Pitch Live! Video Pitch Contest!!!

Friday, September 21, 2012

Pitch Live! ... Elevator Pitch Contest/Blogfest

I'm so excited to announce PITCH LIVE! What is it, you ask? It's a video of your best elevator pitch to an agent. I wanted to give you guys enough time to produce a video of an elevator pitch for your finished novels, so I'm posting this now. We already have a couple agents signed up to view the top 30 videos (if we get that many), but there will be more agents. I'll announce the agents in a post soon. The contest is for Adult, New Adult, Young Adult, and Middle Grade fiction. The elevator pitch should be creative, as if you ran into an agent at a conference.

The blogfest...

Sign up on the linky below by October 15 at 8AM EDT. From October 15 to 17 judges will be hopping to each blog to pick the most creative and exciting pitches (content is important, too) that will make it into the agent round. Hop around the blogs and view your fellow competitors' videos, comment, and make friends. Participating in the blogfest is important, because if you don't make the top 30, you could have an agent or editor not participating (or participating) in the contest hop around the blogs offering to read more. It has happened in contests past. 

The contest... 

The top 30 videos will go live on the hosts' blogs onOctober 18. Agents will view and request to read more of their favorites from October 18 to 19.

Formatting... 

All videos must be accessible on YouTube and the recommended size of no larger than 854 x 480 (51.79 MB). Please make sure your videos are set to public viewing (not private). The video shall be no more than two minutes in length. No obscene content (I will remove the blog from the linky). Make sure to title it "Pitch Live!". Your posts should have the following heading above the embedded video:

Title: TITLE OF FINISHED MANUSCRIPT
Genre: The Genre of your manuscript 
Word Count: The word count of your manuscript (round up or down to the nearest thousandth)

Remember to include these things in your pitches: Character, Inciting Event, Goals, Obstacles, Conflict, and Stakes. 

Check out this site here for some samples on how to create a video pitch. 

Here's some videos from your hosts for hints on what to put into your pitch (warning: mine is awful, but hopefully it will make you feel better about your own)...

Brenda's gawd-awful video (Can you guess the skyline I didn't know?)... 




Erica Chapman's very informative video...




My video on how to create a video pitch...

 

Remember you can be as creative as you want, but your pitch must be there and we must see your face. It's about your personality. Good luck! 

So what are you waiting for? Sign up now!

1.	Jamie Corrigan	5.	Darci Cole	9.	Carrie- Anne
2.	Laura Hughes	6.	Rachel Hert	10.	Jami Montgomery
3.	Talynn Lynn	7.	Karen Walcott	11.	Christina Ferko
4.	Fiona McLaren	8.	Barbara Ellingson	12.	You're next!

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets
To add your link to the list, enter your name and URL in the form below and press Enter.

Your name:
Your URL:

Please leave a comment after linking... Thank you!

Pitch Onnnnnn!

(This post graciously donated word for word by Marieke, also hosting Pitch On!, in my time of most intense dayjob mania. Love you, Marieke.)

Hey sweet readers!

In case you haven’t heard yet, there’s an awesome new contest in the blogosphere: Get Your Pitch On! Hosted by Down Under Wonderings and YAtopia on October 15th, during Get Your Pitch On! Commissioning and Managing Editor of Hardie Grant Egmont, Marisa Pintado, will be poised and ready to take your YA pitches.

Marisa is looking for YA in any genre and is accepting submissions from any where in the world. It’s your chance to skip the slush pile and put your pitch right under the nose of a fantastic editor. There’s even better news – there is no limit on how many requests Marisa will make from the contest.

Here are the rules:

• Your manuscript must be complete, polished and ready to query – this means no first drafts or almost finished manuscripts.
• It must be YA.
• When the contest goes live on October 15th, post your entry details in the comments section of either YAtopia or Down Under Wonderings – each blog is accepting 100 entries only.
• Your entry detail needs to include a 50 – 70 word pitch.
• You can enter more than once if you have more than one complete, polished, ready to query manuscript.

Your contest details should be formatted like this:

Name: Sharon Johnston
Email: smjohnston [ @ ] live.com.au
Country of residence: Australia
Title: SLEEPER
Genre: Speculative Fiction
Word-count: 58,000
Pitch: Seventeen-year-old Mishca Richardson is a sleeper soldier with a weak heart. She has no idea that a life saving heart transplant has accidentally triggered her programming. In the search for answers, she discovers the truth and that her creator, Wirth, has classified her remaining “sisters” from her experiment group as defective, scheduling them for termination. Mishca sets out to save them before they’re eliminated.

All a bit daunting? No fear! Dozens of blogs around the ‘sphere will help you whip your pitch into shape. And (surprisingly) I am one of them! Workshops for Get Your Pitch On will start on October 1st*, but you can send your pitches through now to secure your spot with a host blog.

