Conference Notes: Pam Zollman on Jump Starting Your Writing

The first event at the SCBWI Carolinas conference was Pam Zollman's talk on "Jump Starting your Writing."

Some of it was a bit more of the same that writers typically hear, but some highlights that really stood out for me include magazine writing and philosophy on submissions.

Magazine Writing
Zollman considered magazine writing to be a bit of an overlooked market--writers should take advantage of the opportunities magazine writing could include. She particularly notes that nonfiction writing is beneficial. 100% of magazine who accept freelance writer submissions will consider nonfiction, while only 30-40% will consider fiction--despite the fact that most submissions are fiction.

One does not need be a nonfiction writer to write nonfiction magazine articles. Zollman pointed out that as writers, we all do some level of research for out writing--and could turn that into a non-fiction article. She gave an example of a fiction book she wrote based on the gold rush, and a nonfiction book about the gold rush that she wrote using all the research she couldn't include in her fiction book.

Rejections
My favorite quote from Zollman was about rejections:

A manuscript that is in the drawer is rejected. A manuscript in the mail isn't.

She suggests having 10 different things in the mail at the same time--and 10 copies of the same manuscript doesn't count. Whenever one comes back rejected, add another into the cycle. Her theory is that with 10 things in the mail at one time, an author is bound to get an acceptance just based on sheer numbers.

Voice

I had to stay after school today to give a make-up test to a kid who'd been sick on the test day. I write all my own tests--we rarely even use the textbooks.

Anyway, about halfway through the test, the kid looks up at me, all frustrated.

Kid: Mrs. Revis, I'm mad at you!

Me: (surprised) Why?

Kid: Because every time I read these test questions, I can hear you!

Me: What?!

Kid: I can just tell you wrote these questions! They sound like you! And it's driving me crazy! Get out of my head!

Me: *suppressed laughter*

This kid was basically saying that the test I wrote for the class had my own personal "voice" to it--that elusive thing that authors struggle to achieve and editors tend to give speeches on. And while he didn't know it, that kid had just made my day. I may painstakingly try to figure out how to inject an entertaining voice into my fiction writing, but at least this kid can see it in question 42.

Coming Soon! SCBWI-C Conference!

On Friday, I'm off for the SCBWI-C Conference! I am very excited...like borderline need-a-paperbag excited. For your info, here's my schedule. I plan on updating the blog with info I learn during the conference while there, but who knows what will actually happen in real life.

Friday:
-Wake up at the butt-crack of dawn and drive 4-5 hours to get to the conference. Love living on the wrong side of a long state.
-First event: Critique session on the first 10 pages of my upper MG fantasy, The Amnesia Door, with agent Alyssa Henkin! Talk about going straight to the big stuff!!
-Speech: Pam Zollman-- "Jump Start Your Writing Career"
-Pitch practices on an open mic
-Red-eye critique session--I've exchanged the first three pages of my work with two other writers, organized through the conference, and we'll be meeting and exchaning ideas.

Saturday:
-Speech: Anita Silvey-- "Our Greatest Children's Books and the Stories Behind Them"
-First workshop: "Voice: What is it? Why does it make editor go gaga?" by Martha Mihalick, who I hope to have the chance to accost and throw my book at.
-First pages critque session
-Second workshop: "Tension: Where the Story Begins" by Mark Johnston
-Third workshop: "Scouting Locations: Using Research to Bring Your Fantasy Setting to Life" by John Claude Bemis.
-Speech: "A Talk with Stephanie Greene and Martha Mihalick"

Sunday:
-Fourth workshop: "MG vs. YA" by Alan Gratz (which, for those of you who've been reading my blog for awhile, know this is a big subject for me)
-Speech: Alyssa Henkin-- "Show Me the Sunny, the Money, and the Funny" (on what attracts an agent to a manuscript)

I promise to have notes and posts up as soon as I can. Maybe not during the actual conference--as you can see, I'm going to be tight on time!!--but I will be doing quite a bit with the information I gain here (including writing an article on one of the workshops for the SCBWI-C newsletter!).

