Category: Writing Techniques

How to Write a Summary Lead: The Writer’s Workshop

Lawrence-Wright-Author-Photo-Credit-to-Kenny-Braun.j


Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lawrence Wright uses summary leads throughout his work. Photo-Credit-to-Kenny-Braun.

              These leads allow you to get to the point of your story quickly and easily. The trick is to make them appealing as well. Writers using summary leads often employ wordplay or humor to liven them up.

              “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Charles Dickens

“The philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre once famously observed that “Hell is other people.” And he worked from home. Imagine if he had been one of the millions of us who are forced to navigate the psychic minefields of the modern corporation.”

From a book review in the Wall Street Journal, 4/4/06 by Martin Kihn.

            Normally, the milk of human kindness doesn’t leave a sour taste. Unless, that is, you happen to be a Northerner taking too big a gulp of Southern hospitality.

From the Wall Street Journal, 10/29/96, by Eleena De Lisser of which discusses the reception Northerner’s get when moving to the South.

              This lead works because it puts a surprising twist on what normally would be a cliché (ie. the milk of human kindness). In this way, it intrigues and appeals to the reader, encouraging the reader to find out just what she means by all this. The second line introduces in summary fashion the subject of the story.

              De Lisser then introduces a quote which backs up and further explains the lead:

            “It’s the most irritating thing I can think of,” complains Diane Kuhn, an ex-New Yorker now living in Nashville, Tenn., referring to the South’s idea of highway hospitality. “Drivers will let 12 cars” enter their lane, she says. “I say you let one in. Maybe. If you’re in a good mood.”

              Then De Lisser moves to the nut graph, which introduces the larger issue:

For the most part, the North these days can’t seem to get enough of the South–its music, its cooking, its John Grisham (of Oxford, Miss.) A lot of Northerners are coming on down.

              She then goes on to explain that the Northerners don’t appreciate the social courtesies of Southerners. Such a topic would confound most newspaper journalists, but De Lisser handles it with deftness, humor and aplomb. For more on writing summary leads, sign up for my fall class, Revising Your Life.

Diana Noble Speaks to The Writer’s Workshop about Persistence in Writing and Publishing

Persistence pays off. That’s the lesson former student Diana Noble learned in trying to place her latest novel, Not That Kind of Call Girl, under the pen name Nova Garcia. Diana pitched some 200 agents on the mystery novel before landing a contract with Wild Rose Press after pitching the book at a conference.

“Is it worth the time, uncertainty and hassle?” she asked while speaking at my summer class for The Writer’s Workshop, Writing for Story. “For me, yes!”

Persistence. It’s got to be the most under-rated ingredient in every writer’s success. Talent? Sure? Stamina? Definitely. Imagination? Certainly. But none of these other qualities would result in writing or publishing success if the writer lacked persistence.

Diana demonstrated persistence not just in pitching but in writing the book. It took her seven years to complete the manuscript. Along the way, she learned the following tips:

1.           There’s so much to learn—get out there and don’t stop

2.           Networking matters

3.           Be humble, your writing can always improve

4.           Put on your big girl pants; it’s a bumpy ride

5.           Pantser vs plotter, I’ve made peace with my style

6.           Grammar, you may think you’re perfect, but…

7.           The art of querying agents—make an

impression; it’s got to be personalized and perfect

8.           Active writing

9.           Show, don’t tell

10.         Hooks & tension— make ’em hungry

“A Simple Way to Create

Suspense,” Lee Child, 2012

11.         Beware information dumps

12.         Step away from the computer

13.         Read for inspiration

14.         It doesn’t end with a published book

15.         Give yourself some grace—this is hard stuff

16.         Write with a purpose

17.         Persevere

Diana is hosting a book signing on October 3rd, 2024, 5-9 pm at Brigid’s Bottle Shop 188 Sunset Ave S Edmonds, WA 98020. Guitarist Jerry Battista will perform from 7-9 pm. : www.novagarcia.net. 

