I'm sorry I haven't posted for a couple weeks. I really am trying to get into the habit of writing every week. I'm even sorrier that I am posting now to bring bad news.
I got an email yesterday from my publisher that they are shutting down and thus my novel, The Shifting, is not going to be published. All rights revert back to me, so legally I am free and clear to start shopping it out to publishers and agents, but still, I'm back at square one with one year wasted. I don't know where or how to start again.
Honestly, I'm not doing too well right now. I'm hurt and angry and extremely disappointed and looking to blame someone. I don't blame my publisher, because bad business happens and it's not like they were trying to hurt me. So the blame is landing back on my own head: I should have farmed out the book to bigger publishers or found an agent. I should have sent other things out so the year wouldn't have been wasted. I should never have gotten my hopes up, because I should have known happiness couldn't last as long as it did without a huge fall coming.
This is a downer post, I know. But it's my blog and I have to talk about how I feel. This is worse, to me, than rejection. Rejection means "work harder and try again." Rejection means "we don't have space for your work here, but try something else later," if you're lucky. Rejection is a bump in the road. What I have here is a stalled car on the wrong road, and now I need to figure out how to fix it and find my way to where I should be.
The hardest thing about this is that I had a glimpse - a glimpse - of my dream coming true. I've wanted to be a writer since I was 11. Since then, I've wanted to see my work printed. Having a novel published was my big dream since before I had the skills to make it happen. And then, on one miraculous day, it happened. For one year I saw my dreams coming true, and now suddenly it's gone. I feel like Cinderella might if, while sitting in rags and weeping, she had her fairy godmother come to her, only to disappear again. I wonder if it would have been better if I never had my hopes up at all. It feels like too much, right now, to ask for another miracle, a permanent one this time.
I don't know how many people read this blog, but if you're reading it and know of any publishers or agents who might be interested in my work, feel free to leave me a tip. I need all the help I can get right now.
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Writer Quotes
So, it's been a slow week, writing-wise. I did start work on my thesis novel, and that's going well enough, but there's not enough there to comment on yet. Suffice it to say, I understand my main character well, so that's good. At least, well enough to stop myself twice because "she wouldn't act like that."
I've also learned that I have become so used to rejection letters that when one says, "Thank you for sending us your work. Unfortunately, we have no place for it in our magazine. Please remember us in the future," I feel all warm and tingly because that means THEY LIKED IT! They just couldn't use it.
Because it's a slow week, I decided to list a bunch of fun writing quotes I found lately, both funny and inspiring.
“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.”
—George Orwell
“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”
—Ernest Hemingway
"Being a good writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the internet."
“If a nation loses its storytellers, it loses its childhood.”
—Peter Handke
“When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.”
—Stephen King
"The cure for mixed metaphors, I have always found, is for the patient to be obliged to draw a picture of the result."
“Anyone who is going to be a writer knows enough at 15 to write several novels.”
—May Sarton
“When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people, not characters. A character is a caricature.”
—Ernest Hemingway
"Only a mediocre writer is always at his best."
"Writers don't get mad. They just write you into their next novel (as the victim)."
"If you can’t annoy somebody, there’s little point in writing."
And last but not least,
"I write fiction. What's your superpower?"
I've also learned that I have become so used to rejection letters that when one says, "Thank you for sending us your work. Unfortunately, we have no place for it in our magazine. Please remember us in the future," I feel all warm and tingly because that means THEY LIKED IT! They just couldn't use it.
Because it's a slow week, I decided to list a bunch of fun writing quotes I found lately, both funny and inspiring.
“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.”
—George Orwell
“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”
—Ernest Hemingway
"Being a good writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the internet."
“If a nation loses its storytellers, it loses its childhood.”
—Peter Handke
“When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.”
—Stephen King
"The cure for mixed metaphors, I have always found, is for the patient to be obliged to draw a picture of the result."
“Anyone who is going to be a writer knows enough at 15 to write several novels.”
—May Sarton
“When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people, not characters. A character is a caricature.”
—Ernest Hemingway
"Only a mediocre writer is always at his best."
"Writers don't get mad. They just write you into their next novel (as the victim)."
"If you can’t annoy somebody, there’s little point in writing."
And last but not least,
"I write fiction. What's your superpower?"