Any tips for conference, pitches, and/or critique sessions? Any questions on one of the subjects that you'd like me to ask?

Who I'd Like to Meet

Heather had a great post recently about people she'd like to--but probably won't ever--meet. I thought this was a good idea, and it got me thinking about who I'd like to meet sometime in my life.

Joss Whedon: This man does everything I want to do with character, voice, and plot. Seriously. Watch Firefly and it's movie, Serenity. It has it all: unique characters (rather a lot of them, too!) all with unique voices all doing unique things to create a wonderfully unique plot. *sigh* I have such a literary crush on Joss Whedon.

Cory Doctrow: Really, I just think his whole concept of giving away books is amazing. I'd love to really have a talk with him about it.

Diana Wynne Jones and/or Patricia Wrede: These ladies have the kind of career that I want. Consistently good, creative books that have a dedicated following. They might not be household names like the next lady on my list, but they're amazing to me, and have just the kind of career that I aspire towards.

JK Rowling: OK, seriously? I just want to look at her in her castle rolling around on her millions like Scrooge McDuck and sigh in wonder for a moment. Also: I'd like to go back in time and meet her during that time between when she wrote the first book to when she got accepted for publication.

The Writers of Doctor Who: Doctor Who is amazing. Particularly David Tennant. Particularly David Tennant in a kilt. But I'd love to sit in on a writing session for the show. I wonder how much they have planned in advance, and how much is just episode to episode writing. I wonder how jokes/scenes/series are developed. I'd just love to see their writing process in action. (PS: Fans of Doctor Who and/or Shakespeare and/or Neil Gaiman: Read this now.)

So, who would you like to meet?

(As for me, between Joss Whedon and David Tennant in a kilt, I need a cold shower.)

World Building

You know you're a writer when you know exactly what a "MG 63k SF" is. Love those abbrev.

Anyway, I found this article a really great one that inspired a lot of thought about the genres in general.

The article makes a good point about world building (among other things; I think I might use that article to make a series of posts...) Anyway, to the quote:

What specifically draws me to science fiction/fantasy is the integrity of the imagined world and its fundamental principles. ... Each establishes coherent, consistent worlds that work according to immutable laws.

I'd also add that it is necessary for fantasy/SF to not get too caught up in its own world. Personally, I think a story is enhanced more when the world is there, fully formed, but still in the background. World building is like makeup: too little makes you look old, too much make you look cheap. However, if you can wear makeup so naturally that it just looks like your face (only better), then you're gold: likewise, if you can write in worldbuilding that is so naturally a part of the story that you don't notice it, but it's there, well, then you're a good writer.

Take Tolkein. God, please take him, I can't stand him. I know he's a brilliant writer and the founder of modern fantasy literature and whee. But I find him mind-numbingly boring. (Please, put down your pitchfork and torch.) The man made a world so complete that there is a fully functional elf language in it.

My eyes cannot roll inside my head enough for you to fully grasp the sheer imbecility I find in this endeavor.

Who cares if you have a fully functional elf language in your book? It's a languge for elves. Fictional elves. The only people who care are the cousins of the guys speaking Klingon.

If your writing has enough in it to let nerds decifer your elf language, then you've got more world than story. That's Tolkein's problem: he's got more descriptions of mountains and sparkling rivers and elf language and dear Lord, the snow, the snow! ...anyway, there's much more of the background than the play, if you know what I mean. I read the books when the movies came out--and after seeing the epic battle in the end of the last movie, I was disappointed that the characters in the book actually took (about a hundred pages) longer to get to the battle than to actually fight it.

Conversely, a story that subtley weaves in the background of a world into the plot makes the world not only more real, but the story itself better. For this, I refer to the brilliant Joss Whedon's television series Firefly and movie Serenity. And, ironically enough (because I just thought of it literally this second as I was typing it), the world of Serenity has it's own language: a mish-mash of slang and Chinese. If you're nerd enough (like me) to watch the commentaries on the DVDs, then you'll know that Whedon originally sat down and thought logically about where language would be in hundreds of years--his logic was that the two super-powers of the world would be America and China, and developed a language that combined the two, with a few invented words thrown into the process.

