Saying for Writers #166 - Finding Forrester

A Quote which Might (or Might Not) Inspire You to Write:

“Write your first draft with your heart. Re-write with your head.” -- From the movie Finding Forrester.

One year ago, author and writing instructor (and former writer for Wolf Blitzer's show) John DeDakis was a featured presenter at the Flathead Writer Writers Conference, and took this photo at Avalanche Lake in Glacier National Park. Fond memories of a terrific conference live on, but all one million acres of Glacier Park are locked up due to the government shut-down. Next conference will be September 27/28, 2014 in Kalispell, Montana.

Tip O'Day #430 - Fighting Past Rejection

Guest blogger Elizabeth Hoban writes on the turning points in a writing career.

One percent inspiration and 99% perspiration was originally scribed by a writer, had to be.

For many years, I perspired when it came to writing. After what seemed like forever, I submitted my clever thriller over and over, and was rejected enough times to compile a lengthy book with Sorry-not-for-us letters. I didn’t understand this disconnect. Mine was a perfectly polished manuscript from the moment I typed The End. Hadn’t I spent enough time on this? Every favorite word and riveting sentence that ever ran through my mind was in that tome. I had whole sections memorized verbatim. I didn’t need to revisit it until I received the galleys, right? I had completed the writing of a book and I deserved to see it published.

When a well-known agent at a prominent writers conference announced to her audience that the odds of winning the lottery were better than getting your first book published, the audience gasped. I may have cried. Before I requested a conference refund, the author/speaker went on to explain that surprisingly the odds in favor of publication grew dramatically with the second novel before a first novel saw publication, then the third before the first two, and so on. My novel, my opus, my first born had taken me ten years to finish, meaning I’d be taking the dirt nap before I could write another book. After condemning everything from my second grade teacher to the alphabet, I begrudgingly put my opus in a drawer and began a second novel. After all, I had raised two kids, owned a second home. In fact, I was a second born and writing may be my second career, so why not, why couldn’t I write a second book?

Two years later, I was amazed to realize how much smoother the entire process went with this child. Like an athlete or musician, I was becoming quite practiced at writing. My grunt work was getting done while I enjoyed the creative process. Dare I say I was becoming a seasoned writer? My therapist thought so, when amidst the conclusion of my second novel, I started a third. Say what?

All writers who persevere have had that moment, that career turning point when they want to sit and rest on their laurels and someone pulls the chair out from under them. Here I wanted to pitch my great book to agents and turns out they were only considering second book ideas at that conference. According to the pitch boss, publishers wanted writers with more than one idea. Needless to say, that conference was my wake-up call. Sometimes the advice that’s the hardest to take is the exact advice you should take.

Both my first book and second book are traditionally published. My second book was the first to receive a publishing contract. Coincidence, I think not. Write on!

Check out Liz Hoban's hardcover true WW2 tale, The Final Mission here and The Cheech Room, her fiction suspense-thriller here.

Tip O'Day #393 - Writers Conferences

There's a saying you'll hear at AA meetings that, "If you keep hanging around barber shops, sooner or later you'll end up with a haircut."

Looking at it a different way, if you want to become a world-famous barber, there's no better place to loiter than a barber shop.

A writers conference is a wonderful place to learn more about (1) the craft of writing, (2) how to get published, (3) what's going on in different genres, and (4) how the publishing business really works. It's also a great way to network with other writers and book lovers, and I still keep in touch with folks I met at conferences years ago. Most of all, a writers conference fills me with enough energy and inspiration to keep going for 12 months - until the next conference.

Some conferences are massive events, and you need to be nimble so you're not trampled by eager hordes of authors. I'd like to suggest a small, writer-friendly gathering in one of the most beautiful spots on earth - my home town.

The Flathead River Writers Conference takes place in Kalispell, Montana, within view of the Rocky Mountains on Sat-Sun October 6-7, 2012. It is limited to 100 participants, and full registration is a mere $150. For a rundown on our speakers and other details, follow this link: http://www.authorsoftheflathead.org/conference.asp

Hope to see you there.