There is no date deadline for the workshops. Each blog has allocated a set number of pitches that they can host and once those spots are full then no more submissions will be taken. I’ll be hosting 10 pitches here on my blog!

Important Rule: If you want to participate in a workshop, you must be pay it forward by commenting on at least one other pitch. Not so difficult, right?

Also! For each critique you leave in the comments, you get an entry in the draw for one of eight 10-page critique from contest host Sharon Johnston and workshop hosts Larissa Hardesty, Stephanie Diaz, Catherine Scully, Jodie Andrefski, Paula Sangare, Talynn Lynn and Kaitlin Adams. Please use the exact same names for all of your critiques. The opportunity ends October 14. 

How to submit: Email your draft pitch to pitchonws@gmail.com and include PitchOnWS and the title of the manuscript in the subject line. Pitches must follow the formatting as specified for the Get Your Pitch On contest. If you missed if before check out this post here and you can see the list of blogs participating here.

Draft pitches will be evenly distributed between host blogs.

An interview with Commissioning and Managing Editor of Hardie Grant Egmont, Marisa Pintado, so that you have an idea what she’s looking for before she takes your pitches will be coming up soon on Down Under Wonderings. The exact contest opening times will be included in that post.

Have fun honing your pitches!

Are You a Misfit? (YA Misfits Launch Giveaway!)

misfit — n 1. a person not suited in behaviour or attitude to a particular social environment Yep. I've been a misfit in so many different environments, in so many different ways. Depending on the situation, my abilities, attitudes, voice, background, looks, and personality have failed to fit in one way or another. In fact, I feel like a misfit in pretty much every situation. I'm not like the other rabbis, or the other moms. I'm generally pretty at home in the writing community, but even y'all have to admit that YA superhero origin romance stories are pretty few and far between. *insert shaky smile* Which is why I'm so honored to be one of the founding YA Misfits - a ragtag group of Young Adult writers who are changing the world of YA Lit, one novel at a time. Speaking of superheroes. I think I always loved them because being a superhero was about being a misfit, and finding your place in the world anyway. The supervillains were the ones who got angry and tried to exact revenge. But the heroes...they were something special. They were misfits, and they were damaged, yeah. But they turned that into something positive. It may have taken them a long time to get there, but they were courageous, and determined. They found their place in the world by making their misfit-ness into something awesome, into a contribution, instead of something to be ashamed of. I guess I wrote a superhero novel because I hope to do the same thing. In celebration of the YA Misfits' launch today, I'm giving away two superhero DVDs, full of misfitty awesomeness, that inspired me to write about kids who turned their different-ness into awesomeness. (Also, I named my main characters after a character from each of them. I HAVE to share.)

The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes: Volume 1

There's Jan VanDyne, AKA "The Wasp," Elias's namesake. She is FIERCE.

X-men Volume One (The awesome 1992 cartoon. Yes.)

 

Aaaand here's Jean Grey:
 total badass, quintessential smart-girl heroine, and Merrin's namesake.One entry for doing each of the following: (just tell me you did it in your comment - I trust you.)
1. Follow the YAMisfits blog
2. Follow the YAMisfits on Twitter
3. Enter the YA Misfits Launch KINDLE GIVEAWAY.
4. Follow this blog.
5. Follow me on Twitter.
6. "Like" me on Facebook. (hey, don't judge.)
7. Tell me your favorite superhero, or, heck, ANY misfit character. 

The giveaway ends on Thursday at noon, so you can have your DVDs for your weekend viewing pleasure. U.S. only, I'm afraid. :(

Thanks so much for coming over, and GOOD LUCK!!!

On Sacrifice

Hi, sweet readers.

Yup, I've been gone from regular posting for a few weeks. I've missed you. Somehow, I always forget how chaotic and stressful back to school is for a campus professional. There are few things I love more than my college students (hi, you guys!) but going back to  work has been stressful and exhausting in ways I somehow forget every year.

You know, people often ask me how I "do it all" - working a (three-quarters time) day job, managing my house, taking care of my kids, writing books, looking halfway decent every day, sleeping enough, and maintaining my sanity.

 I don't like to complain, because I truly am grateful for every aspect of my life that makes me crazy busy. Healthy kids, a job working with people I love, a house to live in, a budding writing career. Also, because I really don't like to assume myself more busy than anyone else. Everyone has responsibilities and stresses that take up their time and leave them suffering from Not Enough Hours in the Day syndrome.

But when people ask me how I "Do it All," I try to be honest and clear - I don't. If I'm spending time on the weekend with my kids, you can well assume that there's a disastrous house or languishing CP on the other end of that equation. If I'm being productive with drafting or revisions, you can bet my elliptical  - and abs - haven't seen any action for weeks. More often than not, I'm running on not enough sleep, and dealing with chronic anxiety and depression to boot. And even with All the Coffee and a supportive spouse, there are only so many writing minutes you can squeeze out of a day before you collapse in a fit of exhausted tears.