Did I know this when I first saw the show/movie? No. I just thought it was cool that there were these words in the show that obviously meant the language had progressed from out time. I might not know what they all meant, but I picked up on context clues. The words made the world more real--it was more as if I were there, instead of on my sofa with my dog in my lap.

Whedon put just as much work in his language as Tolkein did in his--Whedon even hired Chinese linguists to make sure the words worked in the context of the language. But Tolkein failed because there was more language, more world building, than there was story and character. Whedon places more importance on story and character and uses language and world building as an accessory--and it works.

PS: Working on worldbuilding? Patricia Wrede has a good site for that.

The Query Project

My plan was to read all of the queries posted on The Query Project and comment on them. But as I tried to read all of them, I think I somehow started to possess the body of a query-swamped agent. I started skimming for plot; I found my attention drifting in the first paragraph. I began to imagine myself looking for the next big thing, and after reading all of these successfuly agent-landing, deal-getting queries, I only found one that really appealed to me.

The Scene: I'm at my huge mahogany desk, with a neat little Mac in one corner, and a neat little stack of queries in another. My gin swirls in my glass: I am an elite agent with a stack of well-referenced queries--I have only to pick one and make a writer's dreams come true.

First in my stack is a query by Josh Palmatier. It's a bit formulaic----straight to point, following the typical 3-paragraph format (basic info, plot synopsis in five sentences, bio, thanks). I appreciate the simplicity, the clear structure of the letter, but it doesn't really grab my attention.

I pick up Simon Haynes's next, and almost immediately want to put it back down again. It is painfully long and convulated, and I'm still not sure what the story is about, but, apparently, that doesn't matter too much as he had referrals and luck on his side (self admittedly--not me being presumptious). As an agent, though, I just get a sense that while other's like his writing, I don't.

Diana Francis's starts off with exactly the stuff I'm told not to do: compare it to other writers, say it's part one of a trilogy (albeit that it could stand alone), etc. As I writer, I'm hitting my head on my desk, knowing that someone who did the exact same thing that I've been reamed for is now published. As an agent, it was decently written, but didn't really grab me. This is something that drives me crazy when agents say that (I'm always mentally screaming: "Then what grabs you! Why?! WHY!?) But, after having read a few of these, I just feel ready to plow on to the next query, not read more of hers.

Chris Dolley's rambles in a casual sort of way and tells me more about the premise than the plot--as a matter of fact, other than the characters and the fact that it's based on real life, I really don't know what it's about at all. In fact, as I was reading it, I thought at first that it was a "character" query where the character is the "voice" of the query. If I were an agent, I'd probably have dropped this one after a few sentences.

Jackie Kessler's works for me absolutely--it starts off with the story, has a great sense of voice, and makes me want to read even though I know it's a genre that I don't particularly like. If I were an agent, I'd request pages immediately.

Glenda Larke's is so laughingly short that even she admits that it won't get a writer far today.

John Levitt's is good--but would only work for someone who had already been published before. As an agent, I might sit up and take note of the names dropped, but I'm just not sure about it.

I sat up at Janni Lee Simner's query mainly because it was a genre I write in--YA fantasy. It was well structured, much like Josh Palmatier's (the first one I read). In fact, I think the only difference here is genre. Palmatier's isn't a subject I care that much about; Simner's is. So I like Simner's, but not Palmatier's. Just another reason why researching an agent is essential to success.

Edward Willet's answered a question that I've had as a writer--do you just jump right in and tell the story? Apparently so; it worked for him. Anyway, with my agent-goggles on, I look at the letter as a whole and think "Boy, that's long." Scanning down the page made my heart sink a bit; it just seemed inexorbantly long. However, despite being long, it got straight to the point, and much of length was a series of excellent writing credentials.

