All posts by Jordan

Reading

TBR Tuesday: Bond. James Bond.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that fiction’s most famous spy started out on the page and not the silver screen. Although Ian Fleming’s books were bestsellers in the 1950s and 1960s, and remain in print, James Bond is probably better known to most through the two dozen major motion pictures starring the likes of Sean Connery, Roger Moore and now Daniel Craig.

While I like spies in fiction, most of the Bond films are a little too campy for my tastes, so naturally I wasn’t very interested in reading Fleming’s novels. But not all of the Bond books are like the movies—in fact, the one I’ve read was nothing like the films.

oatld

The fourteenth and final Bond novel by Fleming, Octopussy and The Living Daylights is actually a collection of several shorter works: “Octopussy,” “The Living Daylights” (surprise surprise), and in later versions, “Portrait of a Lady,” and “007 in New York.”

You’re probably thinking of these right now:


 

Yeah, not so much. Instead of the big show-stopping set pieces, stunts, gadgets, explosives and womanizing we’ve come to expect from the films, these stories show a different side of espionage—and Bond himself. In “Octopussy,” Bond is actually the story’s antagonist (though not the villain)—it’s about a British major retired to Jamaica. And it features a real octopus—but not a beautiful jewel smuggler in sight. However, “Portrait of a Lady” is about the Faberge auction featured in the movie version of Octopussy.

“The Living Daylights” is related to the movie of the same name: the short story describes the events of the film’s “action prologue“ (you know, the cellist-sniper and shooting the rifle out of her hands). However, it presents a Bond that’s a heck of a lot closer to Daniel Craig’s disaffected portrayal than any of his predecessors’.

“007 in New York” . . . was kind of forgettable. A little reminiscent of the end of Quantum of Solace, plot-wise, I guess.

In all, if you’re more into the spy side than the spectacle of Bond, you’d probably like this quick read. (In fact . . . I kind of read the paperback copy my mom sent for my brother-in-law while I was supposed to be wrapping it up for him. Yeah.)

What do you think? Do you like Bond? Ever read the novels? Who are your favorite fictional spies? Come share!

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Writing Life

Transitioning from fanfic to original work

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This entry is part 4 of 14 in the series My writing journey

Last week, I confessed that it was fanfiction that really brought me to writing fiction at all. And it was fanfiction that, somewhat paradoxically, brought me to my first original novel, too.

The Fellowship Of The Ring (2001) 1My freshman year of college, my “honors” writing class final was to see Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring on opening day. I’d never been interested in Tolkien (this is turning into a regular confessional column, isn’t it?), but who could say no to cheap tickets and an easy final?

So I saw it (and then saw it again. and again. and . . . yeah), and discovered a whole new fandom to write about. And yes, in keeping with our confessional theme, it was, of course, completely Mary Sue–based. Utterly shocking, I know.

It wasn’t very long, however, before I began to see the potential for my own story. I’d created my own culture and borrowed just one character (I’d tell you who, but . . . seriously, there are reasonable limits to everything!), and even then I was using my own characterization.

The San Diego California Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints served as the inspiration for the castle. Because of course there was a castle.

Aside from that character’s name and a few bits of Elvish, there wasn’t a whole lot of ethical debate about this fanfic. I finished the story out as perhaps a short novella length, probably, and knew what I had to do: I had to make this my own.

That entailed inventing different cultures for the characters, and, of course, constructing a language, which then bled into changing my major to Linguistics. It stuck, though I did end up adding another major and a couple minors. Writing was already changing my life.

While all that was going on, I also had to change up my class schedule for my second semester. I managed to sneak into two classes that were notoriously hard to pick up: flexibility (Stretching to fulfill my PE requirement? Yes.) and creative writing (which would eventually count toward an English minor. Double yes.).

I frequently forget this, but I did take a college-level creative writing course. Incidentally, my professor was Dene Low, now an Egdar-nominated author (and that book, Petronella Saves Nearly Everyone is so fun!). Also, I’d like to note that this makes me totally legit as a writer. Right?

Ha.

Another shot of the San Diego templeSo my erstwhile fanfic became the beginnings of my first original novel, epic fantasy as all first novels should be, even though I didn’t and still don’t read a whole lot of epic fantasy. Honestly, I don’t remember the details, but it involved a king’s youngest son (Haldan) who travels to a fabled land of superhuman/magical people with its queen (Avelath). They’re leaving their land because the planet says it’s afraid (keep in mind I had NOT yet read the rest of the Lord of the Rings trilogy). As a younger son, Haldan doesn’t have much of a future at home, so he joins Avelath on a quest to find a new home, unite three warring kingdoms and save the world.

