Tuesday Word Smart

This week’s word:

PERIPHERY (puh RIF uh ree) n the outside edge of something

*Jose never got involved in any of our activities; he was always at the periphery.

*The professional finger painter enjoyed his position at the periphery of the art world.

To be at the periphery is to be peripheral (puh RIF uh rul). A peripheral interest is a secondary or side interest.

Your peripheral vision is your ability to see to the right and left while looking straight ahead.

Monday Musings: Another November (almost) Gone

Novembers used to just be the gray month between the reds and yellows of October and the crystal white of Winter.

When I decided to be a writer, that all changed. You see, there’s Nano and American Thanksgiving, and in the writing world it’s like someone went and stuck a branch into the fan blades. A good portion of the on-line writing community is “otherwise engaged” and nearly all Americans just disappear off the radar for at least a couple days if not the whole week surrounding that special Thursday.

And in publishing, it’s like—if you haven’t heard from an editor by Thanksgiving, then forget it until January.  Is it just me, or are there these sci-fi like black holes in the publishing fiscal year? Nov-Jan, forgetaboutit. Then there’s BEA, and all those other writers conferences and book fairs that editors and agents disappear to, and if you’ve heard nothing by end June, well July is probably out and for sure August.

It’s the nature of the beast, and I think I’ve finally made my peace with it.  It’s almost the end of 2010 and I haven’t sold a book, though the year started off fairly promising. I got my agent in February, we worked on revisions for two books together and sent both of them out around March and May. I wrote another book. It went out in September.

So, what happened? I don’t know, to be honest. I could blame it on the black holes of the publishing universe, or I could assume that my books just aren’t as great as they should be—otherwise they would sell. Right?

To be fair, it’s not like they’ve gone out far and wide. The rounds have been quite small. Still, it’s my job to write great books that sell, so I have a new plan for 2011. I need to make book one and two better. Then they’ll go out on their second rounds. I got some great editorial feedback on book three, and it looks like it needs a fairly major re-write. I can do that. I’m happy to say I just finished the first draft of book four, my formerly trunked novel. Soon I’ll send it off to betas and then to Agent Awesome.

Sometimes the best laid plans don’t unfold how we’d imagined, but, like with anything that’s worth anything, you can’t give up. You have to stay the course.

I’m staying the course. 

So what's your course? Are you staying it?

Friday Free For All

1.As a Canadian I find the tradition of American Thanksgiving fascinating. Approximately 305,689,000 people eating Turkey—all on the same day. That’s a lot of turkeys. And a lot of electricity to cook the turkeys. And then, the next day, that many people go Christmas shopping—on the same day!

We celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada, too, but our approach is much different.
Thanksgiving in Canada is always on a Monday, and it’s two months away from Christmas, the second Turkey feast day, instead of one. In Canada you can choose which day you want to cook and eat your Turkey, it can be Saturday or Sunday or Monday, whatever suites each family’s schedule best. This arrangement often leads to more than one turkey dinner eaten over the weekend but it does make celebrating at more than one family home possible if the families don’t live too far apart. Anyway, there’s a bit of Canadiana trivia for you Americans on this fine Black Friday.

2. Great contest over at Jade Hears Voices—you could win Anna and the French Kiss. That is, if I don’t win it first!

3. I’ll leave you with this awesome video to get you into the Christmas Spirit (if Black Friday isn’t doing the trick ;) All I can say is Wow and that first singer is very brave.








Have a great weekend!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Happy Turkey Day to all my American friends!!!

I hope your day is full of fun, laughter, peace and pumpkin pie!

How To Write: Tackling the First Draft Part Three – Thinking In 45 Degree Angles

In tackling the first draft part one we talked about how putting words on the page is like  making clay— creating malleable material that you can later sculpt through revisions. It’s not important in this stage to be good, but you’ll find that the more experience you have writing first drafts, the better quality your clay becomes.

In part two we talked about picturing the sculpture underneath the clay.  Though details and outlines up front are sometimes helpful, it’s not always the case. Story and character arcs are often revealed as you write and it’s your job to pay attention.

In part three I want to talk about tension and raising the stakes. I’ve mentioned in the last post that you are always asking yourself, What happens next? Even if you know the answer to that question for the big picture, there is always each chapter and scene. But, you don’t want to fall into the trap of this happened and then this happened and this happened.  You can’t just give us a day by day accounting of your characters life. Each event has to happen for a reason.

