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Persistence

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on June 26, 2011| 4 Comments »

I’ve always considered myself to be a fairly persistent–even downright stubborn–person. I just found out I’m a piker.

Friday night, I listened to this interview with Elana Johnson. She racked up 188 rejections for her (now published) novel. But you only need one agent to love it and find the editor who will love it, too. Elana Johnson sent 189 queries and sold her novel.

Of course, to be fair, she was also getting a better percentage of requests for full or partial manuscripts than I have. That’s at least partly due to writing a much better query letter. Something I still have to work on–and I plan to work on it with the help of her free e-book, FROM THE QUERY TO THE CALL (available on her website).

But it’s also clear to me that I just have not been sending out enough queries. So far, I’ve averaged around thirty to thirty-five queries on my novels. Not nearly enough.

Okay, so part of that is because I stop querying the previous book when the next is ready to go out. That’s something I may have to rethink, especially as I finish up revisions on BLOOD WILL TELL. I mean, with a few exceptions, BWT and MAGE STORM won’t even be going to the same agents. They’re not the same kind of books or aimed at similar audiences. BWT is an adult urban fantasy/paranormal romance (I think I’m going to query it as a paranormal romance, this go round.) and MS is a middle grade fantasy.

But that’s still only part of it. If I query a novel for an average of one year, I ought to be able to send out at least three queries a week. The problem is the periods in which I don’t send out queries, because I’m going to revise the query letter or the synopsis or, like now, because I’m contemplating a revision to the work itself. Then I don’t send out any queries for a month or more. Not good.

The biggest problem, though, is  researching agents. This is where the real procrastination creeps in.

New resolution (mid-year, if you like): Send out way more queries than I have been.

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Second Drafts

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

I’m cooking right along on the second draft of SEVEN STARS. In fact, I’m about twice as far right now as the goal I set myself for this week (Friday-Thursday. I update my goals once a week on Fridays on Hatrack River Writer’s Workshop and once a month on Farland’s Writers Groups.) That’s good in a lot of ways.

What I call second drafts usually take two or three passes because I’m looking for different things.

  • On the first pass I’m usually fixing or adding things I knew I left out on the first draft. Sometimes, that’s because I had trouble with a particular scene so I just told it, made a note to fix it, and moved on. The first draft is just about getting the story down, not about getting all the fine details perfect. Sometimes, it’s something else that I noted in the first draft–a large chunk of dialog that would need to be broken up with some beats and some internal thoughts. And sometimes it’s something that I discovered was more important than I expected later in the first draft and so I knew I needed to do a bit of foreshadowing earlier. This pass can take some time, because there’s often a lot of new writing in it.
  • Sometimes, the second pass is aimed at the side characters, especially the antagonist. My first draft tends to be very protagonist-centric. There’s a little, but not too much of that in this story since the antagonists tend to be less tangible. So, this time, that pass got rolled in with the next.
  • The next pass is more detailed, but still might go faster. I’m looking for places where I need more internal thoughts or more description. I’m also smoothing out places that might feel a little rough to me. New material gets added here, too (I’m about to write a new scene when I get back to work, now.), but less than in the first pass.

After all of that, hopefully, the story is as good as I can make it until I get some feedback on what works–and what doesn’t–from my alpha readers. That’s scheduled for next month.

 

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Outlining vs. Discovering

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on June 12, 2011| 3 Comments »

I’ve already confessed that I’m a discovery writer in an earlier blog post. But I don’t tackle a novel completely off the cuff. I might do a short story that way–take a concept and see where it goes. But not a novel. There’s just too much more room to run off into the weeds. Still, I have to give myself room to discover and explore because my best ideas seem to come to me while I’m actually writing. Something about keeping the juices flowing, I think.

I don’t do a classic outline, but I have tried to make what I call a proto-synopsis. But what do I put in this document? Well, more or less, the high points of the story:

  • The main conflict. (I always insist on knowing this, since it’s what makes the story hold together as a unit, but it may not actually be written in that proto-synopsis.)
  • The inciting incident. That’s obvious, of course. How can I start the story if I don’t have at least an idea where it starts?
  • The first try/fail cycle. What’s my protagonists first, and horribly insufficient, attempt to solve his problem or achieve his goals?
  • The second try/fail cycle. (This is one I’m sometimes still a little fuzzy on, even when I start writing.)
  • The climax. I pretty much always know how the conflict will be resolved when I start. It may even be one of the first scenes I jot down.
  • I don’t actually worry about the denouement at this stage. That’s one I pretty much always allow myself to discover out of the characters and what they’ve been through. I’ve been surprised by it a time or two, but that just makes it more fun to get there and find out.

Right now, I’m in the process of re-thinking this just a little. Using a proto-synopsis I think is not actually helping me as much as I hoped in writing a final synopsis. In particular, in hitting the parts of the story, I may not be giving enough emphasis to that central conflict. Something I need to consider carefully.

 

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New Ideas from Old

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on June 5, 2011| 4 Comments »

My first two books (not counting the thing under the bed that we don’t talk about) have been on the shelf for a while, now. I’ve known that they needed a complete rewrite, especially the first. The problems are too numerous even to list here. It should have been young adult all along, but I didn’t realize that. The pacing is way off. There are far too many characters. It got over-edited. Well, let’s face it, those are the books on which I made most of my beginner mistakes.

