Article Archives — Author

The Big Wave Theory

by Jennifer Paros

Recently, my youngest son came home with math homework. Usually, he brings home a page, but on this day he was to complete four sheets. Although he does do his work, he is often resistant about having to, and this time was no different.

He approached this bigger assignment in the same manner he often approaches the smaller ones, and soon found himself running behind. After dinner he returned to the work but immediately fell to panicking, as it now seemed difficult as well as too long.

Jennifer ParosJune 13, 2009Comment

Writing Your G.I. Joe

by Matt Cates

Last night I was sitting in a bunker in Baghdad watching Tropical Thunder, the Ben Stiller farce about actors who think they're making a war film but whose lives really are endangered. The movie is spot-on with its intentionally stereotyped military characters: the ripped and stoic white leader; the earnest, soulful black second-in-command; the world-weary, wise-cracking sarge; the geeky comm kid; the smooth jive-talker.

Matt CatesJune 13, 2009Comment

The Ten Best Books on Writing

by Paula Margulies

Whenever I find myself in one of those middle-of-the-novel writing funks, I turn to the experts, whose books on how to maneuver through the alternately frustrating and fulfilling maze of fiction-writing line the shelves in my office. Although I’ve read dozens of them over the years, a select few have made their way to a place of honor on the shelf reserved for those books I refuse to give away.

Paula MarguliesJune 13, 2009Comment

Genre: A Glorious Concept

by James Thayer

Before he began writing The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis told his friend J.R.R. Tolkien that “there is too little of what we really like in stories. I am afraid we shall have to try to write some ourselves.”

What do readers like in a novel? Reliable entertainment. Most book buyers already know the kind of story they are looking for before they begin to browse. They want a certain category, a story with a particular content that has entertained them in the past. In other words, a genre novel.

James ThayerJune 13, 2009Comment

The Pregnant Pause

by Cherie Tucker

Could we talk a minute about the ellipsis marks, those three little dots that people think mean a number of things they actually don’t mean? First of all, here is how they are to be typed: three spaced periods. Only three. Not seven. Only three. With a space between each of them. Each. Of. Them.

Next, here is how they are to be used. If you are taking something out of a quotation, you indicate that you have done so by the use of those three spaced periods.

Cherie TuckerMay 14, 2009Comment

"Well, I Don’t Care What You Think Anyway!"—Effectively Handling Rejection and Criticism

by Erin Brown

It’s never an easy thing to face rejection. Whether it’s a kind, but ultimately big fat “No!” letter from an agent, a scathing review in Romantic Times for your debut suspense novel, a boss who fires you, or that stupid Chase Peterson in middle school who called you Olive Oyl for three years straight because you were too tall and skinny. I mean, who does he think he is? I hope that jerk is living in a van and selling fireworks without any friends...oh, ahem, back to the matter at hand.

Erin BrownMay 14, 2009Comment

Hating Your Project

by Anna Sheehan

I just finished a project I hated.

I had started a novel that I found interesting to begin with. It had a promising premise and a couple of intriguing characters. I set off excited and hopeful, poured out the first act and a half, and then got stuck around fifty-thousand words (and haven’t we all had this problem?). The characters became dull and wooden, and might as well have been on Mars for all the insight they were giving me into their emotional state. The landscape became grey and featureless, and the conflict a washed out adolescent tiff between a lifeless heroine and a villain about as terrifying as a stuffed rabbit.

Anna SheehanMay 14, 2009Comment

Accidentally Optimistic: Patience as the Cure for Pessimism

by Jennifer Paros

In my youngest son’s classroom, they have a list up on the wall of the “Way to Be”. Things like “Be respectful of others” are listed, and at the bottom is: “Have an I CAN attitude!” When I saw this, I thought it was a great directive, and I very much hoped they were teaching the children how to do that. Because I’m not sure that I know how to have an “I Can Attitude” on command.

It’s easy for me to ruminate negatively on what I’ve written, to focus on the possibility of it not coming together, of it not being “good enough” or of not being able to get it published. But these are not profound insights, they’re just black magic.

Jennifer ParosMay 14, 2009Comment

Building Your Platform Step by Step

by Paula Margulies

Whenever I speak at writers’ conferences, authors often ask me what is meant by the term “platform.” Simply put, your platform is all about you — the experience, background, and expertise you bring to the table, in addition to the wonderful book you’ve written.

The concept of platform is important when selling a book because it’s what the media, especially radio and TV folks, are most interested in when it comes time to set up promotional appearances.

Paula MarguliesMay 14, 2009Comment

The Critical First Sentence

by James Thayer

The most important words in your novel? The first sentence. Writing it can be easy or hard, depending on who you listen to. The French playwright Molière said, “I always write a good first line, but I have trouble writing the others.” But Chaim Potok said, “All beginnings are hard.”

Your first sentence is the hook for the story that follows.

James ThayerApril 14, 2009Comment

Were You or Was You?

by Cherie Tucker

There has been a request to solve the mystery of when to use were versus was, so here goes. If you have a sentence that expresses a wish or begins with if and is talking about something contrary to facts, you need to use something called the subjunctive while choosing your verbs. (Don’t stop reading.)

