Ask the Author: Josephine Moon
Answered Questions (3)
Josephine Moon
I was trying to write a family saga set on a coffee farm, that’s where it started. I did lots of research about coffee, really intellectually interested, but I had no passion for it. So I had to ask myself, what was I passionate about? And the answer was bees!
So I did research on bees and was really getting into that. I’d abandoned my family saga and was now trying to write a book about beekeeping and corporate sabotage, but there were these nuns in the background who were very strong and very insistent. I kept writing this book on corporate sabotage and I kept trying to write the nuns into the story until it became clear that they didn’t belong there at all.
So I had to ask them, what do you want?
And they wanted a whole book. Specifically, Maria, one of our main characters, wanted a whole book. And when something turns up that strongly and persistently, as a writer, I believe it’s my duty to write it down.
So I did research on bees and was really getting into that. I’d abandoned my family saga and was now trying to write a book about beekeeping and corporate sabotage, but there were these nuns in the background who were very strong and very insistent. I kept writing this book on corporate sabotage and I kept trying to write the nuns into the story until it became clear that they didn’t belong there at all.
So I had to ask them, what do you want?
And they wanted a whole book. Specifically, Maria, one of our main characters, wanted a whole book. And when something turns up that strongly and persistently, as a writer, I believe it’s my duty to write it down.
Josephine Moon
***Read, read, read, write, write, write.
***Be curious. People often say to write what you know. But I think you need to write about what you want to know.
***You’ll be working on a book for years, so make sure you’re absolutely passionate about the subject and in love with your characters or you won’t make it to the end.
***Write the book you want to read.
***Let it rest. Leave a manuscript alone for three months (longer, even), and read it again. Then you’ll know if you love it, if it’s got potential, and if you want to keep going to the next draft, or whether you should let it go and move on to a new manuscript.
***Learn how to draft and edit and know what to focus on at each stage (structural edits, copy edits, proofreading).
***Be nice to people–the publishing world is very small. Everyone knows everyone.
***I’m a big believer in Oprah’s definition of luck: preparation meeting opportunity. Do the work, put in the time, keep going and one day opportunity will strike.
***Find good writing buddies to share the journey and make sure if you’re in a critique group that the people’s words leave you feeling hopeful and seeing opportunity, not feeling despondent and bludgeoned. Good criticism should make you think, ‘Oh yes! I can see where I can go from here!’
***Understanding what you want from your writing is a really big thing.If you want to bang out a novel during NaNoWriMo and pass it around to your friends, that’s great. You could even publish it online and have a copy on your shelf and be proud that you did it. There’s a lot of joy in seeing that manuscript take physical form on a shelf and that’s something to celebrate. Maybe you want to write a history for your family to have on record. That’s great too and it’s a wonderful time in technology right now for you to be able to do that really easily.If you want to be a career writer (a professional author), then you’ll need to accept that you’re unlikely to crack a publishing deal on the first manuscript. And that’s normal. Rejection is normal. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad writer. It just means you’re still finding your voice and the right book for the marketplace. But once you’ve written a manuscript, be prepared to let it go. By all means, re-draft it, edit it, submit it to your writing group for critique, and sit with it till you feel you’ve come to the end of your journey with that story. That will teach you how to be a professional writer. Then say goodbye and write another one. Don’t get stuck re-writing the same book over and over for ten years. Write another one. And another one. And another one. And one day, you’ll have the ‘right’ book for you at the right time and you’ll look back and think, ‘Oh! I get it now.’
***Do something every day. See http://josephinemoon.com/2012/12/19/t...
***Be curious. People often say to write what you know. But I think you need to write about what you want to know.
***You’ll be working on a book for years, so make sure you’re absolutely passionate about the subject and in love with your characters or you won’t make it to the end.
***Write the book you want to read.
***Let it rest. Leave a manuscript alone for three months (longer, even), and read it again. Then you’ll know if you love it, if it’s got potential, and if you want to keep going to the next draft, or whether you should let it go and move on to a new manuscript.
***Learn how to draft and edit and know what to focus on at each stage (structural edits, copy edits, proofreading).
***Be nice to people–the publishing world is very small. Everyone knows everyone.
***I’m a big believer in Oprah’s definition of luck: preparation meeting opportunity. Do the work, put in the time, keep going and one day opportunity will strike.
***Find good writing buddies to share the journey and make sure if you’re in a critique group that the people’s words leave you feeling hopeful and seeing opportunity, not feeling despondent and bludgeoned. Good criticism should make you think, ‘Oh yes! I can see where I can go from here!’
***Understanding what you want from your writing is a really big thing.If you want to bang out a novel during NaNoWriMo and pass it around to your friends, that’s great. You could even publish it online and have a copy on your shelf and be proud that you did it. There’s a lot of joy in seeing that manuscript take physical form on a shelf and that’s something to celebrate. Maybe you want to write a history for your family to have on record. That’s great too and it’s a wonderful time in technology right now for you to be able to do that really easily.If you want to be a career writer (a professional author), then you’ll need to accept that you’re unlikely to crack a publishing deal on the first manuscript. And that’s normal. Rejection is normal. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad writer. It just means you’re still finding your voice and the right book for the marketplace. But once you’ve written a manuscript, be prepared to let it go. By all means, re-draft it, edit it, submit it to your writing group for critique, and sit with it till you feel you’ve come to the end of your journey with that story. That will teach you how to be a professional writer. Then say goodbye and write another one. Don’t get stuck re-writing the same book over and over for ten years. Write another one. And another one. And another one. And one day, you’ll have the ‘right’ book for you at the right time and you’ll look back and think, ‘Oh! I get it now.’
***Do something every day. See http://josephinemoon.com/2012/12/19/t...
Josephine Moon
Life, essentially. Anything I’m passionate about. Dreams. Snippets of conversations. Visuals. Photos! And questions… lots and lots of questions. I am eternally inquisitive and want to know everything about everything (some people might unkindly call that obsessive), and from those questions I want to find answers.
I start to do research (books, magazine, internet, television) and gather lots of facts (which I just love to do) and small fragments will really jump out at me and hook me. Then I follow that hook down a trail of discovery.
I start to do research (books, magazine, internet, television) and gather lots of facts (which I just love to do) and small fragments will really jump out at me and hook me. Then I follow that hook down a trail of discovery.
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