I didn't read the rest of the queries in the project--mainly because of time and my crappy 56k modem. But still, I think I got my lesson from them. Often when reading these queries, I wondered what Query Shark or Evil Editor would do. I've been reading their blogs so long that I could spot the instantaneous wordiness that Query Shark always strikesthrough, and the plot hole questions that Evil Editor constantly brings up.

Furthermore, from the entire list, there was only one--Jackie Kessler's--that really interested me and made me sit up and take notice. Some where good, such as Janni Lee Simner's, but the only one I got really excited about was Kessler's. If I were an agent swamped with work, hers would be the only one I requested.

I started reading these queries hoping to find the one formula that worked. I wanted to find similarities between the queries; I was searching for the Mystical Key to Queries. But what I found was that a large part of it all depends on taste. Every one of these queries landed either an agent or an editor; every one is successful. But many of them did not work for me at all. Some of them, to be honest, I didn't even read all the way through; my eyes glazed over and I just skimmed. But that exact same letter made someone else sit up and say "Let's publish this!"

I guess in the end, there is no one way to write a query. Some things are a given: lists of publishing credits, some sort of synopsis. But beyond that, it's a roll of the dice with the right person finding the right query.

And also: a couple of these letters were interesting, but not attention grabbing. I did pretty much skim for genre and plot. If there was a genre I liked and a plot that sounded decent, I would have read sample pages...and that would have told me more than anything else about whether or not the book was worth my while. Miss Snark famously (and repeatedly) said that the writing is what's important, not the query, and that's true. Part of me wishes that there was just one form query for all of us to use where we could fill in the blanks (word count, genre, etc.) and let the pages stand on their own. But I figure that most queries aren't much more than that, anyway.

Tagged! I'm it!

I've got tagged for a meme! Which is pretty freaking cool as, between this and the spam I got earlier this week, it's official: I'm famous :)

Rules of the meme:
A) People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs & replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves.
B) Tag 8 people to do this quiz. These people must state who they were tagged by & cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by. Continue this game by sending it to other people.

Hmm...who can I tag? How about Sheri, Heather, Keri, Angela, Rebecca, Christine, MM, and any of the other girls over on Wunderkin or my fellow critiquers on Blue Diamond. Of course, just if you want to be tagged :)

1. What are your nicknames? Beth IS my nickname. Although my best friend (known her since 1st grade) and I have nicknames for each other: she is Sunshine and I'm Moonbeam.
2. What do you do before bedtime? Usually write. I'm a night owl, so I'm most creative when it's late...kind of a catch-22 during work days, though.
3. What was the first movie you bought in VHS or DVD form? I know this! I'm such a freak. My first VHS was bought by mom for me: Snow White, also the first movie I ever saw. And when I got my first DVD player (in college), I consciously went out and bought Elizabeth, even though I'd not seen it yet, just because the title was my name.
4. What is your favorite scent? Lavender.
5. If you had a million dollars that you could only spend on yourself, what would you do with it? You say that "only spend on yourself" thing like that would be hard! OK, I'd pay off the bills and the mortgage, then I'd buy a ranch out west and give it to my parents. The rest: half for writing stuff (i.e. professional critiques, computer upgrades, maybe an MFA); the other half for travel.
6. What one place have you visited that you can't forget and want to go back to? I could never go back to those places because what's special about them isn't the place, but the feeling: triumph in climbing a beachside cliff in Malta, fierce independence in going to Bath by myself, sauve-ness in walking the streets of Paris and being mistaken for a Parisian, pride in showing my friends around London, chutzpah in wandering New York at night. Those were one of a kind moments that couldn't be recreated.
7. Do you trust easily? Depends on the thing. I'll hand anyone who's willing a copy of my book for a critique, but in general I'm a private person when it comes to myself.
8. Do you generally think before you act, or act before you think? Again, depends. If I set my sights, then I plot like a Russian general to take what I want. But if an opportunity arises, I'm off like a shot without another thought--which led to a weekend road trip to Miami (I live in NC) and a bit of an unexpected adventure during Mardi Gras.
9. Is there anything that has made you unhappy these days? Eh, that's what the gin is there for. I'm pretty positive.
10. Do you have a good body-image? See answer to question 9.
11. What is your favorite fruit? Real fruit: strawberries. Fake fruit (such as in Skittles or snow cone flavors): cherry + grape combo.
12. What websites do you visit daily? See list on the side of my site.
13. What have you been seriously addicted to lately? Nothing?
14. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is? Tabitha is thoughtful and insightful--she's always got great things to say about reading and writing!
15. What’s the last song that got stuck in your head? OK, so this is weird. I've been waking up lately singing random songs. I don't know where they come from. They just invade my brain, and then they're stuck there all day.
16. What’s your favorite item of clothing? Crocs. Love 'em.
17. Do you think Rice Krispies are yummy? Yup, with an inch of sugar on top.
18. What would you do if you see saw $100 lying on the ground? If no one's looking for it and no one says they're missing it for a few weeks, I'd spend it.
19. What items could you not go without during the day? Intarwebs. Also: computer--it's the only way I can write.
20. What should you be doing right now? Grading student papers. Progress reports are due Tuesday, I've got a stack to grade, but I'm gonna blog and surf the web and work on my book and not do what I'm supposed to. Ha! Take that, responsibility!

