Novel Class: First Night

[jeriendhal]

Well, after carefully alloting twenty minutes for a five minute drive, I discovered I'd gone to the wrong high school for the class, drive home, checked the details online and got mapquest directions, then zoomed out again. I was ten minutes late, but two people arrived after I did so I didn't feel terminally embarrassed. Grabbed the sheaf of handouts and looked them over, and then started listening.

The teacher definitely takes the industrial method of novel writing. She boasts of writing 64 books in twelve years, and the class is focused on "salable" books, giving the publisher what he wants. Complete with work charts and objectives.

It sounds horribly sterile, but she actually did have several good points. Point One: When you start writing, make sure you've got your overarching theme set up, one that can be laid out in the first chapter. Point Two: Unless you're really good, stick to only one or two main viewpoint characters. Not everyone is LMB when she's writing A Civil Campaign. About the only thing I really think I object to is her assertion that you should shop your novel around to multiple publishers simultaneously. She claims to send her's out to a dozen at a time, sending polite notes to the losers when it gets picked up by a particular house. Everything I've heard makes that a definite no-no for first time authors, though I suppose she's got enough of a track record to get away with it.

Oh, and she whole heartedly agreed when I mentioned the danger of the Eight Deadly Words. :)

Comments

[chewipaka.livejournal.com]

Wait, you aren't supposed to send it out to multiple publishers simultaneously? Whaaaaaa?! (My brain just went 'splodey)

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Well, not from what I've been told. Primarily because it kinda ticks editors off if they've got your eyes on your manuscript and then you tell 'em "Nope! House of Doorstops already has a claim on it. Sorry!" That's not exactly good for long term relations with these folk.

[mareklamo.livejournal.com]

Was she talking about novels or short stories? My husband the writer thinks agents probably shop out novels to multiple publishers all the time, which is how you end up with bidding wars. The general practice for short stories though is one publisher at a time.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Well, bidding wars on novels, unless your name is Stephen King, is extremely rare. Even LMB didn't bother setting any of her books up for auction until she wrote Curse of Chalion. For a first time author like myself it just isn't an option, and even the teacher says she doesn't bother with an agent, since the two she had in the past never sold any of her books for her.