My Cringeworthy First Writing Efforts

 A praying mantis friend found her way onto my skirt the other day. Just one of many special blessings coming my way lately!

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is the most unpublishable niche story we ever wrote.

Mine isn't necessarily a niche story - although it was of indistinguishable genre - but it was absolutely unpublishable and totally, as KAK puts it, cringe. In truth, it's because I can't think of this piece without that soul-deep cringe, that it springs to mind here. It wasn't even worthy of the word "story," it was that terrible.

See, I'd decided to become a writer. I'd cut bait on my PhD, got my MS, got a job as an editor/writer to build my chops, and was taking night classes to learn. But I hadn't gotten very good at the actual WRITING part. As in, I had no writing habit, I hadn't finished much of anything, and I was pretty much just farting around. Then I heard on the radio that Wyoming Arts Council (I lived in Wyoming at the time) was offering fellowships in literature. They had a rotating schedule between fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. I could either submit something for that year's award or wait three years. Since three years seemed like an impossibly long time then, I was determined to enter the competition that year.

Only I didn't have anything much to submit. But! I decided that I could enter the first few pages of a novel I'd started - the only pages I had of it - and trust that the judges would be so dazzled by the sheer promise of my work that they'd fall all over themselves to give me the fellowship.

Cringe cringe cringe

I have no idea what those judges thought of my fragmented pages of nothing. I obviously didn't win, nor did I receive any comments. Only much later did I realize just how delusionary I'd been. 

But you know what? Many years later, I did win one of those fellowships. It just took time, lots of dedicated work, and pulling my head out of my delusions. 

Why I avoid knitting...scenes that is.

I’m a Type A, technically-minded person…that’s why I was a laboratorian! And working in lab you’re trained to follow point A to point Z in the correct order. 

And knitting is like that. You follow a pattern, you piece it together in a certain way. So I should be good at knitting? Except…we’re not talking about the yarn kind of knitting today. We’re talking about knitting scenes of a book together.

So it’s really not surprising that I write from beginning to end; no detours, no skipping ahead, no passing go to collect $200 dollars. It’s how my brain is wired. And knowing how your own brain works is key.

Some writers I know need the candy bar method Vivien mentioned yesterday. They have that one perfect scene complete in their head and once they put it to paper, the creative floodgates open and they can knit their story together. Does that way of writing work for you?

If so, huzzah! Go forth and write! If it doesn’t…maybe your brain’s more analytical and the following might help. 

Each book I’ve written, and the manuscripts I’ve outlined and started, all began with that one perfect scene for me. Usually the scene comes from one of my dreams, like it’s been handed to me in a mini-movie format. But I never try to write it as a chapter right away. Because…that would be out of order.

Instead, I take my perfect scene, or you take your instigating idea, and sketch out the scene in outline format so I don’t forget the details.

*Note: I always know exactly where my scene fits in my story: beginning, end, climactic moment etc. If you don’t know this yet, take some time to brainstorm and ask yourself: what happens after, what needs to happen before, what changes for your MC (main character) in this scene?

Now that you know exactly where your perfect scene/idea sits in the timeline, it’s synopsis time! 

*Second Note: Lots of writers do not use a detailed outline/synopsis to write. YMMV This step is included here because my technical brain follows a well-laid plan easiest.

When writing my synopsis I build from or around my originating scene and the rest of the world and plot details flow from there. I like to go for super detailed here…remember, lab girl here? The more detail and direction I put down in this stage the better off I am in the drafting stage and THE LESS I HAVE TO TRY KNIT IN LATER!

All that because I suck at knitting in scenes. Why? I say it’s because when I plot out my books I do a lot of detail on the frontside and when I’ve needed to weave in new scenes that change things in the timeline…it gets messy. 

Sort of like Ullr’s rope bone that started out all tightly woven together (pictured at top of post). The rope was smooth and strong, but once my pup started tugging here and there it began to unravel in spots. That's what I feel like happens to my books when I mess with them and try to knit in scenes. 

So I do my best to not have to, or at least not have to knit in major scenes that shift the trajectory of the story. That’s like…like, your chemistry analyzer going down before you even get your day’s samples loaded! 

I’ll keep attempting to avoid that nightmare. How ‘bout you? Do you avoid knitting or are you a master weaver?

Need a CP you can trust, but don't know where to start?

There is nothing more frightful than handing off what you’ve written to someone else for critique. 

*insert cringing, nail-biting, hiding under a blanket*

As a writer, critique is absolutely what you need. Why? Well, there’s only so much you can do for your manuscript, only so many typos you’ll be able to catch, and only so many errors/plot holes you’ll be able to see.

Trust me, I know it’s tempting as soon as you type The End to send that book baby off to agents/publishers/format it for Amazon. But don’t. You need another set, or sets, of eyes on it.

*side note* Another set of eyes, not your mother (sorry Mom, and all moms out there, but you’re biased because you love us and will always believe what we do is amazing, therefore you’re not a good sounding board).

