7 Ways Writing A Book Is A Lot Like Fishing

by Normandie Fischer, @WritingOnBoard

Writing and finishing that book feels a lot like fishing. From a fisherwoman wannabe:

1. You have to want to catch fish. Just as you can’t catch a fish if you don’t purpose to try, you can’t write a book if you don’t determine to begin—and then follow through.

2. You have to pick up the pole (or rod) and get out there.A lot of would-be novelists announce they’d really like to write a book, but will they do it? Wanting to isn’t enough. Wanting must be followed by doing.

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Deep Characterization

By Normandie Fischer, @WritingOnBoard

Following up on my April post about deepening characterization, let’s take a look at Charles Martin’s Thunder and Rain.In all of his books, Martin writes of wounded folk who face challenges based on the lies they believe about themselves and their world.

The characters in Thunder and Rain:

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Hitting Pause Button While We Take A Deep Breath

by Normandie Fischer

This month, I'm hitting the pause button and taking a deep breath. Maybe you're in need of the same thing.

Since the re-release of my 2013 novel, Sailing out of Darkness, readers have begun chatting with me about the book's issues, specifically, depression. Which brought this essay to mind, because I don't think depression only exists for my characters or my readers.

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Deepening Characterization

by Normandie Fischer

We've all been there, haven't we? Curled up with a book that has become a favorite, even though our unread stack threatens to topple. 

Here's my question for today. Why do we read some books more than once while setting others aside with barely another thought?

Last month, I had the pleasure of spending a few hours with an out-of-town reader who’d been so affected by one of my books that she’d had to pick it up and dig through it again. Something about that book's characters resonated with what she'd experienced, and she wanted more. I was charmed, of course, but that’s what we want, isn’t it? For our characters to touch hearts and change lives.

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The Ripple Effect of Our Characters

by Normandie Fischer @WritingOnBoard

A stone plopped into water formed ripples, creating concentric circles that moved out from the center and subsided gradually if nothing impeded their progress. Whether or not they ever came to a full stop, Teo wasn’t scientist enough to know. It looked to him as if the molecules touched by movement became propelled in an infinitely wider arc, slower perhaps as they achieved distance, but still there, still moving, still affecting other molecules and pushing them to confront whatever lay in their path. (Sailing out of Darkness, page 335)

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WRITING TO DEADLINE: Friend or Foe?

by Normandie Fischer

When I hear an aspiring author say he’s been working on a manuscript for ten (or fifteen or twenty) years, my first thought is that he’s a perfectionist. He’s learning his craft.

Great idea.

But then he says, “My problem is that I can’t find the time to finish it.”

Aha. Time.

His words beg the question: Do all published authors have hours of silence, hours with no demands, hours when they’re not expected to play some other role? Because if they don’t, how do they ever finish a manuscript?

Could it be that finding time to write is all about making time to write?

Many of my writer friends are under contract to produce a certain number of books per year, which means that much of their day is dedicated to writing the next book while marketing the ones already released—if they’re not busy plotting or writing the next book while they wait for edits of a recently submitted manuscript. Traditionally published authors have two main jobs—writing and marketing—both of which take an inordinate amount of time.

And what about indie authors? These folk are acting as their own small publisher—writing and rewriting, then hiring editors (both developmental and copy) and proofreaders and cover designers and formatters. They decide on release schedules and get hopping on that marketing of the old and the new. If they want to create an audiobook, they have to research the narrator and oversee the production. The onus is on them for every aspect of every book, all of which takes an inordinate amount of time.

Which brings us back to: “I can’t find the time.” If there are only a limited number of hours in a day, days in a week, weeks in a month, and months in a year, how do some manage to publish while others can’t find the time even to finish a draft?

I see the hands waving and suggestions flying that some are called and some are not. Fine. Agreed.

And yet, isn’t it possible that some absolutely brilliant writers remain brilliantly hidden because they haven’t made the time to write, hiding behind the idea that they can’t find the time?

I am a new convert to the idea that, whether traditionally published or indie published, we all need deadlines. A few months ago, I would have scoffed at the notion of an indie needing a deadline. I did the traditional dance with my first two books and then skipped happily into indie land. (And, yes, it was probably about control. Sigh.)

One of the elements I was certain would work well with my personality and work ethic was the freedom to set my own pace.

Until that pace stalled. And this always-on-time-if-not-early person found herself flailing in maybe-later land.

The only way I got back into production was to set a goal—x number of words a month—and a deadline—a send-to-editor-by date. Sure, the deadline was arbitrary. If the date came and went minus a checkmark for task completed, no agent or publisher's editor would flail me with a verbal whip. But I’d know. And I might miss my own editor's window.

The process worked. The Christmas book released. And here I am, ready to do it again on my next manuscript.

So, what's your time-management story? Have you blamed lack of time when you failed to complete a writing task? Has setting a goal helped?

