Ever wondered what big time New York Times bestselling authors know that sets their books apart from rest?� � There must be a secret, right? You know what? There isn’t one. It turns out there are many ‘Insider Secrets’ and it turns out, all you have to do is ask and there are a number of generous literary superstars willing to share! Here are few keepers from some of my favorite New York Times bestselling authors.
Christine Feehan ~ “Write your characters as vividly alive and engaging as possible. You want your readers to be so emotionally involved with your characters that your reader feels and smells and lives every moment in your world.”
»Christine makes it seem effortless. She breathes life into her characters by giving them flaws, weaknesses, desires, pasts–which gives them room to grow. It’s no accident her books consistently top the bestseller lists.
Catherine Coulter ~ “Don’t ever try to choreograph an important scene in your brain or wait for inspiration or the muse to come down and visit you. Just sit down and write it. It doesn’t matter if it’s bad. What matters is that you’ve got something tangible for your brain to work on. Never forget: you want to point to pages, not drive yourself nuts trying to think up stuff.”
» Sometimes I seem to need a seat belt to keep me in the chair, but for me there is no better advice that just sit down and write.
Teresa Medeiros ~ “Don’t ever forget that the craft of writing is a skill that can be improved. Learn how to write a good sentence, then learn how to edit that sentence to make it better. You can have the most wonderful story in the world to tell, but if you don’t have the language to tell that story, then the world will never hear it.”
» Hone your writing skills. I hear editors say this at writers conferences again and again. Oh, and if you ever meet him, tell the guy who invented Spell Check he rocks!
Stephanie Laurens ~ “Every storyteller has a different voice. The writing is the medium that carries our voice to our audience, which means that the voice should determine the writing, not the other way around.”
» Have you noticed a theme to these writers tips? I have. Many of today’s most successful authors are giving the same basic advice–stay true to your voice
Kat Martin ~ “Perseverance is the key to success in this business. First in getting published, often, even after your first few books come out, there are problems that seem impossible to overcome and good writers simply quit. Follow your dream and don’t give up!”
Mary Balogh ~ “A writer’s single most precious asset is her own unique and individual voice and vision. But it is an intangible and fragile thing and can easily become lost or distorted from contamination by outside influences. Guard it at all costs even at the expense–if necessary–of staying away from workshops, not talking shop with other writers, not consulting critiquing groups or partners, and not listening to writing tips (including this one!).”
Carly Phillips ~ “Believe in yourself enough to finish a book, submit it and start something new. Don’t spend your career revising one manuscript in the hopes that it will sell. You learn with each book that you write, so continue to provide fresh material for editors to look at.”
» Carly’s right. Endless revising kills the immediacy of your story. Stretch your wings and try something fresh. You’ll learn a lot with each new book you write.
Laura Kinsale ~ “Don’t write pure description to create a setting, instead bring it to life by having the characters interact with it. Keep the setting in motion, not static.” Instead of saying something like, “There was a big stone hearth with a fire burning in it,” put the character and the conflict into the setting description: Allegreto dropped her letter in the fire. He sat down before the great hearth, watching the wax melt in a sizzling red stream and drip to the stone while the parchment smoked and took flame. Her entreaties to him slowly vanished, marks of ink that blackened and curled and fell away to ash.– Shadowheart, 2004
» Great lesson! No one can use description as deftly as Laura Kinsale. Read her books…and learn from the master.
Anne Rice ~ “Don’t listen to anyone. The great thing about our profession is that there are as many ways to be a writer as there are writers. Just write! And don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it.”
» If anyone is proof positive that you can forget the rules and be a success by writing the book of your heart, it’s Anne Rice. Dare to do it your way.
Janelle Taylor ~ “Remember the importance of Line One, Paragraph One, Page One, Chapter One.”
» Janelle explains: “Why? Because that’s as far as most editors and readers will get if you don’t grab their attention fast and hard with a great hook, characters, and dialogue. I especially love creating memorable “gotcha” First Lines. A shocking question or statement makes a great snare.”
