Storytelling is getting formulaic. This is an opportunity

There were two articles in Slate last month about summer movie doldrums that hold a lesson for storytellers, including novelists.

The first is about how Steven Spielberg predicted a disastrous summer movie season because of studios' over-reliance on formulaic blockbusters at the expense of a more diverse lineup. His prediction looks prescient so far, with relatively modest Despicable Me 2, This is the End, and The Conjuring outperforming the massively budgeted RIPD, The Lone Ranger and Pacific Rim.

The gargantuan special effects uber-spectacle this year has resulted in some gargantuan uber-flops. (Though the Star Trek, Iron Man, Superman and Fast and Furious franchises are chugging right along).

And in the second article, Peter Suderman notes how if all Hollywood movies are starting to feel familiar and formulaic... it's because they are literally following a formula . One book, Blake Snyder's Save the Cat! has become so thoroughly influential that nearly every movie made these days follows its beat by beat model. Save the Cat! doesn't just offer suggestions on structure, it literally says what needs to happen on specific pages, from the opening image that sets up the protagonist's problems to the false victory at 90 minutes to the closing image, which mirrors the opening image.

This isn't the apocalypse for storytellers. This is an opportunity.

First, it just goes to show that while you might follow the market and cash in on the short term, following your own vision will win out in the long run. This is the End is a seriously weird movie. I saw it. It was pretty enjoyable. At no point while watching the movie did I have the sense that it was focused grouped or was concerned with franchising or that anyone involved in the movie was concerned with anything other than cracking themselves up and maybe the viewers too.

The sense of "This movie may completely suck and be a flop but who cares, we had a blast making it and I can't believe people pay us money to do this" is pervasive while watching the movie. And what do you know, it didn't suck and it was a success.

Formulas also present an opportunity. Just ask George R.R. Martin.

He knew fantasy conventions, which were dominated by hero arcs and redemptive plotlines for years and years. He took those conventions, upended them, shocked his readers, and then he did it again. And again. And again.

Know those formulas and conventions. Anticipate what your reader will expect will happen. And then pull the rug out.

Just when things start feeling static and generic is when someone will come along and reinvent the paradigm. If you're following your own vision, it may well be you.

Art: Design for a Flying Machine by Leonardo da Vinci

This Week in Books 8/2/13

The Grand Tetons. Photo by me. I'm on Instagram here!

I'm back! After a whirlwind trip to San Francisco then to San Diego for Comic-Con then back to San Francisco then to Wyoming for a family vacation, I have returned to New York, where I am very glad to be sleeping in my own bed and where it has very politely cooled to a reasonable temperature. Aw, New York, I missed you too!

I also brainstormed up a, um, storm of blog topics while I was away, so expect some more regular posting and a more lively blog.

So many links! Let's get to them, shall we?

A few weeks back we had a pretty interesting discussion about race in children's books, and someone pointed me to this thought-provoking post by Ellen Oh, which has a depressing chart about the tiny percentage of authors reviewed in the NY Times who are not white, along with some of the things she experienced personally. Definitely check it out.

Another slightly cheeky take on race in books comes from The Atlantic, who notes that the purveyors of the apocalyptic "literature is dead" mantra tend to be straight white guys.

Remember when we all saw astronaut Chris Hadfield's awesome rendition of 'Space Oddity?' Well, now he has a book deal.

This week's fake bestselling memoir is brought to you by Tony Anthony.

This post really surprised me. Conventional wisdom is that authors need to get into Apple's iBookstores to sell their books. Publisher Open Air says that they sell more books through the App Store even as they compete against games and other apps.

Going to a writer's conference? Make sure you've bookmarked agent Sarah LaPolla's cheat sheet.

10 writing tips from Joss Whedon. (via Slice)

Why do readers abandon books? Which authors and books get abandoned the most? Goodreads has the stats.

Speaking of Goodreads, they now have 20 million members. But their parent company, Amazon, just suffered an unexpected loss in their last quarter.

What about the ladies? Agent Stacey Glick riffed off of an Atlantic article that wondered why so many YA novels feature girls who are yearning for love rather than thinking about careers or themselves. Glick, for one, would like to see more of just that.

Mashable published a list of 15 YA novels every adult should read. Do you agree with the choices?

Facebook advice for authors! I was interviewed by Allison Tait for some social media tips.