I guess what I want to say is that fitting writing into your life isn't easy. Sometimes, it's damn near impossible.

Either way, it takes sacrifice.

I spend less time with my kids than I could, I've all but given up cooking, I do minimal housekeeping. I still have twenty pounds of baby weight to lose and, honestly, I'm not sure it'll come off any time soon. I don't watch TV. I don't do a lot of hanging out with girlfriends, and my kids never go on playdates.

Do I regret any of these things? Heck no. I know I'll never look back on my life and say, "I really wish my kitchen floor would have been cleaner," but I definitely would think, "Damn, it would have been awesome  if I had just made the time for that Mansfield Park redux."

So, I slept less, spent some cash on babysitters, had a dirty house and a couple nervous breakdowns. But I wrote the redux. Sacrifice. 

Licensed for use under CC by Thomas (donnga BS) - thank you!

That's not to say there won't be times when I take weeks or months away from writing - I've just taken a couple weeks "off," and I'm not sure exactly how much more time I'll need to get adjusted.


Burt I do know that, now, once again, I have to figure out the new balance of work, self-care, and family to enable me to keep writing in which the sacrifice does not have to be my sanity. 

What about you? When people ask you how you do it all, what do you tell them? What sacrifices do you make for doing the things that you love?

P.S. - Watch this blog over the next several days for exciting news about something new and awesome that I'm lucky enough to be part of! (no, it's not a book deal, or anything like that. But it is awesome. I promise.)

Blog Tour! Clare Davidson and her Debut TRINITY

YOU GUYS. I have reached a landmark moment of popularity in the blogosphere. I mean, I'm alllll puffed up here, because I get to host Clare Davidson, debut author of the TRINITY series, on my blog today!

How cool is that?

I know. I KNOW.

Anyway, since I don't believe that there's any one right way to write a book, but mostly because I'm a little voyeuristic, I told Clare I really wanted to hear about her writing process. And since she's such a sweetheart, she said she'd write a whole post about it. (See? SWEET.)

So, here we are! I'm so honored to be hosting Clare on her VERY FIRST BLOG TOUR STOP!

Be sure to read ALL the way to the end of the post for information about where to buy Trinity AND how you could win a copy from me! (Also, read slowly so that you can savor the awesomeness of her Brit spelling, verb tenses, and phrasing. Siiiiigh.)

When Leigh Ann asked me to write this guest post about my writing process, I thought "hey, cool, I know what that is! I'm a pantser!" Then I sat down and thought about it and realised that it isn't that simple. I change my writing process depending on the project, my mood, the time of day…

Over the years I've been writing, I've tried to learn the "correct" way to write a novel. I've asked myself the following questions over and over again: Should I plan everything to the nth degree, have reams and reams of world-building and a detailed summary of EVERY scene? Is it enough to do a line-per-scene on cards or post-it notes that I can shuffle around? If I don't plan, will my novel be rubbish?

To find out the "correct" way to write, I've read scores of "how-to" books, done online and physical courses, joined writing forums and communities and asked advice. Do you know the biggest lesson I gleaned from all that time, energy and money? There is no RIGHT way to write. None at all.

I'll repeat that. There is no RIGHT way to write. It's what works for you and what works for you invariably won't work for the next person, or the next.

I'm not saying you shouldn't read the books, join the websites and take the advice. I learnt a LOT from doing all of those things. What I am saying is this: don't be a slave to someone else's writing process. If it doesn't work for you, you'll end up feeling miserable and like a failure. I know I did.

What I learnt to do is magpie bits and pieces from all the books, courses and forums that I've come into contact with, but I don't use any one method to the letter.

Trinity began as a plotting session with a friend when I was trying to save another WIP that was on its third draft and just wasn't working. That WIP wasn't saved, but became a different novel: 'Trinity'. During that plotting session my friend helped me hash out the "big picture" and I wrote down ten bullet points. That was my entire framework. It worked because I had direction, but enough freedom to flesh the story out, join the dots and fill in the gaps. It allowed my muse and my characters to be free. For me, plans become like a muzzle. I know plenty of writers who love to use detailed plans, they stick to them and write amazing books. Hats off to them! I couldn't do it.

For me, the first draft is the easiest. I don't worry about the quality of my prose, I just throw the story down on paper. The real work begins with the editing. With Trinity, I printed out a full copy, broke out the coloured pens (it's more fun to edit with different coloured pens!) and scrawled on every page, tightening the prose, fixing inconsistencies, bringing out more character emotion and so on.

All in all, the whole novel went through about five drafts. Certain sections of it went through ten or more. I had input from family, three different editors and, finally, a copyeditor.

