Where Do You Get Your Material?

Many writers will admit they've been writing, like, forever.

I wrote poems in sixth grade as well as stories with Barbie dolls as main characters, with black and white photos as the illustrations. Then I was so busy writing for schools and for jobs that I did not write creatively again until about six years ago.

But one thing has never changed.

I write what I know.

But what I know, has changed.

I certainly draw some inspiration from memories of childhood, but my writing is based in the present with same-day circumstances and adult perspective. Certainly many things happen to us all as children, but do each of us bring it all into our writing? Is that all we really need? A really bad (or really wonderful) childhood is enough to mine for a shelf full of books? Ok, or even one?

That's why I was surprised that one of my favorite authors, had said the following, albeit a long time ago.

Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen.
- Willa Cather

Perhaps that was true for her. I don't believe it's true for me.

How about you?

Many of my friends are writing memoirs - and if those memoirs begin in childhood then I think Miss Cather is probably correct. I think of Frank McCourt and Angela's Ashes. Yep, I'd say he gathered most of that material about his childhood in Ireland before he was 15.

Maybe even if someone is writing fiction with a character whose personality needs a childhood history and the author draws from his or her own experience.

But in general, I (most respectfully, Miss Cather) disagree.

Judging a Book by its Cover

In my head, as well as online, I live in a world of published, soon-to-be-published and want-to-be-published authors. (In real life I live in a world of teenagers and dog paws, but that's for a different blog.)

I'm in the last category above, but that doesn't stop me from thinking one day about my book - be it hard cover, trade or mass market paperback. It won't matter to me. It won't matter to me if people call it women's fiction or chick lit, as long as they buy it and read it and like it -- and then buy copies for their friends.

But I think it will matter to me what the cover looks like. Not only because I'll feel like I've given birth to it, but because the book buying public does judge a book by its cover.

It seems that only those best-selling authors have cover approval. New authors and most others can have their fabulous agents get them the right to see the cover, and even consult on it -- but since publishing is a business and publishers want to sell books, and covers (along with titles, imo) entice shoppers to pick up a book and only then do they flip it over and read the back cover copy, which leads to reading the first page, which leads to plunking down the cash or credit or debit card -- publishers have the final say.

Have you ever given thought to what you'd want your book cover to look like? Sometimes I see a bright cover which I think would say "humor inside." Other times I see photographs of hands which would indicate relationship story. What do you see in your head when you picture your book on the shelves? If you've published a book, did you like the way the cover represented what was inside the book? I also know that if you publish in hardcover that often the cover changes when the paperback comes out. I find it interesting how covers change, target different demographics and reveal different things about books.

As writers, we must, must, must read in our own genres and others. What draws you to a cover? What keeps you away?

Please tell us what you think. Anything.

No judging here!

A Balancing Act

Balance is certainly one of this decade's buzz words. Everyone wants it, no one knows exactly how to acheive it.

As writers I think we're always striving to strike a balance between a career (or want-it-to-be-a-career) and the real world where not everyone is a writer. Writing sucks you in and turns you on...or you're in a slump (I'm intimately acquainted with writers block) and you want nothing to do with writing a grocery list let alone a novel or memoir.

So how do you keep things in your life on an even keel? Do you?

When I'm in the throes of a chapter or a scene, or even prime procrastination that has to do with writing, nothing stirs me. I sit in one spot, I'm not even always comfortable. I don't pee, I don't eat, I don't answer the phone. I just write. I totally relate to this:

I get up in the morning, torture a typewriter until it screams, then stop. - Clarence Budington Kelland

Meaning, if I'm writing like a banshee, that's usually all I'm doing. I have trouble with the balance thing. I'm always tipping the scales in one direction or another. I like to start something and finish it, not stop in the middle, which makes it difficult to write part of a chapter and probably why I never took up something like knitting.

Sometimes I think that this works for me. Different days bring different things. Sometimes I write all day, sometimes not at all. Sometimes I jot down ideas while I'm blowing dry my hair, other times I daydream my main character's life and when I realize she is better company than I am -- I usually reach for chocolate.

What are your secrets to leading a balanced writers' life? Is it necessary for every day to be evenly divided between business and pleasure, writing, working (if writing is not your only job) and laundry?

Is your writing life balanced -- or does it creep into every day and every thing you do?