Lake McDonald in pristine Glacier National Park, an hour's drive from Kalispell, Montana.

Tip O'Day #363 - The Secret Is...

Guest blogger Troy Lambert divulges the Writing Secret.

There is some belief that what a writer does is somehow mysterious. That there is some secret formula, some secret ingredient you get when you join the author club (secret handshake and decoder ring included) that somehow makes you a better writer than the rest. I am going to share with you the secret. No club dues needed. Free, today only, right here.

The secret is to sit down and write. Not tomorrow. Not the next day. Right now. I am sure you have read enough books about writing—we all did in the beginning and we still do from time to time. We need to refresh and to hone our craft. These books have value, and reading them should be a part of your writing life. It is like continuing education for a nurse or a doctor. Without it, progress passes you by. But the one thing you must do every day without fail, no matter where you are, is write.

I used to teach skiing and I had a saying: “There is no substitute for time on the snow.” We talked about skiing, we watched movies about it, and we studied it in books. Sounds like writing, huh? (Have you seen Misery or Bag of Bones?) Writers attend conferences and seminars (even the dreaded webinar from time to time). Like skiing though, there is no substitute for time at the keyboard. It doesn’t matter if you are writing a letter, a short story, making progress on your novel, or even writing a blog post. (Yes, this counts.)

Between technical writing and professional research (some for my day job, yes I am a lucky guy) and the fiction writing I do, I average about five hours of writing every day. That does not count marketing, education, or anything else writing related. Add those in, and being a writer is a full time job and then some. I work an average of 70 hours a week. I also made three times what the average writer does last year.

Am I getting rich? Nope, even though my novel Redemption is doing rather well (you really should check it out). My short story collection Broken Bones continues to sell also and I am being hounded by fans to finish the sequel to Redemption titled Temptation. I am working on another research contract and will be at the Pacific Northwest Writer’s Association Conference in Seattle at the end of July (if you are coming you should drop me a line or stop in and say hi).

Meanwhile, you have spent enough time reading this post. Get back to writing. After all, that’s what writers should do most.

Troy released Broken Bones, a collection of short stories, in 2011 and a new thriller titled Redemption came out earlier this year. You can learn more about this writer at his Amazon page or his blog.

Tip O'Day #341 - Gender Bender

Guest blogger John DeDakis asks, “Can a man write effectively as a woman?”

I'm a guy, but I write in the first person as a woman.

When my first mystery/suspense novel Fast Track was published in hardcover in 2005, one of my male friends said in astonishment to one of our mutual female friends, "I didn't know John was a closet woman!"

I inscribed his book: "Welcome to my closet."

My CNN colleague and cone-of-silence friend Carol Costello once told me after reading an early draft of the manuscript, "You have a very well-developed female side." I suppose some guys might be freaked to be told that, but Carol meant it as a compliment, so I accept it, even though I'm still not totally sure what she means (but I think it has to do with nuanced emotional depth, or something).

Writing as a woman started when I first began toying with writing fiction nearly twenty years ago. Someone suggested that I choose a point of view that would be different for me -- and a challenge. It was only later that I realized that most people who buy books are women. Cool.

I found that writing from the female perspective hasn't been as tough as I thought it would be, for a number of reasons:

• I had a great relationship with my mom (a third grade school teacher, incidentally) -- I could talk with her about anything.
• Cindy, my wife of 33 years, is one of those quality people who have a lot of substantive things to say. She's smart, compassionate, articulate, and never boring.
• My 30-year-old writer/daughter Emily is never shy about offering an opinion on just about everything. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from Queens University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and edited both my novels.
• I work in a newsroom surrounded by twenty-something young women who tell me about their boyfriend, career, and family issues, probably because I'm much more comfortable asking questions and listening than pontificating.