Was all that hard work worth it? Damn right it was! Holding the finished product in my hand was the most amazing feeling: I wrote that; that's my book. Completing and publishing Trinity is a dream come true. A dream I hope to repeat, even if my writing process changes with every book I write!

Wow, Clare, you're so cool.  And if Clare's this cool, I'm sure her book is ZOMG INCREDIBLE. SO. Go buy it.  Seriously. Go on. Just click here.

No kidding. Go buy Trinity.

And! I'm giving away one Kindle copy to a random commenter. Follow this blog, follow Clare on Twitter, and tweet about this blog post for extra entries! (Giveaway closes on Tuesday evening, get your entries in before then! Fun fun!)

122 Words of Encouragement

Hey, sweet readers! I know a bunch of you are hanging out at Write On Con this week, hoping your hard-worked and awesome manuscripts get picked up by those Ninjas.  (Hi Ninja Agents! We love you!) Last year, for me, the week was full of highs and lows. I was hoping the conference would get me an offer, but it turns out that the best thing I got out of it was meeting my second-oldest critique partner. Way better than an offer. 

And, here's what happened since last year's WriteOnCon. 

(I mean this post to be encouraging. I hope it is. Forgive me if it isn't. I think you're wonderful.)

I met Gina fourteen months ago, and Chessie just about a year ago.

Back then, we swapped manuscripts for critique.
All of those manuscripts went through the query trenches.
All of those manuscripts subsequently went in the drawer.

We wrote new manuscripts, and critiqued those for each other too.
We queried and contested those manuscripts to death.
In the last two months, we all signed with agents.
Those second manuscripts are now floating around in the wide sea of Publishing.

I just sent Chessie my third manuscript.
That feels good.

It's a short story, but it's a big one.
And here's the lesson:

Work hard.
Have good friends.
Keep going.
Keep going.
Keep going.

You're doing a great job.
Keep. On. Going.

YA Writers Ask a Teen Chat = Awesome

Happy Monday, sweet readers!

So, you know how I've been trying to finish these revisions on SfEx? In the interest of that, I brought Penny to the Hirsch house, where Monica had agreed to spend the morning with her. I asked her offhandedly about   how those in her age group (almost 16) referred to their peers - "kids?" "people?" "peeps?" What?

Well, we ended up talking for over an hour about everything from slang to Facebook interactions to bullying via text message. I had to cut the conversation short then because I wanted to get SOME revisions done, but   she was so sweet and obliging and enthusiastic about the topic that I hated to go. So, I did what any social-media-obsessed YA writer would do - I asked her if she'd be up for answering some questions for my writing buddies on Twitter that night, if they had any.

And, WOW. Did they have questions.

We started tweeting about YA Writers Ask a Teen - #YAWritersAAT about nine hours before we wanted to start the chat, and not only did people get their questions ready, they retweeted. And retweeted and retweeted and WOW. We had a great conversation about voice and technology in teens' lives.

Jenny has a chat transcript posted on her blog, if you're interested in reading the whole thing. (Hint: If you're a YA writer, you probably should be interested.)


A lot has changed since many of us YA writers were teens, and we learned lots of useful stuff, like:  


Just Another Dreamer‏@EncoreUnReveur@LeighAnnKopans @ValerieFM80@marlanafiregirl Gosh yes. You always know when a guy's going to ask you out. His friends text you with clues.


To which a lot of writers responded, "WHAT KIND OF CLUES!?!?!" And began furiously taking notes. So awesome.


But what I really want to talk about in this post is the response to #YAWritersAAT. About halfway through the chat, Valerie joked that she was just waiting for #YAWritersAAT to trend. And then she checked, just in case, and:




Yeah. There we are. Trending at #2. 

You guys, I actually got kind of emotional. Because, hey. It's no secret how I feel about writing for teens. And teens in general. I LOVE teens. I LOVE writing for them. I think it's SO important that there is authentic, quality literature written with a teen audience in mind.

And you know what it tells me when a chat created for the purpose of helping YA writers write authentically for teens TRENDS in HALF AN HOUR?

It tells me that it's important to other writers, too. It tells me that other writers are more concerned about writing books with authentic, accurate portrayals of how teens speak, think and act as opposed to how writers WANT them to speak, think and act. 

And that? That is absolutely freaking wonderful.

(Thank you to all the incredible teens who participated and were gracious enough to spend an hour on the weekend talking to us clueless old folks. And thank you especially to Valerie, Hayley, and Jenny, who were my impromptu co-organizers and promoters. You all were INCREDIBLE. See you next week.)

Friday Obsessions: Dahlia Adler, WHISPERS IN AUTUMN, and Kiss The Girl

Hey, sweet readers!

Well, it's been an insane week.  I started back at work, and have been finding myself completely exhausted at the end of every day just from the sheer effort of leaving the house, I suppose.