Promoting Your Book: How to Publicize Your Book

Most authors prefer writing to marketing, but learning how to sell your book is a necessary skill in today’s publishing world.

“Publishers want to know what tools you’re bringing to the table,” said Molly Woolbright, Publicity Manager of the University of Washington Press, who spoke to my spring Seattle Narrative Writing class, The Nature of Narrative. “It’s never too early to start doing this. You want to build these networks out.”

Overview of Book Publicity

An in-house publicist at a traditional publisher works on a variety of books at a time, striving to secure a mix of trade reviews and regional and national media for each. From the general public’s perspective, a book campaign is typically about 3 months long; from an author and publisher’s perspective, the work begins at least 6 months before a book is published.

Long-Lead Media

About 6-8 months out from publication

Advance reader copies (otherwise known as ARCs or galleys) sent to media outlets that work far in advance, including: Print magazines, Trade journals (Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Booklist, etc.), Podcasts.

Short-Lead Media

About 1-2 months out from publication

Finished copies sent to media outlets that work on a shorter timeframe, including: Newspapers, radio, TV, blogs.

Local/Regional Media

Often overlooked in favor of bigger or more prestigious national media outlets, your local newspaper, magazines, blogs, radio, and TV stations are a great starting point to build buzz (while still striving for national hits). The Amazon algorithm is fed by any and all publicity, and local media is more likely to take notice.

Optimizing Your Author Platform for Media

Book promotion, regardless of genre, is often more about the author than the book—it’s about you and the expertise you can provide or discussions you can spark. Whether you’re working with an in-house publicist or you’ve hired a freelancer, one of the most helpful steps you can take to assist her efforts in securing media is to boost your online presence.

Website

From a publicity perspective, a website is the most useful asset you can have as an author. Whereas social media is ephemeral, a website offers a consistent representation of you and your work. Think of it like a toolbox where journalists/reviewers/editors can go to find more info.

For more on book promotion and writing technique, please consider signing up for my next Seattle writing class, online writing class or travel writing class through www.thewritersworkshop.net.

The Romance of Travel Writing

Van Gogh painted Starry Night in the part of Provence.

Travel writing is one of the most satisfying and diverting kinds of writing. It calls on all of the skills of a creation nonfiction writer—dramatic scenes, character sketches, concrete detail, point of view, scene by scene construction. It’s very difficult to do well, but here are 10 tips for succeeding at it.

  • MAKE DESTINATION ATTRACTIVE: Make the place sound appealing – Though you can occasionally trash a destination in some publications, most publications insist on painting a positive picture of the place. Why else would a reader bother finishing story?
  • FOCUS ON ITS UNIQUENESS– Try to describe what makes the place distinctive and particular. Avoid talk about sunsets and vistas unless they’re very specific to the place.
  • AVOID CLICHES– Much travel writing is simply riddled with clichés: charming, rustic, romantic, etc. Try to find fresh descriptions of the place.
  • CREATE ONE DOMINANT IMPRESSION – What one idea do you want to leave with the reader about your trip to Katmandu? You can include a myriad of details about the cows, the scooters, the chock-a-block brick buildings, but make sure that they add up to one central idea of the place. Chaos? Rich cultural heritage? At the brink of civil war? Pick one and go with it.
  • SEEK OUT DRAMA, EPIPHANIES – If you’re writing a story about Puerto Vallarta, don’t simply wander around like a tourist and write about your sore feet and aching back. Instead, actively seek out situations which will demonstrate the color and uniqueness of the place. Book a trip with Pedro, the local guide, rather than the big, glitzy resort package. Pedro will more likely yield a rich and colorful story. Example: I booked a fishing trip on board a local boat out of Ixtapa, rather than on board and a big American Cabin Cruiser.
  • If you’d like to learn more about travel writing, sign up for my winter class, Follow the Story, or my Travel Writing in Provence Class.

