Publishing Pulse 9/30/2011

Agent Updates

There have been a number of new agents added to the Querytracker.net database this week. Also, several agents have changed what genres they are looking for.  

Around the Internet

Is it okay to look around for a new agent while another one is still representing you?

Chuck Sambuchino (Writer’s Digest) explains why you should only query six to eight agents at a time.

After researching the Querytracker.net database for agents interesting your novel’s genre, you might be able to find more information on them at Literary Rambles. Although the blog focuses on agents who rep children and young adult novels, some of these agents also rep adult fiction.

Do you have stars in your eyes when you think about your book being adapted into a movie? Check out this post to discover the reality of your dream coming true.

Here are a few things writers can learn from the bestseller lists.

If you write short stories, you might want to check out this post.

Stina Lindenblatt writes young adult novels. In her spare time, she’s a photographer and blogging addict, and can be found hanging out on her blog, Seeing Creative.

You called it what?

Help me. I'm in Title Hell.

Long ago, an agent requested my manuscript, and accompanying the request were a thousand words about how my book's title stank on ice, including explicit instructions on how to find a better one. This is not a joke. She posted those same instructions on her blog later that week, although thank heaven she didn't credit my crappy title as its inspiration.

It's not just titles that stymie me, by the way. Two of my babies had no names for 24 hours after their birth until my Patient Husband started dropping hints like "I need to tell people what to call him" and "She's coming in the door with the birth certificate paperwork, so we really need to choose."

If anything, naming your book is tougher than naming your baby.

As part of my Title Hell, I've got a document open on my web browser with a list of 35 titles that aren't going to pass muster, and I've learned quite a few things.

First, your title should fit your book. We're in Totally Obvious territory here, but I cannot tell you how often I've critiqued a story called something like To Love Again or A Dangerous Game. Think about all the books you've ever read. If the title would work for half of them, jettison the title. 

Your title is, foremost, a selling tool. When you go into the grocery store, you don't pick up a box marked Crunchy Breakfast Cereal. They're names like Honey Bunches Of Oats, names that tell you something about what's inside the box.

Do yourself a favor. Head over to Amazon.com. Search for your title. If more than ten books pop up with the same name, come join me in Title Hell.

More than just being specific to your story, the title needs to fit with your genre. If I tell you a novel is called Freedom's Cost, you'll assume it's a military thriller. If I ask what you're writing and you tell me it's Death In The Louvre, I'm going to assume it's a murder mystery. A novel called Final Cut is probably not about a dressmaker who ends up raising two cute orphans.

The other thing I've realized during my most recent stay in Title Hell is that titles should convey tension. This is somewhere I've failed just about every time and why editors love to change my titles. 

A title like Her Heart's Desire has no dynamic movement. Most of us have hearts and most of us have desires, and if you can give your heart its desire, all is lovely. That title doesn't point toward the conflict. Contrast that to a dynamic title like Fatal Attraction. That's an awesome title because it contains both good and bad elements right there in two words. You can predict the central conflict without knowing any more about the story.

This would be true of nonfiction as well. Which would you be more likely to check out? Things You Need To Know About Autism or Autism: A Parent's Guide To Reassembling The Puzzle

If you can elicit an emotional reaction right in the title, you've struck gold. A title that intrigues will in the next moment become the book in someone's hand.

In the end, that's what your title needs to do: entice someone to learn more about the book.

That said... If you don't hear from me again, you'll know where to find me.

(I would like to apologize if I inadvertently nailed anyone's actual title. I was not thinking of any specific book while coming up with generic titles, and I did slip in one of my own briefly-considered titles as an example. Although if your novel happens to be called Crunchy Breakfast Cereal, that would be a cool book title even if it doesn't sell as a breakfast.)

---

Jane Lebak is the author of The Guardian (Thomas Nelson, 1994), Seven Archangels: Annihilation (Double-Edged Publishing, 2008) and The Boys Upstairs (MuseItUp, 2010). At Seven Angels, Four Kids, One Family, she blogs about what happens when a distracted daydreamer and a gamer geek attempt to raise four children. She is represented by the riveting Roseanne Wells of the Marianne Strong Literary Agency.

Tensed Up

Courtesy of penywise

Two of the "writing rules" most newer writers hear about right off the bat are 1) kill all or most of your 'to be' verbs, and 2) helping verbs are bad.

