The Fabulist Flash

Issue 109

Orange Gourds Mousepad

In This Issue:

1. This Week
2. Get Creative With Your Writing Career
3. Permission To Be An Artist
4. Carol McPhee take the 18Q
5. About The Fabulist Flash

1. This Week

When was the last time you broke the rules? That was a topic of discussion at our writer's group this week when one of our members read her novel synopsis and agent query letter. The synopsis and query mark the beginning of the next phase of writing: hunting for the sale and this was a good exercise for all of us.

Our member followed a query letter format from a recent "how to" book [I won't mention it because I don't want to promote bad ideas]. Sadly, the letter sounded canned. Our members helped with that problem by suggesting hook sentence starting points and recommended cutting several phrases that are naturally implied in agent queries including the tired: "I'm contacting you to seek representation..."

This reminded me of a conversation I had with novelist Randall Beth Platt, (books include The 1898 Base-Ball Fe-As-Ko, The Likes Of Me, and The Cornerstone) about her first novel: The Four Arrows Fe-As-Ko (Catbird Press, 1991). Randall broke the query rules when she made that sale. Her letter was written with poor grammar and had coffee cup rings on it. How did she make the sale? She wrote her query in the voice of her novel's lead character. The novelty and creativity of her query letter helped her stand out from the slush pile and she signed a three book deal for the Fe-As-Ko series. (Several of which have been optioned for movies.)

Here's the point: following the query rules is boring and usually doesn't work. Ask anyone who submits regularly and they'll tell you about their heap of rejection letters. My suggestion is break a few rules, be creative, try something new and see what happens. With nearly 200,000 books coming out annually, we all need to find interesting ways to stand out and be noticed. After all, our books are more interesting than those other 199,999, right?

This week, Angela Booth helps us get creative with our writing careers and Linda Dessau grants us permission to be artists. Plus, Carol McPhee takes the 18Q.

Until next week,

Gregory
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Gregory A. Kompes (www.kompes.com) is a writer, manuscript consultant and author of the bestseller 50 Fabulous Gay-Friendly Places to Live, The Endorsement Quest, The Everyday Gay Activist and Your Intensive Care Unit Stay.

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Preview 9 essential books for writers on The Writer's Bookshelf

2. Get Creative With Your Writing Career

Get Creative With Your Writing Career by Angela Booth

How brave are you?

You need courage to submit your work to potential buyers, but you also need courage to get creative with your career. To get creative, you may need to break a few rules.

There are hundreds of rules around writing. The rules give you basic information, such as -- how to format a manuscript, how to contact editors, how to find and interview sources, and more.

The danger is that you may come to look on these rules as "musts". Not so. These rules are merely guides. They're NOT written down in stone. You can flout the rules if you wish. There are no publishing-police, who will drag you into publishing court and charge you with the horrendous crime of submitting your manuscript in 12-point Times New Roman, rather than in Courier New, for example.

Get creative: do it your way

Like the immortal Chairman of the Board, you can do it your way. I was interested this morning to read a message from a much- published friend, telling me that she'd decided to take a new tactic with a novel she was working on. She has almost completed the novel, and rather than shipping off the completed novel to her agent, she decided to send the first half of the book to fifteen agents, to see what the response would be.

Here's how my thoughts ran when I read this message: *Whoa! She's breaking all the rules. She has an agent. She should offer it to him. If she wants to contact other agents, she should send them a letter first, and ----* I was indulging in a wonderful round of "musts". I do know better, but since this was my initial reaction, it shows you how firmly the rules hold us in their grasp.

Don't buy into the rules. There are no rules.

More power to my friend. Her intuition told her that this was the right procedure for her on this book at this time, and she went ahead and did it.

I've told you this little story to show you that you can do as you think best, always. Others may not agree with you. Tante pis. You don't need anyone's permission.

Break the rules creatively

How do you creatively break the rules? First you need to know what the rule, or the common practice, is in your situation. "Breaking the rules" doesn't mean that you act insensitively or arrogantly. In the example above, my friend wasn't breaking her contract with her current agent. She has a verbal agreement with him which operates book-to-book, not a written "whole-career" contract. She said that she feels that this new novel might not be his kind of book, and didn't want to argue with him before she finished the book. She loves the book, and doesn't want to listen to any doubts from someone she trusts. She wants to find someone who loves her book the way she does, without reservation.

