True grit as a writer

Great post today at Bob Mayer's blog, discussing the heirarchy of goals in writing.

Having a strategic goal is crucial and Bob has some absolute gems that will resonate.

Go check it out here

(I'm still rapt I got to hear Bob speak at the RWAus conference last year in Melbourne. He really inspired me to become a hybrid author willing to take chances in this ever-evolving publishing industry. He's brilliant! If you ever get a chance to hear him speak, grab the opportunity, you won't regret it.)

Digital Book World Conference

The Digital Book World conference is happening right now in NYC and the information coming from it is fantastic!

If you're on Twitter, follow #dbw and #dbw12

And BOB MAYER is providing great wrap-ups and excellent insights as always on his blog.

Changing landscape in publishing

As an interesting follow on from the Joe Konrath blog post yesterday, here's one from my favourite publishing guru, Bob Mayer.

I love his clarity and bluntness.

Well worth reading about the changing landscape of publishing.

THE WRITE WHISPER: Writing processes

I'm fascinated by writing processes.

How other writers bring their stories to life.

At the RWAus conference, I had an enlightening, informal chat at afternoon tea on Sunday with Stephanie Laurens, Anna Campbell, Barbara Hannay and Annie West.

Fabulously talented mainstream and category romance authors whose books I've read and enjoyed.

What intrigued me about our conversation was our different writing processes.

Some are linear (start the book and right straight through), others write snippets of dialogue or separate scenes, then weave it all together at the end.

I'm always a little in awe of this second group. How do you make it all fit together so seamlessly? And make it look like you wrote it in one go? Amazing.

Me? I'm linear all the way. From the moment I write Chapter One on a blank document, I write the rest of the story straight through. No jumping. No editing. Just write.

Luckily, I write a fairly clean first draft so mainly need to tweak and layer a tad as I go through the next time before sending off to my editor.

Interestingly, I've heard from readers who can pick I write the book in one go.

Yet here's the thing. I heard another gem at the conference that piqued my interest and I'm tempted to try.

In Bob Mayer's "POV & VOICE" session, he mentioned this:

"don't worry about the opening scene. Write the book. The climactic scene should mirror the opening scene therefore you can come back and write/rewrite the opening scene."

Fascinating stuff for a linear writer like me.

Have to admit, I tend to do this unconciously, ensuring the climactic scene ties in to the opening scene but actually mirroring it? Not so much.

While I have to nail my opening chapter every time to set up the rest of the book, maybe next time I'll go back and see how closely it mirrors the last.

Now, you know what's coming next...all you writers out there, I'm dying to know your writing processes. Please share!

CONFERENCE GOLD: Characterisation

This is a very brief summary of Bob Mayer's session on 'Writing your story in 3 dimensions: Characterisation.'

I stress brief because Bob provided copious helpful notes and I'm picking out a few main points I jotted down too.

-Everyone has a core motivation. Victor Frankl called this the 'One Thing'.
When a character reaches a moment of crisis, we discover their 'one thing'.

-Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs:
-What do you want?
-What do you really want?
-What do you need?

-Don't pitch plot, pitch character.

-Give the character an anomaly.

-In your first scene, what your character is doing sets your character.

-In your last scene, we need to see character doing something emotional they weren't capable of at the start. This demonstrates arc growth.

CONFERENCE GOLD: Snippets

Here are the stand-out quotes from RWAus11 that resonated with me:

-"Park your brain & write from the heart. Write from love, fear, anger. Tap into those emotions." (Susan Wiggs.)

-"We write because we have to write, not because we want to write." (Susan Wiggs)

-"Which channel you choose to publish with isn't important, reaching your readers is." (Stephanie Laurens.)

-"Take a risk, the known quantity is dying." (Bob Mayer)

-"Content is king. Promo is queen." (Bob Mayer)

Tomorrow, a summary of Susan Wiggs' workshop, "Plotting from the Inside Out."

CONFERENCE GOLD: The Fangirl

All this week, I'm doing a wrap-up of the RWAUS conference right here.

Snippets of conference gold I heard.
Recap of workshops.
Enlightening moments from plenary sessions.

To start, I have to gush like a fangirl.

Several months ago, I emailed Susan Wiggs for a favour. Her gracious reply blew me away.
Then I met her in person on Saturday, when the conference organisers asked me to intro her session.
She instantly recognized my name, enveloped me in a big hug and insisted someone take a photo of us which she emailed me the next morning with a lovely message.

Her books are amazing and so is she.

Next fangirl moment: Bob Mayer.

Quite possibly the smartest guy in publishing at the moment.
He's informed and savvy and ahead of the game.
If you're not following his blog, do so!

Stay tuned for the conference lowdown.