Writing wise? I'm trying to get back into Chrome, and not being too successful, to be honest. Could use some good old fashioned butt-kicking on that front. Fingers crossed that this weekend is more productive.

Allllrighty. That was boring. Let's just move right on to the obsessions, shall we?

1. Dahlia Adler. All of her.
Dahlia and I were on the same team in the Writer's Voice Contest (Team CupidsLC FTW!) and we signed with our agents in the same week. There's no one I would rather have shared my agent week with. She's super hilarious, totally kickass, and wrote an amazing MS, BEHIND THE SCENES. When it comes out, you all should buy it without thinking. Don't worry, I'll remind you.

Anyhow, Dahlia interviewed me on her blog today!!! And it was super self-indulgent but also tons of fun. So go over and see us chatting.


2. WHISPERS IN AUTUMN by Trisha Leigh
I "met" Trisha on Twitter right before her book released, and she's a sweetie pie. The book's cover is stunning, and the preview was awesome, so I bought it.

YOU GUYS.



I only got 5% of the way through, and I'm obsessed. Like,  I'm counting down the hours till I can get home and get my  kids into bed so I can keep reading.


Go buy a copy. Now. Beautiful writing, great premise, and you can't beat that price.


3.  "Kiss the Girl" sung by Ashley Tisdale
You know how you're really obsessed with a song, but you feel like you should probably listen to some other songs, because it's kind of lame to keep pushing "repeat" and then rocking out to the same refrain over and over and over again? And so you do listen to some other songs, but they dont' make you smile and bop your head like That One Song and you're really just waiting for the other songs to end so you can go back to the obsession?

Yep. Just listen, and then try to tell me you're not rocking out to this  version of the song from "The Little Mermaid."





Welp, that's it for me! What about you, sweet readers? What were you obsessed with this week?

Thursday Thank-You

Hey, sweet readers! It's time for Thursday thank-yous again, and I have a TON this week.

First and foremost: Thank you to all of YOU, my sweet readers. My post from Monday on not being a douchebag when you give people writing and publishing tips got over 400 views and 50 comments in 48 hours (it looks like 105, but half of those are my responses.) I lost track of how many retweets the link got, but a bunch of wonderful writers and rockstar agents Erin Niumata and Jennifer Laughran all joined in. So thank you thank you thank you for coming over here and joining in the conversation. I'm glad we're part of such a supportive community that is so excited to climb the ladder alongside people instead of imagining ourselves rungs above and acting like we're better. (Most of the time.)


Second: Thanks to Cait, who read the first draft of Solving for Ex in lickety-split time and gave me line notes (!) even though she has plenty of her own stuff to do. And for talking me down when I had a panic attack that the book actually sucks and was a waste of seven weeks of my life.

Third: Thanks to Gina, for still loving me even when I'm completely insufferable. Love you like a sis, G.

Fourth: Thanks to Jess, who BAKED ME COOKIES and then SENT THEM TO ME. I'm overwhelmed, not to mention completely in love with the baked goods. She even wrote me  note and calligraphed the envelope! I mean, come on:

Once in awhile, it's nice to know that someone loves you just because you're you, and goes out of her way to show you. Thanks, Jess.

Fifth: Thanks to Valerie, who's reading my MS even though she's SLAMMED at work, and even though she's only 50% of the way through, sent me a gushing email, imagining fandoms and also telling me my hair looks pretty. Wow.

Sixth: Thanks to Amy, who took some gorgeous new headshots of me at the drop of a dime. If you're in Central Ohio, or are ever visiting, give her a call and she'll do some amazing work for you. Tell her I sent you.


Remember, if you want to join in on the Thursday Thank yous, I'm sure your thankees would appreciate it. Link up, please, because I'd love to see them. <3 i="i">
See you tomorrow for an especially teeny-boppy installment of Friday Obsessions!

Writing a Novel Out of Order

I write my stories out of order.
 Like, completely out of order. 
Many times, the ending or penultimate scenes will be some of the earliest I write.
(For example, the very first scene I ever wrote for my on-submission manuscript is now Chapter 8.)
And I'm a pantser.

This confuses a lot of people. If I am a pantser, and consequently don't know where the story is going or how it gets there, how can I possibly write ending scenes before beginning ones?

See, the thing is, drafting is the absolute hardest part of the writing process for me. Something about getting new words out is grueling.

The only way it's not grueling - and, in fact, the way that I find myself able to fly through the words, optimally pulling 5,000-7,000 in a day - is by "seeing" a scene in my head, or "hearing" a conversation between two characters, and kind of channeling those things into words. (Sometimes I even type with my eyes closed so that I can "see" or "hear" better.)


Most often those scenes that I "see" or "hear" consist of one of two things:
1. Intense drama
2. Kissing or other sexy stuff

It is in these scenes that the characters are most emotionally invested in what's going on. When a character is at the highest or lowest point of her emotional arc, that's when I can "hear" her most clearly, and so those are the scenes I tend to write first.