Pulitzer Prize Winner Speaks to The Writer’s Workshop Writing Class

Rich Read
Pulitzer Prize Winner Rich Read Speaks to The Writer’s Workshop writing class.

Rich Read wanted to tell a story. He’d visited southeast Asia and saw an immense economic crisis unfolding. But how to make that interesting to a general reader of the Oregonian where he worked as a reporter?

“I didn’t want to write an economic treatise because no one would read it,” he said when he spoke to my fall writing class for The Writer’s Workshop. “I wanted to find a product from the Northwest, sold to the middle class, and follow it. I started casting around and came up with idea of French fry which is a multi-billion dollar industry. The russet Burbank potato is perfect for fast food French fries. It was a crazy idea for a regional newspaper.”

The proposal was denied, so he retooled it and sent it again. Denied. Then managing editor Therese Bottomly got wind of it. “I love this story,” she said. “We’ve got to do it.”

Rich was assigned to work with editor Jack Hart, a specialist in narrative writing, and author of Storycraft which I use in my writing courses for The Writer’s Workshop.

“What are you trying to do?” Jack said.

“I want to follow the river of French fries,” Rich explained.

“You want one container to give it drama and specificity,” Jack said. “You need to find one container and follow it around the world.”

Rich took Jack’s advice, found such a container, and wrote a terrific story about French Fries and the global supply chain.

“Writing is always harder than the reporting,” he said. “This was my first try at narrative writing. Jack Hart walked me through how to do it. We chose John McPhee as a model because he’s such a great explanatory writer. Each scene would have a point.”

It ended up being a multipart series and got a great reaction. When Rich returned to the office, there was a bouquet of flowers on the desk and a note, “You’re a finalist for the Pulitzer.”

On day of the awards, the editorial staff gathered in the newsroom to hear he’d won it. “They wheeled in crates of MacDonald’s French fries and champagne,” he says. “It was really great for the paper.”

Read the story here: https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/richard-read.

Richard Read is a freelance reporter based in Seattle, where he was a national reporter and bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times from 2019 to 2021. A two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, he was a senior writer and foreign correspondent for The Oregonian, working for the Portland, Oregon newspaper from 1981 to 1986 and 1989 until 2016.

Set the Scene: How to Write a Dramatic Scene Narrative Writing Class

SUMMARY SCENE OPENINGS – WRITING PROCEDURE

V.S. Naipaul
The Writer’s Workshop classes discuss how V.S. Naipaul uses dramatic scene to tell his stories.

COPYRIGHT THE WRITER’S WORKSHOP

Scenic writing is the basis for some of the most moving, satisfying, sophisticated works of literature. It is especially effective in bringing readers into the story because it helps them create a world, a world that you the writer have inhabited and can share with the reader through words. Scenes present a visual, sensual world the reader can inhabit, a kind of imaginary garden with real toads, whether that’s the world of the astronaut program of Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff, the vast landscapes of the Southwest in the work of Terry Tempest Williams, or the hard-bitten, humorous Irish Catholic childhood of memoirist Frank McCourt or the travel stories of V.S. Naipaul.

1) SETTING THE SCENE

  1. a) OPENING SENTENCE: Find a sentence that creates suspense and foreshadows what will happen. This makes clear to the reader that information in summary lead is important and needs to be read. In William Stafford’s memoir Down in my Heart, he uses the opening line, “When are men dangerous?” which accomplishes this perfectly.
  2. b) SETTING DETAILS: Provide details that suggest what will happen in scene. These should be chosen for their inherent interest, color and humor and also for what they illustrate about main point of story. For instance, in Down in My Heart, Stafford includes details like “loafing around in the Sabbath calm.” These details help set the scene, and also create suspense. Readers suspect that something will soon shatter this tranquility. The best scenic details do double duty, both painting a picture and creating suspense.
  3. c) NUT GRAPH: After sketching in the scene and introducing the people, the writer makes a transition to the action. This transition is crucial, often spelling out the main point or alerting the reader that something important will happen in the scene. William Stafford’s repetition of the phrase “When are men dangerous?” clues in the reader that the tranquil atmosphere of rural Arkansas is about to end.