Epic.

I brought the first bits of that novel, which still doesn’t have a title, to my first ever actual writing workshop in this creative writing class. The feedback wasn’t really that great (= useful), although even then, ten years ago, guess what? I should cut my prologue. (Totally true. Totally did it. Totally helped.)

My class schedule was very full that semester (18 credit hours), but also kind of odd in that I was done with class by noon every day, so I frequently spent afternoons working on expanding the story into a novel and IMing with my best friend, who happened to be a writing friend from high school, too.

Some things never change 😉 .

But, then, some things do. When that novel fell through, I went through a long writing drought. More about that next week!

How has your writing changed over time—genre, subject matter, fanfiction vs. wholly original? Come join in the confessions! 😉

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Uncategorized

Freaking Friday

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It’s rant time.

Today I’m raging against technology. (Come share your tech woes too!) When you’re your own tech support, tech woes are even tougher. That’s why I set up a testing site just like this one to try out new plugins and themes. Unfortunately, I let that site lay around much of the time until I have something big to test—so when I do have something big to do, usually my test site doesn’t match up with my current site.

Actually, one computer was harmed in the making of this post. Not like this though.

So the tech woes began several weeks ago, when I took the time to update my WordPress software and search out all the plugins that I have running on my main site to look for any conflicts. Updating my WP was the usual headache, since recent builds added a new bit of code that conflicts with my site layout. That cuts off my access to the backend of WordPress, but I know how to fix it (thank you, Google).

Except that the same fix that worked on my main site was not working on my test site. After an hour, I finally just cut and pasted the code from the fixed file on my main site into the not-so-fixed file on the test site.

Fixed.

Relatively speaking, it wasn’t too frustrating to try to search out 30+ plugins, even for the numerous plugins that I installed five years ago—or five weeks ago—that had disappeared without a trace from WordPress’s database. (Oooookay?) It was just time consuming.

After a weekend of work, my “test” site was ready to start testing. I downloaded the plugins I wanted to try out and scheduled some time over the next few weekends to evaluate them. And the following Saturday, I pulled up my test site to get started.

500: Internal server error.

Ookay. I quite like my webhost, Bluehost, but everyone has some downtime, right? I logged into the admin area of my test site just fine and got to work configuring the various options for the first plugin I was testing. After about an hour of exploring, I was really ready to see the results.

500: Internal server error.

I deactivated the new plugin.

500: Internal server error.

I deactivated all my plugins, and the test site loaded fine. After a couple hours—HOURS—of experimentation, I determined that it wasn’t a single one of the new plugins causing trouble. It wasn’t a single one of the old plugins causing trouble.

Instead, every. single. one. of the THREE new plugins threw a 500 Internal server error when it was activated. As did every. single. one. of FIVE plugins that were currently running successfully on my regular site.

smash it with a hammer.So not only could I now NOT test any of those plugins, I couldn’t use the plugins that made my regular site work. Clearly something was wrong with the setup of my test site. Short of totally reinstalling WordPress, nothing was working. (In the meantime, I also tried to take care of a minor tax thing and had to spend 15 minutes convincing the designed-without-ever-even-thinking-about-an-actual-humanoid-user site that yes, in fact, I do know my own name and social security number.)

Oh, and then my webhost went down.

At this point, I’d spent six hours working on my test site, just in that one day. (It might have been four to six more hours the weekend before.) And nothing to show for it.

Okay, fine. There has to be a better way to run a test site, right? Of course. I Googled around and finally settled on using a lightweight version of WordPress + database on my computer as a test environment. But once again, I have to match my test site to my real one to check for plugin/theme conflicts.

The easiest way to do this would be to use a plugin made to export or copy your site, right? You’d think.

I tried one. It spends 5-10 minutes processing processing processing—FAIL. Second shot processing processing processing—

(— . . . ? Not even an error message?)

So I try the next one. The first time I run it, instead of spitting out the URL of the backup result (after a similar processing period), it reloads the page and breaks my CSS so nothing displays properly. I try again; same result.

did this to a computer once. nice.I swear, I only did it twice.

After a third plugin does nothing, I have to go old school. I’ve hardly used FTP (file transfer protocol) since WordPress added the ability to install plugins and themes directly, but I dug out my web host’s web-based FTP app and tried to copy the entire file of themes, plugins, etc., onto my computer for the offline WordPress.