I mean, seriously. Once you have this picture in your  head, how could you NOT write that scene first?

(cc JLStricklin)

 Lately, I've been drawing up a beat sheet to get a very rough idea of the plot, so I'll plug these early-written scenes into whatever plot point they go with, and then write the other scenes I need to fill in the rest of the book.

What this essentially creates is a skeleton of a novel built around the characters' emotional arcs.

So, I think that what all this means is that I like to write character-driven stories, which is why this writing-out-of-order method works for me.

Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I'm just lazy as all get-out.

BUT STILL. I've written three books in two years and I'm going on a fourth, so it works for me.

(And, let's not forget: a famous out-of-orderer is Stephenie Meyer. She wrote the scene where Bella and Edward canoodle in that field of flowers before she wrote anything else. So...let's hope that the whole method works just as well for me as it did for her.)


What about you, sweet writerly-type readers? Do you draft out of order, or do you have to draft in the first-scenes-first method? 

Writing Advice: It's not one size fits all.

note: I started drafting this post back in March, when I was knee-deep in the query trenches. I finished it up today.

I hate giving writing advice.

Why? Well, because, just like anything else in life,
the path to publication is not simple, nor is it easy.

There are as many different paths as there are individual writers.

There are people who write one book, send fifteen queries, sign with a powerhouse agent, and eventually end up with multimillion dollar book, movie, and merchandise deals.

There are people who write nine books and finally snag an agent and huge deal with their tenth.

There are people who send hundreds of queries and revise and resubmits before finding an agent to represent and sell one wonderful novel.

You can find your agent with a query, by referral, during an online conference, through a contest, or via ninja agent ambush.

A book may be on submission for two days before selling, or sit there for ten months.

Generalized writing advice can be useless and demoralizing because writing is so closely tied to who we are. And if the writing advice I give contradicts with someone's experience, the message they get (and the message I have so often gotten) is that they are doing something wrong, that they are missing some crucial piece of "how-to" that they should have picked up on a long time ago.

Ripe berries and green, all on the same branch.
Metaphor KAPOW.

Back in March, when I had sent a couple hundred queries, received almost as many form rejections, revised two novels dozens of times, been in more contests than I could count on my hands, diligently spent every spare moment working on my craft, and gotten the thumbs up from over a dozen (yes, a DOZEN) readers, if you had given me cliched, platitudinal writing advice like "never give up!" or "keep working hard!" or "believe in yourself!" I would have seriously had to restrain myself to avoid punching you.

This is when straight-up inspirational talk and advice is tough to deal with for a lot of writers.

They (we) know that it's not just a matter of "never giving up," "believing in your work," or "writing something awesome."
They (we)  know it because they've been living it for months, sometimes years.
They (we)  know it because we have a drawer full of manuscripts that we poured our souls into, that we loved, that we thought was the One. (It wasn't. It's getting harder to believe that this one will be.)


But what's even worse - what I hate with every fiber of my being - is the attitude that there is a hierarchy of writing skill that exists in this little community of ours.
Often, I see advice that goes something like this: "Keep working on your writing, and eventually you will come up with something good enough to catch an agent's attention."

Let's just think about that for a second. This seems to suggest that there is some qualifiable level of writing skill that you can attain which, when submitted to an agent's eyes, will magically lift the blinders to Bad Writing or Sub-Par Writing or Non-Awesome Writing, and they will then behold the book, and declare it good, and sign the writer, and submit it to editors, where the process will begin all over again. (Is there a writing skill purgatory, I wonder, for the work that was awesome enough to get an agent but not quite awesome enough to get an editor? Hmm?)

In case my sarcasm isn't one hundred percent obvious, let me be clear: Publishing is a subjective business. What one agent thinks is awesome could look like fire kindling to another. What one agent reads in twelve hours and offers on immediately thereafter could be the same manuscript that garnered 95 form rejections. (Yes, that's my sweet superhero novel, One.)


There is no such thing as a level of writing awesomeness that is worthy of agent or publisher attention. No, there really isn't.


And, if that level doesn't exist, then a simple way to get there doesn't either.


So, why does it bother me when I hear people giving advice that suggests that that level does exist?


Because it makes fellow writers feel bad. And that is not cool.
Not. Cool. At. All.


Listen. The MS that attracted my (very impressive) agent received 89 form rejections before I signed on the dotted line. It's gotten six more in the six weeks since then.

Now, maybe to you that means that I haven't worked hard enough on my craft, that my query letter sucked, that I didn't believe in myself enough, that the story was not marketable, or that my writing just wasn't up to par.

But if you met me, if you read my manuscript, if you knew that it was an in-demand genre and free of YA cliches, if you'd been with me through every grueling step of the process, would you still say those things?

