Pep Talk: Ways to Announce That You're a Successful, Unpublished Writer (And Have the World Agree)

The only painting Van Gogh sold in his life time:
 “Red Vinyard at Aries”

This "Pep Talk" post was published at the Grub Daily, by yours truly, under my other name:

“I love writing,” said a Grubbie in a one-to-one Career Boost, “but whenever I announce that I’m a writer, someone always asks me what novels I have in print.  When I tell them I’m unpublished, they give me a pitying look, and I feel like a failure.”

Of course, this writer is far from being a failure.  She is working at her craft, devoting time to her writing, and producing great work.  But in a society that too often believes lies about writers, we have to use some activism and turn those lies around.

Here are some of the key lies that the world too often believes about writers:

1. You’re only a successful writer if you’re published by paying markets, such as the magazines that you can buy in Barnes & Noble.

2. You’re only a successful writer if you’ve published a book-length work with a big publishing house.

3. It is hard to write a book, but if it is good, you’ll easily get it published and earn money from the royalties.

4. If you don’t publish a book, you can’t write very well and you’re certainly not a professional.

5. If you’re not earning large amounts of money, you’re not successful in terms of your career.

6. If you self-publish, it means you aren’t talented and/or professional.

All of these are lies.  And ultimately, they’re boring lies.  Plus they are easily disproven.  For instance, Anais Nin self-published Under a Glass Bell because she couldn’t find a publisher.  She sold a tiny amount of copies, until the little book of literary stories made its way into the hands of an editor and was reviewed by the New Yorker.  Fame at last.  Then we have Van Gogh who sold one—just one—painting in his life (and who wants to argue that he wasn’t a serious artist?).  What ‘s more, the great works of British Medieval authors were given away—to music, sometimes—by oral storytellers on the streets.  Grateful donations were optional.  And even further back in history, Anglo Saxon England saw its oral poets as being so vital that they bonded together people of all different classes through the essential power of story.  In fact, story wasn’t generally bought or sold, story was a right.

Of course, these are notions that we can use to argue that writing success isn’t about glitz and money.

Now, I argue that it’s exciting when one of us stands up and says, “I know society views things that way, but I see them differently.”  That shows initiative, rebelliousness [...] 

If you'd like to read the rest of this post, please visit the Grub Street Daily where I pen the "Pep Talk" column under my other name...

Making Sex Sing (It's All About Language, Baby)

There is a wonderful BBC version too!

Are you looking for sex scene or erotic writing tips?  Here's a post that I wrote a while back for the Grub Street Daily:

Whenever I talk to a non-writer about crafting erotica, I always mention the importance of rhythm and flow—or as we writerly types call it, sentencing and meter.  People tend to look puzzled.  “But why?” they say.  Perhaps some of them want to believe that hot sex scenes are all about C- and F-words or brazen visuals, but while these aspects can add to a sex scene, they’re not usually key.  No, to get to the heart of powerful sex—or indeed sexual desire—we must express its rhythms and flow.  Of course, it can be powerful to show such rhythms rather than tell them—and a great way of doing this is to “feel them onto the page.”  Like poets, we can create this flow via meter and sentencing.  (In fact, poets often make fabulous erotic writers because they are skilled at expressing feeling via meter).

Here is an excerpt from one of my favorite writers, Sarah Waters, whose sexy novel, Tipping the Velvet, caused quite a stir in the UK when it was released.  Nan, our narrator, who is a Victorian music hall actress, has fallen in love with her co-star Kitty Butler—the more famous of the two.  They are both in their late teens, and Nan has never had sex with a woman before:

“May I really – touch you?” I whispered.   She gave again a nervous laugh, and tilted her face against her pillow.
 “Oh Nan,” she said, “I think I shall die if you don’t!”
 Tentatively, then, I raised my hand, and dipped my fingers into her hair.  I touched her face – her brow, that curved; her cheek, that was freckled; her lip, her chin, her throat, her collar-bone, her shoulder…  Here, shy again, I let my hand linger – until, with her face still tilted from my own and her eyes hard shut, she took my wrist and gently led my fingers to her breasts.  When I touched her here, she sighed and turned; and after a minute or two she seized my wrist again, and moved it lower.

Even by listing the places where Nan touches Kitty (“her brow, that curved; her cheek, that was freckled; her lip, her chin…” and soforth) Waters builds Nan’s growing passion via meter and flow.  And what long, gliding sentences we have in this paragraph.  These bring a sense of longing and wonder, allowing us to share in Nan’s experience.  We are shown the primal music of her feelings, without being told of it.

As a Senior Editor at Go Deeper Press, I am reading many erotic submissions at the moment.  When I find myself thinking, "I'm not engaged in this sex scene," It's often due to a lack of rhythm...

Read the rest of the post at the Grub Street Daily.  And find out more about my writing coaching here.

Your Novel: A Collage Approach

By Biusch (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

We often think about our ambitions in too cerebral a way, when it can be more powerful to feel our dreams and let our unconscious take over.  Getting a powerful sense of the mood of a story or book, for example, can help us to tap our voice, our world, our plot, our mood more easily.

So why not create a collage of your dreams?  If you want to write that fantasy novel, use magazine pics that remind you of the story, such as the winged beings and moonlit adventures you envision.  If you want to write a noir novel, what visuals from films and art speak to your aesthetic?  When you've made it, gaze at your collage every morning and night, experiencing it and feeling it.

