Questions you always wanted to ask a published author

[Teresa Edgerton]

"What do you see as the feature or features that tend to distinguish professional authors, such as yourself, from those who are not (yet?) professionals?"

Actually, I can sum up the most important thing in one sentence: Somewhere between 500,000 and 1,000,000 words.

That's how many words you will probably have to write before you produce something that an editor at a large publishing house will want to buy. (I believe I may have gone on the record at some point suggesting a lesser number, but my math skills have improved since then.)

This is 500,000 or more words after you decided to get serious about writing. The things that you wrote while you were still fooling around for your own enjoyment, with no real intention to learn from your mistakes and keep improving, do not count toward this total. As for the words that do enter into this computation, you can use them to write several different novels, or to write and revise the same novel many different times, or to write between 100 and 1000 short stories, or any mixture of the above; it doesn't much matter, so long as you do the work.

Yes, if an aspiring writer is exceptionally brilliant or incredibly lucky he or she may manage to do it in less. But great genius and remarkable luck are not factors within our control. I'm talking about something a writer can actually do.

Also essential: Persistence, revision, and the ability to write a great synopsis.

Persistence may seem like a given after what I said about writing at least half a million words, but you also have to have the gumption to keep on submitting even after multiple rejections. I've known a number of very talented writers who gave up after three or four rejections, and I've known writers of less talent who kept plugging away for years and years and finally broke through after many books and many submissions, but I don't know anyone who kept at it with that kind of determination who didn't eventually land a contract.

There are a great many people who will tell you that it's virtually impossible to get published, the system is so corrupt and so hostile to new talent. All I can say is: if you meet such a person, ask him or her how many books they submitted to how many agents and/or publishers. I'm willing to bet that the number of books + the number of times submitted does not produce a very large sum.

But you have to be able to edit and revise your own work. It's no good if you churn out book after book, or short story after short story, and keep making the same mistakes over and over without learning how to go back and fix them. And if you keep sending something out and nobody is buying it, and you still believe that it was a brilliant idea, then do another revision. For a first novel, three or four complete revisions (or more) is not unreasonable.

I'll go into why you need a great synopsis in another message. Right now, I'm being called away to dinner.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

It would be difficult to over-estimate the importance of the synopsis.

Many aspiring writers are of the opinion that agents sell books. Agents know which editors are most likely to buy which books, they use their wiles (or trade on their reputations) to get those editors to look at those books -- they may even influence these editors to do so in a receptive frame of mind. If an editor decides to buy a book, the agent does everything in his or her power to negotiate a favorable contract. What agents do not do is convince editors to buy books against their own inclinations. Books sell themselves -- or, if the writer is already published, the proposal may sell the book -- either way, it is the writer's own writing that does all the convincing. That begins with the synopsis. It may also end there.

I've heard many aspiring writers complain, "The editor sent me a form rejection. My book never got a fair reading. I'm sure that he/she never read past the synopsis." First of all, you don't know this. A form rejection means only what it says, no more no less: we decided not to buy your book. But supposing that it is true, and the editor (or the agent, if that is who you are submitting to) never did get past your synopsis? That probably says more about your synopsis than it does about the editor's (or agent's) competence. You had his or her attention, and for whatever reason you didn't hold it.

Think of it the same way you would think of applying for any other job where a great many people are competing for the same position: The query letter is the application. The synopsis is the resume. The manuscript (or the partial) is the interview. Not everyone who submits a resume gets called in for the interview, there just isn't time to talk to everyone who wants the job.

It therefore rests on you to convince the editor (or the agent) that he or she won't be wasting his or her valuable time by giving you a closer look than somebody else.

 

[littlemissattitude]

This isn't a question about publishers and such, but it's something I'm intensely interested in, and that is process. Not that I think that anyone's process is necessarily right for anyone else. I just think the wide variety of writing process I've heard and read about among writers is just fascinating.

For example, I attended a panel at LosCon once where Harry Turtledove's wife described his physical set-up for writing - a comfortable chair with a writing board, a particular kind of notebook paper and (I think) a particular type of pencil, with all his reference books within arm's reach. On the other hand, possibly the same year at the con, I saw him sitting alone at a table in the middle of a busy book sale room, happily writing away. Tim Powers plans the chronology of his novels on 3 by 5 index cards that he says he strews all over the living room rug, much to the consternation of his wife. Harlan Ellison claims to ever only write one draft and has been know to do so in such places as display windows and out in the middle of traffic. Ah, well, that's Harlan, about whom Stephen King once wrote that if he hadn't existed, it would have been necessary to invent him. In more mainstream fiction, John Steinbeck wrote East of Eden, and I think Grapes of Wrath as well, in bound journals in pencil and warmed up before each writing session by writing letters to his publisher on the left-hand pages in the journal. The East of Eden letters were later published as Journal of a Novel.

