FAQs on Writing and Publishing for Beginners:

Q: Why isn't my book being published when x book was, and it's a lot worse?

A: I have always believed that if you are truly better, you will be published. Maybe not this week or even this year, but if you keep sending things around, an agent or editor will find you. Believe me, they are always looking for good writers.

Also every bad book out there has a reason it is published and selling well. You might do well to figure out what it is, and do it--better.

Q: How do you make time to write?

A: I get asked this a lot because I have five children ages 5-14, and I've been writing seriously since I was pregnant with my oldest. I wrote through pregnancies (and mine are miserable with depression), through financial hard times, through Christmas and New Year and birthdays, and through the death of a child. I need to write, I think. I feel like in the life of a stay-at-home mom, it was important for me to have something that was permanent at the end of each day, to prove to myself and to the world that I mattered. I woke up at 4 a.m. eight months pregnant to write sometimes (I don't stay up late because my brain turns to mush at 10--I'm a morning person). I woke up sleeping babies to synchronize naptime so that I would have an hour to myself every day.

Not all writers I know are driven this way, but most are. Otherwise they would be able to keep normal jobs and not care how their time was used, so long as they were paid. Maybe what I describe isn't something that you can manage. That's fine. You're not a bad person if you need more than five hours of sleep at night. But everyone can take ten minutes a day and write something. One page. If that's all you can do, it's still three hundred plus pages at the end of the year. That's a novel. Not one you can sell, maybe. But it's a start.

Q: What are your writing habits?

A: I have always written during naptime. I'm very fierce about protecting my writing time. I don't take phone calls during that time, and I don't let people talk me into volunteering at school, or anything else, no matter how noble. I also don't do the laundry, dishes, or any other housework that needs doing. When I go into my office and close the door, it is my time for me and my stories.

I set a goal for myself of 3,000 words a day and keep at it until I am finished, when working on a new manuscript. When editing, I will sometimes set a goal of getting through an editor's comments on 15 pages a day or something like that. But if I'm working on a knotty problem, I also give myself permission to take the time that problem needs.

Q: How do I know when a manuscript is finished and I should send it to someone?

A: When you find yourself taking out a single word here or there, it's probably time to get a fresh perspective. Or if you have time, set it aside for a few months, and take it out to read again then. This doesn't necessarily mean that it's ready to be published, though, only that you can't figure out what's wrong with it. If you can still see a problem with a character's motivation, or a weak spot in the plot, or if you know that a certain scene is wrong--then don't send it out. Always make it the best you can before you let anyone else read it. Because it's utterly unfair, if someone else has gone to the effort of reading your entire manuscript, to say to them after their critique--I knew that already. If you knew it already . . .

Q: How do I know when I should give up?

A: I'm going with my Winston Churchill answer here: "Never, never, never give up." If you want to be a writer, write. No one can stop you. Being published is a nice prize, but just like the winner of the marathon isn't the only runner out there, you should take pride in finishing a manuscript just like someone training for a marathon takes pride in finishing a long run. It was hard work. And it has a value all its own, unrelated to winning any race. It makes you stronger.

As to giving up on a particular manuscript, I have tried to do it many times with many novels. Some stay dead and some won't stay dead. I haven't necessarily sold those that I want to resurrect, but I keep thinking they're just not quite good enough yet. Someday . . .

Q: Should I be part of a critique group?

A: Critique groups can be great. Fresh eyes all the time. Except when they stop being fresh eyes. I think most critique groups, unfortunately, are only really useful for a couple of years. After that, they are just friends sitting around talking about writing, with maybe some words in front of them to base their old, predictable pronouncements on. Now friends are great, and writing friends are very special indeed. But don't confuse them with people who will be able to help you fix your novel. And by the way, no one can really tell you how to fix your novel anyway. Not even your editor. They can only tell you what they think is wrong. Your job is to figure out how to fix it, and it may surprise you when you discover it.

Q: What's wrong with vanity publishing?

A: Nothing wrong with it. I had my dissertation bound by a vanity press. But it's not being published nationally. There may be a reason that your book will not have a national interest. That's fine. But if you think it does, don't publish with a vanity press just because it's not good enough yet. Make it good enough.

Q: Why does it seem like I'm so close--but never quite there?

A: I felt like this for several years. I think it just means that you're really close, and you have to keep going. I've known a lot of writers who got really close and then gave up. I guess their priorities changed. That's fine. But don't give up because you think the publishing industry is against you. I always use sports metaphors, but if you're a runner in high school who is the top in the nation in your age, say doing a mile in 4 minutes, that doesn't mean that you will be a professional athlete automatically. You may be very close to the top, but when there are five hundred people who are that close, you've got to get even closer.

Q: Does it really help if you "have connections?"

A: Maybe. I think some books might be sold that aren't that good, purely because the author had some kind of connection with the publisher. But I never wanted to just sell a book. I wanted to have a career, and you don't do that by writing badly and focusing all your energy on making connections. You do that by writing well, and stopping in at a conference now and again, if it fits in your schedule. And maybe having an agent or somebody else helping you along.

I secretly think also, whenever I hear about someone who has sold a first novel miraculously, without spending years in an apprenticeship of learning, that they are going to have a hard time later on. This is sometimes true (but not always). If you have only ever written one novel, and it gets published, it may be difficult amidst all the hype to write another. You may doubt whether you have another in you. But if you've written 20 (and I had, by the time my first novel was published), you don't have any doubts. Whether you can write another good one, I suppose, is still debatable.

Q: How do you get your ideas?

A: The better question for me is--how do you turn off the ideas? I have trouble focusing on only one book at a time, because as soon as the rush of the first draft is over, the voices in my head stop demanding that I work on that novel, and demand that I work on another one. I think ifyou're sturggling with ideas, you're either not reading enough, or you're not sitting down and staring at the screen long enough. That's really boring, and eventually, your fingers start typing, even if it's a letter to a friend. Hey, that's writing, too. And novels have been born out of less.

Q: What if someone steals my idea?

A: I never worry about this, primarily because my ideas are just so bizarre that I don't think anyone else could ever come close. On the other hand, even my ideas are based on something. So don't worry about people stealing from you. Just do it better than anyone else ever has.

Q: My family thinks I'm crazy to be a writer. What do I tell them?

A: You are crazy to be a writer. We're all crazy. Join the club. And don't expect your family to understand, to bring you snacks in the middle of the night when an inspiration strikes, or to read every page of your latest work. That's not their job. And it doesn't make you better than them that it's yours. It's just makes you a writer. A crazy writer who will one day be someone they are proud of. But maybe not just yet.

Q: Do I need an agent first?

A: I think everyone should have an agent. They help in negotiations, selling subrights, and giving career advice. I would send my manuscripts off to agents first, but not exclusively. Sometimes an agent finds an author more attractive who already has a contract in hand. Also, look at agents who are new and hungry, not just the ones who already have a proven track record.

Q: Should I outline my book before I write it?

A: If it works for you, go ahead. I was told by a big-name author earlier in my career that I should always outline and that I should try to sell my books from these outlines. That way I wouldn't waste time writing books that I wasn't going to get paid for. But I tried to do it and it didn't work for me. For one thing, I find that the pleasure for writing comes to me only in that state of suspense when I don't know myself what is going to happen next. This also means that I am uncomfortable during a big section of the middle of the book, having no idea how I am going to get my characters out of the messes I am putting them into. But when I tried to outline, I just lost interest in the book. Or if I didn't lose interest, it was because my characters were so strong that they insisted on telling me what would happen next, and it wasn't what was in that outline. So all that work was wasted, anyway

Q: What are you working on next?

A: I am working on the sequel to The Princess and the Hound tentatively titled The Bear and the Hound. Click here to read a first chapter in that book. Click here to find out more about the world of the series.

I've also been working for a couple years now on Son of Arthur, the first book in a double trilogy set in Arthurian times, starring Arthur's son and his granddaughter. Authentic post-Roman England is my attempt, and I've had some fun researching. But mostly I love the character of a boy who is trying to live up to an impossible ideal, and succeeds when he least expects it of himself.

Another probject is The Stepmother's Story, a dark version of the Cinderella fairy tale with the stepmother as a young woman as the star.

Finally, I have a cycle of short stories I've been working on for years, set in a Nazi America, called American Hitler, inspired by Mike Resnick's Kirinyaga and Margo Langaon's Black Juice.

Return to home page