Every Book Is Different

Hey friends,

I had a really wonderful meeting with my writing group last night, and I've been thinking about it ever since. Longtime readers will know that I am a devoted outliner–of fiction, non-fiction, even particularly long emails. I've written outlines for picture books and slide decks and more. I love an outline. If I know what I'm going to write, I can write for hours. (...maybe that's true for everyone? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) And I've finally gotten comfortable with taking the time I need to create that outline because that's part of writing, too, even if it doesn't make the word count go up.

I'm feeling a little stuck in the novel I'm trying to write now. I have 40k words of one draft that I scrapped. Then I had 60k words of another draft that included two timelines, and I have decided to ditch one of those timelines and now I have 35k words of a good start. I feel like I know my characters and my setting and the general shape of the thing, but I'm worried what they do is not BIG enough.

The last novel I wrote didn't sell because it was too quiet, I think. That and probably other things but that's the one I can point to and have made peace with. I think I wasn't able to pitch it well, either. I didn't have a good elevator pitch for it, even though I hate elevator pitches and don't think everyone has to have them in the form most people think they have to have them. My book was not an Indiana Jones meets Muppet Babies kind of book, so I wouldn't have been able to craft an elevator pitch like that. But if I crafted a pitch that could be expressed something like When X and Y happens, the characters have to A and B before C, even at the drafting and revision stage, I think that would have helped. I don't know if it would have gotten picked up either way, and again, books don't all have to have this specific kind of formal pitch, but I've found that the harder it is for me to tell someone what a book is about, the worse my chances are of selling it. Some books are hard to pitch and sell like gang busters anyway–but there's always some compelling way to talk about it that makes readers go ohhhhhhhhhh.

I need that ohhhhhhhhh thing for the new book I'm working on, and I've been focusing on the plot to get me there. I like plots. I like plots of all kinds. I personally prefer more plot to less plot, as a writer and a reader. YMMV. So, I was telling my writing group that I felt like I needed to drive a truck through the middle of my book, which I now realize is also the advice I got in grad school twenty years ago. Maybe that's where this is coming from–some long buried writing advice come back from the dead. Regardless, this is what I told my group.

And they told me I was wrong. Or, more precisely, they told me what I had and what I was planning was enough and that if I just wrote the damn thing I would find that out. That if I got out of my own way and just wrote the thing, I could figure out if I still needed to drive that truck through it in the second draft. I didn't need an outline, they said, I just needed to play in this world.

I think when they said I didn't need an outline I shuddered. No outline???? I mean, I wouldn't be completely pantsing the book, because I did have an idea of where I wanted to go, but I knew I could do it faster and possibly with less editing required on the next draft if I planned it all out. I'm not against changing an outline if inspiration strikes along the way, and I'm not against editing–far from it!–but I've found that upfront planning really helps in the end.

Or, it helped in the end for the last book. Maybe that's how the last book got written and this is how the new one is supposed to get written. That's the thing about writing: every book is different. You are a different writer every time you sit down to a new project. Every project needs something different than the one that came before it. This is normal. This happens to everyone. (And if it hasn't happened to you yet, just wait.)

My writing group is not exactly right. I mean, they are right I need to just write the thing, but not that the one true plan for this book is No Outline. The point is that I'm trying to write this book just like the last book and this is not the last book. I've got to write it the way this one wants to be written, and, well, this one is telling me to just get the words on the page and see what happens. OMG they even suggested I write scenes out of order?!?!?!?!? I don't know if I can handle that!!?!?!?!!!!! But I'm going to try because these women are smart and experienced and know me. Their advice also dovetails with another truism I've come to know: the less I want to do something, the more that means I have to do it.

SO! I'm going to go write some scenes out of order in my book and it's going to be ok!!!!!!!!!! We'll see if this is what this book needs, and if it's not, I'll just keep listening–to my friends, to myself, to my book–and figure out what this book actually needs.

Just a few days left to sign up for my online Demystifying the Query Letter seminar hosted by McNally Jackson. This features a voluntary, live query critique, and you can sign up here! Class is this Thursday, January 29th, 7pm ET!

Also, I put a query critique plus a one-year subscription to Agents & Books up on the Publishing for Minnesota Live Auction here! So many agents, authors, editors, and more have donated their time and books to support the residents of Minnesota under attack by ICE. Bidding starts Jan 28! Bid early and often! Share this far and wide!

Stay safe, stay warm, abolish ICE.

OXOXOXOX,

Kate