Since I've been writing and querying, trying to get published, I've done a lot of querying. Most of those queries, thus far, have ended in a form-letter rejection. That's a little annoying, to be honest, but nothing especially traumatic.
Some of the queries have resulted in a partial request. My Horror Story #1 features one of these.
This agent was kind of near and dear to me... I followed her blog, left comments and well-wishes due to some news in her life, and she commented back on mine. I really felt like I had a connection with her, even though it was entirely virtual and totally tenuous. I got excited when she let me know that she would be reviewing my partial.
When it came close to the time she was going to review my partial, tragedy struck and she had to take two months off of work to take care of herself. I was trying to be understanding, but when it's your dreams on the line, it tends to drive you beyond crazy to be in limbo. Other queries came in and out, but I had my heart kind of set on this agent.
Then, on the day before my birthday, I received an email. It was a rejection of my partial.
Was it a nice letter, with a snippet of advice or a tiny nugget of insight, given the fact that I had effectively networked with her?
Nope. Form letter.
I had a birthday party the next day that I had to put on a brave face for. I received a few books as gifts, and I had to give them to my roommate to hide, because even the sight of a book was hurtful. I felt like my boyfriend just broke up with me (even though I'm a confirmed bachelorette right now), or like the kid from Little Miss Sunshine who found out he was colorblind and therefore disqualified to be a fighter pilot. A bit of my dream died that day, and I was heartbroken.
I suppose it worke dout for the best, as the agent recently changed the focus of her business and is no longer representing clients, and she still had clients that hadn't sold their manuscripts.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
How Not To Be This Guy
I sometimes enjoy reading AskMetaFilter questions, as well as the responses, just to get ideas for my own life, or alternatively, to indulge in my occasional strange desire to peek into the lives of other people. A few days ago, I came across this question. A little later, the same guy posted this, so I suppose he learned a bit of a lesson.
If you bothered to read through the full first question (I read it on a BlackBerry. My thumb hurt afterward), you will see some of the most overblown prose you could possibly imagine, about the young man simply describing his living situation. The kicker is, he wants/"needs" at least 3 days a week free (preferably 4) so that he can write his poetry/Literature/philosophy. As it generally happens on the wonder of the Internet, people make suggestions and comments about something outside of the central issue (he is looking for a situation that would allow him to write for at least 3 but preferably 4 days a week and still pay the rent), and actually mentioned that he might want to consider trying to write under less than ideal conditions. After people responded with those types of suggestions, he decided he was being insulted, and decided to post another question a week or so later, but with most of the unnecessary footnotes, citations, philosophy, and other extraneous details omitted. The second time around, he managed to get advice that, hopefully, applied to his situation.
Sometimes, as I'm idly reading AskMetaFilter, I come up with a few ideas for the advice-seekers, but this time, all I could think was "what a pretentious asshole." I don't approach my writing as High Art of the Highest Form. It's kind of hard, especially since I'm writing genre fiction, which is sort of seen as the opposite of High Art, to keep ones pretensions alive. But, even when I was in school and attempting literary fiction, which was not really my show, I still couldn't see it as Art.
Also, I believe that acting like one is attempting Art, they are sort of closing themselves off to criticism and suggestions for improvement. Can anyone say that The Mona Lisa has technical flaws, or The Thinker, or Falling Waters by Frank Lloyd Wright? How about Pamela? When you present yourself as an Artiste of Very Serious Literature, it's an attempt to silence anyone that might say something negative or critical about your latest Attempt.
Unfortunately, receiving criticism is how you grow, especially as an author. If nobody tells you that the plot is kind of stale and needs a twist, or that your characters act out bizarrely without reason or justification, or that no, you have to double-space your manuscripts, you will never learn. You can take what you've learned, analyze it, and discard what doesn't really apply, and figure out how to work the criticisms to make sense with your style.
But, if you distance yourself from that entirely, you'll never grow into being able to legitimately call yourself an Artist (which I differentiate from Artistes, who are those kind of people who I'll describe below). You'll still be writing the same tired prose, the same bizarre characters that an audience can't connect to, and you'll still be submitting to agents with a single-spaced manuscript that they won't bother to read. Eventually, people will get tired of trying to tell you things, and then they will start to roll their eyes at you. I already roll my eyes at these types, and I'm not even that mean.
