This is a good discussion on rituals that help you write, by Stephen Graham Jones. I try to stay away from rituals because they put you in a mindset of needing certain conditions to exist before you can be productive. That doesn’t mean I’m successful in staying away from them, but I do try. And in reading this, I recognize myself in Mr. Jones’s trap of a self-made gauntlet that’s also a ritual, and that really needs to be something more of us are aware of.

I almost fell into it again when I read this article. I subscribe to the Writer’s Digest newsletter, along with others, and when a whole bunch of emails get stacked up, I read through what looks interesting, copy down the URLs for the ones I’d like to discuss in a blog post, and get back to perusing all those other emails I need to look at. Along with Facebook, Instagram, other blogs, fetching the mail, checking the weather report, practicing guitar, and on and on. So I stopped myself and started this blog entry and I’m going to finish it and be proud of myself just a little.

So here’s Stephen Graham Jones. He’s worthy of a listen because he’s successfully written and published and overcome his own non-ritual ritual situation, at least occasionally, and has things to say that show you you’re not alone when you do what you do, and make you think about how to do it all better. So take a look. Couldn’t hurt!

The Case Against Writing Rituals

Many writers have certain requirements in order to get to writing: the right lighting, a particular pen, or a favorite mug. Author Stephen Graham Jones offers a different perspective on ways to get to work without ritual.

STEPHEN GRAHAM JONES
Sep 9, 2021

I have two axioms I fall back on for writing. The first is from one of my uncles. We were working on a tractor out in the field one day when he stopped and told me that if I ever waited to have kids until there was enough money for kids, that I’d never have kids.

While pretty suspect advice to give a 16 year old, I’ve always just applied this to writing: If you wait until you’re good enough to try this novel, to submit to this market, to query this agent, then you’ll never write that novel. You’ll never submit to that market. You’ll never talk to that agent.

You can’t wait, you’ve got to just jump. Like Bradbury said, build your wings on the way down.

This has never failed me. I’ve gotten plenty of rejections, I’ve had a novel or two fizzle halfway through. But I’ve gotten a lot of acceptances, too, and finished many more novels than not.

The other axiom is more Dr. Spock—the baby-book one, not the Star Trek one. It’s that old saw about new parents throwing a raucous dinner party in their apartment. Very soon it becomes time to put the baby to bed, so the dinner guests try to hush themselves. But these parents tell them no, no, keep going, be as loud as you can, be louder if you want, please. We want to train this kid to fall asleep no matter the noise. If this kid starts needing special conditions in order to sleep, then all bets are off.

How I’ve applied this to writing is that I shouldn’t need special conditions in order to get some words down on the page. Which is to say, I should be careful of ever ritualizing this thing. It doesn’t need to be a certain time of day, I don’t need to have this or that special mug, the curtains don’t need to be open or shut, the light can be however, and who cares what sounds are leaking in to wherever I am?

This has always worked great for me as well. All I need to get some pages down is a single seat in a bustling airport, or a corner of this hotel lobby, or an overhang mostly out of the rain at this bus stop. The more you can train yourself to write anywhere—everywhere—the more you can get done. While part of thinking like that is not falling into the trap that “writing is special” or “sacred,” the bigger part is just being able to turn the world off, lose yourself in another one.

However, strict as I’ve always tried to be regarding this—no rituals! no rituals!—it’s so easy to slip, isn’t it? I mean, fiction, it basically works by magical thinking, which is a lot like superstition. 

Example: About 15 years ago, I was wearing this one ugly winter hat for a novel I was writing, and that novel worked out. So? I naturally ascribed the magic to that hat, and made it my new writing buddy. Every time I sat down to the keyboard, I’d pull that hat on, get cooking.

All it took to break me of that, though, was accidentally answering the door while wearing that hat the following summer, and seeing in this guest’s hesitant eyes how ridiculous I was being. I threw that hat away fast, kept writing. Problem solved. Easy.

Until it wasn’t.

Barbara Poelle is one of those people you just have to like.  Well, you don’t have to, but you do anyway, because she’s funny and witty and gives out good advice and is a literary agent with the Irene Goodman Literary Agency.  You’ll like that last part even more if you send her a query for your masterpiece and she starts stalking you in hopes of acquiring it.  Before she got into the Agent Biz, she was a freelance copywriter, and editor, and even a standup comic, which you can easily believe if you read her columns.  The columns I speak of are in Writer’s Digest and are titled, “Funny You Should Ask,” and they answer all sorts of questions about writing and the publishing business.  This is one place you can get all that good advice.

But wait…there’s more!  Writer’s Digest gathered 10 of her columns together in a handy little bunch and sent them to me so I could find out a whole lot at once.  They didn’t do it because they like me…they did it because I subscribe to their newsletter.  So here’s a plug for their newsletter: it has lots of good stuff in it and you should subscribe if you want to see good stuff, like Ms. Poelle’s columns.  A really good reason is that it’s free, and you can also unsubscribe if it doesn’t suit you, so it looks like you’ve got nothing to lose here.

