Contested

The internet is an amazing place for writers.
It's where we can find incredible critique partners, more writing forums than we have time for, the best agent-finding resources, and a ton of information on improving our craft. Heck, it's basically a DIY MFA playground, if you're willing to use it.

And then, there are the contests.

Every once in awhile, some kind-hearted, self-sacrificing individual will step up and run a contest on her blog. Writing is posted for critique and, if we're very lucky, agents flock to fight over the chance to review that work more in depth, in a (mostly) civilized and (entirely) exciting manner.

(ONE is playing in one such contest, the brand-new Cupid's Literary Connection, today. I'm so excited.)

Here are the reasons that I think contests can be a great opportunity for the querying writer.

1. It elevates my work above the slushpile.
Even if there are fifty or even one hundred entries on display for agents' perusal, that still amounts to two, ten, or a dozen agents looking at one hundred queries as opposed to one lone, hard-working, exhausted agent wading through slush to hopefully pull my manuscript out.

Plus, whether or not the contest is selective (meaning: the person running the contest somehow narrows entries down to what she has determined to be the "best" ones) the dirtiest of the slush has already been cast aside. No crazy queries, no YouTube videos of shirtless men. So when the agent gets to my query, hopefully she's not so slush-weary that she can't read it with a happy heart.

2. I've had success with contests.
Well, what I'm calling "success," anyway. Three of the full requests on my last manuscript were the result of one blog contest or another. Even though I drawered that manuscript, I did get a sense of which agents I would LOVE to query in the future, and their feedback was, in some cases, invaluable.

3. It helps me get to know agents in what I call a "soft query" environment. 
Agent Fabulous might say that she wants Young Adult Romance, for example, and then completely ignore every entry that seems to be a solid one of those. If I'm querying a Young Adult romance, I can then take that information and decide whether it's worth querying that agent. Or, more optimistically, I can see what about YA romances that agent loves, and highlight those aspects of my MS in the query I'll send to her later.

In past contests, even when I haven't gotten a request out of it, I have had agents point out their concerns about or approval of my query and first page, which let me either tweak it or leave it alone, and go forth formally querying with confidence.

4. Contests are how I found a bunch of my CPs.
Checking out the work of my fellow entrants gives me a chance to see whose work I'm absolutely head-over-heels in love with/excited about, which I think is essential to a great CP relationship.

5. I'm really not afraid of anyone stealing my work, or ideas, or whatever.
If anyone can take my query and first pages and use the ideas and voice in there to fully reconstruct my 76,000 word manuscript, I'll probably hand them a cookie and congratulate them. Not only would that be crazy freakish, but it would also free up a lot of my time and stress.

But seriously. I can give a crowd of twenty writers the idea of "half-superpowered teens" and they will write 20 completely different novels. Which would actually be kind of awesome.

Bottom line: It's ridiculously difficult to get an agent as it is. Anything that helps improve my chances can't hurt that badly, and the cheerleading and community-building possibilities are some seriously thick icing on the cake.

***********

Now. Just like anything else, contests *do* have cons. Just some things to consider before you let my above points get you all gung-ho excited for the next contest.

***********

1. Anonymity is tough to preserve
These contests are supposed to remain anonymous, so that they don't become a popularity contest. Obviously, though, the internet is one big web of hyperlinks, and it's pretty easy to connect most of the projects on display to an individual if you really want to. I try to stay anonymous, just because I think it's way classier, but I'm not sacrificing the information I have posted about my MS on my blog or any tweets about it for the sake of staying under the radar while I'm contesting for two weeks.


2. It's tough to keep up self-confidence while watching your work be rejected in real time. 
The point of every contest is for an agent or agents to pick their favorite entries. Sometimes, this occurs in real time, meaning that during a given period of one or several days, agents can leave comments saying, "not for me," "yes, this is good," or "YES PLEASE PUT IT IN MY INBOX NOW." It can be nervewracking and insane, but the worst is when every other entry seems to be getting comments but yours. Yes, it happens. No, it doesn't mean your MS sucks - it just means it doesn't appeal to those agents. But, again - it takes a darn chipper and mature person to remember that. (Spoiler - I'm not always that chipper or mature. I know, you're shocked.)