An hour of heavy processing later, I see that the files being prepared for download—not even transferring yet—are a little repetitive. In fact, it appears that plugin #2 actually made a backup of my site successfully, even if it wasn’t able to tell me about it.

In fact, the plugin made several backups of my site. Recursively. So at this point, the file transfer protocol was preparing to download a clone of a clone of a clone of my site.

I canceled the operation, deleted the cloning/backup plugins, and came back to try the FTP again. The file transfer began and the file names being transferred scrolled past.

Next time I walked by my computer, the connection had been lost.

Fine. Fine. Fine. I decided to resort to an actual program on my computer to use the file transfer protocol, an FTP client, even though it’s been probably a decade since the last time I used one. Of course, I had to download a new one. I picked one of the recommended clients from my webhost’s list and downloaded it. I went through the installation process. I clicked “Finish/Launch [the program].”

Nothing. No new program loaded. No new shortcuts on my desktop. No blinking programs in the Start menu. After refreshing my memory of the name of the program, no results in program searches, except the installer. Which I’d just run—apparently unsuccessfully.

I broke down. And tried it again. (Read that together or separately.)

Finally—FINALLY—the FTP client did install and did start. And then I opened the program and was told for the VERY first time that this was a trial version, only good for 29 days.

I was afraid to even try the transfer.

And I was right. Three . . . four . . . five . . . twenty-four . . . twenty-five . . . forty-nine . . . fifty connection attempts later, fail, fail, fail. I look at my host’s further instructions for setting up the FTP client connection. It has specific configurations for three different recommended FTP clients.

Not the one I happened to pick.

How does one throw THE ENTIRE FREAKING INTERNET against the wall until it breaks?

yessss

(The happy ending to this part of the tale : I picked a different FTP client, downloaded, installed and connected in about five minutes, and was able to transfer ALL my plugins, themes, uploads, etc., in about an hour—including two service interruptions. I also got to find out the clone of a clone . . . continued to the fourteenth recursion, comprising thousands of files. I could kiss you, FileZilla.)

Should I even mention that this last week, my computer—which I spent all this time setting up my test site on—decided not to boot anymore?

Fortunately, a friend diagnosed a corrupt stick of RAM, but until I replace it, my laptop is down to 2G 1G of memory. (HOW DID WE SURVIVE LIKE THIS?!)

Oh, and should I mention that my ISP is crapping out every other minute or so?

Face. Palm. Head. Desk. Wall. Die.

Please make me feel better and share your technology woes.

Photo credits, respectively: Tara Hunt, Sarah Baker, Brandon Wood, stuartpilbrow

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Technique

Secret sauce: Re-vision

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This entry is part 3 of 16 in the series Spilling the secret sauce

For a long time, I did NOT understand the concept of “revision.” I’d edit, sure, but I guess I labored under the belief that “real” writers had perfect words fall out of their heads in the perfect order and once you’ve finished a copy edit, you’re done.

Ha. Hahaha. Ha.

Virtually no writer publishes a first draft. Virtually no writer publishes a first draft that they’ve only spitshined.

reenvisionAnd it wasn’t until I really dug in to understand that revision can (and often should) mean re-envisioning your story that I really began to be a better writer—a publishable writer. Author Natalie Whipple knows where I’m coming from, as she lists “I wish I took editing seriously” as one of the things she wished she’d done differently in her writing journey:

I spent way too long doing edits that did not cut it. Sadly, it wasn’t until my 8th book that I really learned how to revise. Before that, I would do as little as humanly possible to satisfy my crit partners’ concerns. I never made big enough changes, never believed I NEEDED to make bigger changes. It was only when I really dug in, saw my story as malleable, that I truly improved.

Amen, sister.

Frequently when I get critiqued or judged, I fall prey to the natural tendency to get defensive of my work (getting better with regular practice at getting critiqued!). Granted, all suggestions won’t work for your story, you know your story best, and sometimes critique partners can be just plain toxic. But even bad advice can make our story better when it makes us take another look at our story with a critical eye, when we recognize that just because we wrote it that way, it might not be the best way.

Wait, what?

Just because you wrote it one way doesn’t mean it’s the best way. We should always consider if there’s a better way to say what we’re saying.

