The April edition of my newsletter, “Writers on the Brink,” went out yesterday.  It had a special free offer in it… you know the one.

Turns out E-Junkie only allows 100 “free” downloads per day.  That was quickly exceeded.  Another 100 become available each day… so hang in there, keep trying.

Hey, it’s news to me, too.  Thanks for your patience.

If you aren’t on that list, use the sign-up (that’s free, too) to the right of this post.

Addendum to Newsletter is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

31 Posts in 31 Days to Prep You For NaNoWriMo

About that “idea” for your novel.

There are ideas… and then there are Ideas.  The latter being significant concepts, fantasies, landscapes, arenas, themes and even semi-developed stories you are saving for a real effort at writing a novel.

Well, it doesn’t get any more real than this.  Than NaNoWriMo… if you go about it properly. 

NaNoWriMo doesn’t have to be practice, but rather, it does end up being one of two things: success or basically a waste of time.  A certain percentage of NaNoWriMo writers get this, and a certain other percentage doesn’t.  That latter group truly has one and only one goal: fill up blank screens with 50,000 words of… anything that seems, to them, to be linear in nature.  To them, that’s winning.

“Winning!”  Remind you of anyone?

For real writers, NaNoWriMo isn’t about that. 

I think we owe the craft of storytelling more than that.  I know it demands more of us than that.

So let’s shoot for real success, ya think?

You know that old saying, “you can’t make chicken salad out of chicken sh*t?”  Make sure your NaNoWriMo idea doesn’t smell like the henhouse.

One way to move toward that context — and this is today’s tip — is to build this project around an idea — a concept, a character, a theme, or something that happened to you or you wish would happen to you — that’s worth a few pints of your blood and sweat.

There are no definitive criteria for this.  You’ll know if the idea is big enough, exciting enough, to be the one thing that drives you toward doing this right.  An idea you can’t get out of your head.  An idea that you’d read if someone else wrote about it.

Make your NaNoWriMo novel about that.  Nothing less.  Don’t settle.  Honor the craft, honor your time, honor your dream. Don’t concoct a placeholder story for a placeholder writing month.  Make them both count by writing something real and significant… for you.

Because — and you already know this — this is gonna be hard.  It’s like a relationship… they’re hard at times, and when it is, only if the other person is worth it will you proceed forward productively, and with a chance at bliss.

Love your story.  Accept nothing less.  That’s the only way it will ever love you back.

Nail Your NaNoWriMo #5: Don’t Forget to Fall In Love is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

Please honor these authors with your time and feedback. 

Consider it a reservation in your name on the karma train.

*****

Frederick Fuller’s contemporary adult romance, “For the Heart’s Treasure.”

Jason B. Reed’s adult fantasy novel, “Opposable Thumb.”

J Fairfield Perry’s adult contemporary novel, “Warning: Say No or Die.”

If you’d like to offer up some of your own work for peer review, CLICK HERE.

Thanks for playing!

3 New Peer Review Submissions is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

Check out the trailer for the upcoming movie adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s “The Help.”  If you’ve come here looking for the latest in our deconstruction series, it’s the post right before (shown below) this one.

This trailer is two and half minutes of pure fun, especially if you’ve read the novel and have been following this deconstruction.  All four parts of the novel are represented — a cool challenge, see if you can recognize them — as well as the implication of the two major plot points. At a glance it seems like a somewhat light treatment in comparison to the book, but the overall weight of the film is every bit as ambitious. 

The film opens in August.  Enjoy.

Watch It Here, Right Now: The Movie Trailer for “The Help” is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

What if ten of the top writing bloggers chipped in their very best (or least favorite) writing tip, and a benevolent website collected ‘em all and posted the list for your reading pleasure and creative enlightenment?

Click through to Writetodone.com to check it out.   

Listen up.

Once again what was supposed to be an interview about my new writing book – this time on national radio — turned into a spontaneous writing workshop.  The show is Open Book with Diana Page Jordan… you can check it out here.

