Erin: As Nike says, "Just do it"

Last week, Lisa gave some advice on getting published. She said, and I quote, “Write the best book you can.” This seems pretty straightforward, but Lisa also mentioned how many of the people asking her for publishing advice had yet to write their book.

And this got me thinking. About time. About effort. About the amount of energy and dedication and utmost perseverance that is necessary to write a novel.

When I tell someone that I write in addition to my day job, they often say something along the lines of: “Oh that’s so nice. I would love to do that. I wish I had the time.” I usually feel like responding with: “You do have the time, you are just using it to do something else.” And that’s totally acceptable. You should absolutely fill your spare time with the people, places and things that you love. But if you say you’d love to publish a book, and then never find the time to write it, perhaps the hard truth is that you don’t really want to write.

Now let’s say you do want to write. There are stories inside of you and you feel you will not be yourself until they are shared. You are willing and ready to carve out the time. Well I have some advice: Start. Just start.

You will never, ever reach your dreams of publication if you don’t sit down and write the darn book. It is the only place to begin. And sometimes starting can be scary. I understand that the idea may not be fully formed, that it is mostly in your head, wild and unruly. I understand that you’re still working out the details and right now the plot seems overwhelming. And above all, I understand that you are busy with a million other obligations. But if you want to write – if you want to be published – you have to start. Right now. Don’t put it off any longer, because trust me, it will never be the right time.

This is not depressing. It is simply the truth. You will always be finishing school, or starting a new job, or getting married, or moving, or having a kid, or going back to school, or having a second kid, or visiting family, or buying a house, or moving again. All of these are wonderful things, and even when you plan for them, they require time and energy. Some you may not plan for at all, and they will happen nonetheless.

My point is that life will constantly throw you curveballs. There will never be that perfect moment when you sit down and a sign flashes before of you saying, “Begin novel now!”

So just do it. Start. Carve out the time. An hour here, an hour there. You don’t have to pull all-nighters, although I’m pretty sure you occasionally will. Write on your lunch break. Wake up an hour earlier. If your commute involves a train of some sort, take the laptop with you. Brainstorm while you drive. Nothing makes you focus more than a hard time frame and you will be amazed at how much you can accomplish when working against the clock.

If writing is your dream, your passion, you will find the time. You will make it and then you will use it wisely. Because only you are in control of how you spend the time you carve out of your busy day. Only you are in control of your dreams.

Finding the time to write is a constant balancing act. So go find that balance, start writing and don’t stop!

Lisa: You really want my advice?

As a published author, the most common question I get is – can you give me advice on how to get published?

I do understand it can be a bit daunting when you don’t know anything about the publishing business and don’t have a clue as to where to go first. (Although I often want to say – ever heard of that thing called google?)

But here’s what really gets me. Many times, the person asking the question hasn't even written a book yet.

To me this is like a single girl with no boyfriend going around asking new brides for recommendations on caterers, florists, wedding cakes, etc.

I mean, come on. First thing’s first.

Read, write, read some more, write some more, study the craft, maybe take a class or two or go to a writer's conference, write some more, and maybe then you can ask me about getting published.

Why are we so anxious to get published? Why aren’t we more anxious about writing the best book we possibly can? Because honestly, if we do that, if we invest the time and energy into our writing, the publishing part will be a piece of cake. Maybe not wedding cake, but cake nonetheless. And once your book is on the shelves, you want as many people to love it as possible. And the only way that's going to happen is to spend the time and energy writing an amazing book. But good writing isn't enough in today's competitive market, you say. Yes, you're right, it's tough out there. Having a little luck on your side certainly won't hurt. But knowing someone or having a special "in" isn't enough either.

I can't help but wonder if sometimes, people who ask me about getting published are hoping I can give them a fast pass somehow. Well, sorry folks, this ain't Disney. 

How did I get an agent? How did I find an editor who loved my work? How have I continued to sell six more novels after that first sale? The old fashioned way. Lots and lots of hard work. Nobody gave me a fast pass. 

