Setting the Record Straight
My first books were novels. They spanned the genres from Women’s fiction to Young Adult to Middle Grades. This foray into the children’s picture book world was a very new and, at first, unintimidating, prospect. I mean, seriously, how hard can it be to write a children’s picture book? As long as I had an illustrator, easy-peasy, right?
WRONG!
It has taken months to get the storyline to a place where I am happy and comfortable with the text for Chance’s Lucky Day, my first book in the Chance Adventure Series. The first big decision I had to make was to be true to myself and be comfortable with breaking the standard conventions of picture book writing. The standard word count is 800 words or less. Well, I smashed that convention. Chance’s Lucky Day slides in at a little over 1,500 words. Chance Explores the Farm, the next one in the series, is easily at least that in its early draft.
Yep! Almost double what convention (and editors and publishers) say it should be. I did this with purpose and intent. I wanted to offer a richer picture book story for children to grow into. When they’re younger and listening to the stories, the illustrations are the most important thing for them. The story just enhances the visual. Then, they grow into it after hearing the story. They start learning to read and feel like a more mature reader because they’re reading multiple sentences on a page.
Back to my title. I’m setting the record straight on the level of difficulty in writing a picture book versus a novel. Picture books require a lot of work. I easily revised and edited these 1500 words at least twenty times – maybe more. The illustrations underwent multiple revisions, as well. Despite how it may seem, writing a children’s picture book is not simple, nor is it easy. The satisfaction derived from its completion? Absolutely the same!
Co-Authors: Blending Creative Brains
For most authors, writing is a solitary pursuit. There’s no one with whom you have to consult on names, plot ideas, character actions or motivations. There’s also no one to argue with your decision if you suddenly want to veer from the original story line. All of that changes when you decide to collaborate on a writing project.
I’ve heard some speak of some great collaborations, yet others have been left hurt, confused, and/or frustrated. For me, working with co-authors has been not only a positive experience, but also fruitful and deeply satisfying.
Why did it take a collaboration to bring three of my projects to fruition? Because I’m not an expert on musical composing, nor am I an expert in internet safety or police procedure.
My first collaboration wasn’t with one, but two, co-creators. In 2005, I convinced two friends, Laura E. Williams, the author of the award-winning middle grades novel, Behind the Bedroom Wall, and Joan Burr, my dear friend and colleague in the middle school where we both taught for decades, (Wow! That makes us sound super old!) to write a full-length musical based on Laura’s book.
It was an incredibly seamless transition from being three independent creatives working on our own projects to a thriving threesome working on a labor of love that required the varied strengths of each of us in order to ensure success. It took us approximately 8 months to pull it all together in a full draft that we could then use as the production piece for our sixth graders in Drama Club at Gideon Welles School in Glastonbury, CT. We each had our roles in the writing and production.
Laura and I mainly worked on the script – but Joan was involved in the brainstorming and planning. Usually what would happen is I would convert the chapter/scene of the book into script format, then Laura and I massaged it to make it flow. For the scenes that were added to the musical but not part of the book, the three of us brainstormed the scenes. Joan was the brains behind composing and she wrote most of the music for it and did all of the arrangements. Laura and I each contributed three songs, then the three of us collaborated on two or three songs, then Joan wrote the rest and pulled it all together into a a fully composed musical. MAGIC!
The musical was produced for eight audiences of 400+ attendees. (So more than 3200 people have hopefully enjoyed the show.) It was also backed by The Bushnell, the performing arts center in Hartford, who encouraged Connecticut Repertory Theater to workshop it using equity actors from New York City. It was a pretty exciting endeavor as the three of us were called into action to make some major revisions based on suggestions from the CRT director, Gary English.
So, here’s how we stayed in sync with one another: hours and hours of meetings after school in Joan’s music classroom, in our homes, in restaurants, over the phone, and then an utterly hilarious weekend writing retreat in the suite of a local hotel – not to mention the weeks we worked at the University of Connecticut campus in Storrs with Director Gary English, Mary Costello, a phenomenal stage manager, and the actors from NYC. We debated a lot, laughed a lot, but above all else, respected each other A LOT!
