Avoiding the Writer's Wall (FTWA)

Vacation time! In my absence, here's a repost of a contribution to FROM THE WRITE ANGLE. Back soon!

Avoiding the Writer's Wall

by Stephen L. Duncan

In my fairly limited existence as an author, there have been many truisms that I’ve run across while trying to get the words onto the page. More often than not, these little bits of advice on the dos and the don’ts of being a writer get stuck somewhere in the back of my mind, only to be quickly forgotten. I'm just stupid like that. One, though, rings truer than others and I try to keep it in mind whenever a distraction attempts to call me away from the work.

Writing a novel is all about momentum.

You stick a word down, then another. Soon you have a sentence, and a paragraph follows until a page is filled. You do this over and over, and eventually you'll have all the pages your little spark of an idea needs to be a story.

That’s fairly simple, isn’t it?

Indeed. Yet there are always obstacles in our way. You’ve heard of one, no doubt. The dreaded Writer’s Block. I’ve never suffered from it, but it sounds horrible—a sort of frozen paralyzed state where words just don’t exist in the mind. Momentum can help prevent this little hiccup, because words are like water and a book, after all, is merely the result of a broken dam. The faster the flow, the harder it is to stop.

What I have experienced recently with the novel I just tuned in to my agent is the Writer’s Wall. If Writer’s Block is this leaded state of being that weighs you down, immobilizing you, Writer’s Wall is something you crash into.

In a way, it’s the opposite of Writer’s Block. You have too much going on in your writing life, too much spilling out of your head onto the page. And then, like something out of NASCAR, you hit the wall. (Hey, I’m from Alabama. I can only go so long in a day without a racing metaphor.) Your words are broken, not working, and your story seems futile. Worse, you're no longer certain you should be writing it.

The symptoms are these: From an abnormally confident valuation of your own work, often joined by a heightened productivity, you will experience a sudden onset of fear of publication characterized by a consuming doubt in your own taste and talent. Every word choice will be in question, every sentence’s worth made suspect. You will begin to negatively compare yourself to notable successful writers. While ideas and stories may flourish, you will encounter a paralyzing lack of esteem that prevents these ideas and stories from being realized.

A lot can steer you into a Writer’s Wall. Rejection. Negative feedback. Too much momentum. The list could go on and on. But the trick to pulling out of the crash is to take some time away from your work. Let it marinate in your head a little. Slow down. Live some of your life away from your computer.

Of course, if you’re like me, you might read this and then quickly store it in some recessed part of your mind, ready to be forgotten.

Write hard, y’all.

Stephen L. Duncan writes young adult fiction, including his debut, the first book in The Revelation Saga, due in 2014 from Medallion Press. You can find him blogging on INKROCK.com and on Twitter.

Literary Agents: It's Not Who You Know

I’m listening to Life’s What You Make It by Talk Talk on my Internet radio while I write this. It’s a random track, but somehow timely to what I want to say about the business of getting published. Specifically, getting an agent.

These days there are a lot of people out there with their dreams saved on a hard drive; digital hopes floating around in .doc files containing the latest draft of a novel, a work-in-progress memoir, or some other passion project that so far has only culminated in a long list of missed social events, late nights, early mornings, and acid reflux from more coffee than is safe for any human to consume.

The summit these dreamers seek to reach is the same for nearly all – to walk into a bookstore and see their book on a shelf. That’s a big mountain to climb, especially in today’s publishing market. I won’t lie; the odds are stacked against you.

But here’s the thing – if I can do this, anyone can. After all, I’m nobody.

This week, an article titled “The Right Fit”:Navigating the World of Literary Agents appeared on the online magazine, The Millions.  Written by Michael Bourne, the essay seeks to give the reader an insight into how futile the endeavor of seeking traditional publication can be, given the incestuous nature of the New York publishing industry. Basically, unless you’re an insider, you’ve hardly got a chance. 

Like any good journalist, Mr. Bourne spent some time with his boots on the ground at Folio Literary Management, a bustling agency in New York City, where he shadowed a few agents. While there, co-founder Scott Hoffman explained to Mr. Bourne “that the agency receives roughly 100,000 unsolicited queries a year, or about 200 a week for each of the nine Folio agents who accept unsolicited queries. Hoffman has taken on four new writers in the last year, only one of whom came in through the slush pile, putting the odds of an author without connections getting Hoffman to take on his or her book at roughly 1 in 11,111.”

One Hundred Thousand queries a year seems about right for a substantial agency like Folio. An agent taking on four new clients for a year is fairly reasonable, too. That's some stiff competition for an agent's interest. At this point in the article, what he learned with the limited time he spent with these agents is applied to the industry as a whole. What I have a problem with is Bourne’s suggestion that unless you are connected, your odds of finding representation are miniscule. In what turns into something of a mild-mannered rant, Mr. Bourne expresses his frustration (suggesting occasional anger) at the constant rejection he’s seen in his unsuccessful attempt to find representation. There are some valid points made on the benefit of interacting and socializing with others in the industry, but they're overshadowed by his assumption that his limited time with these agents is how it is all the time, in all the agencies. 

Let me say this before it seems I’m piling on the author – a writer like Michael Bourne will get an agent. He’s good. But his problem, like a lot of us, is simply finding the right story. At the end of the essay, Mr. Bourne finally stumbles onto this simple truth that we all face when trying to break in. “I haven’t written a book an agent can sell yet,” he writes.

That’s all it takes. That’s the whole recipe to getting your book onto that store’s shelf. I’ve been represented by two agents. My first was with William Morris Endeavor, one of the biggest entertainment agencies in the world. My second, the brilliant John Rudolph, is with Dystel & Goderich Literary Management, one of the most successful literary agencies in the world. I got hitched to both of them the same way – an unsolicited query. A shot in the dark.  Every author I know has been born from the slush pile, including me. To get an agent’s attention – a good agent – you don’t have to know a soul in the industry, you just need a good query letter and a manuscript that keeps the promises the query makes.

Everyone gets rejected. In this industry, you’ll see an epic amount of No Thank You, but there doesn't exist some inner circle that's conspiring to keep you out of the club.

The odds are still long, but even if you’re a thirty something-year-old nobody in Alabama who’s never even sat foot in New York City, take heart that it’s not who you know, it’s what you know. So long as what you know is how to tell a damn good story.

CONGRATS R.C. LEWIS!!

One of my favorite online pals just had her book deal announced over at Publishers Weekly. Here's how it went down:

Catherine Onder at Disney has acquired debut author R.C. Lewis's Stitching Snow, a sci-fi YA thriller due out in summer 2014. In the book, a royal teen runaway is scraping together a living in a mining settlement on the far side of the universe, until she is discovered and "rescued" against her will. Jennifer Laughran at Andrea Brown Literary Agency brokered the two-book, six-figure pre-empt.

Y'all. It's Snow White IN SPACE. Um...hell yes!  I've read a few pages of this, and they kick ass. Literally. It's awesome. Look forward to a LARGE career out of this author.

Be sure to stop by her blog and read all about it!

My First Interview!

Who says two years is too early to start pushing a book release?

Sean Taylor, pulp fiction author and comic book writer extraordinaire, was kind enough to invite me to an interview over at his excellently-titled writer's blog Bad Girls, Good Guys, and Two-Fisted Action. I mean, this guy writes for Gene Simmons. How awesome is that?

Please stop by and check out what I’ve got to say! Also, do be sure to stop by Sean’s Taylorverse.com to see all the irons he’s got in the fire! He's a great guy and has a wealth of knowledge on the ins and outs of publishing.

An invitation to YOU!

I've been invited to join the team over at From the Write Angle!  For those who aren't aware of the website, it is a blog dedicated to writers who wish to take that journey towards publication. The contributers range in experience, and cover a wide spectrum of genres and subjects from query letters to marketing, but each member brings a wealth of experience to the table to share.

If you've ever wanted to be a published writer, this blog offers an amazing resource of information on how to navigate the hurdles that stand in your way.

So please stop by and, if you're very kind, follow the blog!

You can find my first post coming on MAY 14th, 2012!

Fake Pointy Ears

Last night I went to a midnight screening of The Avengers. It was, to put it simply, the most fun I’ve had in a theater in a while.

I was asked to tag along by a friend who was probably more excited than any 35-year-old man should be to see a movie, and I figured (since I wasn’t getting any sleep at home with the new baby anyway) what the hell.

Now, midnight screenings aren’t really my thing. 1999. That was the last time I’d gone to midnight screening and it had left an excruciatingly sour taste in my mouth for the whole experience. Having waited what felt like a lifetime for the heroes of my childhood to finally appear again on screen, only to open their should-be-epic story by responding to mild discontent in the form of a galactic trade dispute, will do that to you.

*Jedi Knights: The Customer Service Representatives of the Universe*

Yawn.

Yet, here I was, 13 years later, in a theater filled with a quite underestimated crowd for a school night. Unable to sit together, my friends and I were lucky to find seats at all in the sea of comic book t-shirts and unending bags of Sour Patch Kids which had undoubtedly been snuck into the theater.

As I write this, what stays with me from last night is the energy in the air. It was everywhere and for everything. The excited anticipation for the lights to fall and the first trailers to roll. The seconds ticking away until their favorite comic and movie characters appear together on screen.

Everyone in that theater was an Avengers fan, and many dressed accordingly in cosplay (a term I've recently just learned meaning costume and role play...look, nobody said I was the brightest bulb). In fact, just before the film began a costume contest took place, won by a Hulk who seemed that much more committed to the look, having pumped his body with what I can only guess had been a few years' regimen of a steroid program. That’s dedication, people.

Go see the movie, by the way. It’s a blast. And to see it with every comic fan in the city, cheering and applauding; the experience was that much better. Joss Whedon, the director, and a bit of a comic geek himself, should direct all the movies. I’m not talking about all The Avengers movies. I’m saying he should direct ALL THE MOVIES.

He’s that good.

The night got me wondering, though. What does it take to have an intellectual property like The Avengers reach that status where its fans dress up and stay out to the witching hours to catch a first screening? It’s not just movies and comic books, either. I recall being in London and seeing the queue stretch down the block at Waterstone’s for the release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Twilight has the same kind of following. Star Trek, too.

What makes the fans so dedicated?

Agent Jessica Papin at DGLM linked to a Salon.com article about what it takes for a book to reach blockbuster status. I have no idea. Nor, it seems, does anyone else, but author James W. Hall of a new book Hit Lit: Cracking the Code of the 20^th Century’s Biggest Bestsellers, thinks he’s found some common denominators.  It’s an interesting article (which explores some ideas of Hall’s book), but what happened last night at the movie reaches beyond blockbuster. That sort of love of something is special.

It’s a cult, in a way, requiring dedication and loyalty, and not just market success.

So, what is the X-factor?  I’d love to know.

As would every entertainment exec on the planet.

If you’ve got some reasons, leave ‘em in the comments.

NEWS: HERE'S THE DEAL!

Stephen L. Duncan's THE REVELATION SAGA, pitched as a sweeping adventure with elements of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Harry Potter in which seventeen-year-old Gabriel Adam - an archangel born as a human - must travel to England in a plot to stop the second war between Heaven and Hell, to Emily Steele at Medallion Press in a deal by John Rudolph of Dystel & Goderich Literary Management.