by Charlene Teglia | Aug 20, 2005 | Uncategorized
I haven’t been trying to be mysterious about my goals and my business plan, although I’m not about to post the whole freaking thing here, but discussion over at Jordan’s on the topic of long range goals made me want to be a little more specific about the whole goals/plan thing.
First of all, I believe in having a plan. If you don’t know what you want to achieve, how will you know when you get there? Further, if you aren’t living according to your own plan, you’re likely to find yourself drifting along with somebody else’s. Which is fine if you don’t mind that, but you might end up someplace you never wanted to be. Or going all over the place as various others direct. Maybe I’m just a noncomformist at heart, but that gives me hives. If I find myself going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, I want it to be because I thought it was a brilliant idea, not because somebody else thought I should and I went along with it.
So. If you’re in business, you have a business plan and make no mistake, writing is a business. If you don’t think so, you’ll find out in a hurry that publishers have a different view. A business plan is not hard to create. There’s software that walks you through it, there are books that lay out how to do it on a fill-in-the-blanks level. It makes you get very clear about what you want to accomplish and how you’re going to do it. Including things like marketing and PR. You won’t go to writer hell if you don’t have a business plan, but to quote a friend of mine, “I’m not saying he has to have a five year plan, but he ought to at least have a five minute plan.”
My impulses described a couple of posts back are more than that, in other words. I pay attention to my creative leadings, but I also look at them in terms of my big picture. Write for RT fits in how? The following ways. #1, I love RT. #2, I find articles a fun creative challenge. #3, RT is THE magazine for romance readers and industry professionals and having my byline there would be smart business.
If you don’t love something, I firmly believe that no matter how much money is involved or how much sense it makes on a business level, it’s not a good fit in the big picture. If I didn’t love RT or writing articles, I wouldn’t make pitching there a goal.
Novellas: I really, really enjoyed the structural challenge of writing for the Ellora’s Cavemen anthology. Novellas and quickie-length stories are a terrific technical challenge that I want to do more of. They also allow for different types of stories than you could do in a novel. There isn’t a lot of room for subplots and extended cast of characters, which allows a very tight focus on the main characters. That in itself is very fun. Also anthologies are a good way to get noticed by new readers. Reader picks up the book for Author A, discovers new author and goes looking for more. Being in more anthologies fits in with my goal of growing my readership, plus I like anthologies and think they’re fun and I love the creative/technical challenge they present.
The synopsis I’m working on is for a new opportunity I’m interested in pursuing. When the Blaze line first came out I was very excited about it. And then I discovered that the vision for the line was a Cosmo Girl/Sex in the City tone and that’s just not me. I still have some Blaze keepers on my shelf, but overall, I found the line not a good match for the kind of story I produce and I’ve never submitted there. But now Blaze has been expanded. Blaze Extreme is coming and they’re looking for stories with a Red Shoe Diaries tone. That made my little heart go pit-a-pat because I consider Red Shoe Diaries some of the best programming for adults ever broadcast.
When the original Red Shoe Diaries episode aired it knocked my socks off. I was hooked. I haven’t forgotten it, either. Those stories were edgy, erotic, emotionally intense and peopled by unforgettable characters. If Blaze is going there, I’m interested. Very interested. Enough to beat myself up with the task of writing a synopsis for an unfinished story that has that tone so I can send it to the Blaze contest and see if it flies.
So today I’m still working on that synopsis. It might well take me right up to the contest deadline to be satisfied with it, but anything worth doing is worth taking the time to do right. And I’m not going to run out of sludge or coffee in the process.
*I’d link to Jordan Summer’s site for the related discussion there, but I’m getting an error there instead of the site now. Internet gremlins!
by Charlene Teglia | Aug 19, 2005 | Uncategorized
I’ve had this story kicking around for some time that I haven’t known what to do with, and now things have changed in the market to the point that I see a good place to send it.
All I have to do is write a synopsis. For a story that isn’t finished.
For many writers, not a big deal. For me, problemlatic because my synopsis before a story is done tends to be a road map for the story but not exactly a detailed plot outline. My guide is my theme. In this case, I have the theme, the core of the story, and I’ve got the first chapter done. From this I need to hash out a reasonably coherent synopsis that would make an editor believe I actually know what I’m doing. (My subconscious always knows what it’s doing. It just doesn’t always let my conscious mind in on the plan.)
