THE MEMOIR
Though most people pronounce it mem-waw, I like to play around with it and call it, mem-o-ear. However you want to say it, for a lot of writers, the memoir is da bomb. I can’t tell you how many times new members of the Henderson Writer’s Group will introduce themselves and when asked what genre they write, they’ll say “I’m writing (or just wrote) a memoir.”
While quite a popular genre, it’s also a very hard one to sell. That’s why the memoir is often relegated to the self-publishing market, distributed mostly to family and friends. Sometimes, that’s the intention of the author. When the purpose is family legacy/family history, one can pretty much write whatever they want. However, if you’re out to sell books, you need to up your game a bit.
The question you need to ask yourself is why would anyone care to read about your life? What have you done that’s so interesting? If you don’t already have a built-in fan base from being a celebrity, in which you could copy the phone book and sell a million copies, you’d better come up with something that’s going to compel readers to ante up the bucks to buy your story.
Your life, just like a fictional story, has to have some kind of hook to draw in readers. What is it about yourself that will make readers care enough to stick with it for a couple of hundred pages? No matter how interesting you many think your life is, will others? That’s the question you have to answer before you consider going through all that effort. On the other hand, if you’re going to follow your muse and do it anyway, finish it and worry about marketing it later. Your life story could surprise you either way, just don’t be too shocked or disappointed if it doesn’t sell.
As much as I rail about how I hate first person in fiction, a memoir is not fiction. Therefore, it must be in first person. It’s about you, not someone else, so it must be told through your eyes. The best format for the memoir, though not the only one, is chronological order. Start from the past and go forward, addressing whatever time period you’ve decided to cover.
The Achilles heel of all memoirs is rambling. I’ve seen it too many times where the author will go off on tangents, talk endlessly about minutiae and ramble about things that drag the narrative down to a standstill. Don’t let yourself get caught in that trap. To make your story interesting to others, it has to move. Each a scene should be a short story or chapter (just like a novel), that progresses toward the end. The last thing you want to do is lay down a bunch of random memories without form or fashion. Though you want to give the reader a sense of place, describe the atmosphere and environment of the era you’re coming from, you can’t let things drag or your readers will start skipping pages. If you keep it up, they’ll start skipping chapters and eventually may put the book down and never finish it.
Be careful dropping names. This can be a really tough call, especially if you’re drawing people in less than glowing terms. You can open yourself up to lawsuits, especially in this litigious world. This includes privately owned places.
When pitching your memoir, the key is the hook. I alluded to it earlier. An agent or publisher will want to know the same thing. Why would anyone want to buy your story? You need to know that up front if you plan to sell it to anyone. If you’re writing it just for family and friends, well…
Don’t forget the cool photos. Just make sure they’re good quality and if they show other people, have due permissions.
Happy writing.
ARE YOU WRITING A STORY OR A DICTIONARY?
I was recently participating in a discussion on the Absolute Write Water Cooler in the Horror Forum. A participant asked if he should use a certain word to describe a gory scene involving a victim being stabbed in the eye. The word he picked was a medical term that I’d never heard of. He asked the forum if he should use that word or pick something simpler. There were several responses asking what the word meant. I gave him my philosophy, which I’ve mentioned here in a past article.
Here is my quote from the forum: Simpler is better. Word economy and keep it at a sixth-grade level if whenever possible. Don’t try to impress your reader with big words unless you define those words. That means extra narrative that usually slows things down, unless it’s a key plot point.
Whoa… hold the fort! The board suddenly came alive. Several responses came along saying that the writer shouldn’t dumb down the story for the reader. Okay, I can understand that. One responder qualified that you shouldn’t throw the dictionary at the reader, but it’s okay to throw in new words and not explain them so that the reader has to go look them up. He said he appreciated it when he had to look them up, so he figures others will to.
How many of you would appreciate stumbling across a word where you have no idea of the meaning? Will you stop reading and go pick up a dictionary, ask someone, or go on line to find out what it means? Does the term, jerk you right out of the story mean anything?
