Tip #1: Find your own “best practice.”

Once upon a time, when I was an itty-bitty baby writer, I read the book On Writing by Stephen King. This is a wonderful book, with a ton of great insights. I highly recommend it to any writer because it gives a window into the life and practice of one of our craft’s greatest giants.

But there is one spot in the book where I have to quibble with Mr. King. You see, about two thirds of the way in, he says that to be a writer you have to write 2,000 words per day and read 80-100 books per year. I don’t know about you, but I can’t rack up those words like clockwork. My process is a lot more erratic, with 500 words on one day, 3,000 the next, and so on. (Lawyer hubby lovingly calls this the “feast or famine” approach to writing.)

And when it comes to reading, I’m a ridiculously slow reader. I can read maybe 30-40 books in a year, but 80-100… there’s just no way. Plus, I’ve got two kids (Little Man and Lady Bug), a full-time job with DIY MFA, and—you know—other life stuff. For me, this advice was completely unreasonable.

But I didn’t know that at the time.

You see, when I first read that part of the book, I thought to myself: “Oh my gosh! Stephen King just gave me THE ANSWER. All I have to do is follow his advice exactly and I’ll be set for life.” After all, if Stephen King said it, it must be true. Right?

Well…

I’ll tell you how I lasted following Stephen King’s advice: three days. The first day, I knocked out those 2,000 words like a boss. The second day, it was a bit more of a grind. By day three, I could barely eke out 1,000 words, much less 2,000. After that, I quickly lost momentum and after another couple of days, I gave up altogether.

Here’s the problem with taking advice or hearing people spout “best practices.” Writing 2,000 words per day might be the best practice for Stephen King, but for me it was a disaster. In writing there’s no such thing as “best practices;” we have to find what works best for us.

The key isn’t to copy-paste someone else’s advice onto our own lives. Rather, it’s our responsibility to weigh out that advice, try it on for size, and then make adjustments accordingly. We need to find our own best practices, rather than simply following someone else’s.

Tip #2: Honor your reality.

This has become something of a catchphrase in the DIY MFA ecosystem. What it means is that we have to honor and respect both our writing life and our non-writing life (AKA “reality”). It’s very easy to beat ourselves up for not writing enough, or not reading enough, or not doing enough work for our platforms, and so forth.

But sometimes reality rears its ugly head and we have to shift our focus away from our writing. During those times, we have to give ourselves grace and recognize that “life stuff” needs to come first, and our writing will be there for us when we’re ready to come back.

A lot of people talk about how we have to “find our writing-life balance,” as if it were as easy as finding items on a scavenger hunt. Creating balance between our writing and our life is a complex, nuanced concept.

When we think of balance many of us imagine scales, like the kind that Lady Justice holds in her hand. This image implies that balance is all about rigid equality. The scale is in balance when the two sides are perfectly level, and to keep that balance we can’t move a millimeter.

But balance is fluid, not rigid. When I think of balance, I imagine being on a boat. Now, if you try to stand rigidly upright on a boat, what happens? You fall on your face. The way to stay upright on a boat is to lean from side to side. If the waves raise the boat on one side, we lean into that. Then, when the waves raise the other side of the boat, we lean in that direction. And we keep leaning to and fro until we achieve what appears to be balance but is actually kind of wobbly.

The same is true with writing and life. If writing and life are like waves outside our boat, we have to lean into whichever side is calling to us in that moment.

For example, sometimes an aspect of our life demands our attention. Maybe we have a sick family member we need to care for, or maybe there’s a big project for our day job, or maybe it’s summer and our kids are home from school, throwing a wrench into our usual schedule. During these times, we have to set our writing aside and focus our attention on the “life stuff” that’s tugging on our sleeve.

But there are other times when our writing demands attention. Maybe we have a big deadline looming from our publisher, or maybe we’re gearing up for an important book launch. In these moments, we forgo things like doing laundry or cooking meals. Instead, we rewear the same T-shirt and order take-out everyday for a week.

And that’s okay.

Honoring our reality and finding balance is about the ebb and flow. It’s not something rigid like Lady Justice’s scales, and it’s not a one-and-done proposition. Instead, we constantly have to choose between writing and life, and shift our attention from one to the other.

Tip #3: Move from instinct to intention.

If you’ve taken any DIY MFA course or workshop, you’ve probably heard me talk about instinct to intention, but this is such an important topic that I had to include it in my top three writing tips. The idea of instinct to intention is simple. DIY MFA word nerds already have good instincts. I say this with utmost confidence because I know the kind of writer DIY MFA attracts.

If you’re here, reading this email, you are likely self-motivated, focused on the craft, and driven to creating excellence on the page. You’ve also probably read a fair number of books in your lifetime and you’ve learned all those writing “rules” through osmosis, just by immersing yourself in stories.

Whether you plan your story down to every detail or you write by the seat of your pants, you know the essentials for how to put together a good story. And when you write by instinct, the result is probably pretty good.

But writing by instinct alone is not enough. Our goal at DIY MFA is to help you get to the point where every nuance, every comma, every turn of phrase is in your story because you put it there on purpose, not because it just happened to come out that way.

I believe that the purpose of a workshop is to move writers from instinct to intention. When you understand the craft concepts and you can identify components in your own work, you are much more likely to make that shift from instinct to intention.

This is why when we critique writers’ work in DIY MFA courses and programs, the focus is always on reflecting back to the writer what we see in their work and what our impressions are. This way, the writer can make an informed choice and go from writing on instinct to writing with intention and purpose.

One of the best ways to make that shift from instinct to intention is to get feedback on your writing, but be careful. Not all feedback is created equal. Many workshop environments ascribe to the notion that we should “tear writers down so we can build them back up.”

Poppycock.

Ripping a writer’s work to shreds is not an effective way to help them move from instinct to intention. All it will accomplish is letting that writer feel miserable and making it more likely that they will give up and stop writing altogether.

At the same time, if all a writer’s group does is wave pompoms and go “rah rah,” that’s not an effective form of critique either. Giving feedback isn’t about making value judgements about what’s “right” or “wrong” with the work. It’s about helping the writer see their work in an objective way.

An effective critique group or workshop is like a mirror. The group reflects back to the writer what it sees and helps the writer identify what’s going on in their work, both in terms of technique and meaning. Once the writer has that objective viewpoint, they can easily make intelligent decisions about what to change (or not change) in their work.

Ultimately, the purpose of moving from instinct to intention is not to force writers to “fix” their writing. A writer might decide not to change a single thing, and that’s okay because now that choice has been made with intention, rather than just through instinct. That’s the goal: to help facilitate those decisions and give the writer agency with their work.

