Happy Valentine’s Day!
miscellany
this is not a FAQ, part the first
Okay, this is how we’re going to do this. This is not a real Frequently Asked Questions. Maybe it will be eventually, but for now it will be a work in progress.
This shall be Part I: On Writing. (There will be a Part II: Not On Writing soon.)
I will eventually put together a real non-blog page for this, but for now it can start here and do feel free to ask additional questions in comments and maybe they can be incorporated.
And, here we go:
Part I: On Writing
To begin… To begin… How to start? I’m hungry. I should get coffee. Coffee would help me think. But I should write something first, then reward myself with coffee. Coffee and a muffin. Okay, so I need to establish the themes. Maybe banana-nut. That’s a good muffin.
-Charlie Kaufman, Adaptation
About Writing in General
How long have you been writing?
I wrote little random things when I was in junior high and high school but never really thought of myself as a writer. I studied playwriting in college but never finished any plays. Wrote a few pretty good scenes, though. After college I thought about writing for good long while before I started actually putting pen to paper in my mid-twenties.
I do not have an MFA or any other formal writing training. I love adverbs. I still do naughty things with commas.
How did you write a bestseller/how does one write a bestseller/etc?
For any question that boils down to “how did you write a successful novel?” the answer in my case is pretty simple: I wasn’t trying to. I didn’t sit down and aim for the bestseller lists, I didn’t even know much about publishing or the book industry when I started writing, I just had a lot of stuff in my head to get down on paper. I told a story without much thought toward publication, I only wanted to tell it as best I could.
Truthfully, had I been trying to do something I thought would be successful I might not have written the book I wrote. I had a sprawling draft of The Night Circus when I started educating myself about the industry and found things that said “don’t write in present tense” and “never use second person ever” and I thought: oops. But I had written so much already that I figured it couldn’t hurt to just see what happened, and figured at most it would be publishable even if it wasn’t done “properly” and I think it goes to show that rules are more like guidelines.
How did you get an agent?
I sent query letters and sample pages and followed guidelines. I listened to feedback and I revised a lot. The long version of the “how I got a literary agent” saga is chronicled here.
I learned a lot about the querying/publishing process by spending time on the Absolute Write Forums. They’re big and busy but there’s a lot of really useful information and wonderful, smart people over there.
Will you read my manuscript/refer me to your agent/publisher, etc?
No. I’m sorry. Firstly, I don’t have time. Secondly, I am proof positive that cold querying works and you don’t need connections to get published.
Are you working on another novel? When will it be available?
I am working on something new. When I have time, which is proving more difficult to find than I’d like but I am indeed working on it. It is not circusy. It is something completely different, still fantastical but heavily rooted in reality. Probably best described at this point as a film noir-flavored Alice in Wonderland. It is still in messy, non-novel-shape and I don’t know how long it will take to get it novel-shaped.
To give you a very basic time frame: the circus took around five years from when I started working on it to when it was finished and then another year between “finished” and “published.” I don’t think this one will take quite that long to write but it will very likely take the rest of this year at least, and then it will be at least another year after that before it would be published. Also, I want to take the time and get it right, so it might be a bit longer than that.
What advice do you have for writers?
I recycle the best advice I ever heard from an author from Neil Gaiman: Keep Writing and Finish Things. The finishing part is sometimes kind of tricksy, but it’s really important.
And of course, my other best advice for writers: Read. I am also fond of books about writing, particularly Stephen King’s On Writing and Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird.
On a nuts and bolts level, I recommend a software program called Scrivener. I’ve seen people complain about “writing” software but it’s really more like organizational software. A novel is long and having a program that can organize it and let me look at it in bits and pieces and move things around is something I find invaluable.
About The Night Circus
Was The Night Circus written during National Novel Writing Month?
A very sprawling, very rough draft of The Night Circus was first written in a few different Novembers of NaNoWriMo. Almost the entire book was rewritten and revised before it got from there to the finished version. To give you an idea of how much: Celia isn’t in that first sprawling draft. It is a lot of stuff about the circus but not a lot of plot, but it gave me something to work from.
