Writsy Stuff

I subscribe to author/quilt designer Carol Doak's monthly newsletter, mainly because I like her how-to books on paper piecing and want to know whenever she publishes something new. This month she mentioned the success she's having with teaching online classes at Craftsy.com, the hot new how-to crafting site. According to her newsletter in about a month she had 3,000 students sign up for her class on paper piecing, and even at the currently discounted price of $29.95 per student that comes close to making $100K in a month.

Startling figures, to say the least. Some disclaimers: I don't know how much of that Craftsy.com takes as commission or any other details involved in teaching one of their classes. It should also be mentioned that Carol is already quite well known in the quilting world as a very talented and innovative writer and artist. I noted that one draw may be that she includes free for her students a companion e-book which is valued at half the price of the class, which is an excellent bonus. I thought I'd mention it primarily for any of you who may have published how-to craft books and want to check out what's involved in teaching a class.

It would be great if there were a Craftsy.com-type site for writers (Writsy!) where you could sign up to learn how to write a proper query, what needs to be in a submission package, how to efficiently edit a chapter or even the real nuts and bolts of how to put together an e-book when going the indie route. There are a couple of obvious problems with that idea; the primary one being that writing does not translate as well to video as something like crafting. Writing happens in your head and on the computer and the page, and even the most basic screenshots quickly become tedious (or incomprehensible) in video's rapid delivery of visuals. Filming writing workshops like the kind put on at conferences might be a solution, as long as the instructor is a gifted speaker and does something besides talk.

The other big problem is that there is no one go-to, this-is-how-you-do-it standard for everything professional writers do. I think it would be tough to get everyone to agree on a standard as well -- a good example is simply how you write a novel synopsis. I learned first what synopses were and how to write them via my subscription to Writer's Digest magazine -- until an editor asked me why I wrote such odd synopses. Once I explaining that I was following examples from WD articles, the editor informed me that my synopses were in fact too short, that I should not put every character's name in all caps and I wasn't detailing my plot twists or my endings. I asked for an example I could follow, but the editor wouldn't give me one, so I began blindly writing longer synopses, ditched capping the character names and revealed all -- until another editor complained that my synopses were too long and too detailed.

The editor after that one wanted to know why I didn't write out the relationship arcs (and then had to explain to me what those were.) Another asked for chapter summaries to go along with the synopsis. The one after that, who started working with me in mid-series, asked for one-paragraph synopses for all the previous books (and if you want a real writing challenge, try to condense a novel series that contains hundreds of characters and settings and plot lines and over a million words altogether into just nine paragraphs.)

To this day practically every editor I work for has a slightly different opinion about what should or shouldn't be in a synopsis. Some want a lot, others just want bare bones, and still others want something I've never before done. That's why I put together a synopses bible on all the books I've sold so I can at least review what I've done in the past that worked. When I teach writing synopses, I also use for examples only the ones which have resulted in contract offers.

Until someone does come up with enough standards for writers to create a Writsy.com there are plenty of online classes for writers. A few weeks back I noted author Barbara Samuel is teaching an online class on voice; the way she has this set up (maintaining a small class size, the triad approach of lectures/exercises/discussions, and offering a scholarship as well as discounts for group) seems like a sensible way to go about it. Before you invest consider all these things as well as what sort of talent and experience the instructor offers, and let that be your guide.

Educationally Free

Copywriter and Men with Pens blog owner James Chartrand is holding a contest for his Damn Fine Words online writing course; the winners each receive a free spot in the class. To enter, you have to write a blog article, minimum 450 words, on why writing is important to you and how better writing skills would change your business or your life, and post it on your blog, and then do some linking. No entry fee, deadline is May 1 at 7 am EST; see contest post for more details.

I'm at the halfway point of my online art class now, and I feel that I've already gotten twice my money's worth in advice and instruction, so that's working out quite well (and I will be relating more about the class once I'm finished, for those of you who were curious about it.) It's also nice to shed the authorial albatross for a couple of weeks and be a regular person.

Over the years I've been approached by various colleagues and organizations to do pay-for online writing classes, and while I've been flattered I've always declined. It's not that I think there's anything wrong with charging people to learn about writing; talented writers who share their knowledge certainly have the right to be compensated for it, and teaching for money helps them supplement their writing income which for most of them, let's face it, is probably never going to be the stuff of instant retirement.

I'm a child of public education, though, and my university was the local library; I teach for free to honor the librarians and public school teachers who guided me in this direction, and to be there for all the writers like me who could never afford to pay for classes. Aka my little personal Crusade.