TWEETABLES

Writing to Deadline: Friend or Foe? by Normandie Fischer (Click to Tweet)

Dare to Deadline or Finish that Novel ~ Normandie Fischer (Click to Tweet)

The only way I got back into production was to set a goal ~ Normandie Fischer (Click to Tweet)


Normandie Fischer studied sculpture in Italy before receiving her BA, summa cum laude with special honors in English. She and her husband spent a number of years on board their 50-foot ketch, Sea Venture, sailing in the Sea of Cortez, Mexico. They now live in coastal North Carolina, where she takes care of her aging mother. She is the author of six novels. Read more on her website, Facebook, and Amazon.

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Starting Over

by Normandie Fischer

A recent post on Writer Unboxed quoted Donald Maass: “Since this proposal has been so hard to write, ask yourself whether you are telling the right story.”

Sometimes our best laid plans falter. We assume we’re to focus on one thing, one plan, and then it implodes, fizzles to nothing. And we stare at a blank screen.

Has this ever happened to you? Has a critique partner or the voice in your head suggested you might not be telling the right story?

Just to keep things interesting in my writing world, I’ve spent years writing in one and a half genres (thinking they were two separate ones) with two series and a stand-alone. Right now, my Carolina Coast novels seem to be my sweet spot. The characters of small-town Beaufort wave their hands to grab my attention just so they can introduce me to new neighbors. Neighbors with problems for the crew to fix. Good, right? So, after Heavy Weather (Book 2) connected with readers, I knew I had to finish the love story I’d begun in it.

So, enter Book 3. Six chapters in, three new characters and another big issue wiggled into the story, screaming for attention. That made three plots, which was at least one too many. The new wiggler became the genesis of Book 4 and caught my attention long enough for me to write eight chapters and imagine that Book 4 might actually morph into Book 3. Who cared? Flip one for the other. But then my daughter arrived needing help with her babies. Life intruded.

Two months away from writing may be nothing to some folk. I thought it would be nothing for me.

I was wrong. When I once again sat staring at my screen, Book 3/4 had stalled. So, I reclaimed Book 4/3. Two more chapters in, and that one screeched to a halt. Oh, I could write about 100 words a day, at which rate I’d finish one book in two years. Two. Years.

Yes, I’m a slow writer, but that was absurd.

Then came the push for NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writers Month, and the goal of 50,000 words in 30 days. With time off for the holidays, right? My head hurt, but what if? I'd done it before when trying to finish Sailing out of Darkness. Could I do it again?

For someone who had been slogging away at 100 words a day, this would mean an increase in production that made me jittery. But a goal is a good thing, right?

I signed up.

And on October 31, I woke to an idea. What if one of my problems with Book 3 had to do with the clutter of too many story lines? What if I nabbed the most pressing one (that holdover from Heavy Weather) and started an entirely new book with it? And what if I tried writing a Christmas novella using those characters? The thought caught my interest. I pulled those chapters out (8K words) and… then?

Oh, my, look what I found! Two new characters! Kids in need of rescue!

Which is a favorite topic of mine. I want to rescue all children. As I can’t do that in the real world, I do it in my stories.

I had found my sweet spot. And just like that, the book wrote itself. I went from 100 words a day to 4000 words, then to 5000 words. Every day. Add these to the 8000 words I’d already slid into place and I had the first draft of a 35K novella completed by Day 8 of my marathon.

That has never happened to me before.

But it happened because I was willing to change direction. To imagine a new plan. To pay attention to the voices in my head whose story cried out to be told.

Suffice it to say, my team rallied. My crit partners dug in. I rewrote and polished and honed and sent it off to them again. Their edits were swift and brilliant. I polished once more. And from my fantastic street team, four angels offered their eagle eyes for proofing. While the manuscript was out with them, I designed a cover, made a book trailer, and formatted the thing for print and ebook. (I love Vellum, which formats ebooks for me.)

And on November 27, Twilight Christmas released.

Have you ever done that? Reversed course? Quit what wasn’t working so you could shake off the cobwebs and create something that actually did work?

I’d love to hear what process you used when you felt stuck. Did it involve a writing challenge like NaNoWriMo? And how did the shift work for you?


TWEETABLES

Starting Over by Normandie Fischer (Click to Tweet)

It happened because I was willing to change direction~ Normandie Fischer (Click to Tweet)

Normandie Fischer studied sculpture in Italy before receiving her BA, summa cum laude with special honors in English. Known for her women’s fiction—Becalmed (2013), Sailing out of Darkness (2013), and Heavy Weather (2015)—she ventured into the realm of romantic suspense with the release of Two from Isaac’s House. In early 2016, a novella, From Fire into Fire, will continue the Isaac House saga. Normandie and her husband spent a number of years on board their 50-foot ketch, Sea Venture, sailing in the Sea of Cortez, Mexico. They now live in coastal North Carolina, where she takes care of her aging mother. You can find Normandie on her website,Facebook, and Amazon.

