Advanced Fiction Writing Blog

I was up past midnight yesterday getting my latest issue of the Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine out. Today has been a catchup day, plus it was my monthly day to see my accountant and make sure everything is clicking.

A few comments caught my eye:

Daan wrote several comments that somehow got caught in my spam filter. Sorry Daan! It’s usually very reliable, but it must have seen something it didn’t like. I sent that spam filter to bed without any dessert.

Daan wrote:

I have returned from vacation yesterday and I spent quite some time reading all the posts by you and Susan as well as all the comments and questions. It was great!

Two months ago, I was inspired to translate an English novel in Afrikaans and, thanks to the holidays, I have translated 216 of the 338 pages, which is 73 326 words.

Randy sez: Yes, Susan’s series of guest posts is probably the most popular series I’ve ever done. Wow, Daan, you are really cooking on that translation. I know how hard translation is and what an art it can be. Have fun and good luck! Welcome back to the blog. We’ve missed you.

Sylvia asked:

What is the advantage of incorporating your business? It sounds like a lot of work and at least some expense, so what is the advantage to you?

Randy sez: That’s an excellent question. I only recommend incorporating when you have a business that is earning a substantial part of your income. Incorporation has some advantages, but it also has some costs. Bear in mind that I am not a lawyer or accountant, so the following does not constitute any sort of legal or accounting advice:

The advantages are as follows (and you can talk with any accountant about whether these apply to you):
1) A corporation is not you, so if somebody sues your corporation, they may conceivably bankrupt it, but they won’t bankrupt you. This is a minor point, but we’re writers and we say things in public that may make people angry.
2) There can be tax advantages for having a corporation that earns the income and then pays you a salary. An accountant can explain the differences between a C corporation, an S corporation, and an LLC, along with the tax advantages and disadvantages of each. Which of these is right for a writer depends on circumstances. I have an S corporation, but one of my writer friends has a C corporation and another has an LLC.
3) Drat, I forgot the other advantages. But the above two can be quite important. In particular, the tax advantages are very important.

The disadvantages are as follows:
1) It costs something to register as a corporation. The State of Washington is a good state for corporations and quite inexpensive. I have to pay my registration fee every year and pay a corporate agent.
2) A corporation is not you, and it must have at least one annual meeting of the Board of Directors and another for the Shareholders and proper minutes must be kept. My wife and I are the entire Board and the entire set of Shareholders, so we held our two meetings back to back in about half an hour. I wrote a President’s Report which I presented at the meetings and wrote up minutes and that was that. My accountant looked it over today and said I did an excellent job.
3) You can’t mix your personal money with the corporate money, because the corporation is not you. If you mix money, then the government can decide that the corporation is just a sham and can take away your tax advantages, which are generally substantial. The laws are written to make life good for corporations, so it pays to be one.
4) You have to have a good accounting system, which usually means getting an accountant. The fact is that if you’re earning much money, you need one anyway to keep track of it all, because doing the taxes just gets more complicated every year.

Cathy wrote:

Thanks Randy for your blog. Your last one, asking us to tell what we planned to do that day, got me motivated to choose something that would help clean up the clutter in my office as well as in the rest of the house. The job is far from done, but a lot of progress has been made. Some of this is because my husband also jumped in to help with this chore . . . and I didn’t even have to ask him.

Randy sez: I’ve found it useful to take a 15 minute break each day and get up, stretch, walk around, drink some water, and then declutter one small part of my work area. That may be my out-box or my desk or one shelf or whatever. The other day I cleaned up one drawer that contains my checkbook, checks, and all that. Not a big job, but that drawer had been causing me confusion whenever I opened it. Now it’s in good shape. You need to take breaks every hour or two anyway, so you might as well do something useful (and boring so you’ll be happy to get back to work).

David wrote:

I don’t know what your take is on the critiquing the work of other writers in an online fashion. I mentioned that I have joined a critiquing website www.critters.org which is basically a web version of the writers getting together to look at each others work. I must say it is a good move because just reading how to critique and then doing it forces me to edit my own work that much better. I would highly recommend this site for two very good reasons: First it has writers from novices to published and it archives all of the critiques so you can see what actually catches the eyes of people. The only way it could get better is if it had seasoned editors. Secondly it is free! You must perform critiques in order to be allowed to post your own ms. Seems fair to me!

Randy sez: This sounds like a great organization to me! When I started writing, nobody was online except us techie geeks, and there was no web. I lived for my monthly in-person critique group where we used real paper and red pens and sat around a table. But some months were well-attended and some weren’t. Online, somebody is always there, and you don’t have to be there at the same time. It’s a whole new world, and an online critique group can move you forward massively.

Getting critiqued is part of continuous improvement, and that is Xtremely important.

I’ve just now read through all the comments that my blog readers have left since my last post. Wow! I’m impressed by the detailed action plans some of you have put together. That’s great!