When I was twelve, I didn’t have the greatest command of the English language. I still don’t, but it’s a heck of a lot better now. When I read the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew or Edgar Rice Burroughs, did I go to a dictionary to look up the words I didn’t know? Not a chance. Did I ask someone? Maybe once or twice. I either guessed the meaning by how the paragraph was written, or I just glided over it and ignored it. I figure that’s what most readers today are going to do if I start throwing in a bunch of fancy words.
I like to use the occasional fancy word. However, it’s usually a technical term key to the story. I always explain it either through the narrative or dialogue. If I do throw in something wonky, my writer’s group will be sure to call me on it!
As a reader, even now, when I read someone like Dean Koontz (I’m a big fan when he writes third person), who likes to throw in the occasional freaky non-technical word without explanation, I’m not about to go running to the dictionary to figure it out. If the narrative or dialogue doesn’t explain it, I just blow it off. I don’t care that much. It is most likely a word I’ll never use in real life or in my own writing, so who cares? Using it doesn’t make me any more sophisticated or make my two Master’s Degrees any more valuable, so I just move on.
Sure, it would be nice to expand my vocabulary but once I do, who am I going to use it on? I would love to learn Cockney slang, for a hoot, but who would I use that on?
As a writer, please consider your audience. This is especially critical to young adult, but it applies to even the older crowd. If you’re shooting for the highbrow intellectual bunch, maybe you can dazzle them with ten dollar words, but if you’re appealing to a wider audience, KISS!
If I have to explain that acronym…
No, it’s not the band!
That’s it for now. Happy writing!
THE SHORT STORY – WRAPPING IT ALL UP
Going back through some of my published short stories, I found that the final scene count varied. The Walk Home had four. The Basement had seven. Don’t Mess With A Snorg had five. Fun In The Outland had six. In those examples, all still had the same basic three elements consisting of the beginning, the middle and the end.
Let’s consider the end, or the outcome of your story. What are you trying to accomplish? Do you want to leave the reader with a smile on their face? A tear in their eye? Leave them hanging? Whatever that might be sets your path. Compacting that path is the trick. That’s one reason you can’t clutter the story with too many point of view characters, too much description, and too much narrative.
Though this wasn’t a short story, per se, I once did a term paper for a college class. I forget the actual subject, yet I remembered the process. Go figure! The paper had to be so many pages, so many words, just like a short story. I had a subject with several parts to explore. I found one of those parts easy to research and came up with a lot of info. When it came down to writing the report, the words flowed out. Before I knew it, I’d gone way over the page and word count, yet what I’d finished was just one piece of the puzzle and still had to address the rest of the parts that needed to be combined to make the Big Kahuna. I could’ve ended up with a novelette for a rather mundane term paper, except I didn’t have near the inspiration for the other parts.
That anecdote applies to your short story. Don’t get caught up in a scene and forget about the big picture. You have a goal, the ending to get to. Don’t get lost in the middle and forget that you have a limit, or lose your direction and fizzle out. If it becomes all that important to keep going, I strongly suggest you forget about the short story and turn it into a full-blown novel. Follow your muse!
To me, the whole point of writing is because I love to write, to create and to follow my muse. That should be the same for you. Unless you are under a contract, or are being somehow forced to write this short story, don’t let it hold you back. On the other hand, if you just get carried away with a huge scene, but lose direction when it comes to wrapping up the rest of the story, time to back away and let it sit until you figure out what’s going on. You can always pare down the over-long scene. That’s called editing.
Let’s look at the opposite extreme. Say, you write your short story and you say what you have to in a lot less words than you expected. Your goal was four to five thousand words, but the story is five hundred. Is that bad, or did you just accomplish your goal too soon? Look at what you have. Does it have all the elements you wanted or did you just get in a rush to finish it? Can you expand any of the narrative or dialogue? Does it need to be? Let someone else read it. If they like it and they’re not your mom or a close friend or underling, maybe it’s okay. Just remember the well word cliché, Don’t fix something that isn’t broke!
Finally, it’s time to find somewhere to get it published. If you already have a word count, then I’m assuming you have a place to submit. If not, start looking. The only thing I suggest, which I’ve mentioned before and I cannot emphasize enough, never EVER pay to have your story published! EVER!
Until next time, happy writing!
