The Muffin | Cathy C. Hall Writes

I hate to be pushy–though the Beneficent Mr. Hall would probably argue with that–but I’m going to shove you over to this NaNo prep class with my friend and agent Sally Apokedak. I shared all the particulars for NaNo Prep: Planning the High Concept Novel over at The Muffin so I’ll wait a second while you read the details.

…(humming, humming, humming….)….

Back? Okay, now, obviously, there’s a ton of wonderful writing stuff about this class–and you cannot beat the price, right? But I think the most wonderful thing of all is that, no matter what kind of novel you write, from chapter book to adult fiction, you’re going to get feedback on your idea and figure out what a high concept novel is.

That is no small feat. You can write–and write well–until the cows come home. But if you’re stuck in a “been there, done that before” scenario, you’re never going to break out.

It’s been my experience that most people (and I’m including myself here) don’t realize they’re writing about the same old, same old. They think they have a fresh new idea. They think they have a high concept. They think their premise is THE one that’s going to knock off the socks of an editor or agent.

Until it doesn’t. And then it’s back to the drawing board (or Precious the Laptop).

Here’s a short class at a great price by a wonderful writer and agent who gets it. And you’ll get it, too, if you take the class. So shove off, already.

I knew I had a Muffin blog post coming up. I just didn’t know what in the world I’d write about. But I’d worry about that later as I screamed and yelled and ranted through a college football game, followed the next day by another display of football failure.

One day left and still no idea. I watched The Roosevelts (It’s fascinating!) hoping for inspiration.

Nothing. But late that night, right before turning out the light, it came to me, this inspiration rooted in my competitive drive.

Ugh. I didn’t want to write about that. I did not want to explore the idea of when competition goes bad for writers. I mean, it’s not a pretty sight, right? I fell asleep, figuring something else would come to me.

But my brain just would not come up with another idea. It seemed absolutely stuck on the whole competition theme. The clock was ticking and...fine. I wrote “When Competition Gets Ugly.” You can find it over at the Muffin today.

At least those ugly weekend football games were good for something.