And you don’t even have to look at my mug this time.

The May/June Issue of Writers Digest Magazine

If you subscribe, you already have it.  If not, it’ll be on your local newsstand soon, if not already.

Look on page 58… you’ll find an article — an excerpt from the book, actually — by yours truly, on “Buiding Backstory,” with a sidebar piece on “Crafting Backstory for a Series.”  Then on the next page there’s another backstory article by Hallie Ephron.

Me and Hallie, hangin’ out in Writers Digest.  Who’d a thunk it.

There’s also a cool interview with Pat Conroy, one of my favorite authors and someone we can all look to for storytelling excellence.

Now if I could actually get in the same room with those two, that’d be something.

101 Best Websites for Writers

Also in that issue of Writers Digest magazine… their annual list of the 101 Best Websites for Writers.

Happy and proud to announce… Storyfix made the list.  Thanks in large part to those of you who visit here regularly.  You have my sincere gratitude.

The list is broken down into categories, and the sites are listed alphabetically within each of them.  Storyfix is listed in the “Writing Advice” category (numbers 30 through 45), in the #42 slot. 

Ten Top Tips From Top Ten Tippers… Another Free 30-Minute Workshop Disguised As An Interview… And Some News is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

(“Use your blog for good, grasshopper, not evil.”)

I don’t often do this, but here goes. A friend of mine — who is, by the way, a writer, and one who does stand up comedy — is in a comedy competition in L.A. He’s a USC student (like my son), and he’s hilarious and talented. We can help him win this thing by voting online… here’s how.

Go to the link below. You will see a video window. Beneath the video window are six smaller images, each labeled with the name of one of the contestants. Click on JOSH FRIEDMAN (middle left; this is important, if you don’t click on him your vote will go somewhere else, to whoever is appearing in the video window… just select Josh and his video will pop up), and wait until his video opens in the bigger window above. Then, watch and laugh. You can VOTE for him at any time by hitting the button to the right (selecting his video among the six ISN’T the vote, hitting the button to the right after the video starts IS the vote).

This kid is amazing and really wants this. When you see the routine, you’ll see that he deserves it, too. Thanks for helping. Storyfix readers are the best. Here’s that link:

http://laughfactory.com/contests/LaughBowl2/voting

A Laugh and a Lil’ Favor For a Friend is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesdays, a series of guest blogs by winners of the “Top Ten Blogs for Writers” contest hosted at Writetodone.com. 

Why You Should Consider Independent Publishing

A guest post from Joanna Penn from TheCreativePenn.com: Adventures in Writing, Publishing and Book Marketing

Let’s get this straight up front. I would love a book deal with a big name publisher.

I’d love to see my books in bookstores all over the world. That’s still a dream of mine, as it is probably yours. It’s also the dream of many mid-list authors who have a publishing contract but the reality hasn’t quite led them to bestseller success. Despite this dream, I have just independently published my first thriller novel, Pentecost on Amazon.com as a print and Kindle book.

Why would I do that?

Publishing is changing fast and there are more choices than there used to be. You need to know all the paths to possible success for your book but first you need to understand what you actually want to achieve. There are various reasons we all want to have our books published. Here are some of them.

1)   My book is being read by people all over the world and they love it.

2)  I’m making an income from my books.

3)  An agent/publisher/editor thinks my book is worth publishing.

4)  My name is on a printed book in a bookstore.

With independent (indie) publishing, you can achieve the top two and that can lead to the last two. Going indie means you publish yourself. You may use freelancers for editing, cover design etc but you own the rights to the book and are the publisher of record.

One way to indie publish is with ebooks.

Amazon has recently announced that ebook sales have overtaken paperback sales on the Kindle. There is also exponential growth in the ebook market. The Booker Prize judges will now be reading ebook versions of the entries and that indicates a new acceptance within literary circles. Even if you haven’t changed your reading habits, a lot of other people have embraced the change.

