10 Things I Learned At The Chicago Writers Conference

1.   If you don't think your work can benefit from editing then self-publishing's probably for you. ~Doug Siebold.
2.   Once you define social media as a marketing tool you are totally screwed. ~Shannon Downey
3.   Figure out what social media works for you and then be awesome at it. ~Shannon Downey
4.   When you're presenting, don't use "like" throughout your presentation. (an observation)
5.   You can't really teach people to be funny. (an observation)
6.   Keep it briefer than you need it to be. ~Ian Belknap
7.   If you feel the need to write, do it! ~Rick Kogan
8.   Bobbleheads can sabotage your writing. ~Randy Richardson
9.   In literature sex illuminates something. ~Patricia Ann McNair

10. Pop Chips are DE-licious. ~Shannon Downey

THE Rick Kogan Wrote an Article About...Me!

My 15 minutes of fame! This appeared today in the Sunday Chicago Tribune, Printers Row Journal.
A big thank you to Rick Kogan, who is a very generous man and extremely supportive of the Chicago writing community, whether it's author icons like Sara Paretsky or newbies like me.

By Rick Kogan

September 22, 2013

“I like to think I have been a writer my whole life,” says Samantha Hoffman.

She had written through childhood in Toledo, while working in the sales business and as a personal assistant for the last five years (one of her clients was the actor John Cusack), and through three marriages. The results were modest: a few published stories, in print and online, and a very lively blog.

---

This piece first ran in Printers Row Journal, delivered to Printers Row members with the Sunday Chicago Tribune and by digital edition via email.Click here to learn about joining Printers Row.

---

But now her first novel, "What More Could You Wish For," has been on shelves for a while, and her second, "The Ones You Left Behind," is in the hands of her agent.

"I have started to feel like a member of the community," she says, mentioning such writer friends as nonfiction author Arnie Bernstein, and novelists Renee Rosen and Kelly O'Connor McNees.

"What More …" came in the wake of her father Oscar's death in 2000. He was 90.

"He was my hero, and I was just reeling after his death," she says.

She was 50. She quit her job, sold her house in the Jefferson Park neighborhood and married a man (at the Palmer House) with whom she was not in love.

The marriage was over in a year, and she began to write her novel. The first draft was "so cathartic," she says, "and the second was much less autobiographical." That version was sent to publishers and agents. A lot of rejection letters later, she decided to self-publish and self-promote in such innovative (if not lucrative) ways as handing out free copies to people on Michigan Avenue and sending them to friends.

One of those passed the book along to a bigwig at St. Martin's. The bigwig loved it, and it was published last year. It's a love story and love triangle swirling about a compelling character named Libby Carson, who is forced to reassess what she considered a pretty good life. It might be called a coming-of-age-at-50 tale, written with style and maturity ("Night seemed hardest of all with its silence, and the sorrow that pulled at my body.")

"My dad?" she says. "He would be so proud."

Rick Kogan is a Tribune senior writer and columnist.

"What More Could You Wish For"

By Samantha Hoffman, St. Martin's Griffin, 256 pages, $14.99

Copyright © 2013 Chicago Tribune Company, LLC

• 

Movie Review: Short Term 12 *****

Brie Larson, the actor who plays the lead role of Grace, is reason enough to see Short Term 12, but there are many more reasons; John Gallagher, Jr. (if you watch The Newsroom you know who he is), the script, the emotion, the story, the realism... Like I said, there are many reason to see this film.
The story is about Grace, who manages a facility that houses abused/neglected kids, kids with drug problems - troubled kids of all sorts - until they are eighteen, while she's trying to manage her own life and her own issues. Mason (Gallagher) is an employee at the facility and also her boyfriend, and how he deals with Grace mirrors how she deals with the kids; with compassion, understanding and sincerity.
Brie Larson is truly amazing. Her face tells the story even when she's not saying a word. I'd be surprised if she's not nominated for an Academy Award for this film.
The kids' stories are heart-wrenching and could easily turn sappy, but they don't. It felt real and raw, right up until the end, which I won't give away but which just seemed too good to be true and not in keeping with the grit of the rest of the movie, but I liked it anyway.
Short Term 12 earns every emotion you will feel, and you will feel many as you get involved with these characters. And you will get involved.
My advice: GO SEE SHORT TERM 12.
Bring Kleenex.
Five of five stars for Short Term 12.

Writing Tip: The First Draft is The Foundation

I went to a gallery event last night, admiring the work of Bill Bartelt and his students of watercolor; drinking wine, eating cheese and sausage, schmoozing with the artists. When one found out I was a writer and had a published book she told me that at one time she wanted to be a writer. She said she wrote two books that were terrible and so she decided to move on to other things. She became an architect, and she creates beautiful art.
There's a misconception that if you write a book and no one wants it, that means you're not a good writer. So not true. It only means you haven't finished. Wouldn't it be wonderful if writing a novel were as simple as sitting down, putting words on paper, doing maybe one revision, it's totally awesome, we send it off and the next stop is the New York Times Best Seller List?