I’d love to do it all over again with Joan and Laura. The only hitch…Laura moved to Hawaii, I moved to the Finger Lakes of New York, and Joan is traveling the countryside visiting family and working on another successful musical collaboration with another musical friend, Nina Allbert. (Laura and I aren’t jealous – MUCH… haha!) Seriously, with today’s technology, I bet we could write another musical together.
My other collaboration is with my co-author on two books, Scott Driscoll. After my first published novel, FINDING ATTICUS, came out, Scott approached me about collaborating on a book based on an idea he’d had for several years. As a police officer, DARE instructor, and owner of Internet Safety Concepts, his desire to educate kids and their families on the dangers lurking when using technology was inherent. At first, I was hesitant. As Scott declared right up front, he was an idea man, not a writer. That’s why he came to me. We sat and brainstormed what the collaboration could look like, and before he’d walked out of my classroom, we’d formed a new partnership.
This collaboration was very different. Scott was eager to learn the ins and outs of writing a book. Because of the format we chose for the book’s set-up, I wrote the fictional parts and he wrote the non-fiction, educational parts. We then worked together on the reinforcement activity at the end of each chapter. It took more than a year of meetings and brainstorming calls to pull the book together. I’ll never forget the excitement on his face when he first held a book with HIS name on the cover (along with mine, of course). Thus. our novel, www.RUinDanger.net was ready for others to read, an Scott’s dream of having his idea become a book and get published had become a reality. (By the way, he’s become a pretty darned good writer along the way, too! He’s starting to really grasp story structure, character development, and all those things authors need to understand.)
After that, I went back to writing books on my own. The next book out was OVER THE EDGE in 2014, but Scott was always in my ear asking when we could write another one together. (I guess that’s proof that the first experience wasn’t horrifying. 😉) For two or three years we bantered around ideas for plots that would incorporate his expertise and experiences doing undercover work in internet crimes against children into a story. While we bantered, I continued writing other books on my own. Then, right after BEFORE I KNEW came out in December of 2016, his wife, Bonnie, commented on my Facebook post about the book coming out and asked, “So, when are you and Scott going to write the next one together?” I responded, “He has a small window of time to catch me before an idea for one of my own books takes over again.
Scott seized on the opportunity. He saw the message, and texted me at 7:00 a.m. while I was making my breakfast and said, let’s talk. And, the rest, as they say, is history. It took us two years, and me writing and publishing another book in between, but now our latest collaboration is almost ready to meet the world. YOU CAN TRUST ME is nothing like my other stories, but that’s because I worked with Scott who introduced a whole new dimension of thinking to my world. (This book is realistic fiction, and we hope it will be a wake up call to families who dismiss the ease at which predators can get inside their lives and homes. Yes, it can happen to you!)
So, back to the decision to collaborate. How do you know if it’s going to work? To be honest, chances are you won’t know until you give it a try. First, you have to really, really like and respect the person with whom you’re considering forming a creative partnership. For me, I have to know them – WELL! Writing something together requires you to let a lot of walls down and get very personal at times. (Scott, and my husband, Jim, jokingly refer to me as Scott’s writing wife.) That’s because in addition to respect, you have to have a whole lot of trust in the other person.
That trust comes on many levels during the writing process, including agreeing on the story line, making sure the work is equally distributed, and the vision for the cover. It also includes the financial aspect of the project when it’s completed. How do you decide who pays for what? How will royalties be paid out? What will marketing look like?
This is a long missive to get around to my main point. Based on my experience, here are the characteristics necessary in all collaborators if it’s going to be a positive and productive experience.
Imagination
Respect
Patience
Flexibility
Trust
Open-mindedness
Humor
Willingness to Learn
Would I collaborate again? Scott says yes. 😀
Meanwhile, keep your eyes open for YOU CAN TRUST ME to come out within the next couple of months.
Please visit my website: www.nicka39.sg-host.com
p.s. If you’re married and planning to take on a co-author, it also helps if your spouse understands that you’re going to spend a lot of necessary time with your co-author. There’s just no way around it. Thanks to Jim, Bonnie, and The Rog for understanding this. 💝
The Calm Before the…Release
The word CALM is probably really inaccurate. I’m going to break down that phrase in the title so you understand what it really means to have a new book released.
But first…YUM! (It’s always good to keep the end rewards in the forefront of your mind. Motivation!)
What happens during the CALM phase…
I write the book.I set it aside for a few years because other writing projects (and distractions, like moving from Connecticut to New York and looking for new career, come up)
I finally pull the book back out and re-write it because there’s a lot I’ve learned about writing in the last 17 years.
I edit and revise.
I edit and revise more… (repeat 15 times at least)
I go through critique sessions with my critique partners, Lorraine and Dot. They call me out on everything that doesn’t make sense, everything that isn’t believable, every part of the plot that hangs them up.
I edit and revise more… (repeat several times again)
The draft goes out to beta readers who don’t read it like writers; they read the book like readers. They tell me what they like. They catch little errors that somehow slipped by. They tell me what they didn’t like.
I edit and revise more… (repeat several times again)
Meanwhile, I contact a new cover designer who, thankfully, is fabulous to work with.We exchange dozens and dozens of emails trying to work out the particulars of the cover, the title, the back copy, the formatting.
We edit and revise more…
We work on formatting issues.
We’re finally satisfied with that part.
It’s ready for publication!
THE RELEASE – Oh happy days leading up to it…
I have to let readers know that it’s coming out soon. How do I do that?
I do a cover unveiling on Facebook. Over the course of a couple of days, I’ll share the cover and the back cover copy.
I have a pre-release contest and give away lots of prizes because that’s so much fun!
I share the release date with people
Send out some tweets
Share on Instagram
Have an “Ask the author” day on Facebook.
Market…market…market…
Eat chocolate-covered strawberries and warm chocolate chip cookies – because that’s a great way to celebrate! (See pictures at the top!!!)
And, after all of this…I say lots of prayers and cross my fingers that readers will enjoy the book and encourage others to buy it, as well. I ask those readers to put a review on Amazon and Good Reads so others might find my book and be interested.
Keep phone handy so movie producers can contact me…. (Okay, there’s nothing wrong with dreaming big, right?)
I guess there really is no calm before the release – and I’ve only shared a little here.
SO WHY DID I WRITE THIS BLOG? HINT…HINT…
Why Go to a Writers Conference?
This is on my mind right now because I’m on my way to a writers conference in Boston, and I can’t wait for the weekend!
There’s something invigorating and motivating about attending a well-run writing conference. Because I live on the east coast, I tend to gravitate toward conferences in the northeast. My three favorite conferences that I’ve attended are the New Jersey Romance Writers’ “Put Your Heart into a Book Conference”, the RWA National Conference (when it’s on the east coast, because I don’t fly!), and New England Chapter of Romance Writers of America’s “Let Your Imagination Take Flight Conference.”
Why are conferences valuable to me?
1. It’s creatively stimulating to be surrounded by other writers
2. There are always workshops to attend that aid me in stepping up my game as a writer
3. I make new friends who share my interests at every single conference
4. I get a chance to see what everyone else is writing (which results in more books on my TBR – to be read – list)
5. I go home energized and ready to tackle those moments of writer’s block
6. There are lots of opportunities to just sit around and talk writing with others. (I’m sure probably for others this sounds incredibly boring, but riters love it if they find others who will talk about writing with them! )
7. I often choose the opportunity to pitch to an editor or agent. (Talk about the adrenaline pumping! You have five minutes to convince them of why they need to represent your baby…um, I mean, book.)
8. I get to meet lots of very successful writers who inspire me to never give up.
9. I get some really fun swag – and there are some pretty creative marketing ideas out there
10. Everyone is excited to be there. It’s a like a big party with hundreds of friends
11. Writers are genuinely nice people who care about each other and are supportive
12. Networking! Networking! Networking
If you’re already writing and haven’t attended any conferences, do it! If you’re just exploring the idea of writing a book, attend one! It might seem intimidating the first time because you see all of these people who are published or hoping to be and you think you’re not equal to them. Not true! They’re all happy to share their journey with you so that maybe you’ll avoid some of the frustrations or pitfalls that almost every writer experiences.
So, with that being said, wish me luck this weekend. I’m hoping an editor will want to take a look at my book. I mean, after all, the NY Times Bestseller List is just waiting for me!
It’s a Title! What’s the big deal?
Like many authors, especially we indie authors, deciding on the title of a book can be pretty difficult and time-consuming. That may seem ridiculous, but if you think about it, the title of your book is the first step to catching a potential reader’s attention. The next is the back cover blurb, but that’s a whole different topic.
A title has to fit the tone of the story.
My current w.i.p. is a contemporary young adult novel. For a long time I didn’t have a title for it. Then after discussions with writing friends, the title “If I Knew” surfaced. While I liked it, and the questions it raised, something about it hasn’t set right with me. I don’t even remember what the first working title was. I was about on Chapter five when my writing friend, Mary Buckham, and I were on the phone brainstorming when she threw this one onto the list. The title works…it fits the book…and it raises story questions, so technically, it’s a “hook”. I decided unless I came up with something different, this title would be fine.
But it wasn’t. Over the past year, I’ve sought suggestions from others, did my own private brainstorming, put those ideas out on Facebook to get feedback from readers, and still, nothing seemed better than “If I Knew”, so I kept it.
I made a mock up of a cover just to try and make it look official. (I am not a cover artist, by the way, although it’s not horrible.) I’m someone who is motivated by something that forces me to finish…like a cover. I thought seeing the title on a cover would make it feel right.
Um, nope.
So, today, I was writing the back cover copy. As soon as I wrote the first line of the second paragraph, I realized what was wrong. The word IF was hanging me up. I didn’t like the word IF. (Maybe it’s because I like to fancy myself a decisive person. <grin>)
I wrote the line “Before I discovered…”
Then, for the next line I realized I was starting the sentence with “Before I met…”
Next, “Before I realized…”
Then, I got to the last line, and it flowed out. “Before I Knew…” As soon as I wrote the words, I felt something in me settle. I like the word “before”. It raises questions.
Before what? Before she knew what? How did learning what she didn’t know before change her life? What changed? Was it positive or negative? (The options for questions goes beyond these.)
So, why is the title important? It should catch a reader’s attention so that they’re asking a question…hopefully a question that they just can’t bear to move on in life without getting the answer. #booksales
And the title has to fit the book so the reader isn’t misled. If they pick up the book based on the title, and then the story line doesn’t pan out to fit with the title, the reader may get annoyed or frustrated and put it down – and then that means they won’t recommend it to others. So, if my title seems to point toward a mystery or something humorous, but the theme is really about building family relationships, healing broken people, etc., then there are going to be annoyed readers when they find out they aren’t going to laugh throughout the book or sit on the edge of their seat wondering “whodunit”.
My advice: without giving any details about the story line, share your potential title with others. Ask them what comes to mind when they hear it. Then, add a little detail about the story and see if they still feel it fits.
With my mock up cover up above, I asked people if they were picking this book up in the store and had to guess at what the story was about without seeing anything other than the cover with title and tag line, what does this cover tell them. Many were right on the mark about the general sense of the story. Imagine my surprise when a couple of people asked in horror, “Is she going to kill the horse?” And they were serious.