So, one of your publishing choices these days is to release your book on the Kindle and other ebook platforms like the Nook and iPad. Amazon.com is the biggest bookstore in the world and you can have the same page space as any other author. As long as your book is professionally done, customers won’t even know it’s independently published and they won’t care. Here’s what converted me to this method of sales. You can load your book onto dtp.amazon.com and it will be selling on the Kindle within 24 hours. It takes months, if not years, to get an agent and at least 18 months for a book to be traditionally published and available for sale. Within 24 hours of Kindle publishing, I can be watching my sales tick over and at the end of the month, I have money in my bank account. So, ebook publishing will achieve (1) and (2) on the list. Some independent authors are making huge amounts of money this route and they aren’t worried about (3) and (4).

But what if you still want to hold your print book in your hands?

I understand that feeling which is why I use LightningSource.com (LS) to distribute my print book using print-on-demand technology. You’ll see that Pentecost is available as a print book on Amazon.com but I don’t hold stock or post it myself. The order goes to LS who print a copy and send it to the customer direct. I just receive a percentage of the sale at the end of the month. I paid a book designer to design a professional cover and also format the inside of the book so I’m proud of the final result and people can buy in either format.

But what if you still want a book deal?

You need to decide for yourself whether you’re patient enough to wait for the traditional publishing cycle. I’m impatient and a DIY type of person. I love to take action and see a result. I like being in control. I’ve tried the submission-rejection process and the negative energy made me crazy. There are other roads to a publishing deal, including making huge sales on the Kindle and being noticed for sales success. Check out Karen McQuestion or Boyd Morrison. There are other authors who achieve this level of success and then turn down publishing deals as they make more money on their own. Check out Amanda Hocking or the recent Amazon #1 The Machine of Death.

There are some aspects you need to consider if you choose these independent publishing paths as it definitely suits a certain type of personality. You need to treat it as a business where you invest some money for professional editing, book cover design and formatting in order to create a quality product. You then receive income from sales like any other business. It’s a different model to advances and royalties but it’s definitely easier to understand! You also need to do your own marketing so you need an author platform (although there are stories of people who are making money just by loading books on the Kindle with no marketing). Mainstream publishers expect an author platform these days as well so that is needed whatever the route you take.

So yes, I’d like a book deal, but in the meantime I’ll be writing and publishing independently.

People will be buying and reading my books, leaving me reviews, telling their friends and I’ll be building a backlist of kick-ass thrillers. For me, this positive action makes me happier and more fulfilled than waiting potentially years for someone in the industry to notice me. Whatever your dreams for your book, consider all the options available to you. It’s a new publishing world out there!

Joanna Penn is the author of Pentecost, a thriller, out now on Amazon.com.

Joanna is also a blogger at TheCreativePenn.com : Adventures in Writing, Publishing and Book Marketing.  Connect on Twitter @thecreativepenn.

“Top Ten Tuesdays” — A guest post from Joanna Penn is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

Welcome to our new feature, Top Ten Tuesdays, a series of guest blogs by winners of the “Top Ten Blogs for Writers” contest hosted at Writetodone.com. 

The Upside of Selling Out

By Carol Tice, of Make a Living Writing

Back before I was a freelance writer, I was a songwriter, when I lived in L.A. I worked a day job as a legal secretary to support my dream of being a rock’n'roll star.

I knew some other songwriters and musicians who didn’t have a day job — to support their careers, they played Top 40 tunes in casinos 40 hours a week.

In other words, they were sellouts.

I wasn’t about to sully my creativity by playing old Foghat tunes while people ate free shrimp and played blackjack at 10 a.m.! That was like a living death, my bandmates and I sneered. I was better than that.

