Dear Ally, How Do You Write a Book

by Ally Carter

  The next time you get the urge to compare your manuscript to a book you’re reading, don’t. If you’re paralyzed from looking at the work of your friends or other aspiring authors online, stop.

  In fact, I don’t read as many YA novels as I used to because YA is just so good and, inevitably, I always end up in the fetal position on the floor, rocking back and forth, mumbling about how my book will never be as good as the book I just finished.

  So now when I’m working on a book in one genre, I’ll read books in a totally different genre. Now when I look back at my last book and compare it to my work in progress, I’ll remind myself of what my mother told me in our kitchen all those years ago: You should never compare your first draft to someone else’s finished draft. (Even if the book you want to compare your book against is your own.)

  There’s something my writing friends all say: Eyes on your own paper. There’s no shortage of comparisons in this business and no shortage of ways for us to feel intimidated. Someone will always be selling better, winning more awards, writing faster. So the next time you start doubting yourself, remember the bestsellers and award winners and writers that you love are—right this moment—doubting themselves, too.

  But in the next moment, they’ll be writing.

  DEAR JAY COLES,

  When you’re working on a novel, do you ever feel like giving up and starting something new? How do you know when to stick with it and what makes you keep going?

  Oh, all the time. I’m always starting manuscripts and giving up halfway through or a couple of chapters in. There’s just that feeling in my gut that something isn’t working or it isn’t that particular manuscript’s time yet, so I know I’m meant to be working on something else. I have over forty started and half-written manuscripts that I may never again revisit. When I’m writing, I think I know to stick with a particular project/novel when the story clicks—I have a good sense of the characters and their agency and world, I have a good sense of where the story starts and maybe even the ending. Things fall into place. And something that’s an especially helpful indicator is when you come back the next day to write and you’re still thinking about the characters from the last writing day and you’re excited. When that happens, I keep coming back because my heart, mind, and soul are now so invested.

  The good news is that you don’t have to show your work to anyone—ever—if you don’t want to.

  There are many advantages to having writing as a hobby/dream/career. It’s relatively inexpensive. You can do it anywhere. You can do it anytime. But you can also do it in absolutely secrecy if that’s what works for you. It’s what worked for me! I wrote for years without telling a soul what I was doing, and that’s what allowed me the freedom (and the confidence) to keep writing.

  And your job is to do whatever it takes for you to keep writing, too. If you need to keep your work to yourself for a while, that’s fine. If you decide to keep it private for forever, that’s fine, too. What matters is that you keep writing and you keep writing for yourself, first and foremost.

  It’s hard thinking someone might laugh at you, or judge you, or mock you for something you’ve written. I still worry about it all the time! These feelings might get a little better as you get older, so keep in mind that you don’t have to try to publish today or tomorrow or ever. You just have to write, and if and when you feel like sharing your work with the world, then that will be very exciting.

  What’s the best writing advice you ever got?

  Eliot Schrefer Some friends will tell you that everything you write is great. Still send your manuscripts to them. Softball cheerleading is very useful!

  It sounds to me like you have a bad case of the New Shinies!

  Now, this isn’t a technical term, but it’s what I call that feeling of being in the middle of a project you (used to) love, and then out of the blue you get a shiny new idea that looks so much funnier.

  And more romantic.

  And thrilling.

  And mysterious.

  And just … better.

  Clearly, this new, shiny idea is bound to be better than that old idea you’ve been working on for months, right? Well … maybe. But maybe not.

  All books get hard eventually, and if you give up and start a new project every time that happens, you will never have a finished book. And in my opinion, it’s a lot more important that you get your book finished than you get your book perfect. Perfect you can’t control. Perfect you can’t always hit.

  But finished? Finished is totally up to you, and you can do it. So start a file for this shiny idea. Jot down your thoughts. Make some notes. Capture what you know and why you’re excited. But don’t let it distract you for too long.

  In the meantime, maybe try setting yourself some goals for your existing project. (When you hit 10,000 words, you can see that movie you’ve been waiting for!) Maybe experiment with your process and see if writing out of order might help? Maybe show what you have so far to your most supportive friend and get some cheerleading.

  But whatever you do, just keep writing.

  Always keep writing.

  What’s the best writing advice you ever got?

  Alex London Finish what you start. There is magic in getting to the end of a project. Sometimes that’s the only vantage point to see the whole landscape of what you’ve created. And then the real work of revision can begin.

  I can’t guarantee much about this business, but I can promise you this: There will come a time when your book stops being fun and starts feeling like work. Then it will stop feeling like work and start feeling like Mount Everest and you can’t help but wonder why you ever thought it was a good idea to climb it.

  That’s going to happen. How do I know? Because it has happened to every single author I have ever known. And it will happen to you.

  So when that happens, don’t get down. Just stop and think and remember that writer’s block isn’t a problem, it’s a symptom.

  ARE YOU TIRED AND JUST NEED TO RECHARGE YOUR BATTERIES?