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Why Editors Matter (or, How I Lost 3 Hours of My Life That I'll Never Get Back)
Sorry it's been so long since my last post. If you must know, I was out of town, visiting Yellowstone Park with my family and geeking out the whole time because Yellowstone is where the climax of The Shifting takes place. It was so cool to look around and see where Sarah and Thomas and Ryan ran and hid and fought, even though none of that actually happened and the book isn't even out yet. Still, I felt kind of cool and sort of powerful. I wonder if that's how authors feel when their books become movies: like they have the power to create things, or in my case, at least reappropriate them for their own purposes.
This is the location, as it looked to where I stood. It's Geyser Hill. Old Faithful is off to the side, to the right. This is where my heroes fight evil at the end. Um, is it okay if I take a few minutes to hyperventilate like a fangirl?
I'm back. Now, to the main message of this post. I normally try not to come on here and bash books. I like to take good books and talk about what makes them good. But today I am going to talk about a book I think may be the worst book I've ever read: The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer. Yes, that Chris Colfer. I thought about withholding the name out of respect for the author (I don't like insulting books), but you should be warned. I grabbed the book because I mistakenly thought it was written by Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl books, which I love. (Eoin Colfer does have a new book, so my mistake, I think, is understandable.)
After realizing my mistake, I decided to read the book anyway. The title was intriguing, and I wanted to prove a point to myself. I have a bias against celebrities (read, actors and musicians) who decide to write novels. This is why: some people think that because they can take a pencil and scribble out a coherent phrase it means they can write a novel. Writing takes more than the ability to string words together. There is a certain craft to it. A writer has to consider character development, pacing, stakes, audience, poetry of language, etc., etc. I'm annoyed by people who think what I do is easy.
The biggest reason I'm annoyed by celebrity writers is because while I and other no-name writers have to beg and plead and bend over backwards for years to get our books published, people who already have a name can get anything published, because the publishers already know they can sell those books. A little bitter of me, yes, but I don't like thinking of all those people who are good writers who nonetheless aren't getting published.
Anyway, I know I have a bias, so I decided to give Colfer the benefit of the doubt and read the book. It could be good. I was wrong. From the first twenty pages, I could see the pacing was off. The story didn't truly begin until page 60, and even then I wasn't sure why I should care. Throughout the book, I never engaged with the characters enough to feel urgency in their quest. There were also logical problems, like the heroes having a knife (and using it), and soon after getting caught in a net and NOT thinking to use the knife to cut themselves free. On top of that, there were sentences like "Her lips wrinkled and looked me up and down." Her lips did WHAT now?
Now I feel like a bad person. I'm sorry. There were good points in the book. The story had some very imaginative elements, and I saw some word play that was pretty good. The good parts, however, drowned in the mediocre storytelling and straight-up painful to read moments.
I'm not bashing the author here, although it sounds like I am. Every writer produces a load of junk before writing his or her first good novel. I have a novel I wrote in high school that no one will ever see. Ever. It's cliche and didactic and poorly written and everything I've learned to move away from. But we all write one of these. Well, most of us do. I won't speak for the literary giants among us. I call it my "apprenticeship novel", and while, at the time, I wanted it published because it was awesome (HAH!), I'm very, very grateful that it wasn't.
Which brings me to my main point. I'm not here to insult the author of this book. I'm here to insult his editor. This book should never have been published as it was. It needed a lot of work. Not taking the time to improve this book just because the name would sell any old garbage was a disservice to the writer. I can tell you, I'm not going to be reading any of Colfer's future publications.
I was blessed to work with an excellent editor who told me everything that was wrong with my novel, and while it hurt to hear, he was right. The story is much better now for his help. I've come to see the collaboration between author and editor as a team effort; both are trying to produce the best possible work. Publishers and editors also should work as gatekeepers, preventing bad books from hitting the market either by rejecting them or by helping the writers improve them.
So, I'm angry over this book, but not so much at the writer. I remember the thrill of completing my first novel. It's hard not to print out a zillion copies and send them to everyone you know, plus a hundred publishers. It's the publisher I'm mad at, because even celebrities should want to produce work they can be proud of, and careful editing helps with that. If Colfer rejected his editor's help, well, that's another thing, though I think the book should still not have been published.
And yes, the bias against celebrity writers is still very much intact, more's the pity.
This is the location, as it looked to where I stood. It's Geyser Hill. Old Faithful is off to the side, to the right. This is where my heroes fight evil at the end. Um, is it okay if I take a few minutes to hyperventilate like a fangirl?