So, there you have it: three top tips for writers. You might be surprised that all three of these tips are mindset-based. I didn’t include any craft techniques or talk about the importance of reading like a writer and building community. Yes—craft, reading, and community are important, but if we don’t have the right mindset around our writing, no amount of technical know-how will help us get those words on the page.

If you do nothing else in your writing practice but work on making these key mindset shifts, you will grow as a writer by leaps and bounds. That’s because mindset is the thing that differentiates the dabblers from the doers. Work on your mindset and everything else will fall into place.

Until next time, keep writing and keep being awesome!

P.S. For more info on Gabriela Pereira, the founder and instigator of DIY MFA, check out her profile page.

The post Writer Fuel: My Three Top Writing Tips appeared first on DIY MFA.

Have you gotten the DIY MFA Starter Kit yet? This is a two week email series full of worksheets to help you DIY your MFA, so you can get the “knowledge without the college.” You’ll learn more about how to write with focus, read with purpose, and build your community. You’ll also receive Writer Fuel, our newsletter full of words of wisdom and resources to help you keep the momentum going in your writing. And you’ll be the first to hear about other fun goodies we only share via email. Best of all, it’s free to join! You can sign up with your email at diymfa.com/join.

In this episode I discuss:

• The importance of a practice-based approach in writing.
• Different types of practice, and why “deliberate practice” is most effective.
• The four essential components of a writing practice and why they matter.
• Why it’s important to iterate on your practice to make sure it’s working for you.

Link to Episode 482

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Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 482: Lesson 7 – Practice, Practice, Practice appeared first on DIY MFA.

For folks who may not be familiar, let’s define what DIY MFA means. We all know that DIY stands for “do-it-yourself” but what about the MFA part? No, it’s not short for “mafia,” though we do get that a lot. Actually, MFA is the abbreviation for “Master of Fine Arts” which is the graduate degree most frequently offered for creative writing.

Why would you DIY your MFA?

I got a traditional MFA myself, and while I absolutely loved my graduate school experience, I also recognized that I was in a very privileged position to be able to get that degree. At the time, I was married with no kids and lawyer-hubby was working at a big, fancy law firm, so it was okay for me to take two years off work and go back to school. We also lived in NYC, where there are dozens of schools with traditional MFA programs right in our backyard. I could go back to school without having to move.

Today’s Gabriela (by the way) would never be able to do that. Between running DIY MFA full-time and having two kiddos, ages 10 and 12, there is no way I would ever be able to go back to school at this stage in my life. I’m grateful that I had that opportunity at the time and I loved every minute of it, but I also recognize that the traditional MFA is not feasible for everyone.

DIY MFA grew out of this realization that while traditional graduate programs are wonderful and can serve some people very well, they are by no means the best fit for every writer. What I discovered in developing DIY MFA is that there are many writers out there who want the rigor of a graduate education, but the logistics are just not in their favor.

For some, it might be a matter of geography. Many writers don’t have a school with a writing program within commuting distance. Or it might have to do with the time commitment and other logistics. For a lot of writers, day jobs and family responsibilities need to take precedence, and they have to fit their writing around all these things.

For others it might come down to the type of writing they want to do. Most traditional MFA programs emphasize literary fiction, so folks writing children’s books or genre fiction would be out of luck. Yes, there are some rare programs that offer genre or writing for children concentrations, but they are few and far between.

And, of course, there is the matter of tuition. While there are some schools that offer fully-funded MFA programs, it’s certainly not true of all programs by any stretch. And if you were to pay full freight for some of these schools it could end up costing you $80,000+ per year. Unlike medical school or law school, where there’s a clear career pathway after graduation and odds are reasonable that you might be able to recoup that tuition, things in the writing space are quite a bit fuzzier. You might get a great book deal, or you might work for years and years and never pay back those loans.

With tuition rates increasing faster than inflation and the tricky state of publishing (what with the advent of AI), now more than ever, writers need a do-it-yourself education option. We need ways to build that academic rigor into our lives without the major time commitment and the ridiculous costs. DIY MFA offers many workshops and courses to help writers deepen their knowledge of the craft, but today I wanted to make the fundamentals available to everyone and walk you through—step by step—how to DIY your MFA.

How to DIY Your MFA

This is a topic I get asked to speak on all the time and it’s one of my favorite things to discuss. I love giving writers the tools they need to succeed and my favorite thing is seeing my fellow word nerds reach their goals. This is why I started DIY MFA, after all.

So, how do you do it? How do you DIY your MFA?

The key is understanding DIY MFA’s three-pronged approach. There are three pillars of DIY MFA and these are: (1) write with focus, (2) read with purpose, and (3) build your community. If you’re going to DIY your MFA, you need to build all three components into your author life.

I developed this framework after studying many different traditional MFA programs. I visited several MFA websites and looked at how they laid out their curricula and what courses they required of their students. From all this research, a pattern emerged. There were three elements that kept coming up again and again, and these were writing, reading, and community.

From this, I deduced that in order to create a DIY version of the traditional MFA you needed to have these three things. First and foremost, you need to write and practice your craft. Second (and equally important) you need to learn how to read with a writer’s eye. Finally, you also need to engage with your community, both that of fellow writers as well as your readers.

Write with Focus

Writing with focus means writing with an end-goal in mind. Sure, it’s great to noodle around and try out different ideas, but sooner or later you need to decide on a project, then knuckle down and write it. Finishing projects is probably one of the most important skills a writer will need to develop.

When you write with focus, you also take the time to study the craft and improve your skills. Lately, I’ve been revisiting the book Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool, who I interviewed for DIY MFA Radio some time ago. In this book, they talk about how to use deliberate practice in order to improve your skills. Just as a top athlete or accomplished musician needs to practice in order to reach a level of excellence, so too is it with writing. If we want to reach a higher level with our writing, we need to practice.

Finally, it’s important to track your progress, because you can’t modify what you can’t measure. Many writers make a note of their word counts every time they write. Other writers might track the amount of time they spend writing. I find that word count and time are both good measures of writing progress, but they apply to different situations. Word count is best for measuring how much progress you make when first drafting a manuscript, whereas time might be a better measure if you’re in the revision process.

Read with Purpose

One of the first things I recommend to people when they ask me about how to read like a writer is I tell them to build a reading list. Just as a professor puts together a syllabus with all the books you need to read in a given semester, you need to do the same thing if you’re going to DIY your MFA. The key is understanding what kinds of books to put on your list.

