Today’s post is written by regular contributor Dr John Yeoman.

To get a novel published today you need an agent. Of course. But why? It wasn’t always thus. When I began writing books 40 years ago I sent my ms directly to publishers. Provided I’d observed the proper rituals – double spacing, one side only, return postage enclosed, etc – I could be sure of getting back a signed personal reply within three weeks.

Few agents existed then and authors were advised to ignore them. Why pay 15% of your earnings to a middle man, who’d do little more than check your contract, when you could go direct? Happy days!

Today, only a handful of mainstream publishers will accept an unsolicited ms directly from an author. Agents guard the doors. And they’re overwhelmed by newbies. In fact, a whole new industry is about to emerge – the agent’s agent. First, you’ll have to impress a literary ‘scout’ who knows an agent, who might recommend you to their friend.

Is the traditional publishing route worth it?

Needless to say, you could walk away from all that nonsense, self-publish your novel like everyone else and work 18 hours a day to promote it. Your life will become a round of blog tours and social networking. You will become an habitué of Goodreads and AuthorsDen. You’ll discover, painfully, that paid-for advertising does not work for fiction. (Nor does spamming your book at Google+ and Facebook.)

But unless you have the sales skills of John Locke or the manic energy of J A Konrath – authors who each sold more than a million ebooks by their own efforts – you’ll be lucky to shift more than a few hundred copies.

What’s the remedy?

The publishing industry is in meltdown. However, for an author who just wants to write not hustle, the traditional route still has its attractions. Your books appear in bookshops (what few remain). Your name is sacralized by a respected publisher. (There’s more clout in having Transworld behind you than an unknown indie house.) Reviews appear in trusted journals. Even bad reviews are better than none. At least, you’re being noticed.

You’ll have ‘arrived’ as an author. And your local writing group will offer you $200 plus a free lunch to tell their members how you did it. Success!

So how do you find an agent?

The textbooks are right, up to a point, when they suggest:

1. Study those authors in your genre whom you admire.

2. Locate their agent. A Google search “[author]” + agent often works.

3. Check the agent’s website for their terms of submission. Not all agents accept new authors and many have quirky requirements.

4. Note the agents that accept email submissions. Emails are likely to be acknowledged faster. Hard copy is for masochists.

And email them your cover letter, terse synopsis (1500 words max) and first chapter(s) (say, 6000 words max).

All six agents at once? Yes. Multiple submissions are the norm today, although agents hate them. But it can be argued that agents have only themselves to blame for being dilatory in the past. Who can afford to wait six months to receive a rejection slip from agent #1 before approaching agent #2?

Is that all there is to it? No! Your submission will still be binned, unread, unless the first paragraph of your cover letter is exquisitely right. How do you do that? Start with a very personalised introduction.

Here’s a secret that few new authors knew.

Attend a literary event, it doesn’t matter what. Check that it will be attended by agents who handle fiction, it doesn’t matter who. Ask to be directed to the most famous agent in the room. Ask that grand person “who are the best agents in [New York] for [historical fiction] right now, would you say?” Relieved that you’re not going to pitch them, the agent might trot out three good names. Find another agent, and another, and repeat the question.

You can now truthfully write to a select list of agents along these lines: “The agent [Ann Brown] personally suggested that I approach you because…” You’ll have overcome the first, and most important hurdle. Your cover letter will get read.

What happens then depends on the quality of your work and the professionalism of your presentation. But you have a chance.

Is this obvious wisdom?

No. Agents will tell you that 99% of new authors spam them with “Dear Sir or Madame”-type submissions. They’ve taken no trouble to choose an agent or justify, thoughtfully, their choice. Those submissions move to the Delete folder at the speed of light. Any personal introduction is better than a cold call.

Does it work?

I used that strategy several years ago and had three agents vying to represent me. Which did I choose? None. Instead of finishing my novel, I went off to get a PhD in creative writing. Maybe that was not the best career choice but at least I’d found a way to get an agent. Three of them! That might have posed a problem. Which do I choose? But it’s the sort of problem all new authors should have…

Today’s article is written by regular contributor Christi Craig.

Every once in a while, I read about a weekend retreat or a month-long writing residency, and I dream.

If only I had a month to squirrel away on just writing. If only I had money to pay for just two days to slip away and write.

Lament long enough to a good friend and fellow writer with a creative and determined spirit, and you discover that dreams are not impossible; they just need to be tweaked a bit to become reality.

My friend Victoria and I are both working on novels, and we both have young children at home. Getting away isn’t easy for either of us. So, when she sent me an email and suggested we plan our own weekend writing retreat—one that was low in cost and rich in hours—I said, Yes!

