Part Four of Six in George Galdorisi's "Get Published NOW!" series

1. Getting Published Now!
Coronado Adult Education
Spring 2015
The Great American Novel
February 3, 2015

2. “If you decide to become a professional writer, you
must, broadly speaking, decide whether you wish to
write for fame, for pleasure, or for money.”
Ian Fleming
How to Write a Thriller

3. Recap of What
We Covered Last Week

4. Non-Fiction - The Hungry Market
• Being - or becoming - the expert?
• Pursuing a subject - or letting life happen?
• Scratching itches - or entertaining?
• How much to tell and what’s next?
• Query letters
• Full-on book proposal

5. Non-Fiction vs. Fiction:
What’s Needed to Sell It
• Non-fiction: What are you going to write?
• Fiction: How are you going to write it?

6. This Week:
The Great American Novel

7. “For me, I gotta write, and it’s the adventure of it that’s
hooked me. As the writer, I can do it all. I get to be the
National Security Advisor who recommends the action
to the President who must commit the forces. I’m the
senior officer who sends his men into action and who
feels the pain if they don’t make it back. I’m the enemy
and the defender; logistician and staff planner. But
most of all, I’m a young man again, that fresh
lieutenant who must lead his men into battle.”
Dick Couch
“So you Want to be a Writer”

8. “The Great American Novel”
• Great or not-so-great? What you need to know
getting started
• Mainstream or genre? Which way should you go?
• Defining your audience and picking a “voice” and
point of view
• Getting the sale with a publisher

9. Mr. Clancy said none of his success came easily, and he
would remind aspiring writers of that when he spoke to
them. “I tell them you learn to write the same way you
learn to play golf,” he once said. “You do it, and keep doing
it until you get it right. A lot of people think something
mystical happens to you, that maybe the muse kisses you
on the ear. But writing isn’t divinely inspired — it’s hard
work.”
Tom Clancy
Quoted in the New York Times
October 2, 2013

10. Great or Not-So-Great?
What You Need to Know Getting Started
• Lots of decisions to make:
– Mainstream or genre
– Publisher or self-publish
– Single work or a series
– Time-bounding to complete
• The competition is intense
– Increasing number of novels published
– This means that far-fewer are commercially successful
– In many ways, the market is over-saturated
– Compared to non-fiction, there are fewer barriers to entry

11. Mainstream or Genre?
Which Way Should You Go?
• Mainstream…
• Genre…
• Niche…
• Other…

12. Defining Your Audience and Picking a
“Voice” and Point of View
• Who are you writing for?
• What voice should you pick?
– What voice do you most enjoy in the fiction you read?
– What voice seems most natural to you?
• Go for a test drive
– Write three chapters in third-person
– Write the same three chapters in first-person

13. Getting the Sale
Well save this for later…for now…
let’s work on what you want to sell

14. …so what does your novel need to
have to get the sale?

15. …inspiration and perspiration

16. …so what do the experts say?

17. A strategic pause…

18. “There is only one recipe for a bestseller and it is a very
simple one. If you look back on all the bestsellers you
have read, you will find they all have one quality; you
simply have to turn the page.”
Ian Fleming
How to Write a Thriller

19. Dean Koontz’s
Recommendations to New Writers
• Thought
• Care
• Storytelling
• Craftsmanship

20. Dean Koontz
On Generating New Story Ideas
• Read!
• Write!
• Tickle the imagination and generate story ideas by
playing around with exotic titles
• Type out a bunch of narrative hooks and find one
that is intriguing
• Prime the idea pump by building up a couple of
characters in enormous detail
• Whatever you write, you must begin your novel by
plunging the hero or heroine into terrible trouble

21. What the Average Reader
Demands of a Novel
• A strong plot
• A great deal of action
• A hero, or heroine, or both
• Colorful, imaginative, & convincing characterization
• Clear, believable, character motivations
• Well-drawn backgrounds
• At least some familiarity with the English language
• A style with lyrical language and striking images (MC)

22. Let’s talk about two of the most
important ingredients in writing a
successful novel…

23. Let’s talk about two of the most
important ingredients in writing a
successful novel…plotting and
characterization

24. Plotting

25. “There are only two plots: The hero takes a journey and
a stranger comes to town.”
Timothy Spurgin
“The Art of Reading”
The Great Courses

26. The Classic Plot
• The writer introduces a hero or heroine who has just been –
or is about to be – plunged into terrible trouble
• The hero or heroine attempts to solve his or her problem but
only slips deeper into trouble
• As they try to climb out of the hole they’re in, complications
arise, each more terrible than the one before, until the
situation could not become more hopeless, then one final
unthinkable complication arises and makes matters worse.
• At last, deeply affected and changed by his awful experiences
and intolerable circumstances, the hero learns something
about himself and the human condition. He then understands
what he must do to get out of the dangerous situation in
which he has wound up. He takes the necessary actions and
either succeeds or fails, succeeding more often than not.

