Pirates and Mermaids

While I continue my search for an agent for my current story, I'm also struggling to find an entry point for my next story and, until yesterday, this was baffling me. Let me put it this way -- if I want to be a writer of stories -- fictions -- I have to have stories to tell, one after another. At this point I've told three stories in writing, all "unpublished," but, as noted, while waiting for the right agent to call, I've got to march onward and start story number four. That's where I've been stumped.

Yesterday evening, lying in bed, an idea struck me: an entry point. For me, an entry point is a theme that can begin a story. It's not necessarily the beginning of the story but it's an idea for a story. So, having found the entry point for as story which I may or may not pursue, I was excited, especially because this entry point would lead to a story that would be difficult -- very difficult -- to write, but the task would, for me, be exciting.

Then, while I was contemplating how I might write this difficult story, my dear wife chimes in -- "Oh, I have an idea for your next story: pirates and mermaids."

Now I have no interest in pirates and only a passing interest in mermaids but I know where this was coming from. We had just arrived at our summer house which is on a cove off the ocean. An hour's drive north is a seaport which boasts that it was once "the home of the privateers," privateers being nothing more than pirates licensed by a letter of marque from the government, in our local case the King of England. So pirates were on her mind and, where there are pirates, there are sure to be mermaids. Doesn't it follow?

But, logical as all this might be, I don't think I'll pursue "pirates and mermaids" as my next story. I really have no experience with either pirates or mermaids. But maybe, in a few years, in the distant future when I've finished the story I (might) want to work on now ... who knows?

Writing your author's bio for a literary agent can give you three rewards

 Writing your bio for a literary agent is a necessity but doing it can give you three rewards.

First, you'll have that essential personal biography for the literary agents you're querying.

Then there are two other "rewards," if you take the time to dig and go over your life with all its highs and lows, all its joys and sufferings, and all its happy and unhappy surprises.

Reward number one: you'll come up with some great material to share with your kids, grandkids, and friends -- who may or may not be interested.

Reward number two -- and this is the really big one: you're likely to uncover incidents, events, and impressions that can launch you on your next literary project. The kernel of something remembered can grow into a luscious literary fruit. Just water it with a bit of imagination and think about how you might have liked that faint memory to have developed. Bingo! Story time! All from doing a job you had to do anyway.

Writing a synopsis can be therapeutic

When you've finished writing your novel you may be asked for a synopsis. This is another writing project and you might cringe at the request. Some say writing a synopsis is so onerous that it causes your mind to go blank and your eyes go blind. But writing a synopsis can be therapeutic.

Writing a synopsis forces you to look at your novel and see what you've really done -- not what you thought you had done. Writing a synopsis forces your eyes to see the gaps -- the left out parts that the reader will spot but you have overlooked. These gaps need to be filled, even though they may force you to go back to your story and write more -- to plug those gaps and give your readers the satisfaction of a story well told.

Where did the thoughts for this article come from? Where else but my own experience, the wake up jolt received when ... writing a synopsis. But thanks to the "whoops" moment the synopsis uncovered, the final revision of the novel is much improved, as will be yours.

New pistols vs. old pistols: a writer's problem

Can you write a novel where a major scene involves something you know nothing about?

I've been contemplating a plot for a third novel. (First two as yet unpublished) and part of the plot involves handguns. This is not about good guns or bad guns, good guys or bad guys. It's about two guys who bond over target shooting -- still an innocent sport.

The problem I'm encountering is the timeline. As a kid I was into guns, for target shooting and curiosity and for all the gun allure kids love.

So the story at one point involves target shooting with what might be called "the guns of my youth": the .22, the 9 millimeter, the .45 auto. A cheap revolver, a couple of German Lugers, and a couple of 1911 Army .45s. Fine.

But, as the story progresses, guns make their appearance a second time. But time has passed. The guns of my youth are now obsolete. Time had marched on and I haven't owned a gun for close to sixty years. (Gave them all away when I went on active duty. I figured if the Army wanted me to have a gun, they'd give me one. (They did.)

