Authors' Thread (New! Improved! Now With 10% More Questions!)

Re: Authors' Thread

JR -

I apologize. I should've used a smiley. I was being (at least 40%) facetious in trying to present the writer's eye view of things. And we all like you.

 

Re: Authors' Thread

Well, actually you're right about the 20 somethings.

They love the spotlight

 

Re: Authors' Thread

That big stack of books in Sam's Club sells faster than the few copies stuffed onto a crowded shelf in Borders. Those people are there to shop, not browse. It's a good thing.

(Plus you can be a Jeopardy question:
"Alex, I'll take Sam I Am for $100!"
"A seventy gallon drum of pimientos, a 3 foot wide pizza, 50 bagels for a dollar, and Jones' book.")

 

Re: Authors' Thread

Thanks for all the help everyone, this thread has proven to be quite useful. Maybe I'll post something on the other boards about who has the best nipples in Hollywood just to keep everything in perfect harmony.

Anyway, I think I've cleared one of the biggest hurdles, which was just sitting down and starting to write the damn thing.

What the hell, I'll post the first page just to see what everyone thinks. The book is kind of an anti-Hollywood, anti-Freedom Writers view of education. It's what happens when the teacher can't enter a school and turn it all around like they do in a 90-minute movie.

Here's the first page. Let me know what you think.


“You trying to change us?”
I’m only a few minutes into the first class of my first day and I’m face-to-face with about 150 pounds of pissed-off teenager. My seating chart wasn’t going over well. The student whose name I didn’t know had come in late and refused his place in a previously assigned seat.
“You trying to change us?
The question hung in the air and knocked me on my heels. Every student was staring at me, waiting for an answer. I could forget about everything I had learned in my last month of teacher training. My 12 hours of graduate credit were worthless. There was nothing in any college or textbook that could help me now. I was on my own.
The shit was hitting the fan. And the fan was turned on high.
I swallowed hard and stared ahead and did my best to answer the toughest question of my day-old teaching career.
“I’m trying to help you,” I think I said, but I can’t be sure. My train of thought was derailed when no-name stepped in front of me and started for the door.
“I’m leaving,” no-name said. “I’m going home.”
Shit. Here we go again. Five minutes in and I was faced with another predicament for which there seemed to be no easy answer. I bought time.
“Are you serious?” I said.
The door slammed. One student was gone, but there were about 20 more still sitting and staring, waiting to see what I would do next.
I summoned what little pride I had left, stepped into the middle of the room and spoke to the students sitting in the semi-circle of desks in front of me. Perhaps the ‘fake it ‘til you make it motto’ we learned in training was bubbling beneath the surface.
“Anyone else want to leave?” My voice was strong. “Now’s your chance.”
I half expected an exodus of students sprinting to the door. But there was no movement. And no noise. If this were a movie, crickets would have chirped and then some inspirational music would have started building toward a crescendo. I survived my first struggle in the classroom.
Anyone else want to leave? Ha. I was a teacher. And I was winning over the class. Or at least it seemed like it.
I could have danced. I could have sang. Instead I managed to bump the stool standing in front of me, knocking over a box of 144 golf pencils in the process.
As I bent over to pick them up and turned my ass toward the class, a smile crept across my face.
I was a teacher. This was my class.
I picked up the pencils and put them back in the box.

 

Re: Authors' Thread

Is this a novel or non-fiction?

 

Re: Authors' Thread

Non-fiction, should have mentioned that earlier.

 

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This is just me but a propos of some of the earlier comments, rather than posting the first chapter, why don't you work on an actual proposal for us to look at?

That would give the folks here a glimpse into what the book is about, how it's structured and how you plan to attack the subject.

I'm sure the pros here would be more than happy to critique it objectively and offer you solid advice

This is solid stuff on proposal writing from a literary agency.

http://www.shepardagency.com/writing_proposals.html

Until you have the proposal down pat, all the brilliant first chapters in the world won't get you published.

 

Re: Authors' Thread

That being said -- and JR's right; a good start is not enough of a guarantee of a good middle or a good end to sell a book -- but, that being said, I'd read page two.

So, page one is a success, I think.

It's not perfect (I'd like some more detail, some more description, some more scene setting), but it's on its way.

Now do you have 299 more pages like that in you?

 

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Does it differ much for fiction?

 

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Yes--unless you're already a successful fiction writer, be prepared to write most/all of the manuscript. The same applies to Big Name columnists, non-fiction bestselling authors, and God. Fiction is hard, impossible, and very few people succeed.

Sorry. It's the truth.

 

Re: Authors' Thread

I don't want to interfere in the creative process--I'm not a writer--- but I'm thinking that if this is a non-fiction book, Ickey should consider switching to the third person.

 

Re: Authors' Thread

Don't apologize. Everyone's gotta start somewhere, man. Even Grisham was selling Time to Kill out of the back of his car.