I'll tell you right now - No. You would not.


So, listen, writers. If you take anything away from reading my blog, let it be this. When you finally, gloriously leave the query trenches, however you manage it, to Agentland, or better yet, move from Agentland to Publisheddom, do me a favor. Don't offer advice on how to get there based on your individual path. That path was yours and yours alone, and implying that others are doing it wrong because theirs isn't similar enough is just bad form. 


Yes. Bad form.

For those of you in the Querying Trenches or Submission Hell (here! have a cookie!), here is what I have to say to you.

I'm sorry. It sucks. I hope that you're able to find a way to make that part of the journey translate into something awesome for the more fun parts.

Will you get an agent? I don't know.
Will you ever publish? I have no clue.
Will the worry and stress and grief tear you apart? Will your writing get worse? Will you fall into an inescapable black hole of suckitude?
I don't know. I'm not you.
But I am here to listen, and to commiserate, and to celebrate with you when things work out the way you want them to. 
And I think that's probably what we all really need most.

(Hey! You! Troll! Yes, you! I delete trollish comments. So don't waste your time. Kisses!)

Thursday Thank Yous - Inaugural Edition

Hey, sweet readers.


So, I had a bangup past week and a half. I finished a (very messy) first draft of Solving for Ex, and I couldn't be happier. But the thing is, I didn't do it alone. I've said it before, and I'll say it a million times again, but it takes a village to make a novel.

I went all super-cheesy saying thank you to everyone in my "Hey! Agent!" post, and it occurs to me that I had to do that because I hadn't spent the time thanking everyone for their help as I went. And since, thank goodness, it seems I'm still producing work, I thought that THIS TIME, I'd start saying thank you to folks on a weekly basis.

So! I'm introducing the "Thursday Thank You" post. It'll be a fast weekly shout-out to the helpful souls who enable me to keep writing each and every week. Please, link up! There can never be too much gratitude in life, and especially in writing.

This week on the Thursday Thank You! Four amazing kid-watchers who took Peninah off my hands for twelve hours total this week, enabling me to finish up this draft and deal with the aftermath (namely, three weeks worth of laundry. Oops.)


Here they are!

The amazing Hirsch sisters!
From left to right:
Monica (who is also my 15-year-old YA-reader bullshit meter. )
Peninah (duh)
Jaclyn (my classic Brit Lit soulmate)
and
Alexa (my Megan, and future literary agent. Truth.)

The lovely Allison, whose recent wedding summarily kicked ass,
 and who loves my kids always.

Thanks, ladies! Thank you SO MUCH.
Because if Penny's happy, she's quiet, and then I can write.

(If I let her.)

Good Newsssss!!!!!

Actually, it's freaking AMAZING news.

Let me tell you a little story.

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful MS floating around the contest circuit at the same time mine was.
This MS was about TEENS who swore they were NOT KILLERS (which, of course, meant that they definitely were killers) and so they all got sent to what one might term a KILLER ISLAND.


("Killer Island")
(CC Matt Northam)

Obviously, I wanted to read this MS. Because I'm smart.
So, what do I do when I want to read an MS that one of my existing critique partners did not write?
I stalk that mothereffer.


(Yep. I looked just like that)
(CC Sergey Galyonkin)


I commented on posts. I tweeted. I begged and pleaded. I asked her people to call my people.
And FINALLY, Erica emailed me a copy of ANOMALY.

You guys? I read it, and almost instantly, I was IN LOVE.

There was a sweet yet gutsy MC! Amazing premise! Awesome friendships! Cuter-than-cute boys! (Yes! More than one!)

I finished that sucker in 24 hours and it was like stars were dancing around my Kindle.
Seriously. I HUGGED MY KINDLE in the middle of the Phoenix Airport, where I read the very last page.


(Dramatization of what my universe looked like while I was reading ANOMALY)
(CC Sean Kelley)

I'm so happy this MS, and most particularly, this fabulous lady, are in my life.

I'm even happier that they're about to be in YOUR LIVES TOO - because Erica got an agent!!!!

So go visit her and say CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

PSA: You Can Get Sued for Using Images on Your Blogs or Sites

Hey, sweet readers!

I know I totally freaking ignored my Friday Obsessions post. It would have been boring, because the only thing I was obsessed with is finishing the draft of SOLVING FOR EX, which is a sweet YA romance about Mathletes that also happens to be a redux of Austen's MANSFIELD PARK, my second fave Austen. Yay!

(Seriously, somehow I wrote 28k in the entire month of June, and then up and knocked out 30k in eight days. Deadlines are apparently KING in getting me to finish anything. Sigh.)

Anyway, I'm diving into editing today, but I wanted to take a second to blog about something important to me. The you-know-what hit to proverbial blogging fan at the end of last week when Roni Loren, an author with an amazing blog about all things writing craft and industry, posted a blog recounting her experience of being sued, losing said suit, and being responsible for PAYING DAMAGES over an image she had used on one of her blog posts.