You break the rules creatively when you decide to try something new, because it seems to be right for this situation. Another writer just posted an entire published novel on her Web site. She's made some money on the book, and because the rights to the book reverted to her, she feels that she'll get more promotional mileage by letting people read the book for free on her site than she will by trying to sell it to another publisher, or by selling it as an ebook on her site.

A couple of years ago an Australian writer whose books went out of print published them on her Web site. She charges a hefty yearly-subscription for access to the site. Subscribers get ebooks free, a forum, and can ask the writer's advice on her topic, because she's an expert. She broke the rules too, and in the process made a new rule. This happens too.

If you get an inspired flash to try something, try it. The flash may make no sense at all, in the context of your current writing and writing career goals, but why not try it? When I look back over a quarter of a century of writing, I don't regret anything I wrote. What I regret are all those ideas and inspirations I pushed aside and ignored. I regret the times I listened to other people, instead of to myself. I regret the times I thought other people knew more than I did, because they never did. I'm the expert on me; just as you're the expert on you.

What creative inspirations are you ignoring? Start today. Get creative with your writing career.

About the Author
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*Pro Write: Professional Writing Secrets* turns your a love of writing into a highly paid career. For both novices and experienced, selling writers. A new interactive writing workshop every month, for fiction, nonfiction and copywriting, plus writing coaching and writing manuals. Subscription includes access to writer's forum, three ezines, and writing markets. JOIN TODAY --- http://www.prowrite.biz/

3. Permission To Be An Artist

Permission To Be An Artist - Granted! by Linda Dessau

Since I've been offering Artist Retreat Day programs, I've been hearing a lot about the concept of "permission". Some artists who said yes to a retreat day shared that this was a much-needed structure to enable and empower them to FINALLY give themselves permission to take time for their creative work.

Others just couldn't say yes, just couldn't give themselves permission.

What does it mean to have permission to do something? My thesaurus tells me that other words related to permission are: consent, sanctioning and authorization.

Consent signifies agreement, validation that what you're doing meets with specific expectations, criteria and guidelines. It sounds solemn and like someone has faith in you. Sanction is an even more formal declaration of acceptance and faith.

Authorized to Create

Authorization -- well, that implies that you're something special. That not just anyone is meant to be painting this painting, writing this song or designing that jewelry. You have been specially authorized to do it.

And why? Because you have the unique gifts that are necessary to bring that creative project into being. Who authorized you? The same power that granted you those gifts and skills -- whether you choose to think of that as God, the universe, Spirit, or another name. As we read in the Science of Getting Rich [link], we're not given the desire to do something without also giving you the skill to carry it out.

Why is it so difficult to authorize ourselves, grant ourselves permission and consent, to sanction our own creative work? Sometimes we seek this permission from others, unconsciously (or consciously) hoping they'll deny it, so we won't really have to venture into the scary world of living up to our potential.

A lot of these words symbolize that external permission is needed. And sometimes it is.

Permission from Others

Whether you want to attend an artist retreat day, meet a deadline or just develop a new idea that came to you overnight, you'll sometimes need permission from the people you share your life with to take the time for your creative work.

It might mean delegating household work or child-care or rescheduling a date or planned event. All of you might also need a willingness to be flexible and to accept that sometimes things don't get done right away. It also means ensuring an environment of support for your work.

Will others give you permission? Of course you can't control what anyone else thinks, says or does, but consider this: our loved ones will take cues from us about how serious our creative work is to us. If we're constantly putting it on the back burner, putting our work down, and letting it be the first thing to go when things get stressful or busy, we're teaching others to treat it the same way.

If we don't take our creative work seriously, why should they?

Permission from Self -- Artist at Work

I think what's even more important is the permission we give ourselves. There are so many reasons we deny ourselves permission to pursue our creative work. Fear tops the list. Fear of success, fear of failure, fear of what people will think of us, fear of being good, fear of being terrible, or fear we'll let someone else down, to name a few examples.

Sometimes we hold on to earlier instances when we were denied permission, denied access, not sanctioned or authorized, or when our work was criticized or belittled. Some of us have even been told, directly, NOT to pursue our creative work ("don't give up your day job", "find another path", "you have no business doing this work"), which hung a big UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS sign on the door of our creative hearts.

So hang a new sign on your creative heart -- one that reads "Artist at work". And in fine print, "This work has been sanctioned by _______" (the name of your source of Power).

10 Signs That You've Given Yourself Permission To Be A Creative Artist

1. The first words out of your mouth when someone asks "and what do you do?" are "I'm a songwriter/artist/sculptor/writer, etc.".