I’m tackling this today powered by sludge and coffee, both of which I have in industrial-sized containers thanks to Costco. No fear of running out. I will see if I can’t get subconcious Writing Brain to cough up enough clues for conscious Thinking Brain to work with. Or hope what I’ve got written is so gripping that coupled with my background (I’ve finished books before when I knew less than this going in! And readers bought them!) that Mystery Editor will take a chance on me.
Oh, damn, now I’ve got that ABBA song stuck in my head.
by Charlene Teglia | Aug 18, 2005 | Uncategorized
For Book In A Week I’m doing something I needed to do while I was pregnant but didn’t have the brain cells to spare: updating my business plan. What projects to do in what order, and who I’ll be stalking. Like Giselle, for instance.
Giselle is the lovely woman at RT who answered my email questions about advertising and now I’m on her mailing list. Which means every month I get an email about upcoming issue themes and where to pitch ideas for articles to fit in with them. This month I got the email, read it, and said to myself, “I’ve written articles for lots of other people, why not Romantic Times? I should pitch.”
To show how nebulous impulse translates to business plan, this means my impulse (why not write an article for RT) appears in my business plan as “brainstorm, develop and pitch idea every month after Giselle’s email until they say yes.” Or until Giselle takes me off her mailing list, which she might do if my ideas are bad enough and she gets tired of me stalking her with pitches a blind man wouldn’t swing at.
I have other impulses; appear in a Secrets anthology, work with Kate Duffy on a project. No, I don’t want to leave EC. I love EC. I’m happy at EC. But I’m not under exclusive contract, which means I’m free to follow these creative impulses. So in my business plan I’m including writing and submitting novellas for Red Sage and Brava respectively. The bulk of my plan has to do with EC projects, but it’s good to be creatively satisfied. I’ll get creative satisfaction from doing slightly different projects. And that goes back to feeding the muse. I don’t want my work to become stale. My business plan includes my goal of a certain level of income, but it’s not all about money. It’s also important to me to be happy in my work and to stretch myself.
One of the reasons I said yes to the Romancing The Blog column was because I knew it would stretch me. Writing a column is different from writing long fiction pieces. Think of it as cross-training for writers. Cross-training works different muscles in different ways so you don’t exclusively use one set and develop an injury from overuse. My plan includes some creative cross-training.
So that’s what I’ve been working on all week, in addition to the Great House Saga. I’ve made tremendous progress and I’m excited about the work ahead.
by Charlene Teglia | Aug 15, 2005 | Uncategorized
“Close to everything” they mean “Including the police station, which is good, because in this neighborhood you’ll need them often.”
“Convenient access to I-5” they mean “House is built under the freeway.”
“Beautiful landscaping” they mean “You don’t want to go inside this one.”
“Fixer-upper” they mean “needs wiring, plumbing, roofing, and then there was the meth lab in the basement…”
“Evidence of lead” they mean “And when you go to sell this sucker, you’ll be stuck removing every inch of paint from every wall, inside and out, and getting it certified lead-free.”
“Cute and cozy” they mean “Bring a can opener to get in the front door.”
“Quaint and charming” they mean “Best appreciated by an owner with a serious drug habit.”
“Fully fenced” they mean “Neighbor raises pit bulls and doesn’t have a fence. We advise you to never leave the yard.”
Househunting score so far: houses, 3, us, zero. But I’m not bitter.
by Charlene Teglia | Aug 15, 2005 | Uncategorized
The Romance Studio has reviewed Dangerous Games. Not only did it rate a stupendous 4.5 Hearts, but the reviewer, Sam, made me laugh out loud with comments like “Melinda is, miraculously enough, a level headed, adorable character with more sense than sensibility – one of the few heroines I don’t want bash over the head and dump in the river,” and called the book “refreshingly free of tantrums, hurt feelings and misunderstandings.”
There you have it, straight from TRS Blue! Read Dangerous Games for a heroine you won’t want to bludgeon.
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