Maggie Shayne ~ “You know how when you’re reading a book, you come to those long, tedious passages of description or narrative that go on and on, and how you end up skimming them, or skipping them altogether in order to get back to the story? Yeah. Don’t write those.”
» Maggie just cuts to chase, doesn’t she? Great advice.
Lisa Kleypas ~ “Give the romantic relationship in your story a sense of life-and-death urgency. Even if the potential failure of the relationship might not result in literal death, at the very least life will hardly be worth living.”
» Lisa explains this tip best. “I realized this when I reflected on what makes our first love so magical, and perceived that it was the sense of desperation we all felt as teenagers. Capturing just a little of this in a romance is what makes it heart-wrenching and wonderful!”
Julia Quinn ~ “Your skill will determine how far you go in this business. Your luck will determine how fast you get there.”
» I totally agree, but I also believe that luck is simply when preparedness and opportunity meet. Before Julia’s first book sold, she had completed a second. She was ready for success. Be ready to soar when luck comes your way.
Eloisa James ~
“Give yourself permission to be a bad writer. You can cut it later. You’ll feel the click — joy, really — when your imagination takes hold.”
» Eloisa confided that sometimes it takes her five pages before her imagination takes hold. My take? Turn off that internal editor and just write. If you write it, it will come.
Nora Roberts ~
“Write your first draft in dialogue with just a little stage direction.”
» Why? The pace will be phenomenal and story will evolve through the character dialogue rather than through the narrative.
Mary Jo Putney ~ “It takes a little arrogance to be a writer. Only you know what is best for your story.”
» Bottom line, trust your own instincts. This bit of advice, as simple as it is, was pivotal in my writing career and enabled me to sell my first book.
Kristin Hannah~
“Revision can be the difference between making it and not.”
» Ever heard the saying that the real writing is in the rewriting? It’s true. It’s here where the author hones the conflict, amplifies goals, tightens motivations, smoothes the prose, and pumps up the characterization. Whew, I’m tired already!
James Patterson ~ “Write each chapter as though it’s your first.”
» Wow. My take? Write it tight, start as late in the scene as possible, end as early as you can with a cliff hanger. In the end, the book will be so tight you can bounce a quarter off it.
Barry Eisler ~ “Read like a writer. That is, read and reread books and passages from books that you love, and ask yourself what the writer is doing that’s working so well. Or if something you’re reading seems bad to you, ask yourself why it’s bad an how it could be made better. By reading like a writer, you learn to spot, articulate, grasp, and then apply technique – that is, craft. And behind all art you will find craft.”
» Fantastic advice. Try applying a critical eye to the opening few lines of a few best-selling novels, classics–or any book that resonates with you. Compare what you’ve read. Quite likely the openings will be very different, except in one respect. They all will exhibit a certain mastery of craft.
Susan Wiggs ~ “Don’t be afraid of bleeding on the page. No matter what you write–comedy, drama, thriller, paranormal–it’s essential to be authentic and genuine with your characters and their emotions. If an emotion or sentiment you’ve written makes you feel naked and vulnerable, you’re probably on the right track.”
» Why? According to Susan, “Because readers are smart. They’ll spot a phony every time.”
Susan Elizabeth Phillips ~ “WRITE! Does this sound strange? I’ve been amazed at the number of people who worry about selling their manuscript when they don’t have a manuscript to sell. The first step in getting your book published is to write the book! Editors won’t buy your “good idea.” They need to read the pages.”
» Such simple advice, but this is what is all about. Everyone wants to write a book. A writer sits down in a chair and does it.
Connie Brockway ~ “Honesty. I know we make things up for a living and we create characters that are as fascinating as we can fashion them but there has to be a core of honesty in every exchange, every character, every relationship. When I’m editing and something doesn’t strike me as being “right” in inevitably ends up being because it’s not true to the character, it’s just convenient for what I want to happen in the book and readers pick up dishonesty like skunk on a dog.”
» Actually Connie’s top tip was “gold colored lip gloss,” which I will have to try. But did you notice that both Connie Brockway and Susan Wiggs, two authors known for the resonance of their characters, cited being honest as their top writing tip?
