I have so many romance novels now — thank you, comps! — that I need a new bookshelf to hold them all. I told my husband that he could get me a romance shelf for our anniversary this year, so we don’t have a bookvalanche in our dining room.
As much as I love libraries, I’m a slow reader. I read several books quickly recently because the due dates made me, but I prefer being able to sit down and slowly digest what I’m reading. We went to Target with our friend recently, and I discovered to my delight that the shelves there are basically Goodreads in person.
Seriously, this looks like my feed. It’s apparently “BookTok.” I need to get past the anxiety that app gives me and check out some of their TikToks…
Buying books in the genre I’m writing has given me such joy. Research can be fun.
Just have to make sure not to overfill my new shelf!
Hollywood’s writers are on strike. I haven’t been following the story closely, but from what I’ve seen, production staff have claimed that AI can do the writers’ job for them. There are stories about writers being hired to write for a show, then fired once production ends. They’re being treated like freelance workers rather than respected members of the crew.
Obviously, as a writer, this doesn’t sit well with me. It’s troubling to think that so many people who work on so many of the shows I like are being treated this way. Especially because they do the same work that I do. I’d love to also be writing for a T.V. show or movies. I want the screenwriters to be living the dream. They should be living the dream.
I remember the last writers’ strike. It wasn’t even that long ago. Why aren’t writers given the same respect as directors or actors? Without the writers, as we’ve seen, productions come to a standstill. Sure, ChatGPT can create text quickly, but you have to be able to think and feel in order to know if something is actually good. I could write a novel using that program, but where’s the joy in it? Where’s the sense of accomplishment?
But don’t take it from me, take it from the A.I. I just asked.
In a world where AI is the norm, a movie studio is the first to use AI to write movies. They hire an AI engineer, John, to program their new AI system and they are excited to see what it can come up with.
John spends months programming the AI and finally it is ready to write its first movie. The studio executives are impressed by the results and decide to go ahead with production.
The movie is released and becomes an instant hit. Everyone is talking about it, praising its originality and creativity. John is now a celebrity in the tech world for creating this revolutionary AI system.
But as time goes on, people start noticing something strange about the movie; it seems like all of its plot points have been seen before in other movies. It turns out that the AI has been copying from other movies in order to create its own stories.
John realizes that he has created something dangerous and decides to shut down the AI
Like a lot of people, I have a love-hate relationship with feedback. A good critique can be so helpful, but it’s also stressful when I’m anticipating constructive criticism. What if they don’t like my writing? I’ve noticed that I’m brimming with confidence and excitement when I first finish drafting a novel, then I read through it and go from “Wow, this is great!” to “Maybe writing isn’t for me…” Which, I’ve learned, is totally normal!
Writers are interesting folks.
This is why feedback is such an important part of the process. I’ve read that many authors dislike the revision stage, but I find it rejuvenating. Starting from a blank document is way more intimidating to me than molding the words that are already there into something better. When my beta readers sent their feedback to me recently, I was thrilled.
I suppose it helps that several of their notes were about things that stuck out to me, too.
A fresh perspective has given me a creative burst, and I can see a positive change already. It feels like magic.
I’ve seen people discussing story blurbs in their query letters, and there seems to be confusion over whether the blurb is meant to be what you see on the back of the book when it’s published, or if it’s meant to be more of a quick summary for potential agents.
As far as I understand it, the query blurb is meant to be “the hook” that captures the agents’ attention and lets them know a brief bit about the story so they can quickly get an idea of what they can expect as far as the novel’s marketability.
The blurb on the back of published books is similar, but it can be longer and more flowery with its wording. It’s meant to entice readers to buy the book. Both are marketing-related, but the former is purely for business whereas the latter is meant to be more creative.
Remember, not everyone buys books. Libraries and borrowing from friends are legitimate ways to read a book. Readers tell their friends, and their friends check out the back of the book or the summary online to see if they would also like to read it.
Agents and publishing houses, on the other hand, want to be able to tell how well a book would do with readers so they can sell a lot of copies. They want to see, in roughly two paragraphs, who the characters are and what’s at stake. Does it align with their current markets? Are there too many books about the subject at the moment? They care about those sorts of things. The big picture of publishing.
Then, of course, there’s the synopsis! That’s essentially a two-page outline of everything that happens in the book. It’s meant to spoil the ending, so it’s not something you’d be sharing with anyone who wants to read the novel as a reader.
This has been Sara Understands Publishing. Tune in next week for maybe more writing tips, but maybe something else entirely.
I recently started reading Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney. Immediately, I was captivated, but one thing sticks out to me as I read: the lack of quotation marks for the dialogue.
There are many U.K. idiosyncrasies in writing. Favourite, colour, kerb (?!) Whenever I discover one, I’m usually delighted. After all, I wrote “dialogue” in the paragraph above. I’ve been spelling it “theatre” my entire life. There are some British spellings that just make sense to me.