Writers often wonder why agents say "no" to their manuscript. Agent Rachelle Gardner tries to explain the thought process.

Many authors move mountains and sometimes fire their agents in an attempt to get a bigger advance. Legendary Martin Amis was very candid in a recent interview about regretting his actions when he fired his agent in pursuit of a £500,000 book deal.

Rory Gilmore was recorded reading 340 books over the course of the Gilmore Girls. This man plans to read them all.

Ohhhhhhhh Author Solutions. (via Ted Weinstein)

A book made out of a dress? Indeed.

Bright new shiny ideas can be very persistent, but must be made to wait their turn, as Jennifer Hubbard blogs.

The Guardian has a pretty amusing article on writers and drinking, including this priceless quote from Kingsley Amis: "The writer who writes his books on, rather than between, whisky is a lousy writer. He is probably American anyway."

J.K. Rowling discussed creating gritty, realistic characters. If you've read The Casual Vacancy, it's an interesting read.

And I haven't read it yet, but multiple people tell me Putlitzer winner Adam Johnson has apparently written quite the short story, recently published in Esquire.

And finally, just because... Best GIF ever?

Have a great weekend!

Publication alert: All Our Pretty Songs by Sarah McCarry

It's always a little nerve-wracking to read the books your friends have written because dear god what if you don't like it and then you have to pretend that you do but what if you're not a good liar and they can tell you don't really like it and then it becomes a Thing and so you try to insist, "No, I really do like it" and the other person says, "It's okay, it's totally cool if you don't like it" and BOTH OF YOU ARE LYING*.

Well. Thank goodness I had an entirely non-awkward experience when I first read the brilliant YA novel All the Pretty Songs by my good friend Sarah McCarry. I sailed right past "Whew, I like this" to "Holy crap this is so insanely good I can't believe I even KNOW you!!!"

Sarah might have thought I was kidding when I called her the LeBron James of YA. I was not. All the Pretty Songs is absolutely amazing.

If you don't believe me, ask Neil Gaiman, who tweeted his approval!

(Wait, you trust Neil Gaiman more than me??? I thought we were blog friends!!)

All the Pretty Songs is about two girls who were raised without fathers in the Seattle area. Aurora's dad was a rock star in the grunge era who committed suicide, and the narrator, her insanely close friend. When a young rocker enters the picture it throws them both for a loop and they engage in activities that are not recommended by the surgeon general but learn a whole lot about themselves and life in the process.

The relationships are memorable and the writing is incredible.

You may know Sarah as the author of the legendary blog The Rejectionist, or for her chapbook series Guillotine, or because she wrote great articles in publications or maybe this is the first you have heard of her but I assure you it won't be the last.

Please please go check out All Our Pretty Songs, which is available simultaneously in e-book, paperback and hardcover from St. Martin's Press.

Enjoy, and congratulations, Sarah!!

(*Note: This has never actually happened to me but what if it does. My imagination keeps me up at night)

What J.K. Rowling's pseudonymous novel says about commercial success

In one of the great baller moves in recent literary history, news leaked out this week that J.K. Rowling published a crime novel called The Cuckoo's Calling under the pen name Robert Galbriath.

Rowling apparently didn't just make secret arrangements with a publisher as herself, the novel was actually submitted to editors under the pen name (though it ended up with Rowling's editor for The Casual Vacancy, David Shelley). At least one editor has now confessed to passing on it:

So, I can now say that I turned down JK Rowling. I did read and say no to Cuckoo's Calling. Anyone else going to confess?
— Kate Mills (@Kate7Mills) July 14, 2013

Most of the news reports have focused on the fact that The Cuckoo's Calling received pretty glowing reviews, with Publishers Weekly calling it a "stellar debut" in a starred review. Especially after getting Michiko Kakutani'd with The Casual Vacancy, that had to have been particularly gratifying, and it's interesting to ponder whether The Casual Vacancy itself would have been reviewed differently had Rowling not been the name on the jacket.

At the same time, I think people are missing one of the other important illustrative elements of this story, which is that The Cuckoo's Calling was not a great commercial success. It had sold only 1,500 copies in Britain. Despite all those glowing reviews and being published in a commercial genre, it didn't catch on.

Some of this may have had to do with the fact that it was by most accounts, a quiet novel:

@14NC I thought this was well-written but quiet. And how do you get momentum for that? Oh wait...
— Kate Mills (@Kate7Mills) July 14, 2013

It's equally possible, even probable, that commercial success wasn't Rowling's intent and that she wanted the thrill of receiving an honest appraisal of her work unencumbered from her reputation.