Yes, it's been done before...

...but, oh, is it good.

Hemingway started it. Write a story in six words. His was:

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

Then I found this article when looking for science fiction short stories (any suggestions on some good ones would be welcome!). It showcases some great 6-word stories:

Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so.
- Joss Whedon

Longed for him. Got him. Shit.
- Margaret Atwood

It’s behind you! Hurry before it
- Rockne S. O’Bannon

The baby’s blood type? Human, mostly.
- Orson Scott Card

TIME MACHINE REACHES FUTURE!!! … nobody there …
- Harry Harrison

Epitaph: He shouldn't have fed it.
- Brian Herbert

He read his obituary with confusion.
- Steven Meretzky

Dare I add one? I daren't.

(pun!intended!)

OK, for serious, I'll share mine if you share yours:

Epic battle. Both die. Vultures win.

Spam!

Not linkspam, but for serious spam! Got my first spam in comments today, which, of course, makes me realize that now I'm famous.

But if I get more, I'm switching on that annoying type-the-incomprehensible-letters-in-the-box thing. Sorry!

Query Links

This is worthwhile for all those query writers.

On Science Fiction

I don't really like sci fi. I don't read it, I never did, and the best sci fi in my book is Star Wars, which, apparently, doesn't count as real sci fi.

But I'm writing one now.

Which has been interesting, considering how I don't know what I'm doing. Fortunately, the husband loves the sci fi, and so I often go bother him on subjects like cryogenic freezing and the speed of light. He has been very helpful, so I guess I'll keep him for another year.

Meanwhile, I found the text of Robert Heinlein's form fan letter rejection (much like query letter rejection, but for his fans). In it, he mentions a definition of science fiction:

Science fiction: stories that would cease to exist if elements involving science or technology were omitted.

OK, so admittedly, that's a bit obvious. But also, it's not. Think about my beloved Star Wars*. Are lightsabers necessary to the plot? Not really. The story could have been just as easily set in the Middle Ages as in outer space. Replace hyperspeed with Spanish galleons and light sabers with swords, and we're there. Leia's metal outfit in the second movie probably wouldn't have flown so well in the Middle Ages, but... The science/technology isn't particularly necessary.

Meanwhile, you have books like The Adoration of Jenna Fox, where, without science, the story simply would not exist. The story revolves around science. That is the plot. There is no possible way for the story to exist without the scientific elements.

Or, how about a story such as Ray Bradbury's "All Summer in a Day." It's brilliant, and if you've not read it, go here. Read it first, you'll like it better that way.

Back?

So, see how the story wouldn't exist without science? The entire plot exists because of the scientific reasoning behind the sun being visible only one day every seven years. That's the plot. What the characters do with the science is essential--but you cannot have the plot with the characters without the science behind them. Science fiction, by definition, requires this formula: characters + science = plot.