Why do I roll my eyes? Because Artistes are boring as hell to talk to. They aren't open to learning anything, they aren't intersted in what anyone else has to say, since they already know everything they can possibly know about Art. Also, they tend to put their Work on a high pedestal, which gives them an excuse when they can't produce. They can basically ignore just about any suggestion, critique, or idea based on the fact that their Work is so all-consuming. Finally, an Artiste is boring mostly because they spend so much time focused on their Work and their Artiste-ness, that they don't really have anything else to talk about. Ask them about current events, pop culture, other artwork, travel, or just about anything, and they either can't carry on a conversation about it or all, or they play along until they can pull back to their glorious Work. If you haven't clicked the link above, go ahead, and tell me if you can successfully boil down the Artiste's mile-long stretch of blather into a succinct question. If that's what he's writing when he's trying to be clear, can you imagine the detours that his book takes?
How do you avoid becoming this guy? First of all, get down to earth. Submit your work to multiple critique groups, and see what they say. If you get the same series of critiques from all of the groups, from multiple people (concrete things, like "use more/less description" or "your dialogue reads terribly and I'm not too sure what's going on, clarify your plot," not things like "I don't like the title" and "Ruby's a bitch, how dare she break up with Rowan???"), then you have an idea that perhaps you have things to focus your attention on. Second, get out in the world, and learn something that doesn't apply to your current project. For me, it's my job, my friends, and archery lessons, which all help remind me that I might be Writing Great American Literature, but I still can't hit a target at ten paces, and I still laugh at fart jokes. Finally, read. Read read read read read. Read novels and poetry from people so insanely talented, you know it's impossible to approach them, to keep yourself humble... mine are Milton, e. e. cummings, and Jane Austen. Read work from people that you know you are better than, to give yourself hope. Mine is The Fifth Sorceress by Robert Newcomb. Read things about American idioms, soapmaking, the Zodiac, and AutoCad 2009. Read everything you can get your hands on. Not only will this help give you perspective on where you might fit in, but it will help keep your mind sharp and engaged with the world around you.
If you bothered to read through the full first question (I read it on a BlackBerry. My thumb hurt afterward), you will see some of the most overblown prose you could possibly imagine, about the young man simply describing his living situation. The kicker is, he wants/"needs" at least 3 days a week free (preferably 4) so that he can write his poetry/Literature/philosophy. As it generally happens on the wonder of the Internet, people make suggestions and comments about something outside of the central issue (he is looking for a situation that would allow him to write for at least 3 but preferably 4 days a week and still pay the rent), and actually mentioned that he might want to consider trying to write under less than ideal conditions. After people responded with those types of suggestions, he decided he was being insulted, and decided to post another question a week or so later, but with most of the unnecessary footnotes, citations, philosophy, and other extraneous details omitted. The second time around, he managed to get advice that, hopefully, applied to his situation.
Sometimes, as I'm idly reading AskMetaFilter, I come up with a few ideas for the advice-seekers, but this time, all I could think was "what a pretentious asshole." I don't approach my writing as High Art of the Highest Form. It's kind of hard, especially since I'm writing genre fiction, which is sort of seen as the opposite of High Art, to keep ones pretensions alive. But, even when I was in school and attempting literary fiction, which was not really my show, I still couldn't see it as Art.
Also, I believe that acting like one is attempting Art, they are sort of closing themselves off to criticism and suggestions for improvement. Can anyone say that The Mona Lisa has technical flaws, or The Thinker, or Falling Waters by Frank Lloyd Wright? How about Pamela? When you present yourself as an Artiste of Very Serious Literature, it's an attempt to silence anyone that might say something negative or critical about your latest Attempt.
Unfortunately, receiving criticism is how you grow, especially as an author. If nobody tells you that the plot is kind of stale and needs a twist, or that your characters act out bizarrely without reason or justification, or that no, you have to double-space your manuscripts, you will never learn. You can take what you've learned, analyze it, and discard what doesn't really apply, and figure out how to work the criticisms to make sense with your style.
