Tag Archives: novel

What You Love + What You Hate

19 Wednesday Sep 2012

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Laura K. Cowan, writing, writing fiction, novel writing, writing tips, encouragement for writers, ideas for writers, spirituality, crucible, drama, tension, writing technique, The Little Seer, Music of Sacred Lakes

People say write what you know. I recently realized that this wise phrase is not only a little limited–I’d rather write what I’m learning and always keep learning!–but also a little off for me. I write about what I love plus what I hate, stuck together in a situation where they can’t get apart. Sounds tasty, right?

The Little Seer
What do I love in my first novel, which is currently being considered by 4 agents and hopefully will be published within the year? I love spiritual seekers. My main character is 12, but that’s not too young to be an honest person living a life that seeks truth and beauty.

What do I hate? Religious hypocrisy. Power-hungry people. The evil that stands between you and the truth and beauty for your life. Put those things together in one church and bam pow, what a dramatic story! The church didn’t survive, and the people barely did, either.

Music of Sacred Lakes
What do I love in my second novel, just written in July, about a young man in crisis finding his way back to his connection with life and nature through the voice of Lake Michigan? Again, there’s that honest seeker quality in my character, but this time what I love is his passion for life. He may not know it, but he is desperately in love with life. He’s just in crisis because he has inadvertently removed himself from the land that gave his life meaning.

What do I hate? Well, everything that’s keeping him away. Societal expectations, the dysfunction of his family, and the limitations of his spiritual tradition. Enter the Native American friends who have retained a truth about the nature of life that this character’s Christian ancestors forgot when they logged and farmed it nearly to death. I’m still working on this story, but the pieces are there for an intensely good novel.

What Do You Love? What Do You Hate?
In fiction or in life, what do you love? What do you hate? And what happens when those two things just can’t get away from each other? I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject in comments. Don’t just write what you know. And don’t just live what you know. Live and write what you love, and fight what you hate.

First Book Sale! (and it’s not to my mother)

10 Friday Sep 2010

Posted by in Career, Media and Publishing, Writing

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I just checked my Lulu account and discovered I sold my first e-book copy of Ecofrugal Baby last week, yay! :) I’m realizing just how much work it is going to take to promote this book and get some real sales numbers via self-publishing. Blah. That’s something I would prefer to leave to a traditional publishing house, but until I find a traditional publisher to pick up this title, it’s all on me to sell some copies and recoup some of the hours I’ve spent on this project.

It’s not really about the money, though this first sale is gratifying. I’m following Pete Michaud’s advice to just get out there and start trying, and boy is it paying dividends, even if that doesn’t translate to royalties. In the last year I have written a non-fiction book, written the first part of what is shaping up to be a paranormal/spiritual/YA series, learned all about the formatting requirements and ISBN what-nots for self-publishing, put together multiple book proposals and queries for both book publishers and agents, and am starting to work on the second part of my fiction series. All this while maintaining the appearances of being a part-time book editor and being a full-time mom–oh, and mommy blogger: an eco labor of love and my platform for Ecofrugal Baby. Holy cow! That totally would not have happened if I had sat around thinking about how I was going to be a novelist or published non-fiction author someday. None of my current work is perfect, but I think I really have something here in both books that has value: the non-fiction content sells itself since it can save new parents $7000 off baby’s first year, and the novel may not be expertly written (it’s not that bad, though) but it has a unique and (I think) fascinating hook and the story will carry my writing until I learn how to polish up my style (if J.K. Rowling could get away with it, so can I).

Darn it, I’m proud of myself. :) I have to celebrate these milestones–every single one!–as they go by, to keep my chin up while I start to fend off the barrage of inevitable rejection slips. It’s just the way it is. Next step, keeping on keeping on! So that’s one more check on the bucket list: I’ve published and sold a book. :)

Ah Well…

02 Wednesday Jun 2010

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I wondered how I was going to keep up with this blog and my new baby blog AND write a novel AND write another nonfiction book AND be a full-time mom AND do part-time book editing work for 3-4 different publishers. What apparently had to give was my posting on this blog and answering my email–well, and housework, but let’s not pretend: I never did much of that anyway. :P I now answer the important messages and have mostly given up on following all the blogs I used to subscribe to. 100 newsletter emails got trashed over the weekend without being read. But I’m still here! And I still love hearing from you!

Right now, I’m working on filling out the characters in my novel, giving them a little more time on-stage and figuring out how to reveal their personalities by illustrating the ways they react to one another. I feel like the next time I try this, it’s going to go 4 times as fast. It’s a lot of fun to figure out how to do this from scratch, but it sure is slow going when I only have a couple hours a day at most to even think about it. I’m going back and forth between feeling dismayed to have discovered that so much more needs to be done on this novel, and feeling good that I’ve figured out how to make it a more complete story. Three chapters are short and can easily be filled out with flashbacks that demonstrate the contrast between the way the characters’ relationships are now and the way they used to be. The trick for me is to catch myself when I write a summary of a scene instead of making it a specific and interesting story. Right now I’m going back and replacing all these “summary memories” with very specific (and hopefully interesting) memories that the main character has of happier days. Every time I do this, it improves the narrative threefold.

Have you written a novel or short story? How did you fill out your characters so they’re three-dimensional, real people? Were they there for a purpose, to move the plot forward, or did the people appear in your mind before the story? Just curious. Thanks for reading! :) I’ll be back and posting more regularly at some point.

Are There 25 Hours in a Day?

04 Tuesday May 2010

Posted by in Career, Editing, Freelancing, Life, Writing

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The Creative Habit, by Twyla Tharp

If you're in a creative rut, The Artist's Way will peel you off the pavement, then The Creative Habit will set your mind dancing again.

I can hear my little sister’s reaction now: “Riiiight. So how’s that workin’ for ya?” she will ask me with one eyebrow up (her eyebrow goes up so high I can hear it over the phone). She knows me. She knows I like to DO things. And boy am I ever doing things right now!

I am in a groove, as Twyla Tharp would call it. Every time I take a walk, an idea for a piece of my novel or an entirely new book project springs into my mind. “Structure the book as an escape to the outdoors in the same way Robbe-Grillet structured The Erasers city in a circle to hint at the story’s ending!” I gasp into my iPhone’s voice recorder, and suddenly the whole novel gels and the symbolism that’s already central to the plot is perfectly sewn together. Sweet! It’s not effortless, but it’s the fun kind of working up a sweat.

If you include my full-time “momming,” I am currently working 75 hours a week, but I’ve never felt more energized. That is the definition of a groove, or it should be. All grooves come to an end, but I am riding this one like a wild horse. No way am I going to let fear or distractions or anything else deter me from getting every drop of fun out of this groove.

How did I get here? I don’t really know, but the one thing I’m doing differently this time that might have something to do with it is this: I’m not over-thinking my plans. I have plans upon plans–that’s what I’m so excited about!–but I am focusing on the short-term plans right now to explore these rabbit trails, then later I’ll see if I want to pick one trail above the others. I also took Pete Michaud’s advice not to make everything perfect before launching my new blog, and that has paid dividends in creativity and forward momentum. Thanks, Pete!

Two years ago I had barely worked up the courage to say aloud that I wanted to write at all. So my self-confidence has changed as well. All I can say is, it’s about time!

If you’re in a groove or remember a good one, how did you get there? If your groove turned to a rut, what caused that to happen?

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