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May 25, 2007

Blogs & Websites Build Author Platform

Yesterday, writer Kathy Gillen became walking proof that a recommendation I, along with many others (I’m sure), have been preaching about for years actually works. The advice is simple: Create a Website/start a blog. The result is tangible: Agent/editor interest.

Several years ago, Web Guru (and friend) Cindy Closkey designed a site for me surrounding a book idea. We added good content and interactive options that eventually helped to build an author platform for an otherwise-unknown writer. I was able to accept the fact that I wasn’t a household name after several scientific journal publications, a contribution to a recycling textbook, several nationally visible personal-experience pieces, and a sale to Chicken Soup for the Preteen Soul. Even with an excellent, unique nonfiction book idea backed by a detailed, well-researched proposal, the agent and editors always wanted to know, “Who is this author and how can she help us sell books?”

Along with booking regional and national speaking engagements and writing a bang-up book proposal, came the Website complete with a monthly newsletters, contests, giveaways, and more. It was the national exposure we needed (and, believe me, we weren’t getting 10,000 hits a day). Landing an agent in New York wasn’t easy, but selling the book was even more difficult. After all, I was a relative-nonfiction-nobody, especially when compared to Dr. Phil, Dr. Laura, and their parade of advice-wielding colleagues. (What’s great about it now is that my book rests on bookstore shelves between Drs. McGraw and Schlessinger in the Self-Help section.)

What then made the agent and subsequent editors take note of such an un-noteworthy individual as myself?

Two words: Web Presence. Cindy was able to provide me with stats and data that proved the Website had a following of its own including returning visitors as well as fresh ones who stopped in from across the U.S., Canada, and Atlantic from as far as Europe, Australia, Asia, and South America. No conference speaking-engagement nor television appearance (unless, of course, it was on Oprah) could better let the publishing house know that potential buyers were lurking than those wonderfully alluring visitor statistics.

I’m not saying that the Website was the only reason The Frantic Woman’s Guide to Life sparked an interest at Warner Books (now Grand Central Publishing). But it helped. And I believe it helped greatly.

A year ago or so, I began working with Kathy Gillen who struck a chord on my heartstrings with her moving, nearly heart-wrenching story of her challenging journey, beginning with her learning of her daughter’s mitochondrial disease diagnosis and then Kathy’s coming to terms with it, eventually finding peace and blessings among the hardships. I’m not doing the subject justice, but at first it seemed that Kathy was telling a unique tale. It ended up being every mother’s story.

Barely able to contain my enthusiasm for the project, I quickly turned Kathy over to none other than Cindy Closkey at BigBigDesing.com. Together, they developed and designed Kathy’s current site called Lessons from the Laundry. It contains an active blog with a now-substantial following that Kathy updates 3-4 times a week. And of course, Kathy follows the other rule that sends her to sister Websites and blogs where she offers intelligent, insightful comments.

While developing her Web presence and hence building her platform, Kathy also wrote an excellent book proposal and landed a reputable agent. Just this week, then, she received word from her agent that an editor from one of the large houses to which he had sent the proposal had, and I paraphrase, checked out her Website/blog and skimmed the material. He promised to look more closely at the proposal and get back to him.

Yippee for Kathy! What a little (okay a lot) of hard work and some concrete direction won’t accomplish. So to those of you who have never considered hosting a blog, start brainstorming a topic, a field of interest, a niche. And for you who have thought about blogging but allowed your insecurities to get the best of you, hop to it. Forget the old who-wants-to-read-about-my-measly-little-life excuse. Agents and editors want to hear what you have to say. So say it!

If you have a blog, feel free to mention it in the comments below and link us to it. If you don’t have one, take a look at Kathy’s or some of the other excellent blogs listed to the right of this posting. Let us know what’s holding you back. Then together we can face the evil-self-confidence-deflating demon and help you get started. Even if you’re not ready, ask yourself, “Do I want to stay where I am or move ahead?” I think I know the answer. Can’t wait to hear from you!

