Christmas Vacation!

Since we are rapidly approaching the holidays, I’ve decided to take a little break from The Literary Mom, so I can spend some time with my family, finish critiquing a manuscript, and revise and get my own YA manuscript ready to submit as well. I know everyone is super busy with the holidays and probably won’t have a lot of time to spend reading blogs, so I would love to know; when do you think I should resume my posting schedule? Let me know!

Getting Ideas for Your Fiction from Everyday Life

Sorry I’m late posting today! My sister and parents came to visit and ended up staying longer then I expected. Then, my son didn’t fall asleep until after two last night, and then still work up several times. We all ended up sleeping until 11:30 this morning, which is the latest my son has ever slept. I literally have not slept that late in over three years!

 

Anyway, at one point during the night, my son woke me up in the middle of a dream. I don’t know about you, but I am lucky enough to have full, cinematic dreams. Last night’s was an urban fantasy, cast with famous movie actors! It’s one of the best ideas I’ve had in a long time, and I can’t wait to start writing it. So, despite the fact that it was 4 in the morning, and really, really cold in the house, I got up out of bed and wrote the whole idea down. I was thanking myself this morning, because I could hardly remember it in the hard glare of late morning sunlight! Here are some tips for getting (and remembering) ideas for your fiction.

 

1. Keep a pad of paper and pen by your bed so you can write down ideas from dreams, or ideas you get while in that fuzzy space between being awake and asleep. I get TONS of my ideas from that magical time!

 

2. If you absolutely cannot drag yourself from bed, then make up a mnemonic device to remember your idea. You remember those from school, don’t you? Say I have an idea about fairies attacking Brooklyn. I might make up a mnemonic device like this “farts and burps.” Yeah, it’s not pretty, but you want something you’ll remember in the morning. That’s why I don’t use just the letters, like “roy g biv” for the colors of the rainbow. They’re just too hard to remember.

 

3. If an issue is really bothering you, try to think up a story about it. Say you’re really mad about the worker’s right to form unions being stripped from them by your state’s government. You might decide to write a story where fairies are enslaved and forced to work in a factory, manufacturing fairy dust until the magic of their souls is drained. Then, one of the fairies might start a revolt, leading to the unionization of fairies to demand better rights. (Not my best idea, but I needed an example!) Lots of my story ideas revolve around things that happen in my life that really make me angry.

 

4. Play the “what if” game. Take a good piece of diaologue, or a spark of a character, or a vibrant snippet of setting, and just keep asking “what if” questions. What if she had a physical deformity no one could see? What if the land in the story had its own magical powers? What if she fell in love, and then her true love betrayed her? You get the idea.

 

5. Once you have a character, just ask yourself what you would like to see happen in a story about her. Write the story you’d like to read. DO NOT write something because you think it will sell well, or because you think editors will buy it. I’ll say it again, because it is so important; write the story you’d like to read.

 

6. Say you read a novel by someone else, and you really liked the premise of the novel, but not the direction in which he took it. Feel free to write your own story, taking the premise in the new direction. Fairy tales are especially good for this; how many retellings of Beauty and the Beast are there out there? (I like Rose Daughter and Beauty, both by Robin McKinley. They’re the absolute best!) Make sure you make it different enough so it is YOUR OWN story. DO not plagiarize.

 

 

The Writer’s Magic Wand

If you want to write fiction, then there is one thing I would recommend you have above all others, one thing that is truly a magic wand that will improve our writing more then anything else: a good grammar guide.

 

A good grammar guide is really indispensable. If you can manage to read and learn most of the basic rules, you’ll be head-and-shoulders above everybody else. Agents and editors might say that they don’t care about a typo here or there, but that’s really all they mean. A typo or two and few grammatical errors; that’s about it. If your writing is riddled with grammatical errors, it becomes basically unreadable to editors and agents, and they immediately stop reading it, unless you’re an extremely famous celebrity!

 

So here are some basic style and grammar guides, the best of the best. I highly recommend that you get one and familiarize yourself with the rules. There really isn’t any excuse not too!

 

The Elements of Style by William Strunk (Author), E. B. White (Author), Roger Angell

 

The Chicago Manual of Style: The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers Chicago Editorial Staff

 

The Gregg Reference Manual: A Manual of Style, Grammar, Usage, and Formatting Tribute Edition by William A. Sabin

 

The St. Martin’s Handbook by Andrea A. Lunsford

Saturday Poll: What is Your Favorite Young Adult Paranormal Series?

