Friday, February 2, 2018
How Do I Know When I'm Done? Five Stages of Writing a Book
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A
past student from my Madeline Island retreats emailed me recently with a
great question. It's one most writers struggle with: How do I know
when my book is actually finished? "An overarching question I
find more difficult," she says, "is whether it could ever be ready. Some
things may not be worth the effort or the money. Is it better to pay
someone willing to say yea or nay first or does that have to go together
with sending it out for paid editing?"
Mary Carroll Moore is an award-winning, internationally published author of thirteen books in three genres, writing teacher, editor and book doctor for publishing houses. For thirty years she's helped thousands of new and experienced writers plan, write, and develop--and publish!--their books.
Qualities of Light--Kindle version
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How to Bake a Book:
"Start with a big love of words, add a generous helping of Mary Carroll Moore, mix with leavening from your peers, knead vigorously, and voila! Your book has risen!"
--Eric Utne, founder of Utne Reader and author of Far Out Man (2020).
--Eric Utne, founder of Utne Reader and author of Far Out Man (2020).
WINNER! 2011 NH Literary Awards--Reader's Choice Award
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New York Times profiles Mary Carroll Moore!
Click here.
Mary Interviewed on WNPR for Qualities of Light
"Shedding Light on Family"--Review of Mary's New Novel
Front page review here
Read More Posts from This Blog
“The endeavor of writing can be long and lonely. Mary Carroll Moore, master writing instructor, to the rescue! Moore packs How to Plan, Write, and Develop a Book with years of gritty good sense and big-picture perspective. Her techniques for drafting, organizing, and polishing a book are practical and time-tested. Here is a first-time book-writer’s best companion.”
--Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew,
author of Writing the Sacred Journey: The Art and Practice of Spiritual Memoir
My Favorite Writing Books
- A Writer's Time by Kenneth Atchity
- Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
- From Where You Dream by Robert Olen Butler
- On Writing by Stephen King
- Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose
- Story Matters by Margaret-Love Denman and Barbara Shoup
- Tell It Slant: Writing and Shaping Creative Nonfiction by Brenda Miller and Suzanna Paola
- The Art of Slow Writing by Louise DeSalvo
- The Art of Time in Fiction by Janet Silber
- The Passionate, Accurate Story by Carol Bly
- The Situation and the Story by Vivian Gornick
- What If? by Pamela Painter and Anne Bernays
- Word Painting by Rebecca McClanahan
- Writers Dreaming by Naomi Epel
- Writing Fiction by Janet Burroway
- Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clark
- Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular by Rust Hills
Sample Writing Exercise from My Online Classes: Dialogue with Your Book
Pretend you’re a reporter for the New York Times. You’re going to interview your book idea.
List some questions you’d love to ask your book about its form, content, goals. You can start with something nonthreatening, as you would if you were a real reporter.
Ask your book some very good questions. Some ideas from my class are below, or you can make up your own:
What do you want to tell me about yourself?
What form suits you best?
Who is your readership and how will they
access you?
What are you most eager to say?
What are you most afraid to say?
What genre are you?
Imagine the book answering you. Write
everything down--no matter how odd, silly, or
irrelevant it seems.
When it runs out of things to say (or you get
nervous about the answers) ask a different question.
The goal of this book-writing exercise is to surprise yourself. You’ll tap the hidden parts of yourself as a writer, the parts we often censor. You can strike gold--if you maintain the attitude of no-assumptions and anything can happen.
List some questions you’d love to ask your book about its form, content, goals. You can start with something nonthreatening, as you would if you were a real reporter.
Ask your book some very good questions. Some ideas from my class are below, or you can make up your own:
What do you want to tell me about yourself?
What form suits you best?
Who is your readership and how will they
access you?
What are you most eager to say?
What are you most afraid to say?
What genre are you?
Imagine the book answering you. Write
everything down--no matter how odd, silly, or
irrelevant it seems.
When it runs out of things to say (or you get
nervous about the answers) ask a different question.
The goal of this book-writing exercise is to surprise yourself. You’ll tap the hidden parts of yourself as a writer, the parts we often censor. You can strike gold--if you maintain the attitude of no-assumptions and anything can happen.
Books for the Blocked--These'll Get You Moving Again!
- Escaping into the Open by Elizabeth Berg
- Listen to Me by Lynn Lauber
- Marry Your Muse by Jan Phillips
- Pencil Dancing by Mari Messer
- The Art of Slow Writing by Louise DeSalvo
- Thinking about Memoir by Abigail Thomas
- Write Your Heart Out by Rebecca McClanahan
A person’s life purpose is nothing more than to rediscover, through the detours of art, or love, or passionate work, those one or two images in the presence of which his heart first opened.
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
Unless another source is specifically cited, material on this page is copyrighted ©2008-2021 by Mary Carroll Moore. All rights reserved.
A Little about Me
Mary Carroll Moore is an award-winning, internationally published author of thirteen books in three genres, writing teacher, editor and book doctor for publishing houses. For thirty years she's helped thousands of new and experienced writers plan, write, and develop--and publish!--their books.
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Follow This Blog! Email Mary at mary(at) marycarrollmoore.com or cick below
If you believe you have a book inside you just waiting to come out, here is a guide that will ensure your book’s arrival in the world. In clear, accessible prose, Mary Carroll Moore leads the aspiring author through every step of the challenging, rewarding process of developing and completing a full-length book.
--Rebecca McClanahan, author of In the Key of New York City
--Rebecca McClanahan, author of In the Key of New York City
Encouraging Words--Well-Known Writers with Large Number of Rejections--But Published!
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo--397 rejections (and it became a movie)
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle--97 rejections (and it won the Newbery Medal for best children's book of 1963; it's now in its 69th printing)
Cinder Edna by Ellen Jackson--40 rejections (and it has won multiple awards and sold 150,000 hard copies).
Judy Blume says she received "nothing but rejections" for 2 years.
Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot--17 rejections
Harry Potter novels by J.K. Rowling--rejected by 9 publishers
The Diary of Anne Frank--16 rejections (and now more than 30 million copies are in print)
Dr. Seuss books--more than 15 rejections
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach--140 rejections
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell--38 rejections
Watership Down by Richard Adams--26 rejections
Dune by Frank Herbert--nearly 20 rejections
To all book writers: Believe in your story. Keep trying. The right home for your book is out there, waiting for you to discover it.
Thanks to these websites for cool information:
http://www.debbieohi.com/personal/rejections.html
http://www.richardpettinger.com/interests/rejections-of-famous-writers
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle--97 rejections (and it won the Newbery Medal for best children's book of 1963; it's now in its 69th printing)
Cinder Edna by Ellen Jackson--40 rejections (and it has won multiple awards and sold 150,000 hard copies).
Judy Blume says she received "nothing but rejections" for 2 years.
Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot--17 rejections
Harry Potter novels by J.K. Rowling--rejected by 9 publishers
The Diary of Anne Frank--16 rejections (and now more than 30 million copies are in print)
Dr. Seuss books--more than 15 rejections
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach--140 rejections
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell--38 rejections
Watership Down by Richard Adams--26 rejections
Dune by Frank Herbert--nearly 20 rejections
To all book writers: Believe in your story. Keep trying. The right home for your book is out there, waiting for you to discover it.
Thanks to these websites for cool information:
http://www.debbieohi.com/personal/rejections.html
http://www.richardpettinger.com/interests/rejections-of-famous-writers
Want to get the creative brain going?
Book writers (and any writers) need to know how to engage the creative right brain that "writes" in images. Think of any wonderful book that's left you swimming in a setting or characters--the writer has successfully used the image-creating part of the brain. But our normal workaday lives short-circuit this part. Check out this cool video of Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain scientist at Harvard Medical School, recounting her personal experience of a left-brain stroke and her awakening to right-brain reality. Pretty amazing fusion of brain science with what it feels like to a brain scientist having a stroke:
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229
Flying Squirrels Bring Creative Jolt to Novelist
Flying squirrel gets into house--disrupts routine, gets novelist thinking differently. This happened to me! For two days, as I chased the squirrel (actually, it was all night since they are nocturnal), I slept very little. And got many new ideas for my novel-in-progress.
Go figure!
Maybe...book writers need creative jolts? Routine dulls our imaginations?
How has an unexpected interruption actually been a gift for your creativity this week?
Go figure!
Maybe...book writers need creative jolts? Routine dulls our imaginations?
How has an unexpected interruption actually been a gift for your creativity this week?
At the Loft Literary Center, I can always tell which students in my classes have taken Mary Carroll Moore’s class on book-writing. They talk about writing their book in "islands" and using storyboards to figure out how those sections relate to each other. When another student confesses to feeling overwhelmed by the material her memoir might include, they readily advise, “You should try Mary Carroll Moore’s method.” I second that.
--Cheri Register, author of Packinghouse Daughter and American Book Award winner
--Cheri Register, author of Packinghouse Daughter and American Book Award winner
Copyright Protection
If you are a copyright owner of any unattributed image or text on this blog, send me an e-mail and I will remove it or give you credit, whichever you prefer.
If you are a copyright owner of any unattributed image or text on this blog, send me an e-mail and I will remove it or give you credit, whichever you prefer.
Mary's PEN award nominated novel now available in second edition
Qualities of Light--Kindle version