I'm back. Now, to the main message of this post. I normally try not to come on here and bash books. I like to take good books and talk about what makes them good. But today I am going to talk about a book I think may be the worst book I've ever read: The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer. Yes, that Chris Colfer. I thought about withholding the name out of respect for the author (I don't like insulting books), but you should be warned. I grabbed the book because I mistakenly thought it was written by Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl books, which I love. (Eoin Colfer does have a new book, so my mistake, I think, is understandable.)
After realizing my mistake, I decided to read the book anyway. The title was intriguing, and I wanted to prove a point to myself. I have a bias against celebrities (read, actors and musicians) who decide to write novels. This is why: some people think that because they can take a pencil and scribble out a coherent phrase it means they can write a novel. Writing takes more than the ability to string words together. There is a certain craft to it. A writer has to consider character development, pacing, stakes, audience, poetry of language, etc., etc. I'm annoyed by people who think what I do is easy.
The biggest reason I'm annoyed by celebrity writers is because while I and other no-name writers have to beg and plead and bend over backwards for years to get our books published, people who already have a name can get anything published, because the publishers already know they can sell those books. A little bitter of me, yes, but I don't like thinking of all those people who are good writers who nonetheless aren't getting published.
Anyway, I know I have a bias, so I decided to give Colfer the benefit of the doubt and read the book. It could be good. I was wrong. From the first twenty pages, I could see the pacing was off. The story didn't truly begin until page 60, and even then I wasn't sure why I should care. Throughout the book, I never engaged with the characters enough to feel urgency in their quest. There were also logical problems, like the heroes having a knife (and using it), and soon after getting caught in a net and NOT thinking to use the knife to cut themselves free. On top of that, there were sentences like "Her lips wrinkled and looked me up and down." Her lips did WHAT now?
Now I feel like a bad person. I'm sorry. There were good points in the book. The story had some very imaginative elements, and I saw some word play that was pretty good. The good parts, however, drowned in the mediocre storytelling and straight-up painful to read moments.
I'm not bashing the author here, although it sounds like I am. Every writer produces a load of junk before writing his or her first good novel. I have a novel I wrote in high school that no one will ever see. Ever. It's cliche and didactic and poorly written and everything I've learned to move away from. But we all write one of these. Well, most of us do. I won't speak for the literary giants among us. I call it my "apprenticeship novel", and while, at the time, I wanted it published because it was awesome (HAH!), I'm very, very grateful that it wasn't.
Which brings me to my main point. I'm not here to insult the author of this book. I'm here to insult his editor. This book should never have been published as it was. It needed a lot of work. Not taking the time to improve this book just because the name would sell any old garbage was a disservice to the writer. I can tell you, I'm not going to be reading any of Colfer's future publications.
I was blessed to work with an excellent editor who told me everything that was wrong with my novel, and while it hurt to hear, he was right. The story is much better now for his help. I've come to see the collaboration between author and editor as a team effort; both are trying to produce the best possible work. Publishers and editors also should work as gatekeepers, preventing bad books from hitting the market either by rejecting them or by helping the writers improve them.
So, I'm angry over this book, but not so much at the writer. I remember the thrill of completing my first novel. It's hard not to print out a zillion copies and send them to everyone you know, plus a hundred publishers. It's the publisher I'm mad at, because even celebrities should want to produce work they can be proud of, and careful editing helps with that. If Colfer rejected his editor's help, well, that's another thing, though I think the book should still not have been published.
And yes, the bias against celebrity writers is still very much intact, more's the pity.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Backburner is Cooked
Hey, everyone. This is my 100th post! Hooray!
So, for those new to the party, I've been working on this middle grade novel about a preteen thief-for-hire named Jeremy Wilderson for about a year. That doesn't sound like that long, but I write fast and a middle grade novel isn't very long. Besides, this story is basically my idea of playing while I write. It's been my backburner project, the one I work on when I want to keep writing but don't want to manage the more complex plots and characters of my other works. But, in any case, the backburner has finally been finished and is in the stages of reading/revising. I decided to get a jump on the next stage (sending/rejecting) by writing the query letter. You may read the meat of it below, though I cut out the parts about me as a writer and some info on the length/genre of the book:
So, for those new to the party, I've been working on this middle grade novel about a preteen thief-for-hire named Jeremy Wilderson for about a year. That doesn't sound like that long, but I write fast and a middle grade novel isn't very long. Besides, this story is basically my idea of playing while I write. It's been my backburner project, the one I work on when I want to keep writing but don't want to manage the more complex plots and characters of my other works. But, in any case, the backburner has finally been finished and is in the stages of reading/revising. I decided to get a jump on the next stage (sending/rejecting) by writing the query letter. You may read the meat of it below, though I cut out the parts about me as a writer and some info on the length/genre of the book:
Sixth grade isn’t easy for
anyone, but it’s harder (though a lot more fun) on the wrong side of the law.