  Then do that. That’s okay. Nobody works all the time. It’s not healthy. I always write way more efficiently after taking a day off than I would have written slogging through a day I just didn’t have it in me. And furthermore, I’m a big believer that writers write better when they have experiences to draw from. So don’t forget to experience. Don’t forget to live!

  ARE YOU STRUGGLING WITH OTHER LIFE THINGS AND HAVING TROUBLE FOCUSING IN GENERAL?

  Then be kind to yourself and remember that writing isn’t the most important thing in the world. It’s not even in the top ten. And if writing becomes the thing that makes you feel worse, then taking a little hiatus isn’t a bad thing. Just focus on getting better.

  ARE YOU EAGER TO WORK, BUT THE WORK ITSELF JUST FEELS … WRONG?

  Then stop working. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but your creative brain needs a break. Not a long break. Not forever. But you do need to go for a walk or a swim. You need to see a movie or take a nap. You’re not going to write through whatever’s wrong. You’ve got to find a way to write around it, and you’ll do that by stepping away for a few hours.

  ARE YOU STANDING AT A CROSSROADS OF YOUR STORY, LOOKING AT A DOZEN PATHS IT COULD TAKE AND FROZEN WITH INDECISION?

  This one happens to me. A lot. Like … every few days. That’s why I have notebooks and whiteboards and Post-it notes coming out my ears. Basically, I’ll map out all the different possibilities. There will be flow-chart-looking things all over my house. And even then I pick the wrong route sometimes. And then I back up and try another path. I just have to accept the fact that mistakes are part of the journey and every one I make eventually leads me to The End.

  DID YOU READ A SUPER-GREAT BOOK LAST NIGHT AND SO, TODAY, YOU CAN’T HELP LOOKING AT EVERY WORD YOU WRITE AND THINKING THAT THEY’LL NEVER BE GOOD ENOUGH?

  Stop. You have no idea what that book looked like before it got published. And you really don’t know how good (or horrendous) the author’s early work was. Trust
me. We all start out with dirty water.

  DOES IT LOOK LIKE EVERYONE IS FINISHING BOOKS AND WINNING CONTESTS AND GETTING AGENTS BUT YOU?

  Then eyes on your own paper! Several years ago a good friend of mine went on a big international book tour. She was posting the most glamorous photos, and I was so jealous. Then, when I saw her, I said something about how amazing her tour must have been. She turned to me—dead serious—and said, “Ally, Twitter lies.” Turns out, she’d had food poisoning and jet lag and had been deathly ill and miserable the whole time.

  So while it might look like everyone is having huge breakthroughs but you … well … Twitter lies.

  DO YOU HAVE A SHINY NEW IDEA THAT’S BURNING A HOLE IN YOUR POCKET?

  Then give yourself a day to write it down and put as much as you can on paper before you forget it. Just don’t forget to go back to your “real” project. Otherwise, when this new, shiny project gets hard (and it will) you might quit it, too. And so on, and so on.

  Series are tricky things. Not just writing them, but also the many, many business considerations that go with them.

  For a long time, series have been really popular and somewhat common in books for teens and young adults. It started, of course, with Harry Potter. Then Twilight and the Hunger Games and all the big series that came along with them.

  But for every series that made it mega big, there are dozens that had disappointing sales for books one and two. Which meant that no one was excited about book three and, in many cases, they weren’t even published, and all those authors never got to finish the series they had been so excited to write.

  So should you start with a series?

  Honestly, most publishers would love nothing more than to find a great new writer with a great new book. If it turns out that book is a hit, they would probably love to hear you’ve got an idea for a book two. Or three. Or seven. But most publishers would also probably prefer to have that first book stand alone, just in case the sales aren’t strong enough to warrant publishing any more.

  A phrase you hear a lot is “a stand-alone novel with spin-off potential.” If you’re really itching to write a series, that might be a safe place to start.

  I wish this question had a character/craft/story/conflict answer. But it doesn’t, I’m afraid. This is where the business part of this business comes into play. And when speaking about series, in particular, the business elements are always going to have to be considered.

  DEAR MARISSA MEYER,

  Any words of wisdom for someone who’s trying to write a series?

  If your series involves any sort of villainous opposition to the protagonist, I like to think about each book as a progressive level in a video game. You know how you could never beat the ultimate dungeon boss after just the first level, but you’re just strong enough and have gathered just enough weapons or abilities to defeat one of the boss’s minions? It’s the same sort of thing. Every book should show your character(s) getting a little stronger and a little more capable, and testing those skills against increasingly difficult opposition, until they finally have to face off against the series’s greatest foe in the climax of the final book.

  I’m of the opinion that there are three types of series.

  THE HARRY POTTER MODEL: This is the one that most teens and young adults think about when they think series. After all, it’s how J. K. Rowling did it! And plenty of the big series that have happened since.

  The Harry Potter Model means that the series is really one big story told over several volumes. There’s an overarching plot (can Harry defeat Voldemort?), but each book has its own stand-alone story. (Can Harry save the Sorcerer’s Stone? Will Harry survive the Triwizard Tournament? Etc.)