My fellow SFF Seven have shared insight on how they decide who to trust. Personally, I believe it all comes down to following your gut. But what if you don’t know where to start to find a critique partner? Or maybe the thought of handing your words over to someone you know, and have have to see IRL, terrifies you. If that’s you, then I have some options for you:

Absolute Write Water Cooler. This is a very active community for all types of writing. You’ll find a lot of articles about publishing and their online writer community forum is loaded with discussion a variety of discussion topics and writing prompts. 

NaNoWriMo. National Novel Writing Month takes place in November, but their community is active year round. #NaNoWriMo makes it easy to find people who are participating, and NaNo’s website allows you to search for people and ‘buddy’ up. I know many authors that’ve found writing buddies to cheer for them and critique for them this way. 

Discord is a way to interact with a large group and chat with like-minded individuals. Yes, there’s a ton of groups for gaming, minecraft, manga, etc. on Discord, but they also have BetaMe for writers who want to give and receive feedback on their work!

writing.com. This online community is a great place to post your writing for member feedback. Once your words are up all members can read and leave comments, so if that’s too broad for you…

Inked Voices may be a good option. This space is set up for writing groups, usually 5-15 members. They do have lectures and can connect you with professional editors if that’s intriguing to you. 

Since this is the SFF Seven blog, you may be interested in: SFFChronicles.com. This sci-fi fantasy community has a lot of forums, feel free to join and geek out, and they have a robust writing forum with a Critiques section. Note, you must have done 30 posts before you can post your own for critique. 

Reddit is huge, but did you know how many subreddits there are? I don’t, sorry if you were getting excited over getting an actual number. But they have some very popular writing subreddits if you’re looking for a particular niche!

r/writing

r/fantasywriters

r/writerchat

r/selfpublish

And last, not that this list is even the least for writing communities by far, but I’ve got to wrap this up before I lose your attention, are the social medias.

Twitter has become home to one of the largest #writingcommunity groups. Search by the hashtags, a few are #amwriting, #writerslife, #writersnetwork and #5amwritersclub. Twitter can turn into a negative cess pool at times, so if that gets to you…

Instagram uses the same hashtags and has a more positive vibe to it. Facebook, is Facebook, and can also be searched. 

It’s petrifying to share your work. But you can do it! Prepare yourself for feedback, buy some wine or bourbon, and settle in. The more you do/participate, the quicker you’re gut will learn to spot the hatters and those who aren’t a good critique-partner fit. Plus, your writing will get stronger and you’ll likely end up making some great friends! 

Have you tried any of these communities? Do you have a writing community that I didn't mention? 

The Right Words at the Right Time - Supporting Newbie Authors

THE CROWN OF THE QUEEN will be available as a stand-alone novella on November 22! (You can preorder now at Amazon, Kobo and Smashwords.) If you already have FOR CROWN AND KINGDOM, this is the exact same novella in that duology with Grace Draven. You can get mine alone for $2.99 or both of us for $3.99. A deal, either way!! If you haven't read it, THE CROWN OF THE QUEEN takes place between THE TALON OF THE HAWK and THE PAGES OF THE MIND. It's told from Dafne's point of view and bridges the events in the aftermath of TALON and sets up her book, which is PAGES.

Our topic this week is "The person(s) most influential on my early writing career."

This is like picking literary influences - there are so many!

But it's been fun to contemplate, thinking about those very early days in my late twenties, when I finally realized I wanted to be a writer instead of a scientist. It was really difficult for me to tell people about that.

Because, well, it sounds silly, right?

In telling people I wanted to write books, I felt like every other person who's ever made noises about "someday writing that novel." And, to be frank, many of the people I talked to about this enormous pivot in my life plans pretty much nodded, smiled, and blew it off as so much wishful thinking. Those were the nice ones.

My PhD adviser - with whom I had a contentious relationship at that point as I struggled to complete my degree - said, "I think writers need a lot of self-discipline, to work steadily on projects over time - are you sure that's for you?"

Ouch.

Others were kinder, but "helpfully" presented statistics on the impossibility of such enterprises. One friend, however, one of my sorority sisters from college, sent me two books on writing. She probably went to a bookstore and asked for something to send a budding writer, because they're two of the classics. More important, she sent a note with them that said, "The only people who are annoying because they talk about writing a novel are the ones who never do it. I know you will."

That meant everything to me.

I could go from there, to those early classes and the various writers who took their time to teach me - because the list is long of teachers who did so much to help me along, which is part of why I teach, in turn - but it was the people who gave their whole-hearted supported who made that initial difference.

It's easy to crap on someone else's silly-seeming dreams. Of course they don't have the writer's discipline yet. That comes over time. Of course the odds are stacked against making a living as a writer. They're even higher for the person who never actually writes the book.

So, this goes out to Sandy Moss, who sent me those first books and - most important - the faith at exactly the right time.

Turns out, you were right! As always.

Much love to you, too, in TTKE.