Eleven-year-old Jeremy Wilderson
is not a thief; he is his middle school’s one and only retrieval specialist.
Confiscated cell phones, stolen lunch money—he’ll discretely retrieve it before
the last bell rings. Business is good, and if it weren’t for the meddling of preteen
private investigator Becca Mills and the fact the Jeremy has gotten so good at
retrieving that his work has become boring, he’d be happier than a gym teacher
on dodgeball day.
But a new job shatters Jeremy’s
comfortable lifestyle. Now, thanks to Jeremy, the master key to the schools’
lockers is in the hands of an aspiring crime kingpin who doesn’t exactly have
Jeremy’s strong moral character. Jeremy must retrieve the key before not even
combination locks can protect his classmates’ belongings. It’s too big a job
for one crime fighter, and there’s only one person Jeremy knows will want the
key returned as much as he does: Becca Mills.
Lockers are being robbed, the
teachers are looking for the culprit, and Jeremy’s only ally is the girl who
has been trying to nab him all year. If Jeremy isn’t careful, he’ll end up in
detention until his high school graduation.
This is still only a rough draft of the query, so suggestions would be great. I hope, though, that it expresses the plot and voice of the book well enough to represent it to agents and publishers.
Monday, July 1, 2013
Roster of Fandoms
It has been suggested to me, by my roommate, that I ought to list the fandoms I belong to. This is probably a good idea, since it may allow me to quantify how bad my problem is. I'm defining "fandom" as the group of fans who follow a particular movie, book series, or TV show, who think about it and talk about it when not watching/reading, speculate on character and plot subtext, and write fanfiction. Fandoms make their favorite stories part of their lives. They may even come up with a cool name to designate themselves.
Anyway, here is my list:
Fandoms in which I am a full, card-carrying member:
The Whovians (Doctor Who)
The Sherlockians (Sherlock)
The Merlin Fandom
The Psych-Os (Psych)
The Browncoats (Firefly)
The Potterheads (Harry Potter)
The Avatards (Avatar: The Last Airbender, Legend of Korra)
The Janeites (Jane Austen)
The Tolkien Fandom
The Avengers Fandom
The Leverage Fandom
The Star Wars (Episodes 4-6) Fandom
The Olympians (Percy Jackson)
Disney/Disney Princess Fandom
The Tributes (Hunger Games)
Pixar Fandom
Divergent Fandom
Chronicles of Narnia Fandom
Fandoms to which I do not belong, but am at least fluent in their language (whether or not I plan to join):
Bronies/Pegasisters (My Little Pony)
Once Upon a Time Fandom
Delirium Fandom
MSTies (Mystery Science Theater 3000)
Trekkies (Star Trek)
The Downton Abbey Fandom (Note: I may become a full member soon)
The Legend of Zelda Fandom
Twihards (Twilight)
The Brotherhood (Game of Thrones)
The Supernatural Fandom
The Portal Fandom
Big Bang Theory Fandom
Pokemon Fandom
Batman Fandom
Battlestar Galactica Fandom
Things that aren't really fandoms (yet) but should be, and if they were, I'd belong to them:
How to Train Your Dragon "Fandom" (Books along with movie; no one reads the books)
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs "Fandom"
Rise of the Guardians "Fandom"
Spider-Man "Fandom"
Anything based on any of my favorite books by my favorite writers (Ally Carter, E.D. Baker, Jessica Day George, Orson Scott Card, Brandon Mull, Lois Lowry, Diana Wynne Jones, Bruce Coville, and Margaret Peterson Haddix, to name a few).
Anything based of anything I've written, because it would be nice to no longer be alone in geeking out over my plots and characters. Sadly, I may have a few years (or decades) before this even becomes possible.