You’ll remember the three act structure from the post The Bones It Hangs On. Here is a version of it on a 45 degree angle.

                                                        

Each scene, each plot point all way to the climax must raise the stakes for your character.

Picture your character building a snow ball while rolling it up hill. The bigger it gets, the higher the angle the more difficult life becomes for your character until ultimately, he or she gets to toss the thing off the cliff—also known as the climax.

Conflict builds tension, whether it’s inner conflict or external.

Theodor Taylor was a master at this. In his middle grade novel THE CAY, every moment is used to create tension. The story starts out with Philip’s mother telling Philip that their island had been bombed the night before and that he needs to stay close to home. Of course he doesn’t. Tension. This stirs up anger in his mother but mostly fear. Tension. This causes her to convince Philip’s father that they must leave the island. But Philip’s father refuses to leave. Tension. He then relents, but only Philip and his mother will go, he stays behind. Tension. 

You get the idea. Everything happens for a reason. Each scene is necessary to propel the story forward. Life must get increasingly difficult for your protagonist.

You will probably write scenes in your first draft that don’t raise the stakes and have to be cut later on and that’s alright for now as you write your first draft. The point is that while you’re writing it, keep in mind that you want to go up hill.

Tuesday Word Smart

This week’s word:

USURP (yoo SURP) v to seize wrongfully

*The children believed that their mother’s new boyfriend usurped their father’s rightful place in the family.

*The founder’s scheming young nephew usurped a position of power in the company.

The noun is usurpation (yoo sur PAY shun).

Monday Musings: A Change Is As Good As a Rest

A change is as good as a rest, but a rest is good too. And if you can have a change and a rest, all the better!

I’m back after a week long break. If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ve probably notice that every time I unplug, I come back with a new look. What’d ya think?

I don’t plan on making changes when I take a break—my only thoughts are on having a rest. We all know how much time social networking takes. Even though we love it, it’s a time eater. Not just the hanging out part, but planning and writing and posting blogs every day just takes time.

So when I take a break, I’m just looking forward to using that time to do other things like write. And read. And clean my house. And sleep.

By the end of the break I find I’m really eager to get back to my blog and my writing community. Instead of thinking, man, what am I going to blog about, I get a fresh wind. That’s usually about the time I look at my blog and start fiddling with changes.  This time, I felt like I needed to lighten things up.

So, what’d I do on my break? I worked diligently on my Ancient Rome wip (which I’ve recently titled JARS OF CLAY). Even though it’s not an official nano project I’m hoping to get done or near done by the end of the month.

How about you? Do you find that taking regular breaks helps you to rejuice? Or do you find that taking breaks fizzles your momentum?

Guest Post by Sara B. Larson - Our Love/Hate Relationship with Revisions

Elle has been doing some really excellent posts about writing your first draft, and then editing it. (Likening it to clay and sculpting.) I've loved them all. If you haven't read them yet, go do it now!

 

Today, I thought I'd take a stab at the love/hate relationship all authors must learn to deal with. Yep. You guessed it. Revisions.

Revising can be hard, or it can be liberating, depending on how you view it. You can look at it as taking your carefully plotted, written and finished manuscript and tearing it to pieces. Destroying all your hours of work. Making you feel like a worthless loser who really can't write at all. (And if that's how you feel, take two deep breaths and then keep reading this post. It'll get better, I promise!)

 

Or, as I've learned over the last couple of years, you can look at it as an opportunity to take the work you've done and perfect it. Polish it until it shines. I love getting a suggestion and having an "aha!" moment. That moment when I realize just how right the suggestion is--when I can see the shape of a more perfect novel coming to light. Revising is a gift. Trust me on this. It really is. If rough drafts of novels were what got published... Yikes. That's all I have to say.

So how do you get to the point where you enjoy revising? First, find a good critique partner (or partners). Any good CP (or agent or editor) is going to give you suggestions you can see value in. They might sting at first, but they should eventually make a ton of sense. The "why didn't I think of that? You're a genius!" kind of sense that brings a grin to your face. Not all suggestions will, but if the majority do, you know you have a good partner (imo). For me, those moments where I'm grinning and typing furiously as I see the diamond emerging from all my coal dust, that's when I get excited and remember just how much I love revising.

I learned this lesson for the first time when I was lucky enough to have a friend of mine (who happened to be a former acquisitions editor and a published author) read my WIP and edit it. She only marked the first fifty pages because it took so long. (Then she told me to find all the similar mistakes throughout the rest of it.) Every one of those fifty pages were marked from top to bottom in red pen.

