Novel Writing on Edge - Development Notes From Algonkian Writer Conferences

  Revision is Emotional “Revision! Whatever that is.”  And thus Gotham’s own Arlaina Tibensky kicked off our Fiction Writing Conference a couple of weeks ago, with a panel on strategies for revising. Which was perfect, because by asking, “What even is this?” Arlaina freed the other writers in the room to come back with an unexpected answer.  Revision is… emotional.  “The first thing is accepting that even though you’ve been working on your book, and you think you’ve finished it, it’s really not your book yet,” said Kate Fagan, sportswriter and author of the novel The Three Lives of Cate Kay . “You’ve got to mourn that.” When she first sends a book to her editor, Fagan—who has also published two nonfiction books and is working on her next novel—indulges the fantasy that the draft is perfect, or nearly so. When her editor instead responds with notes, Fagan takes two days to mourn, “the loss that I didn’t deliver the perfect bo...

Antagonists are quite often the most memorable characters in literature, regardless of genre. Without them many of the best selling novels of all time would simply cease to exist, their supporting beams cut away, the shell of remaining "story" quietly imploding to ignominy and self-publication. Consider the impact on a scene, any scene, as soon as the author moves the chess piece of antagonist onto the page. The mere presence of a Javert from "Les Misérables," Assef from "The Kite Runner," or Nurse Ratched from "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," immediately energizes the environment. The narrative and dialogue literally crackle and groan with antagonist. What chances do you as a writer have of getting your novel manuscript commercially published,  regardless of genre,  if the story and narrative fail to meet reader demands for sufficient suspense, character concern, and conflict? Answer: none. But what major factor accounts for this d...

As you explore the nooks and literary crannies here, you'll find considerable words devoted to warning you away from foolish and terrible advice.  But what about professional, tested, and proven advice? Below are ten bullet points for aspiring authors designed to help them overcome any confusion or misdirection when it comes to starting the novel. However, before you investigate, make certain you've already prepared by reading this sensible prologue . Note: the list below makes a base assumption that the writer is a relative novice and currently searching for direction and focus--the same stage every one of us passes through. For those in the second stage, or higher, the list might well begin further down. Nonetheless, we cannot stress enough how important it is to fully understand your genre. Eat and breathe it. Know the currents in the market, what makes for a "high concept" story in this context. You'll never be published otherwise. KEY CONCEPTS : genre, ...

By Christine Stewart Many years ago, I took a workshop called Writing the Ideal Heroine , which was taught by Rebecca Smith, a novelist, a former writer-in-residence at the Jane Austen House Museum (Chawton Cottage), and the great, great, great, great, great niece of Jane Austen. Pretty good credentials in my opinion. There's another tip - if you can find a writing workshop wherever you're going, take it! How cool was it to sit in her garden doing writing exercises? It's harder to write a sympathetic female lead character than a male one, I think. Sorry if that sounds like a double standard, but in my experience as a reader and writer, it's true. Most have certain expectations of female characters related to emotions, actions, desires. Whether you meet these expectations or subvert them and how you do so, will affect whether or not your readers (especially women, who often identify with the female character) like them or hate their guts and throw your book in the ...

From the desk of Richard Curtis . If you do something so horrendous as to provoke your agent to declare, "Life is too short," you'd better start looking for someone else to handle your work. It means you have tried his or her patience beyond its limit. You're a walking dead author. We recently described good timing as one of the most important virtues a literary agent can bring to the job. There's another that most good agents possess, and that's patience. If timing is the art of "when to," patience is the art of "when not to." Unfortunately, that often means when not to knock my head against a wall, wring an author's throat, or hop in a taxi, race over to a publisher's office and trash it. Although some people are born patient, for most of us it's an acquired quality. We attain it only with experience, and it is arguably the only significant benefit of aging. If you are constitutionally incapable of practicing patience, you a...

It's like acid rain.  It never ceases to scar, harm the environment, and ruin vacations. We're talking about bad writer advice, of course (btw, see our first article on this subject ).  While perusing several collections of "Worst Writer Advice" found sprouting like toxic tulips after a simple Google search (most of it authored by insufferable rank amateurs working for the ad-driven content industry, and who wisely appear between ages 12 and 17), I found the various fallacies and idiocies about novel writing contained therein to be worth pointing out. Much of it was reminiscent of childish Twitter rumor, and therefore, potentially harmful to aborning novelists.  Should one even bother though to set this straight? It makes you feel a little like the baffled ex-astronaut prodded into revealing Earth really is a globe when addressing a convention of flat earth fanatics, i.e., " I can't believe I'm even talking about this ." And btw, whil...

Below are the first seven assignments we provide to writers who will be attending upcoming Algonkian events . All of them are vital to reaching an understanding of the critical elements that go into the creation of a commercially viable literary project, whether novel or narrative non-fiction. There is more to it, of course, much more, but this is an excellent primer.  Pay special attention to antagonistic force, breakout title, conflict issues, core wound, and setting. Quiet novels do not sell. Michael Neff Algonkian Conferences Chief Editor __________________________________________________________ THE ACT OF STORY STATEMENT Before you begin to consider or rewrite your story premise, you must develop a simple "story statement." In other words, what is the mission of your protagonist? Their goal? What must be done? What must she or he create? Destroy? Save? Accomplish? Defeat? ... Consider the following classics.   - Defy the dictator of the city and bu...