I see people defend weak writing by saying, “But it’s my character’s voice.” Honestly, I think a lot of the time what they’re really thinking is that “I wrote it that way, so it’s right.” Maybe so—but could you write it better?

This issue runs much deeper than just word choice and voice: to make your work as good as possible, you may have to re-envision the novel itself. Is this characterization right? Could this theme be stronger? Is there a better sequence for these events—and are they even the right events?

This subject is probably more appropriate for a series of its own, or a hands-on class, but here are a few of the things I think of when really trying to re-envision my story:

  • What is the theme of this story? What does the character learn as a result of the story? How does s/he change?
  • How can I show and apply that change in the course of the story?
  • Does the story overall work? Are there plot holes or unsupported incidents?
  • Characters. Oh, characters.
  • Do all the scenes and events of the story support the theme?
  • Are all the scenes and events of the story necessary, and do they move it forward?

Is this hard? Is it worth it? YES and DOUBLE YES. Can you do it all by yourself? Maybe—but impartial critiques aimed at helping you tell your story in the best way possible can also be an invaluable tool. Even after you’ve re-envisioned your novel, these critiques help to make sure you’re getting across the message you wanted.

Because why else would we edit? Why wouldn’t we just submit first drafts and companies publish first drafts? Because there’s a better way to say it. And I think (and hope) self-publishing will ride out the same way: you’ll be able to tell who edits and who slaps their first drafts on the market, who says “I wrote it that way, so it’s right” and who says, “I did write it that way, but maybe there’s a better way to say it.”

More than anything else, real revision is the skill that will take anyone’s writing to the next level. We’ll cover lots of the above concepts throughout the secret sauce series, because when it comes down to it, the secret sauce isn’t about getting things right in the first draft. It’s about revising your way to “publishability.”

What do you think? What lessons have you learned from revision (or just thinking about it?)?

Photos by Briana Zimmers; map image courtesy of The Journey 1972 (South America “addicted”)

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Reading

TBR Tuesday: Library reads

I don’t know about you, but I’m much better about reading library books than freebies, ebooks and even books I’ve bought (*eyes 6 feet of unread books on the table* *turns away*). What can I say? I guess I read best under a deadline.

So when I’m writing on a deadline, typically I don’t check out more library books—but this time I just couldn’t resist.

My best friend recommended this one last week. Who could say no after this kind of endorsement?

Did you ever read that one book I recommended…
gosh…
about the ghost detective?

Really pretty good, IMO
And I hate most books now
So that’s high praise. haha

She meant this:

nots
The Name of the Star

Naturally, I immediately placed a hold on it. No, really, I did. And also naturally, it came in a lot sooner than I was banking on. My best friend said the voice reminded me of my book that I’m writing a sequel to now, so maybe it’s just the thing I need to tap into that voice a little better.

The other book I have out from the library, I just came across recently . . . but I can’t remember how! I’m guessing it was a recommendation from Amazon after looking at some CIA books (which, apparently, I do a lot).

Spy the Lie: Former CIA Officers Teach You How to Detect Deception
9781250005854

It’s a nonfiction book about gauging the whether someone’s telling the truth. I’ve learned a lot about research-supported untruthful body language in classes on emotions and body language from psychologist Margie Lawson’s classes, but I was interested to read more about this methodology. I’m only one chapter in and I’m already in love: they openly admit that there’s no such thing as a human lie detector (stupid TV gets on my nerves), and one real-life scenario from the book has already inspired a scene in my WIP.

Hm. The reasons for reading seem a little . . . selfish. But then, aren’t they always?

Have you read either of these? What are you reading now? How does what you’re reading influence your writing?

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Writing Life

Picking up fiction (my confession)

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This entry is part 3 of 14 in the series My writing journey

I’d dabbled in short fiction, and writing seems to run in the family, but I kind of trace my real start in writing to another source.

In the ’90s, Nick at Night began airing The Monkees. My sisters and I got hooked on the absurdity pretty quickly right before I started high school. (What can I say? We were the target audience, 30 years too late.) Over the next couple years, I met and saw two members of the Monkees in concerts (three different events)—Peter Tork and Davy Jones.

Almost year ago, I got text messages from two of my sisters within seconds, basically saying the same thing:

I’m so sorry about Davy Jones!

That was how I found out he’d died. He had a heart attack at 66. For some odd reason, the youngest of the Monkees was the first to go.