2. You work steadily at your craft, whether it's working on or re-working pieces or promoting your work.

3. You teach your loved ones to treat your art seriously.

4. The materials and resources that you need to create with are part of your budget and are planned expenses every month.

5. You're committed to your learning, growth and development, participating in artists groups and discussion forums and seeking out mentorship and coaching.

6. You don't let mistakes or criticism stop you from taking your next steps.

7. You're building the resources you need to support yourself financially, emotionally and spiritually.

8. You're conscious of your physical lifestyle habits and choose the ones that won't interfere with your creative work.

9. You find opportunities to pass on your knowledge and support wherever possible, to someone who's had less experience than you have.

10. You consistently say no to requests for your time, energy and commitment that will take you away from your creative work.

About the Author
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Linda Dessau, the Self-Care Coach, helps artists enhance their creativity by addressing their unique self-care issues. Feel like your creativity is blocked? Sign-up for the free e-course, "Roadblocks to Creativity" by visiting http://www.genuinecoaching.com.

4. Carol McPhee take the 18Q

Carol McPhee

Website:
http://www.geocities.com/carolmcphee2003

Bibliography:
Something About That Lady - Contemporary Romance
Undercover Trouble - Romantic Suspense
Be Still, My Heart - Contemporary Romance
Means To An End - Romantic Suspense
Jeweled Seduction - Romantic Suspense
None So Blind - Contemporary Romance
Natural Persuasion - Contemporary Romance

Biography:
While working through a Bachelor of Science degree in nutrition at Acadia University in Nova Scotia and interning a year at Harper Hospital in Detroit, I had romance on my mind but not a thought of writing a romance novel. During my years as a dietitian, and helping to raise four children with my own special hero, I read the occasional romance, but still never dreamed of writing my own. The children eventualy flew from the nest leading to our frequent long drives to visit the ones in Ontario. During these drives, a story kept revolving in my head. I started writing it down and to my dismay discovered the more I wrote the more interesting the plot and the characters became and what fun I had manipulating them. This led to my first novel Scotian Run.

1. Did you choose the writing profession or did it choose you?
I guess it chose me. I couldn't get a story out of my head so I thought by writing it down it would vanish. Instead it led to my thoughts dwelling on other stories

2. What is your background? (education, work, etc.)
University science degree. Dietitian in four different hospitals.

3. When did you 'know' you were a writer?
When I met published writers at an RWA conference and felt their enthusiasm.

4. How would you describe your style of writing?
Generally seat of the pants writing. I like to let the characters have their way within a loose plot framework.

5. What is your writing process?
I start writing about 4 am every morning but seldom spend more than an hour and a half on the actual writing since I've been published. The rest of my day is spent in research, critiquing manuscripts, analyzing suggestions from those who critique my work, and revising.

6. What was your path to publication?
An online emagazine ran my first story as a series. I joined writers groups, learned enough about presentation of a good story and got published by one of the better small presses.

7. What is your favorite self-marketing idea?
I like to sell my books at upscale craft markets.

8. What are the biggest surprises you've encountered as a writer?
My biggest surprise is how much people like to chat with authors. Other surprises include that I never know what might crop up next by the way of direct contact or startling requests.

9. How do you inspire yourself? What are your sources of creativity?
I try to stay deeply immersed in my characters heads to work out what is best for them. My creativity comes from my vivid imagination and from a critique group that I belong to .

10. What is your proudest writer moment?
My proudest moment is always when someone tells me how much they enjoy my stories.

11. What's the best advice you were given about writing?
To keep at it.

12. What is your most embarrassing writer moment?
Turning down requests to speak.

13. What business challenges have you faced as a writer?
I hate keeping records. My hubby handles that end.

14. What is your writer life philosophy?
Persistence in writing what I enjoy will bring its own rewards.

15. When you're not writing what do you do for fun?
Woodland walks, biking, canoing, cross-country-skiing, traveling New England and Nova Scotia.

16. Who do you like to read?
I'm continually reading manuscripts for others so I don't have time to settle on one particular author.

17. What's your advice for new writers?
Learn all that you can and persue your dream.

18. What are you currently working on?
I'm working on a Contemporary Romance set in Nova Scotia that involves an ghostly privateer who looks remarkably like Kenny Rogers.

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Are you a published writer? Take the 18Q today!

To read all the 18Q responses or take the 18Q visit EighteenQuestions.com

5. About The Fabulist Flash

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