I asked a lot of women to read the Fast Track manuscript before I found my agent -- also a woman (Barbara Casey) -- and their feedback helped me make tweaks that rendered the text authentic to the female psyche. For example, I had a line of dialogue in which Lark Chadwick, my protagonist, says, "I'll just jump into the shower." The women of the Princeton Lakes Book Club in Marietta, Georgia, who let me sit in and listen as they critiqued the manuscript, said, as one: "Women do NOT just 'jump' into the shower. We savor the sensuality of the experience."

Got it. Lark no longer jumps into the shower.

After that first novel came out, Kris Kosach of ABC Radio wrote, "DeDakis crawls inside the mind of a twenty-something female, authentically capturing her character, curiosity and self-expression in this can't-put-down thriller." Nice.

And I continue to be amazed at the numerous 5-star reviews I get on Amazon from women who don't seem to mind that a man is writing as a woman. See for yourself here.

Bluff, the second novel in the Lark Chadwick series, came out a year ago. Veteran investigative journalist Diane Dimond (NPR, NBC, and now Newsweek/TheDailyBeast.com) writes, "Lark reminds me of me in the early days of my career.... DeDakis can so accurately write from a woman's point of view -- with all the intrinsic curiosity, emotion and passion -- [that it's] nothing short of astounding."

Conversely, I think it goes without saying that women, too, can effectively write as men. In fact, I would venture that all authors have at least some experience writing characters of the opposite sex because most novels contain male and female characters.

Yes, there is probably still plenty of prejudice out there among people who don't believe it's possible for a writer to be able to bridge the gender gap, but I've found that emotions are universal. Women, as well as men, experience fear, joy, anger, and sadness. Neither gender corners the market on having feelings, it's just that I've found women express them more interestingly and articulately.

So, I'm proud to be a woman -- if only on the printed page.

John DeDakis is a Senior Copy Editor for CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer” and the author of the Lark Chadwick mystery-suspense series “Fast Track” and “Bluff.” He is currently at work on books three and four in the series (“Troubled Water” and “Bullet in the Chamber”). John will be a guest speaker at the Flathead River Writers' Conference, Oct. 6-7, 2012 in Kalispell, Montana. You're also invited to visit John's website.

A Great Writers Conference

The Authors of the Flathead is a very active writing group in the scenic Pacific Northwest. Each Fall, they sponsor one fo the most writer-friendly conferences around. This year, it will be October 1-2, 2011, on the Flathead Valley Community College campus, at the north edge of Kalispell, Montana. As always, it is limited to 100 participants, so don't come expecting the hordes you may have trampled under at other conferences.

Glacier International Airport is less than 10 miles away. In Kalispell, we do have fine restaurants and hotels, rental cars, paved roads, and cell phone coverage. No need to bring your six-shooter, since wolves and outlaws rarely cross the city limits.

Rather than me bragging on and on, follow this link and check out the fine speakers that have been assembled.

http://www.authorsoftheflathead.org/conference.asp

Writer Conference-ing

I'm excited about attending the 20th annual Flathead River Writers Conference this weekend (Oct 2-3) in Kalispell, Montana. I had a conflict and couldn't attend last year. When I've attended in the past, I've always enjoyed meeting new people, learning new "tricks of the trade," and storing up enough enthusiasm to keep writing for another 11 or 12 months.

I was recently involved in a discussion thread for the Writers Etc group (on Facebook) and was asked for advice on what to do at a conference. I surprise myself (and everybody else, no doubt) by coming up with something fairly coherent, which is as follows:

Try to develop a 2-3 sentence "elevator pitch" in case you get some time with an agent or editor, for example at lunch or in a workshop, and if it's appropriate to mention what you're working on. If time allows, ask them how you could improve your pitch. This can be a good way to create a favorable impression.

Conferences are great for making contacts, but don't try to make a deal then and there. After you get home, mail or email a nice letter saying how nice it was to meet him/her at ABC writers conference and you appreciated their guidance on your pitch for "XYZ" work in progress. Then ask if you can send them your first few chapters.

Good luck and have fun.