I heard back from my editor this week. She's still plugging away reviewing the final draft of my book, The Cube. She gave me some really positive feedback in her email, saying I've made a lot of progress and the main relationship in the book is flowing naturally (yay!) but also planted a slight seed of doubt in my mind when she told me I could go back and look at the dialogue again. She sent me a link to this article on dialogue. Two things came to mind as I read her email...
So yes, while I wait for the full feedback, one of the things I'm doing is researching agents. When I finally do have my edits in, I want to be ready to hit the ground running to look for representation. I began with my favorite books, looking in the acknowledgement sections to see if they list their agent names. You know what surprised me? A lot of my favorite books don't have acknowledgement sections. I mean, I was seriously shocked. But for the ones that did, I took notes on who the agents were and started there. I also created a rubric to grade whether or not they'd be a good fit to reach out to. Here are some questions I asked myself:
With these questions in mind, I then turned to the Literary Agents section of the Writers Market 2017 that I purchased and just started plugging away looking up agencies one-by-one. And here's the thing... There's so much hope. That feeling you get when you click on a website and it's beautiful and has the warmth and professionalism you're looking for. When you read a bio that seems to align to you perfectly and you like the other books the agent supports. When you Google them and find an interview and like their sense of humor or the advice they give to writers. When you think, of course I could work with this person! And then there's the feeling of when you get into a groove and start eliminating other agents because you've figured out what you're looking for. It makes you feel like you're on your way. But, there's also so much agony. Because it dawns on you that there are hundreds, thousands of people thinking the exact same thing as you. That there are a limited number of agents and they get approached all the time, every day, all day long. That you are only as good as your query letter and so you re-read your query letter for the millionth time, oscillating back and forth between thinking it's the greatest thing since sliced bread and that it's so mediocre even you wouldn't email you back. There's the agony of feeling like the entire thing is a total crapshoot. It's like dating only worse. You start hearing in your head "if they would just get to know me, they'd love me!" So, what do you do? Well, if you're me, you acknowledge all those feelings. Give them time to sink in, know that it won't always feel good, and then keep going. Because you'll never know until you try. You make a spreadsheet to keep track of your agent research. You judge them as much as they will judge you. You make notes as to why their profiles spoke to you so that when you query them, you can tell them exactly why you are querying them. And you tinker with your query letter with every new piece of advice you get, because every little change could make a difference. If you're me, you choose hope. You choose hope each and every time. Because hope is such a better choice. You can keep hope in check by trying to be realistic, by knowing the odds, by telling yourself it's a lot of hard work and takes persistence and that you might have to query 100 agents before one bites. But you choose hope. You choose hope every time. Because you know what? The Cube is a kick-ass book and I really can't wait for you all to read it.
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Welcome to week two of the new series #WritersQuick5 - where we learn about writing from fellow writers. This week we're going to hear from Amanda Hollis-Brusky, Associate Professor of Politics at Pomona College. Amanda and I first met back in 1999 as fellow cohorts in the Core Curriculum program at Boston University. I knew from the day I met her that she was significantly smarter than me, but that has become more apparent as the years have gone on, particularly once I picked up her book Ideas With Consequences: The Federalist Society and the Conservative Counterrevolution. 'Ideas' was recently awarded the 2016 C. Herman Pritchett Award by the American Political Science Association's Law and Courts division for the best book on law and courts published the year before. Amanda shares answers with us on what it's like to write in an academic environment. Let's see what she has to say... Question #1: Where do you write and why do you write there? I write on campus - mostly in my office but in the library or other spaces on campus from time to time. A group of faculty get together for "write-ins" about once a month in the history department library. I write on campus because I like to keep "work hours" separate from "home/family" time and physically going to work puts me in that mindset. Engaging in academic writing from home is quite challenging for me - too many distractions (laundry, house projects, neighbors walking by, etc). That being said, I have written opinion pieces and talks/public lectures at home with relative ease. I consider these "bonus" pieces that I write on my own time so the work-home dichotomy is not fully compromised. Question #2: What is unique about writing for your particular genre? Academic writing speaks to an audience of similarly trained and educated academics. There is a jargon, a shared literature