THE SHORT STORY – MORE DETAILS
Since you have to write tight and concise, the story must be done in such a way to convey all the necessary details to get across your point, cram everything you want to say within the demanded word count, and still make it something someone would want to read. This isn’t as bad as it sounds.
For me, it’s just a matter of following my usual method which I’ve described endlessly in these pages. However, for those of you who don’t want to read through my previous blogs, I’ll ‘splain it once again. I know where I want to start and where I want to end. Everything else in the middle is a total surprise. That’s if I’m writing fiction. Now, what did I say in the last article on short stories? There has to be a beginning, a middle and an end. Yup, the pattern is right there. Since I already know two parts of it, all I have to figure out is the middle. In my creative process, that comes naturally. The trick is making it come together in the right word count.
The big hang-up between short stories and novels is word count. With novels, you have the freedom to write to your heart’s desire until the story’s finished. If it’s ridiculously long, you’ll have to pare it down into something marketable. Even then, there can be a lot of leeway. If it’s too short, you either have to shoot for a novella or it may be time to beef up the story. With a short story, things are more restricted. You can certainly come in under the word count if you finish saying what you need, but you can’t go over too far.
A lot of anthologies ask for between four and five thousand words. That works out to between twelve and fifteen pages double spaced in twelve point typeface (if I remember right). To get the story into that restrictive limit, I’ve found a basic formula that helps me.
I’ve mentioned several times that there should be a beginning, a middle and an end. With that in mind, I’ll write the story with three major scenes in mind. A beginning scene, a middle scene, and the slam bang scene at the end. The beginning scene introduces the main character or characters (usually two at most), the bad guy, and sets up the main plot. The middle scene puts the character (s) in the main conflict and has he/she or them beaten down by the bad guy. In the final scene, he/she or they rise above all and resolve the conflict.
Not to confuse you more, but that’s just a simplification in my head of how the story is laid out. In print, the actual story will be a series of scenes like mini-chapters, or groups of scenes that block together in my head to make the beginning, middle and end. In the rough draft, I may have written three original scenes or ten, but in the editing process, I’ll have condensed and combined or even broken apart into the final product to get the best flow. The finished story may have five, six scenes, or even two. When you set out to write your story, either keep those three parts in your head as you write, or outline them if that’s your formula. When it comes out in the wash, you may have any number of actual scenes, from one to who knows? We’ll talk more about number of scenes next time. The point is to organize the story into bite-sized chunks. That makes it easier to write and helps you keep organized.
This formula does not work quite the same for non-fiction, at least where plot is concerned. A non-fiction story should still have a beginning, middle and end. The difference is that instead, there should be an aim, a platform, or some kind of message (moral) to the story.
For me, when I sit down to write a short story, it’s like I’m writing chapters of a novel, except I’m not going to continue. Regardless, the story just flows out. I’ve been able to do it for some magical reason and my word count usually comes close to the ballpark every time. It may be over by a hundred words, maybe slightly under, but it’s never far off. Editing will take care of the rest. Why I can do this, I have no idea.
Next we’ll go into a few more mechanics. Until next time, happy writing!
THE SHORT STORY – BASIC STRUCTURE
For many of us writers, our beginnings were, quite naturally, with the short story. Most of us had to write term papers. Remember them? Not exactly what one would call writing for pleasure. I recall one in particular, from high school, where I had to write a story about a hike down the Central California coast, following the path of the missionaries from Morrow Bay south to Santa Barbara. The history teacher gave me a B and only docked me because the timeline was unrealistic. I vaguely remember liking that paper because a good dose of it was bull, mixed in with the research I was forced to do to “fake out” the teacher.
Any other term papers I did, including book reports (a form of a short story, if you stretch things) I don’t remember a thing about. I have vague memories of writing short little stories here and there, but the subjects are lost to the winds of time (how’s that for a metaphor?). In my case, by the time I took writing seriously, I went right into novel-length stories. When I tackled the short story format, I’d already had four or five full length manuscripts under my belt. In that respect, I already had my mojo working for me.
Many of you starting out will want to stick your toe in the water. The way to do that is with the short story. There is less effort involved and less to lose if you miss the boat. If you take your time and structure it right from the get-go, you’re less likely to fail, especially if you have a great idea but need the structure to put it together.