But I haven’t given up on them. The world I created for that series (which was originally supposed to be four books) is very complex. You can get a glimpse of it in most of the entries under Worlds on this blog. I like the premise. I like the theme that developed out of the stories (not the other way around). And I think I have something to say in those stories.

For a while, now, I’ve been trying not to think too much about those stories so that when I come back to them for a rewrite I can start fresh. Occasionally, an idea will bubble up from my subconscious and I’ll jot it down for later use. Some of them were interesting, but none of them quite worked. Well, yesterday an idea came up that I think is the one.

It’ll start the story much earlier and transform at least the first books into middle grade. I think that actually works well for this story. In doing that, it’ll also break the story into more pieces. That part, I still have to work out. One thing I won’t compromise is my preference that each book, even in a series, be able to stand on its own. That’s okay, it’s just a matter of properly defining the central conflict.

I’ve even got a tentative new title. (This was one of the ones that I alwas hated the title for.)

I’m really getting excited about this idea. Now, I’m not sure whether July will see me starting this one or THE BARD’S GIFT. Maybe this one while I continue to research THE BARD’S GIFT.

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In the Beginning . . .

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on June 1, 2011| Leave a Comment »

 . . . you set up what kind of story you’re going to tell.

That’s a problem I’ve been having in particular with DREAMER’S ROSE. The story just isn’t everything I want it to be. Either I’m trying for too much or I’m emphasizing the wrong part of the story. Or maybe I’m all wet and just don’t have a clue. It’s possible. Wouldn’t even be the first time. That last isn’t very helpful, though, so I’ll concentrate on the other two possibilities.

So recently I’ve been passing different possible starting points by one of my writer’s groups. This month, they have the last of the four.

  1. The first failed utterly. Nobody felt they could connect with the character. Well, that explains why my last draft failed. (It’s the place I’d started the story on the last pass.)
  2. The second was flawed, but better. It could be a bit confusing starting with the antagonist, though.
  3. The third has so far been the hand’s down favorite, although it clearly still needs work. That sets the beginning of the story back to a much earlier place.
  4. The jury’s still out on the fourth. That one pushed the beginning further into the story. (It’s also the closest to where I actually started when I first began this particular story as a short story that grew into a novella that turned into a novel.)

I’m hoping that the feedback on the best place to start will help me figure out what I need to emphasize and what I should jettison to make this story be what I know it can be.

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Alternate History

Posted in writing, tagged , , on May 29, 2011| 3 Comments »

Sometimes it can be a little challenging to come up with blog topics while in the middle of revisions. After all, there’s only so much you can say about the revision process without boring everyone. Even I sometimes get a little bored during revisions. And when that happens, I look ahead to my next project.

My next project, an expansion of my short story “The Bard’s Gift”, will most likely be alternate history. (I could choose to just make it second world and make everything up to suit myself, but I don’t think I will). That means that my next task, which I can start now, is research.

This story will be young adult alternate history. Hey, if Scott Westerfeld can do it with LEVIATHAN and BEHEMOTH (which I loved. Can’t wait for GOLIATH to come out this fall), why not?

Alternate history changes some events from history, but not everything. So, I need to research how my characters would live–what kind of dwelling would they live in, what kind of food would they eat, what kind of clothes would they wear, and so on.  I also need to know the real history, so I can make rational choices about the events that I’m changing.

Another thing I’ll be researching is events occurring elsewhere in the world at about the same time, because I just might choose to bring in a couple of those things, too, as part of my plot.

Ideally, the more things I learn in this research, the more ideas I’ll get to add depth and conflict to the story.  I’ve done some research already, but I’m going to need to start a research file to organize all of it.

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Revisions, Revisions, Revisions

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on May 25, 2011| 7 Comments »

First off, and apropos of today’s topic, for those who may have tried the link in my post about Agents Day and wondered what I was talking about: Agent Natalie M. Fischer published her speech from Agents Day about revisions on her blog this week. Some interesting tips. Check it out.

Revisions. I’m surrounded by them at the moment. Finalizing revisions on MAGE STORM before I send it off. Working on the second draft of SEVEN STARS so I can have it ready for alpha readers in July. Making revisions based on the latest critique of BLOOD WILL TELL. Oh, and I need to make revisions to my Writer’s of the Future entry for this quarter. AND, if I can find the time, there’s another story I’d like to take a crack at for a writing challenge on Hatrack River Writers Workshop. (The original version of the story didn’t really work, but the premise is perfect for the challenge.) So, it looks like the next month or so is going to be pretty much dedicated to revisions.  Good thing I don’t mind.

I actually enjoy the second draft process. It’s almost like doing a first draft at times because I generally add so much new material. A story usually grows by about a third during the second draft. I’m in the middle of a new scene in SEVEN STARS right now.

Along about July, while SEVEN STARS is out to first readers, I expect to start taking a serious look at my alternate history story THE BARD’S GIFT (novelization of my short story of the same title). Still a lot of research to do for that one, as well as laying out the basic plot. I’ve never done alternate history. It should be fun.

Now back to that scene. Tiaran’s third battle and second failure. Got to rattle his confidence a bit. Can’t let your characters get to cocky–or too comfortable.

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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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