But, if you distance yourself from that entirely, you'll never grow into being able to legitimately call yourself an Artist (which I differentiate from Artistes, who are those kind of people who I'll describe below). You'll still be writing the same tired prose, the same bizarre characters that an audience can't connect to, and you'll still be submitting to agents with a single-spaced manuscript that they won't bother to read. Eventually, people will get tired of trying to tell you things, and then they will start to roll their eyes at you. I already roll my eyes at these types, and I'm not even that mean.
Why do I roll my eyes? Because Artistes are boring as hell to talk to. They aren't open to learning anything, they aren't intersted in what anyone else has to say, since they already know everything they can possibly know about Art. Also, they tend to put their Work on a high pedestal, which gives them an excuse when they can't produce. They can basically ignore just about any suggestion, critique, or idea based on the fact that their Work is so all-consuming. Finally, an Artiste is boring mostly because they spend so much time focused on their Work and their Artiste-ness, that they don't really have anything else to talk about. Ask them about current events, pop culture, other artwork, travel, or just about anything, and they either can't carry on a conversation about it or all, or they play along until they can pull back to their glorious Work. If you haven't clicked the link above, go ahead, and tell me if you can successfully boil down the Artiste's mile-long stretch of blather into a succinct question. If that's what he's writing when he's trying to be clear, can you imagine the detours that his book takes?
How do you avoid becoming this guy? First of all, get down to earth. Submit your work to multiple critique groups, and see what they say. If you get the same series of critiques from all of the groups, from multiple people (concrete things, like "use more/less description" or "your dialogue reads terribly and I'm not too sure what's going on, clarify your plot," not things like "I don't like the title" and "Ruby's a bitch, how dare she break up with Rowan???"), then you have an idea that perhaps you have things to focus your attention on. Second, get out in the world, and learn something that doesn't apply to your current project. For me, it's my job, my friends, and archery lessons, which all help remind me that I might be Writing Great American Literature, but I still can't hit a target at ten paces, and I still laugh at fart jokes. Finally, read. Read read read read read. Read novels and poetry from people so insanely talented, you know it's impossible to approach them, to keep yourself humble... mine are Milton, e. e. cummings, and Jane Austen. Read work from people that you know you are better than, to give yourself hope. Mine is The Fifth Sorceress by Robert Newcomb. Read things about American idioms, soapmaking, the Zodiac, and AutoCad 2009. Read everything you can get your hands on. Not only will this help give you perspective on where you might fit in, but it will help keep your mind sharp and engaged with the world around you.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
On Talent
Nathan Bransford wrote an amazing article on his blog this week, about how one can tell whether or not one has talent when it comes to writing.
No, he does NOT give you a checklist, unfortunately.
He sparked a very intelligent discussion about whether or not talent is important to one's potential career as a writer. I personally believe that it doesn't mean a single thing whether or not a particular author has more "talent" than another.
Skill is much more important, as well as an ability to play to your own strengths.
True, real, honest genius is very rare. We may hear about two or three brilliant "talents", but for every single one of those, there are hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people that swing between total failure and moderate success. If you were a genius, you would probably know.
In the absence of genius, skill can do almost all of the legwork for you. If you learn how to craft a sentence, a plot, a setting, and characters well, if you can learn how to work dialogue and description, you can really do quite a lot for yourself in the writing world. Spend time working your craft, learning how to do what it is you need to do to make your story work better... take classes, join critique groups, and find an editor if you can.
Also, using your strengths to your advantage will get you just as far. One of my writer friends has difficulty in writing a linear story. However, his world-building is absolutely amazing, so he's learned how to craft his stories to unfold as the world becomes more and more familiar to the reader. My weakness happens to be world-building, so I transferred myself out of high fantasy and moved onto urban fantasy, where I can use the world in which I live to make my story happen.
If you can focus on those two things, you can likely make your manuscripts a lot better. Don't worry about your talent... talent is a very subjective term, anyway, and it's mostly for history to nail down upon you instead of for you to take on yourself. Skill and strengths. Let them be your sword and shield.
No, he does NOT give you a checklist, unfortunately.
He sparked a very intelligent discussion about whether or not talent is important to one's potential career as a writer. I personally believe that it doesn't mean a single thing whether or not a particular author has more "talent" than another.
