The Three Things An Editor Notices First

AAHHHH EDITORS!!

Just kidding. Actually, editors seriously rock. Especially the good ones.

Anyway, this Saturday was the annual Life, The Universe, and Everything conference, where us hopeful and dewy-eyed writers got to learn at the feet of masters such as Brandon Sanderson, M.T. Anderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Shannon Hale. There's just something so completely cool about actually seeing in real life the actual, flesh and blood person behind the books that have changed your life. 

*We now interupt this program for a Public Service Announcement*: Shannon Hale is amazing and a goddess and she gave the keynote address and you should all go read this post on her blog RIGHT NOW. I'll wait. Back? Okay. *ahem* Now back to our regularly scheduled program.*

So anyway, one of the most practical workshops I attended was given by a professional editor who spoke as cleanly as he preached, and had some seriously great advice to give. One of the things he mentioned were the top three things he and other professional editors notice when they receive a new manuscript.

First, though, why should we care? That's a fair question. We are artistes, after all. What care we for the gruff and superficial opinions of others? Well, first of all, we need others. As the analogy goes, be the artist for a while, soak in the muse and creative juices, make your masterpiece shine, and then LOCK that artist in the closet, STEAL the manuscript and run away cackling and SELL IT for as much moulah as you can get. I'm sorry, if you want writing to be your job, that's how you've gotta do it. If you're just writing for yourself, then just write for yourself. But if you really want to get your work out there and be taken seriously, then plain and simple, you're going to be dealing with editors.

Editors are great. They're human just like everybody else, and are trying to get the best work they can to publish the best product they can. Our job as writers is to make it easy for them to say yes. As easy as possible. (Yes, this means following submission guidelines. If they ask you to send your manuscript in size 42, Comic Sans font on yellow paper, then you darn well send it in size 42 Comic Sans font on yellow paper.) But these guys see so, so many submissions a day, that even you follow the instructions to a T, how can you make yourself stand out of the pack in a positive way? Well, according to this one editor at least, here are three things editors notice first when they pick up a submission:

1. The Prose: This may seem backwards. We often think of clean prose as the icing on the cake, and all the meaty, juicy stuff like character and plot and theme and voice as the stuff that really matters. However, thinking this way may be doing yourself a disservice. You may have the coolest characters ever, but if your prose isn't clean and flowing as rainwater, then they can't even see those awesome characters. They're buried and distorted under the brackish muck. There are SO many resources out there about good characters and cool plot twists and how to improve your writing voice, but not so many on good grammar. However it's not as nasty as it sounds, and this editor even has a rare great resource. Check out his blog The Story Polisher. I plan to go through his posts, and I know it will help make my writing what I envision it to be.

2. Structure: After making sure they can read your writing, the editor wants to know if you can tell a good story. Spin a good yarn. They want a chauffeur who knows what they're doing--student drivers make us all sick. Make sure you're reading a lot, and picking up what the overall structure of a successful story looks like. Have other people read it to make sure there aren't confusing or boring bits. Make sure your ending feels right in the story, and the editors who receive your piece will cry in gratitude.

3. Creativity: Editors also look for something they haven't seen a heptillion times before. Don't stress out too much about this though. C. S. Lewis says, "Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it." Just be you, as you as you possibly can, and you're work will be a breath of fresh air.

Two more quick things the editor said that I think are worth mentioning. First: we all make stupid mistakes. All of us. Don't feel bad when you do. Just learn and fix and improve for next time around. (I'm working on this as much as [more than] anyone). And second, this editor actually said that items two and three are what he can help you with. He can help your story's overall structure and help you make your idea a little more unique. However, if your piece is riddled with errors and the prose is broken, it will take him twenty times longer to try and teach you the rules of language, and fix every mistake. So make sure you're learning that well on your own (or in a class). I hadn't thought of things that way before, but I'm glad I know now.

Whew. This was kind of a long one, but I hope it was helpful. Get that writing polished and don't be scared to submit!

Sarah Allen

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Blogging As An Unpublished Writer: Am I A Sham?

I've been having some blurry thoughts about blogging in the last few weeks and months. I feel all conflicted about it, and perhaps unnecessarily so. But still, I have so many questions and vague ideas and I want to make sure I'm doing this right. Often I feel like an impostor.

