Category: Scratch Paper Podcast

Remember last episode, when I mentioned getting up to page 70 of my new novel?

I was slowing down big time, and I got stuck. I wanted to quit at page 75.

Scroll down (newsletter readers, please click through) to hear what I did to beat back the slump and write 30 more pages (!!!).

Reading update:

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

Servants’ Hall by Margaret Powell

Writing update:

I’m working on a new novel about a psychic named Lia who is helping an evangelical family whose foster daughter has stopped talking. Last episode, I mentioned reaching page 70. That was three weeks ago–and I totally stalled out by page 75. But great news! I got out of my slump and am now on page 105.

Show notes:

A few things I did that helped me get out of my slump:

• I use an outline. This helps me so much. (Also, I said “arch of the story” in the podcast, but I definitely meant “arc of the story.”) If you don’t use an outline, try brainstorming the end of your story, or just the next part–a little bit of planning might help!
• Taking a break helped me the most.
• Taking a break made it possible to read–which also helped!
• I upped my word count goal for each writing session. Usually, I write ~2 pages when I sit down to write; I tried writing for longer, about 2-3 hours, and started writing closer to 5 pages.
• Do the math! I calculated that I had 25 pages left to write, and at my former rate, it would have taken me three months to finish.
• Make a checklist with very very small goals–I get to check off every two pages.
• Celebrate!! When I reached page 85, I went shopping at Dry Goods Seattle and became obsessed with embroidery.
• Related: tell someone when you reach your goals. I text my husband and email my writing exchange pal Larry.

Things that have worked in the past:

• Just make yourself write one page.
• Take a whole day to write (side note: if you don’t know what to do with a whole day to write, you might like DIY Writing Retreat: A guide to getting away–it includes an hour-by-hour schedule).
• Get a change of scenery.
• Ask your friends for help!

How do you get out of a writing slump? What works best? Please share in the comments, or tag me on Instagram or Twitter.

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This week’s lesson is about actually writing–a craft lesson related to detail and tone.

It includes how to choose words that will make your reader catch onto the tone WITHOUT EVEN NOTICING.

I think this trick is like magic. I think it is the difference between OK writing and good writing. It’s what I try to do. It’s what I am thinking about most as I’m working on my new novel.

Click through to listen to the full episode:

Links!

Writing update:

I have written a few more pages of my novel. Reveal! It’s about a psychic (Lia) who is helping an evangelical family whose foster daughter has stopped talking. I’m on page 75 and I am working towards 100 pages, but I’m stalling out.

Reading update:

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (who also wrote The Swan Thieves, HIGHLY RECOMMEND!)

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt is another really good, really long book.

Black men and public space by Brent A. Staples is a brilliant essay about race in an “elevated” tone. Here is an example from the intro:

My first victim was a woman-white, well dressed, probably in her early twenties. I came upon
her late one evening on a deserted street in Hyde Park, a relatively affluent neighborhood in an
otherwise mean, impoverished section of Chicago. As I swung onto the avenue behind her, there
seemed to be a discreet, uninflammatory distance between us. Not so. She cast back a worried
glance. To her, the youngish black man–a broad six feet two inches with a beard and billowing
hair, both hands shoved into the pockets of a bulky military jacket–seemed menacingly close.
After a few more quick glimpses, she picked up her pace and was soon running in earnest.
Within seconds she disappeared into a cross street.
That was more than a decade ago, I was twenty-two years old, a graduate student newly arrived
at the University of Chicago. It was in the echo of that terrified woman’s footfalls that I first
began to know the unwieldy inheritance I’d come into–the ability to alter public space in ugly
ways.

See those words? Uninflammatory, billowing, menacingly, earnest–that’s what I’m talking about.

This essay, published in 1986, is unfortunately still relevant today, and I highly recommend you Google it.

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Marketing can be overwhelming, and I get caught up in it all the time. When I’m not writing, I feel like I should be sharing my work–even when I am writing, I feel like I should be sharing my work. I blame the Internet: we see people working all the time, or talking about how they should be working all the time.