Bet you can guess the end of this story. I eventually got tired of starving and hanging around smoky clubs at 2 a.m. I discovered the world of freelance writing, where I could get paid a bit per article, instead of having to pay to four-wall a hall to play a gig. I’m not a songwriter anymore.

But some of those Top-40 players I knew ended up playing in great bands, or being killer professional studio musicians. They knew something I didn’t: Anything that lets you practice what you want to be in a professionalal setting helps you become it.

The advantages of selling out

I flash back on my rock’n'roll days when I meet would-be novelists who can’t seem to get their book written. Many are also too good to sully their hands with writing an article or Web content for a business.

“I’m a creative writer!” they tell me. “I couldn’t work on — gasp — an assignment someone else gives me!”

From personal experience, I’m telling you that’s the wrong attitude to take toward your writing aspirations.

Here are some of the many advantages of “selling out” — taking some paid writing work while you work on that novel:

You learn discipline. If I had a dime for every novelist that can’t quite get around to actually writing, I could retire right now. This happens partly because there’s no accountability in writing that first novel — no editor standing over you expecting pages by the end of the week. When you write freelance, you get introduced to the wonderful world of meeting deadlines. You can take this skill back and apply it to your novel, setting deadlines with yourself for when chapters are “due.”

You get feedback. Working with editors can be a revelation. They know things about how to make articles compelling, and they share those tips with you, free! You start learning how to make your work better, and better, and better. Then, you can go home and apply what you’ve learned to your novel.

You get to play with words more. If you spend some of your time writing for pay, you’ll simply spend more time writing. More writing is better than less writing when you’re looking to hone your craft.

It builds your writer cred. Ever notice how much easier it seems to be for longtime journalists to make the leap to being a novelist? The fact that they’ve been working with words professional for years seems to impress many publishers.

You meet people. Circulating in the writing world as a freelancer, you have the chance to meet people who could help you get published. Obviously, I didn’t meet many record producers at my secretary job. But my writer friend Candace Dempsey kept plugging away at the freelance articles over the years…until one day, at a networking event for writers, she told another writer about why she was the perfect person to write a true-crime book about the Amanda Knox murder case in Italy. She knew Italy well — she’d been writing and blogging about it for years. That writer handed her his agent’s phone number. Her book, Murder in Italy, came out last year.

You avoid the soul-killing “day job.” Many writers have the equivalent of my secretary job — a thing they do to pay the bills while they write nights and weekends. If you can avoid needing a day job because you can earn from writing, that puts more flexibility into your schedule and hopefully cuts you more time for writing your own projects.

You build your fan base. I’m constantly blown away by how many people call me up to pitch me a story idea — because they know me from a writing gig I had five or more years ago. People do read and follow bylines. So freelance writing can grow you a built-in audience of people who might take an interest if you put out a novel, a trait publishers seem to hold in high esteem these days.

It builds your self-confidence. There’s no ego boost like seeing your name in print. Published work is a fear-slayer that kills the little voice in your head that says, “Maybe I’m just not a good writer.” But the wait to see your name on the cover of that novel can be long. Feeding your ego along the way with the occasional magazine article can keep your courage up.

There’s a myth that novelists are pure-art types who never sully their hands with workaday writing. Let me just puncture that balloon now. Longtime newspaperman Mark Twain wasn’t above it, nor was Salman Rushdie, who wrote copy for Ogilvy & Mather. The road to novel success is often paved with freelance articles.

Carol Tice helps freelance writers grow their income at the Make a Living Writing blog, which was recently named one of the Top 10 Blogs for Writers. Her upcoming Webinar is How to Break In and Earn Big as a Freelance Writer.

Note from Larry: Amen to that.  This blog led to my new book, and freelance writing led to my novels and screenplays.  And then back again.  Now they co-exist, and I actually get paid, and well, for the articles and projects I sell and write on assignment.  I encourage you to discover Carol’s site, it’s a gold mine.