So You Think You Can Write Contest: Wish me Luck!

Well, it’s time again for Harlequin’s big yearly contest. Contestants submit a full manuscript and first prize is a publishing contract. I just submitted my entry yesterday, after a lot of good help from my new critique partner. The winner(s) will be announced sometime around February 14^th, which is appropriate, since it’s a romance manuscript contest!

 

I’m not expecting too much. Unfortunately, I didn’t follow my own advice from the other day. I don’t know if I stayed in the box well enough. I entered the Romantic Suspense division, but there isn’t much of a mystery, more a “Woman in Jeopardy” plotline, which they do say they accept… I don’t know. I’ve got my fingers crossed! There’s no harm in entering, but I’m not going to hold my breath!

 

Writing is kind of an odd profession. You have to work and work for months or years (which is my case! I started writing seriously in 2008, with about six months off when I had my son) and there is no guarantee you’ll ever get anywhere with it. And every time you send something to a contest, or an agent, or a publisher, you get to hope that maybe this time will be the time. Maybe this time you’ll get noticed, or even get some sort of encouragement.

 

So far, I’ve only had detailed rejection letters, and two full manuscript requests from agents, which ultimately resulted in rejections. This was encouraging, but it was way back in May. I haven’t had anything encouraging happen since, and it’s hard not to feel discouraged, like I’m trying to move a mountain, one grain of sand at a time.

Rejection, Criticism, and the Writing Life

Due to my recent rejection, I decided to re-post this article I wrote shortly after the New Voices contest ended. Enjoy!

Not making the top twenty of The Mills and Boon New Voices contest has gotten me thinking about rejection. Rejection and criticism are a part of being a writer. I bet there isn’t a single writer out there that hasn’t gotten some rejection or criticism of their work at some point in time. The question is, how do you handle the rejection and what can you get out of it?

There are all sorts of rejection, some more helpful then others. The least helpful kind of rejection is the dreaded form rejection. For my YA novel I got over 50 form rejections, a handful of personalized rejections with some words of encouragement, and two full manuscript requests. Several form rejections might not mean anything. Maybe you targeted an agent that doesn’t represent your genre. Maybe they don’t have room for more clients. Lots of form rejections tells you there is something wrong with your manuscript, query letter, or both.

For my romance novel, I received a long letter full of comments from the editor. She told me what she liked about my writing and what she didn’t. These letters are rarer. Usually the editor or agent sends one because they feel you have promise as a writer. You definitely want to take that sort of criticism to heart because they’re probably right.

The criticism I got from fellow writers during the New Voices contest is more iffy. Some of them were genuinely being helpful and had good suggestions. Some of them were genuinely trying to be helpful, but had bad suggestions. Some of them were just being catty and mean. So what’s a writer to do?

First of all, keep an open mind as you read their critiques. Really try to see where they’re coming from and if their comments have any merit. If several people say the same thing, there is probably a kernel of truth to it. If only one person criticizes a specific part of your work, and you feel it might not be true, then maybe it isn’t. It’s up to you to use your best judgment. After all, it’s your work, no one else’s.

 Rejection and criticism always hurts. Always. It’s like someone telling you your baby is ugly. You never get over it. After a while, you develop a thicker skin and it’s easier to take, but it will always be painful. My best advice to all aspiring writers is this: learn to take rejection and criticism gracefully. Don’t fire off an angry email to the agent or editor telling them they don’t know what they’re doing. Don’t tell the Mills and Boon people that they wouldn’t know new and exciting writing if it bit them in the butt. Keep your dignity. Remember, writing is a profession, so be professional. No one wants to work with an angry, vengeful person!

Writing to Meet Publisher’s Guidelines

Many times, when you sit down to write a novel, there are certain guidelines you must stay within if you are targeting a certain publisher. The same goes for certain genres. Mainstream romances always have a happy ending. In thrillers, the good guys always prevail. If you write a book that you can describe as a space adventure/murder mystery/romance, you’re going to have a hard time selling it, mainly because bookstore wouldn’t know how to promote it. Where would they shelve it? Who would the target audience be?

I’ve been talking about the idea of “writing within the box” with several people lately, one of whom is my new critique partner. (Yes! I found one! And she’s terrific!) We both have written manuscript that are intended for Harlequin. Harlequin is the leading romance publisher in the country, with both category and single title romances. Their category romances have some of the most stringent guidelines I have ever come across.