When putting together a reading list, I like to think of the 4Cs: comps, contextual books, contemporary books, and classics. Comps are books similar to the one you’re writing. Imagine your book sitting on a bookstore shelf; the comps are the books on the shelf next to it. Contextual books are your research, books you read in order to inform your writing. Contemporary books are any books in your genre published within the past two years. These books do not need to be similar to your current project. Finally, classics are self-explanatory, but these are books that have stood the test of time. A good reading list is like a well-balanced diet and should include a couple of books from each of these categories.

Once you’ve selected your books, you need to practice reading them with a writer’s eye. This means not just considering what the book is about or why the author wrote it, but also focusing on how the writer crafts the story. The key to reading like a writer is to ask yourself two questions: (1) How did the writer achieve this effect? and (2) How can I do that in my own work?

Build Your Community

Finally, we come to the community piece of the puzzle. To build your community, you need to consider three different groups of people with whom you need to connect: fellow writers, your readers, and the industry as a whole. In other words, it boils down to 3Ps: peers, platform, and publishing.

When it comes to connecting with your peers, you want to consider many different questions. Do you want feedback on your writing? If so, maybe a workshop or critique group might be your best bet. How will you build support and accountability into your writing life? To do this, you may want to surround yourself with writer friends, be it via social media, a writing class, or some other type of community. Finally, do you have advisors to whom you can go for help? All writers need advisors of some kind, whether it be a mentor you admire from afar or someone you work with closely.

Building your platform is a subject that comes a little bit later in a writer’s development, but it’s good to have it on your radar so you know what’s coming down the line. Remember that as you build your platform, you want to develop an audience of readers, not necessarily of fellow writers (though writers can be readers, too!). This means that as you develop your platform, you need to do so in a way that attracts the ideal readers for your book.

Finally, at some point, you will want to get your writing out in the world, and to do that you will need to publish. There are a lot of experts out there helping writers get published, but not all are of the same high caliber. One expert whose work I highly recommend is Jane Friedman. She has two newsletters, one called Electric Speed (free) where she shares digital resources for creative people, and the other called The Hot Sheet (paid) where she reports on the publishing industry. I read both, and highly recommend them.

Putting It All Together

So, you’ve got plans to write with focus, read with purpose, and build your community. Now what? How do you know if you’re “doing it right”? The truth is, there’s no one right way to DIY your MFA. There are just two guidelines I can offer you:

1. Make sure all three elements are present in your writing life at any given time.
2. Be flexible and allow for ebb and flow between the three elements.

The way I like to think of the writing life is as a pie, where writing, reading, and community each make up a slice. You could have a perfectly balanced pie with each element taking up one third, or you can vary the sizes of the slices. Personally, I like my DIY MFA pie to look like the diagram below, where half of the pie is dedicated to writing and the other half is split evenly between reading and community.

This pie isn’t static, though. For example, if I were at a conference, the community slice would probably take up 90% of my pie, and the last 10% might be split evenly between writing and reading. The key is that all three elements are represented in some capacity, and the pie proportions can shift depending on what’s happening in my author life at that moment.

HOMEWORK: Try this experiment for one or two weeks. At the end of each day, draw a pie that represents what you did that day as part of your writing life. Over the course of a couple of weeks, you’ll start to see a pattern and you’ll get a sense for your writing life’s natural balance.

Until next time, keep writing and keep being awesome!

P.S. For more info on Gabriela Pereira, the founder and instigator of DIY MFA, check out her profile page.

The post Writer Fuel: How to DIY Your MFA appeared first on DIY MFA.

Define Your Character’s Type

In terms of type, there are essentially only two types of protagonists in all of storytelling: the relatable character and the aspirational character. Sure, you can also have an antihero (who doesn’t really fit either of these types) but these are rare and not likely to appear in most types of stories. In most stories, though, the main character usually falls in one of two buckets: relatable or aspirational.

The relatable character is like a Bilbo Baggins or a Luke Skywalker type. They may seem like a regular person at first, but when we get to know them more deeply we come to realize that there’s more to them than first appears. In fact, as writers, our job is to show that these relatable characters have the potential for greatness. For instance, Bilbo Baggins outsmarts the stone trolls early on The Hobbit, and we learn fairly early in the Star Wars saga that Luke’s family is strong with the force. It turns out while these may seem like everyday characters, there is nothing ordinary about them.

The thing that makes the relatable type so compelling is that we readers see ourselves in these characters. When we see a relatable character overcome great odds and win the day, we think: “If they can do that, maybe I can do something extraordinary myself.” We identify with these characters and relate to them on a deep, emotional level because they are regular people, just like us.

Aspirational characters, on the other hand, are essentially the opposite of their relatable counterparts. Readers don’t see themselves in these characters, but they see what they would like to become. These are larger-than-life heroes who don’t reflect readers as they are, but who instead show readers what is possible. Aspirational characters include superheroes like Superman and Batman, as well as characters with big personalities or unique abilities like Jay Gatsby and Sherlock Holmes.

The key with aspirational characters is not to make them seem extraordinary (they already are) but to show their vulnerability and reveal a chink in their armor. Every Superman has their kryptonite, after all. Just as we must show a relatable character’s potential or greatness, we need to show the aspirational character’s vulnerability, something that makes them seem more human.

In other words, with each of the character types, our goal is to show their potential to be the opposite of who they are. A relatable character must demonstrate the possibility of doing something extraordinary, whereas the aspirational character needs to show some characteristic that makes them more human, more relatable.

In truth, both relatable and aspirational characters are at opposite ends of the same spectrum. The key to crafting a compelling protagonist is to make it possible for that character to become the opposite of who they first appear. In other words, if both types of characters are on the same spectrum, our job as a writer is to nudge them gently in the opposite direction.

Determine Your Character’s Desire

The second parameter in identifying your character’s archetype is to determine their desire. What does your character want? This want should drive the story forward and be tied to the major dramatic question (MDQ) of the story. For example, in The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen wants to win the games. This is directly tied to the MDQ which is “Will Katniss survive the Hunger Games?” Similarly, in The Wizard of Oz movie, Dorothy wants to get home from Oz. This again is directly tied to the MDQ, which is “Will Dorothy get home to Kansas?”

When it comes to identifying your character’s desire, there are basically two possibilities. Either the character wants to change something in themselves, their surroundings, or the world at large, or the character wants to preserve something in themselves, their surroundings, or the world at large. Pretty much any character’s desire boils down to one of these two options.

For example, in The Hunger Games, Katniss wants to win the games. This is essentially a change-driven desire because she wants to go from a humble tribute from one of the outermost districts to being the victor of the entire games. Similarly, in Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet wants to find happiness, which at first starts out as simply helping her sister Jane find true love with Mr. Bingley, but eventually leads to Lizzie finding true love herself in Mr. Darcy.