All stories, whether short or long have the same basic format. There’s the beginning, the middle and the end. The difference is that with a short story, you have a lot less real estate to work with. We’re talking between five hundred and five thousand words. For an extreme example, when I lived in Indiana, back in 2001, there was a writing contest in the local newspaper for a fifty-word short story contest. Yeah, that’s right, fifty words. That’s about three or four sentences. I submitted around a dozen stories to that contest but didn’t win. In fact, I never saw the winners. We missed the paper that week. It was rigged! They cheated! They don’t know talent when they see it! Well, at least I didn’t have to pay to enter.
In a novel, you write scenes which give you a chance to leave the reader hanging so that they’ll turn the page to read the next chapter. You don’t have that luxury with a short story. You have to grab the reader’s attention and keep it within one to a dozen pages, and that’s it. You have to grab them in the beginning, keep them in the middle and satisfy them in the end, with a conclusion.
With such short space, that means you have to write tight, keep the narrative short, and keep the point of view (POV) characters to a minimum. Too many POV characters weakens the story and leaves the reader confused. You don’t have enough space to flesh out each personality. It’s best not to have more than one or two POV characters, which applies to novels as well, though with the larger format, there’s more leeway.
Narrative and description must be kept concise. No time to blather about every blade of grass or the color of the lampshade and the shadow of the mailbox. If it’s a key plot point, fine. If you need to set atmosphere, do it quickly with as few words as possible. Don’t let that dominate the story or you won’t have any story left!
Next time we’ll go into more excruciating details about your short story. They’re actually quite fun to write, so don’t get too depressed. If you love writing, you’ll love short stories. They rock!
CONFERENCE REPORT – NO TIME TO BE A WALLFLOWER
Once again, I’m left with a tinge of sadness. It’s over. Three wonderful days of mingling with a great bunch of people. Money well spent. Time well spent. New friendships forged. Lessons learned.
Day one, Thursday I helped with the initial setup at the front desk. Since I’ve done eight of these, I had much of it down to a science. However, what I wasn’t prepared for was the huge flood of people that showed up at 11A.M. to sign in! In years past, we had the boxes with all the curriculum bags underneath the desks, ready to go. This year, we couldn’t keep up. Thanks to Darrah Whitaker, our secretary and the man in charge of the volunteers, he had the brilliant idea of moving all those boxes into one of the unused rooms. Before long, we had a smooth operation going and the flood of sign-ins went through without a hitch. I then helped set up the room signs for all the classes. With enough volunteers around by this time, I was free to browse around.
Throughout the three days, I didn’t hesitate to walk up to total strangers (with conference badges on, of course) and introduce myself. I’d ask them where they came in from and what they wrote, why they were attending, and even if they’d attended other conferences (to get intel on how we compared). You can’t be a wallflower if you’re going to learn. Take that to the bank! I met people from all over the country, most with books to pitch, but a few that were at the conference for the first time without a completed project. Bravo for them! That’s the way to learn.
As for intel, I heard the same thing over and over again. I won’t mention the conference names, but they spanned both coasts and confirmed my anecdotal evidence. These other events were too big, too expensive, and the attendees had too little time to spend with their heroes/agents/publishers. An average of two minutes if they were lucky. That’s after standing in line for up to three hours, paying $1500 – $3000 to attend and sometimes paying as much as $50 per individual pitch session! Need I say more?
Thursday I got to spend some quality time with Maxwell Alexander Drake before he was hijacked (I won’t say anymore about that). It was great to see him again. I’ve known Max for years. He’s a member of the Henderson Writer’s Group, though he’s usually too busy to attend meetings. He’s an outstanding speaker and is a tireless marketer. We’re polar opposites in our creative processes, but I love to use him as an example of the other way of how to create your story because his method works, if you are into meticulous outlining. He has the results to prove it. I see Max as one of the top fantasy authors in the country. He’s the genuine article. It’s a thrill to go to Barnes & Noble and see his Genesis of Oblivion books on the regular shelves in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section and not in the local authors section.