  In answer to your question, I think most writers who end up utilizing the Harry Potter Model know that they’re writing a series (or hoping to write a series) from the get-go. For example, when I sold I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You, I didn’t know that I’d get to write six books, but I knew that I was hoping to write a lot, so I gave my heroine a missing father and a lot of unanswered questions—I gave myself a whole lot of conflict that I could potentially play with down the line.

  When I sold my Embassy Row series, I had some more experience and a more established track record, so I was able to sell all three of those books at once, and in doing so, I was able to have a general story arc all planned out from the beginning.

  Neither way is better or worse. Those are just two different ways of thinking about the Harry Potter Model.

  Of course, there’s also …

  THE NANCY DREW MODEL: Most mysteries (both on TV and in books) follow the Nancy Drew Model, but a Nancy Drew Model series doesn’t necessarily have to be a mystery. They just have to be the types of books that lend themselves to more “episodic” stories (meaning that each individual story is self-contained, even though some characters recur from book to book). And in my opinion, these series are incredibly rare in teen fiction (which is a shame). In fact, my Heist Society series is one of the few examples I can think of.

  For the Nancy Drew Model to work, you really need a character, story, and situation where a new—totally separate—problem can show up at the beginning of each book. Every time, you’ll need a new case or a mystery or a job or a game or … something. You need a setup that lends itself to stories that have clear beginnings, middles, and endings. And you need them to be the kind of stories you can duplicate in another book (without writing the exact same book again).

  There is kind of a spectrum of books in the Nancy Drew Model. For some, like Nancy Drew or shows like Law & Order, it doesn’t matter if you start with volume one or volume twenty. You don’t have to read/watch them in order to understand exactly what’s going on because each story truly stands alone.

  Other stories in the Nancy Drew Model will have plots that stand alone, but there might be character arcs that cover multiple books. So even though you could, technically, read them out of order, you get a better experience if you can follow the characters from book one.

  My Heist Society series is like that. In each book, Kat and her crew of teenage thieves take on a new “job,” but their relationships with each other are constantly evolving, so people probably do enjoy them more when they’re read in order.

  THE ROMANCE NOVEL MODEL: Romance is a billion-dollar industry. (Yes, that’s billion with a B!) And for good reason. A lot of really amazing, smart writers are working in that genre, and they figured out a long time ago what readers want: Books that are exactly the same but totally different.

  Really, that’s the key to any series, no matter the model. Sometimes a person picks up the second book in a series because they need to know what happens next, but I think they’re more likely to pick up another book because they want to feel the way the first book made them feel.

  Romance novelists have perfected this. Which is why the vast majority of romance novels truly and totally stand alone. They tell the story of two people falling in love. But a lot of times those people will have a friend or a brother or a neighbor who happens to be single … and in the next book, that person falls in love … usually with someone who has a friend or a sibling or a neighbor who—you guessed it—falls in love in the next book.

  Most people call these companion novels, and honestly, for writers just starting out, this might be a great place to start.

  Tell one story. Tell it really, really well. But introduce us to a character or a place or something that the reader might want to read more about next time.

  DEAR DAVID LEVITHAN,

  Which series model is the best?

  I honestly think all the models you’ve mentioned work well. When I started as an editor at Scholastic in the 1990s, we had three big series, and there’s one for each of your categories. Animorphs followed the Harry Potter Model—it was one long saga over many, many books. The Baby-sitters Club was the Nancy Drew Model, driven by the characters and with each book standing alone, even as some character a
rcs played out over multiple books. Goosebumps was the Romance Novel Model—the stories were largely unrelated, but every time you pick up a Goosebumps book, you know you’re going to get fun, funny horror thrills. Each of these series sold tens of millions of copies … and still have fandoms over twenty years later.

  So, in answer to your question, I suppose it depends. The key to writing a series—especially early in your career—is to not get lost in the fact that your favorite books have been series or that the authors you admire most have written series or that writing a series is your BIG DREAM.

  Series are nothing more than a collection of several books. So focus on the books first. Preferably, focus on a book. And make it as amazing as possible—make it as complete as possible, with a beginning, middle and end. If it’s meant to be a series, then that will happen in due time.

  DEAR JULIE MURPHY,

  Your amazing novel Dumplin’ now has a companion novel, Puddin’—not a sequel. Why did you decide to go that route and what did you learn from it?

  I actually decided to write a companion novel to Dumplin’ because the moment I was done writing that book, I felt a little bit homesick. I think that’s pretty normal any time someone finishes a book, but this was a nagging feeling that wouldn’t go away. So I thought long and hard about what loose threads I’d left behind and who (of the characters in Dumplin’) I felt like deserved their own moment in the sun. I think there’s a careful balance you have to strike with a companion novel. You want the book to feel reminiscent of the first, but it still has to exist as a stand-alone.

  If you do find yourself writing a series, don’t be surprised if some books are harder than others. After all, all books are different! Books within a series are no exception. Gallagher Girls 2 almost killed me. Gallagher Girls 3 was the easiest book I’ve ever written.

  Why? I’m not sure. But I have noticed that—for me—book two is almost always the hardest.