On the other hand, some characters’ desires are focused on preservation. For example, superheroes like Superman and Batman want to save people or bring criminals to justice, thus reestablishing a sense of law and order. Any desire that is at its core about protecting others or creating order are preservation-based desires.

Notice that depending on how you frame a desire, it could be either change or preservation-driven. For instance, if we consider Katniss’ desire to be one of survival, it would be a preservation-based want, whereas if we think of it as a desire to win the games, it could be considered a change-driven want. Often change and preservation are two sides of the same coin and the main difference between them is how we frame the desire.

Figure Out Your Character Archetype

Why do we care about character type and desire? Well, if you cross these two parameters together, you get a 2×2 matrix where each cell of that matrix represents a different character archetype. The underdog is a relatable character who wants change, while the disruptor is their aspirational counterpart. The survivor is also relatable, but now this character seeks preservation, while the protector is their aspirational equivalent. (See the image below.)

What’s the point of these character archetypes? Different archetypes are compatible with different “signature stories” and when you pair the right character with the right story, you get storytelling magic. For example, underdogs do well in rags to riches narratives or “us vs. them” (big guy vs. little guy) types of stories. Disruptors and protectors often appear in stories about epic quests—disruptors wanting to change the world while protectors strive to save it. Survivor characters are most compatible with survival stories or narratives about overcoming adversity.

Just because you have a certain character archetype does not mean you have to adhere strictly to its signature stories. For example, you might have an underdog character who appears in an “overcoming adversity” type of story. This is perfectly doable. The key is that you make small, subtle shifts to the character archetype so that it better aligns with the story you want to tell. In this case, it may mean making a small shift in how you present the character’s desire so that it feels more driven by preservation than change.

For example, at the start of The Hunger Games Katniss Everdeen is very clearly an underdog type of character: she is a relatable character who wants to win the games and change her life circumstances. That said, if we shifted the focus from winning the games to survival, her desire goes from being change-focused to all about preservation. In that way, you could easily reposition her character archetype from underdog to survivor.

The point of these archetypes is not to constrain your writing. It’s not about making you feel like you have to paint-by-numbers or are stuck with limited options for your story. Instead, by understanding your character’s archetype you can get a better handle on their motivations and you can craft the narrative in a way that is more compatible with the character that you have. And if the character is somehow at odds with the story you want to tell, you can make subtle shifts in the character’s archetype to better align it with your narrative. 

Now, it’s your turn…

Consider the following questions about your current project:

• What archetype is the main character of your current work-in-progress? You can figure this out by determining both character’s type and want, then plotting it on the archetype matrix.
• What type of story are you telling and is it compatible with the archetype of your main character? If not, how can you shift the character’s archetype to help it align with the story you want to tell?

Until next time, keep writing and keep being awesome!

P.S. For more info on Gabriela Pereira, the founder and instigator of DIY MFA, check out her profile page.

The post Writer Fuel: What Character Archetype Are You Writing? appeared first on DIY MFA.

Living the Author Life

The life of a writer isn’t easy. As you may recall from my last newsletter, publishing is a tough business and you have to be resilient to stick with it for the long haul. There’s a lot of rejection and heartache on the path to publication, and sometimes we lose sight of why we’re doing all of this in the first place.

It’s also a challenge to balance writing against all the other things we have going on in our lives. Most of us don’t have the luxury of writing full time and doing nothing else. Even if we are able to make writing our “day job” there’s a lot of other peripheral stuff we have to do, like marketing our work, building our platform, etc. And this doesn’t even take into account all of that personal life stuff that can sometimes get in the way of our writing dreams.

Many of us have families and home responsibilities. As you may already know, I’ve got two kiddos of my own, Little Man and Lady Bug. Little Man is now 12 (so turning into a “Big Man”) and Lady Bug is 9 (going on 19… yeesh!). Between music practice, school concerts and homework help, this spring has felt like a marathon of “kid stuff.” Don’t get me wrong, I love these kiddos more than anything, but all that love doesn’t make it any less exhausting. (If you’re a parent, you know exactly what I’m talking about…)

I know for a lot of folks in our community, caring for aging parents and relatives is a big part of their lives. Those responsibilities can take up a lot of time, energy, and mental bandwidth. And a lot of word nerds have extremely time-consuming day jobs that make it hard to work writing into their schedule. Many of them have to get their writing done in the wee hours of morning or night, or eke out a few words during their daily commutes.

All in all, we have a lot on our plates. And that’s life.

Honor Your Reality

At DIY MFA we have a saying: “Honor Your Reality.” This means that yes, life is part of our reality and sometimes it gets in the way of our writing. But we also have to acknowledge that writing is part of our reality. Without writing, we don’t feel complete. Our creative work is not just a luxury we squeeze into the off hours between items on our schedule. It matters. It’s important. When we are not writing, we are not being our authentic selves.

A lot of people talk about writing-life balance as though it were something rigid and precise. They act like our existence is a set of scales, with our life responsibilities on one side and our writing on the other. According to this model, the only way to find “balance” is if both sides of the scale are perfectly level.

But life isn’t like that. It’s messy. It’s weird. It’s constantly throwing things at us that we least expect.

I think of “balance” as being on a boat. If you try to stand rigidly upright, the rocking of the waves will knock you off balance and make you fall flat on your face. Instead, the way to stay on your feet is to rock with the boat. When a wave pushes one side of the boat up, we lean into that side. When the other side rises, we lean that way. We can’t fight the waves or make them go away, so the only way to deal with them is to lean in.

This means that we have to acknowledge the role that life plays in our reality, but we also have to attend to those writing “waves” when they come up. If we never address the waves on the writing side of our boat, then our lives will be lopsided and the boat will capsize. The way to find “balance” is to recognize that writing and life are a messy mix, but somehow we’ve got to fit both things into our reality.

One way to do that is…

Don’t Write Every Day

(At least, not unless you want to.)

A lot of big-name authors and writing experts say that in order to be a “real” writer, you have to write every day. Personally, I beg to differ. I don’t think that writing every day is necessary—or even healthy—for some writers. Sure, some writers might clock in a precise number of words every single day, but for others (like myself) writing is more like feast or famine. There are days when the muses smile down on me and I knock out thousands of words in one go, and then there are others where a hundred words feels like a slog. If I had to clock in an exact word count every single day, I’d probably have given up on writing a long time ago.

