Writing Tips: The Breakout Novelist With Literary Agent Donald Maass
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 เม.ย. 2011
- Get your free 7 Steps to Write your Novel cheatsheet at: www.thecreativepenn.com/7steps
Thriller author Joanna Penn interviews literary agent Donald Maass about his latest book for authors, The Breakout Novelist. We talk about a breakout premise, how to make readers care about your characters, how to use micro-tension as well as literary/commercial writing and much more to make your book the best it can be. I also ask a cheeky question about Kindle author success.
In the video we discuss:
About the book, the Breakout Novelist. Pro novelists can get stuck while they are writing and the book was written to help them. It's aimed at helping them during the process and fix problems as they turn up.
On the breakout premise. The premise drives the story events so you need to start with a strong one. A breakout premise demands that things happen e.g. journeying home and reconciling with Mom after a number of years vs/ journeying home but character is a policewoman and Mom is accused of murder. This gives inherent conflict and demands that story events happen.
On micro-tension. It's not a function of plot and story events are not just plot or scene goals. Example given is A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick. Man is waiting on the train station platform for pages but it is still riveting reading. The man is inwardly conflicted and that is described in fine nuance.
How can writers make sure a reader will care about their character? As a default position, they won't care. You need to make the character themselves care and then the reader is affected. The more reasons you give the character to care, the more the reader will become involved.
What makes an impact in the first few pages? A reader needs a strong reason to care about this character. A quality needs to be present, like an aspect of heroism or something that opens a window into the character. Heroic characters almost need to be a touch flawed. Dark protagonists need to be seeking redemption, some way to change and become more human. We need a reason to hope. It's also important to keep the reader engaged every line and every page - that doesn't happen very often!
On literary/commercial - what does that mean? Example, Like Water for Elephants. Commercial storytellers need to embrace all the tools of good fiction, about structuring the books for strong themes, symbols etc. Literary writers need to think about external events that can be seen and heard and dramatized. It's about making strong story events but well written.
On the author's voice. Most often it is the point of view character's voice that we are reading about on the page. We're into the head of the character and how they perceive things that is distinctive. What makes your character unique.
Why the author's best champion is themselves. Authors do have to promote themselves now. This is a truism. But being your own champion is not just about marketing and building a relationship with fans. You also have to be a champion of your own writing, be your own best critic and cheerleader. No one will push your story deeper than you will. It's up to you to mine everything you can in order to fulfill the story potential.
The 5 book threshold. Pre-published writers think the first book is it and you've made it but that's not true. The ultimate customer is a reader and for them to find you it needs to be a career. On average it takes about 5 books for a critical mass of readers to build up. Getting published is a milestone but it's not the end. Word of mouth is the main mechanism by which books sell. People buy books from people they have heard of. If readers try a new author, it mostly happens because someone has convinced them to buy it. It takes time to work and works better the more books you have, the more readers you have.
On the Kindle authors. Agents can't avoid hearing from Kindle authors. Is this a valid route to recognition? Most Kindle sales are pretty small. They are people who break through this way but it's pretty rare. Agents are looking for a compelling story regardless of how it is published or if it is a manuscript. If it's a great story, it's probably doing well. What makes sales is the same thing - great storytelling. It rewards people for writing a manuscript but perhaps not taking it far enough to make it great. But if you write a good story, you can sell it. Write a great story first - that's the most important thing.
You can find Donald at the Maass Agency and his book on Amazon.com or Writer's Digest store. You can also follow Donald on Twitter @DonMaass
![[FULL INTERVIEW] Advice From a Top Literary Agent](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3sQGSPrdaA8/mqdefault.jpg)
00:01 Intro
01:25 Why he wrote The Breakout Novelist
02:00 Breakout premise
Inherent conflict
03:25 Micro tension
Don't let the reader rest, line by line
06:05 How to make the reader care about characters
Give the character reasons to care
07:55 How to grab readers in the first few pages
10:30 Literary commercial books
12:35 Writer's voice
14:40 The author's best champion is himself
17:05 Five book effect
Word-of-mouth
19:55 Do agents accept pitches from successful Kindle authors?
Write a great story first
22:20 Contact information
Thanks Joanna for submitted yet another great interview, It's great that your helping so many budding writers in their journey to getting published
Love the interview. I have all of Don's books and attended his day-long Fire in FIction seminar and his week-long Breakout Novel Workshop. All of his books/events are worth every penny!! He is not only a successful agent, but a wonderful teacher of the writing craft.
The best interview with a literary agent I've seen out of many.
It's a very old interview!
Enjoyed the interview but I found the poor sound quality very distracting and a lot of valuable information was lost.
Great talk. I love the workbook that goes along with this book.
'The point is write a great story first'. I get it. Thanks for upload! =)
I detect he is very skeptical of indie publishing, but then that was over three years ago. The attitudes of the traditional publishers have probably changed a lot since then.
Ah! I understand. Thank you for replying, anyway. I appreciate it. :D
I'd like to watch it--but the video sound is in and out.
I assume that you had no problems with your reception of Donald's audio.
Great interview, by the way! There were short bits that were hard to catch because of the glitchy audio, so my request is tainted a smidge with some selfishness, I must admit.
Joanna, I was just reading a review of Donald's book and one reviewer gave it one star based on a misheard statement in this interview. The poor sap thought that Donald had called plot a gimmick and therefore concluded that he hates plot, when, in fact, Maass says that literary novelists view plot as gimmicky. Can I suggest that you have a transcript of this interview transcribed and posted to your site for all to read, especially in light of the poor audio?
Great interview but he lost me a little when he down played the success of Amanda Hocking. Would you blame him?
I wrote a book taking notes on his book. It is wonderful. In this interview though, he talks about how riveting the first 20 pages are in The Reliable Wife; so I read the reviews on Amazon. More than half of the reviewers rated the Reliable Wife 1 star. One librarian said it was "easily the worst book she had ever read". Has New York lost touch with actual readers? Thinking better to make your novel the best it can be and go Kindle.
Susan Count Hastings Your comment reminded me of something Stephen King mentioned in his 'On Writing' book. He encouraged the aspiring to read a bad book in order to gain a useful point of reference on what not to do. Seemed sensible. Maybe Maass is to novels what Siskel and Ebert was to movies. I seldom agreed with S & E. :)
patrick rothfuss talks about the importance of letting the reader rest as part of the rhythm of storytelling. i find that much more satisfying than maintaining tension throughout. i disagree with this man, but am interested to hear the rest of his thoughts.
Would have loved this more if it hadn't been such a bad quality post
We had technical difficulties and it was many years ago :)