever work with character charts and plot lines, detailed before the actual writing?

JudyB

I think I remember reading just a couple of days ago that you were thinking of writing another story for Rose even though Dixie Dust Rumors was written as a stand-alone. Now you’ve broken the news that you’re working on DEAD MAN’S STALL. When and how did you make that decision? Is it etched in stone? (I hope so. Sounds great.)

Jenny Storm

Georganna, if I write too much ABOUT the characters before I write the book, I lose them. I’ll often make plot notes, write a few chapters, and then figure out the rest of the book. I very rarely write much about the characters — I get to know them through the writing process, like I’d get to know a real person over a period of time spent together.

For series, I do keep detailed character and plot bibles, and update them once a final proof has gone off, and refer frequently to them while I write the next book.

Judy, yes, DIXIE DUST was conceived as a stand alone, but I got the idea for DEAD MAN’S STALL, so I’ve started that — fingers crossed my publisher likes it!

Sir John

When you establish your characters, do you imagine them as friends or people you know. Do you ever post photos of people from magazines, etc. to help you visualize what they look like?

Colin

Hi Lori and Jenny – great post!

Jenny, was Dixie Dust Rumors written straight onto the PC, or was this a long-hand story that eventually worked into electronic form?

Carrie Wilson Link

I appreciate the info. on e-publishing, thank you!

Kristen King

Thanks, Jenny, that’s really helpful!

Kristen

Jenny Storm

Sir John, because I worked for over 20 years in theatre and film, I don’t use photos for character references. I’m very aware of the difference between the actor as a human being and the actor as a character. If I’m writing a play or script for a specific actor (someone I know and work with), I take the actor’s cadence and physicality into consideration, but otherwise, no.

I’ve lived in the dressing room through too many incidents where people objectify actors and can’t separate them from the characters they play. I try not to objectify them the same way when I write (even if they never know it).

Characters seem like real people when I write them; I know them and get to know them through the process, so I don’t need photographs.

As I mentioned above, I do keep physical notes on characters for series, so that I can remain consistent project-to-project, especially juggling multiple projects.

Sometimes a real person will serve as an inspiration for a character, but, when I do my job properly, the character evolves into an individual very different from the inspiration.

Colin, although I often do first drafts in longhand, DIXIE DUST was one of the first pieces done directly on the computer. (And it was a PC at the time — just got the mac!)

Susan Johnston

Devon, I’m curious how you adapt your writing style for middle grades vs. young adult vs. adult fiction. Do you ever find yourself writing something that might be too complex for younger readers or does it come naturally to you?

Irreverent Freelancer

I wonder how much of yourself finds its way into your fiction? Like the news story you mention, I’ll often read something and think, “This would make for good exploration for a story.” But I also find that my own life is so fascinating that I don’t really need to manufacturer ideas.

Lori

These are great questions! Devon, thanks so much for agreeing to hang around and answer q’s. It’s great hearing about the process from the inside.

Jenny Storm

Susan, because I write from character, the style for the age range stems from that. IE, DIXIE DUST is written in first person through Rose’s eyes, and she’s kind of a young twelve, emotionally, at any rate. If I was using the same plot elements for an adult story, I’d tell it either as Rose remembering it as an adult, or through one of the adults — her dad, Sophie, or maybe even the jockey — and the style would reflect that.

Even when I write in 3rd person, the character who drives the story affects the style.

Kathi, again, I write from characters who are distinct individuals. There’s a bit of me in everyone, including the villains — LOL — but they evolve into their own people. Because I usually get the idea for the character first and the character starts “telling” me the story, it’s the character’s story, not mine. Often, they’ll have some of my knowledge or charactertistics, or something I believe deeply. Loyalty and building family, two things that are important to me, tend to be recurring themes.

What’s great about being a writer is that anything we experience on any level becomes material. Sometimes, I’ll look back at something I wrote several years ago and realize how something in my life affected the course of the piece in a way I didn’t realize during the writing.

but I don’t write autobiography masked as fiction. If I want to write about my life — I’ve got the blog! 😉