“Top Ten Tuesdays” — Please Welcome Guest Blogger Carol Tice is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

My wife is an artist.  She’s also a really good writer, but even in her most self-aware moments she won’t cop to it.  But the thing is, the same is true for her art. 

Writing gives her no pleasure.  It’s work for her.  She thinks what I do is… cool and inaccessible. 

In contrast, her art is sweet morphine flowing through her gypsy soul.  It comes naturally, it is who she is.  And she is many things, many women, an enchantress of whimsy and a portal to the subtext of the world which finds expression through the images she creates.

She sees God in flowers and in the intricate mysteries of drying leaves.  She immortalizes moments and merges the whimsical with vivid truths.

Writers do that, too.

I believe it is nearly impossible to be an artist – or a writer, for that matter – and claim to believe in nothing.  My wife believes in a Creator and in life, and her art is her worship.

People look at her stuff and marvel.  And yet, when we talk about art and artists, she feels separate and unworthy.  Even though our walls attest to her gift, and her days are filled with the creation of beauty, expression and wonder.

She views life through the lens of an artist.  Because she is one.  Simply because she is immersed in the pursuit of its expression.

And she should be thankful.

Writers are similarly blessed.

I know many writers – they flock to workshops and conferences – who won’t cop to the nametag.  As if there is some milestone, some mysterious criteria – like being published or having sat in front of agent pitching your humble stories – that puts space between those who tinker with writing and those who are unquestionably lost to it.

Screenwriter Larry Ferguson (The Hunt for Red October, Aliens, and other notable films) said it well, though I paraphrase here: A writer is someone who writes.  Period.  And if you are going to write, do it with passion and courage.  It is a noble thing, and in any case, at any level, it’s always better than carrying a gun.

So give thanks today.  Because you are a writer.

I’ve often said that writers are different. 

Not better, certainly, as history and a good look around the writing conference room will attest.  The ghost of Sylvia Plath still lingers at the bar.

But writers experience the world and themselves in a unique way.  We look for meaning.  We see it even when we are not paying attention, which is seldom because, as writers, paying attention is what we do.  We are scribes to the ticking of the days, and we have a job to do.  We are not at peace unless we are doing it.

We recognize irony, we look the abyss in the eye, and we pause to honor beauty, while others are fighting to change lanes or raising a glass to… nothing at all.

We go on amazing adventures.  We encounter great heroes and disturbing villains.  We fall in love, over and over, and our broken hearts heal in our next story. 

We remember with a vividness that challenges the laws of time itself.

Along the way, we encounter and embrace our truth.

We have a free pass into darkness, and when we return, we celebrate the sunshine.

This is a wonder available to all, but known by few.  If you are reading this, then you are a writer, simply by paying attention.  You are already nodding.

Our burden – which in our weaker moments (of which we have many) is how we view it – this burning need to explore life in words is misunderstood and elusive, even to us.  And yet, who among us does not look upon someone who writes in a journal every night and not see someone special there, someone who is, at least in one aspect, alive like we are.

Writers get to embrace the double negative and skip the question mark when the inquiry is rhetorical.

Writers are blessed.  Not cursed as some would believe. 

And with great blessings come great responsibility (there’s a beer commercial out there that leverages this same thought, an example we writers are always humbled by banal reality), and ours is to write it down, make sense of the noise, to reach out and provoke and probe, to ask questions and venture answers.

To embrace life, wrestle it to the mat, submit to it and conquer it.  To love it to death.  To stretch limits, consider the unthinkable and the impossible.  Allow fear and love and hope to ooze from our pores.

To hug the world.

All this, simply by applying butt to chair and allowing your mind to spill onto a blank screen or page, often with a drop of blood or two.  When writing calls our name, we must answer before we find peace.

So give thanks today.  You are a writer. 

The bearer of a quiet mantle that cannot be taken from you, even in the face of life’s most challenging chapters.  Which, no matter how it slams you, will end up on your page, battled and bruised and broken down into sensibility, because you are a worthy foe.