Years ago, I wrote a novel and it sucked. I wrote another one, it sucked a little less. I wrote another one, and was almost there, and then, I wrote a fourth one. It was different. It was risky. And it made my heart dance and sing. I stopped writing with the goal of publication and started writing something that made my heart dance and sing. When I finished, as excited as I was, I didn’t jump to sending out queries right away. I knew I needed to make it as good as I could make it. So I got one critique, then another, and a third, and I revised accordingly after each one. That book, I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME, eventually landed me my agent and after that, a contract with Simon Pulse.

So, you want my advice?

Write the best book you can. It's not easy, I know. Believe me, I know! And if all you get are rejections, then write another book, better than the first. And keep writing. Try a new genre or a new age group. Maybe you haven't found what you're meant to write yet. I think the first years of writing and submitting can be a lot of trial and error - figuring out what your strengths are and maximizing those. 

Once you have a great book ready to submit, there are wonderful resources out there for you to tap into. Here are a few off the top of my head:

www.scbwi.org - The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, with publications and conferences that will help you on your path to publication.
www.verlakay.com/boards - A place where writers gather and share all kinds of information about writing and publishing
www.agentquery.com - A database of literary agents. Search here based on what you write, or search name(s) of agents you've heard about.

In case you’re curious, the second most common question I get is – I want to write a book, but I don’t know how to get started. Can you help?

That one’s easy.

Start at the beginning. And don’t stop until the book is finished.

Nina: On Getting Out of the House

Before I published my first novel, Hold Still, in October of last year, I used to look at novels on bookstore shelves and think that it must be easier for published writers to write than it was for me. I thought that writing might be like making my mother’s (delicious!) buttermilk pancakes. The first try would be disastrous (somehow both burnt and undercooked); the second try, a little better (but too lumpy, with little clumps of baking soda); the next few attempts, just okay. But then, after a while: success! And then, each time that followed: more success!

If I hadn’t gotten the delicious novel recipe down by my first book, I certainly should have it down by the second.

So with inevitable ease and success in mind, last summer I wrote the beginning of my second novel and an outline for the rest of it. It’s a road trip story, and I determined where my characters would be on each day and what they would do and, of course, what would be done to them. My first draft deadline was in the winter, so over the fall, I followed the outline I made, checking off scenes as I wrote them. My outline became a giant to-do list.

Which was a problem.

Where did the inspiration go? The creativity? You know that feeling, when you sit down to write a scene and then, suddenly, it becomes almost a living thing, starts moving in unanticipated directions, surprises you in the best way possible? Well, I didn’t get that feeling. All of it felt like work.

But worse than the work itself was the pressure. The pancake theory burned up, was replaced with the realization that writing is, at least for me, going to be an eternal struggle—and even more frightening than that, for the first time, people will be watching. So instead of only worrying about the book itself and whether it’s any good, I’m now also worried about how it will compare to my first novel. Of course, I want it to be better. I want to keep growing.

This summer, as though rebelling against my former stick-to-the-outline self, I began my revision and expansion work as haphazardly as possible, dipping into scenes at random, adding a few lines of dialogue here and there, letting my narrator think more freely. Upon re-acquainting myself with the novel, something good started to happen. In many scenes, moments that seemed unimportant became seeds of larger moments. I thought of a whole side trip that wasn’t there before, with new characters and new events solidifying the older themes that didn’t quite come to the surface in the first draft.

But I kept questioning myself: what if these new ideas weren’t actually that great? Maybe they were just new. So I decided to get on the road.

I brought music, a camera, and a few changes of clothes. I brought my wife, who is, among millions of wonderful things, a swift driver and a gifted exchanger of ideas. We drove where my characters drive, we saw friends, and we met new people, and through it all, I was open to everything. Just as my narrator is. Almost everywhere we went, I discovered something new to add to the novel. The restaurant in Medford with cinnamon buns the size of my face and impossible riddles as reading material. The farm on Vashon Island, where our close friends are living. The friend of a friend in Portland, who told stories about working jobs I never knew existed. Everything we saw out the window as we whizzed past it.