I’ve also heard of many writers who need thinking time before the writing can occur. One writer friend of mine says she spends a lot of time thinking through her book and mapping out each scene in her head. Then when she sits down to write, all the words pour out in a rush. For me, thinking time is also crucial. It’s where I work through different ideas—sometimes sketching them out on paper, sometimes just in my head—and it’s how I discover ideas for new projects as well.

For me, a lot of this thinking time is spent journaling, which I don’t really consider writing per se, even though I am putting pen to paper. I journal just about every day, in the morning before I get out of bed. Most of my journaling is whiny, boring, repetitive stuff, like me complaining about mundane things that probably won’t matter beyond that instant. Yet sometimes, in my journal, I hit on a random idea that I can mine for gold. If I didn’t spill all that whiny, boring garbage onto the page first, I probably never would land on that golden nugget of an idea.

But let’s get back to “write every day” and why maybe it’s not the best strategy. Another thing to consider is that there’s a certain luxury associated with writing every day. Many of us have messy, busy lives that make writing every day an unrealistic goal. Sure, for some writers, writing every day is doable, but we shouldn’t beat ourselves up if we can’t do it.

Let me tell you a story about writing every day. I remember reading the book On Writing by Stephen King many years ago when I was just beginning to take writing seriously. This was back in 2006 or 2007, and this book had a huge impact on my writing, but not in the way you would expect. Now, let me be perfectly clear: this is a wonderful book that paints a picture of what it really takes to be a writer. I love this book and constantly recommend it to new writers. But… there’s one tiny spot that I have to quibble with. This is the place where Stephen King says you have to write 2,000 words per day and read 80-100 books per year, or else you’re not a “real” writer.

When I first read that, I thought I had stumbled on The Answer. After all, if Stephen King said it, it had to be true, right? Well, the truth is, that method might work for Stephen King, but it didn’t work for me. I started out okay, writing 2,000 words per day for a couple of days. Then I had a major rush of inspiration and poured out 4,000 words in a day. Yay! But after that I hit the wall and had a bunch of 200-400 word days. That’s when I started to spiral.

You see, I had this idea in my head that I had to write 2,000 words, like clockwork. Every. Single. Day. But I couldn’t do it consistently. Some days I exceeded my goal; others I could barely eke out a tenth of the required word count.

So, I started to beat myself up. Thoughts popped up in my head, like: “Well, if you can’t do 2,000 words every day, you’re not a real writer.” Or “See? I knew you couldn’t do it. You’ll never publish anything.” Or “Sooner or later, people are going to find out you’re a fraud and you can’t write anything.”

Here’s the truth: Beating ourselves up for not writing does not make the words magically appear on the page. I know. I’ve tried. It doesn’t work.

Not everybody writes with Stephen King precision. I admire the people who do, but I’m definitely not one of them. And that’s okay, because the writing still gets done, it’s just a messier process.

So if we shouldn’t “write every day,” what should we do?

The key is to write some days. Maybe it’s not every day, but a few times a week. Or maybe your weekdays are a hot mess and the only time you have for writing is on the weekends. Some writers might clock in word counts with laser-like precision. Others (like me) may have more of a rollercoaster process. All of this is okay.

We all have different lives, with different goals and challenges. To assume that one method would work for every writer is shortsighted. Instead, the key is to find the method that works best for you.

What Makes an Author Life?

The author life consists of a lot of things—productivity, motivation, mindset, time management, and more—but it looks different for each person. Of course we have to write. If we never wrote anything, we’d have to reconsider why we’re even trying to do this in the first place. The writing itself is non-negotiable. If we want to be writers we have to write. The place where things get messy is in the “how.”

For a lot of us, it takes trial and error to find a process that works. When I first started writing the DIY MFA book, I had a newborn and a toddler at home, so I knew that the only way I would be able to do it was if I could get out of the house. At first, I thought the most efficient way to do this was to go to a hotel, check in early, check out late, and write write write for the hours in between. We had some points from a hotel chain so I figured I’d give it a shot.

The first time I did that, I knocked out over 7,000 words. I did my happy dance, went home, then came back a few weeks later to try a second time. That session didn’t go so well and I only made about 4,000 words. Not bad, but not as good as the first time. Then the third time I tried this I only managed about 1,500 words, plus the hotel points had just about run out. It became very clear that if I had to hide away in a hotel every time I needed to write, this was going to be a very expensive book.

So I tried a different method. Every weekday, after dropping Little Man off at preschool, I started going to the local coffee shop around the corner and writing for a few hours until it was time to go pick him up. Another mom from his class was also a writer, so we teamed up and started hanging out at the coffee shop together, working side-by-side. I didn’t knock out 7,000 words at a time, but I made respectable progress on the book five days a week, eventually getting it done. Plus, knowing that I only had that short, preschool-time window to do my writing motivated me to stay focused. Also, having a writing buddy also helped make the process less lonely.

Keep in mind, this approach worked back then because my life was the way it was at the time. Now, it would be a different story. The kiddos may require a lot less grunt work these days, but there are other challenges, like activities and schoolwork. Plus, DIY MFA is in a whole different place now than it was in 2015 when I was writing the book. Back then, the business was just getting started and we didn’t offer nearly as many courses or programs. Now, DIY MFA truly is a full-time job, and taking away an entire morning five days a week would not be feasible. Instead, I have to sneak in my writing during those nooks and crannies between other DIY MFA stuff.

I share all of this because I think it’s important to realize that there’s an ebb and flow to the writing process. You can’t just take writing advice at face value. You have to try different things out and see what works for you. You also have to recognize that what works at one stage in your writing career, may not carry over to a later stage. Your process for writing book one will be very different from the process for books two and beyond. In the end, we have to acknowledge that the author life is unpredictable and we have to embrace the wild, messy adventure that it is!

Until next time, keep writing and keep being awesome!

P.S. For more info on Gabriela Pereira, the founder and instigator of DIY MFA, check out her profile page.

The post Writer Fuel: Living the Author Life appeared first on DIY MFA.

Have you gotten the DIY MFA Starter Kit yet? This is a two week email series full of worksheets to help you DIY your MFA, so you can get the “knowledge without the college.” You’ll learn more about how to write with focus, read with purpose, and build your community. You’ll also receive Writer Fuel, our newsletter full of words of wisdom and resources to help you keep the momentum going in your writing. And you’ll be the first to hear about other fun goodies we only share via email. Best of all, it’s free to join! You can sign up with your email at diymfa.com/join.

In this episode I discuss:

• Why it’s important not just to build something, but build the right thing.
• How failure plays into innovation, and why we should accept it rather than avoid it.
• How originality is about the execution of the idea, rather than the idea itself.
• Why it’s crucial to embrace the concept of “good enough.”