Okay, disregard that guy without the shirt

I wish.
I told this woman (Meredith is her name) that the difference between a writer and a published author is that the author didn't quit. I told her it took me eight years to write/revise, write/revise, write/revise (you get the idea) my first book before I finished it (actually, I thought I'd finished it long before that but when I sent it out to various agents they disagreed).
The first draft is not a finished product, not for J.K. Rowling, not for James Patterson, not for me and not for you. The first draft is the foundation of a house, nothing more. It supports everything else but it's just the beginning. Once the foundation is laid then you add the studs and the walls and the floors and the windows and the roof  and the plumbing and the electrical, and then you paint and wallpaper and lay hardwood floors and install crown molding and put in granite countertops...and all that takes time, but that's what makes it beautiful. That's what makes it something you can live in.
By the time Meredith and I ended our conversation she thought she might dust off those manuscripts and take another look. I hope she does. She's written two books, for chrissakes, which is an amazing accomplishment.
About a month ago I sent my second novel to my agent. It was the first draft, written beginning to end, with one revision, and I felt good about it. Did I think it was perfect? Hell no, but I thought it was damn good.
My agent didn't quite agree. It's not that she thought it was bad - it's just unfinished. She said the writing's good and I have the chops to pull it together, and she spent a lot of time going through it and making suggestions and telling me what she thought needed help.
I feel immeasurably lucky to have someone like that; someone who's in my corner and who has a vested interest in making it "awesome." She said in the old days there used to be an adage, "Seven drafts to final." Well, I sincerely hope it doesn't take that many, but whatever it takes, it takes. I want it to be the best it can be.
I've got the foundation poured - now on to making it something I, and my readers, can live in.
Excuse me while I get back to draft number two.

Writing Tip: How Watching Kids' Movies Can Improve Your Writing

I've never seen The Lorax, but after reading this article by Lydia Sharp I think I'm missing out on something. It's true, there are writing lessons to be learned in everything we see, watch and read.
Henry James said, “A writer should strive to be a person on whom nothing is lost.” 

The Lorax is not lost on Lydia Sharp. Read her funny but relevant take on the movie.

Everything I Thneed to Know About Writing and Publishing I Learned from THE LORAX by Lydia Sharp 

School is officially out for the summer in my part of the world. For those of us who are parents working mostly from home, this is both a joy and a curse. I love having my son home with me, but it is much more difficult to work. Which is approximately 56 hours of any given day. Living in a single-level, two-bedroom apartment only exacerbates the issue, especially when my son decides to watch his movies at full volume in the room adjacent to my “office”, aka this sad little corner of my kitchen table. There is not even a wall between my work space and the living room.

Despite the insta-migraine this creates, my brain adapts to the situation by attempting to make every bit of data it collects from my environment relevant to my work. A few days ago, my son was watching The Lorax which is a brilliant movie based on a brilliant book. But it’s very colorful and loud and not very conducive to the quiet time required to get my work done. After I’d downed a shot of Excedrin between jovial exclamations of “Thneedville! Thneedville!” the mind meld began. Everything I saw and heard in the other room was suddenly relevant to what I was doing in my sad little corner of writing and editing.  

1. When a story begins with seemingly happy characters in a seemingly perfect world, there had better be Utter Doom ahead.

2. According to O’Hare Air, people will buy anything in a plastic bottle. So put your books in plastic bottles and watch your sales soar!

3. Don’t let anything stand in the way of your author dreams. Unless those dreams require deforestation. In that case, eBooks!

4. When the going gets tough, the tough eat marshmallows.

5. The Once-ler repeatedly cut his story short and told Ted that if he wanted the rest of the story he’d have to come back another day. Give the reader what they want, but not all at once. Holding back the juicy bits until just the right moment can draw out the tension.

6. The Once-ler: “How nice to see someone so undeterred by things like, reality.”

Author, defined.

7. The Lorax: “Nobody’s gonna buy that thing.”

The Once-ler: “Well, fortunately, you’re not the target market. Weirdo.”

Ignore the haters. You aren’t writing for those weirdos.

8. The success of the Once-ler’s Thneed comes out of nowhere.

No one knows why certain books take off and others don’t. But when a book does skyrocket, people are going to notice, and then they have to see what all the fuss is about. And then everyone thinks they need to read that book, even if they know they won’t like it, just so they can have an opinion on it. This can work in your favor. It can also not work for you at all. As was the case with the Once-ler, a jolt of unexplained success is not always good for the long run.

Read the rest of the article.

And BTW, if you're a writer you should subscribe to the online publication Writer Unboxed. I don't know how they manage to come up with so many wonderful contributors with so much valuable info and writing tips but they do, consistently. It's one of my favorite writing sites.