I've decided a few things about blogging:

I love it. I do. Genuinely. I love that it forces me to write, and I love that I get to talk to all of you guys.

It feels obsolete. In some ways, it really does feel like blogging has gone the way of payphones. Maybe a few people still use them, but you gotta kind a look at them a little suspiciously, and wonder why. People post funny GIFS and videos all the time, but I don't know the last time someone on my Facebook or someone even IRL was talking about a blog post they'd read.

It still feels necessary. So, even though blogging isn't The Thing anymore, and even though its not going to sell books or make me wildly popular, I'm still very glad I have it, and am definitely not giving it up. To me blogging is sort of like a dictionary for any given writer. The dictionary itself isn't going to be the glitz and glam that gets the career going (probably not, anyway) but its important to just have it there, so people can come back to check it every once in a while.

The Chuck Wendig vs. Anne R. Allen philosophies. Chuck and Anne are two of my all-time favorite bloggers, but for completely different reasons. I actively look forward to Anne's weekly posts because they are by far the most informative of pretty much any blog out there. She goes in depth, and makes sure every topic and angle is well covered. Its a master class in being a writer. Chuck, on the other hand, posts irregularly and his content is widely varied. He posts his own photography, or flash fiction contests. His blog you can pop in whenevs, get some laughs, have a good time, and head out. In my ideal blogging world, I want to have both sides. I dunno if its possible, but I'd like to.

I don't like giving writing advice. Both Chuck and Anne give great advice, but I've noticed something: its less about how to write and more about how to be a writer. The business and lifestyle side of things. That makes sense to me, because I don't know if I like sort of anonymous writing advice. A person improves there writing by learning from people and mentors in real life, and especially by having other people read their actual writing.

So with all that in mind, I'm trying to figure out what I really want to do with this here blog. I want to do some exciting cool things with it. I know I couldn't be another Anne or Chuck. I'm not as funny as Chuck, and not nearly as smart and wise as Anne. So I'm trying to figure out me as a blogger, especially given that I haven't published yet. (Still working on that. I'll be working on that till the day I die).

So here's my question: What are your favorite blog topics? And who are your most regularly checked, consistently favorite bloggers?

I'll take all the ideas I can get :)

Write on!

Sarah Allen

There IS a Magic Key to Writing Success

People say all sorts of things about writing. In fact, so many people say so many things that all the advice can seem confusing and really, really complicated. Peoples advice on "Achieving Success As A Pusher of Words" can feel like "Stand on one foot while singing the national anthem and flipping pancakes and if you do that just exactly at 8:88 PM when Venus and Jupiter are aligned you just might get an agent to read your work."

I'm here to tell you, its much simpler than that.

There IS a magic secret to success. And for a mere $200,000, that secret can be YOURS

Just kidding. It's not really a secret, its just something I've learned in the last few months. I've come to the conclusion that there really is one single thing that can make ALL the difference. That doesn't mean you don't still have to put in the work, but there is just ONE thing you can do that will take you from being someone who likes writing to being someone who's an ink-slingin writer by darn. Ready for the magic secret? Here it is.

The key is writing groups.

With a good (emphasis on good...we'll get to that) writing group, so many of your bases are covered. Writing groups help you:

1. Write better.
2. Feel like writing.
3. Write to a schedule.
4. Write betterer.
5. Learn the industry.
6. Make connections.
7. Make more connections

I could go on. Every single one of these benefits has happened for me in the last few months (even weeks) because of writing groups. I am really not good at networking. I am quite friendly, but I am clueless about how to turn friendliness into meaningful connections. However in my workshop last semester I met someone who is literally a genius at connecting and networking, and for the people I've met alone, the price of tuition is so worth it. I am learning so much, and feeling a part of something great more than I have maybe ever. All because of writing groups.

Now, of course, there's a caveat. We all know that writing groups can totally fail too. But just do whatever you gotta do to find a good one, because honestly without it I feel like you'd be trying to compete in NASCAR on a camel. If you are serious about writing, or really about anything, get other people to help you. Its so much better than trying to do it alone.

Write on!

Sarah Allen

For more frequent updates, writing tips, and funnies, follow on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, 
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Its Not Over Till You've Won

Computer games, whatever your opinion of them, can actually be quite an apt analogy for life, in my opinion. 

