Blog - Page 5 of 6 - MUSE • Leslie Keenan

Self-Publishing – What, Why, How – and Why Now?

From my Newsletter, January 2009 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Today I want to write about the question of self-publishing versus a commercial publisher. In the past this was an easier decision. Self-publishing required quite a bit of money, and many people didn’t have the wherewithal to do it. But now, with on-demand publishing, this choice has become a viable option for many. So how do you decide? And does it work? First some definitions. On-demand publishing means that instead of ordering thousands of books from a printer which are stored in a warehouse,…read more

New Year’s Resolutions?

I hate new year’s resolutions. The new year is just an arbitrary date created by a linear calendar that happens to start in the dead of winter. And resolutions are usually just lists of things we think we “should” do but haven’t been able to. So a month, or even a few weeks, in you feel like a failure because you’ve not been able to do it now either. Instead of a new year, I like to focus on the fact that we get a brand new twenty-four hours each…read more

Completing That Book: The Seven Stages

From my Newsletter, Winter 2008 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A student sent me an email. She’d been working on her manuscript a long time, and I’d asked her if she’d gotten it done. She said she was surprised that it was almost done but there were more things than she thought involved in finishing. I told her, well there are always stages to “doneness,” and it helps to realize that there are at least seven completion points. She immediately asked, oh, can you tell me what they all are? This is my answer….read more

Managing Documents

From my Newsletter, Summer 2008 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you first began to write your book, you probably just opened a new file in Word and started typing. You didn’t think about how to organize it, you were probably just grateful you got started. But now maybe you have 100 pages and you aren’t sure what you’ve got and you’ve been having trouble finding paragraphs you know you already wrote. This is where it’s handy to know a few tricks about managing large documents. It helps to start using some of these…read more

Finding Time to Write

From my Newsletter, Spring 2008 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The issue I’ve been finding my clients struggling with lately is finding the time to write in the middle of your life. How can you make time for it? The key is, you have to make writing your top priority, and commit to your schedule no matter what it is – keeping in mind that your highest priority may not take up the most time. So what does this look like? Well, I can use myself as an example here. Since I came back…read more

A Space of One’s Own: Where Writers Write

From my Newsletter, Late Autumn 2007 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Where do you write? Do you have a space you are comfortable with? Long before Virginia Woolf wrote A Room of One’s Own, writers needed some space. I’m sure most of us would love to have the studio on the back of the property as Virginia Woolf did. Or the studio I saw on C-Span again not long ago, where they gave us a tour of David McCullough’s studio in the back yard (on his house in Martha’s Vineyard-I can forgive him only…read more

Editing 101: How Much, What Kind, and When?

From my Newsletter, Fall 2007. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A couple of clients have been asking me how you know what level of editing to do when. They were all non-fiction people, but I think these guidelines apply to both fiction and non-fiction. However, with fiction, you may not get to the putting it together part until you’ve already done a first draft. When you are putting together a book, you want to work from the top down, so that you don’t find yourself getting really detailed in a piece that may not…read more

The Seven Basic Plots

From my Newsletter, May 2007. Last newsletter I promised a fuller description of my new favorite book, “The Seven Basic Plots” by Christopher Booker (no kidding, that’s his name!). It’s published by Continuum in paperback and it’s over 700 pages long. (See the link below if you are interested in purchasing it.) Whether you’re working on fiction or a memoir, it’s helpful to think in terms of plot, so here’s the synopsis. The Seven Basic Plots Are: –Overcoming the Monster (think Jaws) –Rags to Riches (David Copperfield) –The Quest (Odysseus)…read more

Courage: Completing the Book

From my Newsletter, December 2006. This year I had the opportunity to work with two magnificent writers, helping them complete their manuscripts. One was writing fiction, one non-fiction. I was amazed to observe that the necessity for both was the same: to let go of their own attachment to the writing or the stories in order to serve the needs of the book. I watched one (the non-fiction writer) letting go of large swaths of good material to focus on the real story. I watched the other (the fiction writer)…read more

The Library

Yesterday I left the library with my arms full of books. I realized how much I love books! And the library! I love that I can walk in looking for one particular book (in this case, one I’d forgotten at home when I left the house in the morning) and end up seeing other books on the shelf that interest me that I wouldn’t have thought of. And because it’s the library I can just grab them without worrying about whether I really need them or not. Then I go…read more