All of this is a long way around to ask you if you'd mind sharing some of your process with us.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

In one way, littlemiss, that's a difficult question to answer, since a lot of my process takes place in the dark of the subconscious where even I can't see it. To a very large extent, I am an intuitive writer. Yes, I do a lot of planning, but I'll throw all of that planning out the window if the busy subconscious mind suddenly presents me with a better alternative -- so detailed and well-integrated into the story that I know its been making its own outlines and timelines on the sly.

But in another way -- well, I could practically produce a book on the great saga of my process: How it has changed over the years as outside circumstances have changed. How it has developed as I have learned more about writing. All the methods I have experimented with and then abandoned. There is a real danger of telling you much more than you could ever want to know.

So I'll tell you how it was in the beginning -- when I first became serious about writing, and began working on something that was eventually published -- and if anyone is still interested after that, I could continue the epic in some later message.

The beginning, then, was The Green Lion Trilogy, originally one book which expanded into three and threatened to go on expanding into nine or twelve or even more. (But that's another story.) I wrote those three books on an electric typewriter, which necessarily made for a different process of editing and revision than most writers use when writing on a computer. Line-editing could be done with a pencil and eraser, but more substantial changes required that I type out a brand-new fair copy. Since I had to retype every single word anyway, I was often quite ruthless in the revisions I made, and each draft was practically a different book.

Even today, I always write a story in chronological order. There are never any chapters written out of order (although sometimes I will change the order of the chapters later, if it seems to make more sense). At the same time I do a certain amount of thinking ahead, and individual scenes or bits of dialogue from later chapters or even later books get scribbled down as they come to me. In those days these snippets were hand-written in what came to be a whole series of stenographic notebooks -- all muddled together with research notes and everything else it occurred to me to write down for later consideration. Sometimes when I finally reached that particular point in the story the characters and the plot had changed so dramatically that the scene I had written no longer worked and couldn't be used. But sometimes, even when I couldn't use the actual scenes, they turned out to be useful, because they told me things that I needed to know about the characters -- mostly by allowing me to listen in on what the characters said to each other.

Also, I nearly always wrote the dialogue in a scene first, and filled in everything else later. I still think it's a good way to let the characters generate the plot. If I can't make them say it, they wouldn't think it, and if they wouldn't think it, they wouldn't do it. I believe it makes for better dialogue, too, because every conversation follows its own logical progression, rather than being dictated by what I want the action to be. That wasn't why I did it, however. I wasn't as good then at visualizing the other parts of a scene, but my characters were all very chatty -- they had so much to tell me about themselves, they were always talking away inside my head.

So that's how I worked on my first three books, from the moment of first conception, through putting together a manuscript and sending it out, right up to the final revisions at my editor's request.

But then Tad came along and seduced me into using a computer, by offering to let me borrow his old Macintosh for as long as I wanted to use it. (In addition to turning out monstrous tomes himself, he was working for Apple in some capacity or the other at the time. Probably overcoming other people's resistance to technological advancements.) To say that I was doubtful, to say that I was reluctant, would be an understatement, but the thing about Tad is ... he's persuasive. I agreed to give the computer a try. Even so, I'm not sure I would have given it a fair chance, except for one thing: my electric typewriter had died, and the new one I bought had a keyboard that was driving me crazy. The keyboard that came with the Mac was proportionally closer to what I had been using for so many years, and the delete key was in the same place -- and with one thing and another, it was more natural and comfortable for me to use it than the new typewriter, so long as I continued to use it as a glorified typewriter and didn't try to do any of the fancy stuff like cut and paste. (Eventually, of course, I did learn to do those things, but at my own timid and technologically inept pace.)

Well, the upshot was that I wrote Goblin Moon entirely on Tad-the-Treekiller's old computer, and it was by far the longest book I had ever written up until that time. Is there a connection? You decide.

But I still liked the idea of every draft being a complete revision, and of having to really think about every single word and sentence and paragraph before using it again. So what I did for the next few books was that as soon as I finished a first draft, I printed up a hard copy, and then dumped the file in the trash so that it no longer existed on my computer, and the second draft had to be entered in word by word (although naturally with reference to the hard copy).

Actually, I still do it more or less that way sometimes -- not for a whole book, but for a large segment, if I want to rethink it -- although I don't trash the old file (in case I change my mind again later), I just move it to another folder and open a new one.

Some people may think that's too much work, or a waste of time, or not making proper use of the computer's capabilities, but I think it helps me to avoid the (always present) temptation to make cosmetic changes when more drastic alterations are actually needed.

 

[littlemissattitude]

I had always wondered what the difference would be for a professional between writing in longhand or on a typewriter, and writing on a computer. I well remember writing papers for school on typewriter, but I didn't ever get really serious about writing - meaning I didn't think about possible publication - until after I had access to a computer, first at school and then one of my own. I hadn't thought about the differences there would be in editing a book-length manuscript. Although I do tend to print out and paper-and-pencil edit anything of any length that I write and then make the corrections in the file on the computer, rather than editing directly on the computer.