You start out, excited and ready. You work hard, you learn a lot. You make progress and hit your first Big Boss. It might take a few tries, but finally you beat him. You've developed skills that finally enable you to beat the boss and get to the end.

And then you go to level two.

Level two teaches you how much you still have left to learn, and it hits you maybe for the first time how many levels there are ahead of you. It's very easy to give up at this point. You've had some success. You've beat a Big Boss already, haven't you?

This is the make or break moment, and we all face them. Maybe in some areas its okay to leave it here, but we all have something that we're determined to see it through to the end. For us its writing.

I've had half a dozen rejections in the past week, and that can be really disheartening. Here are a few things I'm remembering, and maybe remembering will help you too.

• I'm remembering that I'm getting so many rejections because I'm doing so many submissions.
• I'm remembering that many of these rejections are personal and final cut rejections. I didn't get any of those a few years ago. This is progress.
• I'm remembering that Brandon Sanderson wrote 12 novels before he got one published, and now look at him.
• I'm remembering that I am two writing groups richer than I was a few months ago, and this has made my writing much better.
• I'm remembering that I just have to keep writing, because something eventually will work out.
• I'm remembering that music always makes me feel good.

Write on!

Sarah

Do You Have Your "Happy Things" Arsenal?

One of the worst parts about feeling down, for me, is that I feel completely not myself. Feeling sad and depressed is like wearing stilettos in the Amazon, or bringing an elephant to the New York Stock Exchange. It just doesn't feel natural. And then I get frustrated for feeling like I'm not myself, which only adds to the cycle of melancholy.

I don't know about you, but I don't work very well under those conditions. To me its like trying to write while wearing a space suit, or while a ferret is bouncing on your head. I know there are many writers, dead and living, who are able to use these really heavy feelings as fuel for writing, but that's just not the way it works for me. I think sadness and depression can be incredibly important in writing, and I use them as sort of the rods that hook the story to the ground, but they're not the concrete foundation.

Plus its just no fun living that way. 

Caveat: I'm not talking about clinical depression here, and other chemical imbalances. Those issues need to be dealt with very carefully, and if that's what you're dealing with, please don't feel afraid or ashamed to seek help. 

What I am talking about is knowing oneself well enough to know what yanks you out of those slumps and back into feeling your happy, normal self. Have your "Happy Things Arsenal" ready for when those slumps inevitably come.

Here are three things from my arsenal:

Exercise: I never thought I'd say this, but exercise makes me happy. I've finally learned that the begrudging preparation for going to the gym pays off big-time in how I feel when I leave. So I'm recommending exercise, but with this thought in mind: don't listen to/watch what anybody else is doing. And that includes your past self. If you've previously felt obligated to love running, and actually despise it, but secretly love swimming laps, then by all means, SWIM LAPS. If your friends all love Yoga but you love biking, then go biking! Or just take slow walks with your dog, or dive into cross-fit if that's your jam. But essentially, listen to what YOU love, and do that. That's what ends up being sustainable.

Friends and Family: This is an obvious one, but so obvious that I've occasionally found myself forgetting that its there in my Happy Arsenal. I forget that I have a couple people in my life that ALWAYS make me feel better after I talk to them. My mom, my college BFFs. Figure out who those people are in your life and don't take them for granted. When you start sensing melancholy coming on like a bad cold, call them immediately. Maybe even while you're on the way to the gym. It will stop the sadness snowball from causing an avalanche.

Faith: I think sometimes, at least for me, sadness and depression is directly related to imbalanced priorities. It's the whole mountains and molehills thing when you're not looking at things with that clearer perspective. We all know what's most important in our lives, but its so easy to forget. So whatever you do that reminds you of something bigger, that strengthens your felt connections to divinity, do those things. Pray, read the Bible or the Quoran or Wallace Stegner. Watch The Prince of Egypt or take a walk or meditate. Do all those things, or whatever it is that brings you spiritual peace.

Here's the video that directly got me out of my slump this week. It's a talk given by LDS apostle Dieter F. Utchdorf, and though its directed toward young women, I recommend it to all. I personally don't see how one can listen to this talk and feel sad afterwards. In fact, (and I know its 20 minutes so this might be asking a lot) but I'm very, very curious what you guys think of it. I'd love to know in comments:

Write on!

Sarah