Like any other of the various rules, these things are meant to be helpful, but should be taken worth a grain of salt. While they are good things to keep in mind in general, they don't apply to *all* situations.

Tenses, for example.

The use of helping verbs--the dreaded had--or 'to be' verbs, when dealing with tense, are necessary. (And here is where I'd caution that writers pay special attention to the tense they're using. If a writer finds themselves mostly in the past perfect tense, it might be a good idea to re-evaluate the structure of the story.)

Most people know the three different tenses by name: past, present, future, but there are subgroups for each. It's a good idea to be aware of these, especially in terms of how a writer is using them in their manuscripts and for their story structure.

Past Tense--the tense in which things have already happened.

Simple Past: I wrote a book.
Past Progressive: I was writing a book.
Past Perfect: I had written a book.

Why is it so important to be able to distinguish between the three subgroups above? For me, it's a matter of temporal accuracy. Most novels are written in the past--the simple past. But sometimes things are still happening, even though they're in the past tense, or sometimes a character is discussing something that goes into the past past, or the past perfect.

When I'm beta reading and come across something that happened in the past perfect, but is written in the simple past, I'm often thrown out of the story trying to figure out *when* the action is happening. Using the correct tense keeps the words invisible so the reader can follow and understand the story.

The good news is that these three subgroups follow the same pattern across the tenses.

Present Tense--the tense in which things are happening now.

Simple Present: I write a book.
Present Progressive: I am writing a book.
Present Perfect: I have written a book.

Future Tense--the tense in which things are going to happen.

Simple Future: I will write a book.
Future Progressive: I will be writing a book.
Future Perfect: I will have written a book.

Resources for Further Study


Progressive tenses--an overview of how to form them
Guide on when to use progressive tenses
An overview of the tenses by Purdue's Owl Online Writing Lab--fabulous resource for all things grammar.

Danyelle Leafty (@danyelleleafty) writes MG and YA fantasy. In her spare time, she collects dragons, talking frogs, and fairy godmothers. She can be found discussing the art of turning one's characters into various animals, painting with words, and the best ways to avoid getting eaten by dragons on her blog. Her serial novel THE FAIRY GODMOTHER DILEMMA can be found here. The first 12 chapters of THE FAIRY GODMOTHER DILEMMA are available here.

Publishing Pulse 9/23/2011

Success Stories

Congratulations to our newest QueryTracker.net success story, Mark Fenger!

Around the Internet

Fantastic article from Novel Rocket about getting your novel from good to great (hint: it takes work!)

An interesting piece on having deeply flawed characters and therefore being "unsafe" in writing Christian fiction.

For both people who write nonfiction and people who write fiction: Landing an Assignment Without Writing Clips (fiction writers, you can think of it as "landing a story publication without previous story publications").

Tired of character outlines that don't tell you enough about why your characters do what they do?  Check out What Really Drives Your Characters for a psychological take on the problem!

Stuck on a story problem? Cracking Creativity expert Michael Michalko tells you how to incubate problems in your subconscious mind.

Carolyn Kaufman, PsyD's book, THE WRITER'S GUIDE TO PSYCHOLOGY: How to Write Accurately About Psychological Disorders, Clinical Treatment, and Human Behavior helps writers avoid common misconceptions and inaccuracies and "get the psych right" in their stories. You can learn more about The Writer's Guide to Psychology, check out Dr. K's blog on Psychology Today, or follow her on Facebook or Google+! 

Forgotten Networking Skill

Money. It doesn’t matter what you write, most writers dream of making money from their craft. The obvious way is to sell your articles, short stories, novels. The more you sell, the more money will land in your bank account. Simple enough. But there is another way to make money that writers often don’t think about. Public speaking. Conducting workshops, visiting schools, speaking at conferences are a great way to not only earn extra income, if you do a great job, your readership will grow.

Now obviously the organisers of major national conferences won’t invite you to be a keynote speaker if you don’t have a track record in public speaking. This is why I recommend you give this serious thought even before you land an agent or book contract. The sooner you start gaining experience the better.

The following suggestions will help you progress from being a novice speaker to becoming a pro:

·      If you’re new to public speaking—or if the idea of speaking in public leaves you scrambling for the bathroom—you might want to sign up for a public speaking workshop or Toastmasters®. If you have a group of writers in your area, you could meet once a month and have someone present on a topic of interest to the group. Rotate the speakers each month so that everyone has a chance to present. This way you get to practice your public speaking skills in a non-threatening environment.

