Claire Cook, author of Summer Blowout and Must Love Dogs, understands the importance of sound writing and enjoys teaching other writers her techniques. Over the past month she's been a strong presence on Gather offering virtual workshops filled with writing tips and personal anecdotes. Hopefully you've enjoyed all of this information in the Getting Better All the Time group.
Do you have a question that has gone unanswered? Want to ask Claire directly about a specific writing tip? Now is your chance! Leave a question for Claire below and she'll get back to us with the answers.
All questions must be posted by Tuesday, July 8th to be considered. Then stay tuned for her answers!!
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The next feature book of the Getting Better All the Time group, Summer Blowout by Claire Cook is a hilarious and rambunctious story about a recently single woman who finds herself on a new path and hits all of the bumps life throws her along the way.
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Comments: 33
Claire, where do your books begin? With an outline? With the plot? Among your many ideas, how do you decide which one to choose for your next book, and how do you know where to take that idea?
This sounds like a great opportunity.
Your article is featured in today's Community DateBook™
My books always begin with the characters, and I guess that's because I love people and my books are character-driven. If your books are plot-driven, maybe you'd start there!
I never outline. Robert Frost said, "No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the writer," so that's my excuse! But really, outlining would make it feel like a term paper to me. (See my video "Stay Open to Surprises" for more on this.)
As for which idea to choose, I suppose I'd pick the idea I think my readers would most want to read!
Great question. For me, the ideas are the easy part. The world is such a fascinating place, and ideas are everywhere. I get the best ones when I'm on the eliptical machine at the gym or in the shower. Who knows why?!? Probably because I'm more relaxed and not trying so hard!!
The biggest challenge is to pick one idea, and stick to it until you finish the book!
Sometimes I have to work at it, but I really believe thinking positively can make a difference in your life, so my rule is to whine sparingly, get over it, then focus on the good things!
As for humor, I think it's just the way I look at the world. Even if someone says or does something awful, it really helps to look at it as material! I get some of my best minor characters that way....
I love to write about big families, so not having too many can be a challenge, and I've had to delete a few characters in my writing. I think the important thing is that you don't want so many that you confuse your readers, or they might stop reading the book. My advice would be to not worry too much when you're writing your first draft, but in subsequent drafts ask yourself about each character: Do I really need her/him? Is she/he furthering the story? Less can be more, and sometimes two characters can morph into one.
As for main characters, I think it depends on the structure of the novel. I tend to write in the first person, from the point of view of one character, but I also love novels where the point of view changes. So, again, there are no rules. Just try not to confuse your readers, and ask yourself if you need all these characters.
There's a lot of theft out there (even right here on Gather) so, how does one TRUST strangers enough with work that took so long to complete in order to get their opinions on it?
I know that it's best to get as many eyes as you can on it since we, as the writer often miss some important things. Do you suggest a few people, a critique group, etc. How might one go about picking a trust worthy group of strangers without fear of getting burned by theft?
What would you say is your editing problems, things that you do too often, in the rough draft, that has to be edited out later? If you don't mind sharing that?
Rose
I've actually never worried about theft. My theory is that even if you and I TRIED to write the same novel, the result would be completely different, because WE'RE completely different. BUT, I've never posted my fiction online for critique, and I only share my work with people I trust, so maybe I'm not qualified to give an opinion here. (Anybody out there with a better answer?)
Also, I find that it's important to get feedback, but you can also get too much. In the beginning, I used to ask everyone I knew to read, and I found myself rewriting to please each of them. So much is subjective in this writing world, so who really knew if I was making it better or worse? With each book, I think I've learned to trust myself a bit more, and to listen to just a few people, who get my stuff and understand how I'm trying to grow as a writer. At this point, I'm extraordinarily lucky to have a great literary agent, a great editor, and a team of talented people at my publisher, Voice, who really look out for me, but in the beginning, this part is definitely a challenge. So, listen to your gut, and if it doesn't feel right, don't do it.
Maybe this article I posted will be helpful, since even though I'm talking about a finished manuscript, it also gets into how to reach out for constructive criticism. http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977368152&nav=Namespace
Good luck!
As I was reading your note, I heard one of my old English teachers say about commas, "When it doubt, leave it out!" One of the most common overuse issues with commas is that you don't need one every time you see the word "and." For instance -- "Wanda is a great writer, and a nice person" is WRONG. You don't need the comma -- it should be "Wanda is a great writer and a nice person." You'd only need the comma if you added another subject: "Wanda is a great writer, and she's also a nice person."
As for "that," one of the best tricks I know is to read your work out loud -- those extra thats will jump right out at you.
Teacher that I am, I caught a tiny agreement issue you have, and I think it will help your writing if you fix it. If it's "editing problems" (plural), make sure you say, "What ARE your editing problems." Same with editing problems that HAVE to be worked out. Just check both ends of your sentence and tweak them (I almost said "it" here, but now you know why that would have been wrong!) so that they're both either singular or plural. This is a mistake TONS of writers make, and it's really easy to fix once you're aware of it.
I'm sure I make lots of mistakes myself, but I also have some great books, everything from Barron's Painless Grammar to Patricia T. O'Connor's Woe is I and Words Fail Me. I just focus on getting better all the time!
I loved your line about buying commas buy the gross. Anybody can learn grammar, but you've got the most important thing, Wanda -- you can write!!
When I'm writing I think CHARACTERS! It's about them, not me. It's like playing house -- I take them out, plop them down, and see what they do. I think all of my books start with a little explosion. If it's essentially a slice-of-life novel, what happens that makes the book start today? The video I posted called "Stay Open to Surprises" might help you out, too: http://www.gather.com/viewVideo.jsp?id=11821949021866635&nav=MyGather&memberId=491763
Aren't you nice! Thanks for the ten!
As a librarian, I love to invite authors to visit my library. I have heard several authors describe their characters as if the characters told the authors what was going to happen next, as if the author does better when he/she lets go and no longer feels "in charge" of the story. Does that ever describe your experience?
Of all your books, Summer Blowout is my favorite so far and your most creative. Where did you get the idea for it? And do you have an idea for your next book yet?
First of all, I LOVE librarians! They've given my books so much support, and one of the nice things I often hear from them is that they can safely recommend my novels to any of their library patrons because, young or old, they always enjoy them and never complain! Anyway, thanks to you and all the other librarians out there for being such a gift to readers -- and authors!
Now to answer your question! Whenever I hear other authors say that their characters are telling them what to do, it sounds to me as if they're possessed -- or crazy! But then I watch a tape or read one of my interviews -- and it sounds like I'm saying the same thing! But I have never, ever had a character talk to me or tell me what to do -- I swear! I think it's kind of like trying to understand childbirth if you haven't had a baby. No matter how much you read about it, or how many people tell you about it, the words just don't quite capture the experience.
Maybe it's that as a novelist you imagine the characters so fully that you just know what they would or wouldn't say or think or wear or do, and so you're feeling your way through it from your heart, instead of standing outside the story and shaping it with your head. Perhaps it's about which side of the brain you're using. When I write, I'm all right brain, and it's not until the rewrite that I become more left-brained and analytical.
Either that, or my characters really do take over and I'm just in denial!
My goal is to try to get better with each book, so your comment means a lot.
Summer Blowout is the story of a large faux-Italian Irish family of hair salon owners. The family also does hair and makeup for local television shows. When my second novel, Must Love Dogs, was made into a movie, I found myself doing lots of television interviews for the first time. I made friends with some of the hair and makeup artists, because we were both traveling from show to show. One day I thought, What if they were a family? A couple of books later, it just started coming together into a novel. I don't question these things - I just start writing!
I delivered the first draft of my next novel a couple of days before Summer Blowout was published, and my revisions should be showing up at my doorstep any moment now. Voice will publish it in the summer of 2009. It's about a group of women who walk together, and if you want to stay in the loop as it gets closer, make sure you go to my website, www.ClaireCook.com, and sign up for my newsletter.
Thanks again for your support!
First of all, my editor never "makes" me do anything! And I would never change anything that didn't resonate for me! That being said, I listen to every single suggestion, and probably take somewhere around 98 percent of them. Here's the important thing: Essentially, my editor is telling me WHAT isn't working, but it's up to me to figure out HOW to fix it, and I have total creative control of that. And the other important thing is that I don't think in terms of them vs. me. We're both on the same team, and we both want my book to be as good as it can be. If something doesn't work for my editor, chances are she won't be the only one who feels that way, so I haven't done my job yet. And often, if I don't agree with an editorial suggestion, it's just a lack of communication. I was trying for one thing. My editor thought I was trying to do something else. But clearly I haven't done it, or she would have gotten it! So I still haven't done my job yet. I am so lucky to be surrounded by an editorial team that wants what I want -- for my book to be as good as it can be.
Usually, in the first stage, I receive an editorial letter that suggests more general changes. Maybe a certain character isn't working, or there could be too many characters, or something is boring or just not believable, or isn't necessary to the story. Sure, it's hard to hear things like that, but if nobody tells you the truth, then the book won't get better. So that stage feels like a puzzle, and I mull and mull and try to figure out how I can fix these things, knowing everything I change might impact the entire book. There might be a more specific suggestion, and if it feels like a good idea I'll use it, but often the suggestion opens the door to another idea that makes more sense to me. It can feel collaborative, but in a good way, and if you have a good editor, it's not at all suffocating.
I work really hard on this stage, so usually my second set of revisions moves on to line edits. Again, I feel free to deal with each point in my own way, and every single editorial comment helps the book, if only to tell me someone else might not understand what I was trying to do here either, so I'd better roll up my sleeves and do some more work on it.
Then there's the copyedited manuscript, which involves more fine-tuning. Then the final stage is reading the galley proofs, which is the last time changes can be made, so that's a little scary, but at the same time, it feels good to know how far the book has come.
So it's all challenging, but if it were easy, who wouldn't want a book of their own on the shelf!
I'm glad you're enjoying the discussion so far. I am, too!
Just about every book I read inspires me in some way. I've just started reading sister Voice author D.G. Fulford's Designated Daughter. Even though my own mother died when I was ten (read an essay I wrote about that in the August issue of Good Housekeeping, on stands now), which made me hesitate to dive in at first, I'm really loving it and think it's beautifully written. (Brava, D.G.!)
I also just read a Voice novel called House and Home by Kathleen McCleary, which was great.
I've been blown away by so many of the Voice books, perhaps because they speak to midlife women like me -- go to www.everywomansvoice.com to see the whole list.
And I'm a total junkie when it comes to books about writing. The ones I reread all the time are Carolyn See's Making a Literary Life: Advice for Writers and Other Dreamers, Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird and Stephen King's On Writing.
Anybody else have any good book suggestions?
When you put your pen to work, how do you decide how long your book will be? Do you come up with a beginning, middle, end and then fill in the 'fluff' or do you just sit and write. I know that you assign a page count to each day, but do you have a length in mind?
Thank you
Tonya
Loved your new novel Summer Blowout. Can't wait for the next one! Keep on writing!
try my article "Intriguing novels of 2008 so far" for a few reading suggestions.
I really appreciate your encouraging words. I am working on a book and I am going to print our your words to pin on my screen.
I did have another question though. Do you think that you can have too many characters? The WIP I am working on right now has about 15 characters, most of them are supporting cast members.
I just read Claire's answers now.
I get ideas when in the shower, sleeping or nearly asleep, washing dishes, cleaning or driving.
Shower, sleep, cleaning and driving are pretty common for people. I get them in the gym, too. That is common, too.