I can’t speak for Victoria, but I can share my experience in the plans and how I made it work for me and my novel.

Time.

In my life, weekends fill up way in advance, I’m talking six months to a year in advance. So, if I want to secure time away for writing, I have to X-out those days in red on the calendar—his, hers, theirs—as soon as possible. Make sure that everyone knows, come rain, shine, or baby’s got a cold, I will not be on the home premises for those few days.

Partnering with another writer for a weekend like this sealed my commitment to the date, as well. Neither of us were about to let the other peter out on the plans, especially because we were in the same boat when it came to finding time for intensive writing.

Space.

Location and lodgings both played important roles in our plan. Victoria and I live a hundred miles apart, so we needed a place located somewhere in between, one within short driving distance. We didn’t want to waste precious time racking up mileage. With accommodations, we considered renting separate rooms in a Bed and Breakfast, thinking that kind of environment might be more comfortable than a hotel. But, I knew I would need more room to spread out, pace the floors (most likely). And, I didn’t want to worry about odd looks from strangers at the breakfast table, after a night of wandering the halls and mumbling my way through story structure and plot. We opted, then, to search for a house or cottage to rent.

Googling “cottage for rent” brought up two websites right away, PerfectPlaces and FLIPKEY, both of which offer international rentals. We went with FLIPKEY, and, believe it or not, we found a beautiful, three-bedroom Victorian house, complete with kitchen furnishings and a lovely sitting room, in a quaint town oozing with history, art, and creativity. The cost of the entire house was the same price we would have paid for a room at a Bed & Breakfast.

Strategy.

When I am gifted a chunk of time, free from all responsibility, I dilly-dally. I drink too much coffee. I catch up on emails. I check Facebook, drink more coffee, check Facebook again. I take a nap. For this weekend to be a success, I needed a plan.

I hoped to gain some strong footing with the novel-in-progress, but the temptation to bring that short story I’d been fiddling with or that really great book I’d been itching to crack open–for a break here and there, you know–was strong. Just like Facebook, though, small writing projects and interesting reads distract me from bigger endeavors. Since this weekend was about tackling the novel, I left everything else behind. Everything.

Then, I set some reasonable, SMART goals. I knew I wouldn’t bomb through a second draft rewrite in two days, but I figured I could set my story structure in solid order, so that my rewrite wouldn’t be as daunting. Friday night, I typed an outline of my entire first draft. Saturday, I wrote the outline headings on half-sheets of paper and shuffled those papers around the sitting room floor like a giant sliding box puzzle. By Sunday, I had a strong story line and a renewed hope that this novel would see The End.

Revelry.

Thanks to cold and rainy weather that weekend, it was easy to sequester myself inside with my story for two days. But after spending much of Saturday hunched over paper and drowning in my own heavy sighs, I needed respite. Victoria (the great writing friend that she is) could see that. She poured the wine, we stepped away from our work, and we talked all things writing and life.

Don’t underestimate the power of downtime. During those discussions, we not only celebrated all our hard work, but we shared strategies, asked each other questions, reasoned out parts of our novels. We proved that walking away from the work can be just as productive as being immersed in it.

And, immersing ourselves in the work, and only the work—over an entire weekend—wasn’t as impossible as it had seemed.

If you could plan your perfect writing retreat, where would you start and how would you strategize?

Last year, I shared with you my vision of creating a biannual, digital literary journal which would be connected to Write It Sideways but would also stand on its own.

I wanted to give readers of Write It Sideways a regular opportunity to see good writing in practice, and provide another venue for emerging writers to see their work published alongside established writers.

Over the past four months, an amazing team of editors has helped me shape that vision into Compose: A Journal of Simply Good Writing.

It’s beautiful, useful, completely free, and available to everyone.

(In case you’re not familiar with the world of literary journals, they are publications that feature a variety of fiction, poetry, essays and interviews. Some well-known ones are Tin House, Glimmer Train and Ploughshares.)

Compose’s Blog Is Now Live

Today we launch the blog portion of Compose. Our blog will feature a combination of:

Please welcome today’s anonymous aspiring author, ready for a peer critique.

Take a moment to read the excerpt and leave some thoughtful feedback in the comment section below.

If you are a writer whose excerpt has appeared anonymously on Write It Sideways, and now you’d like your name to appear on your piece, contact us.

If you’d like to submit your own writing for critique, keep an eye out for future calls posted on the blog.