Mediocrity is so...mediocre

The first Barncat online course is underway and I am one of the guinea pigs students. We're all getting a few bumps and bruises as we figure out new software, but as of today it's truly purring. It's easy and it's fun.

But not all the part of writing courses are fun and games. It's hard work, as it's meant to be. And I'm always the one at the front of the virtual classroom screaming "Ooh Ooh Ooh" and waving my hand in the air. I want to get my money's worth.

But part of that worth is something that as a consumer, we don't even realize we're paying for. The sometimes amazing feedback of other writers. Good feedback -- and by that I don't necessary mean positive feedback -- is worth its weight in gold. And mediocre feedback or meaningless feedback is exactly the opposite -- it's worthless.

I've been fortunate to get amazing feedback from many of my classmates in classes across genres and venues. But some of the feedback has also been disappointing -- and never because someone didn't like or get what I wrote, but because he or she didn't take the time to offer a comprehensive two-liner giving me something to ponder.

Do you think you owe it to your classmates to give thoughtful and thought-provoking feedback? Are you in an online class - a conventional class - a writing group?

Tell us what you like about feedback from others and what you don't like. What's your approach to giving feedback? Even if I don't have much to say, I try to give what I want to get. An honest impression coupled with something that worked for me (writer egos are fragile) and something that, in my opinion, needs tweaking. No matter what I say, I always give it my all.

Because...

Mediocrity is more dangerous in a critic than in a writer. -- Eugene Ionesco

A Penny For Your Thoughts...But Nothing For Your Writing?

I was having a conversation with a woman whose daughter is graduating next month from a swank East Coast college. Her daughter wants to be/is a writer, but could I believe that her daughter was actually writing FOR FREE?

I smiled. I nodded.

The friend I was with explained to the woman: “Amy here is a writer.”

I made a note to self. Self, shoot friend later.

So what did I tell this poor woman who wants only for her daughter to make a decent living?

“Writing is the only profession where no one considers you ridiculous if you earn no money” — Jules Renard

I don’t like this statement, but I find it to be true.

What about you?

I think it's especially so with novice or young writers, and that’s what I said. I told the woman in no uncertain terms that many unpublished and newly published authors are doing online and e-zines for little or no pay. And that from there they work their way up to paying gigs if none present themselves immediately.

I realize that this woman is not a writer herself, and that after spending tens of thousands of dollars on her daughter’s education, she wants the girl to earn a paycheck, like the mothers who used to (or still?) hope that their kids become orthodontists. I get it. I can relate.

But if you’re a new or novice writer – or just getting back in the game – how long is too long to write for free? A year? Ten articles? Six short stories? Is it better to write and be read and make no money than not write at all or to have files tucked forever in the recesses of your laptop’s memory collecting cyberdust?

I try to strike my balance by starting at the top. I submit pieces to the best publications first – and when I’m rejected, I move down the list ... ending with publishing something myself online or just letting friends read it.

Is exposure enough of a payoff or do you need cold hard cash? What's the method to your publishing madness?

We Weren't Lying About The Fuzzy Slippers!

If you're in the New York area, check out today's edition of Crain's New York Business and on page 31 you'll see Barncat Jami Bernard, her fabulous fuzzy slippers...and her view. Oh yeah, and you can read about Jami and Barncat Publishing!

Not in NY? Just leave a comment or email us and we'll fill you in or click here.

What a happy way to start a Monday!

-- Barncat Amy Nathan

Semi-inaugural Postapalooza!

Welcome to the blog for writers from Barncat Publishing Inc. Here we intend to discuss ... sometimes heatedly ... the wisdom of writers.

We begin with Elmore Leonard:

Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.

Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said” … he admonished gravely.*

Having spent the better (or worse) part of my life in daily journalism, I have to agree. Using any other type of attribution merely calls attention to itself, as in: "Looka me, I'm a writer!"

I dimly recall a misbegotten rule from English teachers past ... WAY past ... who insisted that we change up constantly, as if the use of "said" were an insult to thesauruses everywhere. That may explain a widespread tendency to attribute floridly and with abandon, using everything BUT "said" (averred, intoned, emphasized, articulated) while repeating neighboring words so often they begin to leap from the page like circle-a-word match-ups.

Agree? Disagree? Favorite examples?

Jami


* Excerpted from the New York Times, “Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle”