FIRE UP YOUR STYLE of WRITING Week 2 AtoZ

If you were confronted with The Kingston Trio’s age-old dilemma of being stranded on a subway beneath the streets of Boston - never to return, and with your fate still unknown - which three books on the craft of writing would you want in your knapsack?

My three choices are:

1. ON WRITING by Stephen King;

2. THE FIRE IN FICTION by Donald Maass; and

3. THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE by Strunk and White.

 

Stephen King (and Meryl Streep) can make a grocery list sound suspenseful so I would be assured of entertainment. Reading his advice, or advice he received and implemented, makes me want to immediately click open a blank document and start writing. Of course, in this surreal scenario on the subway, the netbook would have lifetime batteries.  

My reason for wanting Donald Maass’s book is simple. I’ve read THE FIRE IN FICTION through several times, marked passages and highlighted important points. But he also offers practical exercises for improving an early draft that focus on character, turning points of a scene, and my favorite: sustaining tension. A person could spend a lifetime on those exercises.  

If you ever experience brain freeze, or have a mental block in one particular area where the word choice always eludes you, then THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE is worth owning. Do you know the proper use of an ellipsis? Are you familiar with the “serial” comma? How confident are you in your word usage/spelling:

 its, it’s;

their, there, they’re;

that, which;

however, nevertheless;

farther, further;

effect, affect;

then, than;

past, passed (my Achilles heel!!!) 

Wasn’t it Sonny Bono who (that) said, “And the list goes on . . .”?

 

 

Why I Self-Publish in the Face of Delusion

Donald Maass, head of the Donald Maass Literary Agency, says if you don’t want to reach readers, then by all means, self-publish. (see Mark Coker’s post )

He sticks by his guns in the face of Mark Coker’s telling Mr. Maass that he thought he was underestimating the transformative impact self-published authors will have on book publishing. He looked Mark Coker in the eye, smiled, and said, “and I think you’re delusional.” to which Mark replies, “Touché!”

But think about it. I have 800+ ebooks in my Kindle archives right now. How many of those are good books, and how many are great books, and how many are not worth my time of day? If an editor, publisher, and book store had vetted these books, I wouldn’t have to do the work myself. You wouldn’t have to do the work yourself, and you and you and you. That’s the picture I see when I look at self-publishing.

Am I against self-publishing? No, I am all for it . . . for myself. I have always been a do-it-yourselfer, from sewing clothes, to giving myself pedicures/manicures, even at one time cutting my own hair.  Why? Money, or lack of same. Do I plan to make money writing and publishing my own novels? No, that is not my goal.

My question to Mr. Maass is, “If I wait until an agent agrees to represent me, then wait for said agent to find a publishing company interested in my novel, then wait for said book to be edited, formatted, and published in the image of said publishing company, then self-market said book - as will be my responsibility - how many more readers will I reach and how much more money will I net than if I self-publish?

I have a feeling his answer would be, “There is no way I can answer that question, Gail.” (I love Mr. Maass’s book, The Fire in Fiction, and just know he would respond to me by name) “And,” he would add, “I think you’re delusional.”

 

 

The Fire In Fiction by Donald Maass