I had to laugh at Karla’s comment that it sounded like a good idea to have a Board of Directors meeting and a Shareholder’s meeting. It’s not just a good idea, it’s the law–at least if you run a corporation. I incorporated all my writing and teaching activities about a year ago. (I don’t recommend this until you are earning a decent amount of money, because there are expenses that must be paid to run a corporation, AND you have to do pesky paperwork such as keeping minutes on official meetings. And annual meetings for the Board of Directors and the Shareholders are required.)

Even though it’s a boring legal requirement, I’m glad I was forced to do it. Before the meeting, I took a few hours and wrote up a President’s Report for 2007, which listed all my accomplishments for the year, including one failure. (Failure is OK; it’s good to fail occasionally, because that shows you’re taking risks; it’s also good to fail quickly, which I did in one project in 2007.)

I also did an analysis of which tasks earned me money and which ones didn’t. That’s very helpful in making plans for next year. In doing the analysis, I learned that keeping track of time is something that should NOT be done on paper, it should be done by computer. It’s far easier to analyze the information if the computer does the hard work. For 2008, I am eliminating paper records of time-keeping and am using an online service that costs me $9 per month. I think that’s a bargain. They actually have a free version that manages only one project, but I have more projects, so I’m using the payware version.

I also had to wince in sympathy at Gerhi’s comments:

I’m in a bit of a bind. This year I have decided to quit my job and start a business with my wife. Maybe it is more, quit my job and help her to make her business make enough money so that we can have a decent income - so that I can spend time on my projects, expecially writing. It involves selling the house, quitting my job, moving accross country to be closer to family and support, AND building the business as a matter of priority.

Randy sez: That’s where I was about two years ago. I had recently been laid off from my irritating day job, and decided there was no good reason to stay in San Diego any longer. So we sold the house, moved halfway across the country, bought a new house, and ramped up my writing/teaching business. That pretty much shot all of 2006. So 2007 was a year of getting back in the swing of things, learning to live in the Pacific Northwest, and learning how to schedule my time when I have apparently all the time in the world, but still have to earn a living.

If there’s anything I learned in 2007, it’s this:

Successful Fiction Writing = Organizing + Creating + Marketing

There are people who will tell you to focus on one or the other of these to the exclusion of all else. That works for awhile, but eventually things get out of kilter. I believe the great trick of managing your writing career is to continuously improve in each of these areas.

I am consciously spending time in each of these areas every day. Today, three of the actions I took were:

1) Cleaning up ONE drawer in my desk that had gotten out of control.
2) Editing the three sample chapters of my novel.
3) Writing up a strategic plan for products I plan to create and market this year.

If you look at those, that’s one organizational action, one creational action, and one marketing action. Actually, I had several other actions on my task list, so these are representative of what I did for the day.

Continuous improvement is essential, because improvements tend to multiply. As a rough example, if you learn to type twice as fast AND you learn to write twice as well, your writing time will be four times as effective. If you then learn to market twice as well, you could in principle end up earning eight times as much as originally.

Quality, of course, is hard to quantify, but the basic point is clear: small improvements multiply. Small improvements can mean; learning new skills; buying new tools; getting better organized; or automating your processes. Anything that makes you a better writer is an improvement. I’ll talk more about this in my e-zine tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Yesterday, I challenged my blog readers to post comments on their goals for the coming year and actions that they plan to take today. I’ve read through all the comments, and many of you have your Big Picture clearly in mind. You have goals for the year (some of you have lots of goals.) But not many of you mentioned what actions you planned to take today to move closer to your goals.

This is really fundamental, so I’ll talk about it some more. One of my goals this year is to sell and write my next novel. That’s a goal–the big picture. But I didn’t complete it today. Was today a failure? No, because I took two specific actions that will move me closer to that goal.

One of those actions burned several hours of my time. I completed and submitted an article that may eventually end up getting widely read and enhancing my name recognition. So this was a marketing/publicity action. It needed to get done today, because of deadlines with the publisher, so I did it today. This was a Must Do action, so I did it first.

The second action I took was to do one particular exercise on my first three chapters. These are the chapters that I’ll be sending in with my proposal, so I want them to be as good as I can make them. I analyzed all three of them–almost thirty pages, and I saw some things I can improve on in my writing. This type of action is the kind of thing we writers have trouble with, because there is no immediate penalty if we don’t do it. The only penalty is that nothing actually gets done, but since we typically only do a small increment of work every day, it feels like it’s OK to miss a day. And it’s all too easy to miss a lot of days, and wind up getting nothing done.

The third action I’ll take (as soon as I finish this blog) is to hold my annual Board of Directors meeting, followed by my annual Shareholders Meeting for my corporation. These will be short meetings because my wife and I are the Board of Directors and the Shareholders. I wrote up a President’s Report for 2007 last week, which I’ll present at both meetings. The report tells what I achieved last year and lists some goals for 2008. (Since I have a corporation, these meetings are an annual requirement.)

Three actions in one day–one marketing, one craft, and one administrative. That’s enough for me!

A few of you mentioned actual actions that you took today (or planned to take). Let’s look at some of those.

Aimeestates wrote:

I subscribed to your newsletter!

Randy sez: Good! That’s a very specific action that you can easily do in one day. Tomorrow, there’ll be a new action that builds on today. A side note: the normal date for sending out my e-zine was Tuesday, which was New Year’s Day. I decided that it would be better to NOT send out the e-zine on a holiday, so it’ll come out NEXT Tuesday.

Sally wrote:

I made 12 phone calls today to build my speaking platform!

Randy sez: Sally, you just became my hero. I LOVE to see a writer who gets out there and takes action. That’s a lot of action. If even one of those calls leads to a speaking engagement, then you earned yourself some money today, AND built a solid plank in your platform. Waytogo!

Lois wrote:

Today: I will reorganize my workspace to be free from distractions when I’m working on a project.

Randy sez: Once again, that’s a good solid action. You may or may not complete it today, but I’ll bet you made more headway than you expected. A year ago, I committed to getting better organized, as many of my e-zine and blog readers know. In quite short order, my desk and office became a much more pleasant place to work AND I began getting more stuff done because I could find stuff when I needed to. For those of you who need a kick in the butt to do something similar, let me recommend the “Clean Up Your Act!” series of teleseminars that I did with Allison Bottke, who was the driving force behind me finally getting my act together.

Robert wrote:

Inspired by your last topic with Susan Meissner, about a week ago I setup a log where I am tracking my writing efforts.

I already have an estimate of how many words I have left to write, and so from that I have made the spreadsheet “Writing Log” calculate my predicted finish date.

Based on the progress I have made over the last week, it is predicting I will be finished on May 26th! That assumes that I write a little over 400 words a day, which should not be a hard goal to achieve. Obviously if I can go faster, that will be better, but just seeing that date motivates me to not let it slip and to keep plugging away.

I have been slowed down doing plot-rework during December, so it is really exciting to be back writing again.

Thanks for the inspiration, Randy!

Randy sez: Excellent! When I am writing a first draft, I do this too. I always work with a spreadsheet that contains my list of scenes for the book (using my Snowflake method of designing my novel). I just add a column that tells how long I spent working on each scene and another column on how many words the scene is. Then I can track how many actual hours a book takes, and can predict pretty well how long the book will be and how long it’ll take to write. Waytogo, Robert!

Now for those of you who posted goals for the year, I’ll ask again: What action are you going to take TODAY to step toward that goal? Get specific! It doesn’t need to be a big action, but it should be specific and concrete and achievable in one day.

Nothing happens unless you take action! What action will you take today?

Hi All:

I’m returning to the blogosphere after a much-needed break over the Christmas/New Year holiday. It’s been fun to take time off, and now I’m back in the saddle and ready to roll for the coming year.

I am no big fan of New Year’s Resolutions. I’m not sure if I’ve ever actually made one in my life. I have serious doubts that such things work. The goal of a New Year’s Resolution seems to be to suddenly BECOME someone new, all in one day.

Yeah, right. The real world doesn’t work that way. In the real world, you don’t suddenly switch from being one person to being another person. In the real world, change happens in increments. One day at a time, as the AA people say.

In the real world, change happens because you start DOING something new, and keep doing it and keep doing it. Six months later, you suddenly realize that you have BECOME someone substantially different from who you used to be.

It happens when you decide to take action today, and to take action tomorrow, and to take action the day after. Taking action is what makes things happen. Not taking action is what makes things stay the same.

It’s all about continuous improvement, not instantaneous improvement.

I’ve got my action list for today. It’s different from the action list I made yesterday, because I got (most of) that action list done.

As a novelist, you’ve probably got some Big Goals for this year. Those might include:
1) Developing your skills as a writer.
2) Writing a first draft of that novel you’ve always wanted to write.
3) Making connections with agents at editors.

All of those are great Big Goals, but none of them can happen in a day. What can happen in a day is that you take an action TOWARD reaching that Big Goal. One action I’m taking today is to apply some new analytical tools to my current three sample chapters. I learned these tools from Margie Lawson, a psychologist who specializes in helping writers develop better characters.

What about you? What actions will you take today? There are hundreds or thousands you could take. Some will move you toward your Big Goal. Some won’t. Here are a few examples, taken completely at random:
1) Write one scene in your novel.
2) Buy a book on writing, such as Dwight Swain’s “Techniques of the Selling Writer” or James Scott Bell’s “Plot & Structure.”
3) Clear out a workspace for your writing where you can write comfortably.
4) Schedule time to write on a regular basis.
5) Browse the web to identify a good writing conference to attend this year.
6) Buy a lecture series on the craft of writing fiction, such as my Fiction 101 or Fiction 201 courses.
7) Buy a program that teaches you how to type better and faster.
Talk to your family about taking on some of the tasks you do so you’ll have more time to write.
9) Learn to use your time more effectively by using a time-management tool such as Simpleology.
10) Start a blog that you can use to develop name recognition and begin building the marketing platform for your next book.

There are many other possibilities. One blog I read every day is James Brausch’s blog on building an internet business. If you are familiar with James, you’ll see that I’ve learned a lot from him. I certainly use several of his tools for building my business. (And thanks to James for linking to this blog today.) The reason I read James’s blog is his unswerving commitment to taking action today. Nothing happens unless you take action.

So that’s my question for you all today. What’s your Big Goal for this coming year, and what action will you take today that will move you closer to achieving that Big Goal? Leave a comment here.

I’ll try to wrap up today on my comments on your action plans. In the meantime, keep posting comments with your questions on self-editing. I’ll send those off to Renni Browne (author of “Self-Editing For Fiction Writers”) over the weekend and we’ll start discussing those next week.

Some of you noted that the email notification didn’t come today. I posted my blog after midnight yesterday, and that may be the reason.

Yvette wrote:

The most important thing that has happened to me, my mindset has changed, and am very optimistic about my future.

Randy sez: Your mindset is the main thing. If you can believe you can do something, they you are about 60% of the way there already. That’s no guarantee you’ll make it. But it’s a requirement. If you don’t think you can make it, then you have almost no chance.

Sheila wrote:

I can’t influence the getting published bit, but I can commit to sending at least one item to at least one person per week. So now I’m not “trying and failing.” I’m doing something about it.

Randy sez: Exactly! If you take actions directed toward your goal, and then watch what happens as a result, and then take new actions using what you learned, you’ll get better.

Bonne laid out a very detailed and extensive action plan and then concluded:

That’s the plan. It’s a little intimidating to see it all in a row like this, but at the same time amazing to see how far I’ve made it down the list in the last 6 months

Randy sez: Yes, if you look back every once in a while, you’ll be amazed at what you’ve done when you took consistent action. Just take one thing at a time on that list, and execute. It does take a lot of time, but time is what we all have stretching ahead of us. In the next ten years of your life, you have . . . ten whole years to get stuff done. If you don’t bother to do anything, you’ll spend those ten years doing a whole lot of nothing. If writing is worth doing, then it’s worth investing a sizeable chunk of that ten years in.

Debbie wrote:

I woke up 9/19/07 with a story idea. In the last month it has been Snowflaked, and has grown to 30K. If I can keep up my pace of 7K a week, it will be ready for editing by Christmas.

Randy sez: Yow! That’s what I like to see! Action! It may succeed or it may fail. But inaction is ALWAYS going to fail.

Ron wrote:

On the business end of things, the way I understand it is that here in the U.S., expenses for writing, such as computer, printer, office supplies, contest submission fees, etc. can be written off on taxes (Form 1040 Schedule C) so long as your intent is to make money from your writing (but you don’t actually have to show that you are making money) and you don’t have to have a business license. (Randy can probably confirm/correct this)

Randy sez: Always check with your tax advisor on these things. The rules are a little complicated, and I’ve learned not to give out tax advice. But if you qualify for tax deductions for your writing expenses, it can be pretty significant. Just ask that pesky tax advisor!

To all of you doing NaNoWriMo, good luck! Set your goals, make an action plan, and then do it!

Remember, post your questions on self-editing your fiction here. We have a world class expert to help us learn more–Renni Browne. Let’s learn all we can from her!

We will soon be moving on to a new topic, which was #2 on the list of my blog readers’ major interests: “Self-Editing for Fiction Writers.”

I have a nice surprise for you all. We’ll have a guest expert on to answer many of your questions. I’ll still be here adding in my nosy little bit, but you’ll have the advantage of hearing from an expert who knows far more than I do:

Renni Browne will be our expert. Renni is known around the world as the author of “Self-Editing for Fiction Writers,” which she co-authored with Dave King. This is one of the “must have” book on my list of recommended books for novelists.

If you don’t have “Self-Editing for Fiction Writers,” you can check it out on Amazon. Take a look at all those 5-star Amazon reviews! I own a copy and virtually every published novelist I know owns one too. It’s that good.

Go ahead and post your questions here as a comment on this blog. I’ll collect the questions and forward them to Renni. She’ll answer them and I’ll post them back here in groups of 2 or 3, alongside my own blithering commentary. I think we’ll have fun.

Many of you know that Renni Browne heads a major editing service, The Editorial Department. This is one of the premier editing services in the world, as you can well imagine. I won’t belabor this point, but I know that at any given time, some of you are looking for editing services. Check out The Editorial Department to see if they might meet your needs. They also have an e-zine, which you can subscribe to for free on the web site.

I’d like to respond to a few more comments that you all have posted in the last few days.

Anna wrote:

I try not to work on more than one project at once, but there are several times that I have wondered if I could pull of writing two books at one time. Basically my action plan is to keep writing this one until I’m sick of it and it’s as perfect as I can get it. I hope to finish it early next year…do you recommend writing more than one project at a time?

Randy sez: Professional writers often have multiple projects going. They also have 40+ hours per week to spend on their projects. Most pre-published writers are lucky to have 10 or 20 hours per week. Because of that, I recommend focusing on one project at a time. It’s not a hard/fast rule, but it makes a lot of sense to me.

Like the Simpleology guy says: “See your target clearly. Keep it in your sights. Keep hitting it (until you hit it).” That is sound advice for anything, and especially for fiction writing.

Mary wrote:

Randy, as you know I’ve been learning A LOT about the marketing end of writing. I posted about all the stuff I’ve mastered these past few months here: http://aratus.typepad.com/tma/2007/10/pebble-turning-.html

Because of what I’ve learned (and boy did that involve a LOT of action and trying things I’ve never tried before), I am much more efficient in this part of my writing.

Randy sez: Bravo, Mary! I’ve been watching the development of your brand and your marketing strategy on your web site. You go, RelevantGirl!

We’ll look at a few more of your comments tomorrow, while you give me your questions for the queen of self-editing, Renni Browne.

Post your questions on self-editing here now!

Yesterday, I asked to hear what you’re all up to–what’s your action plan?

I’m reading through your comments today. Some of them require responses:

Tami wrote:

I have four projects in various stages of completion and I know that is a serious case of fractured focus. Is there a way to tell which one I should commit to? Does this mean that they’re all fatally flawed and just don’t want to admit it to myself? Help!

Randy sez: That depends on what your goals are. Do you want to:
1) Make lots of money?
2) Write what makes you happiest?
3) Change the world?
4) Other?

My hunch is that each of your projects has a subtly different goal. Which of those is most important to you? Do the project that meets that goal first. You don’t have to trash the others. Just put them aside for the “opportune moment.”

I have had this problem myself in the past. One reason I like Simpleology 101 is that right from the get-go, when I started using its tools to help me decide what I wanted my life to look like, I could see clearly what I needed to work on RIGHT NOW. And embarrassingly enough, that wasn’t what I was actually working on. So I changed my short-term goals to reflect what I REALLY WANT out of life.

Debra wrote:

Randy, how did you first get into writing as a business? I have just returned from the first night of a book-keeping for small business course, hoping to get some idea of how to organise a freelance writing business. Of course, I realise I am putting the cart before the horse since I haven’t been published yet apart from in a writer’s newsletter a few times. Still, the opportunity was there so I took it hoping that the business would soon follow. I did pick up some very useful tips and it has fired me up to write even more so it wasn’t a loss. I also feel that I really do have to take action now as I have openly committed myself to being a writer. I originally thought that if it wasn’t going to be useful then it might be so boring that my imagination would take over and I would write something fantastic.

I didn’t actually start treating it like a business until recently. I spent my first nine years writing without earning a dime, so there was no business to organize. After that, I sold a short story, then a nonfiction book, then a novel. And I felt that basically I wasn’t earning enough to really be businesslike about it. That was a mistake, I think. I should have thought harder early on about developing a brand–a reputation for consistent and unique quality.

In the last year, as many of my blog-readers know, I’ve gotten serious about treating this career like a real business. That’s all chronicled in the series of teleseminars I did with Allison Bottke. So I now have a clear focus for my writing. But this is a new development. Watch my career over the next five years, and you’ll see if it makes a difference. I predict that it will, and I am betting my future on it.

Daan wrote quite a lot, but I’ll snip all but the end:

My short term target is to work through all the E-zines by the end of November when I will promote myself to sophomore and enroll for “Fiction 201″.

In the mean time Randy, I once again wish to thank you for ALL your advice.

Randy sez: You’re welcome! It’s a real thrill to see a writer who’s COMMITTED to taking action and who is making rapid progress. That’s why I do this site and my e-zine and blog–to see people turn from wannabes into gonnabes. Work hard, Daan! I’m watching you and rooting for you.

Lynn wrote quite a bit also, so I’m snipping it down:

Randy, my mother was applauding a course I took a few years ago for my success. However, I believe the course did not help as much as what I have learned in the last year through your blog, through Swain’s book, and through John Olson’s lectures at a writer’s conference. These are what really turned my writing around.

Randy sez: Wow, this is so exciting, to see you making progress! I’m so jazzed! (And it’s been a long day. I need to feel jazzed right now.)

Karla is doing NaNoWriMo this year, and writes, in part:

I am now using simple*ology to help me get through the next harrowing thirty days and I am finding it so effective I’m sure I’ll make it a permanent part of my schedule. I have a biography deadline on Nov. 15th, as well as a grant writing deadline on the 15th and my husband and I are renewing our vows Dec. 1 (25 years!) and I’m throwing a huge party and there is much to do to get ready for that!

Randy sez: Wow, you have a whole lot on your plate. Go for it! And I hope you make your fifty thousand words for NaNoWriMo.

Another 10 of you wrote comments that I don’t have time to respond to tonight. I’ll do so in the next day or two. By then, I hope to be able to wrap up our mini-course in “Time Management for Writers” and transition to the next topic you’ve all requested, which will be “Self-Editing For Writers.” I hope to have a nice surprise for you on that, but I don’t know yet. But stay tuned.

