I’m proud to report The Muses’ recent venture, 1-(900)-HLP-D-CRZY, is fairing amazingly well. And since you, my trusted reader, kept the secret so well last time, I want to give you a sneak peek into our next brain child: FEAR-B-GONE.

Below is our rough text for the promotional flyer.

*****

Do you or does someone you love suffer from…

Blank Page Freezes?

Critique Induced Vomiting?

Super-Self-Doubt-itis?

For thousands of years¹, writers have suffered from these ailments in silence.

¹Probably

Until NOW!

The YA Muses introduces FEAR-B-GONE! The revolutionary fix-all for the daily fears experienced by storytellers, novice and professional alike. This amazing supplement comes in liquid or gel caps and is guaranteed² to change a writer’s life in three distinct phases:

²Guarantee voided if FEAR-B-GONE ingested by a human.

In the First Stage, FEAR-B-GONE forces the writer to realize he’s not alone in his terrors. A new scientific study³ shows 99% of writers suffer from near identical worries. Grasping this, the writer will go forth and connect with other FEAR-B-GONErs to create a network of sharing and encouragement. With the support in place, the writer enters…

³No actual scientific study performed.

…the Second Stage where FEAR-B-GONE allows the writer to turn introspective and start to pick apart his doubts. Inevitably, he’ll discover his uncertainties are never to vanish. They will remain even after getting an agent, first book deal, bestseller, or a Newbery.⁴ Now, knowing the fear is natural enables the writer to view it as something to deal with, rather than avoid. The fear is irrational, but like an annoying relative, it’s not going away. Once they see this fact, the writer can begin to understand them and even utilize them, which brings us to...

⁴But, how does that help the writer? Seems so morbid. Glad you asked. Continue reading the text for your answer. 

…the Third Stage of FEAR-B-GONE, which is using the fear. Harness fear? Whhaaaaat? By accepting these emotions’ assured place in writing, FEAR-B-GONE allows the writer to funnel the nervous energy produced by fear into productive outlets such as:

·      Making sure every phase, every comma, and every footnote is perfect.

·      Putting words to the page, even if they suck.

·      Shoving the fears into the fiction and making the characters handle them.

·      Learning your craft with books, classes, and practice, practice, practice.

·      Growing thicker skin (and better hearing) for critique.

·      And much, much more.

Hurry because quantities are limited. If you order in the next 30 minutes, we’ll give you a special loyal reader rate of $179.99 for the first month’s supply^5.6.

⁵$299.99 for subsequent months. Six month commitment to receive the special rate.
⁶Shipping, handling, and taxes not included. 

*****

Think it’ll work? I do.

Want to know why?

Come closer and I’ll let you in on the little secret.

There’s only water in the bottle!

HA! HA! HA!

All those suckers will be paying for something they can understand free: Fear is an integral part of the writing process and we have to learn how to embrace it. Find a group that supports each other in the scary, hard times. Look inward and figure out how to best utilize the nervous, fearful energy…from developing your craft to being better at receiving critique.

Oh, wait.

I shouldn’t be telling you all this.

Maybe you’ll still send us the $179.99?

Turns out, we need the cash…that stupid 900 number is draining us dry!

I met Tahereh Mafi at ComicCon. She's terrific!
Our books liked each other, too.

From Goodreads: The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color. 

From Goodreads:

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war-- and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior. 

From me: Talk about an addicting read! I flew through this book in two days. Tahereh Mafi's writing is unique and exciting. She writes with a wild abandon, using strikethrough and hyperbolic metaphors that at first felt jarring, but very quickly became one of my favorite aspects of the book. Juliette was a sympathetic character--at times weak and frail in the beginning, but growing into a strong lead. The romance in SHATTER ME was amazing, with tension that crackled on the page. Now, without giving too much away, I'll say that the novel ended up in a surprising place for me. I'm really interested to see where Mafi takes Juliette and Adam next! Highly recommended for those who like paranormal-romance with a side of dystopian.

Check out what the rest of the Bookanistas are reading this week:

Elana Johnson is crazy about Crossed and Shatter Me

LiLa Roecker swoons for Sirenz

Christine Fonseca  interviews Kids Inventing! author Susan Casey

Shelli Johannes-Wells dishes on Become (Desolation Book #1)

Beth Revis celebrates books for which she’s grateful – with gigantic signed book giveaway

Jessi Kirby applauds Virtuosity

Megan Miranda marvels at How to Save a Life

Rosemary Clement Moore is wild for The Iron Witch

A little comic relief goes a long way
when dealing with fear.

This has been a really timely topic for me this week. A few days ago, my novel went up on NetGalley, which plays right into one of my greatest fears as a writer: that people will read the book, and not like it. I'm especially afraid of the scathing review.  Because... really? I don't want to make anyone scathe. That is the opposite of what I want.

The thing is, I know some people won't like it. January 3, 2012, it'll be widely available. Many more readers will have access to it. A share of those readers won't like it. We humans are utterly unique, and if you can find one thing we all agree on, one book out there that's garnered unanimous acceptance, let me know.

