So the thing with books these days is that you have to start marketing them before they’re finished, which is probably something that, say, Victor Hugo never had to deal with. Other things Hugo never had to deal with: getting reviewed on Goodreads, Twitter followers and teen book bloggers. (They can MAKE OR BREAK you.)
I’ve started a humorous mystery novel set at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. If you’d like to be notified when the book is published, please email me at contactjoed(at)gmail.com with the subject line Book Mailing List, and I will add you to the mailing list.
If you like humorous novels or mysteries or hold a special place in your heart for OU and Athens, I think you will enjoy this book. The first chapter is finished, and the entire book is outlined. The goal is to finish it this summer and offer it for sale before the holidays.
After today, I will no longer be managing editor of DAME Magazine. I started consulting for DAME in early 2012 and was brought on as managing editor last June. This was a part-time gig, and it was one I enjoyed. I got the opportunity to write, edit, develop traffic strategies, do social media, contribute story ideas and manage the editorial workflow of a start-up online magazine.
I still believe–as I did when I started–that a smart magazine for women over 30 is a great idea, and I will continue to contribute to DAME as a freelancer.
Obviously this frees up my schedule a bit. I’m on the hunt for new clients, and I have several opportunities percolating. As always, you’re welcome to contact me, and you’re welcome to pass my name along to publishers/businesses that are looking for a writer/editor/social media guy.
I like Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Basic Rules of Creating Writing and Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling, and I often Google them for grounding. But who has time to Google TWO things these days, right? So I’ve mashed up Vonnegut and Pixar’s lists into one helpful mega-list. Pixar’s are the first 22 and Vonnegut’s are the last eight.
1. You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.
2. You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be very different.
3. Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite.
4. Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.
5. Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.
6. What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?
7. Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.
8. Finish your story, let go even if it’s not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.
9. When you’re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN’T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.
10. Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you’ve got to recognize it before you can use it.
11. Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone.
12. Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.
13. Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it’s poison to the audience.
14. Why must you tell THIS story? What’s the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That’s the heart of it.
15. If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.
16. What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don’t succeed? Stack the odds against.
17. No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on – it’ll come back around to be useful later.
18. You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining.
19. Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.
20. Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How do you rearrange them into what you DO like?
21. You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can’t just write ‘cool’. What would make YOU act that way?
22. What’s the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.
1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
Joe Donatelli is a writer who is working on his first novel. Follow him @joedonatelli.