Link to Episode 476

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to Apple or Spotify and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 476: Lesson 1 – Jump First, Build After appeared first on DIY MFA.

Keep in mind that if we break one or more of these promises, we will stretch our readers’ trust in us. That doesn’t mean that readers will instantly stop reading our books, but simply that the trust between reader and writer has been tested and it will take some time and effort to build that trust back up. If there is a particular effect we want to create, we may strategically choose to break one of these promises, but we must do so with intent and not simply on a whim.

Promise #1: The Character

The first thing we promise to our readers is a character to follow. In most cases, the protagonist of the story appears right away on page one. Sometimes, however, an author might choose to delay that character’s appearance. Think of the way Mr. Darcy, the love interest in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, doesn’t appear until well into the story. This delay underscores Darcy’s reticent nature and introverted personality. It would not have been true to the character had he appeared right away at the opening of the book.

In a similar fashion, the main character (Bagley) of Tor Seidler’s The Wainscott Weasel does not appear until the second chapter. In fact, when I first read the book, it took me a while to figure out that he was even the main character at all. Since Tor Seidler happened to be my MFA professor at the time, I had the benefit of asking him why he crafted the story in that way. His answer was that Bagley was such a shy character, it would not have been true to his personality to put him front and center on page one. Instead, it made more sense to delay his appearance until chapter two to resonate more with that aspect of his personality.

When it comes to crafting our stories, most of us will introduce the main character right away in the first chapter—perhaps even on the first page. There is no requirement that the main character must appear on page one and we can delay the appearance of that character to a point. That said, we must consider why we are choosing to delay that character’s appearance and we must do so for strategic reasons.

Promise #2: The Voice

I’ve written about voice in previous Writer Fuels so I won’t go into too much detail here. Suffice to say that the opening of a story is where we as writers must establish the voice of the narrative. Who is narrating the story, and how does that narration come across? Is the narrator opinionated and in-your-face? Or is that narrator so subtle they seem almost invisible?

Along with voice we must also consider the point of view. Is the story being narrated in the first person by a character in the story? Or is the narrator an entity outside the story describing the events in third person? Also, how close to the story is the narrator? Are they in the thick of things, or are we viewing the story from a bird’s eye view perspective?

Depending on the point of view we choose, the voice of the story can be different. For example, it is far easier to give the narrator a personality when we write in the first person because the narrator is, by necessity, a character in the story. With the third person, on the other hand, it is much easier to make the narrator feel invisible, especially when we use the omniscient form.

When we promise the voice, we establish for our readers how we will tell the story. Narration is the element of the craft that most directly connects the reader to the story. This is because the narration is what dictates how the reader receives the story. For this reason, it is important that we keep our narration as consistent as possible and only change things up when it serves a strategic purpose.

Promise #3: The World

At the start of every story, we must promise readers the world. Don’t worry, I’m not talking about the whole wide world. I’m talking about your world, the one you’ve created for this story. From the very beginning, we must establish what the world of our story is like and we need to make our readers feel like that world is real.

It can be tempting to use the dreaded info-dump to bring our readers up to speed. Yet throwing too much world building exposition on the page (especially early in the story) will only bore our readers and make them more likely to put down the book. Instead, the key to good world building is to drop the reader into that world and have them follow a character as they navigate through it. When it comes to world building, we must keep our readers on a need-to-know basis, giving them only the information they need to understand the story in that moment. All other details can wait until they become necessary to the story.

Promise #4: The Problem

At some point early in the story, the character will need to face some sort of problem. After all, no one wants to read about happy characters being happy all the time. (That’s boring!) Instead, we need some hint that the character’s world is not perfect and that they will have to overcome at least one obstacle over the course of the story.

Keep in mind that this problem does not have to be directly related to the main conflict of the story (though it can be). Consider the opening chapter of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games. The protagonist, Katniss, goes hunting with her best friend Gale and right away we know that they are facing a big problem. We know that food is scarce for them by the way Katniss reacts when Gale gives her a piece of bread. We also know that there is something scary looming in their immediate future (the Reaping) though we do not know exactly what that thing is. In this case, the problem (scarcity of food and looming danger) is directly related to the central conflict of the story which is whether or not Katniss will survive the games.

In other scenarios, the problem at the beginning of the story is not directly related to the central conflict but affects that conflict in a more indirect manner. Consider the problem at the beginning of Pride and Prejudice. In this case, the problem is that at that time in England, women could not inherit land, which meant that if a father did not have a male heir, the estate would be entailed away from the family to a distant relative. In the Bennet family, where there are five daughters and no sons, this is a very real problem and the best way to secure the family’s future is for one of the daughters to marry well.

This problem regarding the family’s estate is not directly related to the story’s central conflict, which is whether or not Lizzie and Darcy will get together. Yet because the mother, Mrs. Bennet, is so desperate to marry off one of her daughters, she creates circumstances that force Lizzie and Darcy into each other’s company, thus causing their relationship to take root.

Promise #5: The Event

At some point in the first few pages of a novel, something needs to happen. After all, a story cannot exist in a state of stasis. Sooner or later there needs to be an event that kicks off the story and sets things in motion. This event makes it clear why the story starts at this particular point in time and not two weeks before or three days later. There needs to be a reason why you are starting the narrative at this point in the timeline, and that reason is the opening event.

Consider the opening of the film The Wizard of Oz. The very first image we see is of Dorothy running down a dirt road back to her aunt and uncle’s house. We find out soon thereafter that Dorothy’s dog, Toto, had some sort of confrontation with their grumpy neighbor and that did not end well. In fact, the neighbor has called the local authorities and they want to take Toto away. We get the sense that this conflict with the neighbor is nothing new and that Toto has gotten into the neighbor’s yard many times in the past. The difference now is that this is the day when things are a little bit different. This is the day when Dorothy might actually lose Toto.

Similarly, both in Pride and Prejudice and The Hunger Games, the story begins on the day where everything changes. In Pride and Prejudice, the story begins with the arrival of an eligible bachelor who has moved into the house next door to the Bennets. In The Hunger Games, we don’t see weeks and weeks of Katniss and Gale living in District 12 and fighting to survive. Instead, the story starts the morning of the Reaping—and not just any Reapling, but the one where Katniss’ little sister Prim has her name in the lottery for the first time.

Ultimately, these promises are about building trust with your readers. Yes, we can stretch that trust at times, but we need to have a good reason for doing it. Remember that most readers are rooting for you—they want your book to be good—which means they’re willing to go along for the ride when you try something that pushes the envelope. Just make sure that when you take those creative risks, it’s with an eye toward making the story as good as possible. Every time you consider breaking one of these five promises, ask yourself: “Will this make my story the best it can possibly be?” If the answer is YES, then go for it! But if the answer is NO, you may want to reconsider. At the end of the day, it’s all about writing a good story.