And in doing so, you will have conquered it. 

You will spin it and apply meaning to it and then, no matter what happens to your work, bestow it upon the world.

You will throw it out there.  At the end of the day this is all any writer can do.

Even a story that resides in a drawer has been given life, and thus has been released from the prison of the writer’s soul.

Writing is a great big shiny key that sets you free.

Writing is a worthy purpose.  What you write is a gift you are giving back to the universe.  If you don’t feel that to be the case, keep working on it until you do.

God, or whatever word you use in that context, loves nothing more than to see his children seek to understand.

And that, dear writer friends, is the essence of being alive, and on a level that few attain. 

At least, until they pick up a pen.

Image credit: a painting by Laura Brooks.  Used without the artist’s permission, because she’s downstairs preparing a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner and feels unworthy of the nametag of “artist.”  As you can see, she is avoiding the obvious.

Give Thanks… You Are A Writer is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

“Nobody knows anything.”

- William Goldman, Oscar-winning screenwriter and novelist

You are a writer.  Which means you will hear the word “no.” 

Frequently.  Cruelly.  Usually without explanation.  Often without reason.

They will tell you no.  And it will suck.

You may not hear anything at all.  When that happens… it means no.

You are left to interpret the word “no.”  To assign meaning.  And this is the great abyss of writing.  It has a slippery slope at its precipice.  Once you fall into it, everything gets harder.  You become part of the problem.  The bottom of the pit is littered with the dreams of genuinely talented writers who heard and believed the word “no.”

But here’s the thing.  When it comes to writing, “no” doesn’t mean “no” at all.

It means, “I don’t know.”

Even if they tell you what’s behind their “no,” they still don’t know.  The wise writer listens, filters, applies, and moves on.

“I don’t know” is truer than “no.”  It means more to you than “no.”

No is a lie.  I don’t know is the absolute, take-it-to-the-bank truth.

And that, dear writer friends, it what sustains us when the abyss calls our name.

Martha’s Story

A friend of mine named Martha had a great concept for a provocative thriller, one that challenged religious paradigms and personalized our own response to the question of belief. 

Great theme.  Wonderful drama.  High tension suspense.  I loved it.  Martha loved it.

Her critique group didn’t love it.  No matter how Martha spun it for them – it was just a concept at this point – they wouldn’t gift her with an endorsement. 

They said no.

They didn’t get it.  They couldn’t see it.  And they wouldn’t be swayed by Martha’s enthusiasm for it.

And so they said no. 

Martha wrote it anyway.  Thus avoiding the abyss.

They still said no.  They didn’t get.  They couldn’t see it.  And they weren’t swayed by Martha’s execution of it.

But what they said really meant was this: they didn’t know.  Either at the pitch stage, or the manuscript stage.  They just didn’t know.

Martha recently pitched this story to a handful of agents at a writing conference.  None of them said no.  What they did say was: send us more.

Here’s the irony.  The agents don’t know, either.  The publishers they submit your work to won’t know. 

Nobody knows anything.

Which is why, in this context, “no” means nothing other than I don’t know. 

Because if what you’re writing is solid, if it meets the criteria for solid story architecture and dramatic resonance leading to thematic impact, someone along the path will say something other than “no.”

Getting them to do that is your job.  Recognizing it when they see it is their job.  And both jobs are as imprecise and subjective as any work on the planet.

You’re working to find that one person who counts who says something other than no.

Larry’s Story

Bef0re I sold my first novel I was a struggling screenwriter.  I’d had an agent for nine years, and we’d had a couple of options and some success in the Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship competition, which hatches the occasional produced script (14 of them, in fact, like Mike Rich’s Finding Forrester, and, less frequently, a handful of viable careers… especially Mike Rich’s).

I wanted to turn one of my scripts into a novel.  My agent said no.

I started it anyway.  My agent said no again.