Rationally, I understand this, but that's the thing about fear. It's rooted in the part of our mind that is much stronger than our intellect. Fear is an utterly primitive and powerful thing.

But we're not powerless. We do have tools to fight fear. Here are my tools:

Talk - With my husband. My writing friends and my normal friends (sorry, writing friends, but you know what I mean.) I'll talk with the dog and my acupuncturist and my parents. I try not to bog any one person down (sorry, babe.) And I'll say right now to any of you who are reading: thank you. I know it's not easy to hear someone's worries, especially when we know they will happen (see above), and that the only real solution is to let them happen.

Read -  Have you seen the brilliant posts by Kristen Simmons and Saundra Mitchell?

Both of those posts could have been pulled right from my thoughts.

Write - Simple, right? I had a goal to get published, and I've met that goal (which still amazes me.) But writing is so much more than a goal for me. It's a practice. It's something I love, and will continue to do no matter where the publishing path takes me. When I reconnect with that, then I'm good.

Escape - For me, this can mean time with my family or friends, a good book, a good movie. Another successful is just to get out of my routine. Right now, I'm in a hotel room in Houston for a writing conference, and even though the focus is writing, my mind was far from my writing fears (until I had to write this post. thanks a lot, Muses.)

Anti-Pity Party - I've talked about this before. It's a little shameless, but it works. I keep a file with positive feedback I've received. The really good stuff my editor has shared with me, or my agent, or my friends, or the new follower on twitter. It works. Ultimately, it's an exercise that proves something I believe: that the good is more important than the bad.

Time - As I said above, I know this is the only real solution to my fear. Time, and experience, will be what teaches me that it's all right to get some unfavorable reviews. I'll survive it. What matters are the good reviews. What matters are the people who are alongside me in this journey. What matters is the writing.

Katy and Donna have done a great job of articulating some of the fears that grip us all when it comes to writing for publication.  Fear of failure is one I've struggled with, and it can loom so large that it can stop you in your tracks, making you second guess every sentence, every word, every choice in your novel.

Ironically, the fear is most gripping when I've already failed.  When I've submitted something I think is ready, only to find out it needs significant reworking or even a rewrite.  If you've ever gotten a revision request, an edit letter or a critique, you've probably experienced this fear on some level.  In each of those moments, I've been able to see what wasn't working in the manuscript, once it was pointed out, and I agreed with the feedback.  That didn't make things better.  It made them worse.  I could see exactly how something I once thought was good was really not quite as good as I'd thought, and it made me question everything.
 And I mean everything.

When I sat down to tackle the revision, I was terrified.  Paralyzed.  Gripped by fear.

 But somehow, I worked past it.  Through it.

I'm still not entirely sure how I did it, but here are some things that definitely helped me stare down my fears and defeat them:

1.  Read Books that Have What Your Manuscript Lacks

Once I knew what my goals for the revision were, I put the computer aside and went to the bookstore.  I asked friends for recommendations  of books that had what my manuscript was missing.  I went back to some of my personal favorites.  And I read.  And I read.  And I read.   When I read something that really stuck with me or that did something really well, I analyzed the pages to try to figure out how the author used language, voice, plot, or character to bring the story to life.  This is a bit like reverse engineering, and it's not an exact science.  For books with really tight plots, I actually graphed out the scenes so I could see the plot trajectory and figure out the pacing.  For books with really great chapter endings, I studied each one and tried to figure out what made them such page turners. For books where I was fully invested in the romance, I tried to analyze what it was about the characters or their situation that made me care about them. 


2.  Study Craft

This is different than studying other books.  For me this meant searching out blogs with writing tips, books and workbooks that focused on the areas I needed help with.  Remember the week I blogged about sequences and setpieces this spring?  I knew I needed to replot my story, and I was studying plotting techniques.  Just writing those posts cemented some basic plot structures in my head and helped me get going forward. 


3. Brainstorm

Take some time to free write ideas for chapters, scenes or plot twists.  During my craft research, I came across the index card method of brainstorming scenes.  It provided a quick way to plot an entire novel in a day.  It goes like this:  take a bunch of index cards.  On each one, write one sentence to describe a scene that should be in your story.  If you're struggling, start with the big scenes, the inciting incident, the turning points or reversals, and the climax.  Keep writing things down, until you have at least 50-75 cards.  Now pick out your four major scenes and place them at the bottom of a cork board in order.  The first one is your inciting incident or point of no return and marks the end of Act 1.  The second on is probably your Act 2 climax, usually some sort of reveal or turning point.  The third is your Act 3 climax, usually a big reveal or reversal- possibly your character's darkest hour.  The fourth is the end of Act 4- the climax of your book and its resolution.  Now use your other cards to fill in between the scenes.  Add new scenes where there are gaps that need filling or as additional scenes occur to you.  Voila!  You have the outline of a book.

4.  Outline and Plan Your Revision

Now that you've brainstormed plots, scenes or even new characters, come up with a plan for incorporating them into your story.  Now is a good time to think about how these changes will provide your book with the missing ingredients.  Don't be afraid to borrow a well done narrative structure or cool literary technique from your research.  That's what all that research was for!