*Please note: the only acceptable, worth viewing Star Wars in existence is the original three. Return of the Jedi is the best. It's a fact. Look it up.

Linkspam!

For those of you who are already published, a quick and easy way to help promote your book.

For those of you who aren't published, a list of agents who should be on your radar.

If I had the money for it, I'd sign myself up for the critique serves or workshops provided by these folks. Seems like some really quality stuff that makes me wish that rich uncle I never knew I had would hurry up and die and leave me my millions.

However, some interesting takes by an agent about whether or not to hire outside freelance editors to perfect a book:

One of the cautions I have given to authors using editors is that you might need to be prepared to pay that editor not only for helping you with this book but also for helping with your next books. ...Your career is only as good as your last book, and if your hired editor was able to take your first book to a level that you aren’t sure you can do on your own, it’s very likely you’ll need to consider hiring that editor for each subsequent book. ... Now many of you will say that’s a small price to pay for publication, but is it really if it means paying out most of your advance to an editor? Certainly something you’ll probably need to consider.

The Man Booker award winners are described as "intensely readable." A comment like that is almost worth the prize itself. Almost. I mean, I ain't sneezing at no $88,700.

Author Interview: Keri Mikulski, author of Screwball

I was recently given the honor of interviewing the lovely Keri Mikulski, author of Screwball, the first of a series of book starring softball hero Ashley Clarke. Here's what she said about life, writing, and books.

Keri Mikulski
We can all read about your bio from the back of your book or your FAQ online. So, what's a completely random fact about you that most people don't know?

Do you remember the eighties game show “Double Dare”? When I was in the fifth grade and I was sporting a short perm, the Double Dare producers visited our school and I was chosen, along with three classmates, to compete on the show. I slipped in beans during the obstacle course and tripped up the host Marc Summers in the process. Unfortunately, we didn’t win the trip to Disney World, but we did win a bunch of cool stuff. I still have the show on VHS tape.

Your plane crashed on a deserted island, and Sawyer wasn't on it. You only have one book to entertain yourself with until the rescue comes—if it ever comes. What book do you wish you had with you on the island?

Hmm.. Fiction– probably Megan Mccafferty’s “Second Helpings” because it’s hilarious. Nonfiction – the Bible. I’ve always wanted to read the whole book from cover to cover.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

It depends on what I was feeling at the moment. I went through stages when I wanted to be a police officer, Wonder Woman, a gymnast, an author, a vet, a professional baseball player, a singer, a nurse, a teacher, and a librarian.

SCREWBALL
How much of you is in your book? Is there a character like you? Is a situation in the book derived from real life?

My characters are a combination of different traits of different people I’ve met over the years. People that know me and read the book often ask me: Is Jake this person? Is Andrew this person? Is Christy this person? The characters and situations are completely fictional. But, out of all the characters I’ve created so far, Ashley is probably the closest to me. When, I was a pitcher in high school, I definitely dealt with some of the same issues Ashley deals with.

The situations are partly, like the characters, derived from real life. I’ve been to a tattoo parlor. I grew up in New Jersey. I rode on the back of motorcycles. My dad was a police officer. And I did date athletes. ☺

What was your timeline for the book? How long did it take to write, revise, submit, and finally, get published? How did you feel at these stages?

I came up with idea of Ashley Clarke during a wrestling tournament (my husband is a coach ☺). I was doing research for a writing assignment and a girl wearing a softball sweatshirt, caught my eye after she ran down the bleachers to talk to a wrestler. I started writing the first scene as a short story. Then, the ideas continued to flow, so I approached FASTPITCH FOREVER magazine with a series pitch. Kim, the publisher, loved it, added it to her next issue, and asked for more. After three scenes, she approached me to turn the series into a book. So, from Ashley’s birth to the finished product, it took about nine month. The revisions took about three out of the nine. The second book of the series, which should drop this winter, also will end up done in nine months. Weird. Writing books is like a pregnancy. ☺

The stages:

1. First draft – Excited and in the zone.
2. Revisions – Still excited and in the zone, but my brain is fried.
3. Submission – Nervous. Like I’m about to pitch a big game.
4. Publication process – All the decisions tend to stress me out – like what to cut, how edgy we should go, etc.. Then, I always have a moment of what if this doesn’t happen and it never becomes a book. But when I see the ARC in the mail, I’m excited again.