Until next time, keep writing and keep being awesome!

P.S. For more info on Gabriela Pereira, the founder and instigator of DIY MFA, check out her profile page.

The post Writer Fuel: Five Promises in the First Five Pages appeared first on DIY MFA.

Have you gotten the DIY MFA Starter Kit yet? This is a two week email series full of worksheets to help you DIY your MFA. You’ll learn more about how to write with focus, read with purpose, and build your community. You’ll also start getting Writer Fuel, our newsletter full of words of wisdom and resources to help you keep the momentum going in your writing. And you’ll be the first to hear about other fun goodies we only share via email. Best of all, it’s free to join! You can sign up with your email at diymfa.com/join.

In this episode M.T. Anderson and I discuss:

• Weaving events from your real life into a fantastical story
• Why you need to have rules for the magic you create in order for it to be fun.
• How to reverse engineer and perfect the opening of your novel.

Plus, his #1 tip for writers.

About M.T. Anderson

M. T. Anderson has written stories for adults, picture books for children, adventure novels for young readers, graphic novel adaptations of ancient French tales, and several books for older readers (both teens and adults). His satirical book Feed was a Finalist for the National Book Award and was the winner of the L.A. Times Book Prize. Both Time Magazine and National Public Radio have included it on their lists of the best 100 YA novels of all time. Another satirical science fiction novel, Landscape with Invisible Hand, has been turned into a movie starring Tiffany Haddish and Asante Blackk. 

The first volume of Anderson’s Octavian Nothing saga, The Pox Party, won the National Book Award and the Boston Globe / Horn Book Prize. The second volume, The Kingdom on the Waves, was a New York Times best-seller. The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge, a tragicomic spy story for young goblins written with Newbery-Honor winner Eugene Yelchin, was a Finalist for the National Book Award in 2018. 

Anderson’s nonfiction book Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad was long-listed for the National Book Award. 

He has published stories for adults in literary journals like The Northwest Review, The Colorado Review, and Conjunctions. Several of his stories have appeared in the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror collections. His nonfiction articles and reviews have been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Slate, and Salon. 

He has curated concerts that bring together text and classical music all over New England. 

You can find him on his website or follow him on Twitter.

Elf Dog and Owl Head

From the singular imagination of National Book Award winner M. T. Anderson comes a magical adventure about a boy and his dog—or a dog and her boy—and a forest of wonders hidden in plain sight.

Clay has had his fill of home life. A global plague has brought the world to a screeching halt, and with little to look forward to but a summer of video-calling friends, vying with annoying sisters for the family computer, and tuning out his parents’ financial worries, he’s only too happy to retreat to the woods. From the moment the elegant little dog with the ornate collar appears like an apparition among the trees, Clay sees something uncanny in her. With this mysterious Elphinore as guide, he’ll glimpse ancient secrets folded all but invisibly into the forest. Each day the dog leads Clay down paths he never knew existed, deeper into the unknown. But they aren’t alone in their surreal adventures. There are traps and terrors in the woods, too, and if Clay isn’t careful, he might stray off the path and lose his way forever. Graced with evocative black-and-white illustrations by Junyi Wu, Elf Dog and Owl Head is heartfelt and exhilarating, wry and poignant, seamlessly merging the fantastic and the familiar in a tale both timely and timeless.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link where, if you choose to purchase via the link, DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 468

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Spotify, or Google and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 468: Raise Your Story’s Stakes with Tension and Surprise – Interview with M.T. Anderson appeared first on DIY MFA.

More than half of YA readers stem from adults, denoting a distinct period of “young adulthood.” YA books incorporate themes such as love, friendship, discovering your identity, and finding your path. They represent the trials and tribulations related to youth and depict the transition from childhood to adulthood. 

With such a fast-growing category, more authors than ever before are writing YA. Whether you’re dipping your toes into the water, or you’re a seasoned young adult writer, here are some tips to evoke your inner teen, making sure your fiction writing will stand out to teens, tweens, and readers of all ages.

Develop the teenage protagonist 

When writing young adult fiction, you’ll want to make sure your character is the proper age for your audience. Protagonists in YA novels are typically between the ages of 14 to 18-years-old, right around high school age. While your readers may be younger, they want a character that they can look up to for navigating the transition that comes with adolescence. 

Additionally, you’ll want to tune into your target audience to write an authentic teen point-of-view. Consider the trends, interests, and mannerisms of teens these days by:

• Consulting modern technology that appeals to teens, like Tik Tok, Instagram, and Snapchat, to get a feel for trends and fads. 
• Watch movies and read other books with teenage protagonists. 
• Ask friends and family who have kids in that age range, or see if you can talk to high school teachers. 

Whatever you do, make sure to research, so you can really get into the mindset of how a teenager thinks and acts. That way, rather than creating a stereotype, you’ll be able to create a character who feels relatable and goes through the struggles that a normal teenager would.

Incorporate a coming-of-age theme

Young adult fiction is all about the shift from childhood to adulthood. This subject requires your character to discover their identity, learn to rely on themselves, and step away from their authority figures. 

The coming-of-age theme usually consists of a catalyst where your character will break away from the comfort they’ve once known. They’ll be forced to evolve and make difficult decisions as they confront the realities of the real world. After a series of setbacks, there’s ultimately a moment of truth where they learn to stand on their own. With this in mind, you want to create a character that grows significantly throughout the story and learns a series of lessons along the way. 

Young adulthood is a time of transition and self-discovery. Whether it’s a first kiss, the death of a loved one, a new friendship, or starting a job, your main character should face obstacles that cause them to confront their identity and ask themselves what they stand for.

Take your reader seriously

One mistake writers make in this genre is talking down to teens. While you may use some straightforward or casual language, you don’t want to belittle your readers. Teens want to be taken seriously, and they can easily tell if slang or subjects feel inauthentic.

Additionally, young adults often read these types of novels to feel mature and prepare for that stage of adolescence. Just because this type of book is shorter or geared at a teen audience, does not mean the genre deserves less skill or attention than any other category. 

Teens reading your book are intelligent and savvy, so treat your characters similarly, and don’t be afraid to talk about real issues or mature subjects. Plus, while directed at teens, parents, grandparents, or older friends may be the ones buying the book, so consider the audience that you’re marketing to. 