You, as the author, know exactly what the title is supposed to convey. Readers who don’t know the story have nothing to go by. So, choose your title carefully, run it past a few people, and always be open to the possibility that there’s a better title out there than the one you’ve fallen in love with.
Editing and revising…it’s even important with book titles.
What’s in a critique partner?
No! I’m not talking about what my critique partners just had for dinner.
I’m not talking about their anatomy, either.
Most writers have at least one, if not more than one, critique partner. I’m the type that prefers multiple critique partners. I think multiple critique partners are going to keep you honest – and keep each other honest. You hear different viewpoints (that you then can choose to ignore or grab nuggets from to improve the plot, or character, or whatever the suggestion was for.)
Writing is more often than not a very solitary venture. I dare guess that most writers tend to secret themselves away from other distractions in their lives and write in a room or office closed off to the rest of the world. If this is you, raise your hand. (Oh, sorry, I couldn’t actually see those hands go up, but I felt a breeze in the air that told me you did it!) Having a critique partner helps take away the feeling of isolation that can come with being a writer.
I have been in more than one critique group over the years. Each one was configured differently. (If you’re not interested in the different configurations of the groups I was in and my explanation of the pros and cons, you can scroll down to the part: What I look for in critique partners and where to find critique partners. I even put them in a different font and color to distinguish them. BUT, I think you’ll learn something from my critique group history, too.)
This blog is also very “link-heavy”, so I hope you’ll read the blog in its entirety before going back to click on the links.
THE DAWNING OF MY CRITIQUE GROUPS
(I was going for a catchy heading, here.)
The first group I was ever in (almost 30 years ago!) started out with about 20 members. Looking back, I now realize that wasn’t a critique group. That was a bunch of writers getting together and sharing their work. It wasn’t even the same kind of work. Some wrote poems, some were working on books, some were working on memories. There wasn’t time to really critique each person’s work, and it was hard to be focused on what I needed to do to get better with so many different kinds of writing being presented. The positive was that it connected me with some other people who were writing what I was writing. So, that led to…
My next, and longest running, critique group, was pretty effective for helping me grow as a writer. There were five regulars, but often there were six or seven of us. All women. That was okay, though, because we were all focused on some aspect of romance writing. We were also all in the same RWA chapter. (RWA = Romance Writers of America, the largest organized group of writers worldwide.) I have to thank Zita Christian, a past president of the Connecticut chapter and a dear friend for convincing us to join. We needed that professional push. (Zita is also a top-notch brain stormer whose insight helped me put the “icing on the cake” in my book Over the Edge. Thanks, Zita. Take a bow!)
In meetings, we discussed our stories, but we also talked about the craft of writing, about the publishing world and expectations. What I learned from being in this group was that I needed to be in a “focused” group of people who understood my genre. We usually met once a month. That was not the most productive frequency, but it’s what fit our busy lives at the time. Unfortunately, life (and sadly, the death of our original organizer), started interrupting our opportunities to meet regularly. Most of us were only writing sporadically, or not at all, and we eventually drifted apart as a critique group. (But, we’ve remained good friends who are there for each other to support in any way we can.) Leslie Nielsen, Crystal Smith, Christine Church, and Sandra Hassan, this is where you raise your hands.
I need critique groups. I found two colleagues who taught in the same school system as I did, and added in the mother of one of my former students who was also writing, and we formed my next critique group. So, there were four of us: one man and three women. We kept it to this size because we wanted to make sure we had enough time to get through everyone’s writing within two or so hours. The positive about this group is that we all worked with pre-teens and teens, so we understood the audience for our writing. Unfortunately we had just found our groove as a group when I moved to NY. I’m happy to say that every one of us has found some sort of success with our writing since “our break-up”. haha! We’ve all been published in some form, and we’re still cheerleaders for each other and always will be. Dave Polochanin, Suzanne Cordatos and Michelle Vigue: it’s your turn to raise your hand.