5.  Find Your Happy Place

Now you open the manuscript.  The  curser blinks up at you and reminds you that you've already tried and failed at this. Blink, blink, blink.  Yeah, that curser has no conscience.  You are feeling the weight of that edit letter/revision request/critique on your shoulders.  You can feel it laughing as you draft that first crappy sentence.  You must find a way to get past it.  For me, getting past it involved plugging in my ipod, putting on my playlist and just typing.  At first, I was frozen and my writing was stiff and scared.  But a strange thing happened as I kept writing.  The more I wrote, the more I forgot to be afraid.  Occasionally a character surprised me with something wonderful, and I gradually forgot that I suck.  Eventually, my happy place found me.  Oh yeah, working on my manuscript is my happy place.  Whew, fear almost made me forget.

6.  Go Off Book

You've got an outline and a plan for revision.  That's great.  Now put it out of mind and only look at it if you get blocked.  That's right, throw out all that careful planning and start writing.  Your brain will remember the important parts on its own.  But now that you're off book, your subconscious will open up and you'll be free to come up with new, even better stuff, all while still on the right path.  My favorite scene in this novel is one that came out of nowhere while I was revising.  The characters really connect emotionally, and it makes me believe in their eventual relationship.  The book needed this scene, but it wasn't in my outline. 


7.  Forget Everything 

Don't worry about all those craft tips while you're writing those new scenes.  Craft is a tool for revising.  When you're writing new scenes, stay in the moment.  There's no need to choreograph conflict or action.  Let them happen naturally.  You can always change it later.


8.  Channel Your Inner Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison looked at failure this way: "I have not failed, I have found 10,000 ways that don't work."  That's all writing failures are:  experiments that don't work.  Experiments that lead you to the one way that does work.  No writing time is wasted.  You'll learn something every time you put words to paper.  Whether its a discovery about a character's real motivation, a snippet of dialogue that works perfectly in another scene, or just what it is that your story doesn't need- you're that much closer to getting it right.

In the end, I'm still afraid.  I can't stop the fear, but I can write through it.  And so can you.

What do you do to get past the fear?

I’m writing this post after a two-hour trick-or-treat marathon with eight boys, so forgive me if I get a little twitchy.  Lucky for me, our theme this week is fear. 

 

I noticed on the web and Twitter on Halloween that several writers had the same idea.  Halloween is a great time to talk about fear.  Donna wrote about Book Two fear.  The sophomore novel is notoriously difficult.  And painful.  I’ve lived through the first draft, but have yet to see the edit letter to find out if I can live through that.  Wish me luck. 

L.B. Schulman wrote about debut terror.  The fear that the book will come out and no one will read it.  Or that people will read it, but they will hate it.  Kristen Simmons expanded this with a list of the ten things that scare her most about her debut (my favorite?  She’s afraid the apocalypse really will come in 2012, before her book is published.  I’m glad someone else voiced this one!)  Our dear follower, Angela Brown, wrote about the fear instilled in us by doubt.

It’s a relief to see that I’m not the only one to have these fears.  That this novel that I have so lovingly constructed might be absolute crap and I don’t know it.  That I might have only one book in me, and Book Two will never see the light of day.  That I might one day wake up from this incredible, lovely, terrifying, exhilarating dream and discover that I’m still a preschool teacher.  I loved being a preschool teacher, but I love what I do now so much more.

But my biggest fear – the one that gets me hyperventilating, the one that freezes me as I pour my tea – is that one day, I will no longer be able to write.

I fear that the ache that sometimes appears in my wrists will spread to my arms and elbows, that it will become too painful to think and I just won’t be able to tap another word upon the keyboard.

I fear that I’ll be in a horrible accident that will turn my brain to mush, and the only thing I’ll remember is that wild torrent of passion that sweeps along the best of scenes, almost as if the words on the screen are not connected to me at all.  And I won’t be able to do it anymore.

I fear that one day, I will sit down at the keyboard and every word, every sentence will be like sawdust on the tongue.  That my fingers will be weighted by dull words and sluggish phrases.  That my characters will sit like paper dolls – one-dimensional and expressionless – unable to do anything more than change their clothes and slide across the page.  That my stories will be derivative and cliché.  That suddenly, the formation of a sentence, the choice of words, will become an impossible, painful task.  Insurmountable.

 

I am afraid to stop writing.

Because even if by some horrible turn of events, my editor realizes that selecting GILT was the worst mistake of her life and it tanks and my contract is revoked and I have to return every cent of my advance and I become the laughing-stock of my critique group and the SCBWI and the world at large – even then, physically, I should be able to write.  (Emotionally scarred and mentally unstable, I can’t say I’d promise anything good, however.)  I could go back to journalism.  I could try poetry or memoir or creative non-fiction (again, probably nothing good!)  I could pull out my journal every day.  Even at the worst of times in my life, I’ve always been able to write something.

I am a writer.  It’s what I am, it’s what I do.  Losing it would be losing myself.  And in the end, isn’t that what we all fear most?