 

Whoa. I was embarrassed. Humiliated. Ashamed that she had to read such crap. (What else could it be to have been marked up so much? Didn't "publishable" authors write perfect books by themselves?)

 

Then she explained that all her red marks were actually compliments. She told me she wouldn't have spent so much time showing me the mistakes I was making, if she didn't think I had the talent and potential to make it worth her time. If my writing had truly been awful, she would have just said, "looks pretty good, maybe try working on ___." She wouldn't have taken the time to be detailed and thorough, if she didn't think it had been worth it.

So remember the next time you get revision notes back, it means someone thinks your writing is worth their time and effort. That's actually a pretty big compliment, don't you think?

 

And the Winner Is.....

The winner of Janice Hardy's THE SHIFTER is:


CREEPY QUERY GIRL!!!!

Email me with your mailing address at ellestraussbooks at gmail dot com

Congratulations!

Friday Free For All: PERLIOUS Blog Tour and a couple announcements

 Today I'm privileged to host Tamara Hart Heiner's Blog Tour for the release of her debut YA novel PERILOUS.  Read on to find out why Tamara chose to publish by small press and how you can enter to win a Kindle!






But  before we get started I have a couple announcements: Today is the last day to enter to win THE SHIFTER by Janice Hardy. I will post the name of the winner tomorrow, so please check back.

 And, some of you may remember how I said I was taking a Fall Blog Break in October and then didn't? Ahem, well, now I'm going to, for reals. Next week I'll be unplugging but will be back on the 22nd.

So, without further ado, Tamara Hart Heiner!

ES : How long did it take you to write Perilous?
THH: To actually write the first draft took me...(mentally calculating)... I think a year. And then I spent another three years revising.

ES: Do you remember what inspired the story?

THH: I get this question a lot, and I have no idea. I wrote the first draft when I was 12. Kidnapping? Assault? Murder? I think I just thought it sounded exciting.

ES: How did you find your publisher?

THH: I was constantly searching for small Christian presses to submit to. When WiDo popped up on the scene, I submitted to them.

ES: Why did you decide to go with a small publisher rather than the traditional route?

THH: Many reasons. The biggest one was, Perilous was originally a Christian novel, so I didn't think it would be a go for a traditional, mainstream publisher. As it turns out, we took out 99% of the Christian elements, and I could've gone the traditional route. But the second reason was I was in a hurry. I didn't want to spend a year finding an agent and another year finding a publisher only to wait 2-3 more years for the book to come out. And in that aspect, I got what I wanted. It's taken 15 months from contract to release.

ES:  Do you have an agent?

THH: Nope, no agent. Though I am currently querying another novel that I'd like to take the traditional route.

ES: If not, how did you find dealing with contracts and such?

THH: WiDo's contracts were very straight-forward and simple. Plus they had all the things I'd been warned to watch for, so I didn't have to argue any points or ask them to change things. They are quite generous with royalties, also, so I didn't feel like an agent would have gotten me anything better.

ES: How is working with a small publisher different from self-publishing?

THH: The biggest difference is the clout. That's just honest. It's being able to say that someone else saw enough value in my writing to put forth the money to publish it. someone besides myself and my mom. The next difference is editing. I had an editor to help with my book.

ES:  Does the small publisher help with promotion/marketing etc?

THH: With ideas, yes. With finances, no. WiDo has been helpful in contacting local bookstores to let them know about me, but in the end, talking to managers and setting up signings is up to me. I don't know if all small publishers are this way.

ES:  What are the top three things you have learned about self-promotion?

THH: 1) It's gonna cost you a lot of money. 2) The results are not going to be as quick as you expect.
3) You've got to find other people to toot your horn.

ES: What is your next step? Do you have another book in the wings?

THH: I've got several projects I'm working on. I have two finished novels. One is a sequel to Perilous and the other is the start to a fairy-tale chick-lit series. And I've got another that I'm writing. When I get the chance.

ES: Will you publish it in the same way?

THH: The sequel to Perilous, yes. It will go through the same publisher. The fairy-tale one, no. That's the one I'm querying agents with.

Thanks, Tamara! Really interesting info, there. 


Tamara is also hosting to contests two celebrate her release, one book and one Kindle (wow!)