I heard from one of you today via email with a strong and upbeat report on where you’re at now compared to where you were just a few months ago. That made me so happy that I thought it’d be fun to hear from more of you. Take stock of where you are now. Have you developed an action plan in the last few months? Have you figured out where you are on the road to publication? Have you developed new skills?

If so, I’d like to hear about it. Go ahead and post a comment here and tell us all what you’ve learned or achieved in the last few months, and what you have planned for the next few months.

In the meantime, I’ll answer a couple of the comments from yesterday:

Debbie wrote:

You said, “Folks, don’t settle for “I’ll try.” Take action and keep taking action until one of two things happen:
1) You realize that the goal you chose is impossible, or
2) You realize that you don’t want this goal anymore–you want a different one”

I believe there is a third option - Take action and keep taking action UNTIL YOU REACH YOUR GOAL.

I realize this was an OBVIOUS oversight.

Randy sez: Yup, I guess I kind of assumed that. But it’s a good point. SOMETIMES YOU REACH THE GOAL! In fact, a lot of times you do, if you just keep trying. I personally know many dozens of novelists who have reached that goal. Many of them I knew before they reached the goal. The common denominator with all of them is that they didn’t give up.

Robert wrote:

One question on your post. You said “A lot of writers have to write about [5-6 novels] before they break in”. Do you only recommend abandoning a novel if it has irreparable problems? My thought is that as long as the premise is good I should just keep re-working it and rewriting until it is publishable?

Sol Stein said in one of his books that he told someone what they needed to fix in their novel, and then instead of doing that they went off and started on another novel. If I remember it, he didn’t seem to approve of that.

Where do we draw the line on DO vs. REDO? At what point do we need to buckle down and fix it until it’s right?

Randy sez: OK, here’s the deal. If you know the project is hopeless, then shoot it in the head right now and walk away. There is no point working on a project you know is fatally flawed. I did that with my first novel after working on it for two and a half years. But I didn’t walk away from the general idea. I ultimately published several books that are essentially offshoots from that idea, and the book I’m working on right now is also an offshoot. I walked away from the specific implementation of that idea that I realized could never work.

If it’s not fatally flawed, then keep working on it. At a certain point, you may well realize that your heart isn’t in this project anymore, and that you’ve grown as a writer or a person and you have a substantially different vision for the book you want to write. In that case, again murder the old project and walk away. No point trying to sell a book that you aren’t excited about. Your agent and editor won’t be at all interested in a project if you’re bored with it.

Finally, it’s possible that you’ll work hard, believe your book is good, love the book to pieces, finish the thing, and submit it to every agent you can find who might be interested. If they all pass on it, then that is a very good time to set it aside. DON’T kill it. Someday when your skills are sharper, you may be able to revise it and sell it. But if you’ve given it your VERY BEST effort and it still doesn’t sell, then lay it aside. For awhile, not necessarily forever.

In any case, try something new. Work on it, again, until you know it’s fatally flawed, or you lose interest, or you just can’t sell it, or . . . you SELL IT.

This is the procedure that all published novelists have followed. Few of us took the shortest path to success. (I didn’t.) But you can’t get published unless you follow this basic strategy.

Now it’s your turn. Leave a comment and tell us how you’ve changed over the last few months and what your action plan is.

I’ve had an interesting weekend! A very cool thing has come up that I can’t talk about publicly right now, but I’ll let you all know if and when it comes to fruition in a few months. It’s going to chew up a bit of my time for about another week, and then life gets back to normal. Naturally, this is messing up my current “primary goal” but that’s OK. When a great opportunity comes along, the smart thing is to shift priorities. I really can’t say more about this right now.

Looking back at comments from last week on our time-management discussion, I find a few that need answering.

Camille wrote:

First, I hopped the train out of order. And since then, I’ve been trying to do several of the things on that list simultaneously. (Sorry, I confess! I’m Multi-GOALed. But I’m thinking about working on that.)

OK, The NOVEL is what got me enrolled as a Freshman, and gave me a reason to get serious about the craft. Are you saying I need to set it aside until I’m a Junior? I thought that by working on my blushing novel during intense learning phase, I’m:

1. Making Words On Page — which count toward that 1 Million words every novelist needs to write to get into Publishing Heaven.
2. Exercising the craft tools I acquire.
3. Finishing something I started, for what it’s worth.

Upon enrollment as a Freshman, I was enlightened by these profound words of wisdom:
• Work on your craft
• Go to writing conferences
• Take classes on writing
• Read books on writing
• Meet other writers
• Join a critique group
• Write, write, write!
~From Fic 101 — What to DO if you’re a Freshman

So, as a Freshman, is it counterproductive to “focus” on a heartbreaking work of staggering genius while learning the craft? Does this weaken my primary focus?

Randy sez: By all means, work on that heartbreaking varmint! Work hard on it. Give it your best shot. Some novelists actually do sell that first novel. Just be aware that you might not be one of them. Stephen King didn’t sell his first 5 or 6 novels. I think the first one I sold was #6. A lot of writers have to write about that many before they break in. After that, of course, pretty much anything you write will probably get published.

