How To Talk About Your Book
Transcript:
I'm not the most rational person to talk to about my book.
I'm not saying I'm super biased, though I probably am. I'm just saying I might be a little too critical. When I first started this story, I kept thinking to myself "I don't think this has enough action." Even though the first chapter of my book ends with my main character climbing into a burning car and the second ends with her covered in blood.
I feel like that's pretty crazy intense for the opening chapters, don't you think? That's a lot of action.
But the thing is, talking about your story when you're a writer is sort of a requirement.
I actually really do love talking about my book with people who aren't me. I guess when you talk to yourself enough you start to develop a split personality.
I really, truly love my book. I swear I do.
This is something I had to really learn at Leviosa because I went there and people started asking me about my book. As people are, you know, wont to do at a writing convention.
I kept getting questions like “Do you write? What do you write? What's your book about?”
I had to learn how to answer them well and fast. I realized that I hadn't really prepared for that at all. I briefly considered the idea of talking to an agent about my book, but the idea of talking about it with other writers and casual readers was a whole different ball game.
When you're talking to an agent, when you're pitching your book, you're trying to focus on the marketability and sales potential.
When you're talking to a reader or fellow writer, you're just trying to make it sound fun!
Something that they would want to read. Sometimes it's hard to remember your book is fun. I ended up giving an elevator pitch that summarized three of the main things that excited me about my book and people were really excited! I didn't get any sort of negative feedback from writers and readers.
This really helped me for when I went into the pitch sessions because it gave me a lot of confidence to remember that this was a cool story. You definitely need confidence in a pitch session.
It reminds me of something that one of my new friends said, author Chelsea Sedoti, whose book THE HUNDRED LIES OF LIZZIE LOVETT, is coming out in January and it's going to be so, so, so awesome...
She said, “I don't know if this is good or terrible because only my mother and I have read it.”
That's just a perfect summary of the neurosis that you get when the only person you've been able to talk to your book about is you. Or your mom. It gets said a lot, but writing is a very solitary job. It's very easy to get discouraged, not only with the process and the industry, but also your story itself.
Writing requires you to be alone with your thoughts the majority of the time.
That's one of the reasons Leviosa was so great for me. It was really great to talk about my book with people who hadn't been focusing on all of its little flaws. Their passion reminded me why I loved the story in the first place.
Unfortunately, I'm not going to tell you about my novel just yet. I need to keep some mystery. But if you're feeling down in the dumps about your writing—or really most creative endeavors, I doubt this is only exclusive to writing—I'd recommend talking to somebody about it.
Talk about the things that you love.
Maybe make a list of everything that excites you about the project. How can you expect somebody to love what you create if you don't love it yourself?
What are you excited about? Tell me in the comments.
I'll see you really soon. Bye.