Kindle giveaway: This contest is point-based and begins Oct. 15 and ends
Dec. 15. Whoever has the most points wins the Kindle. There will only be
one Kindle given away. Here are the points:
1 point: blog comment (can comment on all the blogs, multiple times, on
the tour)
1 point: follow Tamara's blog (http://tamarahartheiner.blogspot.com)
1 point: retweet
2 points: blog about the blog tour
5 points: purchase the book (ebook or paperback, must email Tamara the
confirmation email) if you buy the book in a store you can mail Tamara a copy of the receipt.
Add up all your points as well as your proof (links, etc) and email it to Tamara at the end of the blog tour (tamara at tamarahartheiner dot com)

Other Stuff Thursdays: Remembrance Day

Today is Remembrance Day, or for my American friends, Veterans Day. Please take time to remember the truly great and tragic cost paid by those who fought and continue to fight for our freedom.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
- Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918) Canadian Army

Lest We Forget

This video is hauntingly beautiful.

How To Write: Tackling the First Draft Part Two - Envisioning the Sculpture Underneath the Clay

Last week I used the analogy of making clay when we create our first drafts, focusing mainly on just getting words out. Yes, there are a number of things you need to know before you start. Premise, main character/s, situation, but the details of these things can be tucked away as you take on that white screen. The main thing is creating pliable material you can work with later.

What do I mean by leaving the details until later?  For instance, one school of thought (and this is perfectly fine, it’s just not my method), is to write a heavy outline beforehand where you as the writer know practically every scene until the end before you start writing.  People who take this approach often like to do thorough character sketches pre first draft as well. They’ll have a long list of questions for their character like What’s their favorite color, season, childhood memory, greatest want/fear/disappointment, etc. Again, if this is your style—go for it!

I’ll tell you why it’s not for me.  In my experience, I can’t know the character that well before I start.  In fact, I’m only getting to know my characters as I write my first draft. How can I know at the offset what they like to eat for breakfast?

The characters reveal themselves as I write. A lot of the plot will reveal itself as I write the first draft as well.

So, though I don’t go into the first draft with all this information on an excel sheet or flow chart, I’m watching for it as I write.  I’m paying attention.

Going back to CLOCKWISE as an example. When I started I thought the brother would play a much larger role than he actually ended up playing, one of the secondary characters that I thought would be more of a filler, ended up being a key plot point character, and I had the wrong guy in mind for the villain.  I didn’t know it when I started writing, but the real villain revealed himself as I went, and I had an Aha moment which required quite  a lot of re-writing but made the book much stronger.

In my last wip, the boy who made up the love triangle turned out to have much softer edges than I first imagined when I started writing.

What I’m trying to say is, though I’m making clay, I try to envision the sculpture underneath as I make it. It’s like watching the image of a Polaroid shot come into focus. It’s not instant, like digital images are. It takes time.

Once I’m finished my first draft, I take time to sort out the characters, their motivations, deep felt needs and over all character arc. I look for all my subplots and the arc of my main plot.

But not until I’m done the first draft. Any questions?

How about you, what’s your modus operandi?

Tuesday Word Smart and Contest Winner!

This week’s word:

ACRID (AK rid) adj harshly pungent; bitter

• The chili we had at the party had an acrid taste; it was harsh and unpleasant.
• Long after the fire had been put out, we could feel the acrid sting of smoke in our nostrils.

Acrid is used most often with tastes and smells, but it can be used more broadly to describe anything that is offensive in a similar way. A comment that stung like acid could be called acrid. So could a harsh personality.

And the winner of my First Blogiversary Contest is:

                                          CHRISTOPHER!!!

Congratulations Chirstopher! Email me with your four book selection and a mailing address at ellestraussbooks at gmail dot com.

Monday Musings: That No Reply Response Problem

Most people will tell you that social networking is about building relationships and making friends.  Creating a platform where you can sell your books is just a fringe benefit, but the real joy getting to know one another.

And part of that process is communication. On an earlier post I was asked the difference between Live Journal and Blogger, and one of the things I really appreciate about Live Journal is the threading feature in the comments. When someone comments on your blog, you respond to them in the thread and your comment shows up in their mailbox. Each person who comments in the thread is notified. You don’t have to constantly refer back to their blog to see if someone responded to your comment.

I mean, who has time for that!!

Blogger makes communication difficult. For example, you read my blog and comment. I respond to your comment, but you have to come BACK to my blog to see if I ( or any else) have.  Or likewise, I visit your blog and comment and if anyone responds to me, the only way I can find this out is if I go BACK to your blog.