·      If you have children in school, let their teachers know you’re a writer. Even if you don’t write kidlit, the teacher might still be thrilled to have you share your expertise with the class. But be prepared for the inevitable question: Did you write Twilight? (Or The Hunger Games?).

·      One advantage of being a member of a writing organization in your community is that you’ll hear about upcoming conferences planned for your area. The conference organisers might approach the organizations, seeking individuals interested in being presenters or moderators.

·      Be willing to speak for free. This is especially true early in your career. In this current economic turmoil, schools don’t have a lot of money to pay for author visits. In this case, check if the school will permit you time to do a book signing (if you write children’s books). The other benefit is you’ll gain experience for your CVS.

·      Consider participating in a panel discussion. This involves a moderator asking a group of experts questions on a particular topic. Panels are great for two reasons. One, the audience gets the benefit of a variety of perspectives. Two, if you’re shy, being on a panel isn’t as intimidating as speaking on your own. On the downside, battles have been known to ensue between panellists, so if confrontation isn’t your thing, stick to non-controversial topics. If you’re joining a panel created by the conference organisers, see if you can contact the other panellists and moderator ahead of time. This way you know everyone has the same expectations and there won’t be any nasty surprises. I speak from experience.

·      DO NOT heavily promote your book(s) during the presentation. It’s okay to mention the titles in your introduction. But do not mention them every other sentence (yes, some presenters actually do that). It’s annoying and won’t sell your books. People will want to check out your books if they feel you’ve done an outstanding job educating them on the planned topic. Feel free to use examples from your books, but balance things out by including examples from other authors’ books, too. The audience will respect you more for it.

·      DO NOT bring your personal problems with you when you present. We all have rough days, but the worst thing you can do is attack a member of the audience who asked you a question. Yes, I’ve heard of this happening. Not a great way to encourage people to buy your book.

Does anyone else have suggestions, based on experience as a presenter or audience member, as to how to make the experience positive for everyone? Horror stories are welcome, too.

Stina Lindenblatt writes young adult novels. In her spare time, she’s a photographer and blogging addict, and can be found hanging out on her blog, Seeing Creative.  

The Grammar Hokey Pokey

You put the comma in…
You take the comma out… 
You put the comma in
And you shake your fists about…

We’re always looking for a way to stand out from the crowd. Our voice. Our stories. Our hooks. Our platforms. Those are all good ways. But…grammar? Grammar is non-negotiable. You don’t want to stand out by re-writing the rules. I mean, you wouldn’t type your query or synopsis in txt spk (lol) or ALL CAPS, would you? Louder is not better. It’s just annoying.

Bad grammar is annoying, too. Learn the rules. Improve your craft. Be a master of language. That’s a much better way to stand out.

I assume everyone will spell check and knows the difference between your and you’re (and, goodness help us, yore.) But what about the trickier things like that versus which? Or…

dun dun duhnnnnnn

Commas.

That’s right. Commas. Those tiny twists of pure evil. Those little hooks that snag up our sentences and send us sprawling.

I hate ‘em, myself.

But, alas, being a writer means we need to remain objective when it comes to proper punctuation. Love them or hate them, the laws of grammar must be obeyed.

I Put The Commas In

In an effort to improve my craft, I often take online courses through Pennwriters, my writers’ organization. One particular class focused on scene and sequence but I got a bonus lesson—commas.

Commas do one of two things, my instructor said. They either set off or separate. She then went on to discuss clauses and all these other things my English teachers tried in vain to teach me. I studied, I evaluated my writing, and I saw what I’d been doing wrong: I had a tendency to place commas where they didn’t belong.

Thus, lesson learned, I opened my 106,000-word manuscript and fixed every comma gone wrong.

I Took the Commas Out

Satisfied with my new mastery of commas, I made a solemn vow to abuse commas no more and sent out a submission to a publisher. The rejection was shocking. There's quite a few simple grammar errors in your synopsis -- missing commas mostly -- and if they're in your query it makes me think they'll also be in your novel. I'm afraid that over 100'000 words it's the sort of thing that would send an Editor a bit batty.