Coffee In a Paper Cup

Short Story

*Please note: This excerpt is taken from the beginning of the work.

You’ve had worse in seatmates.

Four-thirty AM in what has got to be the smallest international airport in this country, and you’re curled sleepy around your thermos of coffee, one foot tucked up underneath you, watching other tired people, electric signs, TV screens all reflected in the windows against a still-dark sky. Dawn’s threading along the edges of the hills; you can just decipher the outlines of planes creeping along the runways.

You catch yourself humming along with the music from your iPod, stop. Take a nonchalant sip of your drink (craving the scent more than the caffeine) pretending it wasn’t you humming a (probably off-tune) accompaniment to Sigh No More.

‘Don’t stop on my account.’

You look up, raise an eyebrow at the guy who just spoke. Tallish, he wears battered work boots, jeans threadbare in patches, a grey T-shirt under a leather jacket that, like the rest of his clothes, has a lot of character. (Really. Nicer to say that than ‘seen better days’.) Military-short light brown hair, stunning green eyes, a smile he doesn’t mean.

He looks so tired, and don’t you know exactly how that feels?

Gestures with his own cup of coffee. (Paper cup, you notice mournfully. At least it’s biodegradable.) ‘This seat taken, sweetheart?’

You shake your head, move your coat to make room for him, and just to let him know he’s coming on a bit strong, deliberately place your left hand on your knee.

The engagement ring’s just a white lie, useful for fending off anyone sketchy…

Potential Feedback Prompts

When you respond, you might consider:

• your immediate reactions
• likes and dislikes
• anything that seems unclear
• language issues
• point of view
• voice
• inconsistencies
• general encouragement

Thanks!

Today’s article is written by regular contributor Debra Eve.  

Cheryl Strayed’s memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail inspired Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 last year. But Cheryl took her famous hike in 1995.

Wild was a bestseller fifteen years in the making.

David Guterson wrote Snow Falling on Cedars over a ten-year period. Michel Faber worked on The Crimson Petal and the White for almost twenty. Helen Hooven Santmyer famously took almost six decades to complete …And Ladies of the Club.

Why does the process sometimes take so long?

I’m exploring my time with maverick archaeologist Marija Gimbutas, who lost her eight-year battle with lymphoma in 1994. In comparing my years digging to my years writing, I’ve realized that some projects take longer because they come from “the deep heart’s core,” to borrow a line from Yeats.

We must excavate them over several seasons like archaeologists.

Cheryl Strayed believes this time lapse was critical to her success, gifting her with a deeper perspective. Author and writing coach Cynthia Morris agrees. Her novel, Chasing Sylvia Beach (2012), took twelve years from idea to book launch.

Chasing Sylvia Beach is set in 1930s Paris. The plot resembles Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, but it focuses on daring and unconventional women, specifically bookseller Sylvia Beach.

I asked Cynthia about Chasing Sylvia Beach and why she thinks some books take longer.

Cynthia, how did you know that Chasing Sylvia Beach was a “heart’s core” project? Did you ever consider abandoning it?

When we’re working on a major project like a book, we always come to what I call ‘commitment points’. Faced with rejection, not knowing where to go with the story, distracted by other projects, we are tempted to abandon it.

Frustrated, lost, or discouraged, we have to decide what makes this project one we must complete. This is a very personal process. Everyone will have to find their own motivation when they arrive at these commitment points.

Chasing Sylvia Beach taught me that I am more tenacious than I ever knew. It just wasn’t an option for me to not finish and publish the book. I knew that if I abandoned the project I would ultimately feel awful about that choice and about myself. I knew I wouldn’t be the coach I need to be. I knew that if I didn’t finish it, that decision would alter me and my spirit in a negative way, and I wasn’t willing to let that happen.

So no matter what happened with the book, no matter how ‘successful’ it would be, I had to finish it. I’m so glad I did. I can look myself in the eye now, and if I had ditched it, I would not be in integrity.

In hindsight, would you do anything differently to compress the time it took to write Chasing Sylvia Beach?

This is a tough question. Writing just takes a long time. Most of us work full-time and have other responsibilities as well. There are times when you have to be fallow. When I think about the last five years of my novel, this is what I was doing:

I shed my life in Boulder and moved to Europe. On the eve of my departure, I got an agent who wanted me to revise. But I was heading into the world with one suitcase. I moved to Lisbon and fell in and out of love. I moved around Europe as a nomad. That year was very difficult to write, but near the end of that year I had two months of relative seclusion in the south of France. During that time I made major progress, but before that I wouldn’t have had the focus or the ability to work on the novel.