We all know how time consuming reading and commenting on blogs is already and to add that extra step (times however many) is just too much for most people.

So we don’t go back and we don’t have a real conversation.

Google Blogger, please change this!!

Is there a way we can petition blogger? I don’t know.

So, the band aid solution is this:  you comment on my blog, I get notified in my gmail account, I push reply and EMAIL YOU BACK. I got to see in my email what you had to say, and if I email you back, you get to see what I have to say without referring back to my blog.  Of, course, I copy my response and put it in the comment section too, so that others can see what I said, but at least I know that YOU see what I said to you. (Thanks blogger for forcing me to do yet another extra step to communicate with my on-line friends).

The problem is that many of you have a NO REPLY RESPONSE email address. I want to email you back with my comment but I can’t.

Now some of you like it that way. You don’t want extra emails and this whole situation is not an issue for you.

But some of you don’t even know you have a no reply response email. If you’ve commented on my blog (more than I once, not all comments require a reply) and have never got an email back from me, then that’s why.

Anyway, what do you do if you want to change your no reply response to your email address? Elana Johnson was so kind to show the way (because I couldn’t figure it out on my own).

She said: “Yeah, the user has to do it on their profile. So you go into EDIT PROFILE and at the top under the PRIVACY settings, there's a box that says SHOW MY EMAIL ADDRESS. If you click that, when you comment, it will allow the user to see your email address. Of course, this assumes the user is having the blog comments forwarded to their email address so they can then respond.”

Thanks Elana!

There you have it. If you want to check or change your no reply response, that’s how it’s done.

So let’s do a little survey: How important is a comment reply to you?

UPDATE:  Please let us know if you have any experience with Disqus and what you think about it.

Friday Free For All: I Get To Reveal The Cover of Lisa Schroeder's New Book!

I won the Big Reveal!

Lisa Schroeder is an incredible YA author and someone whose blog I've been following for a while, so you can imagine how stoked I was to get the email saying that I was chosen (thanks Randomator!) 

So here it is--drum roll please:

Isn't is amazing!!!

Here's the blurb:

Sometimes there's no turning back.

Amber's life is spinning out of control. All she wants is to turn up the volume on her iPod until all of the demands of her family and friends fade away. So she sneaks off to the beach to spend a day by herself.

Then Amber meets Cade. Their attraction is instant, and Amber can tell that he's also looking for an escape. Together they decide to share a perfect day: no pasts, no fears, no regrets.

The more time that Amber spends with Cade, the more she's drawn to him. And the more she's troubled by his darkness. Because Cade's not just living in the now--he's living each moment like it's his last.

This book sounds incredible! I can't wait to read it.  Please check out Lisa's website for more info about her and the rest of her books.  You will find her blog site on my side bar under Authors Who Blog About Writing & Publishing.

Don't you just love it???

PS: Today is the deadline for my First Blogiversary Celebration Contest. Click HERE for a chance to win your choice of four books!

Other Stuff Thursdays: The Healing Spells Book Trailer

 Don't forget to check out my blogiverary contest--you could win FOUR books!

I haven't read the book, but I have to say I just love THE HEALING SPELLS book trailer. It has a mini movie feel that really pulls you in with the story-telling voice plus the sound track is amazing. (And I believe it is for sale. See Kimberly Griffiths Little's blog for more info).

How To Write: Tackling the First Draft Part One—It’s Not the Sculpture, It’s the Clay

Since this is How To Write. Like I do. Sometimes. I’m going to tell you what I do when I’m ready to tackle the first draft. 

I have the premise, the main characters and situation. And though I’m not a big outliner, I usually do have a couple plot points and sometimes the midpoint reversal. A subplot idea or two. Possibly the ending.  I sketch out a rough structure outline and pin these ideas onto it, see how it fits.  With the main character I try to determine her propelling need/want, though this might present itself as I write and a few characteristics she needs to make the story work.

 I’ll use CLOCKWISE as an example. The premise is a teen girl who  is also a time traveler, a condition she can’t control and she simply has to learn how to manage it.  Her deep need/want is to be normal, something she’ll never be. In order to cope with this affliction she stays under the radar. Doesn’t hang with popular people or purposely excel in any area, though she could. This doesn’t bother her because I gave her these characteristics: a twiggy, tall body and unruly hair, so she has self-image issues. Being invisible suits her just fine. The situation: she has a crush on a hot football player, and without thinking jumps to catch his football while watching a scrimmage. Now she’s not invisible. Now she’s the star of the moment. It’s a bad time to time-travel.