What? Were they kidding me? I was so incensed I almost organized a cage match between that slush reader and my instructor. Instead, however, I settled for some teeth grinding and adding the publisher to my ignore list. I’d let those editors retain their questionable sanity and I’d stay far away from people who were obviously heavy comma abuse addicts. The last thing I should have done was respond with an angry retort or, worse yet, lecture on proper punctuation. Not all junkies come clean. I was too new to comma sobriety to hang out with people exhibiting at-risk behaviors.

And I Shake My Fists About

As writers, we have a duty to learn the rules of the craft. Sometimes the rules are slippery and seem to change at the whim of whoever is in charge. For example, I once got editor’s notes back on a short story only to find he added in a bunch of terrible commas. I could have fought the madness…but I was in a rather lenient mood. I just accepted the track changed and did a little *head desk* thing.

It’s his magazine, I reminded myself. He can put commas wherever he pleases. At least he didn’t blame any type of mental illness on me.

Maybe we have to bend a little and play by their rules if it comes down to having a contract or not. Regardless. We still need to learn all we can. Our reputations and our first impressions may depend on it.

I recently came across the comma topic on the QueryTracker.net Forum. One of our QTs gave a beautiful summation of comma usage. (The post is a must read. Thanks, Tabris!)

Could commas be explained so simply? And were there actually other Elements of Style nerds out there? At least I now know where all that previous publisher hate came from. They weren’t comma abuse junkies--they’re just European. (Explains their comma-awkwardness.)

Tabris also went a long way to confirm everything my Pennwriters instructor told us. It helped heal the wound left behind by that publisher’s rejection. (Hey, those things sting.)

Good luck, writers, on your own grammatical gauntlets and your word dances and your quests for good craft. Be true to the rules and obey the laws of punctuation. Do not, as William Sabin writes in THE COMMA, Excerpt from The Gregg Reference Manual, sprinkle commas down upon your writing like confectioners’ sugar upon a cake. Go forth and inflict comma trauma no more.

You do the Grammar Hokey Pokey
and revise another round—
That’s what it’s all about.




Ash Krafton is a speculative fiction writer who resides in the heart of the Pennsylvania coal region, where she keeps the book jacket for "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" in a frame over her desk. Visit the Spec Fic Website at www.ashkrafton.com for updates on the release of her debut novel, Bleeding Hearts, forthcoming in early 2012 through Pink Narcissus Press.

Publishing Pulse for September 16, 2011

New At QueryTracker:

Seven agent profiles were updated this week, including agents changing genres, changing agencies, and one agency that may have closed. Please check for the most recent information (both from QT and from the agent's website) before you hit send.

Publishing News:

Goodbye, Borders. We hardly knew ye.

image via Galleycat

The Authors Guild has filed another suit against Google over their library scanning. 

Amazon.com announce their plan to offer an ebook lending service for Amazon Prime members.

Goodreads now has a recommendation engine, leveraging the data from its six million members. Based on a reader's previous ratings, the engine will try to recommend other books the reader will enjoy.

Around the Blogosphere:

Several blogging agents had an online tussle over the hated-by-writers no-response-means-no policy. Weighing in with their opinions are Rachelle Gardner, Janet Reid, Kristin Nelson, Jessica Faust, and Jill Corcoran.

Dean Wesley Smith discusses how to make money as an indie author: quantity matters.

Jessica Faust of BookEnds talks about a writer who sent a series of virulent emails to her auto-responder.

Janet Reid of FinePrint discusses why she's not opting into one author's serialized novel.

Literary Quote of the Week:

"Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity." -GK Chesterton

Thanks for reading, and until next week, keep those queries flying!

---

Jane Lebak is the author of The Guardian (Thomas Nelson, 1994), Seven Archangels: Annihilation (Double-Edged Publishing, 2008) and The Boys Upstairs (MuseItUp, 2010). At Seven Angels, Four Kids, One Family, she blogs about what happens when a distracted daydreamer and a gamer geek attempt to raise four children. She is represented by the riveting Roseanne Wells of the Marianne Strong Literary Agency.

The Art of Avoiding Burn Out

Courtesy of gc85

Writing can be exhausting.

Not the kind of exhausting that comes from running a marathon, but the kind that comes from squeezing your brain inside out as you search for the right words, the right descriptions, or the right threads of the story.

Day after day. Week after week. Year after year.

Do this long enough without taking care of yourself, and you risk burning out. Pulling your creative muscle until it cowers in the corner, whimpering. 