Someone else I know, who shall remain nameless, asked me recently if having to write within such strict guidelines made me feel like what I was writing wasn’t art. I was shocked and a little hurt. (Don’t worry, I’m not mad!) Just because there are certain guidelines you have to stay within doesn’t make it any less hard to write. It’s not like they hand you a plot and a list of characters and say, “Here, you must write this, exactly this way.” You still have to use your creativity to come up with a moving plot, believable characters, and increasing tension.

I know she was wondering why I would write within the box. Sometimes, I don’t want to, which is why I also write single titles and YA. But to me, as a writer AND as a reader, there is something comforting about picking up a book and knowing that love will prevail at the end, even before I start. Knowing the bad guy will get caught, no matter how scary the beginning. Knowing that the regency era heroine will dance at the ball and catch the eye of the man she will soon come to love. If you like to read within the box, then don’t be afraid to write within the box. It’s still a wonderful, creative adventure. Enjoy the ride!

The two Most Important Qualities for an Author to Have

As an unpublished writer, I’ve been told many many times that I should write for the pure joy of writing, as there is no guarantee that I will ever get anything more out of it. That I should write the story I love, and never expect anything more from my “hobby.” Do you know what I think about that? I think if you believe that, then you don’t have the makings of a true author.

To me, a true author has one quality above all others; the constant drive and determination to share their stories, their characters with the world. To have someone read their story and say, “I loved it! I couldn’t put it down!” To take their place on the bookstore shelf, where some unsuspecting reader might pick it up and find a book they’ll re-read for the rest of their lives

A true author has one more quality that they literally cannot do without. Hope. Hope that this time, with this story; you might catch an agents eye. That this time, it might find its way into a publishers hands, and then into a bookstore, and then finally, into the hearts of readers everywhere.

Hope and the painful longing to share your stories with the world. Now that’s a real author.

Another Rejection for This Writer

Well, I got some bad news at the end of last week. Another rejection. At this point, I barely feel a twinge when I get a rejection, but this one was a little different. I had been waiting to hear back for 19 weeks on this one. It wasn’t so much the rejection that stung, but that  it was a form rejection. Lately, I’ve been getting personalized rejections, with comments about what the agent or editor likes, along with what they don’t. I feel like I’ve taken two steps back in my writing, like somehow, it suddenly got worse.

I know agents and editors are busy. I understand the need for a form rejection. At least I got some response. I hate when agents have a “no response means no” policy, especially when they don’t have some sort of auto-response system in place. Then you never even know for sure that they got it, you just have to assume they did, and didn’t like it. Ugh. That’s the worst. Plus, how hard is it to set your email to automatically send an auto-response?

Anyway, pushing on. I sent the rejected manuscript out that same afternoon to another publisher. Their response time is fourteen weeks, so at least I won’t have as long of a wait!

Anyone Want a Critique Partner?

As I near the time when my rough draft is ready for my readers, I realize I’d like another critique partner, one who is more interested in the genres I am interested in. So… anyone want a critique partner?

If you’re interested, please send me an email (my address will be at the bottom of the post) with a little bit about yourself: why you want to be a writer, what genres you write, what your background in writing is, what you want from a critique partner, what you think your strengths and weaknesses are as a writer, and a five to ten page sample of your writing pasted into the body of the email. No attachments. I won’t open them. Also, please include the word “critique partner” in the subject line of the email. If you don’t, I won’t open it.

In the spirit of sharing, here are my answers to the above questions. I write YA (contemporary and fantasy) and romance (contemporary and historical). It would be nice if my future critique partner at least read both categories, if not wrote them as well. I read pretty much anything but horror. I have enough bad dreams as it is, thank you very much!

I studied literature and creative writing in college. I have written four full manuscripts. I am currently revising my NaNo manuscript, and working on a historical romance. I expect a critique partner to be courteous but honest. If you didn’t like something tell me so, but don’t use derogatory words like “crap” or “trash”. That said, I do want someone to be very honest about what they liked and didn’t like. What worked, and what needs to be fixed.

My strengths are: writing strong characters and dialogue. My weaknesses are: character introspection and showing enough emotion.

If anyone is interested, let me know. My email address is theliterarymom at gmail.com (make sure you remove the word at and replace it with the @ sign. Also delete the spaces around the @ They are there to avoid spam). I will reply to everyone who doesn’t send an attachment and who remembers to put the words “Critique partner” in the subject line, even if I don’t choose you.