One of my favorite Monkees’ songs actually sung by Davy, plus a classic first season romp. Sigh. Second season hair was so much better 😉

It was a sad surprise, even if it’s not completely unheard of (I mean, Peter Tork, the oldest of the Monkees, hit 70 just two weeks before). It hit me that night as I saw a clip from the old TV show that he was really gone. But let’s be serious here: he wasn’t a close personal friend, and I’m not going to mourn him like one. His death didn’t make me face my own mortality, or give me a sobering wake up call, or anything else. It was a sad note.

But two weeks later, I remembered what I owe to Davy Jones.

When my sisters and I started watching The Monkees, I liked the show so much, I had to write about it. Yes, it’s true—I came to writing through fanfiction. Monkees fanfic. (Is this as shameful as I think it sounds?) And though Davy himself wasn’t the biggest reason for my doing that, he was part of the ensemble. He was part of the reason I started to write.

davy jones
Davy and me (holding records?), in 1998. And yes, that extra hand on my waist is Davy’s. I’m 15, he’s 52. Is that skeevy? Oh well.

So thank you, Davy Jones.

The fanfiction trend continued through high school, including both the Monkees and Star Wars. Fanfiction also helped me find some of my first writing friends and partners, Susan and Sarah. They didn’t know one another; I worked with both of them. We co-wrote some of our short stories, or just wrote in the same universes, swapped stories, and generally fed one another’s writing muses.

A few other friends from high school were also really supportive of my writing—Kim, who read my fanfic and still encouraged me to write ;), and Erin, who is now also a writer. Thank you all 🙂 .

What do you think? Is fanfiction (and Monkees fanfiction) a bad way to get into writing? How did you first find writing friends?

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Writing Life

When it’s hard to write: writing versus having written

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Hey, there, Friday. I almost forgot: it’s time to check in on our goals.

Still sucking it up over here.

When I made out a production calendar in December, I tried to set my goals at an achievable level. For me, that was a fairly high goal, but it’s a number that’s far less than my peak. The number would have had me sitting on an 18,000 word novella draft at the end of December and 38,000 words of another novel at the end of January.

Reality: 3257 words in December. 26,544 in January.

That does mean that I finished at just over 19,000 words on that novella this month! Hooray!

But it also means that I started February with less than 11,000 words on my next project. That novel is the sequel to a book I began almost one year ago. From that distance, writing that first book looks so easy. I’m sure I could dig out my progress spreadsheet and see how many words I knocked out a day—probably typically 4000+.

Now I’m struggling and usually failing to make half that.

Granted, there are a few other stresses in my personal life these days, but still—it’s doubly discouraging to revisit a character and a voice that seems like it was so. much. easier the first time.

Maybe it was. Maybe that book is magic that will never be recaptured (my persistent fear!). Maybe I’m a failure and I’ll never write a good word again.

I kind of doubt that. Even if I’m not totally feeling this book like I was the first one (or like I think I was!), it’s not the end of the world to struggle with a book. I might end up setting it aside for a while, devoting time to more research and reading, or editing that novella, or other projects. I might even end up setting it aside forever.

But the fact remains that it’s always easier to have written than to write. I have written the first book, no matter how hard or easy that process actually was at the time. I am writing a sequel—and that’s a heck of a lot harder than admiring the polished first manuscript on my hard drive.

And here’s the reality of writing that first novel, as recounted in accountability emails (emphasis added):

[WEEK 1, DAY 2] I’m having a hard time hitting my word count goals because I keep getting bogged down in research, but at least I’m trying to ignore the TV more. Hooray!

[WEEK 2, DAY 1] I was a little short over the weekend, with traveling to visit family (and I already cut my goal back by 75% :\ ), but I’m hoping to make up for it this week.

[WEEK 2, DAY 4] Oy. Anybody else getting tired? I know I am. And I seriously can’t win when it comes to getting sleep: either I stay up late pushing through to hit my goals, or I hit my stride and push back bedtime even later. Oy again.

[WEEK 3, DAY 2, 5PM] It’s been a while since we’ve had a good check in, and I’m struggling a little personally. I have a lot of other stuff coming up, today especially, and right now I’m down 2500 words from where I’d like to be by the end of the day (some from yesterday, some from today).

[WEEK 3, DAY 4] It’s been a tough week for me. I’ve had a bunch of other writing-related commitments crop up: critique group, business stuff. Plus, I’ve come to a very sticky part of my story: I know what happens after this, but I’m having a really hard time getting from here to there. I finally started making a little progress last night, but by midnight, I was too tired to keep my eyes open (thank you, head cold). Then, when I went to make the final file save of the night, my computer did something weird and Word just sat there thinking about saving the file until I finally had to give up and go to bed. I didn’t know if I would have any of my hard-won new words left. I have missed my goal every day this week, for a combined shortfall of an entire day.