Not that, ahem, I'm doing I have ever done this, but there is a real danger in being over productive. In working too hard without giving your creative side enough time and space to recover. Setting and working toward your goals is a good thing--so long as you pace yourself realistically.

So what can you do to avoid burnout? Especially if you have deadlines looming out at you?

Take a break.

Really. I know this may sound counterintuitive, but it works. Think of your creative side as a muscle. Let's say you want to get in shape well enough to run a writer's equivalent of the 3k. You wouldn't pound your body so hard in the name of getting there that you couldn't walk the next day, would you? And you wouldn't do that over and over and over again, would you?

The human body is a marvelous thing that can take a lot of abuse, but eventually it gets tired and worn out if it's not allowed to recharge. Creativity is a lot like this. So taking a break isn't necessarily procrastinating, and it doesn't have to be unproductive.

In fact, taking a break can be one of the most productive things you do for yourself and your creativity.

The key is in figuring out what kinds of activities allow your creative muscles a chance to relax, to heal, and to rejuvenate. 

Some things you can do every day that can help prevent burn out include:

• Exercise: That's right. Taking care of your body is an excellent burn out preventative. Doing meditative exercises like yoga or tai chi can help even more.
• Eat right: You are what you eat. If you eat nutritious foods and appropriate serving sizes, your body will feel better and so will you.
• Get enough sleep: If your body is anything like mine, it's going from the time you wake up until you go to bed. It doesn't function well if you don't get adequate rest, which will in turn affect your ability to think, cope with stress, and be creative.
• Manage your stress levels: The first step is being conscious of where your stress levels are at. It's a good idea to figure out what people/things/situations raise your stress levels so you can come up with coping strategies that allow you to lower your stress levels and relax.
• Managing your world perceptions: A lot of times, how we see the world directly impacts how we react to it. Learning how to see the world (and people) in a more positive light can help you feel better and not get burned out so quickly.
• Managing your self perception: How you see yourself will have a direct impact on your mental health and creativity.

Other things that can help help replenish your creative wells:

• Get inspired through music, art, and anything else that feeds your creativity.
• Go for a walk: Sometimes it helps to change your environment for a little while. Added perks: fresh air, change of scenery, exercise.
• Go out and do something: As an introvert, I have to be careful how I schedule my social activities so they don't end up *leading* to burn out. But I've noticed that if I plan them well enough, getting out and being with people fills me up mentally and emotionally. (They still wear me out, but not in a bad way.)
• Read a good book: When I'm running under tight deadlines, I've noticed that the first thing I stop doing is reading. I've noticed that when I take the time anyway, the time I spend in someone else's world actually recharges my brain, my creativity, and my energy.
• Learn how to say no: This is a hard one, but very necessary. 
• Know when to say no: Not all things, people, or events are equal. Do the most important things, because they're the ones that matter in the long run.
• Try something you've never tried before: New experiences can be fuel for your creativity.
• Take a nap: Sometimes rest is all you need.
• Try meditation: Sometimes all our bodies need is for us to slow down for some peace and quiet.
• Be flexible. Extending a deadline isn't the end of the world. (Unless, of course, you have a contractual deadline you have no control over.) It's okay to take time off without feeling guilty. The important thing is getting there in one piece.

What about you? What do you do to avoid burning yourself out?

Danyelle Leafty (@danyelleleafty) writes MG and YA fantasy. In her spare time, she collects dragons, talking frogs, and fairy godmothers. She can be found discussing the art of turning one's characters into various animals, painting with words, and the best ways to avoid getting eaten by dragons on her blog. Her serial novel THE FAIRY GODMOTHER DILEMMA can be found here. The first 12 chapters of THE FAIRY GODMOTHER DILEMMA are available here.

Thinking Outside the Computer: Longhand and the Brain

Sometimes the ideas just flow better longhand.

In Indiana, schools are no longer required to teach cursive writing. The emphasis, instead, is on typing skills. I keep wondering if this approach will cut off an important route to creative thinking. Of course, students will still be taught to print, but most people will attest that it is much quicker to write in cursive than it is to print each individual letter. (There also seems to be more acceptance of messy script than messy print, which reduces concerns about “getting it to look right.”) Granted, in the computer age many of us can type even faster than we can write in cursive, but is speed the most important factor here?