But while I recognize the futility of constantly marketing, I also realize that it’s part of being a writer. Being a writer means finding readers. Maybe that’s new for this particular time, maybe it’s always been part of being a writer–to me, it doesn’t really matter. It’s my responsibility to find readers for my work.

But I don’t want to lose site of my goal, which is to keep writing.

So how do I keep things balanced?

I’m not perfect by any means, but I do try to follow one questions I ask when I make time to market my work: Does this help me write?

Listen in below (or on Stitcher or iTunes) to hear an example of how my marketing helps me to write. Also hear the genesis of this very podcast: how I started it and why, and how I spoke to an imaginary audience for several weeks.

Show notes:

Writing update: I’ve written a few more pages in my new novel.

Reading update: I read another mystery, but nothing to recommend. Alas. Please send more mysteries. Also, I said I was reading P.G. Wodehouse, but I am actually reading P.D. James! They are different people. P.D. James’ book on writing mysteries is great: Talking About Detective Fiction.

Links:

• I’m on Twitter. I lied on the podcast (again) and said that Twitter has never helped me write, but it is how I found my agent, and she helps me write so much! I talked at length about this is in Episode 16.
• I’m also on Instagram
• Sales of my ebooks and nice reviews like this one help me write

What are your goals for your marketing? What things are you trying? How do you find readers?

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Marketing! What is it? How do you do it for writing?

And why should you listen to this podcast instead of the million other podcasts/blog posts that are already out there about marketing?

Because many of those narratives go like this:

“I tried this and this and this and this, and thing X worked! DO THING X!”

…and they focus on the wrong thing.

They focus on Thing X, “the next big thing,” the latest platform/trend/silver bullet.

Instead, we should focus on the first part–how the person tried a bunch of different things.

This doesn’t mean try everything–but it does mean that marketing takes time and lots of tries. Listen in to hear what I have done to market my ebooks (DIY Writing Retreat and DIY Chick Lit) and my full-length fiction and nonfiction manuscripts.

Newsletter readers, click through here or on the image below to listen.

Show notes:

Writing update: Still working on my new novel; Finding Lucy is still out on submission.

Reading update: Really into Rhys Bowen’s Her Royal Spyness series, despite/because of the punny titles.

Links to all the things I have done to market myself:

• I am on Twitter
• Also Instagram
• Two things I have tried to market: DIY Writing Retreat and DIY Chick Lit, available on Amazon as ebooks and Etsy as PDFs.
• Built this website (originally called craftbookproject.com)
• I took a survey of craft bloggers and blogged about it
• I tweeted about it – I lied on the podcast and said that I had kept the same account from back then, but the Internet tells me that I’m wrong
• I made awesome business cards, and tragically, I can’t find the link to the original tutorial! I thought the Internet saved everything.
• I made Instant Gift for Writers, a zine that I put in little free libraries around Seattle
• I made a video with Tara Swiger (actually, I made a lot of videos! Here’s one about how to get inspiration to write a story. I made these with Kelly of KMR Publishing to promote DIY Chick Lit–then called “The Chick Lit Cookbook”)
• I sent out my ebook for review to a lot of book bloggers, who blogged about it (collected here)
• I have a newsletter; you can sign up for it here
• I’ve written for The Write Life and We Heart Writing
• I’ve been to AWP
• I’ve participated in #PitMad (that’s how I found my agent)
• I’ve kept in touch with my writing friends
• I’ve entered my novel in contests, and sent out my stories
• I wrote for Alt Magazine (and other places)
• I wrote for the Patheos Network on a blog called “Surprising Faith”
• I redesigned the covers for my ebook (well, I had someone else do it)
• I started this podcast (and put it on Stitcher)
• I started selling my ebooks on Etsy
• I’ve also thought about trying Periscope, but I just couldn’t do it.

Apologies for the sniffles on this episode; a pox upon Seattle “spring.”

And in case you missed it, my ebooks are now PDFs. That means you don’t have to take the Internet with you when you go on a writing retreat! Use coupon code STPAT17 to get two for the price of one.

Thanks for listening! Tune in next week…where I dive deeper into marketing.

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