Finding the hook
One thing I'm thinking about increasingly, both as regards my own
work and as regards the way we help Writers' Workshop clients, has
to do with that crucial issue of hook.
An example: let's say a client comes to us for editorial help. We work with that person and, together, we get their MS in the best possible shape it can be. Let's say that, artistically speaking, the novel is fully realised. But what if the concept just ain't going to fire an acquisition committee meeting? Let's say the novel offers an intense 120,000 word account of the death of the author's mother. Or it is written in a clever, experimental but challenging style. Or it's yet another teen vampire novel with nothing remarkable to differentiate it from all the others.
Of course you can't comment on these things in general - you can only ever respond to a particular MS - but these things are going to be hard or perhaps even impossible to sell, no matter how well the author has realised their vision. That means (from an author's point of view) you need to be damn sure about your concept before you put pen to paper. From the WW's point of view, I think it means that we need to be extra careful in how we talk about the market to clients. (bearing in mind, as well, that these things change fast. After the first Stephanie Meyer novel, publishers were keen to get teen vampire authors signed up.)
There are certainly no easy answers here, and better communication from publishers would most certainly help. But the market - the single most important thing for an author to think about - is often the bit we think about least (and I've been as guitlty of this as anyone else). I think, at last, I'm getting a bit better at the art of writing stuff that's in tune with the market - but heaven help me if I weren't (with my agent now getting ready to sell my sixth novel and fourth non-fiction MS). For real newbies, I think the art is both vitally important and tough to acquire.
Memo to self: make sure that the WW does as well as it possibly can on this score. In the past, I think we may have at times have overemphasised technique. Technique certainly matters hugely; but the market matters jsut as much
An example: let's say a client comes to us for editorial help. We work with that person and, together, we get their MS in the best possible shape it can be. Let's say that, artistically speaking, the novel is fully realised. But what if the concept just ain't going to fire an acquisition committee meeting? Let's say the novel offers an intense 120,000 word account of the death of the author's mother. Or it is written in a clever, experimental but challenging style. Or it's yet another teen vampire novel with nothing remarkable to differentiate it from all the others.
Of course you can't comment on these things in general - you can only ever respond to a particular MS - but these things are going to be hard or perhaps even impossible to sell, no matter how well the author has realised their vision. That means (from an author's point of view) you need to be damn sure about your concept before you put pen to paper. From the WW's point of view, I think it means that we need to be extra careful in how we talk about the market to clients. (bearing in mind, as well, that these things change fast. After the first Stephanie Meyer novel, publishers were keen to get teen vampire authors signed up.)
There are certainly no easy answers here, and better communication from publishers would most certainly help. But the market - the single most important thing for an author to think about - is often the bit we think about least (and I've been as guitlty of this as anyone else). I think, at last, I'm getting a bit better at the art of writing stuff that's in tune with the market - but heaven help me if I weren't (with my agent now getting ready to sell my sixth novel and fourth non-fiction MS). For real newbies, I think the art is both vitally important and tough to acquire.
Memo to self: make sure that the WW does as well as it possibly can on this score. In the past, I think we may have at times have overemphasised technique. Technique certainly matters hugely; but the market matters jsut as much
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8 Comments
It seems to me (taking a deep breath as I haven't even finished the first draft of a novel yet) that all you can do is -
1. Read lots of the type of book you're hoping to write.
2. With that in mind, write something you'd enjoy reading.
3. Not be too precious about it.
4. And take it from there.
I've yet to put it into practice, though!
You begin to meet it when someone first says, 'This is not a commercial proposition.' or 'This is of niche interest.' Then you begin to figure out why, and maybe adjust your sights.
For me, knowledge of the market will always be secondary – but then I am one of the great rabble of unpublished authors who think they have a wonderful book on their hands. (I certainly still believe this, but I've yet to convince an agent.) I write because I can't stop writing, and also because a number of people are interested in the story I have to tell. They are not in the publishing trade.
Wrathner could well elaborate on his feelings of bullies attacking someone who is mentally disabled - maybe link it to a debate about relative evil. It is a current concern. What category would Wrather's book belong too? There is a category called general fiction. Can one make too much if fitting into a particular niche? I don't have the time - or quite possibly the intellect to do it - but I contemplated a vampire novel, but by the time I have written the first paragraph, the vampire craze will have ended
But most of us have multiple stories that we'd be happy to tell, and for most of us there's more room than we may think to tweak the way we present those stories. It's in those sort of adjustments that success lies.
The hardest question is learning how to read the market. I agree with Rebecca's list above ... except that it's crucial to read plenty of debut fiction published in your area in the last 2-3 years. That's what editors have been buying most recently. That's the view from their wing mirror and it needs also to be the view from yours.
I'd never suggest writing cynically. If you tried to pick the most lucractive bit of the market, then write for that, but without passion or sincerity, then you'd almost certainly fail and quite right too. But I do also always advocate writing with one eye on the market. If you want to be published, I think you can't afford not to understand the way that editors and agents will be thinking.
Rebecca gives an excellent list, and it is something that I had never considered. Being realistic, the chances of publication are very remote. So taking Rebecca's second point, write something in the style you enjoy reading, and hope you have pressed the correct buttons.
It's very confusing!
I can only write the stories which come to me spontaneously, and I can only write them in the way that I write. I'm not being 'ars gratia artis' about it; if I try to deliberately write something with the intention of getting published and making lots of nice money, I just end up staring at a blank page. I've tried to modify my style, or at least moderate my language, but I can't make it work.
Fortunately, quite a lot of people seem to like my stuff. Unfortunately, none of them (so far) are publishers!
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