and norms that one is expected to follow. It is argumentative, evidence-based, and cannot make claims that are not specifically supported by the evidence. It is also, for the most part, inaccessible to those outside one's field of study. The one exception to that, I think, is the academic book which meets the tough standards and expectations of an "academic" or scholarly work but is also more broadly accessible to the public. When I put my public intellectual hat on, however, the expectations are quite different - I am working to distill complex, scholarly ideas and concepts for public consumption. In my mind, this is more similar to teaching; to what I do for my students in the classroom. I like this kind of writing and, were it not for the "publish or perish" expectations of academia, I would do more of this kind of writing. Question #3: What are some of your grammar or punctuation pet peeves? First off, I love the Oxford comma - let's just get that out of the way. Misplaced apostrophes (the non-possessive plural mistake) and semi-colon abuse (my freshman who discover the semi-colon often become enamored with it and use it WAY too much) are my biggest grammatical pet peeves. Question #4: At what point in your writing process do you start to bring other people in to review your work? I have been co-authoring for a while. The nice thing about co-authorship is that there is a built-in peer review check. I send drafts of sections to my co-author, he reads and comments and sends them back and vice-versa. When I solo-author I usually send a draft to a trusted colleague or two before I send a piece out for peer-review. Question #5: What advice would you give to a new writer about the writing process? Make writing a daily habit, even if it is just for 20 minutes. Carve out a time when there are no other distractions. For me, this has been key. When I'm at my best (which, admittedly, has not been lately) I am writing for an hour every morning. Longer stretches can and may be possible on some days, of course. But making writing a habit is key to long-term productivity. Thank you to Amanda for these wonderful answers and for your insights on writing. Follow Amanda on Twitter and stay-tuned for her insights during this upcoming administration. And, once again, here's the link to where you can buy her incredible book: Ideas with Consequences. Stay tuned for the next #WritersQuick5. We're going to take a break next week for the holidays, but we'll be back the first week of January. If you'd like to be considered for our #WritersQuick5 series, please contact me and use #WritersQuick5 in the first line of your email. Thanks, and Happy Holidays! Everyone tells me that patience is part of the writing world. A lot of hurry up and wait. They weren't kidding. I turned in my manuscript to the editor I hired the day before Thanksgiving. Now I wait. Wait for her feedback. Wait to work on changes. Wait to see if my hard word is validated, crushed, or somewhere in between (I'm guessing somewhere in between).
While the waiting can be excruciating, it's actually a gift. I have so much else to do. I've been working on my 'book hook,' and on my agent research, and on this website. I created #writersquick5 which I am SO excited about (and is already proving to be one of my favorite parts of this new adventure - next interview coming Monday). And, this week I also worked on my book summary. Or is it synopsis? (Those words seem to be used interchangeably in reference to this type of document.) The book summary is 2-3 pages explaining your book's plot. No embellishments, purely what happens. I'm not sure what it'll be used for, but everyone says you have to have it. I'm guessing it's used for people to get a quick shot at the plot of your book, to make sure it has an arc and a conclusion, without reading the whole thing. At first I thought that it would be hard, like the book hook was hard, but when I sat down to write it I finished in one afternoon. That, of course, made me incredibly nervous. How could I have popped it out so quickly? I think the answer is that I didn't use the book to write it. I used my outline. I have a 20+ page outline that details what will happen in each chapter. As I wrote, I edited the outline for any changes (which inevitably happened) so I know the outline was up-to-date. Full disclosure: I don't think I can even take full credit for my outline, as it was my editor that insisted that I have one and 'green-lit' the final version I eventually used to write. Using the outline instead of the book made things flow very easily, because I was already taking something that had a stunted feel and just added a little more staccato to it. Take out the adjectives. Take out the emotion. Just say what happens. Of course, time will tell. Perhaps when I find an agent (claiming it!) s/he will read it and tell me I did it all wrong. But, at least, due to this fortuitous time I have to wait and get other things done, I will have something to show. A book summary. At a little less than three pages. Boom. I am so excited to introduce a new element to this website and blog - the #WritersQuick5. Every week we are going to meet a new writer, ask them about their writing process, and what advice they have for fellow writers. Every writer will get the same five questions and they will all be archived here. We will explore all different types of writing, from books to comics to screenplays to lyrics to academic papers. Please continue to check in on this blog and on the new #WritersQuick5 homepage.
