works in a bookstore)
• Bridget Jones’ Diary (has a funny scene involving Salman Rushdie)
• You’ve Got Mail (small indie bookstore is forced to close; some wonderful pretentious-author moments)
• Borat (includes a scene where they kidnap Pamela Anderson from her book-signing)
• The Shining (a writer slips into insanity in an isolated old hotel)
• Chasing Amy (all about comic book writers)
• The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Seth Rogen’s character is writing a novel)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (exposes the silly, ego-driven behavior of some authors with the Gilderoy Lockhart character)
It doesn’t have to be a movie. There’s a great episode of the TV show Stella (available on DVD) all about the publishing industry. The episode is called “Novel.” And in the television series Mad Men the characters spend a good deal of their work time trying to come up with hooks for their advertising campaigns.
Do something nice for someone else: a big thing (opening a homeless shelter or an urban tutoring center) or a little thing (washing someone else’s dishes or taking the neighbor’s dog for a walk)— it doesn’t really matter. You’ll be helping out, and you’ll end up feeling better about yourself.
Get some fresh air and exercise: Perhaps the most tried-and-true method for restoring the creative spirit is something you learned to do before you ever started reading or writing. Take a walk. See a little patch of the outside world. Walk to the store, to a café, to the library, to a museum. You’ll feel those endorphins kick in; they’re good for writing and good for your waistline, too, especially after consuming seven or eight matzo balls. Don’t forget to bring a notebook and pencil with you, just in case.
Whatever your strategies may be, it’s crucial to give yourself a break now and then. You’ll end up doing better work in the long run, we promise.
BOTTOM LINE
Your writing is more important to you than it is to anyone else. Honor the process, treat yourself and your work with respect, and take care of yourself, your sweatpants, and your creative process by making time and space to work. But—please, for Pete’s sake—don’t start acting self-important or copping an attitude. It’s obnoxious and it won’t get you any closer to your goals. The only thing that will help you get that book finished is one very simple thing: apply butt to chair, and write.
CHAPTER FOUR
YOUR
MANUSCRIPT:
THE BASIC
RULES OF
ATTRACTION
This chapter contains some simple rules that will make your manuscript more appealing and readable. You’ll also be encouraged by a list of authors who had trouble getting their books published at first, then went on to dramatic success.
An agent or an acquiring editor must read and evaluate manuscript after manuscript, looking for the gems that they believe they can sell. Because they are pros, they recognize their views as subjective—that what they like is not the only measure of what is good or worthy, and that their personal likes and dislikes are not shared by everyone. In other words, no individual is going to appreciate every book, however good or bad the writing.
On the other hand, a successful agent must have a pretty sharp eye—that’s why they are in the business—and agents will be more enthusiastic and do a better job selling and supporting quality work that suits each agency’s particular skills and contacts. Literary agents have specialties. If you’ve written a good manuscript that doesn’t play to a particular agent’s taste, there are agents out there whose talents will be more appropriate. An agent who turns you down may even offer the name of another agent who specializes in representing your kind of book.
PUT YOURSELF IN THE AGENT’S SHOES
Let’s say you are a successful literary agent and have just returned from the Maui Writers Conference where you were “working hard” sitting on panels (the beach) and making connections
• Bridget Jones’ Diary (has a funny scene involving Salman Rushdie)
• You’ve Got Mail (small indie bookstore is forced to close; some wonderful pretentious-author moments)
• Borat (includes a scene where they kidnap Pamela Anderson from her book-signing)
• The Shining (a writer slips into insanity in an isolated old hotel)
• Chasing Amy (all about comic book writers)
• The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Seth Rogen’s character is writing a novel)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (exposes the silly, ego-driven behavior of some authors with the Gilderoy Lockhart character)
It doesn’t have to be a movie. There’s a great episode of the TV show Stella (available on DVD) all about the publishing industry. The episode is called “Novel.” And in the television series Mad Men the characters spend a good deal of their work time trying to come up with hooks for their advertising campaigns.
Do something nice for someone else: a big thing (opening a homeless shelter or an urban tutoring center) or a little thing (washing someone else’s dishes or taking the neighbor’s dog for a walk)— it doesn’t really matter. You’ll be helping out, and you’ll end up feeling better about yourself.
Get some fresh air and exercise: Perhaps the most tried-and-true method for restoring the creative spirit is something you learned to do before you ever started reading or writing. Take a walk. See a little patch of the outside world. Walk to the store, to a café, to the library, to a museum. You’ll feel those endorphins kick in; they’re good for writing and good for your waistline, too, especially after consuming seven or eight matzo balls. Don’t forget to bring a notebook and pencil with you, just in case.
Whatever your strategies may be, it’s crucial to give yourself a break now and then. You’ll end up doing better work in the long run, we promise.
BOTTOM LINE
Your writing is more important to you than it is to anyone else. Honor the process, treat yourself and your work with respect, and take care of yourself, your sweatpants, and your creative process by making time and space to work. But—please, for Pete’s sake—don’t start acting self-important or copping an attitude. It’s obnoxious and it won’t get you any closer to your goals. The only thing that will help you get that book finished is one very simple thing: apply butt to chair, and write.
CHAPTER FOUR
YOUR
MANUSCRIPT:
THE BASIC
RULES OF
ATTRACTION
This chapter contains some simple rules that will make your manuscript more appealing and readable. You’ll also be encouraged by a list of authors who had trouble getting their books published at first, then went on to dramatic success.
An agent or an acquiring editor must read and evaluate manuscript after manuscript, looking for the gems that they believe they can sell. Because they are pros, they recognize their views as subjective—that what they like is not the only measure of what is good or worthy, and that their personal likes and dislikes are not shared by everyone. In other words, no individual is going to appreciate every book, however good or bad the writing.
On the other hand, a successful agent must have a pretty sharp eye—that’s why they are in the business—and agents will be more enthusiastic and do a better job selling and supporting quality work that suits each agency’s particular skills and contacts. Literary agents have specialties. If you’ve written a good manuscript that doesn’t play to a particular agent’s taste, there are agents out there whose talents will be more appropriate. An agent who turns you down may even offer the name of another agent who specializes in representing your kind of book.
PUT YOURSELF IN THE AGENT’S SHOES
Let’s say you are a successful literary agent and have just returned from the Maui Writers Conference where you were “working hard” sitting on panels (the beach) and making connections
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