Posted by Judy at 02:44 PM | Comments (12)

May 18, 2007

Life Gets in the Way

About a month ago, I registered for the Pennwriters Conference taking place this weekend. I was looking forward to attending a few of the panel discussions and lectures and to interacting, in general, in a productive environment. (I was also hoping for a great cup of morning coffee and some engaging conversation throughout the weekend.) Instead, here I sit, at my work computer. Why? Well, as luck would have it, life got in the way.

For many, many reasons, I was unable to attend the conference. So, if you feel sorry for me in the least (and if you were lucky enough to be in attendence), would you be so kind as to leave your comments, thoughts, impressions, and suggestions concerning your agent appointments, the presentations, the meals, and whatever else you'd like to include? If you are a speaker, let me know how your session went. Did you field any excellent questions? Those of you who attended or hosted the critique sessions in the evening, how did they go?

Conversely, if you weren't able to participate in the conference, like me, then feel free to wallow in your sorrows here, too. Others of you might like to share conference-going tips and suggestions we all might benefit from hearing.

In thinking about all the buzz I'm missing, I'm reminded of the following quote:

"I have made it a rule of my life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy...you can't build on it; it's only good for wallowing in."

-- Katherine Mansfield, 1888-1923, Writer

So I don't regret the way life's course took me this weekend, nor am I going to waste time wallowing. I've vowed to accomplish several mini-goals with my unexpected time. In fact, I crossed one off of my list before I posted this very message.

Thanks for visiting! I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Best,

Judy

Posted by Judy at 05:28 PM | Comments (7)

May 11, 2007

Smear the Lines

"I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear."
~ Joan Didion

These are the words of a self-confident writer who can comfortably explore how she feels about what's going on around her, how she interprets her observations, and how she allows them to affect her life. She is able to reveal what she wants and to face her fears head on. Are we?

Most of you know that essayist and author Joan Didion struggled through the sudden death of her husband a few years ago and the subsequent death of her 39-year old daughter only four months later. In an interview approximately 18 months later, Didion said, "I had to write my way out of it. Because I couldn't figure out what was going on. By the time I started it - John died December 30, I didn't start writing until October - I was out of the phase where I didn't know I was crazy. I was still crazy, but I knew it. So, it was a step back."

While Joan Didion was able to drop all pretense and face her fears through writing, many of the rest of us continue to struggle. We must strive to shake off the self-consciousness that often stifles and inhibits our writing. We need to forget about what people will think when our characters have disturbing thoughts or when they participate in frightening, twisted, or illegal activities. We need to fight the urge to edit toward the politically correct when, for example, we're working on a humor piece and we're not sure if entertains or offends.

The other day, I entered a local coffeehouse and ordered a decaf-skim-no-whip mocha. (I know, why bother, right? I could have ordered water.) After dropping my 92 cents change into the tip jar, I coughed up the courage to ask the barista a question, the reason I'd come into the shop in the first place. He was a twenty-something guy with beyond-baggy cargo shorts that defied gravity like no other. He wore a hemp choker and a gold watch that didn't match the rest of him.

"Hey, were you here for the comedy night?" I asked.

"I was." He turned toward me, seemingly surprised I was aware of the event. After all, I wasn't a regular, and he knew it.

"How'd it go?" I asked. But I didn't wait for an answer. "My friend came to read and I was wondering how she did."

"Oh, she did great." He didn't bother to ask which reader was my friend. "She was really funny."

She did it, I thought. She put herself out there, read her humor essay in front of a house full of strangers who sipped cappuccino and chai tea. Her debut reading was well-received. Yippee for her! Yippee, yippee!

I didn't question how the guy knew which woman I had referenced. I figured he had stereotyped us together, based on our ages or appearances or, I don't know what (the whole idea of which might make for a separate blog entry in the future). What was most important was that a lone writer had taken a chance, by putting a part of herself on paper and then exposing it to a crowd of potential boo-ers and hecklers and, least of all, critics.