Will there be a sequel to The Night Circus?
No. Maybe someday I’ll write a circus-set something but it would more likely be a collection of short pieces as there are so many stories floating around the edges. I don’t think it needs a “this is what happened next” sort of sequel. I like that it is one book with a beginning and an end. Not every book needs to be a series.
Will the circus be published in French/Chinese/Russian etc?
There are quite a few foreign editions both already published and forthcoming. I don’t have a full list or publication dates but chances are the answer is yes, and if it’s not available now it will be at some point.
Is there going to be a movie?
Maybe. This will continue to be the answer for a good long time because anything can happen in the strange and mysterious world of film production. The film rights have been optioned by Summit Entertainment, which means they have the option to make The Night Circus into a film. They are indeed working on it but I do not personally know all that much about what’s going on with it at any given point. When there are official updates, I’m sure the internet will know.
PSA: I have very little to do with the movie. Strange but true. I wrote the book, other people will adapt it into a screenplay and handle casting and designing and do all the movie-making things. I cannot tell you how to audition or anything like that, not that it’s even reached that stage yet. Summit is in charge. I’m just along for the ride.
Okay, I think that’s it for Writing/Circus questions but do please let me know if you think I missed anything. Part II will cover all sorts of miscellany, including “Where did you get those shoes?”
Addendum to Part I, Feb 23rd:
What is your writing process like?
Messy. I’m a very visual person so a lot of writing for me is translating spaces and people and scenes in my mind into words, sometimes it’s easier than others. I often have to write a lot to find the description that works best, sometimes I hit on a single word that fits the image and I build from there.
I don’t write in order. The Night Circus was written vignette by vignette and many of them were re-ordered in the revision process. I have an entire section in my Scrivener document for the new novel called “pieces without places” that includes everything from word-sketches of architecture to snippets of dialogue.
I like both books and art with lots of layers, and the best way to accomplish both for myself has been putting down a lot of paint and then refining and bringing out detail. Though with writing I don’t end up with paint in my hair. Usually.
What did you do before you were a writer?
I sat in fluorescent-lit cubicles and made photocopies. Really. I had a string of office jobs and none of them were particularly inspiring. I had a degree in Theatre and didn’t really want to do theatre anymore so I spent most of my 20s filing things and arguing with fax machines and wondering who took my stapler while trying to figure out what to do with my life. I quit a couple of years ago to focus on writing and painting to see if either would take off and now here we are.
Are there particular books that influenced The Night Circus?
The circus had a lot of influences, some of the stronger particular ones were Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke and The Prestige by Christopher Priest (as well as the film version of the same).
The vignette format of the book was inspired by Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman, one of my favorite books of all time.
In a general flavor sense there’s a heavy dose of Shakespeare and Dickens with a sprinkling of Roald Dahl around the edges and an Edward Gorey aperitif.
May I listen to songs that inspired/remind you of The Night Circus?
Why yes, yes you may. I made a playlist for the circus, it is both on Spotify and 8tracks for countries that are not Spotify-friendly. You can also read explanations of all these songs over here via largehearted boy’s Book Notes.
Do you have discussion questions about The Night Circus for book clubs, etc?
My fabulous publisher does! There’s a great list here. I’m not even sure how I’d answer some of them.
miscellany
housecleaning
I have a small windowless office. Over the last few months it became more of a place to put things I didn’t want to deal with than a proper space to work in, so yesterday I made a lot of coffee and locked myself inside not quite with the goal of organizing, really, but in an attempt to clear out some of the mess and make it a more habitable space. I had aspirations of coziness. I put on my “Early Jazz” Pandora station for soundtrack purposes. It could still use some work and I need to go through all of my files and things, but I think as far as overall habitable/cozy I was fairly successful.
The floor was covered in piles of stuff, I really should have taken a “before” photo. Lights are both new to this room, I switched out the floor lamp that had been too bright for a lamp and a mirrored sconce and while it’s not hugely bright in here I’m usually at the computer anyway so I think it’s sufficient. It makes it more atmospheric. Almost everything on the walls was put up yesterday and there are still a few spots that need something but it’s a vast improvement.
