Gotta Learn; June 19 2021

My confidence has taken a big hit recently. I’ve started to wonder whether or not I’ve actually done any improving, as a writer.

Everyone knows the ‘Show VS Tell’ rule in fiction – that is, you should always be showing the reader the details rather than telling them what to feel. Every time I think I’ve gotten a handle on this aspect of writing, I’m told I’m still not Showing nearly as much as I should be.

On the one hand, I know I’m better at it than I used to be. I listen well to critique and apply it as much as possible. When it comes to my protagonists’ emotions, I think I do a decent job of putting the feeling into words without simplifying it – my readers will know how someone’s heart is caught in their throat as they choke back tears instead of hearing that he’s sad, or how the air seems to lift their bounding steps a bit higher rather than having me tell you she’s excited.

I don’t think I know yet how to draw a line between telling and showing when it comes to setting. A recent example that I’ve changed involves a space heater – the initial draft had my main character conclude immediately that there’s a rather ineffectual space heater running as he enters a room. This was later altered so that I describe the hum of the heater, instead. It was obvious to me once I’d made the change that I’d been Telling initially, but honestly? I thought it was just fine until someone else caught it for me.

The trickiest line I’ve ever walked was with my horror novel, Mr. Wolf. The writing style is meant to evoke children’s stories, while still being a book for adults. That one was an absolute beast to work with; children’s picture books don’t have the room nor the need to show every detail through writing, because there’s illustrations to do that for them. The recent addition of chapter illustrations to Mr. Wolf helps convey what I’m going for, I think (shout out to my artist, Trace Goldfarb!) but I still worry it won’t be considered marketable without an overhaul.

The first chapter illustration of Mr. Wolf, done by Trace Goldfarb

That said, I submitted Mr. Wolf to one of my dream publishers having an open call, so fingers crossed?

What I initially meant to blog about this week was the idea of writing new projects between querying, and I think I’m going to get to that, but I needed to give some background and get some anxieties off my chest first. I think what I have to say will work better with that context.

Popular advice to querying writers is that, while you’re stuck waiting on responses, you should work on something else. A new draft, or revisions of that draft. Get a whole new manuscript and polish it up, because the more you write, the better you get. I don’t know how true that is – or rather, I know it’s true, but under a few conditions.

If you’re not getting any feedback, for instance, you’re probably going to wind up writing a second novel that echoes the mistakes of the first. And, even if you do get feedback on your querying manuscript, there’s no guarantee yet that you’ll know how to apply it to your work in progress.

I’m fairly lucky in this point of my querying career. I signed a fantasy trilogy with a publisher, not even realizing how much work would need to be done on book 1 alone. My editor (who has been fantastic – shout out number two goes to Samantha at Scarsdale Publishing!) has taught me so much in a short period of time, but I don’t fully know how to apply all her lessons yet. That’s going to take practice to ingrain in me, I think.

So now I’m sitting on a couple of books concepts, one of which I’m more excited about than the others, so it’s getting priority. I’ve written the first chapter. Then, I stopped. I realized I want to learn a bit more before continuing.

So, should you devote your waiting time to writing new projects? I say, not necessarily. You should definitely devote that time to learning, but writing a whole new book isn’t always the way to do that.

I plan on spending some time beta reading. I’m going to be on the lookout for what works and what doesn’t, for other authors, and ask myself whether or not I fall into the same traps with my own writing. I also plan on catching up on some of my To Be Read list of published novels as a sort of study guide. I think that’s the best thing I can do, right now, for my career.

I think the important take-away here is that you shouldn’t spend your time twiddling your thumbs while you wait. There’s always something more that can be gleaned, always a lesson you can pick up along the way. The best ones will come from other people when they have time and knowledge to help you, but unfortunately, that’s outside of your control. Since you can’t always expect personalized feedback on your work, find other places to learn from. If you’re a fantasy writer, look for the most recent bestselling fantasies – those are your textbooks now! If you know other writers or you interact with the writing community on social media, offer to do some beta reading and hone your skills as an editor; they’ll pay off when you revise your own stuff.

Good luck to you all, out there. The perfect work doesn’t exist, but it is possible to be happy with the work you do, and I hope we all get to that point!