The other thing is, I can surely identify with writing the dialogue of a scene before adding in the description and so forth. I've been known to do that, but I always figured that this was because I first started thinking seriously about writing when I was taking a play and screenwriting class, so that became a primary way for me to think through what I was writing.

Anyway, thank you for taking the time to answer my off-the-wall question, Kelpie.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Speaking of asking questions of a published writer, I started a thread over in Aspiring Writers for people to ask questions of K. D. Wentworth, who I have coaxed into putting in an appearance here.

I hope people will flock to that thread and participate. She is very experienced and very knowledgable.

 

[enchanted_ghost2001]

This might be a silly question but I am curious what is the best way to save a writing project? For example I started out with saving my work on a floppy disk but fortunately (meaning I succeeded in writing enough to fill one) the file became too big to save the whole thing on one. Then I got brave enough to burn it to cd, but sometimes the file gets corrupted. (Thankfully most of the time I remember to back it up.) Now not only do I back it up on another disk I also save it to my computer. I was just wondering if this is neccessary or if there is a better way. Thanks.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Oh good, I'm glad you decided to join in the discussion.

I still use floppy disks, because dealing with a CD presents too many problems. I always make at least two copies, besides the one on the computer, in case something happens to one. Since I don't write the story all in one file (it's usually divided into three or four parts), I just use more disks as the story gets longer. I also print up hard copy as I go along.

Then, near the end of a project, I copy everything yet again and put those disks in another location entirely (in the car, or entrusted to a relative who lives nearby), in case the house catches on fire or something. That way I figure if the worst happens, I may end up homeless but I won't have to write my whole story over from the beginning!

Paranoid? Yes, but the extra copies help me to sleep at night, and the disks are cheap. Paper and ink aren't, of course, but I need that manuscript copy too, for my peace of mind.

 

[littlemissattitude]

Teresa...Where do you get your floppy disks? I'm finding it more and more difficult to find them - last time I was in Office Depot they didn't have any in stock at all and seemed to think I was hopelessly behind the times for even wanting them.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Hmmm, good question. I usually send my husband out to get them, since the time when I'm most likely to perceive the need is in the midst of a writing frenzy. Where did we buy the last batch? (And if they are getting harder and harder to find, ought those of us who use them to be stocking up on them?) I'll ask him when he gets home from his SCA event, because I have no memory of when and where we came by them last.

 

[Brian G Turner]

You could always try something like a USB pen drive...larger data storage, and simply to use and reuse.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Well ... maybe. If I had any idea what one was and how it worked (since the ads don't exactly explain very much).

But wouldn't that just mean more files in one place, rather than multiple copies as backup?

 

[Brian G Turner]

Indeed - more files in one place - but if you rename the files...

If you have a computer with a USB port - which is relatively common in computers over the past couple of years, then it presents a simple and easy way to make back-ups - though with the caveat that anyone should be cautious about relying on a single source for all backups.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Teresa, a question for you - you spent a lot of time developing the language and names for the Hidden Stars - at the beginning it opened with names and places that began to suggest something of Celtic in character, but then it seemed to move more into mainstream fantasy elements.

Have you therefore considered writing something more akin to a Celtic fantasy? Or is this something you've already done?

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

My first three books were Celtic fantasy, Brian. Then (after a brief visit to 18th century Europe and America for the next two books) I returned to that world for three more books later. I still love certain elements of Celtic fantasy, which is probably why they insinuated their way into THS, but I've mostly moved on to other interests.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Thanks for the heads up - that would be the Green Lion trilogy, would it?

 

[enchanted_ghost2001]

Thanks for suggesting this! I finally got two of these drives. It is amazing how easy it is to use these and make backups. Now I have no excuse not to write! Thanks again!

 

[LauraJUnderwood]

Hmmmmmm...

Considering some of the questions *I've* been asked... ;-)

Howdy from East Tennessee, BTW.

Finally got into the forums.

Laura J. Underwood
Author of DRAGON'S TONGUE

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Hooray! I'm glad to see you here, Laura. Very much so.

edit: Over in the Aspiring Writers forum there are various threads about self-publishing and small press publishing. Some of our members have a lot of questions, and I know you've gone both routes and have much wisdom to share. Not that I'm hinting that you should drop in there and participate or anything like that ...

 

[BookStop]

Guess what book just wandered into my shop? Yep - The Hidden Stars. I tell ya what, I'm tempted to keep it since it's such a nice copy. I do have the trade-size at home though, so I guess I should put it out so someone else can get to know you. Just thought you'd want to know, at least 2 people around my neighborhood are reading you ...