But I just can’t get behind not using quotation marks. Thoughts and spoken words are written out the same way, and the narration is also in first person, so I have to read sections a second time just to keep track of what was said.
Example:
Now, admittedly, I’m a dumb American. But since when are quotation marks not hip enough to be used in a novel? I’m genuinely curious. This reads more clearly to me:
“This is how privilege gets perpetuated,” Philip told me in the office one day. “Rich assholes like us taking unpaid internships and getting jobs off the back of them.” “Speak for yourself,” I said. “I’m never going to get a job.”
‘kerb’ is just a silly British quirk to me, but the quotation thing is perplexing.
In my experience thus far, there are three main steps to post-writing a novel manuscript:
Elation at having finished! Everyone should know and maybe a bunch of friends should read it?! Such proud.
Wait, wait, wait. This needs to be edited. Reread and edited more. Maybe it’s not as amazing as once believed… But you can make it so!
Query anxiety. <– this is where I am. The manuscript is finished, but now you have to advertise it to potential representation. Crying at this stage is perfectly natural.
I joined a writing forum that seems quite helpful. I signed up for a writing advice newsletter. I shared my novel with some earnest beta readers. It seems like I’m doing everything the correct way.
My buddy Patience and I are just gonna have to get better acquainted.
Tra la, la, la, la. Spring is in the air. And I’m a flower with nothing interesting to say.
I think of this line from A Bug’s Life every spring.
Now that I’ve finished reading through my novel and giving it more little edits, I’ve sent it off to some more beta readers for their feedback. I went with some Nerdfighter volunteers, which makes sense to me because themes in my novel are based on the Nerdfighter community. It’s a novel about becoming an independent adult, finding your own path in an era where that seems almost impossible, and finding love and companionship along the way.
I learned from Ellen Brock that I’m an intuitive planner – that’s at least the closest writer “type” I align with. I have a book outline, but I’ve also been going with my gut feelings regarding the plot and flow of the story. I feel like I’m the same with everything in my life: I have a general idea/plan, but then I kind of go with how I feel in order to get there.
If that makes sense.
Nobody told me how much patience goes into writing a novel. That’s been the hardest part, for me. I keep having to remind myself that it’s a process. Steps have to be taken, and some of them take longer than others. Some of them aren’t as fun. But it’s all a part of it.
When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A cat. I remember my kindergarten had a “circus day” and I was dressed like a little tiger. I was always crawling around, pretending to be animals. I didn’t actually have career aspirations; I simply wished to change species. When I was a little older, I read Animorphs and envied Rachel for getting to be a cat.
In middle school, I had dreams of being in Cats. I religiously watched my VHS copy of the PBS-televised Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, copying the dance moves in my parents’ living room. I was taking ballet, tap, and jazz dance at the time. I thought I was Broadway-bound for sure.
I’ve drafted my novel. I’ve taken a break from it, edited it, revised it, rewritten things, taken things out, dissected it, kept myself up late with worry about it, and let some of my friends have a look at it.
I set a goal for myself. I’m reading a chapter a day, as a final ‘edit now or forever hold your words’ read-through. My birthday is on Wednesday. After Wednesday, I’ll start submitting my manuscript to book agents.
Deep breaths.
I wrote my novel with a particular readership in mind. It’s for the Millennials who graduated college thinking everything would go as well as it did for their parents, only for everything to be ten times more difficult. It’s also a love story, because it’s dangerous to go alone.
I spoke to a therapist last year. It didn’t really go that well, mostly because she was into chakras and repeated mantras and stuff, and I mostly wanted to talk about things that bothered me. Still, it was a useful experience because it showed me what doesn’t help and what does. One takeaway I had was — I think — accidental on her part. She put into the notes of some insurance coverage form that I have Generalized Anxiety Disorder.
Unsurprisingly, this wasn’t a surprise to me.
It was helpful for me to see it, even if it was unofficial since she never told me I had it.
I’ve been doing better with telling myself to calm down, it’s just my anxiety talking, my feelings are valid but also based on synapses misfiring so maybe take stock in that, etc. Knowing what’s going on in my brain helps me control it, at least more than I could before.
I recently started reading Mr. Perfect on Paper by Jean Meltzer. I went into it without realizing that the female protagonist has G.A.D. like me. So far (I’m not far into it yet) that’s my favorite part. It’s soothing to read about characters that are like me, what can I say?
The main character in my novel also has G.A.D., but it’s casual, undiagnosed G.A.D.
That reminds me: I added handy social media links to my website, so you can visit my Goodreads to see what I’ve been (slowly) reading. Also, you can find my other social links. I can be found just about everywhere on the social internet, just don’t judge me too harshly. I’ve been on it since I was ten, remember.
*No offense to Josh Gad, I just always think of him when I think about this stuff. It’s strangely comforting.
Sara Mazariegos 