Eneh Akpan Writes: Literary agent

Showing posts with label Literary agent. Show all posts

Monday, September 15, 2014

How to Write a Story and Not Get Shot

Updated: June.18.2015

Nobody ever told you becoming a fiction writer would involve life-threatening situations, right? And you didn’t choose a writing career so you’d end up in jail or worse, in a casket. If like me, you pick your inspiration from your immediate surrounding, there are a few pitfalls you just have to watch out for. I’ve listed about five here applying well-known proverbs but there might be more.

“A Good Name is Sooner Lost than Won”: You probably heard it said, “Give a dog a bad name and hang him and the name remains.” The saying also applies to fiction writing. Folks don’t take kindly to being made the butt of the joke especially, one where the clown gets paid. Use names that cannot be traced to persons, living or dead. Even if your story is not inspired by an event in your immediate vicinity, make it a personal commitment to avoid picking names associated with local, real people around you, for your story. Most of the time, folks won’t mind becoming a part of your story yet the few exceptions would spell the difference between a fruitful career and an embarrassingly short, unhappy one.

“What is Sauce for the Goose is Sauce for the Gander”: Have you ever considered writing a story not sex-driven? Your story people do not have to be male or female. They can be genderless, if it furthers your cause, or even bisexual (we used to call that hermaphrodite back in my high school days.) Here’s a story in your hands that’s a best seller in its own rights but you know you’re going to step on toes if you lay it out the way it is. You’re especially worried about how to keep your story faithful to the character without blowing the real life inspiration out of the water. I think you ought to give this a try; trade genders.

Chinua Achebe:
Legendary writer who almost
got shot for doing his job.

“We Can Live Without Our Friends but Not Without Our Neighbors”: Setting is important to story and for a yarn crawling with sensitive topics, setting is probably everything if the story must hold true. This gig is not called fiction for nothing, you know? Relocating the situation of your story and fine-tuning it to blend in with the adapted setting adds a different twist to the entire deal. If it’s trading places your narrative needs to retain its appeal among local audience, change your story setting.

“The Habit Does Not Make the Monk”: Story is king. Forget about all the misconceptions going the rounds about making your work fit into a standard genre. If attempting to mold your tale into a particular fiction category is going to spell trouble for you, ditch the genre and get the story done anyway you can. Going for the obvious might wake the dead, drawing painful and better-forgotten memories to the fore. Believe me, you don’t need the drama. The habit don’t make the monk and the genre don’t make the story. Your readers are bound to see it for what it is, anyway.

“Speak Well of Your Friends and of Your Enemy Nothing”: What gives profiling its appeal is how it injects life into your fictional characters and gives them the feel of real people. And whether the process is accidental or otherwise (the peeved individual would most likely tell you to ‘shove your excuses where the sun never shines’) most of the conceits you feed into your character are things you notice in the people around you. You can do yourself a favor and add a creative twist when drawing up traits of folks who populate your story. Business can get nasty in a hurry if your mother-in-law spots how the toothless old hag living up a tree in your fantasy series shares her peculiarities.

This is a reheated version of an article I wrote way back 2012 called “Entirely Coincidental.” Just in case, you noticed.

Keep your pens bleeding!

Akpan

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Grounds to 'Read With a Pencil Close By'

Here are a handful of grounds to “Read with a pencil close by.” I found out it is still one of the best advices ever given to writers or students of the printed text.

Mark Phrases/Sentences & Paragraphs

When a phrase or paragraph catches my eye and sparks up a desire for complemental musing, I mark it using a colored pen/pencil or highlighter. I feel much better having a textual landmark around it, knowing it will arouse zeal whenever I spot it.

A Sign of Commitment

I pick up a fiction/nonfiction text then grab for a colored pencil or highlighter and I feel a sense of commitment. The pen/pencil informs every nerve in my body that I mean business. I aint just doing this for fun, I intend to come off the reading project with a lesson and some learned.

Recall Entire Textual Matter

It’s a lot more easy to call up words from memory if you underline/mark them when you read. I do that often and when my mind coughs up those peculiar sentences they usually appear on the wall of my subconscious as images. I visualize the interesting set of words hemmed in by my scrawls before the title of the book essentially floats to the surface.

Spot Peculiar Phrases/Sentences/Paragraphs

I find I can navigate the text with ease when I circle or box words that chase my fancy. For me, it’s become less stressful identifying a line or box in the middle of a page, to find the sentence or phrase it guards. I can pick out these phrases during my research period. The lines and symbols seem to beg for my attention.

Lookout for Peculiar Twists

Having a highlighter close by where I can reach it and tag a phrase keeps my faculty amped up and on the lookout for expressions full of shades of meaning. The search for inspired language morphs into a conscious, energetic process and for somebody out to learn a new thing that’s a lot.

That’s all folks. I guess you know what you need for your next reading exercise besides the text, that is.

Keep your pen bleeding.

Akpan

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Do The Thing You Love That Sells!

We often hear people say, ‘Write to Please Yourself!’ (Which is true.) We are told to choose subjects we are deeply passionate about and I’d like to take this a step further in this write up.

Do the thing you love that actually appeals to other people.

How can you tell people are going to buy into your idea? Well, you can’t. That sounds mean, don’t it? But you can rest in the fact you did the right thing.

Study the market!

Of course, we may not always know for sure, in what genre we will make our big hit. And it’s been said, ‘Do not set a deadline for success.’ I agree with that 100%. I guess I’m one of the lucky dudes who found role models who have made it to the top rung of the ladder from the depths of their dungeons and went one step at a time. The beautiful thing about this is I can relate. I can copy their examples.

Break your talent(s) or gift(s) down to the basics:

What’s that you have in your hand;

What uses can you put it to;

Which of these functions lead upward;

Which aspect appeals to your audience;

What will give you the satisfaction of achievement and trigger the cash flow?

‘Successful art or Commercial art is Self-Expression plus Communication.’

- Steven Barnes

You have to save a little love for the guy who needs what you got to give. You must have enough of that kind of respect for your audience so they know you’ve been looking for them like they’ve been waiting for you to come out of incubation.

Think of it. There’s actually people out there waiting for somebody like you to come along with your stuff. Showing you need them as much as they need you can make all the difference between a hit and an all-out flop.

Seasoned artists are true to their hearts while watching out for the hearts of their readers or audience.

Work on what you love and spill your passion over into what the market wants. There’s no greater gig on earth than getting paid for doing something you’re truly in love with.

To be straight up about this, it’s not an easy job. Finding something you’re good at and turning it into what sells are on opposite sides of the coin. Sometimes, you might look to the money instead of the art. But if you keep at it long enough, at some point, you will exhale!

Keep your pen bleeding.

Akpan