27. “You can distill anydrama – a Greek tragedy, a
Shakespearian play, a modern novel, a TV drama or
comedy, whatever – into a simple equation: ‘What do
these guys want, and what’s keeping them from getting
it?’”
Bill Bleich
Writing advice

28. Plots
• Create a compelling plot
• Write a grabber opening
• Write a successful ending
• Create a middle that keeps the reader involved

29. James Hall – Hit Lit
• Gone with the Wind
• Peyton Place
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Valley of the Dolls
• The Godfather
• The Exorcist
• Jaws
• The Dead Zone
• The Hunt for Red October
• The Firm
• The Bridges of Madison County
• The Da Vinci Code

30. Characterization

31. “There are only two plots: The hero takes a journey and
a stranger comes to town.”
Timothy Spurgin
“The Art of Reading”
The Great Courses

32. “There are only two plots: The hero takes a journey and
a stranger comes to town.”
Timothy Spurgin
“The Art of Reading”
The Great Courses

33. Important Qualities for
Heroes and Heroines
• Virtue
• Competence
• Courage
• Likeability
• Imperfections
• Change

34. Character Motivations
• Love
• Curiosity
• Self-preservation
• Greed
• Self-discovery
• Duty
• Revenge

35. Character Traits
• Physical appearance
• Voice and speech
• Movement and gestures
• Past life
• Religion
• Sexuality
• Vocation
• Skills and talents
• Fears
• Dreams
• Pleasures
• Plans for the future
• Sense of humor
• Politics

36. Character Traits
• How many major and minor characters to have
• Develop a “job description” for each character
• All major characters must have a biography
• You will know what your characters will do
• You are writing a novel – not a movie script
– You have to get your characters from Point A to Point B
– Your characters are not dead when they’re off the page
• What is each character doing?
– On stage
– Off stage

37. James Hall – Hit Lit
• Gone with the Wind
• Peyton Place
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Valley of the Dolls
• The Godfather
• The Exorcist
• Jaws
• The Dead Zone
• The Hunt for Red October
• The Firm
• The Bridges of Madison County
• The Da Vinci Code

38. “It’s not what you know that counts, it’s whether the
reader believes that you know something. This effect is
called the suspension of disbelief.
Oscar Collier and Frances Leighton
How to Write and Sell Your First Novel

39. …let’s “deconstruct” one character
from Out of the Ashes…Anne Sullivan

40. …plot?..characterization?...which is
more important?

41. Plot or Characterization
• You have to have plot to make the reader turn pages
• People a the story and the whole story
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• Plot has the entertainment value to pull the reader
along
• The characters are the vehicle, the tools through
which you tell your story
• Readers want you to tell them a story
• Dialogue brings your characters to life!

42. “There is only one recipe for a bestseller and it is a very
simple one. If you look back on all the bestsellers you
have read, you will find they all have one quality you
simply have to turn the page.”
Ian Fleming
How to Write a Thriller

43. But That’s Not All!
(Mainstream and Genre)
• High Concept (Think in movie terms)
– The Coronado Conspiracy
– For Duty and Honor
• Theme
– The Coronado Conspiracy
– For Duty and Honor
• Balancing scene and summary
• Don’t ever forget about the action

44. Wait – There’s More!
What Are you Writing?
• The king died and then the queen died
– A story
• The king died and then the queen died of grief
– A plot
• The queen died, and no one knew why, until it was
discovered that it was through grief at the death of
the king
– A mystery

45. Getting Serious About
Getting the Sale

46. Getting the Sale
• Query agents – get the statistics on your side:
– Forty years ago – 30% of books were agented
– In the last decade – Over 85% of books were agented
• Small publishers – you will likely bear some risk
– Likely no advance
– Limited print run
• Be your own agent – to find an agent: Richard Curtis
How to Be Your Own Literary Agent

47. Getting an Agent to Read Your Manuscript
• It starts with being familiar with books in your “field”
• Then you find out which agents agented those books
• Stay in the library: Contact info for agents
• Go back to what we learned about query letters:
– High Concept (back to the movies)
– Treatment
– Narrative Outline
– Full Manuscript
• Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: One example

48. Let’s Deconstruct a Novel Treatment
• Cover
• Organization
• Organizing Impulse and High Concept
• The “Old” OpCenter Dies
• The “New” OpCenter is Born
• New Character Details
– Preamble
– Those who spend a great deal of time physically at OpCenter
– Those who deal with crises overseas in each scenario
– Those who deal with crises domestically in each scenario
• OpCenter Plot and Scenario Plan
– Preamble
– Short Plot Synopsis
• 17,000+ words

49. Let’s Deconstruct a Narrative Outline
• Cover
• Front matter
• Chapter summaries
– Separate sections
– One or two paragraphs per section
• Epilogue
• 19,000+ words

50. Resources
• E.E. Forster Aspects of the Novel
• Francine Prose Reading Like a Writer
• Richard Curtis How To Be Your Own Literary Agent
• James Hall Hit Lit
• Dr. Linda Seger
– The Art of Adaptation
– Advanced Screenwriting
• Robert Masello
– Robert’s Rules of Writing
– Writer Tells All

51. “Being a comparatively successful writer is a good life.
You don’t have to work at it all the time and you carry
your office around in your head. And you are far more
aware of the world around you. Writing makes you
more alive to your surroundings and, since the main
ingredient of living, though you might not think so to
look at most human beings is to be alive, this is quite a
worthwhile by-product, even if you only write thrillers.”
Ian Fleming
How to Write a Thriller

52. Slides Posted:
http://www.georgegaldorisi.com/
E-mail address:
george@georgegaldorisi.com

53. Next Week

54. Establishing an Online Presence
• Review of weeks one through four
– Writing in general
– Writing for and selling for publication
– Writing and selling non-fiction
– Writing and selling novels
• What makes your online material unique?
• Beating the competition for “eyes”
• Balancing content and entertainment
• Doing-it-yourself…or…?