Still, it was a book written by J.K. Rowling. It received terrific reviews. It was published by great publishers. And it didn't take off.

It just goes to show how fleeting commercial success is in the book world. Take away those magical series of events that result in bestsellerdom and it's just another well-received crime novel that fails to catch fire.

Even J.K. Rowling can write a good book that drops into the ocean and barely makes a ripple. 

Art: Elegante Gesellschaft by Adolphe Stache

Off to California!

Photo by me. I'm on Instagram here

Blogging may be a bit sporadic the next few weeks as I am off to the great state of California for a mix of work, ComicCon and friends-seeing. I hope to see you, though if I don't, it's on account of it being a crazy few weeks.

If you're going to ComicCon next week, do not miss the panel I am terribly lucky to be moderating, which includes such luminaries as Rachel Cohn (Beta), Mark Frost (The Paladin Prophecy), Rachel Hawkins (Hex Hall Series), Tahereh Mafi (Unravel Me), Chelsea Pitcher (The S Word), Ransom Riggs (Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children), Veronica Rossi (Through the Ever Night), Rainbow Rowell (Eleanor and Park), and Emma Trevayne (Coda).

I KNOW. I can't tell you how excited I am.

I may dip back into the blog during my travels, but otherwise I will return to a semi-regular schedule in August!

You Can Never Predict Your Bad Reviews

Everyone knows they're going to get a bad review. Whether they come in the form of a query letter rejection, baffling missives from publishers, or, after publication, getting Michiko Kakutani'd in The New York Times, everyone, and I mean everyone, gets bad reviews.

Since you know these bad reviews are coming, it then seems to follow that you will be able to guess which parts of your book people might not like.

Guess what: You cannot.

You'll never guess what people will find to criticize in your book. You'll always be surprised. There's a reason I used this GIF to illustrate the experience of receiving a review in my Publishing Process in GIF form post:

You can't see them coming, they catch you wildly off guard, and they're rather terrifying.

I actually think this illuminates an interesting part of the writing and revision process. It's almost as if we are so worried making about certain mistakes and weaknesses, we actually head them off and don't end up making them. You might be deeply worried that your pacing is too slow or your dialogue is weak. Then, by merely worrying about them, chances are you took the necessary measures to counteract the problems. But those problems are still in your head.

Those won't be the things that people pick up on. Instead, the bad reviews stem from problems we couldn't see, they might even pick up on things that aren't even there entirely and, of course, the whole shebang is just an inevitable result of the subjectivity of reading. Some people just ain't going to like your book.

It's tempting to think you can outfox a bad review. You can't. They'll always end up taking you by surprise.

Art: Horse Frightened by a Lion by George Stubbs

The Last Few in Books 6/28/13

Soho at sunset. Photo by me. I'm on Instagram here!

Whew! Lots of things have happened in the past few weeks. Let's get to it.

Holy wow, Tim Burton is going to direct Ransom Rigg's Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children. Congrats, Ransom!!

Very sad news as bestselling author Vince Flynn passed away after a long battle with cancer. He was 47, and one of the most successful authors who started out as a self-publisher.

Um, so Ernest Hemingway. Failed KGB spy? (via Ben Dreyfuss)

Do self-published authors need ISBNs, those random string of numbers that identify books? You might want to check with Bowker, who is the agency that assigns them. (via GalleyCat)

Ever wonder what the first outlines of great works of literature look like? Me too. Thank you, Flavorwire. (via Crystal)

Congrats to Rysa Walker, who won the Amazon Breakthrough Novel award!

Do authors deserve higher e-book royalty rates? Agent Brian DiFiore argues a very passionate yes, based on numbers from publishers. I would tend to agree.

The BBC posted a fascinating article about an analysis of a short story competition for children that generated 90,000 entries, looking at which words the children used most and what it reveals. The results are a must-read for children's book authors especially. (via Egya)

The LA Times profiled a new book-oriented social network that hopes to compete with Goodreads called Booklikes.

Publisher Melville House argues that there are zero defensible reasons for authors to link to Amazon. Welp. Here's one: Some people like to read books they bought at Amazon? Who are authors to dictate how people should buy their books?