This transition usually leads to a nut graph, a paragraph that suggests or explains the larger point or goal of the scene and furnishes its larger context. It’s called a nut graph because it puts all of these things together in a nutshell. Who? What? When? Where? And most importantly, why? As in, why should the reader care? What will the scene accomplish?

For more on how to set a scene, please sign up for my winter narrative and Seattle writing class, Follow the Story.

Photos for next issue of The Writer’s Workshop Review

Flannery-O’Connor for The Writer’s Workshop.

Downtown Bordeaux for The Writer's Workshop.
Downtown Bordeaux for The Writer’s Workshop.

Downtown Bordeaux for The Writer's Workshop.
Downtown Bordeaux for The Writer’s Workshop.

Baseball umpire for The Writers Workshop.
Baseball umpire for The Writers Workshop.

Redwoods for The Writer’s Workshop.

Photo

Wat Bangkok for The Writer’s Workshop Review.

How to Promote Your Book

Molly Woolbright speaks about book promotion for The Writer’s Workshop writing classes.

How to Promote Your Book

 

Promoting a book is not often an author’s favorite past time, but it can reap huge dividends in exposure and book sales. Molly Woolbright, the publicist at Sasquatch Books, visited my summer Seattle writing class, Writing Your Story, to provide insight into the process.

“I will broadly describe how a publicist at a traditional publisher approaches a book’s campaign and hopefully demystify the process,” she explained.

Woolbright emphasized that digital marketing has taken on new importance in a time of social distancing. In the past, book tours and talks made up a significant part of the marketing plan. With those options limited , other strategies need to be developed, including talks and meetings via Zoom and other web conferences.

She detailed a number of effective ways of getting the word out about your book. I’ll include the highlights of her talk to my Seattle writing class, Writing Your Story, below:

Overview of Book Publicity

An in-house publicist at a traditional publisher works on a variety of books at a time, striving to secure a mix of trade reviews and regional and national media for each. From the general public’s perspective, a book campaign is typically about 3 months long; from an author and publisher’s perspective, the work begins at least 6 months before a book is published.

Long-Lead Media

About 6-8 months out from publication

Advance reader copies (otherwise known as ARCs or galleys) sent to media outlets that work far in advance, including: Print magazines, Trade journals (Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Booklist, etc.), Podcasts.

Short-Lead Media

About 1-2 months out from publication

Finished copies sent to media outlets that work on a shorter timeframe, including: Newspapers, radio, TV, blogs.

Local/Regional Media

Often overlooked in favor of bigger or more prestigious national media outlets, your local newspaper, magazines, blogs, radio, and TV stations are a great starting point to build buzz (while still striving for national hits). The Amazon algorithm is fed by any and all publicity, and local media is more likely to take notice.

Optimizing Your Author Platform for Media

Book promotion, regardless of genre, is often more about the author than the book—it’s about you and the expertise you can provide or discussions you can spark. Whether you’re working with an in-house publicist or you’ve hired a freelancer, one of the most helpful steps you can take to assist her efforts in securing media is to boost your online presence.

 

Website

From a publicity perspective, a website is the most useful asset you can have as an author. Whereas social media is ephemeral, a website offers a consistent representation of you and your work. Think of it like a toolbox where journalists/reviewers/editors can go to find more info.

For more on book promotion and writing technique, please consider signing up for my next Seattle writing class, online writing class or travel writing class through www.thewritersworkshop.net.

Book Review of Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Review of Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro for The Writer's Workshop.
Review of Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro for The Writer’s Workshop.

Review by Kate Jackson for The Writer’s Workshop

“Do you believe in the human heart?…….Do you think there is such a thing?  Something that makes each of us special and individual?”  These profound questions are posed to Klara, an AF (artificial friend) who was chosen to be Josie’s companion, by Josie’s father.  It is ironic that a human expects the product of technology to tell him what it means to be human.  The reader will discover why these questions are important and decide if or how these questions are answered.