So, take that kind of information and just start writing, Nano-esque style (good timing for this post!:). Vomit words onto the page. Ideas come as you go.  Some of them will be great and some with hit the cutting room floor, but it doesn’t matter.  Don’t worry if it’s good, because it’s probably not. Being good is not the point of the first draft. The point is making clay. You need raw material to work with, something you can later poke and prod and massage into a masterpiece.

But that’s not what you’re doing now. With the first draft, you’re making clay.

See that big white blank screen? Type something on it. Even if it’s these words: I don’t know what I’m going to write now, and this is crap, but I will write something, the first words that come to my mind….

Maybe it’s just finger exercise, but it’s something and eventually you’ll write something useful. I promise.

When writing your first draft, try thinking in scenes rather than chapters. I usually ask myself the question: What happens next? Then I go do the dishes or vacuum or drive my kids around and I imagine the whole next scene in my head—the setting, the people, the situation, and what my characters are saying. When I see it in my head, I go to the computer and write it down.

And repeat.

What I don’t do at this point is worry too much about character development or minor details (more on the why’s and how’s of that in Part 2). I just think, What happens next?  I’m making clay.

This process takes several weeks. Even months. (And months)

When I’m done my first draft, when I have a big pile of molding material, I let it sit for a while. Put it in a big plastic bag so it doesn’t dry out (figuratively speaking), have a glass of wine and something with chocolate in it.  Give my brain a break; because soon, I turn from the clay maker to the sculptor, and for that, I need a whole new tool-box of tools.

What happens if you don’t make clay? Or enough clay? You get hung up re-writing the first half (quarter?) of your book over and over again. You hit the wall because the beginning is never good enough and you can’t press through to the end—or you’ve painted yourself into a corner plot wise, because the beginning is nailed down and it forces your book to stay on a certain track when it would be better for the story to take an unplanned turn.

See what I’m saying?

This is really basic and of course there’s more to writing a first draft than this and I’ll get into it more next week. But for now the point is just to write. Go write something!

How about you? How do you go about writing your first draft?

Any questions for me?

Tuesday Word Smart

Don't forget to check out the contests on my bar!

This week’s word:

STOIC (STOH ik) adj indifferent (at least outwardly) to pleasure of pain, to joy or grief, to fortune or misfortune

*Nina was stoic about the death of her canary; she went about her business as though nothing sad had happened.

•We tried to be stoic about our defeat, but as soon as we got into the locker room, we all began to cry and bang our foreheads on the floor.

Monday Musings- Me, My Self-Doubt, and I

Normally I can shake it off.

I suck, I’m a fraud, this is as good as I get… you know that voice. The relentless nattering of the unwelcome guest, Self-Doubt.

But for some reason this time around, I can’t seem to give it the boot. As much as I imagine opening the front door and hoofing Self-Doubt to kingdom come, as soon as I turn around, there it is.

I know that I have an agent, and I’ve written more than one book, and they’re out there somewhere, but in my honest tormented state I just have to moan, “Why is it taking so long?”

That’s when Self-Doubt does its happy dance. This is the end of the road, it says. Your blog and your manuscripts, that’s the end. This is as far as you’ll ever go. 


The problem is I find myself believing it. Maybe I have reached the height of my ambition. Maybe it is only downhill from here.

I push Self-Doubt into the corner and command it to stay. It complies—for now, but I see its evil little grin.

But you know what? I’m in good company. Even established authors and NYT bestselling authors fight with Self-Doubt. Authors like Aprilynne Pike and Sarah Dessen. Sarah Dessen wrestles with Self-Doubt! How can that be? Is it just an occupational hazard? If you want to write, plan on company?

I think the answer is yes. Every writer I know, no matter where they are in their journey, struggles with Self-Doubt. Looking for an agent? Self-Doubt is there. Looking for an editor? Self-Doubt will be there too. How about sales of that new book? Will it sell out or will it tank? See that bad review? Yeah, in the middle of all those good ones, there’s a big, ugly bad one! And look at so and so who just got a movie deal, and I can barely make rent. Big Self-Doubt.

So what’s a writer to do?

I’m not sure. How do we make friends with Self-Doubt? It’s obvious that it’s not going to leave. Perhaps we should make up the guest room and give it its own TV. Maybe a bowl of soup. Anything to keep it occupied. If it won’t leave, at least keep it distracted so it will stop talking to you.

What do you do to keep Self-Doubt at bay?