Those first unpublished novels are not wasted! They are necessary steps along the way. You will never get good unless you give yourself permission to be bad–in some cases, very bad.

Write, write, write! And that means write a novel. I don’t approve of spending time overmuch on writing exercises (although I have recently started doing daily writing exercises designed to make me a better writer.) But I believe the best training for writing a great novel is writing a crappy one. And then a better one, and a BETTER one, until you achieve Novel Nirvana and get published.

Karla wrote:

I LOVE Simple*ology! I am taking time out of my busy schedule to get it going — printing the books and binding them and everything. I think I’ll “get it” eventually, and I think it’s really going to help moody me on those days when I have a hard time focusing for the moping I’d rather do. The daily praxis rocks. And I am learning what things I have in my life that drain me that I didn’t even realize did!

I love it too. I’ve always been quite productive, but I have been noticeably more productive since I started that strangely-named-but-oh-so-useful Simpleology 101. Part of what I like about it is that I am absolutely certain every day that I’m on the right track to reach the goal that’s most important to me right now. Because if you do that pesky Daily Praxis in Simpleology, you know what you want and you are on the shortest path to reach that goal. (There is no guarantee that you’ll reach the goal, of course. But being on the right path is a good thing.)

Donald wrote:

I understand the point that Brausch is making, and the motivational and psychological reasons for his argument. But he messes with the language irretrievably. “Try” of course means that one is acting, though it’s a word that captures some ambivalence about either one’s level of commitment to the action (or to achieve the goal that will result from the action) or one’s uncertainty about the prospects for success.

Brausch is making a point about the latter meaning. He’s saying “commit, darn it” — “stand up” in his lingo. And this is fair enough. We all need a kick in the pants sometimes. To put his idea in another context, seeing is believing, but sometimes believing is seeing, and it’s this latter aspect that Brausch is cheerleading about.

But to apply Brausch’s argument to the part of “try” that gets at uncertainty of outcome is foolish. Many runners compete in a race, but only one wins. They all tried to win, and took action to do so (by running in the race).

Randy sez: I hear what you’re saying here. The word “try” is certainly ambiguous. But I like his main point, which is that all too often, “try” is just an excuse for “not taking action.” If I ask my daughter to feed the cat, I do NOT want to hear her say, “I’ll try.” In that context (when it’s a simple matter of doing something she knows how to do), the words are just a lame way of saying, “I’m not going to do a darn thing.”

I’m guessing a number of you have seen the movie FACING THE GIANTS. It’s a “Christian inspirational football movie” if there is such a genre. The acting is kind of spotty, and it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of java, but I find it inspiring. There’s one scene that I really love.

The coach is telling his team how they need to commit to the team. He challenges the captain of the defense, a guy named Brock, to do the “death crawl” for 50 yards. (The death crawl is where you have to crawl on hands and feet–no knees can touch the ground–while carrying another guy on your back.)

Brock says he’ll try. The coach says, “No, I want your best effort.” Brock agrees to give his best effort. Then the coach blindfolds him so he won’t know how far he’s got to go and won’t give up until he’s totally exhausted.

Brock agrees to this while his teammates smirk. Nobody is taking this seriously.

The death crawl begins, and pretty soon Brock is getting tired. The coach keeps telling him, “Your best effort, Brock. Give me all you’ve got. Your best effort!”

This continues for yards and yards and yards. Pretty soon, the teammates aren’t grinning. They’re on their feet watching Brock crawl and crawl and crawl some more.

The coach is hollering, Brock is sweating. The coach hollers some more. “Give me all you’ve got!” He counts down how many more steps to reach the goal: “Ten, nine, eight, seven . . . down to zero.”

When he gets to zero, Brock collapses. He’s lying there gasping, asking if he made it fifty yards. The coach takes off the blindfold and says, “Look where you are, Brock. You’re in the end-zone!”

And he is. Brock’s gone twice as far as he thought he could. He’s learned that he can do amazing things, but “trying” isn’t enough. “Trying” would have got Brock 20 yards. Brock didn’t merely “try,” he acted. He kept on taking action–far beyond what anyone thought he could do. Except that darned coach, who knew all along what Brock could do.

Folks, don’t settle for “I’ll try.” Take action and keep taking action until one of two things happen:
1) You realize that the goal you chose is impossible, or
2) You realize that you don’t want this goal anymore–you want a different one

I’ve been talking this week about that pesky time-management thing. This is something virtually all writers seem to struggle with. I know I do. But I’m getting better at it.

Camille wrote:

Getting it pubbed is a long term goal. Getting the 1st draft done is a medium term goal(?) So what would be a short term goal? Should I set up a daily word count goal? (duh) How can I enforce this?

Randy sez: Actually, a handy thing to do is to break it down a bit. The Simpleology guy says that when you’ve got a big target, what you want to do is work backwards from where you want to be to where you are now. So I put together a list of “how to get published” here. This shows the sequence of publishing your book, working backward from the day the book hits the shelves to the day you first began writing.

* Launch your first book
* Edit galleys on your book
* Work with publicist on campaign for your book
* Do revisions on your book after editor makes comments
* Send “polished draft” to your editor
* Receive phone call from editor buying your book
* Have your agent submit your book to publishers
* Get an agent
* Meet agents at writing conference
* Write a stellar proposal
* Polish your first three chapters
* Finish your novel
* Start writing your novel
* Design your novel (Snowflake it of course)
* Get an idea for your novel
* Finish your “Junior year” of learning the craft
* Finish your “Sophomore year”
* Finish your “Freshman year”
* Decide that you want to be a novelist

Now, many of you know that for me, this sequence took 12 years. That’s about 8 years too long, but that’s the way it was. Please notice that some of these elements are quick and some are slow. Some would be classified as short-term targets in the Simpleology analysis (something you can do in 1 to 10 days), and some of them are medium-term targets (you can do it in a few weeks to a couple of months) or long-term targets (might take 6 months to a year).

For example, deciding you want to be a novelist takes a very short period of time. Getting an idea for a novel might be a few days. Designing it takes a few weeks. Writing it takes months. Working through your Freshman year generally takes 6 to 12 months.

Of course, you can try to take the steps out of sequence. This usually works about as well as trying to take Calculus before taking Algebra and Geometry and Trigonometry. You can do it if you’re a genius, but you are just wasting time if you’re not.

Note that the longer-term targets on my list above need to be broken down. You can break down each of this using the same Backward Planning technique.

Camille, I don’t know exactly where you are on the list, but what I want to tell you is that the shortest path to your ultimate goal is that list. That goes for all pre-published writers.

It’s tempting to say, “But that’s gonna take years!” Yes, it takes years to get published. You knew that. I’ve been saying that for . . . years. There is no reason why anyone reading this blog could not be published five years from now. You just need to decide to do it, and then take action.

M L Eqatin wrote:

Randy, I presume that when you refer to “Thinking about it,” you mean just the cliche, not the action.

Randy sez: Yes, I’m referring to all substitutes for taking action. If you ask your son tomorrow morning to mow the lawn, and tomorrow night you ask if he mowed it, which of these answers do you want to hear?
a) I thought about mowing it.
b) I worked on mowing it.
c) I didn’t know how, so I got someone to teach me.
d) I mowed the lawn.

Ideally, you want to hear (d). If not, then you want to hear (c), but you never want to hear it again, and the next day, you want to hear (d). If you hear (a) or (b), then the brat is blowing smoke and you know it.

When I ask someone how their novel’s going and they say, “I’m working on it,” or “I’m thinking about it,” invariably that means they’re not doing anything. If they say, “I’m reading Dwight Swain’s book to understand MRUs,” then I know they’re improving their craft. If I hear, “I wrote three chapters last week,” then they’re DOING IT. That’s taking action.

I got an email a few weeks ago from a guy in Nigeria. He said that he came across my Snowflake idea last December. He started writing his novel in January, finished it in February, found an agent in April, sold his novel to Hyperion in July, and is now working on another one. That’s taking action! (Don’t ask if I verified any of these actions; I can’t and haven’t.)

PatriciaW wrote:

I assume you mean “thinking about it”, as in the vague, wishy-washy sense, a procrastinator’s favorite tool in which there really is no clear, focused, structured thought toward a specific end. “Have you decided what you’re going to do yet?” “Uhmm, I’m thinking about it…”

Randy sez: Yes. I am not putting down thinking. I believe in planning ahead (and putting it down on paper). I am against covering up for inaction by claiming that you’re “thinking about it.” You, the writer, know perfectly well whether you are really taking action.

Rob wrote:

Okay. I confess I’ve been “working on” my new novel. The problem is, for this book I’m going to have to do some extensive research (something I don’t have a lot of experience doing) and research feels like such an abstract thing to me. I did list a few things I need to know more about, but how would researching a novel break down into tasks to qualify as a primary goal?

Randy sez: I’m sure we’ll talk more about research later on, so I’ll be brief. I recently spent a few weeks doing research. That’s because it was first on my task list for my next novel. Let’s use Backward Planning again. Here are some steps you can take, in reverse order of how you would do them:
* Declare your research “finished.”
* Read the last book on your list of books to read.
* Read the next to last book on your list.
* …
* Read the first book on your list.
* Get on Amazon and make a list of books to read.
* Identify the topic to be researched.

Instead of books, you may need to substitute web research or interviews with real people or whatever. But making a list is a powerful tool to getting a big project done. You can always revise the list as you go, but make a list and then get cracking on it. Take action. If your list is not a list of actions, then revise it until it is. If you don’t know what to put on the list, figure out who knows what should go on the list and ask them. There is always some action you can take. Take it.

Take action! Don’t settle for “thinking about it” or “working on it.”

For more about Backward Planning, do the Simpleology thing. It’s good. It’s free. It’s pretty darn powerful. It’s what I use now and will continue using until I find something even better.