I'm SO EXCITED at the roster of writers we already have lined up and I couldn't be more thrilled at our first author up - MaryLou Driedger. I've known MaryLou for nearly a decade and I've admired her, her writing, and her passion for writing, since day one. MaryLou has been a weekly newspaper columnist for over thirty years. Her travels and time living abroad have provided her ample content for travel pieces and websites. She's written for periodicals, magazines, educational curriculum, and has been on staff for a religious meditation magazine for twenty years. She's also authored several institutional histories and the script and lyrics for a musical. If that wasn't enough, she publishes personal stories for her grandsons. I know her work from her amazing blog What's Next and from a book she wrote called Storylines: A History of the Hong Kong International Christian School. Let's see what MaryLou has to say: Question #1: Where do you write and why do you write there? I usually write at home at my kitchen counter for convenience sake, but my latest project is a middle grade novel and I find I get the most done on that away from home at a hip coffee shop called Forth one block from my condo. All the artistic young people there working and talking about their projects inspire me. Question #2: What is unique about writing for your particular genre? I have been writing lots of picture books. This is a different kind of writing than I have ever done before and I am finding it very difficult. Getting traditionally published in this field is almost impossible and it is hard not to get discouraged. One of the unique things about picture book writing is that your target audience is not only the children but also their parents who will be the ones buying and reading the book to their kids. You have to hook them in as well as their children. Question #3: What are some of your grammar or punctuation pet peeves? One thing that drives me crazy is the overuse of the word ‘that’. Most of the time when writers use ‘that’ it just isn’t necessary. I used to be a high school composition and journalism teacher and I always told my students to read over their pieces and try leaving out every ‘that’ they had included. Question #4: At what point in your writing process do you start to bring other people in to review your work? Right from the start! When I wanted to start writing for children one of the first things I did was find a children’s writing group to join. They have been so incredibly helpful. We listen to each other’s work in all stages and offer feedback and suggestions. Getting together with other writers is so important. I was recently a finalist in a contest for new children’s picture books. Besides reading the manuscript many times to my writing group I also asked a children’s author and a professor of children’s literature to read it and his advice was invaluable in creating a winning entry. Question #5: What advice would you give to a new writer about the writing process? Network. You need to know people in the industry to learn to be a better writer and to learn how the publishing game works. I am a member of a local writers’ association as well as a national one and their newsletters, meetings, and networking opportunities have been very helpful. I lived in Hong Kong for six years and was a member of the Hong Kong Women in Publishing group. I got my work published in their anthologies and learned so much from my fellow members and from the presenters at our meetings. Thank you to MaryLou for these wonderful answers and to you insights on writing. Follow MaryLou on twitter and read her blog, What's Next? Stay tuned to learn more from your fellow writers and if you'd like to be considered for our #WritersQuick5 series, please contact me and use #WritersQuick5 in the subject line. As I've mentioned before, I recently downloaded the Writer's Digest webinar "How to Get an Agent" presented by PS Literary Agency agent Carly Watters. I learned so much in that webinar, I'm still digesting all the information. One of the things that really stood out for me was the call for a one-sentence hook. Slightly different than a 1-paragraph summary or an elevator pitch, this came with a formula developed by Nathan Bransford:
"When [conflict] happens to [character], they must [overcome conflict] to [complete stake or quest]." While some might look at that and say, 'oh great, a formula!' I looked at that and immediately thought - that's going to be tough as hell. How do you take 92,000 words and put it into a one-sentence formula? So, yesterday I spent a larger-than-expected chunk of time coming up with permuation after permutation. I tried specific characters, generalizations, different key plotpoints, emotional archs, and stakes. I had a thousand variables and had to decide which ones mattered the most. Wherever you are in your writing process, this is a great excerise. Because, as Carly pointed out in the webinar, if you can't boil your book down into its essence, you aren't ready to pitch your book. So, here is my result, which I have also now posted on my Books page. "When Will, a Cube true believer, and Molly, a Cube skeptic, stumble upon odd symbols scattered around the game’s grounds, they must work together to discover what the symbols mean – and The Cube’s true intent – while a stalker attempts to stop them in their tracks, and their own growing feelings for each other begin to change their lives forever. " I'd love any feedback if you have it. For now, to anyone else attempting the dreaded one-sentence hook, I say hang in there. It is worth the work! Writing is not a solitary activity. Sure, I may shut myself in my home office for hours on end while the ideas flow and the words come spilling across the keyboard, but then someone else has to look at it. I have never produced a single viable product that didn't need another set of eyes on it, a helping hand, another opinion. I've also found that while I can visualize things in my mind, I have next to no ability to design or draw them for myself. Probably why I love photography so much. I can frame the shot, fix the lighting, see something that wasn't there before... but I'm not the one creating the design/art I capture. So, the phrase "it takes a village" comes to mind. I'm blessed to have a village of many, many people supporting me. But, in my current endeavor to become a published author, two people are at the forefront of helping me create the world of The Cube, my so-to-be debut novel (claiming it!).
They are so important to me, I wanted to create a page to highlight them, not only to appreciate them, but also to encourage any other aspiring (or current) writers out there to create and promote your own support team. It is so much easier to do this knowing I'm not doing this alone. So, please meet my lovely collaborators... Laura Alsum and Adam Jentleson. Laura is helping me edit, the story and the text, and Adam is helping with graphics. They are both so talented in their own right. I'm very lucky they are taking the time to be a part of this journey with me. While my editor looks at the latest draft of my book, I've started to learn about query letters. I'm discovering that it's practically an art form in and of itself. I downloaded a very helpful webinar called "How to Get an Agent" from Writer's Digest, and after taking copious notes, am now re-writing the query letter draft I started earlier this week. I don't think I'm ready to start sending the query letters out yet, but I want to have everything set when I am ready - from a book synopsis to a book summary to plans for my next books. But back to the query letter. Boiling my 92,000 word book into 200-400 words, which includes a note to the agent and a brief bio of myself, is maybe even harder than writing a book. But, I love the challenge and I'm thankful for two things: 1. that there are so many helpful resources out there to guide me along my way and 2. that I have this pocket of time to do it.
December 1, 2016
I hope to share with you all my journey to becoming an author. And journey truly is the correct word. Back in 2011 I had a dream I just couldn't shake. A dream about a game called The Cube. Over the years I've jotted down various parts of that dream, expanded upon it, wrote short stories that turned into chapters. Then in Fall 2015 I decided that it was time. The story wasn't leaving me, I needed to write it down. So, in every free minute I had, I expanded upon the universe of The Cube until I had done it - I had written a book. Or at least I thought I had. Once I sent it to some friends, and a professional editor, it became abundantly clear that I did not have a book. I had the background of a book. Demoralized, I didn't touch it again for several months. But, it was something I just couldn't give up. In Fall of 2016 I took a leap of faith and quit my job to work on The Cube full time. With my editor as my partner - and I mean partner, I could not do this without her - I went back to the drawing board, wrote drafts upon drafts of outlines, and then started to re-write the book from page 1. Now, a few months later, I have a new draft, which my editor is currently looking at. As I eagerly await her feedback, there are several things I need to do next - copy editing, figuring out the world of query letters and agents, outlining the next book (as it became apparent the world of The Cube was more than just one story) and learning more about writing as a career. I love this journey so far. Please stay tuned for additional updates! |
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