As writers, I find we are often unblocked by living in the heart as well as the head.  That way, our deeper selves are already in action, before we even start.

Do let me know how it goes!

Pep Talk: Confidence Tips from Superstar Drag Queens

RuPaul in drag (photo credit below)

This is an excerpt from my new monthly column at the Grub Daily entitled Pep Talk, in which, as Grub Street's Confidence and Writing Coach, I help you to feel positive about your work and writing career.  The column is written under my other name.  You can read the whole post here.

On RuPaul’s Drag Race the other night, a beautiful drag queen named Coco Montrese was ripped apart by the judging panel.  Part of Coco’s challenge had been to give an ex-marine who was new to drag a successful makeover.  The judges said that “Horchata”—the newbie queen on Coco’s team—had terrible eyebrows, bad make-up, and a dress that looked like it had been ripped from Coco’s own.  Poor Coco was almost in tears.  Why, she cried, did she always fail the judges?  She tried so hard to please them.  Why did she get rejected?

Well, you know what RuPaul advised the beautiful, super-talented Coco?  He said that she needed to learn to enjoy the criticism and have fun with it.  “If you’re not enjoying it, the audience won’t enjoy it.”  Coco nodded, damp-eyed.

Now, I told you that to tell you this:  A couple of years ago, when I was working as a literary magazine editor...  (For the rest of the post, click here.)

Photo credit: David Shankbone, via Wikimedia Commons

Boston, Peace, and Stilettos for Writers

For all fellow Bostonians, may you be safe, well, and trouble-free today.  My thoughts are with those who have been most affected.

As a Brit who now lives in Boston, I spent my childhood in the London area, where the IRA bombings were.  In Britain, we still bear the memory of that time.  My partner Angela was amazed when she came with me to London and realized that there was nowhere on the street to put trash.  Even the train stations are devoid of litter bins--we learned, so tragically, what those bins could be used for.

And of course, while the tragedy continues in Boston, explosions are also happening around the world, often on a daily basis.  So I'm thinking of everyone affected by attacks, war, and other violence.

Peace, dear Boston.  How I love you.

What's more, I want to let you know about my new post at the Grub Daily.  It is about characterization through possessions, through objects, and it's called "When a Stiletto Isn't a Stiletto (Or What Our Characters Carry)."  Please enjoy.

Photo credit: By Summerdrought (own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

Creative Tips: Quietening the Chatterbox

Via Wikimedia Commons (Author Unknown)

An obstacle for many of my coaching clients is the "inner chatterbox" -- the voice inside our heads that says our work isn't good enough.

As a matter of fact, your chatterbox is often your friend once you've harnessed her.  S/he can give you great ideas, can make you polish and commit, and she'll certainly push you to perfect your craft.  That said, your chatterbox can get out of control, especially when you're stressed, lost, intimidated.

And the most important thing for many of us is to keep on going.

It's particularly hard to switch the chatterbox off when you aren't yet published, or haven't yet sold your work, or...the list goes on.  The sense of "not being there yet" can certainly mess with our confidence.  So here's a true story that I tell my writing clients to help them quieten the chatterbox within:

One thing I learned from being a literary magazine editor was that many aspects of writing are extremely subjective.  Once, when I was sitting on a finalist panel with a dozen highly talented editors, we looked at a story that had been longlisted for an impressive award.  Apart from the editor who had selected the piece, the rest of us didn't rate this story highly.  We said there was too much telling, not enough showing.  We said that we wanted more scene, more complexity of emotion.  In the end, the Senior Editors agreed and rejected the piece.

Two months later, I was online, when I saw that the very same story had won third place in a writing contest at an equally well-established magazine.

It's true!  Just because an editor doesn't like your work, doesn't mean that another editor won't.  And just because your chatterbox doesn't like your work, doesn't mean that other readers won't.

Read that again, if you need to.  And maybe even again.

Your chatterbox wants you to think that her way is the only way.  Or perhaps she (or he or ze) wants you to think that there is no right way.  But you mustn't let your chatterbox take you over.  Don't let her put you off.  Instead, thank her for her input.  Tell her, "I'm taking note of your points," and write them down, keep hold of them.  But you don't have to fret about these points now -- they may or may not be valid later on, when you get to the editing process, and you can always ask a reviewer to help you toss the turnips and keep the pearls.

The important thing is to keep on writing or designing or rehearsing...or whatever it is that the universe needs you to do.

When it's time to think more critically about your work, you might ask your chatterbox to step forward again by taking out her list of points and giving them a read.  Plus you can also ask any trusted readers to give their own opinion of your work.

Ask these readers to include what is working well as well as their criticisms.  And in a future post, we'll start training your chatterbox to do exactly the same!

Bottom line?  Don't let the chatterbox sink your ship.  Help her to steer you to the final port of call, and enjoy those peaceful waters.
--

Thanks for visiting "Whole Arts Coaching," where Lana offers writing, arts, and confidence coaching on a per hour (or per minute!) basis!

Quotes That Help Us to Grow

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." Anais Nin

Joss Whedon, writing as Mal, captain of the spaceship Serenity:  

"You know what the first rule of flying is?... Love. You can learn all the math in the 'Verse, but you take a boat in the air that you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turning of the worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens.  Makes her a home."

"If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced." Vincent Van Gogh

"This is what I learned: That everyone is talented, original and has something important to say." Brenda Ueland

"Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country." Anais Nin

Rose image (above) By Takkk (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons