FINALLY! A blog about WRITING!

Imagine that! A writer blogging on the subject of WRITING! What a NOVEL concept! (get it? Writer... Novel...Okay anyway... moving on)

This is going to be a short blog, mostly because I think the topic has been somewhat "done to death." However, I just can't help but chime in with a thought that's been bugging me for days now.

You've probably heard many "new" writers compared to writers of more fame and renown. ("He's the next John Grisham!" "She's Lisa Gardener made over!")

I often critique the query letters of fellow writers who include the astounding prediction that they are the next Stephen King or the next Dean Koontz or the next (fill in the blank here). I tell them what any industry insider will tell them. Don't be the next anyone. Be the FIRST you. Period.

It is somewhat true that all the basic plots have been done. All a writer can do is bring his or her own spin to a topic that's probably been explored 1000 times. (Case in point? This blog!) You have to bring something fresh to the table. Something that the agents, editors, publishers and (most importantly) reading public haven't seen before. Or at least something they haven't seen in a while. If you're just going to rehash something that James Patterson wrote last year, you're doomed to failure. Number one, James Patterson didn't write that book "last year." Chances are he wrote it 3 to 5 years ago, submitted it to the publisher and it went to press sometime in the ensuing 12 to 24 months. So anything you'd copy from another writer's "last year" is actually several years old. (And most likely being copied by 100 others trying to make their big break).

One of the worst rebukes I ever got from an agent (about 10 years ago or so) was a very simple hand-scrawled note on my cover letter: "It's been done to death."

Of course, in my youthful exuberance, my mind screamed "not by ME!" But in the end, the agent had a point. Even if it hadn't been done "by me," there was nothing new on the page. Nothing fresh. Nothing that would stand out from the crowd to say "look at this!" Did I quit? No, of course not. I kept on writing. (Full disclosure: I did put that manuscript aside, after a couple years of tinkering. As I matured, I just began to think that the time for this story wasn't right. Perhaps someday I will revisit it. For now, it is locked safely away where only I can mourn the story that never was.)

The point of this somewhat rambling diatribe is very simple. Be the first you. If you have to be the "next" something, be the next bestseller. And the only way to do that is to be the FIRST you.

Be original. Find your voice. Find your angle. Find your spin. Find that extra something you can bring to it and give the story a new twist. Frankenstein in a ballerina costume takes the story down an entirely different path!

Till next time, this blog is brought to you by the letters W, E and H and by the number 2.