When I returned to my home state of New York, I was invited to be a part of another critique group with an eclectic mix of writing styles, genres, genders and ages. The youngest member was a young man in his thirties (go ahead, Jamie Henshaw, if you’re reading this, raise your hand), several middle-aged women, and the oldest was Jamie’s father in-law who I guess was probably in his seventies. This was a good “starting point” for me when I came back because I got to meet other writers and TALK writing. I love talking about writing. I met with this group for about a year, but our meetings also fell by the wayside. I also attended a few meetings of another writing group that was more into sharing than critiquing. It was a very nice group of people, but they met on a weekday during the day. Anyway, I started working full time again, so that was the end of that.
But out of that first NY group came one of my current critique partners. Lorraine Landerand I wanted to get a small group together that was focused on the same genre and with the goal of publishing sooner rather than “whenever”. We searched and searched for at least one other person to form a group. Then a writing friend from way out in Washington State (Mary B., that was your cue to raise your hand) suggested I contact a writer she knew in our area. Lorraine and I met Dorothy Callahan (although we call her Dot) at Olive Garden to see if it seemed like we might be a good match, and, voilà! We’ve been working together for almost three years. I also have another writer friend, Lisa Tapp, with whom I work long-distance. Mary Buckham, writer and teacher extraordinaire, also connected me with Lisa. Each of these women brings a different knowledge, skill and interest to our discussions about writing.
Lorraine Lander and Dorothy Callahan have pushed me to complete my books. They give me the proverbial “slap upside the head” if something in the plot doesn’t work or make sense. They brainstorm with me when I hit a brick wall with the plot and I need to get over that wall. I’m very fortunate that I was able to connect with these two ladies.
So, after all of that, what’s the take-away for other writers? Well, I can tell you what my criteria is for critique partners, and maybe that will help you when you’re trying to put a group together.
WHAT I LOOK FOR IN CRITIQUE PARTNERS
1. I have to “like” them as people in order to work with them. This is important because I’m going to be putting my “baby” in their hands at every critique meeting, and that requires trust on my part. What do I need to “trust”? I need to trust that they have my best interests at heart when they’re dealing with my “baby”, because there are times when my baby is just plain bad. I need to know they won’t “throw the baby out with the bathwater” but will give me suggestions on how to clean it up.
2. Connecting to that trust is trusting that they will be honest. If what I’ve written is weak, I have to trust that they won’t tell me it’s the best thing they’ve ever read. I need them to be honest with me and tell me that they’re just not buying the scenario. Or, there’s no logic in this plot point or scene Or, your character is too one-dimensional. You get the idea…if they aren’t honest, how will my writing improve?
3. I need critique partners who aren’t sensitive and can accept the negative parts of a critique. Maybe they won’t agree with it, but I need to know they’re going to consider that they might be blind to the issue because they’re too close to the story. (After all, who wants to admit that they’re “baby” isn’t wonderful?) If every one of my suggestions, concerns, comments, falls on deaf ears with the partners, then why should I bother giving feedback? They would feel the same way, I’m sure.
4. They have to be committed to writing, too. There have been a handful of meetings when I have gone without new material, and boy, it’s made me feel like a slacker! They push me to have something for each meeting. (They aren’t bullies, don’t worry. The pressure is totally internal coming from me.)
5. They have to be actively learning about writing, as well. When we’re all hitting the NY Times best-seller list consistently, then we might have a little leeway with each other in the learning department. But a writer only gets better by studying the craft.
6. My critique partners need to be as invested in my story as I am in theirs.The only way brainstorming can be effective is if we each feel some kind of ownership/loyalty to what the others have written. It’s not just courtesy, it’s what makes the brainstorming worthwhile. If they don’t care about my characters or the story, they’re not going to be able to help me work through those “bumps” in the plot.
7. They have to turn over a percentage of their earnings to me.
(Okay, maybe not, but for just a second it sounded like a great idea. haha!)