Lots of people were shocked by the "Red Wedding" episode of Game of Thrones.  Including, The Onion would have it, George R.R. Martin: "Oh s*** I totally forgot that happens!"

On a more serious note, io9 looked at 10 sources George R.R. Martin drew upon for GOT.

And finally, you may have seen astronaut Chris Hadfield's totally incredible cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity," which Hadfield shot in space. Which raises the question: Um, how does copyright work in space, anyway? The answer is surprisingly interesting. And here's the video, in case you missed it:



Have a great weekend!

Race, Children's Books and Jacob Wonderbar

There has been some justified talk about the state of race in children's books lately. Most recently, First Book issued the infographic above about a recent survey that illustrated how few characters are non-white in children's books. Lee and Low asked why the number of multicultural books haven't increased in the past eighteen years.

If the numbers are accurate, it's a wakeup call for authors everywhere.

And that's not because of quotas or any particular agenda. It's because children's books are not reflecting the lives of children in America today.

The census bureau recently announced that for the first time, non-whites and mixed race children accounted for a majority of births in America. We Americans are living in an increasingly diverse country, and while story is ultimately more important than strict fidelity to the world we live in, it's nevertheless disquieting for fiction to diverge from reality that starkly.

In my own experience, my main character is mixed race. Jacob Wonderbar has an African American mother and a white father who, for the record, may also be from outer space.

Though interestingly, I've very very rarely seen reference to Jacob's race in reviews and have never seen it included on a list of books with minority or mixed race characters. A few reviewers have noted it, but not many. Partly, no doubt, this is because of how I handled Jacob's race in the novels, which is briefly mentioned in an oblique way and doesn't occupy much of the narrative at all.

This was a conscious choice. Jacob spends the vast majority of his time with his friends, who don't dwell on it at all, and with space humans, who are far more concerned with the fact that he is an "Earther."

These books aren't "about" Jacob's mixed-raceness. It's just a part of him, and one that his friends have accepted so wholly as a basic, nonthreatening reality that they don't find it necessary to talk about it.

I'm hoping we're moving toward that world. And while I'd never tell another author how to write their novel, I hope we all as children's book authors strive to create our novels in a way that today's children will find relevant, meaningful and reflective of the world they live in.

Are you troubled by these statistics?

Are You Reading More or Less Than You Used To?

Maybe it's because we're all living a hectic urban life, but I cannot count the number of friends who have sheepishly admitted that they haven't read a book in a long time.

They're reading more magazine articles or spending more time on Twitter or they're addicted to Dots.

We are now walking around with mini-distractors in our pockets, things that are beeping at us and alerting us and giving us endless opportunities to check our e-mail repeatedly like a nervous tic.

Personally I'm reading more books for pleasure than I ever have, mostly thanks to that little distractor. I can whip out my phone and read anywhere I have a spare second, and then retreat to an iPad when I'm at home.

Are you reading more or less than you used to? Are your reading habits changing in the smartphone era?

Poll below.

Art: A Study for "Paradise Lost" by Mihály Munkácsy

When It Feels Like There's Nothing Left to Be Written

There's a fantastic moment in the movie The Truman Show where young Truman tells his teacher that he wants to be an explorer like the great Magellan. His teacher pulls down a map and says cheerfully, "Oh, you're too late! There's nothing left to explore!"

It can sometimes feel this way when writing too. There are hundreds of thousands of books out there. Every genre feels well-worn. We have the voices of hundreds of writers swimming around our heads.

How can we stand out from the pack? How are we going to get someone to read our book instead of all the others ones? What's going to make ours different and better?

Writers are often their own worst enemies in this regard. The type of person who will eventually write a successful novel is adept at spotting their own flaws, and mistakes are plentiful at the beginning of the novel-writing process.

What often stops would-be writers in their tracks is that their first efforts aren't very good. And they know it. The voice sounds like another author's voice, the plot feels like an imitation of a book they've already read, and it doesn't start out feeling particularly original.

As with every writing problem, there is only one remedy: Keep writing. Keep pushing on. It feels like there's nothing new out there, but as Truman himself finds out at the end of The Truman Show, that's not remotely true.

You can write your way to originality, you can write your way to a voice, and you can write your way to a unique plot. It may not start out that way, but if you keep pushing through and keep trying you'll end up in a place you never knew existed.

Don't give up. There are still plenty of worlds to be discovered.

Art: Kunst- und Raritätenkabinett by Hans Jordaens III