Skill is much more important, as well as an ability to play to your own strengths.
True, real, honest genius is very rare. We may hear about two or three brilliant "talents", but for every single one of those, there are hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people that swing between total failure and moderate success. If you were a genius, you would probably know.
In the absence of genius, skill can do almost all of the legwork for you. If you learn how to craft a sentence, a plot, a setting, and characters well, if you can learn how to work dialogue and description, you can really do quite a lot for yourself in the writing world. Spend time working your craft, learning how to do what it is you need to do to make your story work better... take classes, join critique groups, and find an editor if you can.
Also, using your strengths to your advantage will get you just as far. One of my writer friends has difficulty in writing a linear story. However, his world-building is absolutely amazing, so he's learned how to craft his stories to unfold as the world becomes more and more familiar to the reader. My weakness happens to be world-building, so I transferred myself out of high fantasy and moved onto urban fantasy, where I can use the world in which I live to make my story happen.
If you can focus on those two things, you can likely make your manuscripts a lot better. Don't worry about your talent... talent is a very subjective term, anyway, and it's mostly for history to nail down upon you instead of for you to take on yourself. Skill and strengths. Let them be your sword and shield.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Unexpected Sources
I did something a little odd last week.
About a year ago, I got a clairvoyant reading on my past lives, as I was at a total loss as to where my life was going. I didn't know where my life was headed, and I was beginning to get very frustrated with the direction that things were going. Whether or not the delightful psychic was accurate or not didn't really matter to me at the time, as I really just wanted to feel better about where I was going, and let go of some of the frustration and anxiety I was feeling.
She told me, during the course of the reading, that my past lives had a very strange pattern... I would have a "big" life where my soul would learn a huge cosmic lesson, and then I would have a few "small" lives, where I was taking time to connect with the people and the places around me. The lives would swing back and forth along the path, and they led to this life, which is a life of synthesizing the desire to connect with those around me and the desire to connect to something higher. Kind of awesome, right? And whether or not that was the truth of the matter, it made me feel one hell of a lot better (and she was cheaper than a psychologist by a MILE).
So, since my life has not been going in the direction I want it to at this time, I figured I'd drop her a line to see if she was still in the business and if she was free. She was, fortunately, and we had a reading about what the heck I needed to do in order for my life to go where I wanted it to. She gave me a gentle, supportive kick in the root chakra, and told me that I was getting bogged down in my negativity, and I hadn't been doing nearly enough to make my dreams come true. She told me to keep trying, to edit my script, to make it perfect, and to put myself out there more, and I could have my silly tale published within a year.
Thus heartened, I attacked my quest with renewed vigor, and I feel energized by it. I'm writing and gathering a few sources to start querying again, and I think that a successful attack on the publishing world could be in the cards.
The economy might still be in the toilet, dear readers, but remember this... I taught junior high. It takes a lot more than no jobs and no money to scare THIS lady!
About a year ago, I got a clairvoyant reading on my past lives, as I was at a total loss as to where my life was going. I didn't know where my life was headed, and I was beginning to get very frustrated with the direction that things were going. Whether or not the delightful psychic was accurate or not didn't really matter to me at the time, as I really just wanted to feel better about where I was going, and let go of some of the frustration and anxiety I was feeling.
She told me, during the course of the reading, that my past lives had a very strange pattern... I would have a "big" life where my soul would learn a huge cosmic lesson, and then I would have a few "small" lives, where I was taking time to connect with the people and the places around me. The lives would swing back and forth along the path, and they led to this life, which is a life of synthesizing the desire to connect with those around me and the desire to connect to something higher. Kind of awesome, right? And whether or not that was the truth of the matter, it made me feel one hell of a lot better (and she was cheaper than a psychologist by a MILE).
So, since my life has not been going in the direction I want it to at this time, I figured I'd drop her a line to see if she was still in the business and if she was free. She was, fortunately, and we had a reading about what the heck I needed to do in order for my life to go where I wanted it to. She gave me a gentle, supportive kick in the root chakra, and told me that I was getting bogged down in my negativity, and I hadn't been doing nearly enough to make my dreams come true. She told me to keep trying, to edit my script, to make it perfect, and to put myself out there more, and I could have my silly tale published within a year.