So here's the problem. I want to write an incident involving guns but it's not at the beginning of the story and the guns of this period are no longer the guns of my youth.

How should I handle this?

How would you handle it?

I'm not going out and acquire a new gun collection. I can read gun magazine but this isn't going to make it very real. Can I just skip the DETAILS on the modern guns? Can I just say, "he had a gun"? I have a story I want to tell but I'm fussed if I'm personally going to get back into guns.

I was talking to a friend recently who was going big game hunting with a British .303, a gun from my youth. Maybe I can just recall enough of the smells and the spirit of shooting -- target shooting -- to wing it.

What do you think?

-- Philip Goutell

How does it end? Who wins?

 A novel needs a climax, a point at which the story comes to a critical point and then something happens to steer it toward a resolution. Here there are three possibilities: the "good" side prevails; the "bad" side prevails... or no one prevails. Look at the consequences of each path.

When the "good" sided prevails we feel good about the story as long as the good wins out in a logical way.

If the "bad" side prevails, we are either left upset or left telling ourselves, "yes, life is really like that."

While I like the feeling of the good side winning, when writing I find myself favoring the ending where everything is set right, no matter how badly this disappoints our desire for retribution. Really don't we want to see harmony in the universe? There can be no harmony in a world where there are only winners and losers. Writing a win-win ending that pleased the reader can be a challenge, but one well worth the effort.

 -- Philip Goutell

Is self-publishing for you?

I've been hunting to find a suitable agent for my literary output and, for those agents who take submissions through Query Manager, one of the common questions asked relates to self-publishing. If you have published a book yourself, you might be asked how many copies you sold in the first year. Then, regardless of how many copies you might have sold, some agents won't touch you.

So what's the story on self-publishing? What does it mean and what is it all about?

To "publish" a book or story simply means to put it out there to the public. But usually when writers talk of publishing, they are talking about commercial publishers who take an author's work, make it into a book, and offer it for sale to the public, usually through bookstores.

When you self-publish, you skip the step of having your work "accepted" by a commercial publisher who would edit, manufacture, and distribute it to booksellers. Instead, all will be on you, from creating the book to marketing it. Once you're done it you'll see how much non-writing work is involved. You're also likely to see sales results considerably lower than what you were anticipating, and lower than they might have been if distribution and publicity had been handled by an established publisher.

I've self-published a number of books but they were technical books, intended for a special audience with which I'd developed a relationship. These books make sales, small sales perhaps, but the sales have continued, month after month, over a period of years. Overall, the results have been satisfying.

I know someone who published his own novel, a pretty good novel, worthy of publication by an established book publisher. But he did it himself. I don't have his sales figures but I'm guessing they were minimal. What stood out about his book, aside from a good story, were the terrible errors in formatting. At several points the typeface changed abruptly for a number of paragraphs and then went back to the original. Why? Because whoever was responsible for the graphics failed to hit the right format key for those paragraphs. A simple mistake but a glaring giveaway of an amateur job.

Sometimes you self-publish simply because you want your work to be out there, where it has the potential of being seen, and no major publisher wants to work with you. I've published some of my short stories on my website simply because I don't see a commercial future for them but I still want to share them with readers. Academics sometimes self-publish for the same reason.

In my (unpublished) novel, Two Writers, I have some scenes dealing with self-publishing.

Seeing your work in print can be exciting. Self-publishing can give you some of that thrill. But don't expect to make much money, or any money at all.

-- PhilipGoutell

Writing advertising for cash sales

My ad writing was in the mail order business. Picture this. A business with a product to sell but no store, only a small warehouse. Two methods were used to make sales: ads were run in publications ("print advertising") and fliers were mailed out ("junk mail"). Each ad carried a tracking code. When the orders came in, results for each individual code were measured. Either the ad made a profit or it didn't. There was no bluffing.

I started free lance. I had no connections. I had to hustle to get clients an then prove my worth. Most clients were the owners. They were decisive and knew their business. In time I was offered an opportunity to start my own company and take a share of the profits. For all the lighthearted moments, it was serious business.

-- Philip Goutell