The desk side of the room isn’t quite as cohesive yet, there’s also an oddly shaped nook behind it that really seems to want a tree or something. Maybe when I have time I’ll make a paper tree to loom in the corner.
So I am typing this from my much cozier yet still small and windowless office. Also, I think because it is windowless it stays toasty warm, I think it also gets heat from the hallway. Methinks I will be spending a lot of time in here while I’m at home this winter.
Also, this made me giggle delightedly:
Roswell in the circus! On the circus? Either way, I love it and you can click it and go read all the splendid stories that Kyle Cassidy’s blog readers came up with, circuses and clockwork and a truly splendid cat.
Am in housecleaning mode, both with the apartment and in my head. Getting ready to go out on my January mini-tour next week. This afternoon I took a walk in the snow and sunshine at the same time.
Now I am going to drink green tea and think thoughtful thoughts and possibly read.
miscellany
not really here.
I’m still on hiatus! Really! But I’m doing some blog housecleaning and I had things to share so you get a mini-post. Figures I post more than normal when I’m on hiatus.
Firstly, Kyle Cassidy is a splendid photographer and once upon a time he caused me to buy a fountain pen that was used to compose parts of the circus and because of that serendipitous pen incident you can now click this link and see a photo of his adorable cat Roswell wearing an adorably tiny bow tie and sitting with the book-shaped book, because pens are magic. (Also if you would like to write flash fanfic about said adorable cat you could can win an autographed copy.)
In other news, this is the best thing ever:
And then upon rewatching I spotted The Night Circus which delights me to no end. My book has way too much fun in Canada.
miscellany
half-birthday brownies & pseudo-hiatus
Today is my half birthday. I am 33 and a half. I usually say I should have half a cake, which we would sometimes have when I was growing up as my sister and I have nearly exactly six month apart birthdays (her proper, not-half birthday is on Tuesday) and that way there was less cake-based birthday jealousy.
I thought about just getting myself a cupcake but instead I made gluten-free brownies, added an extra egg to make them more cake-y and crumbled caramel-filled chocolates both mixed in and on top and then sprinkled the whole thing with sea salt for good measure.
So I have half-birthday chocolate salted caramel brownies and new Downton Abbey later and I am a fairly happy pumpkin, as 33-and-a-half year-old pumpkins go.
I am taking a pseudo internet hiatus this week so I can catch up on things and read noir novels and regroup and hopefully get some actual writing done. I’ll also be working on two long involved posts that will likely end up being a combined FAQ-esque thing. I’ll be checking personal email but little to no Twitter and no blogging save for Friday’s flax-golden (though I’ll be doing some blog-related housecleaning, still not sure where all the comments from the beginning of December went) and no wasting away my time in the wilds of the internet.
So I’ll be around but not as around as usual, I guess is the point. This is mostly to keep myself from wasting time watching cute cat videos and online shopping. (I will be making an exception for BPAL‘s impending Lupercalia update, though, of course.) I probably didn’t even need to tell you this as it won’t be all that obvious a hiatus but I wanted to share about the brownies and figured I’d mention it.
And now I’m babbling so I am going to go nibble on brownies and try not to feel old.
miscellany
merry & bright in new york
Spent the beginning of the week in NYC, having lunches and meetings and wandering around looking at twinkly lights. Part pseudo-business trip, part getting out of my apartment for a little while. My train down was subjected to zombie shenanigans, though Amtrak claimed it was “tree branches” knocking out “power” on the tracks. Got to New York about five hours late and had to change a lunch to a next-day breakfast but other than that everything was lovely. My first trip to Manhattan in about five years was almost a year ago, just post-holiday rather than pre-holiday though everything was still twinkly-lit. That was the first time I’d met my agent and my editor and September and real book things still felt very far off. What a difference almost a year makes.
Back in Boston now, trying desperately to manage the pre-holiday to-do list and wondering why all the blog comments from the last two weeks seem to have disappeared. Hrm. I shall try to tackle that mystery at some point, in between everything else on the list. In the meantime, here are some festive photos from New York.