Anyway, here is my list:
Fandoms in which I am a full, card-carrying member:
The Whovians (Doctor Who)
The Sherlockians (Sherlock)
The Merlin Fandom
The Psych-Os (Psych)
The Browncoats (Firefly)
The Potterheads (Harry Potter)
The Avatards (Avatar: The Last Airbender, Legend of Korra)
The Janeites (Jane Austen)
The Tolkien Fandom
The Avengers Fandom
The Leverage Fandom
The Star Wars (Episodes 4-6) Fandom
The Olympians (Percy Jackson)
Disney/Disney Princess Fandom
The Tributes (Hunger Games)
Pixar Fandom
Divergent Fandom
Chronicles of Narnia Fandom
Fandoms to which I do not belong, but am at least fluent in their language (whether or not I plan to join):
Bronies/Pegasisters (My Little Pony)
Once Upon a Time Fandom
Delirium Fandom
MSTies (Mystery Science Theater 3000)
Trekkies (Star Trek)
The Downton Abbey Fandom (Note: I may become a full member soon)
The Legend of Zelda Fandom
Twihards (Twilight)
The Brotherhood (Game of Thrones)
The Supernatural Fandom
The Portal Fandom
Big Bang Theory Fandom
Pokemon Fandom
Batman Fandom
Battlestar Galactica Fandom
Things that aren't really fandoms (yet) but should be, and if they were, I'd belong to them:
How to Train Your Dragon "Fandom" (Books along with movie; no one reads the books)
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs "Fandom"
Rise of the Guardians "Fandom"
Spider-Man "Fandom"
Anything based on any of my favorite books by my favorite writers (Ally Carter, E.D. Baker, Jessica Day George, Orson Scott Card, Brandon Mull, Lois Lowry, Diana Wynne Jones, Bruce Coville, and Margaret Peterson Haddix, to name a few).
Anything based of anything I've written, because it would be nice to no longer be alone in geeking out over my plots and characters. Sadly, I may have a few years (or decades) before this even becomes possible.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Silence is Golden
So, yes, I want to be a writer, which means I plan on using words. A lot. In fact, I usually have a hard time shutting up. That said, I am very fond of films, short and feature-length, that rely on things other than words to tell the story. Pictures, footage, music...anything but actual words.
I think Pixar does a great job at this. In Brave, the mother doesn't speak for most of the film, and the brothers don't at all. But you have no doubt what their personalities are like, and I wouldn't call any of them weak characters. Likewise, the film Wall-E is one of my favorites because Pixar used very little dialogue to tell their story, but you still end up emotionally attached to the characters. Their shorts, of course, almost never use words and are always spectacular. And, can anyone forget that short montage in Up! where you see Carl and Ellie's lives pass by? I know people who have cried at that scene.
In keeping with my topic, I'm going to shut up now. Enjoy these videos.
Feel free to comment on other mainly word-free stories you love. Could be picture books, video games, or even musical score.
I think Pixar does a great job at this. In Brave, the mother doesn't speak for most of the film, and the brothers don't at all. But you have no doubt what their personalities are like, and I wouldn't call any of them weak characters. Likewise, the film Wall-E is one of my favorites because Pixar used very little dialogue to tell their story, but you still end up emotionally attached to the characters. Their shorts, of course, almost never use words and are always spectacular. And, can anyone forget that short montage in Up! where you see Carl and Ellie's lives pass by? I know people who have cried at that scene.
In keeping with my topic, I'm going to shut up now. Enjoy these videos.
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Brain Melting, Mind Palace Crumbling
I'm nearing the end of writing a term paper, so my brain is not functioning enough to write a real, in-depth blog post. My paper is about the role of John Watson in modern-day adaptations of Sherlock Holmes, such as Sherlock and Elementary. I'm saying that Watson's character is the protagonist, not Sherlock, and Watson has a character arc in both series that defines what character traits he has. I'm saying Watson is a round character, not a flat narrator like he traditionally his, and I'm saying that rounding out makes Sherlock a round character as well. I have spent the last couple of days doing very close "reading" of a couple of TV shows and writing a 12 page paper on them, so my head wants nothing more than to rest on a pillow and shut down for a little bit. But, alas, miles to go before I sleep.
My mind does not have it in it to write something special. Sorry. But, as you've come all this way, here are some videos to entertain you. Why did I choose these? Because reasons.
Sherlock scenes, set to Imagine Dragons's "Radioactive" (with a few spoilers for those who haven't finished the two seasons):
Followed by Doctor Who/The Proclaimers awesomeness:
And exactly what it's like to be in the Doctor Who fandom:
Last, but not least, the trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, because Tolkien is awesome and so is this.
My mind does not have it in it to write something special. Sorry. But, as you've come all this way, here are some videos to entertain you. Why did I choose these? Because reasons.
Sherlock scenes, set to Imagine Dragons's "Radioactive" (with a few spoilers for those who haven't finished the two seasons):
Followed by Doctor Who/The Proclaimers awesomeness:
And exactly what it's like to be in the Doctor Who fandom:
Last, but not least, the trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, because Tolkien is awesome and so is this.
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