If your reader could only take away one emotion, theme, or idea from the book, what would you want that to be?

This is tough to narrow down to just one. But, the most important one to me? Don’t judge someone by his or her past, his or her family, or their situation. Get to know someone first, then make a decision. If you don’t, you might miss out on the love of your life.

WRITING
What are your goals as an author? Where do you want to see yourself as a writer in 5, 10, 15 years?

My goals are to continue to make money doing what I love. In five years, I hope to have four books published. In ten years, I hope to have a non sporty book published. In fifteen years, I hope to be somewhat satisfied with my writing career.

What's the most surprising thing you've learned since becoming a writer?

Don’t laugh. But, I learned that writers travel. I had no idea writers have to go on publicity tours. I’m scared to death of airplanes. So far I’ve dodged the airplane for publicity. But this spring, I’m going to Texas at some point, so I have to do it. And do it ALONE.

Beyond the typical—never give up, believe in yourself—what would be the single best advice you'd like to give to an aspiring author?

Write the book you always wanted to read.

What do you consider to be your strongest talent in writing? Your weakest?

I’ve been told that I can set up a scene well and my characters are believable. To this day, I’m not completely sure how I do this. Writing to me is like playing pretend. ☺ On the other hand, I always get snagged for lack of transitions, over using the word ‘amazing’, and adding way too many conflicts.

What's a writing pet peeve that you have?

Generally, my biggest pet peeve, whether in writing or not, is selfishness. Honestly, every book I’ve ever read, I can pick out something I like about it, so I really don’t have a writing pet peeve. I guess it’s the teacher in me.

Thank you, Keri, for the wonderful insight into your writing life!

Setting Goals

I read on Hip Writer's Mama's blog recently about setting goals, and she'd heard the suggestion of writing 1,000 words a day. I thought I'd try it out, and I've liked it so far: 1,000 words is doable, and even if I know I won't be able to keep that pace every day, it is nice to think that writing a 1,000 words a day would mean a finished manuscript in two months.

Of course, we should all just not mention how I've totally put one manuscript that needs revisions on hold while I dash off to write another. Darn my schizo-writing mind!

An Author's Take on MG vs. YA

I recently discovered cynsations and The Purple Crayon through Gottawrite Girl's blog. I've started reading through some of the archives when I found this interview with Saving Juliet author Suzanne Selfors.

How is it different writing for the upper YA audience (as opposed to middle graders)?

... What is different? Middle graders are all about adventure. They believe anything is possible. And so writing fantasy for them is the ultimate fun ride.

Teens want an element of romance, which is always the most difficult part of the story for me to write.

This struck a bit of a chord for me. I'd been struggling with MG vs. YA in my own manuscript for quite a bit now--and I'd been a bit angry at the fact that it seems as if the only dividing line is magic = MG and sex = YA. That's oversimplification, but it's also how I'd begun to view the whole situation.

In a way, I'm not wrong. What I'd forgotten, however, is that I shouldn't blame the market for the categorization. It's not just that some mighty publisher dude decides this is the dividing line...but that the kids buying the books decides what the dividing line will be. I don't know why I hadn't really thought of it in those terms before, but I hadn't.

I think part of my problem is that I teach high school (typically 15/16 year olds). Teaching high school is a gold mine for YA authors--I'm constantly surrounded by a wide variety of teens and all their slang, culture, attitude, etc. It just makes it easier to write about them. But also, I use them to gauge what's popular in teen literature. I see Kelsi reading the Twilight series under her desk as I'm teaching Joseph Campbell (she's reading fast--she read Twilight and in one week). Josh keeps bringing up Star Wars and superheroes when we discuss The Hero's Journey--Michael brings up Remember the Titans and Coach Carter. It's a good way to gauge what they're reading, and get a sense of what types of books are popular with teens.