Then, when I returned to the US in 2009, my agent had the book but didn’t seem to be submitting much. Looking back, I wonder why I wasn’t as ‘on top of it’. But I was in a major process of upheaval and transformation and that took a lot of my focus. By early 2010 when my agent and I parted ways, I had another revision ahead of me.

Aside from being a better writer than I was, I really can’t see how writing the novel could have happened more quickly. I don’t think it matters that it took so long. By the end of the project, I was a different person. I was able to bring things to the final draft that I couldn’t have brought to earlier versions. Self-publishing was at a radically different place in 2011 than it was in 2006 or even 2009.

I believe in timing, and I also believe timing is a sort of trickster. We can’t control timing as much as we’d like, but when we look at our process, we can see that everything does happen at the right time.

I’ve been coaching writers since 1999, and I know that we all have our own pace and our own timing. You cannot force someone. Life happens — deaths, job upheavals, major moves — and during those times it can be very hard to write.

Writing and creating always seem to take longer than we want. The creative process is complex and humans are incredibly complex. In our minds, we’re unstoppable and we believe our creative process should operate like clockwork. In reality, we’re affected by all kinds of things — our emotional lives, the lives our loved ones, our work, our environment.

That said, I do work with myself and others to drive away unnecessary resistance and procrastination. My clients become very clear about the difference between resistance, procrastination or adding new, exciting projects, and life’s inevitable upheavals that require our attention.

Thank you, Cynthia, for this heartfelt advice.

So how do we keep a heart’s core project alive over the long haul? I have three suggestions:

1. Own it, honor it, and let it lead to kindred projects. Cheryl Strayed penned nature essays before she undertook Wild. David Guterson wrote short stories around Snow Falling on Cedars. Cynthia Morris forged a new career as a writing coach from her fascination with Sylvia Beach’s world.

2. Do short, daily timed writings around it. I recently took Cynthia’s Free Write Fling, a month of 15-minute writing prompts. I used each to delve into my archaeological memoir. At the end, I no longer felt overwhelmed and realized I could start writing it anywhere.

3. Work with a writing coach. As Cynthia mentions, if you’re extremely close to a project, unbiased support can help you distinguish between procrastination and incubation.

In this era of what Jane Friedman calls commodity publishing, where “get it out quick” often trumps art, it’s time to celebrate these slow, hard-won successes and, like archaeologists, dig deep.

Are you working on a heart’s core project? How have you kept it alive? 

Cynthia Morris is an author, coach, public speaker, and avid traveler. She has helped hundreds of writers find the motivation and structure of a writing life that fits their needs and lifestyle. Cynthia has also written Create Your Writer’s Life: A Guide to Writing With Joy and Ease. You can discover more at her site, Original Impulse. I heartily recommend Cynthia’s 31-day workshop, Free Write Fling, which starts again on May 1. 

Today’s article is written by Suzannah Windsor Freeman, founding editor of Write It Sideways.

True story:

Once, I wrote a blog post which gave some advice about limiting filter words in your fiction. The post went viral on a social media outlet, which from my perspective was a good thing—writers were obviously wanting to pass it on to other writers.

Except, when I headed over to read the comments all these people were leaving, I was hit with a wave of conflicting responses.

Half of the comments said, “This is the absolute best writing advice I’ve ever received.”

The other half said, “This is the absolute worst writing advice I’ve ever received.”

And here I was, left trying to figure out how there could be such mixed responses. Could it be both the best and the worst writing advice, or maybe neither? Isn’t all writing advice up for interpretation?

Don’t Put Your Brain on Hold

Some common filter words are knew, watched, saw, looked, and wondered. “She wondered what he was thinking.” “He looked at her and knew she was wondering.” You get the picture.

Nowhere in the post did I say that filter words should never be used. The advice was that they can often be eliminated in favour of wording that’s more specific and effective, wording that doesn’t filter the character’s thoughts and feelings before they get to the reader.

I stated quite plainly that sometimes you will use filter words, and they will be the right choice. However, if you take a look at your work-in-progress and find it absolutely littered with them, you’ll probably want to get out your red pen.

Those who declared my advice to be “the absolute worst writing advice” were obviously thinking I was suggesting that we never use filter words. And that suggests to me that they didn’t read the entire post.

While I can’t be inside other people’s heads, those who declared my advice to be “the absolute best writing advice” may also have been guilty of taking an extreme view of things—that is, rushing out and eliminating every filter word from their works-in-progress.

The problem on both sides is the same: writing advice requires use of common sense in its application. Those who have been writing for many years have probably already learned this lesson, but newer writers often jump on advice like following all ‘the rules’ will get them to the top.