As with other Ishiguro’s books, the reader enters on a gradual journey of discovery where complex relationships among the characters inhabiting his world are revealed.  Ishiguro effectively uses first person narration to build his story.  Klara, the narrator, always refers to humans in the third person and through keen observation, she learns more about humans than they may know about themselves.  She is a constant presence in Josie’s household but, almost like the butler in Remains of the Day, is not really a part of it.  She does form strong relationships with Josie and her childhood friend, Rick.  Klara also has an almost personal relationship with the Sun, the center of our solar system and center of her “life”.

As with some of Ishiguro’s other books, the main character has a mission to complete.  In Klara’s case, it is her quest to save Josie from the effects of her mysterious “illness.”  It is never clear what this is, but we know that it is somehow related to her being “lifted,” which we may conclude is a type of genetic engineering.  The father, the mother and a friend all provide differing perspectives on this topic but there is no resolution.  Is Ishiguro making a social commentary on entitlement or is he sounding a warning bell of what may be coming?

This thought-provoking novel is another demonstration of Ishiguro’s skill at captivating the reader’s imagination.  He is a master of detail and direct dialogue so that what may seem fanciful becomes real.  For example, as Klara watches a street scene where a man and a woman embrace and says, “and the Sun, noticing, was pouring his nourishment on them.”  We care about Klara as much as any human character in great literature. We ponder what it means to create an altered human or to fully embrace artificial intelligence.  In the end, Ishiguro leads the reader to an enigmatic ending, ripe for discussion about human nature, the power of love, and the limits of technology.

Oak Flat Book Review by Kate Jackson

Oak Flat Book Review by Kate Jackson for The Writer’s Workshop.

Oak Flat:  A Fight for Sacred Land in the American West

By Lauren Redniss

Reviewed by Kate Jackson

This is a stunning visual nonfiction book written by an award-winning author with the eye of an artist and the voice of a journalist.   From the opening pages with their vivid illustrations interspersed with text to the final black pages with white print, the reader is introduced to a clash of cultural values of immediate relevance.

Oak Flat is part of the Tonto National Forest, about 65 miles east of Phoenix, Arizona.  It is a popular hiking, birding, and camping area 15 miles from the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation and near the town of Superior.  The land also sits above a large copper deposit worth billions of dollars and coveted by Resolution Mining Company, LLC.  Apaches consider Oak Flat to be sacred ground where they gather medicinal plants and acorns and continue to pray and perform ceremonies passed down by generations.  The proposed mine would eventually create a large crater to replace the land and make the site unrecognizable.  Residents of the town see jobs and increased economic activity from the mining operation.

The book provides rich visual representations of Oak Flat while weaving a narrative based on interviews with members of an Apache family, the Nosies, and descendants of early settlers of Superior, the Gorhams.  Wendsler Nosie served on the San Carlos Tribal Council and was tribal chairman before forming the Apache Stronghold, an alliance of Apaches and others determined to stop the copper mine.  The Sunrise dance which reenacts the Apaches creation myth at Oak Flat, is seen through the eyes of his granddaughter, Naelyn Pike.  The Gorhams represent the perspective of workers in the mines and community members who have experienced the boom and bust of previous mining operations.

The fate of Oak Flat has not been resolved as the Forest Service recently rescinded the environmental impact assessment necessary for the mining project to proceed.   Pressures for increased copper production will continue to mount as the movement towards “clean” energy solutions to reduce carbon emissions are advanced.  Large amounts of copper are necessary for solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles, and battery storage.  Where do sacred spaces fit into the equation of costs and benefits?

The Writer’s Workshop Book Review regularly publishes reviews of fictional and nonfiction narratives from traditional publishing houses. If you would like to write a review or have your own book reviewed, please let me know.