I finished the adaptation.  My agent said “hmmm.”  Totally forgot that she’d said no, but that’s fine, this isn’t about that.

She submitted the draft to four publishers.   Three said no.

One said yes.

That publisher (Penguin-Putnam) threw some national advertising at it and propelled Darkness Bound onto the USA Today bestseller list for three weeks.  A couple of hundred thousand copies and an open door for more novels going forward. 

All leading toward a website called Storyfix and the book that it would become.

No meant I don’t know.

Even the publisher who said yes didn’t know.  That’s the game we’re stuck with, this isn’t a sport in which an object either goes into the goal or it doesn’t.

Yes means: I think I know. 

They’re not always right.  But that’s the best we’ll get.  Because once we hear yes, we’re pretty much done.  What comes next has almost nothing to do with us.

We’ve reached the goal.  The ball (or puck, your call) went into the net (or out of the park) this time.

Nobody knows anything when it comes to deciding which book is good, which will find a market, and which won’t.  William Goldman said it first, and he’s right. 

At least, at the level at which this game is played.  Some manuscripts scream “amateur” so loudly you might as well stamp it on your cover page.  That’s what this site is all about – avoiding that particular abyss.

Once your story and your execution is at a certain level… nobody knows.

And most of the time, because it’s their business, they say “no” instead of “I don’t know.”  Saying “I don’t know” is career suicide for agents and editors.  And so they say “no” instead.

Even when they think they know, they are often wrong. 

Three of the editors who rejected Darkness Bound were wrong.  One — the one who published it – wasn’t wrong.

Harry Potter was rejected nine times.  The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was rejected 104 times.  Stephen King’s Carrie was rejected 30 times.  Frank Herbert’s Dune was rejected 23 times.  Gone With the Wind was rejected 38 times.  Jonathan Livingston Seagull was rejected 18 times.  Watership Down was rejected 38 times.  M*A*S*H was rejected 17 times. 

Chicken Soup for the Soul, which inspired dozens of spin-offs and more money than the White House spends on Air Force One catering, was rejected 140 times.

Those authors didn’t let no stop them. 

They understood that “no” means “I don’t know.”

But they knew.  In their heart.  In the deepest crevice of their gray matter.  These authors knew.

“Know” translates to “believe.”

The Only Way to Know

Notice how most of the books mentioned above were risky, freshly-minted concepts.  A school for magic.  A society of rabbits.  Philosophical seagulls.  Shenanigans in a military field hospital.  Thinly masked pop psychology masquerading as commerical fiction.

Our stories are always delivered on two levels, from within two realms: the conceptual and the executional.  (Don’t look that last word up, I take great liberties here… but you get my drift.)

The first can seduce you.  The second will never betray you.

If your belief in your story – if knowing – is based on the appeal of your idea, and little else, then you will hear “no” until you wake up and smell the embalming fluid.

What begets belief most is an understanding and practice of craft, of storytelling principles and criteria.

Your heart will tell you if the soul of your story is a winner.  But it’s your mind that knows.  Because this is where craft resides.  In your inner story architect, your inner fiction engineer.

The heart and the mind can yield a product that exceeds the sum of the parts.  Make sure you employ both in your storytelling.

Will craft guarantee success?  No.

Ah, there it is again.

But in this context, no doesn’t mean I don’t know.  Because nothing guarantees anything in this business, unless your name is already on the A-list.

But it – craft – is your only shot.  That much is certain.

Craft is what turns no into I don’t know when you hear it.  Once spoken, they are speaking the truth: they really don’t know.

But you do know.  The author is always the first to know.  This is what keeps them from slipping into that dark abyss.

It is craft that allows you to know.  And knowing is the imperative magic bullet of getting published.

Don’t submit your work until you know.

Learn more about story architecture here and here. 

My new book on the subject comes out February from Writers Digest Books, see more about it here.

Know what “No” Really Means is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com