Listen!

Wow, how many times have I used that same word? I guess one more time.

I happened to think about this yesterday when I made the comment about the Twilight series. It then got me thinking back to a comment I made a while back about the women's fiction issue. Writers in general tend to struggle with the idea of listening. They are so busy with wanting to make a unique phrase, and come up with a great idea that they often forget to listen to what other people have to say. In then end, this is a huge mistake.

Let me re-cap a couple of those earlier comments. The first was the issue with Women's fiction. I made the comment about UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN and was very clear to point out that I was dealing with the book and not the movie. For those of you that have read the book, you will have noticed that there was a VERY BIG difference between the two. In fact, other than the story set in Cortona and a couple of things with the house, these were really two very different stories. When I used that comment, I used it with the intent of highlighting what was significant with the sub-genre of women's fiction. The comments that came up dealt not with the key elements of women's fiction, but that of the acting ability of Diane Lane.

The second idea was that of the editor begging at the Dallas conference for a vampire teen book. Again, someone had to have been listening (or at least it was a huge coincidence). Unfortunately, most writers would not have heard exactly what this editor was looking for. It was very clear in her comments that the issue was not so much about the book being for teens or that she wanted vampires, but she wanted all of the passion and boiling emotion that we normally see in a vamp story but give the opportunity to the teens to experience it. Ms. Myers did just that.

The last idea is that of comments that come from editors and agents. I'm talking revision letters and general feedback that might come with a rejection. Again, writers make cosmetic changes to their stories but never really listen to the comments that came in the letter. For example, we might say we struggled with the way the hero and heroine dealt with issues in the beginning. We struggled with the way the hero couldn't stand up at a later point. We struggled with how up-front the heroine was in another scene. Now, when the editor or agent wrote this, the odds were that he or she had a list in front of them of a couple of points. Listening to the comment, however, I would say that the bigger issue, or the underlying problem was the lack of balance between the hero and heroine. That this editor or agent wanted a heroine that was weaker and could be saved and the hero was not alpha enough.

So, listen to what people say. Listen to what they write. Do not just take everything for the denotative meaning and leave it at that.

Scott

There are no new stories - NOT

I always have to laugh when I hear comments like this from writers. It always follows when I have made some comment that editors and agents really want to see something new out there. We want unique. And then the comment shows up... "But Scott, there are no unique stories out there. Story tellers just use the same stories over and over again."

Nope, this is far from true. O.K. maybe I need to rephrase that. Good story tellers do not do that, but maybe a lot of writers do that and wonder why their career goes no where or simply dies out.

In reality, this idea stems from a concept in literature that we often call theme. It is the over-all lesson or idea that guides the plot and characters throughout the story. Writers love to return to specific themes in their works because they have a certain attraction to them as either readers or writers. You know these... The Cinderella story, The Horatio Alger Rags to Riches stories, Beauty and The Beast themes, Revenge... I almost said the list was endless but in this case, these deal with human emotions so it is not that endless. We will often find combinations of these story themes though which tends to increase the numbers.

But let me return to the mistake most writers often make. They believe the plots are limitless. This is in no way the case. We can come up with a ton of different plot lines that are unique and have characters and ideas that we haven't seen before. The themes may be the same but the stories are truly different. This is what gets us running after hot stories that we believe to be so unique.

Let me explain another way. The themes to the Twilight stories are the same we have seen time and time again in other teen level books. The twist is that Ms. Myers was finally able to do what people had struggled with for so long. She brought that paranormal vampire twist in. I should note that when we were in Dallas for the RWA Conference (the one with the Mary Kay conference going on), one editor that I respect a great deal was begging for a vampire teen book just like that. Hmmmmm, was Ms. Myers in the room? (another reason for listening to those spotlights).

So, work with theme. Don't just tell the same story over again. Please.

Electronic Hookups

My buddy Chuck Sambucino was writing on this a couple of days ago and I thought I would jump on the bandwagon here.

What about hooking up electronically with the agents and editors that you would love to write for. I'm talking here about links on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and the like.

IMHO, this is a complete waste of time.

As an agent (and someone who is online a lot for various reasons) I completely avoid situations where someone could try to take advantage of the situation. This is one of the reasons why I have refused (and will continue to) be hooked up on Facebook and MySpace. The thought that some people believe this will give them an advantage in the long run when it comes to publishing is far from a reality. In fact, when I get submissions from someone that has frequently "followed me" I actually hold them at higher expectations. They should know what I like or don't like. Most of the time, they make the biggest mistakes.

So what should you do?

I say go ahead and read what these people talk about. Get to know them. But please don't ask them to be your friend or your contact. This will simply put you on their "radar" of someone to avoid.

Scott Eagan

Paying for editing?

So, I was asked recently whether or not an author should pay for editing.

IMHO, I think it is a perfect waste of time... Unless you are someone that doesn't understand the basic rules of grammar and then I question why you think you should even be writing.

Let me explain.

First of all, there are plenty of sources out there for writers to use to check their writing. Learn from your own common mistakes and you will make fewer errors on future manuscripts.

Secondly, most editors and agents are not that picky when it comes to a few (please note I said a few) errors that come up in your work. Now, with that said, remember that a sloppy manuscript tells me you don't know enough about writing so why would I want to sign you. Remember also that at most 4 year universities, 5 mistakes on the first page will equal a failing grade. In publishing, it simply means you will not get published.

Finally, these people that charge for editing are simply using the tools you have available to you. Most just have MSWord set for checking on everything and then scan it. With all of the mistakes found, the changes are easy fixes.

So, think before you pay