All advice, in every realm of life, requires careful decision-making based on a variety of factors.

Writing: Good Advice, Bad Advice, Best Advice, Worst Advice

Think about these common pieces of writing advice:

• Show, don’t tell
• Eliminate adverbs
• Don’t use clichés
• Write every day
• Write what you know
• Don’t use dialogue tags other than ‘said’
• Avoid long passages of description
• Use all of your senses to describe things
• Make every single word count
• Get feedback on your writing
• Plan your writing beforehand
• Let your creativity guide you

Some of these conflict with others, and some are open to interpretation.

Are these bad pieces of writing advice? Are they good pieces of writing advice? Are they either the best or the worst pieces of writing advice?

They can be the best pieces of writing advice for you if they help you overcome whatever’s holding you back from being a more accomplished and effective writer.

They can be the worst pieces of writing advice if you consider them rules—if they are attached to words such as always, never, or only. They can also be the worst pieces of writing advice if they are subject to interpretation and the writer misinterprets (ex: ‘write what you know‘ doesn’t necessarily mean write what you know literally, but what you know emotionally).

Most writing advice has at least some take-away for the reader. If a book/magazine/expert/blog presents advice—even if they do so in a way that sounds to you like rules—they probably do so assuming you understand the need to apply their advice with care. If they say, for example, “Get feedback on your writing,” that can be a good thing. But there’s also a fine line between looking for fresh eyes and constantly seeking the approval of others.

Two of my favourite writers/bloggers share conflicting philosophies about when to publish your writing. One says, “Quit practicing and get yourself out there” The other says, “Don’t worry about getting published just now—work on your creativity and craft.” Which one of these accomplished, published writers is correct?

The answer is, of course, both of them, because it depends on what kind of writer you are, and what kind of writing you do. It depends on where you are in your journey and what your ultimate writing goals are. It depends on what you need right now.

Questions to Ask About Writing Advice

Some key questions to ask yourself about writing advice are:

• Is there an aspect of this advice that applies to all writers, or does it apply mostly to writers in a specific genre/field? (‘Start with a bang’ might not apply to literary fiction so much as to a high-concept thriller.)
• Is this something just to be mindful of when I’m editing, or is an entire philosophy I need to consider when I’m planning and writing? 
• Could following this advice be detrimental to me or my writing? If so, how can I adapt it to meet my personal needs? (‘Writing every day,’ when you already have a full plate, could make you more stressed out and affect the quality of your writing; on the other hand, ‘writing when the muse hits’ might mean that you never learn the discipline to put butt-in-chair.)
• When I read my favourite books or stories, can I see the advice in action? (Selective use of clichés, adverbs, filter words, etc.; short-but-powerful descriptive passages) Or, do my favourites depart from these pieces of advice?
• Why do I think this is such good or bad advice? 

Those who thought my post on filter words was good writing advice probably thought so because they’d never noticed the degree to which they relied on them in their writing. Those who thought it was bad advice probably just read the first few paragraphs and decided I was suggesting they never use filter words.

As a writer, you’ll come across plenty of conflicting advice. Understanding that advice is open to interpretation and usually isn’t usually a matter of always or never will help you keep an open mind, apply the advice when appropriate, and—most of all—improve your writing craft.

Are there pieces of writing advice you’ve taken too seriously in the past? Are there any you may have dismissed too quickly? What are your favourites and/or least favourites?

Today’s article is written by Suzannah Windsor Freeman, founding editor of Write It Sideways.

Have you ever wondered what the difference is between your average published book and the ones that go on to receive accolades? The type of books that have gold stars and big-name blurbs on the cover?

I think I know now.

About a year ago, I discovered Canadian author Sarah Selecky. She had an intriguing site full of really helpful articles about writing. I mean really helpful.

Shortly after becoming a devotee of her site and after reading her collection of short stories, This Cake Is for the Party, I signed up for her online course Story Is a State of Mind. I can say it’s one of the best investments I’ve ever made in my writing.

Margaret Atwood has called Story Is a State of Mind (SSM), “Smart, encouraging, practical.” Yes, you read that right. Margaret Atwood.

Story Is a State of Mind is pure magic. It has given me a renewed sense of freedom, brought me back to the basics of pen and paper, helped me unlock my memory and improve my critical reading skills, completely changed the way I feel about practising writing, and changed my mentality from ‘must get published’ to ‘must write something true and valuable.’

That’s the difference between good and great. I’m on the verge of a major breakthrough, and I owe that to Sarah and her course.