There are actually lots of positive emails, too, since I did do a pretty dang good job of staying on my word counts before that (sigh), and I wrote those last 13,000 words in the last 3 days of the month. Obviously I can’t bank on another marathon like that right now (sigh) (sigh), but I’m really glad I have the record of struggling through that “magic” book (not to mention the fresh memory of how tough my last book was to write!).

What do you think? Do you ever forget how tough writing can be? How are your goals coming this year? Come share!

Photo credits: resolutions & goals—Ed Donahue; frustrated at computer—Andrew Catellier

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Technique

Pre-requisites to the Secret Sauce

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This entry is part 2 of 16 in the series Spilling the secret sauce

Some ingredients in the secret sauce of taking your writing to the next level are more basic than others. But like any secret sauce, it works a lot better with the right foundation.

So, what kind of foundation do you need to apply the secret sauce?

The extreme basics of grammar, formatting, etc.

Believe it or not, it’s possible to get published—by a trade publisher, even!—without a firm grasp on the grammatical concept of a “sentence.” However, the odds are pretty hard against it.

Grammar is a basic building block of writing. You don’t have to diagram your sentences or understand the definition of a periphrastic tense, but I think it’s a good idea to understand how to write a complete sentence, and how to make your subjects and verbs agree, before you dwell on any other part of your writing craft.

Some craft basics

This list might be somewhat arbitrary, but here are a few of the things that I studied, learned or just formed opinions within my first couple novels. (Yeah, that long.)

Understand telling versus showing

Note that this doesn’t say “always execute telling versus showing perfectly.” It means that you need to understand what both of them are, so that you can catch yourself and understand how to fix it when others catch it in your writing.

Understand POV

I’m a POV purist, but understanding the basics of modern point-of-view is a basic of writing saleable fiction. Know what head hopping is, know who your POV characters are, know how to choose them well.

Understand basic character sympathy

With my first couple novels, I assumed that my readers would automatically sympathize with my main character.

This is not true.

After receiving my first real critiques, I saw how important it is to build character sympathy, so it was one of the first things I really set out to study. (And that’s why it’s also one of the first series I did on this blog!) Without character sympathy, nobody will read past the first chapter.

Critique and be critiqued

Critically examining someone else’s fiction with an eye toward helping them improve it helps you do the same for your own. Similarly, getting quality feedback from someone else helps you see things you couldn’t, look at your fiction through new eyes, and learn more about writing craft in the most personalized and hands-on way possible.

Read

Because, seriously, how else can you write?

Tried to write fiction in any form

The most important prerequisite, though, is that you’ve at least tried to write fiction, any length, any form. Setting that goal and making that effort is the first step that lays the groundwork for everything else above, everything we’ll read in the series, and everything you’ll learn about writing.

Discouraged?

Don’t be! Notice that everything above can be learned—and it can be learned through practice. Despite the myth of the perfect first draft and its naturally talented author, nobody is born knowing every advanced writing technique. All of these “prerequisites,” and even the ingredients of the secret sauce can. be. learned.

And, frankly, the “secret sauce” will vary from person to person. Maybe you’ve grasped several of the concepts I’ll cover in the series, but are still working on the above. That’s okay. We all learn different things at different paces—and that’s fine. There are things we all need to learn and refine and work on, either in drafting or revision or revision or revision (there’s a reason that’s in there three times!).

What my “secret sauce” did for me

So will all this stuff work?

My “secret sauce” recipe base is the steps I took over the course of a couple years, focused mainly on improving one novel. But first, I submitted this one novel to an editor I met at a conference and got a fairly quick rejection (with very useful feedback). I continued to learn and grow and apply and refine, until I was finally ready to resubmit the same manuscript to the same publisher—always a big risk, but even more so when it came directly against the advice of another editor for the same publisher.

I did it anyway.

It was accepted.

My secret sauce took an unpublishable manuscript to a publishable one. Like I said, the ingredients in your secret sauce will probably be different, but pretty much everyone has something new they can learn to improve their writing craft.

What do you think are the most basic aspects of writing craft and the business of writing? Come join the conversation!

Photo credits—secret sauce ingredients: Paolo Valdemerin

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