Like my friend at the coffeehouse, we all need to push away the worry that the world might read between our written lines, because they will. And after all, isn't that what we want?

This humor writer's self-confidence and willingness to put herself out there reminds me of my nephew who is an artist and a lawyer. When among a group looking at any of his paintings, he remains peculiarly silent. Always.

"So what did you mean by this?" I'll ask. And I really want to know.

Silence still.

"Come on, I'm family. You can tell me," I say.

His reply is a constant, "What does it mean to you?"

(I suppose he doesn't care about the rule that requires we never answer a question with a question.) Above all, he is confident enough, comfortable enough to have poured whatever he could of himself into the painting, exhausted himself in it, really. So much so that he can then allow the public to interpret it, free of his influence. I admire (and sometimes abhor, in a loving way, of course) his self-assurance. How does he do it? How does he fight the urge to make sure that absolutely everyone alive knows exactly what he intended? With confidence, that's how.

I believe he knows that each finished painting represents his best work, at the time anyway, and he is comfortable letting it go.

Like my artist nephew, we must stop concerning ourselves with what readers will surmise about us and our personal lives. The fact is that they're bound to do so. If you're going to put yourself out there by presenting words and paragraphs for the public eye, and that's hopefully what most of us want beyond journaling, then you are going to be subject to scrutiny. So we must produce our best work and then let it go, much like Joan Didion did when she unveiled herself in The Year of Magical Thinking (Vintage).

Her honesty among those pages is painful, memorable. And as a reader, we relate to it in a personal, individual way. Similarly, it is our own honesty and individuality that can smear the line of paint that divides how we live and what we write. We need to allow for the smear and let the new colors emerge.As Rhys Alexander says in Writing Gooder when talking about adding detail, "It's the difference between a pencil sketch and a lush oil painting. As a writer, words are your paint. Use all the colors."

So get back to your keyboards and write your best work. Use all the colors you can and then let it go. And when asked what you meant by something you wrote, feel free to look your reader in the eye and confidently utter my nephew's line: "What does it mean to you?"

Posted by Judy at 10:50 AM | Comments (3)

May 03, 2007

Brainprint: Writing the Unexpected

Yesterday morning, as I clicked away at the keyboard, brainstorming motivations for my antagonist's unpredictable behavior, something caught my eye out the window. It was the stray cat Pumpkin, as the neighborhood kids call her, who protects the back of our property, as well everyone else's along the backyard run. She shares the space with a herd of deer, a fox, a gaggle of turkeys (I know, a group of turkeys is actually called a rafter, but I like gaggle better), and an entire forest of other creatures. I love gazing out at the gang and often find inspiration in their natural, graceful passage.

This morning, engaged as I was in my writing exercise, I took a moment to watch Pumpkin. Many times, I find myself looking on as she crouches in her pre-pounce stance. She is a true huntress, having to fend for her own food (I'm guessing at this, as she wears no collar). But I have never actually seen her come up with a prize. I often wondered how she survived. She must be eating something out there.

Just then, the taller grasses on the hillside shivered, and Pumpkin pounced. She proudly pranced over to the rock and released her catch, a baby snake of some kind, probably a foot-and-a-half in length. She pawed at the snake as it squiggled a snake-ish limp along the rock and eventually dropped into the more manicured part of the yard. Jumping down, Pumpkin taunted him, biting and pawing until he stopped moving completely. The whole process didn't take more than a couple of minutes.

Then, I heard the caw of crows as they swooped and entered my window-framed view. This was Animal Planet live, just a few feet away, with only a framed window between me and the wild.

With the lack of movement in the shorter grass and the mini-vultures overhead, I wondered, Will Pumpkin eat the freshly dead snake? Do cats eat snakes?, Neighborhood cats and baby snakes? Eeww, this was strange.

I continued my silent surveillance. Pumpkin pecked and nibbled and, sure as can be, devoured the snake, at least in part. I had my answer, cats eat snakes. But then, another unpredicted happening (for me, anyway) occurred.