So, who is Sarah Selecky?

Sarah is the author of This Cake Is for the Party, a much-lauded collection of short stories that was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, and the Commonwealth Prize for Best First Book in Canada and the Caribbean.

You can find her stories in The Walrus, Elle Canada, Geist, The Journey Prize Anthology, and other publications.

What is the ‘Story Is a State of Mind’ course?

“The Story Is a State of Mind program was created for writers whose self-doubt, absent muse or lack of discipline has driven them from their craft. No matter what wall you’ve hit, this program is designed to work alongside and within that resistance, to make the task of writing not just enjoyable, but simply irresistible.

In seven parts, participants learn (and experiment with) the finer points of freewriting, starting a story, character development, dialogue, plot, point of view and receptive reading: all developed to sharpen and support their own writing.

Each lesson contains how-to explanations, practice materials and tidbits of wisdom perfected over Sarah Selecky’s 11 years of teaching. The in-depth exercises, video tutorials, extraordinary story examples and detailed audio debriefs are on hand to help you stay dedicated and inspired, every step of the way.

Sarah Selecky has been teaching ‘conscious creative writing’ for over a decade. Her program combines refined technique with mindful exploration, helping participants not only create marvellous work, but discover their unique voice, depth and presence of mind as they write.” ~ Story Is a State of Mind

Is ‘Story Is a State of Mind’ the perfect writing course?

Story Is a State of Mind is what I’d call “the perfect writing course” for a number of reasons.

1. Absolute flexibility. I have four young children, so I usually have to decline courses and workshops because of the busy-ness factor and lack of a babysitter. However, this course is entirely flexible and available online, which makes it perfect for young parents, those who work full-time, and students. There are no start or end dates and you can work as slowly or as quickly as you like.
2. Private writers forum. There is a members-only Facebook page where writers can discuss the readings, post snippets of their writing, and provide one another with support and constructive criticism. So, independent study doesn’t mean you’re going it alone.
3. Handpicked readings. Sarah has handpicked the readings for this course, which are all provided in the initial cost. There are no further materials to purchase. And I have to say that many of the stories are life-changingly magnificent, and you’ll want to read them over and over. Authors include Tobias Wolff, Amy Bloom, Zsuzsi Gartner, George Saunders, Dave Eggers, and more.
4. Opportunity for publication and mentorship. Each spring, Sarah hosts “The Little Bird Writing Contest,” which is judged a successful author (such as Alix Ohlin and Zsuzsi Gartner). This is an opportunity to have your work read by an author you respect, plus the chance to be published in an anthology, and receive mentorship and feedback from Sarah, herself. I just submitted my story to the contest today!
5. Suitable for writers at all stages. Story Is a State of Mind is suitable for both beginning, emerging, and already-published writers, because it’s not about getting published. I’ve been published multiple times, but this course has transformed the way I write. SSM is about helping you get out of the way of your own creativity.
6. Pays for itself. Once you take the course (and discover you love it as much as I do), you have the option of joining Sarah’s affiliate guild. That means you’ll receive a referral fee any time someone joins the course using your unique link. So, over time, this course will pay for itself and then some. (Sarah only accepts members of the course into the affiliate guild because she only wants it to be promoted by those who love it, too. You won’t find this course advertised or reviewed just anywhere.)

What kind of writing will you do during the course?

The focus is on creating raw first drafts, not polished stories, and I can’t tell you how freeing that is.

Here are a few snippets from a piece of unedited writing I did in response to an exercise Sarah calls, “I Remember”:

I remember two cottages: an old one and an even older one; an orange one and a yellow one. One belonged to our family, and the other to my aunt’s family. I remember the way the road dips down into the earth and through the forest, to get to those cottages. [...]

I remember the long, golden arc of beach from one end of the bay to the next. I remember how hot and sweaty and sandy I felt sitting wrapped in a beach towel on an Adrirondak chair. I remember not wanting to let my feet touch the grass because it wasn’t the soft, lush, green type of grass but the crunchy, brown, patchy type that leads toward the beach, and it was filled with ants and ant hills and I avoid ants at all costs. I remember orange pop and the crackle of a potato chip bag—salt and vinegar—because these were the flavours of summer. [...]