3. Feedback is not always positive.
One of the stated purposes for all these contests is to receive feedback from peers, but I've never really bought it. Mostly because one of the rules is usually "only submit completed and ready-to-query manuscripts." Now, I don't know about everyone else? But to me, "completed and ready-to-query" means that the MS has run the gauntlet of multiple critiques, revisions, and line edits. Not to mention much agonizing. Usually I'll contest an MS while I'm also querying it.
Now. If I'm confident enough in the MS to query the darn thing, I'm pretty much only looking for cheerleading from my peers, and maybe some gentle suggestions for minor improvement. But every once in awhile, some uppity writer will roll in and leave PARAGRAPHS of feedback, often quite critical, on everything everyone is doing wrong with their entry. This can be annoying at best and crushing at worst. Most of the time I can ignore these jerks, but if you're ultra-sensitive about the soundness of your submission, this might be a big deal.
Note: Some contests are SOLELY for the purpose of feedback, and don't involve agents, in which case the above obviously doesn't apply.


Just some things to remember about contesting:

• It can be a great opportunity to shove your work directly in front of agents.
• It can be an awesome community-builder and confidence booster.
• Subjectivity is a b*tch. Let this be your contesting mantra. Not everyone loves everything. It's okay.
• It only takes one agent to love your work and get you a book deal. There's always another contest or another query. If this contest doesn't work out, don't let it ruin future contests for you.

What about you, sweet readers? Have you participated in blogged writing contests? Do you plan to in the future? Why or why not?

Friday Obsessions: New Crit/Revising, Baker's Dozen, and Spiced Pear-Raspberry Sauce

(returning after a week's hiatus...)


Everything I was obsessed with this week. 
Because I know you want to know.


1. Revising TT.

It's just a teensy bit. Just a few lines here and there, that will greatly improve a character, and maybe up her woodchipper factor.

Here's what went down: I was lucky enough to get new crit from a friend, and she said something that all my other CPs had said as well, something that I agreed with. But I didn't know how to fix it and still have the story happen like it had to happen. A few months down the road, though, and I've entered a phase of my writing, or maybe it's a better relationship with my CPs, where I can admit, "I see what you're saying, and I agree with it. I'm just too dense/stupid/clueless to know how to fix it."

So I finally say that to my CPs, and they say, "Oh, okay. Well, here's how."

Oh. OH. And look! All the things are already in place in the story, I just have to USE them! OH!!!

(illustration credit: hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com, who continually knocks my socks off.)

So I had the lightbulb moment, and now am completely obsessed with putting the plan into action. I already told David about the whole debacle, and he's cool with me holing up in the study as much as possible this weekend. But I'm starting now.

(Alexa - would you mind checking out my changes along with the other ladies? I'll buy you Jeni's.)


2. And the revision inspiration is due to The Baker's Dozen Auction over at Authoress Anonymous's "Miss Snark's First Victim" Blog. I was lucky and my entry got pulled from the slush (which included authors and books  more awesome than me/mine) along with 59 others to be critiqued by peers and hopefully bid for on Tuesday. If you have a moment, go visit, pick an entry that catches your eye, and leave a critique. The authors REALLY appreciate it - don't forget to be encouraging!

3. Spiced Pear Raspberry Sauce. So, I went grocery shopping yesterday (yes, in my boring life, this is exciting, because I normally go at like 6AM on Sunday and frankly it's getting old) and these gorgeous red pears were on sale. I bought, like, six pounds of them and decided to make pear sauce. Then I was cleaning out my freezer and found some raspberries from the summer (oops.) I put them all in the crock pot with some  brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and lemon zest, and a couple hours later I threw the whole thing in the blender.



It. Is. Amazing.

I'm actually thinking of getting some vanilla ice cream for the sole purpose of drowning it in this. (Any other flavor suggestions? I'm a little dense when it comes to combos like this.)

Bonus: My kids hate it. More for me!

Okay, those are my boring obsessions of the week! How about you? What are you obsessed with this week?

Wishing for a Writer's Deus Ex Machina

I don't know when to quit. With this book, anyway.

I wish there was some mechanism, a whooping alarm or a decisive trap door or something, that would sound off when I've sent my last query on THE TRAVELERS. You know, the last one I should reasonably send. Before I go into delusional writer's territory, querying a book that will Just Never Make It.

I know all the inspirational stories. Everyone rejected J.K. Rowling. Brodi Ashton queried a hundred agents. Elana Johnson queried 188 (one hundred and eighty-eight!) before she found her agent.

But maybe (probably) I'm not Brodi Ashton or Elana Johnson. Maybe I'm not talented enough. Or my first novel is too first-novelish. Or people don't care if the main character gets fed through a woodchipper.

I went through all the things listed in this post for how to tell if it's time to put your novel away, and I thought they maybe applied to TT. But I didn't know if I really felt that way, or if it was rejection-based disappointment flapping its jaw.

So when do I give up? When does this novel get lovingly wrapped in paper and stuffed in a drawer?

How did Beth Revis, who has NINE drawer-novels, know when to put each of them away?