Pumpkin climbed the hillside through the young crown vetch and stopped at a spot about halfway up. Her back was to me as she sat facing the hillside, tail swooping the foliage, back and forth. What was she doing? I wondered. She couldn't be searching for new prey, could she? She should have been satisfied from her recent meal.

Zapping that thought, Pumpkin's next move paralyzed me, mouse in hand. I witnessed the fur covering her body ripple from neck to hind haunches. Ripple and ripple and ripple, again. It looked far too uniform to be a convulsion. And soon I realized her body was ejecting her latest intake of food. So, cats don't eat snakes? Or they do, but they shouldn't, like dogs eat pebbles and babies eat crayons. I was learning here, that much was certain.

Throughout the day, the scene with Pumpkin popped into my mind several times. I talked with family and neighbors and friends about what I had witnessed earlier that morning.

Last evening, then, while I nibbled trail mix (because all real meals sent my stomach a-churning), it occurred to me. This brainprint -- my term for the unforgettable, unexpected image that fully engages, evokes a response, and then continues to haunt -- is what we writers strive for in every passage, every paragraph, every line. Pumpkin did for me, what I long to create and struggle to deliver to every reader who encounters my writing.

Think back to scenes in books and movies that have left a lasting brainprint for you. They don't have to be graphic in nature, but can be emotional, disturbing, fulfilling, unsettling.

One such scene that comes to mind for me I saw in, yes, I'll admit it, a LifetimeTV movie selection. I apologize for not remembering the title, because I've watched more than a few of these. (They can provide a quick, refreshing study of mood and character, and they sometimes offer up those desired, unexpected plot twists.)

In this particular movie, the protagonist, a thirty-something professional woman (probably Kate Jackson, in which case she would have been forty-something), is being followed on a deserted highway in the middle of the night (okay, it's a bit cliche but it still catches a basal human fear) by a large pick-up truck. As she increases her speed, so does the truck driver. As she slows, he in turn decelerates. With sparks flying, he bumps her around, making me anxious for her to take the nearest exit ramp.

Instead, she does the unexpected. She slows her car on a bridge deck and comes to a stop on the shoulder of the road. As expected then, the big truck pulls in behind her. At this point, I'm thinking she's done for. He's going to come up to the window, whip open the door (or blow the door open with a sawed-off shot gun), yank her out of the car, kill her, and dump her body over the bridge. At least, this is what I expect to happen.

Instead, Kate surprises me again. She opens the door and steps out of the car. Don't do this, I think. Turn the other way and run! Kate turns toward the still-illuminated blinding lights of the truck and walks toward her aggressor.

Now, I'm thinking he's going to run her over. He revs the engine, the truck rocks with the surge. Uh-huh, Kate, I told you so. Now run!

Kate continues to walk toward the hood of the car. But then, rather than run Kate down, the driver shifts into reverse and backs up a few feet. Now, that's unexpected. She continues to walk. He backs up again.

I assumeded the protagonist would act in one way. She didn't. I expected the antogist to respond to her actions in another way. He didn't. This is great stuff!

It's this path of the unpredictable that we writers should strive to walk. Rather than allowing your character to act in a way the reader might anticipate, empower her to react in a unique way, all the while keeping within reasonable margin of her true nature. The same goes for your antagonist. Don't allow him to do what other bad-guys do. Delve into how he is different and how he can, in turn, unexpectedly respond.

Other than the truly powerful images that we've all experienced (like when Hannibal Lector rubs Clarice's hand in Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris), which scenes have you read or observed that took you by surprise, set you off, made you react, gave you a lasting, burning imprint-of-a-memory? Or better yet, how can you create such an enduring brainprint in your work-in-progress today? Let us know.

Aside: Just now, I steered the computer mouse to highlight the "Publish" button on this entry, when something moved in the corner of my view. Pumpkin? She was who I looked for to climb onto the rock. Instead, a white cat meandered through the crown vetch. I watched and waited for the unexpected.

Posted by Judy at 10:12 AM | Comments (9)