The waves were so big that day, we felt we were in an ocean instead of a lake. My brother and I rode a gigantic black inner tube so big you could disappear inside it. Rising and falling, rising and falling, the crashing waves consuming all of the beach and some of the lawn, too. I remember my Dad wading out to save us from being sucked further and further away from the shore, but the waves were so strong that he got pushed down over me, pinning me breathless to the sandbar. I remember the terror of being prostrate on the lake’s floor, the crushing weight of the water holding him over me, and thinking I would drown and it would be my father who killed me, and the absolute shame of that. When the waves eased and Dad yanked me up, we were wiping water away from our faces, and laughing and crying at the same time. [...]

I remember when the railway took our cottage from us, reclaimed the land they said was rightfully theirs. How they plowed our life to the ground one September and left a long scar of earth in its place.

I used to hate writing exercises—really I did. Now I see that the freedom to be creative without barriers often leads you toward much deeper and more truthful writing than simply writing for the purpose of publication.

Cool Writing and Reading Ideas for Partners or Groups

While working through the course materials, I took note of ideas that came to me for using SSM in different ways. If you have a partner or writing group, have each member purchase a copy of the course and try some of the following ideas:

• Print off the readings and keep them in a binder so you can write in the margins. Read the stories on your own first, then do a shared reading aloud. Afterward, discuss the stories. And make sure someone brings cake (because cake is good).
• Take a week-long retreat at a cottage or some other quiet, inspirational place, and treat the course as an intensive 7-day workshop, or take just a weekend to dive deep into the lesson you’re most looking forward to.
• When you finish all the modules, host a group reading celebration where each member reads his/her favourite piece written during the course.
• For online writing groups, use shared documents in Google Drive to collaborate on the assignments and provide feedback.

Are there any drawbacks?

If you’re not interested at all in writing short fiction and don’t enjoy reading contemporary literary fiction, you might think SSM isn’t the right course for you. However, I do think the course is beneficial for writers of all genres—for anyone interested in learning how to write more creatively, more truthfully, and without barrier. And, if you have your heart set on writing a novel, the strategies you’ll learn will carry over nicely.

At first glance, the price may seem high for a digital course. However, it’s extremely good value if you consider that:

• there are no further course materials to purchase (other courses may require you to buy several texts or collections of stories);
• there are no travel costs or babysitting costs which might be associated with taking an in-person course;
• you would probably pay twice the amount (if not more) to attend a live course with a writer of this calibre;
• you have access to a like-minded community of fellow-SSM members for peer support.

Join ‘Story Is a State of Mind’ and Get Free Bonuses!

I only act as an affiliate for programs and products I use myself. I will never recommend anything to you that I haven’t thoroughly checked out and don’t use in my own writing journey.

If you sign up for Story Is a State of Mind via any link on this page, I will receive a referral fee. Such fees always go back into covering running costs for Write It Sideways and other online projects.

To thank you for your support, I’d love to offer you these FREE bonus gifts. Register for SSM via this review, and you’ll receive:

1. A FREE copy of my Busy Mom’s Guide to Writing ($24.97 value), which includes a massive ebook, printable worksheets, and a booklet of quick meal ideas to help you make more time to do what you love—writing.
2. A FREE copy of my short story “Perfect,” which was published in Grist: The Journal for Writers and isn’t available anywhere online. If I had to choose a favourite of my stories, this is it. Grist has published some very accomplished writers such as Sherman Alexie, Elizabeth Gilbert, and Bret Anthony Johnston.

But wait…there’s more

If you purchase Story Is a State of Mind via any link on this page by April 30th, 2013, you’ll also be entitled to a free story critique from me (up to 2,500 words).

You might save this critique for when you enter ‘The Little Bird Contest’ (or another contest), or prior to submitting a story to literary magazines. As an associate editor for Anderbo—a literary journal—evaluating short stories for the purpose of publication is what I do. Getting feedback from a published writer/editor before you submit is a huge advantage.

The free ebook package and short story will be a standing offer, but the critique offer is only good until April 30th, 2013.

Just shoot me an email after you register and I’ll send your free stuff immediately. 

If you purchase SSM as a gift for someone else—no problem. I’ll pass the free stuff along to them.

And remember, you must sign up using one of the links in this review, or by clicking on one of the SSM badges on this site, to receive your gifts. Just to be on the extra safe side…

**Click here to register for Story Is a State of Mind—a writing course created by Sarah Selecky—and receive your free gifts.**

Remember, send me an email after you register so I know where to send your bonuses.

Tweet this. Facebook this. Email it to your writing group.

Spread the word, my friends—the more, the merrier.

I hope to see you in the SSM forum soon!

Links to Check Out

To learn more about Sarah and what she does, check out these links:

• Sarah Selecky’s website/blog
• Sarah Selecky on Twitter
• Sign up for Sarah’s free daily writing prompts
• The Little Bird Writing Contest
• This Cake Is for the Party, short stories by Sarah Selecky

Today’s article is written by regular contributor Susan Bearman.