In the lowest of the query trenches (form rejections on my subs!) the answer felt like, "Right now, you idiot, how could you have even thought you should query this piece of garbage?"

This sign would have helped. Maybe a good business to market to writers?

So, I tried to declare my own Deus Ex Machina (yes, I'm aware that's the opposite of how it works. Shut up.) And I said that if my project wasn't pulled for the next round of the Miss Snark's First Victim Baker's Dozen Auction, I'd put it on the shelf, forget about it for now, and pour myself fully into ONE. It had a 10% chance of being pulled from contest slush, so I thought it would at least be a definitive "yes" or "no." (I want to say very clearly for the record that all my CPs thought that this idea was completely moronic.)


And then a crazy thing happened. The ladies doing the choosing pulled TT from the slush and decided to put it on the auction block. There went my big plan for knowing for sure when to quit. The auction goes live to crit on Friday and to agents on Tuesday, and it just might be the big opportunity for me that it was for these ladies last year.

It's a funny thing, writing these projects we love. The littlest thing can get us down, make us want to host a manuscript-based bonfire party. But then something else can bring us right back to loving our manuscript, and save it from a future in the drawer for another week, or another month.

And the only thing we know for certain is that nothing about this business is easy - not even knowing when to quit.


Have you ever drawered a project? How did you know when it was time? Were you as much of a drama queen about it as I've been?

Neither Can Live While the Other Survives (Crit Diaries)

(Just in case you needed any clarification, I'm Voldemort.)

I'm talking about me and the first page of the THE TRAVELERS, of course.

The fabulous Krista is hosting "An Agent's Inbox" contest, where a Mystery Agent checks out queries and first pages from 25 projects and shares her thoughts, along with other entrants. It's an incredible opportunity, and having a completed MS, I thought I'd jump on board.

The advice I've gotten in  the comments is super-helpful, even (especially?) the parts that are discouraging.

The most discouraging thing? No one loves the opening. And it was one of my darlings.

Now, I know what some of you will say. "It's your story! Only you know how it has to be told!" But the thing is?
1. I agree that the opening isn't as grabbing as it could be and
2. A book with a first page no one likes won't sell. It just won't. Not to an agent, and definitely not to a publisher.

Yeah, it's good enough. It conveys emotion, and I think it says what it needs to say. It's good enough. But in writing,  "good enough" is just not going to cut it. We all know it, in our gut.  I'd rather face it down than let it sit there, festering in its stinking, slimy pile of good-enoughness.

My poor, poor opening page. I've written it about 30 times over. It's tired and scuzzy and almost defeated.
But I don't care, because it is trying to kill me.
And, unlike Harry Potter? It won't win.

Pitch Contest with Agent Victoria Marini

If you're ever going to get published, you need a champion for your novel, a Batman to your Robin. That's why agents are so awesome (I hear,) and why it's also nearly impossible to find the perfect one. So, when Chanelle describes her agent Victoria Marini as" a dream agent," I sit up and listen.

Lucky for us, Victoria is listening to up to 150 pitches in a contest via Chanelle's blog! You need a completed MS and a two-sentence pitch. It ends on July 25, so head on over and throw your hat in the ring. Or, um, your sentences in the slush pile.

Thanks so much for the opportunity, ladies!

Forever by Maggie Stiefvater - Elana Johnson's ARC Contest! (Author Crush)

What makes a great story? I mean, what really sticks with you, grabs onto your heart and never lets you go?

The answer is "a lot of things," of course, but for me, a few of them are: stunning prose, gut-wrenching obstacles to be overcome, incredible characters, and a timeless love story.

Oh. And a beautiful cover doesn't hurt.


I've been in love with Maggie Stiefvater Maggie Stiefvater's "Wolves of Mercy Falls" series since I accidentally downloaded the first one, Shiver onto my Kindle. (True story.)

The third and final book came out last week and It. Is. INCREDIBLE.

What? You want some sample lines? Nooooo problem.

"Overhead, the stars were wheeling and infinite, a complicated mobile made by giants." 

I know, I know. Now, how about this:

"There is no better taste than this: someone else's laughter in your mouth." (*sigh* *swoon*)

It's these kinds of things that make me fall in love with an author and leave me star-struck by her. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Maggie Stiefvater is a prose goddess in the pantheon of YA authors, and I bow to her.

You know what might be approaching how incredible this series is? The fact that Elana Johnson (another author crush and prose goddess, yes, you'll hear more about her from me later, DON'T WORRY) is giving away a SIGNED ARC of the last book, Forever today on her blog!!!!

If I win it, I won't send it to any of you, but I will let you borrow my Kindle copy. So, that's something.