Include tension and conflict 

Because you’ll have a younger audience, you’ll want to focus on a fast-paced plot and attention-grabbing details. You don’t want to bore your readers by spending too much time on lengthy descriptions or scenes that drag on. Instead, create interesting characters and compelling dialogue that push the story forward. Before you write a chapter, think:

• Is this moving the story along?
• How is this adding to the development of the character?
• What is my reader gaining from reading this? 

To go further, teenagers are often driven by all-consuming emotions. Because teens haven’t gone through the same experiences as adults, an incident may seem more heightened or consequential than that of an adult who has experienced it multiple times. Tap into those powerful emotions and allow your character to feel the intensity and newness, so you can tell your story in a thrilling way.

End on a hopeful note

While there are exceptions to the rule, it’s important for readers to feel a renewed sense of hope by the end of the book. After all, young adults want to be able to put themselves in the shoes of the main character and feel inspired by the hero’s journey. 

Regardless of what setbacks are faced, the author should equip teenagers with the tools necessary to conquer their own obstacles and find resilience, just like the characters in their book. Even if the ending doesn’t turn out on a completely happy note, you can still create a sense of possibility and allow room for the reader to fill in the blanks, leaving space to imagine a better future. 

Alison Schaffir is a social media strategist and young adult author living in New York City. A lover of contemporary fiction, Alison developed her debut novel, Your Dream for Me, fusing two of her favorite interests, fashion and theater, together. She graduated from the University of Richmond with a major in business marketing and a minor in psychology. When she’s not making up stories in her head, she loves indulging in Trader Joe’s lava cakes, belting early 2000s pop hits, and spending time with her friends and family.
You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

The post Young Adult Fiction: Evoke Your Inner Teen appeared first on DIY MFA.

I signed with an agent just before I finished my MFA program. She spent the next couple of years trying to sell my book to publishers, but had no success and no interest in selling the book to a small press. 

Fair enough, because agents only make money if the writer makes money and small presses don’t pay much. She and I parted ways amicably, and I attempted to find a new agent, only to realize that agents are reluctant to take on a project that has already been shopped around unless the project has had a significant revision, which mine hadn’t.

But I believed in my novel, and while I could have put it away while I worked on new projects, I wanted to see it in the world. And so, I started looking at small presses. 

Here’s what I learned about publishing with a small press along the way:

Research small presses the same way you’d research an agent

There are a lot of small presses out there and they won’t all be a good fit for your project. I was drawn to Apprentice House because it’s an entirely student-run press, and I figured that no one cares less about money than students. 

I was feeling a bit jaded by the focus on money my agent had—I wanted to write for the art, not just the money, and so a student-run press was a great fit for me. A student-run press might not be the right fit for you if you want consistency, though, because at Apprentice House, there’s someone new working on your book every semester. I liked having lots of input and ideas and feedback, and the students were as warm and as engaged as I imagined they would be, so, for me, the pre-publication experience was lovely.

Read your contract

I was really happy to have a contract for my book, and I did skim it, but I didn’t spend any time thinking about the implications of what I’d signed until well after my book came out.

Namely, when I started to work on my second book and realized my contract stated that Apprentice House had the right of first refusal for it. Which means they get first dibs, and while I can turn down their offer, I still have to give them a chance. 

This is pretty standard, and I’d pretty much made peace with the fact that AH would look at my novel and they would either:

• Like it and offer the same terms as the first novel, which I was prepared to turn down in the hopes of a more lucrative book deal, or 
• Not like it and then I would cry for a month. 

But then I had lunch with a writer friend who told me she asked to have the right of first refusal taken off her contract (with a different small press). She reasoned that her next project was nothing her current publisher would ever put out, so why waste their time and hers? I was impressed with her forward-thinking and I wish I’d taken the time to think about my own contract a little more.

Have someone else copyedit/proofread your work

Apprentice House, and most small publishers, will not copyedit or proofread for you. And even if you think you have a good handle on grammar, have someone else—preferably more than one person—read your uncorrected proof. 

Trust me, you’ve read your own work too many times to really know what’s on the page. By the time I got my uncorrected proofs, I’d say I’d read my manuscript, whole or in parts, at least fifty times. And yet, I still had a reference to the “Eater” Bunny in there. (Easter was what I was going for)

The good news about a small press is that if you happen to miss typos, the print runs are generally small, and you’ll be able to fix the mistake in the next run. The bad news is that too many typos just make the book seem unprofessional and after all your hard work, you don’t want that.

Develop a marketing plan

Even if your publisher works with you to create a marketing plan (which mine did not), you’ll want to come up with as many ideas as you can. Brainstorm like crazy, but make sure they’re things you’re willing and able to do. 

For me, people-ing is exhausting, and I needed rest days in between events. I know some writers who thrive on talking about their work, and that’s great and amazing. Play to your strengths, especially if you’re thinking about the long game—for me, I knew my current work-in-progress would suffer if I didn’t occasionally hit pause. 

When thinking about events, tap into your resources. My day job is as a library director, so I felt comfortable sending out promotional postcards to every library in my state and neighboring states, and I did not fail to mention that I am a library director. I booked most of my events this way. 

I also contacted people I’d gone to graduate school with and, even though that was a little harder for me, I asked them to do events with me. I don’t like being the center of attention, and so, for me, events with other writers make me much more comfortable (but it’s so hard to risk someone saying “no!”). Events with multiple authors draw a bigger crowd, so it’s a win-win in my eyes.

I also attended book fairs, taught workshops, wrote essays about writing my book, and even got the chance to be interviewed on stage in front of a live 100-person audience as part of a music/performing arts variety show. 

Not all of these things were part of my original marketing plan, but a lot of them came about because I had a marketing plan. The variety show, for example, was the direct result of me contacting a bookseller in a neighboring state. I didn’t hear from her for months and assumed she wasn’t interested in the book event I’d pitched, but then she contacted me and said she thought of me when this event came on her radar, so she suggested me to the variety-show producer.

Be flexible with your expectations

Not everything is going to go according to plan, but in the end, small presses are doing a lot of good work for not a lot of money. It’s important to ask for what you need, whether it’s clarification, or a report on sales, or support with an event, but it’s also important to remember to stay polite, professional, and as accommodating as you can be. It’s a team effort, after all. 

Jennifer Dupree is an assistant editor for The Masters Review, a librarian, and a former bookstore owner. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from USM’s Stonecoast program. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in December, Solstice, The Masters Review, On the Rusk and other notable places. She is the winner of the Writer’s Digest Fiction Contest for 2017, and a two-time winner of a Maine Literary Award (2022, 2006). Her novel, “The Miraculous Flight of Owen Leach” was published in April of 2022.
You can learn more about Jen on her website or catch her on facebook.

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