Thus heartened, I attacked my quest with renewed vigor, and I feel energized by it. I'm writing and gathering a few sources to start querying again, and I think that a successful attack on the publishing world could be in the cards.
The economy might still be in the toilet, dear readers, but remember this... I taught junior high. It takes a lot more than no jobs and no money to scare THIS lady!
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Inspiration, then Perspiration
I have gotten myself into a bit of a pickle.
I decided that I wanted to start a new novel while I am shopping The Last Fragment. This will be a story focused on a character that appeared in both Penhadrian books I've written. He filled in as the mentor role in The Face-Stealer and took the role of evil henchman in The Last Fragment, and I think he definitely deserves his own novel.
Unfortunately, he is completely insane. I don't mean that he's a little quirky or random, I mean that he is NOT in his right mind at all. He cannot be depended on to do anything or follow anything through, he has no concerns about how he's viewed, has almost zero conscience, does not regret anything that he does, and is completely driven by his own jollies, which are not what most people would consider things that they would want to do. In Freudian terms, his superego does not exist, his ego does not exist, and he is a creature of pure id. He tends to steal, lie, and misbehave for no other reason than he likes to.
He is, without a doubt, the most difficult character I've ever written for. Most of my other characters are a little more leadable than he is, and can be put into a cohesive story with a plot and a point. Unfortunately, nothing that crosses my mind for him is even something I can remotely make him do. He just won't. He'll show up in the back of the classroom, ready to work, and then he'll get distracted, wander off, and then fall asleep under a tree while the rest of the class is doing their arithmetic.
I'm not sure what I can do to make him work into a story... he's always a supporting character, and I definitely want to tell his story, though I'm not at all sure what can be done about him. I might have to investigate other techniques in order to bring him to life.
I decided that I wanted to start a new novel while I am shopping The Last Fragment. This will be a story focused on a character that appeared in both Penhadrian books I've written. He filled in as the mentor role in The Face-Stealer and took the role of evil henchman in The Last Fragment, and I think he definitely deserves his own novel.
Unfortunately, he is completely insane. I don't mean that he's a little quirky or random, I mean that he is NOT in his right mind at all. He cannot be depended on to do anything or follow anything through, he has no concerns about how he's viewed, has almost zero conscience, does not regret anything that he does, and is completely driven by his own jollies, which are not what most people would consider things that they would want to do. In Freudian terms, his superego does not exist, his ego does not exist, and he is a creature of pure id. He tends to steal, lie, and misbehave for no other reason than he likes to.
He is, without a doubt, the most difficult character I've ever written for. Most of my other characters are a little more leadable than he is, and can be put into a cohesive story with a plot and a point. Unfortunately, nothing that crosses my mind for him is even something I can remotely make him do. He just won't. He'll show up in the back of the classroom, ready to work, and then he'll get distracted, wander off, and then fall asleep under a tree while the rest of the class is doing their arithmetic.
I'm not sure what I can do to make him work into a story... he's always a supporting character, and I definitely want to tell his story, though I'm not at all sure what can be done about him. I might have to investigate other techniques in order to bring him to life.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Long Time No Blog
I'm a bad, bad blogger.
It's been far too long since I last blogged... for the most part, I've been working on articles for Examiner.com, querying, playing on Twitter, working, moving, and attempting to get all of my clothes in a much smaller closet than I am used to. However, since I'm also kicking around a new book idea (I just can't help myself!), I'm likely going to be blogging more. Forgive me, readers!
Sunday, May 24, 2009
My fingertips bleed!
Check out my page on Examiner.com!!
This is why I haven't been blogging right now. I have four queries for the novel still out, and I've been networking and trying to talk to industry people and make connections as well. It's been difficult, as my full-time employment has been especially busy, and I am doing my hardest to build an audience, or at least get a platform together.
I also have to revamp my website to include the Examiner.com space, vacuum the apartment (oh, I'm moving in the middle of all this too) and get ready for a dinner with the family, as well as wrangle the Siamese cyclone that's currently running through the apartment. Oy!
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