But if you haven’t subscribed already, I’m here to lead you to all those links with an enticing little intro to whet your appetite for a little more of Ms. Poelle’s advice.  So below is a sample column and a link to the bunch of other columns, and here’s a small heads-up to go with it: the Writer’s Digest link to the second column accidentally goes back to the first column, so the real link to the second column is right HERE.   Feel free to bounce back and forth willy-nilly.  You’re welcome.

And there’s even more!  She has written a book that’s available on Amazon, and it includes over 100 of her columns, along with writing exercises, submission checklists, and who-knows-what-all-kinds-of-happy-stuff.  And HERE’s a link to that so you can wangle yourself a paperback or Kindle copy, and now you have access to all kinds of Barbara Poelle stuff.  What’s not to like?

10 Writing and Publishing Questions Answered by Literary Agent Barbara Poelle

Author: Barbara Poelle
Aug 30, 2021

Editor’s note: Funny You Should Ask is a rare column that just happens to appear in each issue of Writer’s Digest magazine. It’s humorous, for sure, but it’s also loaded with great writing and publishing advice from an actual literary agent. In this post, we’ve collected 10 columns written by literary agent Barbara Poelle. 

Funny You Should Ask: What Is Going to Be the Next Big Trend in Fiction?

Funny You Should Ask is a humorous and handy column by literary agent Barbara Poelle. In this edition, she discusses the next big fiction trend, and whether or not all books are the same.

Barbara Poelle
Jul 24, 2021

Dear FYSA,

What is going to be the next big trend in fiction?

Signed,
Pencil Poised

Dear Poised,

I am so glad you asked. I have been absolutely dying to tell someone. The next big trend is going to be … Amish steampunk crossover YA told in second person.

Right? I know! How did we not all see that one coming? It is so obvious!

OK, fine, that most likely is not the next trend, but it could be. Trends, generally speaking, are usually ignited in two specific beats on a publishing timeline: When a novel is shopped and at point of publication. The books we sell to publishers today in most cases will not see the shelves until fall 2022, so the themes, tropes, and trends you are seeing today were mostly put into motion up to two years ago when a title was initially shopped to the marketplace.

When a superbly conceived novel is sent out for consideration and creates enough enthusiasm for an auction, there can only be one winning editor. The underbidding imprints will then have a whetted appetite for something similar, and may reach out and say “Hey, I just lost an auction for an amaaaaaaazing Amish steampunk crossover YA, do you have anything similar?” And that is how you may get a bloat of steampunk YA in a future publishing season. (I have recently become obsessed with the names of groupings of animals. Like a bloat of hippopotami—could I be any more delighted with that?—and I am trying to pepper them into everyday usage. Just let me.)

When a novel is published to fanfare and the ensuing word of mouth builds enthusiasm, booksellers will be more inclined to be looking for “the same but different” from publishers in order to keep readers returning to their registers. Like when Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl published and we soon saw a smack of domestic thrillers riding that wave. (Guess what that one is … jellyfish! A smack of jellyfish! I am barking with glee.)

However, let me be clear. I know I have said this before, but it is worth saying many times because I believe the real question being asked of me here is: What should I be writing in order to get that book deal? You should be writing a novel that pays attention to craft, technique, and detail. You should be writing a novel with fully realized characters, accessible yet nuanced imagery, and a storyline that promises the reader a journey both into the world and themselves. You should be writing the novel that your muse says is worth the time and effort and makes you sweat to make every word count. That’s the parliament you want to be counted among. (OWLS! *cackles with glee*)

Dear FYSA,

Let’s be honest. All books are the same. The only difference is in how much marketing and publicity they receive. How do you get a publisher to spend some real money on a book?

Signed,
In the Know

Dear In the Know,

I think you used the wrong homophone in your signature, because I feel like it’s more like, In the NO! Gosh mister, whoever put the beetles in your cornflakes this morning really accomplished their goal—you are gettin’ up swingin’ today, and how! (I don’t know if I used “and how” correctly but try saying that sentence out loud like a newsboy in the 1800s and you’ll find it immensely satisfying.)

I would like to start by asking that we set down the idea that “all books are the same.” That doesn’t serve anyone as an author or a reader—and I feel that you and I could find so many titles that defy that sentence.

So! Let me say—there are certain books tapped by the publisher to get the lion’s share of a marketing budget, and some that aren’t. That will be determined most often initially by the P&L generated by the publisher at point of offer. The P&L (profit and loss) will use a variety of data points to predict how the book might perform in the marketplace versus how much it will cost in labor and production and therefore give a ballpark for the advance. The marketing budget will be included in that labor and production portion. (The dollar amount for a budget is not usually shared at point of offer, or even ever, with the author and her agent, but an overview of intent will be.) This amount will certainly inflate if there were multiple competitors bidding at point of sale, and that is one way an agent can “get” publishers to spend more—having a spectacular novel that was in high demand to begin with.

BUT! I have seen, many times, books organically explode on the scene with word of mouth in-house, in early reviews, and from social media tastemakers, and that is nothing about the publisher spending money, but a clear mandate by the readers that what they have read is, ahem, original and exciting. To feel more invested in what this can look like, start paying attention to what makes you finally decide to buy a book—start to read like a consumer as well as a reader and an author—and starting turning your “no” into a “know.”