This post was prompted by two people -
Steph Campbell and Courtney Stevens Potter. Courtney blogs like, almost never, but you can find her on twitter @quartland
They have taken two very different roads to publication, but my guess is that their books will be on the same lists in about five years or so...
Steph and I were talking about writing romance for the self-pub industry (because who are we kidding - that's what sells in the Indie market) and writing books that fill up our soul, tear us apart, and force us to tell their story. I'm sure Steph said this a little less dorkily than I did, but you get the point. And I think that Steph's books do both.
(Steph also wrote a post this week about publishing that I think everyone should read)
I've read a few books for Courtney Stevens on her way to finding an agent, and I KNEW she would get picked up huge. And she did. I believe her first book comes out Spring 2014 (at which point her and I will pull out the boxing gloves to fight for sales - KIDDING - we'll be totally cheering each other on, because the writing community is awesome like that).
She said she was at a writer's conference and she got the best advice from an agent she was pitching to there - "Write the book you HAVE to write."
In my mind, it means that we need to write those stories that tear us apart and won't let us go.
It made me think of a book I wrote called The Happiness of Joy, and Used to Be (Aw Teen) and Love Blind (with Christa Desir) and two books I'm working on now.
It made me think of my good friend, Nyrae, and her tweets about crying at Barnes and Noble while writing because she was that invested in the story.
It made me think of the books that have changed me while I read them, and books that stayed with me for years after reading.
This is why I write. I want to write the stories that won't let me go - not the stories I think I SHOULD write, or the stories I think will sell well... (Even though that's OH-SO tempting...)
So. Yes. I'm passing on maybe some of the best advice on writing I've ever gotten, and the next books I work on will the books I have to write.
Wanna share some writing advice?
Or tell me what's up in your writing world?
~ Jolene
P.S. My disclaimer is that I have friends who are BRILLIANT romance writers, and I LOVE that. And friends who are HUMOR writers and I'm always a bit amazed by them, and some people who have to write picture books, or MG novels, or Fantasy. I think my point was that - again - write what you HAVE to write. It'll be different for everyone...
11 comments:
For me its the same, I write the books I HAVE to write. Currently, working on two new ones.
Writing advice...just write your little heart out.
Hugs and chocolate,
Shelly
This is so relevant for me right now. I really think this is why I'm totally stalling on finishing my wip. I know the story I want to write, but it's so serious and heart-wrenching and probably wouldn't have wide-spread audience appeal, so I keep telling myself to write something funny and light and romantic. And I still might--because those are fun to write, too. But this idea... it won't let me go. *sigh* Must figure out soon.
If I don't laugh myself silly while writing, it's totally not worth it ;)
Excellent advice!
There is a scene in the chapters I sent you that almost killed me to write - and even though it drained me - I still think it could be stronger lol. But yes, if you're not feeling the story as you write it, it's unlikely that anyone else will feel it.
I have a story I have to write. But, I'm afraid to tell you the truth. I want to re-write history, but what if the same outcome happens? I want it to be different... and maybe it won't be. BUT, maybe just maybe it will be and there will be that happily ever after that "should" have been.
LOVE it. JRM and I were talking about this over the weekend. You know how Steven Soderbergh does the one for him, one for them thing? It was kinda like that.
Mainly b/c TTALG has turned into something I didn't expect. I think this one's for me. But so was ROUGE... hmm...
I've messed up the formula. :D LOL! Can't wait to see what you do next~
Wow. That his excellent advice! I once read about an author who took forever to get published. Once she finally did, she was asked why that book? She said, "it was the one I have passion for." Love that!
The agent was right. People tell me all the time what I should write, but unless the story is in your heart, it won;t get in your head!
This is the advice I need to hear often. It's tempting, when you write what isn't the hot selling thing, to think about switching it up. But my trials in those veins have never been good.
Some people do that, though. There are writers out there that can write what sells rather than what they love. But I tell you, they also don't enjoy their job, and what would be the fun of that?
Happiness of Joy needs a good home. It's amazing.
I've always done that anyway - write the book I want to write. And yet I will admit sometimes forcing myself to finish a story even though every step feels torturously boring. :P I think I just like to have completed projects, regardless of what I'm going to do do with them (sometimes that will be nothing).
I wouldn't bother with revisions for a torturously slow project though. ;)
I'm writing a story that's heart-wrenching. It kills me to write it, but I cannot get away from it. It stalks me. It needs to be told. I have such a passion for this story. And so, when I'm writing this story, everything around me falls away.
Rilke, in his Letters to a Young Poet, wrote that a writer must write because she has to, because she just couldn't breathe without it, and not with an audience in mind. This so resonates with me.
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