When I’m brainstorming on a project, I find I think much better when I write by hand than when I try to type things out on a computer. I just feel more creative. It’s much easier to write in the margins, to draw lines out to new thoughts, or even to draw little sketches just because they help me think. The keyboard doesn’t let me do that.

For me, the shift away from precisely-shaped individual letters can actually increase the fluidity of my thoughts and my ability to enter what psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi calls a “flow” state – basically, he means that state of complete absorption and euphoria where you’re “hot” or “in the zone.” The world drops away and you're just writing really good stuff.

Also – ideas often strike me in inconvenient places. In the car, for example, or in the shower.  It’s a lot easier to scribble down an idea on a scrap of paper with one hand (I am never without a handy pen!) than it is to fumble out my phone or some other technological device, open an app that will let me record, and try to type it in.

When I have the time to sit down and focus, I do like using a computer or digital tablet to brainstorm.

I have an old tablet PC, and it records my handwriting faithfully, which is important to me (and sometimes crucial given how messy things get – I have a personal cursive shorthand). I’m still on the fence with the iPad, both because I have to think constantly about keeping my hand off the screen (which may just take more practice – I am borrowing a friend’s) and because most available apps don’t reproduce my scrawl faithfully. (The one that seems to come closest is Penultimate.) And I’m still getting used to the idea of writing with a (shudder) squishy pen. And then there’s the size of the iPad itself – the page size feels like a constraint to me, at least in the Penultimate app. I’ve found that I can push OneNote on my old tablet PC to scroll down and to the side when I need more room, which I always do. (I’m really interested in any input others have on using technologies with handwriting, so please feel free to comment below.)

In any case, I was curious about whether there was any research to back up my feeling that I’m more creative when I’m writing longhand. After a quick search, here’s what I found: one set of neuropsychologists discovered that dealing with handwriting seems to engage the right brain better; another neurologist argues that writing in cursive actually “stimulate[s] brain activity, lead[ing] to increased language fluency.”

Now, before you get too excited about that right-brain reference, do realize that even theorists who argue the importance of right-brain activity in creativity typically emphasize the use of both sides of the brain together. In her amazing book The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain, for example, neuroscientist and writer Alice Flaherty says, “creativity requires not just more right hemisphere activity, but a balanced interaction between the right and left hemispheres.” In other words, the balance created by relatively increased right-hemisphere activity is what’s notable in someone who’s thinking creatively. (This makes particular sense for writing, since in most people, language is a left-hemisphere function.)

If you find yourself stuck on your project, try writing or brainstorming longhand. Don’t be afraid to scribble things out or write in the margins. It doesn’t matter whether you do it on a piece of paper with a good old-fashioned pencil or pen, or on a digital slate with handwriting capabilities. And if things are not coming in straight tidy lines, let yourself stop worrying about precise lines of text and try a blank, unlined page so you can write in bursts, connecting things as needed with lines, drawings, and added notes.

And then let me know what happens!

Carolyn Kaufman, PsyD's book, THE WRITER'S GUIDE TO PSYCHOLOGY: How to Write Accurately About Psychological Disorders, Clinical Treatment, and Human Behavior helps writers avoid common misconceptions and inaccuracies and "get the psych right" in their stories. You can learn more about The Writer's Guide to Psychology, check out Dr. K's blog on Psychology Today, or follow her on Facebook or Google+! 

Publishing Pulse: 9/08/2011

Success Story

Congratulations to Christina Farley, our latest success story on QueryTracker.net!

Around the Web

Author Taherah Mafi has some excellent advice about not being afraid to write a bad book. As well as some great tips on surviving the submissions process.

Editor Alan Rinzler talks about new ways to sell short stories. As well as author platforms depending more and more on the connections they make on the Internet.

Author Nathan Bransford asks that by the time a self-publishing author hits it big, do they really need a publisher?

Have a great weekend!

Danyelle Leafty writes MG and YA fantasy. In her spare time, she collects dragons, talking frogs, and fairy godmothers. She can be found discussing the art of turning one's characters into various animals, painting with words, and the best ways to avoid getting eaten by dragons on her blog. Her serial novel THE FAIRY GODMOTHER DILEMMA can be found here.

The Art of Poetic Space

Before I was an active writer, I was a reader with a passion for fantasy art. I discovered Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series when I was in college and embarked on my own version of fangirl geekdom.

Fast forward a decade or two and you’ll still find me at the comic conventions. There is something wonderful about a comic book—it’s not just reading with pictures. It’s a story with art—and the two are inextricably connected.

Comics intrigue me because of their brevity—so much story and action packed into tiny frames. One has to really get into the story to fully appreciate the nuances of each angle, each line, each visual. Eventually, I came across the work of Charles Vess, who illustrated my favorite issue of Sandman.

Charles Vess

I met him at the Baltimore Comic Con in August, where he spoke about the concept of poetic space.

Images and Words

I’m not surprised to hear such a term coming from this artist. You know the phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words?” His pictures actually are: entire volumes have the power to spring from a single illustrated page.

Vess said poetic space leaves room for the reader to fill in the details and participate in the experience. When asked how much poetic space an artist should use, he replied: “As much as possible!”

As a writer, I was intrigued by his notions of poetic space and, with it in mind, I examined my style of writing. Did it exist in my work? Should it exist in my work? After all, writing is not drawing. A painting may invoke emotion and meditation but a book—well, a reader would only know what we told them.

However, there’s a point where enough is enough, already. Endless lines of description begin to sound more like a shopping list. Yeah, you get a picture, but is it fun reading? Meh. Not really.

Poetic Space Equals Wiggle Room

The balancing point is a thin line. Trouble is, everyone places that line differently.

I’m a contest junkie. I can honestly say my first pages have been read, shred, scoured, devoured, chewed up, spit out, praised, razed and a slew of other critiquing verbs by at least a hundred different judges. They all had individual ideas of how much—or how little—description my opening pages should have.

We’ve heard it time and time again—action should predominate those early pages. Hook the reader. Draw them in. Backstory and narrative summary can come later. Or…can it?

My story has a first person point of view so it’s not like the narrator is going to spend a ton of time talking about her own appearance in the first pages. Yet, I had more than a handful of people wanting for more—I can’t count all the times I got “I don’t even know what she looks like.”

However, I got far more compliments on the intrigue and the hook. If the contest only gave the first few pages, I can let the crits slid.

Why? Because of poetic space.

If someone is only going to read the first five pages, their minds can fill in those missing details, if they need to. The rest of the story has plenty of space to flush out those details later.

If, on the other hand, those first five pages don’t have anything else to grab onto, all the poetic space in the world won’t redeem them. There’s the balance: poetic space is a tool to be used along with every other device writers use to create our stories.

Engaging the Reader

Vess’s remarks backed up a small conversation I had with my editor, Rose Mambert of Pink Narcissus Press. We were discussing some cover sketches and she said she didn’t have a clear idea of what the protagonist looked like but knew the hero looked nothing like the sketches. The part about my main character concerned me. Did I need to go back and revise?

“No,” Rose said. “A physical description of Sophie is not so important. Readers will fill in all those missing details, anyway. Though if there's a picture of her on the cover, that will probably stick in the readers' mind, so we do want it to match up with how you envision her.”

Whew. Poetic space to the rescue.

In a splendid interview, Vess spoke more on the topic of poetic space in his discussion of artist Frantisek Kupka. He said there’s a trend in fantasy art to show every detail, and light the subject in such a way that it eliminates all the mysterious shadows. No room left for the reader’s interpretation.

Poetic Space Enhances Our Stories

As writers, we, too, need to incorporate those mysterious shadows into our characters. If you lay everything out on the line in high definition perfection, then there is no subtle nuance to develop later. No place for a telling quirk. No room for a surprising flaw.

That would be an affront to our writers’ sensibilities. It’s our need to peer into the shadows and come up with our own interpretations that makes us writers in the first place. We look into the vague and the subtle and we pull a story out of it.

Out of the poetic space.

It’s a service, as well, according to Vess. When we have to supply our own imagination to fill in that poetic space, we train ourselves to continue the story. We become more proficient in telling the stories running through our brains.

We develop our creative senses. We become better writers.

So. Poetic space. Who knows? It just might be our redemption.




Ash Krafton is a speculative fiction writer who resides in the heart of the Pennsylvania coal region, where she keeps the book jacket for "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" in a frame over her desk. Visit the Spec Fic Website at www.ashkrafton.com for updates on the release of her debut novel, Bleeding Hearts, forthcoming in early 2012 through Pink Narcissus Press.