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Posts Tagged ‘agents’

Backstory

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on May 22, 2011| 2 Comments »

Backstory is an important part of world building for speculative fiction. It’s the history of how your world and your characters got to be where they are when the story opens. Some stories have a lot of backstory, like Tolkien’s LORD OF THE RINGS. Others have less. But all have some.

The real question isn’t how much backstory you have, but how much you actually put into the novel. Some things, it’s important for me to know but may never be important enough to tell the reader. Too much, unless you’re Tolkien, can drag the story down and kill the pace. But too little backstory can be just as big a problem because you can leave the reader without enough information to undertand the world and what’s happening in it.

How much and where to introduce the backstory is another issue. Trying to avoid the dreaded infodump or an “as you know, Bob” bit of dialog can be tricky. I try to reveal the world in a learn-as-you-go fashion in my stories, so I’m wrestling a bit with exactly where and how much–and how–to reveal backstory in three of my novels right now. Internal monologue can do some of it, especially if I can combine it with some inner conflict of the point-of-view character.

  1. MAGE STORM may need just a little more of the recent history brought out, but I want to be very careful not to slow the pace too much. It’s a delicate balance.
  2. According to at least one reader of BLOOD WILL TELL, a part of the backstory that I expunged in an earlier draft may need to be brought back in. (You can see that bit under Worlds/Chimeria). I could just put that back, but I’m trying to find a better way to ease the information in.
  3. The first draft of SEVEN STARS also has a few lengthy bits of dialog. At least, it’s not “as you know, Bob” because two characters from very different backgrounds are explaining things the other doesn’t know. Of course, first drafts are only meant to get the story down so I can fix it later. I’m going to have to look for a better way to get some of it out as I work through the revisions.

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Switching Gears

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on May 18, 2011| Leave a Comment »

After Agents Day, I switched my focus back to MAGE STORM, naturally. I’ve just completed a read through with minor revisions. I didn’t find too much that needed changing to meet the agent’s questions from the synopsis. I did try to bring out a couple of things a little more and trimmed a little from the middle. I want to go over that middle section again and then suck in a deep breath and send it off.

I still need to go over the new query again and take a serious look at that synopsis.

Then, I need to get back to my priorities from before Agents Day, mainly the second draft of SEVEN STARS and a revision to my quarter three Writers of the Future entry, if I can get it done in time. I’ve got some serious brainstorming to do on that one. I need to find a way to make the magic system a little more new and unique, if I can. Oh, and there are revisions to BLOOD WILL TELL, too.

And critiques to do, as usual.

Well, whatever else happens, I’m not going to be bored.

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Agents Day

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on May 15, 2011| 2 Comments »

So, I spent all day yesterday at the Agents Day put on by the Orange County chapter of the Society of Chilren’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). It was a fascinating, informative, exciting, and exhausting day.

Five different agents spoke to a group of ninety writers.

  1. Natalie M. Fischer of Bradford Literary Agency talked about how to successfully re-envision and revise. The text of her talk should be available on her blog: www.adventuresinagentland.blogspot.com. She had several interesting and useful suggestions, so I recommend taking a look.
  2. Rosemary Stimola of Stimola Literary Studio talked about the importance of finding the right agent and creating a career-long relationship.
  3. Edward Necarsulmer of McIntosh and Otis talked about the various kinds of things agents do during a day to help their clients.
  4. Anna Webman of Curtis Brown, Ltd. talked about the kinds of things authors can do to help generate their own publicity and help sell their books.
  5. Stephanie von Borstel of Full Circle Literary talked about her agency’s approach and brought one of the authors she represents, Rene Colato Lainez to talk about the author’s experience of working with an agent.

A lot of learning about the business crammed into one day and I’m not sure I’ve completely processed all of it, yet.

After the presentations, we broke into five smaller groups. The agents rotated among those groups for about fifteen minutes each so that we could have a chance to talk to them and ask questions.

Most exciting, MAGE STORM attracted the interest of the agent who read the first chapter for a critique. Now I have some revising to do, based on her suggestions, and send it on.

If you get a chance at one of these types of events, I would definitely recommend it.

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Rejection

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on January 12, 2011| 5 Comments »

News:  This is my 100th post. There have been about the same number of comments.  And some time over the holidays while I wasn’t looking, the blog went over 2000 views.