You use were and not was when the sentence is about wishing for something that is not actual or describing something with an if clause that defies physics or is at least not probable.

Cherie TuckerApril 9, 2009Comment

Taste vs. Marketplace: An Editor’s Dilemma

by Erin Brown

One of the most difficult things that an author can hear is, “I love your manuscript, but unfortunately, I can’t buy it—[fill in the blank of your genre] just isn’t selling right now.” “But, but, wait,” you think. “Everyone who’s read my paranormal Regency comedic romance says he/she would buy it in a second!” Ah, yes, your cousin, your mother, and even your writer’s group members would pony up some hard-earned cash for Lust Amongst the British Bogs: A Lady Philomena Love Story, but unfortunately the editor who also adores the story knows that the market is down for this type of bodice-ripper.

Erin BrownApril 9, 2009Comment

The Art of Finding What You Want

by Jennifer Paros

When I was nine, I found a small plastic folder in the wastebasket. It was black and empty of its original notepad. But this folder caught my attention, and excited me to the point that it seemed so valuable, I felt compelled to ask my mother if it was all right for me to keep it. She agreed and I ran off to my bedroom to spend much of the afternoon cutting down sheets of notebook paper into a makeshift pad that would fit inside. When I was done, I had my first journal and I couldn’t wait to write in it. When I happened to look into that wastebasket something in me had been alert and actively hunting, whether I was aware of it or not.

Jennifer ParosApril 9, 2009Comment

Finding Opportunity in a Teacup

by Paula Margulies

I recently read Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin’s Three Cups of Tea, the fascinating non-fiction account of how Mortenson, a mountain climber and American nurse, came to build fifty-five schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In one of my favorite parts of the book, Mortenson describes a 1998 talk he gave in a sports shop in Apple Valley, Minnesota, where the store staff was so busy he had to set up the seating -- over a hundred folding chairs -- himself. After weeks of publicity, including posters at a local college, an AM radio morning show interview, and segments in the local papers, he faced an audience of only three people: two store employees and a single customer, who hovered at the back of the room.

Paula MarguliesApril 9, 2009Comment

How Many Words a Day?

by James Thayer

How many words should we write each day? What should be our pace? Too fast, and it might be sloppy. Too slow, and we’ll never finish our novels. “The secret of becoming a writer,” Jerry Pournelle says, “is that you have to write.” But how much each day?

A look at the output of successful writers might offer a guide. Let’s assume a double-spaced manuscript page contains 300 words.

James ThayerApril 9, 2009Comment

Author's Authors

by William Kenower

A quick update on one of Author’s many authors. Here’s a great story from Diane Hammond who appeared in our October issue.

When Hannah's Dream was about a month from its release of September 2, 2008, I was in a whole-body, cold sweat, certain I'd be the laughing stock of the literary world. My first editor (Random House) had flatly refused to publish HANNAH, my agent's enthusiasm was so tepid that she delicately suggested I could shelve the whole thing, and only one publisher wanted the book enough to make an offer.

William KenowerMarch 14, 2009Comment

To Possess or Not to Possess

by Cherie Tucker

Can you see what’s wrong with this sentence: They celebrated with expensive champagne because of the team winning the championship? If you went to parochial school and had the nuns, you know that you must always use the possessive with the gerund, but if you went to public school or were born after the Beatles’ 1968 hit, “Hey, Jude,” you may not even know what we’re talking about.

Cherie TuckerMarch 14, 2009Comment

Where, Oh, Where Has My Editor Gone?

by Erin Brown

There’s never a scarier feeling than when your editor calls to tell you that he or she will no longer be working with you, that he or she is moving on to greener pastures. Well, unless your editor doesn’t call to tell you at all. That scenario usually involves an editor who was suddenly fired and escorted out of the building for doing something extremely evil, such as stealing copy toner or not doing a legal review of James Frey’s latest “memoir.”

Erin BrownMarch 14, 2009Comment

For the Girls

Featuring Jane Porter

I love writing for women. Frankly, I’m amazed by women. Of course I’m biased, but I think women are the cooler gender. I also think we’re the most confused, but that’s probably because Madison Avenue ad folks have figured out how to get to our heads—just tell us we’re not good enough. Convince us we need to be fixed. Sell us products with which to repair our damaged selves. And keep fixing our damaged selves.

That’s where I start frothing at the mouth. And that’s when I pull out my soap box and begin to beat my chest Tarzan-style.

Jane PorterMarch 14, 2009Comment

You Don't Understand

by Jennifer Paros

In life it’s a big deal when someone says to us, “You don’t understand.” It often implies some lacking on our part, and is hard to counteract. Even if we want to understand, if we don’t we’ve got a job ahead of us, unless the other person cooperates and helps in some way. Usually the onus is placed upon the not-understanding-one, and the possibility that the other has perhaps fallen short in teaching his/her perspective is ignored.

Many who feel “not understood” will argue that they have explained, over and over, and that the other person isn’t LISTENING and/or doesn’t want to hear.

Jennifer ParosMarch 14, 2009Comment