Writing Against the Current

Water Show in Atlantic City - May 2013

Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal.
~ Pamela Vaull Starr

If you're a writer, you know this is a business, and not one to undertake if you've got thin skin and no vision.

Chances are if you're a writer and have completed, edited and polished a manuscript within an inch of its life and have sent it out to agents and editors, you've probably heard the following phrase at least once:

"This isn't right for us."

If you read this blog you know I write time-travel romance. If you're new here...now you know what you'll find.  Is it a popular genre with the agents and editors? Hell no.

Would it be easier to follow the stream and write what the agents and editors are buying these days? No, it wouldn't. At least for me.

Writing might be a business (and yes, it most definitely IS a business) but it's one of those careers that you're heart must be in, if you're not passionate about what's going on the page - the reader won't feel that fire either and you're writing will be flat.

Because my heart is in different places and times, that's what I write. I don't fit into a little box. That's not to say I haven't been discouraged along the way. Agents and editors can be blunt and focused on what sells and since it's a business, I can't fault them for not jumping at taking a chance on something that might not fit the style of their house.

I've been told by an agent, "Oh, time travel. Such a tough sell. So many rules of the genre. It's hard to pull off. We don't buy them often." This particular agent didn't even ask the plot or time period...didn't ask for even a query. Just heard time-travel and tuned out.

I've been told by an editor, "Don't bother even sending a query if it doesn't follow the current theory of quantum time travel." 

Hmmm...I read to escape. Last time I checked time travel wasn't really happening - but you know there are so many vampires and zombies running amok in my town, it's getting harder and harder to escape reality. So what do I know? I guess the average romance reader is a physicist and needs to be grounded in reality. Who knew?

So, while bucking the trends isn't an easy task...with the rise of self-publishing at least authors in my shoes have options. We are no longer at the mercy of agents and editors or feel we must be stuffed into little boxes of what's considered acceptable.

All of this doesn't mean I don't continue to write what I love and send it out into the world. I do, because I believe in my work and I am an optimist. But, with all the new options available to me, I'm not quite as devastated when I hear it's not right for anyone. Variety is the spice of life and while time travel might not be for everyone...it does have a niche.

I'm going to continue my travels against the current.

Are you writing what you love?

Make an entrance on page one!

When I first created stories in my head and then on paper - a long time ago - I had no idea there were any "rules" for writing a novel that would sell.

Then I met other writers, I went to conferences, met agents and editors and joined critique groups...then I was introduced to the rules of writing. (Wow, what an eye opener for a newbie!)

One of the first things I did as a new writer was to go out and buy books on learning the craft of writing. Yup...we all do it (and I still do!)

Robert's Rules of Writing - 101 unconventional lessons every writer needs to learn was one of my first purchases. It's not a guide, and it doesn't really teach the craft of writing, what it does do is dispel a few myths and shares a few facts on writing for publication.

My tip today is Robert's Rule #42: Make an Entrance.

Or as most of us have heard countless times, "start in the right place!"

Such an easy thing to say, sometimes such a hard thing to do. It's hard to filter out the backstory. But to get the reader engaged from page one, you have to start with something that's going to make them want to read more - not a frolic through the woods picking daisies along the way and them WHAM the real action starts three pages in (or worse, in chapter two!)

With attention spans what they are today - how many people are going to stick with your meandering through perfectville long enough to get to the action? And you can forget an agent or editor making it that far either.

The truth is that while everyone wants peace and happiness in their own daily lives - they don't want to read about it. Peace and harmony don't make for good fiction!

And here's where your grand entrance comes in.

Start with a first line that captures attention or at least grabs the readers attention and makes them think.

And since I don't believe in telling and not showing (haha, a little writing humor...) I've got a few examples from my own work, both published and a work-in-progress:

A Fistful of Fate
Copyright 2010
Lyrical Press

William Montgomery stood in the shadowed doorway and watched the woman he’d waited two hundred years for kiss another man. But Reginald Merriweather wasn’t just any man. He was the man William blamed for Rebecca Beauregard’s death all those years ago, a crime Will had been accused of and paid for. With his own life.

**

Surrender to the Sheriff

WIP

It's time.

Two simple words.

Written in the familiar handwriting of Grandma Rose on a single sheet of pale pink paper and delivered by mail exactly two years after her death.

**

Are those few lines enough to convince you to read on?

Have you considered your first few lines and if taken all alone, are they enough to grab the reader to at least get them to finish the page, to turn the page and hopefully keep going?

 

Have a great first line you'd like to share?