There are two kinds of people in the world, and I have been all of them. Infantile and wise. Majestic and wretched. Crestfallen and elated. Gracious and a horse’s ass. I have been these people and many, many more.

As a writer, this duplicity or plurality of being is important on many levels. For me personally, it’s the name of my blog—Two Kinds of People (or 2KoP). I find that it’s a perfect vantage point from which to explore a whole variety of subjects in my writing—a sort of literary springboard.

I’m a self-admitted public radio (NPR) junkie, and two recent interviews have generated some writerly “ah-ha” moments that have made me understand that my interest in “Two Kinds of People” has something to offer all writers.

George Saunders, author of the skyrocketing short-story collection Tenth of December, began his recent book tour in Chicago, my home and the home of his youth. In an interview on our local NPR station, one of the things he talked about was how to navigate stories without sounding clichéd or preachy.

It’s All About Revision

Revision was Saunders self-admitted “boring” answer.

“The first draft will often be incredibly preachy,” he said. “The process of not preaching, interestingly, involves being more truthful… The way you do it is by line-to-line adjustments. You look at your own heart and say ‘have I ever been that woman?’ and the answer is always ‘yes.’ You have always been everybody. So then you sit in her head for a while and try to be as honest and kind of friendly to her as you can, and then you run around the table and inhabit the other woman and do the same trick.”

You have always been everybody. This is the perfect definition of Two Kinds of People. Understanding this concept is almost certainly the path to becoming a more compassionate human being. For writers, it may just be the way to up the ante in your work.

Genius

Saunders is also a 2006 recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, also known as the Genuis Grant, so maybe we should let a little bit of his genius rub off on us. When he says “it’s all about revision,” that’s not a cliché. Saunders says he does hundreds of revisions. Not two. Not ten. Hundreds. And those revisions slowly take him to a “more fair, less-preachy place. It’s one of the wonderful mysteries of writing that it really does let your better instincts come to the surface.”

How many revisions do you do? Are you giving yourself enough time to really get to know your characters—to be them?

Most writers are comfortable standing in the shoes of their protagonists. We hear their voices, feel their feelings, and look out at the world through their eyes. But are we as willing or able to sit inside our other characters, to be “honest and friendly” to the thoughts and intentions of our antagonists or villains?

When you take the time to get to know all your characters as well as you know your main character, then your better story-telling instincts can truly rise to the top. You don’t have to like your villain, but you do have to understand him or her as completely as possible. You don’t have to explain a minor character’s entire life story to your reader, but you have to know it so you can write that character as a whole person, even if we, as readers, only meet him a few times.

How Do You Get to Know Smaller Characters?

In another public radio interview, actor Stephen Tobolowsky talked about creating memorable character parts when only a few lines are written in the script. “Smaller roles should ideally have a through-line to their day,” he said, “but character actors have to do that creative work outside of the script.” To do this, Tobolowsky says he always asks himself two questions:

• What is the character’s greatest hope?
• What is the character’s greatest fear?

“These two questions will form a tightrope upon which almost any other question in the script can be answered,” said Tobolowsky. He went on to talk about playing villains, saying that outside of a James Bond film, no one really ever sees himself as a villain. “Everybody kind of sees himself as a good guy doing what they’re doing. They see themselves a kind of hero.”

In other words, villains are heroes with an agenda that is in opposition to the main character’s agenda. This is brilliant advice for writing your villain or antagonist. When you sit in your villain’s head and really listen to her, you’ll begin to understand how she sees herself in the mirror and the role she needs to play. You’ll write a villain who is believable—a real person, not a cliché.

Writers can use those same two questions for every character to find answers for every question in a manuscript.

Nourish the Writer in You

There are two kinds of people in the world: writers and everybody else. One of the ways I’ve come to understand that I’m a “real” writer is that everything I see, hear, and do feeds the writer in me. Each day’s experiences nourish both my desire and ability to write more and write better. I’m grateful to George Saunders and Stephen Tobolowsky (and their interviewers) for their work and for sharing a few morsels with me. Here’s more information if you’d like the complete meal:

• Hear to the entire interview between George Saunders and Tony Serabia of WBEZ Chicago. Saunder’s latest book is Tenth of December.
• Hear the entire interview between Stephen Tobolowsky and Dave Davies of NPRs Fresh Air. Tobolowsky’s memoir about his life and career as a character actor is entitled The Dangerous Animals Club.