But.

I forget that teens don't always talk about what they read, especially what they read now. They all mention Harry Potter--but they all also read Harry Potter when they were in middle school, and they just remember it. Books like the Harry Potter series are wildly popular--but they are the exception to the genre rules. Narnia is often mentioned in my class--but because of the YA-geared movies, not the MG-geared books. I often forget that just because a kid mentions a book doesn't mean that s/he read it that year...in all likelihood, the books they're reading now are books they won't mention. A few years ago, I had a girl who was always talking about some of my favorite authors, such as Patricia Wrede and Garth Nix. But after school, I saw her reading Sunshine. I asked why she hadn't mentioned that book in class before, and she got embarrassed. There's sex in that book--she was embarrassed to even be seen reading it; she'd never mention it in class, despite the fact that she'd passed the book around to nearly every girl in the class. Likewise, there is a wildly popular African American series of books that my African American girls pass around--seriously, these books have tattered edges and broken spines. And they are almost entirely erotica. And they are never mentioned in class, and they are hidden from the teachers (most of whom confiscate the books).

The other part of my problem is that I don't read what I'm supposed to read. I like the cute fantasy books--I pick up MG/YA books expressly because I don't want to read about sex--I'd rather read about magic and adventure. And I tend to think that everyone's like me (I do this constantly--I'm shocked when I discover other people like mayonnaise, for example, because I find it so repulsive).

I'm not sure why I never really thought of the MG/YA label in these terms before, but there you are. It's starting to make more sense to me...

Well, crap

I wrote two pages of the new book yesterday.

In present tense.

Oh no, I cannot let this last!

Poetry Friday

Don't usually do the poetry thing, but this poem is brilliant--it's about my favorite fairy tale of all time, and it's told from an unusual point of view. Check it out...this is one of the best poems I've read in awhile, and I'm a tough poetry critic :)

Trying New Things

It's important for a writer to try new things. This means experiences--I never could have set my most recent work in Malta, for example, if I'd never been there (I hadn't known it existed before the trip!). But this also means writing new things, too.

I'll admit, for a girl in a creative profession, I've got a hard time coming out of my writing box. You know old people who talk about walking uphill (both ways) through the snow to get to the one-room school house and they actually seem to miss those good ol' days? Yeah, I'm like that. YA fantasy is the only genre worth my time. I shudder at the thought of writing in first person POV. I get physically sick thinking about extensive outlining. Don't even get me started on present tense. I write my third-person fantasies with the smallest amount of outlining in imperfect tense, thankyouverymuch.

But.

This novel I'm about to start, the one just makes my little spawns of mind juice just squee! with delight...yeah, it's not fantasy. It's sci fi. And it's going to be told not only from a first person POV...but from two alternating first person POVs. And it's going to be a murder mystery set in space with a twist out of this world (get it? get it?), and I've begun chapter by chapter outlining. With much detail.

And that rut I hit somewhere about the last third of my last work, that dragging feeling I'd slowly started to develop for the past few months in writing...it's lifting. I'm getting all tingly and excited thinking about this new book...and all those writing styles I've never tried before are adding goosebumps to my goosebumps.

But I'm not touching present tense. Let's not get too wild here :)

I'm just putting this out there...

...politics + books. Read as you wish.

Linkspam!

Lots of interesting stuff out on the intrawebs now:

An excellent list of new and current YA books. (with themes that define edgy, and remind me that I'm probably dipping my toes more in the MG genre)

A new YA publisher on the scene.

Holly Hobbie was a real person?! And she's writing (another) book?!

Among other things that Nathan Bransford says he doesn't want in a query (most are pretty obvious), this one stood out as a mistake that I'd be likely to make if I weren't careful:

- The themes of your novel (this should be clear from the description of the plot)

And, Nathan also identified the sweet spot in length for queries:

Well, after doing this for a week I basically decided that there is a sweet spot in query word count between 250 and 350 words.

Mine is 276. Sweet!