The trip revealed gaps in the story I hadn’t recognized, and then showed me how to fill them. I’m excited, now, about where the book is going and the ways in which it continues to grow. And, though certainly no replacement for the recipe I thought I would master, I learned something that I’ll be able to apply to the next book: in order to breath life into my work, I need to get outside and live a little.

Lisa: Looking back at the agent search

In December, I did reruns on my personal blog (http://lisa-schroeder.blogspot.com/) and took a look back at those days before I had an agent and before I had published any novels.

I think it's good to take a look back now and then. Sometimes we feel stuck, like we're not going anywhere, but often, if we look back, we realize we've actually come a long way. It can give us a new appreciation for the road we're currently on, and perhaps allow us to feel more hopeful about where we're going.

So I went back to the year 2006, and pulled up some of the posts from when I was looking for an agent, including some of the posts I had locked at that time (a handy livejournal feature), so only select individuals could see me talking about my frustration around rejections.

It was a bit strange to look back to that time – that time when I wondered if I would ever land a good agent and if I would ever have a novel on the shelves of bookstores. And now, three years later, I think about what I would have told myself if I knew what I know now. I certainly did some things right, but I think there are some things I could have done differently, and I thought I’d share my thoughts here.

What I’d do differently:

1) I would have understood better that so much of this business simply comes down to personal tastes and timing. I had a couple of particularly harsh rejections from good agents, but now I understand my book JUST WASN’T THEIR THING. I almost gave up because of one of those rejections, and what if I’d done that? Horrors!!

2) I would have spent more time working on my query letters and more specifically, the crucial paragraph that describes the book. I now understand just how important this is. All the other stuff we sweat – what font to use, how much to include about us personally, etc. – none of it really matters that much. But the paragraph that describes your book? It matters. A lot!

3) I would have invested more time and money on the craft of writing. We get so caught up sometimes in the goal of being published, we forget that it all comes down to the one thing we DO have in our control, and that’s writing the best book we can. I sort of learned the hard way, through trial and error, by writing book after book after book. A writing course or two probably would have helped me a lot.

4) When I came up with ideas for stories, I would have made sure I could describe it REALLY well in one sentence before I ever started writing the thing. I firmly believe now that a book needs to easily be described in a sentence or two and it should make someone’s eyes go big and wide and say, “Wow, that sounds awesome!”

What I think I did right:

1) I kept writing. As soon as I started to query and submit, I began working on something new. You can drive yourself crazy waiting for responses. Continuing to write helps with the waiting!

2) I did my research. I knew what agents might be a good fit for me, for the most part. I made the most of resources on-line like www.agentquery.net and www.publishersmarketplace.com. The first is a free resource, the second has a monthly fee, BUT, I’d subscribe once every six months for just a month, and do the necessary research on what’s selling and what agent names came up a lot, and then I’d unsubscribe when the month was over.

3) I networked with other authors on-line, via blogs, writing communities like verlakay.com/boards, SCBWI, etc.

4) I didn’t whine publicly about the rejections. You never know who might be reading, so it’s important to keep that frustration under control and ALWAYS be professional. Have writer friends you can vent to, or set up a special locked livejournal account for friends to read only.

5) I didn’t give up, even though there were days I wanted to. Sure, there were times when I took a few days off and stepped away for awhile. We all need breaks from time to time! Still, I always came back. Some projects where shelved, which was definitely the right thing. But I’d work hard on getting a new project polished and then I’d begin the agent hunt again.

I still remember the day Sara contacted me via e-mail letting me know she liked my book, I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME. I’d been searching for an agent on and off for two years, on various projects. When I got the e-mail, wanting to set up a time to talk, I stood up and got out of my chair, clutching my hands to my chest. The receptionist in the cube next to me thought I was ill or having a heart attack. I said, “No, but I think I might have finally found an agent!”

As I celebrate the release of my third young adult novel, CHASING BROOKLYN, this month, I can truthfully say I’m now thankful for all those previous rejections. They all lead me here, right where I belong.

Wishing you all a happy and successful 2010!

~Lisa Schroeder