My past efforts at online teaching have been both rewarding and frustrating. Early on in my career I moderated an online writer's think tank in a chat room, which made every Friday night a blast, at least until my arthritis grew worse and I couldn't type fast enough to keep up with the questions. My Left Behind & Loving It virtual writing workshops were also a lot of fun; they just got too big too fast to handle on my own. When RWA committed the ultimate irony by promoting me and my fellow writers' efforts to their membership as an alternative to their National conference, I knew it was time to let them go.

Likely the most successful teaching project I've done to date is The Novel Notebook. When I put it together five years ago I thought it might help a couple of writers organize their stuff better, but that was all. I can't tell you how many writers have since downloaded and used it, because I don't track things like that, but it's the most popular free e-book I've ever posted online. Last year during NaNoWriMo I heard that several groups were actually handing out CD and printed copies of it at their meetings, which was very neat.

I don't know yet what my next teaching project will be, but I'd like to do something along the lines of the Novel Notebook (whatever evolves, I promise I will keep it free.) Which makes me wonder: if you could get me to teach something online, what would it be, and how would you want me to teach it? Let me know in comments.

Graphic credit: © Yellowj | Dreamstime.com

Chloroform + Arsenic + Hydroxide = Love

My daughter, Ms. Fourteen Going On Forty, is turning out to be the other writer in the family. Lord knows I've tried everything to put a stop to it -- hiding pens and paper, snatching books out of her hands, forcing her to watch television -- but she won't quit, not even when I tell her the really scary publishing stories. Damn my DNA.

Unless she's trying to persuade me to let her have something, Kat keeps her writing private most of the time. Which I understand and respect; I had no privacy when I was her age, and had to keep my writing pads at school or write things in Spanish to keep my sisters and mother from snooping around in them (last year Kat started writing her journals in her own code -- rune symbols -- to keep her brother from reading them, which frankly made me a little teary-eyed.)

When my daughter does decide to share something with me, it's usually one of her humor pieces, like this poem she wrote while waiting for me to pick her up from school:

Phish Fly Backwardsee
by Kat

Oh, the stars on the earth,
The grass in the sky.
The wishing hole dies,
When the painting flies.

Trees with no branches,
Fish with no scales,
Nickel made of copper,
To the hobo the king hails.

Clockwork it is,
When water flows uphill,
When it rains lava droplets,
When the pickles aren't dill. (Oh no!)

The paper is made of bricks,
The clothes are made of wood,
Pulpy orange juice.
Ohmigawsh the giraffe is nude!

Birds swim in volcanoes,
Trees grow out of clouds.
Buildings built on the sun,
Mice are very loud(s)!!

All the world is nwodedispu
Even you and me
Chloroform + Arsenic + Hydroxide = Love
All I have left to say is...Phish fly backwards... ee!

She read this to me on the way home, and that second to last line made me laugh so hard I almost crashed the car. Anesthetic plus poison plus water equals love? I think the kid just figured out the chemical formula for all the mysteries of the heart.

If your child or a young family member does show interest in writing, it can be tempting to jump right on that and offer advice, critique their work and otherwise try to get involved. It can be helpful if your young one asks for it; my older brother gave me some writing advice when I was Kat's age (he had written a novel satire on Dante's Inferno.) But: I asked for the advice and voluntarily showed him my work. In return he was gentle with me and didn't pick it apart or rip it to pieces but offered constructive advice that didn't feed my doubts but built on what I was doing and was capable of doing.

Providing children with the means to write, such as giving them blank books, plenty of supplies, or access to a computer with a decent word processing program and printer is probably the most helpful thing you can do. The second is giving them the time and space they need for their writing. Letting them know you're there if they need some advice is great, shoving unsolicited advice at them is not.

It's also important to respect young writers as much as you'd respect a writer your age. Before I post anything Kat has written on the blog, I ask her permission. When she says no, I don't post it. It's also not a good idea to pass your child's writing around the family as an object of admiration without first getting their permission. If you can't understand why, imagine your spouse or partner doing that to you without asking, and you'll instantly understand how young writers feel.

You can invite your young writer into your writing space to show them how you do things, and if age-appropriate, you can also give your work to your young writer and ask them to critique it. Teaching them by example and by offering involvement in your process can give them new ideas on what to do with their own work.

Finally, if you don't have a young writer in the family, consider giving talks about creative writing at local public schools. Most children never have the opportunity to meet a real working writer in a classroom setting, and most schools have little to no curriculum that serves the needs of young writer. Any encouragement and insight you can offer may help some of those kids along the writing path, and that's the sort of investment in the future of Publishing that we all need to make on a regular basis.