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Why Him? Why Her? Why Not Me?

by Normandie Fischer

Comparisons are invidious.

In her recent Novel Rocket post How the Writing Zone is a Lot Like the Twilight Zone, Edie Melson called comparison “a death trap for writers.” But how do we avoid them?

Someone is always higher up whatever ladder we’re trying to scale. And I mean always. I read that one U.S. president wanted to be head of the UN. Recent UN decisions have made it seem as if its leaders have an eye on elevation to the Godhead. Bestselling authors strive to be mega-sellers. Mega-sellers want to keep their top-dog position and be the biggest mega on the ladder.

And then there are the rest of us. My little bestseller moment lasted just that, a moment, because it was an Amazon rating, and we all know what those are worth. To fall off that ladder rung, all we need is someone else’s book to garner that BookBub ad or to become a Kindle First Pick. So, no time for polishing our nails against our shirt.

Would I like to be on the NY Times list? Would I? (Well, yes… I might as well be honest.)

I’m sure you’ve seen the discussions about what’s selling, what will be the next big thing, how we as writers can tap into that perfect idea to achieve writerly greatness. We check out covers of the bestsellers and hope ours match up. We consider switching genres to catch the rising tide on our way to fame. We scurry around at conferences, hoping the agent or editor of that bestselling author will think we have the same potential. We squint at the person in our midst whose sales enabled her to buy her dream car or the woman whose work supports her aging parents.

And we close our eyes and send up a “Hey, God, I’ll do that! I’ll give away more than my ten percent if You’ll just let me be like her!” Or like him.

We’re not even asking to be like the mega-bestseller who has blasted his way through a  town, corrupting others in his wake while he hits the Times’ list with every single book. Because, really, who wants to sell his soul on the way to wealth?

And yet what are we doing? Bargaining for position, wanting to press past others so the world will look at us, so we’ll be someone.

Think about it.

What if we could achieve that level of fame by writing one thing when what we really want to do, what we feel called to write, is something entirely different? What if fame is not part of our assignment?

What do I mean by our assignment? And why would I talk about it? I mean, God can use all things for His glory, can’t He? Why can’t He use our words and make them great?

I think He can and does, but only if we’re doing what we’ve been given to do.

I remember being promoted at a very young age to senior editor over the heads of several women and a man who’d been at the game much longer than I, and how stunned I subsequently felt at the backbiting and jealousy my promotion incurred. I also remember living in a small village house that was in dire need of repair—you should have seen me, pregnant and standing on a stool to sand the ceiling of what would be the master bedroom. Well, there was a house that I passed every day. A green farmhouse with a green barn and lovely green pastures surrounding it. I coveted that house. I mean, coveted it. Every day, I’d drive by and ask God why I couldn’t have something that lovely.

And, one day, I heard that still small voice speak to me: “I want you to begin thanking Me for giving that house to the woman who lives in it.”

Oh, man, I was supposed to thank God that I didn’t own it and she did? 

Yes. I'm sorry to say I was.

So, every day I’d drive by and repeat my grudging and obedient thanks that she owned it and I had my pitiful little village house and my sanding jobs and my painting jobs. And, finally, the day came when I actually was thankful.

God taught me in real time about not coveting. Later, when He told me to thank Him that someone else got a position in His courts I wanted, I started in obedience and ended in joy.

You and I may long to hold some ranking on the bestseller list that seems to be withheld from us. But I’ve learned that God has a purpose in it all. As long as we’re doing the thing we’re called to do, as long as we look at our writing as a gift we’re to cherish and nurture and help to grow into something lovely, then it will land where it ought to land. Where the Lord we purport to trust has chosen for it to land.And we can thank Him for doing with it as He wills. Not as we will. I’m sure we can learn things from those who have made it, but maybe our making it means something entirely different. Maybe our journey is more about obedience and peace. Maybe it’s more about finding joy where we’re placed than about raking in the big bucks and the huge accolades.

Think about it. Do you waste time comparing your success to others’? Or do you try to grow exactly where you’re planted, waiting for the new green shoots to come up every season as you touch the people you’re supposed to touch?

Talk to me. I need to know I'm not alone in this.

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Why him? Why her? Why not me? Comparisons are invidious.

Normandie studied sculpture in Italy before receiving her BA, summa cum laude with special honors in English. Known for her women’s fiction—Becalmed (2013), Sailing out of Darkness (2013), and Heavy Weather (2015) and now Two from Isaac’s House (2015) and its prequel novella, From Fire into Fire (2016). Normandie and her husband spent a number of years on board their 50-foot ketch, Sea Venture, sailing in the Sea of Cortez, Mexico. They now live in coastal North Carolina, where she takes care of her aging mother.
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