Now on to today’s topic: rejection.  It’s something we’re all going to have to deal with. The only way to avoid it is to never send your work out and that just guarantees that no one will ever see it or publish it. So, you have to take the risk.

Earlier this week, I started sending out the very first queries on MAGE STORM.  Five queries have gone out and one rejection has already come back.  That’s not totally unexpected. There can be all kinds of reasons for it and agents don’t usually stop to tell you exactly why.

But that’s not what this post is about.  It’s about the freeing nature of that first rejection.  (Now, this isn’t my first rejection.  Just the first for MAGE STORM.) When you first send the queries out into the world, you’re a little bit on pins and needles, even though you know that realistically it could be weeks before you hear anything back, if you ever do.  Some agents only reply if they’re interested.

Then that first rejection comes back. It’s disappointing.  It stings.  But then you realize that you’re still standing, still writing. That you still believe in your story. And you compose another version of the query letter and send it right back out. 

The worst is over.  It may be an uphill battle, but at least from here it is all uphill.  Well, mostly, anyway.

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Query Time Again

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on January 9, 2011| 3 Comments »

First, an update:  Last week I blogged about e-publishing.  SFWA’s Writer Beware has a very informative and realistic article about e-publishing on their blog. Plenty of food for thought.  I’ll be interested to see the next installment.

Over the last week, especially, I’ve been working on refining the query and synopsis for MAGE STORM.  I’m almost happy with the query:

The only traces of magic left in Rell’s world are the violent, semi-sentient mage storms made up of the ashes of the magic-wielders killed in the great war.

At least that’s what Rell believes until a mage storm infects him with magic he can’t control. The magic ebbs and flows with his emotions, protecting those he cares about one day and starting fires the next. His only hope of returning to a normal life is to find someone who can help him learn to either control the magic or get rid of it.

Rell follows rumors of a teacher but instead finds a cult leader, Trav. When Rell witnesses the death of another student, he realizes he’s next on Trav’s list. Forced to flee, Rell can’t forget the friends he left behind. Somehow, he has to learn enough to return and free the others.

That is, if Trav doesn’t catch him first, because Trav doesn’t let anyone with real magic live long enough to challenge him.

I’ve also started my research and developed an initial list of agents.  In the next few days, I’ll take a deep breath and start submitting MAGE STORM to agents.  Fingers crossed.

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Knowing Where the Story Starts . . . and Ends

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on October 27, 2010| 2 Comments »

Two things have got me thinking about this subject right now.

The first:  A recent rejection for BLOOD WILL TELL that said the agent “was not very strongly drawn into your opening pages.”  This agent read only the first five pages.   To me this may mean one of two things.  I’m already considering whether this story was actually young adult all along, as I’ve said in earlier posts.  It could be that the voice was off.  It could also be that I’ve started in the wrong place.  I’ve got reasons for starting where I do, but I’m going to have to get some more readers and get some feedback.  Maybe the starting place is all right, but I need to cut down some of what comes next.

The second:  At least one first reader of MAGE STORM agrees that the epilogue goes on a little too long.  I’m going to poll the readers after the last critique is in, but it’s one of the things that bothered me from the beginning.  I want the MC to come to the realization that home isn’t “back there” any more, but I may have to find another, shorter way to do it.

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Roller Coaster Ride

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on October 13, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Most of writing is just the discipline to keep on putting words on paper.  We make our own excitement with the torture and the rewards we devise for our characters.  The business of trying to actually sell what we’ve written is usually complicated–query letters and synopses are just a lot harder to write than novels for some reason. And scary.

Occasionally it’s a roller coaster ride.

Yesterday, I checked my inbox to find that there was an e-mail from an agent I’d queried with BLOOD WILL TELL.  I braced myself for the rejection; that’s by far the most common outcome and you have to get used to it.  Well, it wasn’t a rejection; it was a request for a partial.  The first step up that long staircase toward publication.

Woo hoo!  When I caught my breath, I celebrated a little, told my nearest and dearest, and then I settled down to prepare and send the requested materials. 

I thought at the least I’d have a few weeks to savor the idea, the possibility.  If I’d sent it by snail mail, I probably would have.  The downside of the internet age is that it doesn’t take any time for documents to reach their destination.  The reply was in my inbox this morning and it wasn’t a request for the full manuscript. 

Oh well, to quote Dory, “Just keep swimming.  Just keep swimming.”

Or, Commander Taggert, “Never give up.  Never surrender.”

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