Friday, I just hung around. I had no intention of pitching my icky bug because there didn’t appear to be any publishers or agents that took icky bug. During the pitch sessions, I was joking around with Jo Wilkins (the Henderson Writer’s Group el-presidente and head of Mystic Publishers) between her clients and she said Treble Hearts Books took icky bug. I did a double take, because the description in the schedule said otherwise. Anyway, I pitched, the publisher was interested and wanted to see it. Unfortunately, I later found out she’s a Christian publisher. Uh oh. The Factory is set in a maintenance shop. The language of the characters and some of the scenes would not lend themselves to that type of a publisher! Scratch that one off.
Saturday, I floated around too. There were no particular classes that struck my fancy, so I stayed in the dining room and coached a few people waiting to pitch to agents. I attended a few classes including two that Maxwell gave, but then something funny happened. One of our other writer’s, Amy, had pitched an adult fantasy to a publisher that according to his bio, only took young adult. He told her he was very interested in seeing her work. I thought it was curious. He had a class at 9 about publishing finances, so I popped in at 9:30 and sat in the back. During the presentation, he talked about some of the books he publishes and I was surprised to hear that he publishes all kinds of genres. I approached him after the class and asked him if he took icky bug (I called it horror, of course!). He grinned and said he would consider it.
I immediately went out and made an appointment. I sat down with him and he loved the idea and wants to see it. Sunday morning, I went to his web site to make sure he isn’t a Christian publisher and sure enough, he publishes a wide variety of books. Guess which publisher is going to see The Factory?
That’s my story and I’m done for now. Yeah, you thought I was going to say that cliché, didn’t you?
Until next time.
ATTENDING A CONFERENCE – WHAT TO DO?
There’s a lot more to do than just pitch to agents and publishers at writer’s conferences. Though that may be the primary goal for most, especially after forking out some big bucks, one would expect something substantial in return, like a contract, or at least a foot in the door. However, being published from the get-go isn’t necessarily the goal of everyone attending, nor should it have to be for you, especially if it’s your first one.
From the economic side, with what a conference costs nowadays, what is the payoff. Besides the obvious, what about learning more about the craft? Expanding your horizons? Networking? Let’s not forget that the majority of these conferences are dedicated to these other aspects. After all, they’re called conferences, not pitch sessions. With that in mind, many attendees approach a conference as a learning tool.
Since I already had manuscripts ready, my focus was on agents. I paid little heed to the good stuff so I could get face time with so and so. That lasted about thirty minutes into the first conference in 2005. I not only found great pleasure in helping as a member of the staff, but I had some serious quality time with author James Rollins, one of my favorite writers. Then, when I had free time, I attended a class here and there and discovered I wasn’t as smart as I thought I was. Turns out there were some pretty knowledgeable people there and many of the sessions helped me become a better writer.
At each and every conference I’ve attended, even though I’ve been part of the staff, I’ve always found time to attend classes, chat with all of the agents, publishers or authors and had a great time. You, as an attendee, should be able to study the agenda and will likely have a difficult time juggling the classes to be able to attend everything you want so you don’t miss everything.
One year, a friend and I wrote a screenplay. Two screenplay experts came that year and I attended two very different classes on screenplays. I learned some valuable info on how to improve our draft. Another year, after I’d become the local expert on point of view (which I’ve talked about here), we had an author talk about that (James Rollins). I learned his side of things and we agreed on our approaches.
Last year was the web site year. I knew my first book was coming at the end of this year, so I needed to start a web site. However, I didn’t have a clue how to do it. There were several classes on web sites and I attended them all. Because of those classes, I finally got off my butt and now you are reading this.
When I attend the meals, I like to sit at a different table each time. It’s really great to talk to a variety of people and hear what they are up to. I’ve learned so much from other aspiring writers. We’re not alone in this passion! It is always interesting to have a heart-to-heart with agents and publishers and get the latest juicy gossip and snide innuendo (sorry, my language for gossip and trends) from the world of publishing. I’ve learned so much about the inner workings of the publishing industry from just listening to them.
Attending a writer’s conference is not just about getting a book deal. It’s about learning the craft of writing. It’s clearly a tough investment. I think it’s a lot better than spending a fortune on a garage full of poorly done books that nobody will read. Learn to do things right before you ever attempt to invest in something like that. Do it right the first time!