I think all of us casual bloggers gasped when we read it. Who hasn't been looking for that perfect image to spruce up a blog post, ran a Google images search, copy-pasted, and called it a day?

It was a wake-up call for sure, and a reminder that:

1. Photographers own and DESERVE the copyright to their own work, no matter what you're using it for and
2. Even if it's just for an innocent blog post, or pinned to a Pinterest inspiration board, we are still benefiting from the work of others for free.

Now, you all can do whatever you want with this sweet reminder from Roni (thanks, Roni!)
 I did a little internet poking-around myself and found this article, where a photographer who's also a lawyer deleted her Pinterest inspiration boards because she found some fundamental flaws in the Pinterest terms of use vis a vis copyright law. (Plus, some really sound ethical arguments, if you click through to her blog on the topic.)

Look. I don't care if the chances are slim that I could get sued and lose for doing this. Personally, I consider ANY chance that I could be held responsible for thousands of dollars for doing something I consciously knew violated copyright law or even potentially did so to be too much of a chance. Seriously. I'd rather have the cash to go to a writer's conference than spend it getting busted using some image I didn't need to use without permission anyway. Wouldn't you?

On a happy note, I did take some time to track down the creators of some of my Pinterest images I absolutely LOVED. For example, I'd orginally repinned this image:

but when I clicked on it found no link to the creator. Luckily there is a watermark on it.  I Googled "whimsy studios" and found a perfectly lovely Etsy shop where a perfectly lovely lady puts a lot of love and hard work into creating this and other images FOR SALE. 

It turns out that if you go into her Etsy shop, you can "Pin" one of her items for sale onto your Pinterest board from there. So, what's the difference? Well, take a look: 

And it's actually a lot easier to pin it with the price tag and Etsy link on it. In order to pin the image itself, you'd have to navigate to the seller's uploaded SAMPLE image, save it to your hard-drive, then re-upload it to Pinterest.

I'm sorry, but the only reason I could think for anyone to do that would be to use the image free of any pesky price tags that remind us that someone worked hard to create that image and deserves to be paid for it if you're going to use it without reminders of that.

Anyway. I contacted the creator of this image (her name's Lori, by the way, and as I think I already mentioned once or twice, she's lovely) and she said that I could absolutely pin the image to my board, and then she THANKED ME for doing so.

Meaning: whoever originally went to the trouble to pin this image with as few traces of original ownership as possible was really just taking advantage of a really sweet lady trying to make an extra buck by creating pretty pictures for a minimal cost.

The moral of the story (as I see it): I know it sucks, because it's way less fun, and I've TOTALLY been guilty of this, but we really, really, REALLY can't use stuff that other people made for our blogs, Pinterest, etc. without their permission. And we writers, of all people, should know this. We're creative types, and I hope to God that the stuff I create won't be thrown around and free-shared by people who think they deserve access to something I poured my heart, soul, time, and energy into just because they like it, want to read it, or maybe it looks cool on their Pinterest board.

The secondary moral of the story: Artists are awesome, and a lot of them really do want to share their stuff with you. So take a second to ask. My buddy Lydia Kang asked a couple photographers she loved if she could pin their stuff, and they were happy to oblige.

In the future: If you have images that you're fine with giving people free reign to use, make them readily available. I can wrangle a camera okay, and I've done just that with some of my images on this Pinterest board. My friend Cait has done the same on her own Pinterest board, and my friend Jenny has a Flickr stream for the same use. Go ahead, use any of those images without fear of being sued. We promise not to, though it would be nice if you credited back to whoever took the picture, because we worked hard on them, and implying that they're your own is kind of cruddy. But even if you do, we won't sue. Swear.

Whew! This turned into kind of a long rambly post. If you made it to the end, I guess it interested you anyway. 

Were you impacted by the "You could be sued for using images" revelation? Or have you already known that and I've just been living under a rock?*

*I love that you take the time to comment, but if  you're rude or trollish or disturbing to me in any way, I delete yours. No, seriously.

Friday Obsessions: Pineapple Greek Yogurt, We Are In Love, and the Drafting Cave

Heeeey sweet readers!

*Sigh* I'm afraid it's gonna be another fast Friday Obsessions.
Not that you all are heartbroken or anything, but I do enjoy talking to you.

I have to cram a lot of stuff into today, but it's for a very good reason - tomorrow, I'm driving for three and a half hours both ways to meet a couple of my critique partners in person. (I won't tell you who. I don't want you to get more jealous than you already are just because I'm in collusion with them. Don't deny it.)

I know. It's probably one of the most amazing things that will happen to me all year. I'm super excited, but damn I can write a lot of words in 7 hours.

Anyway. Now that I've ramble-typed for five minutes, here they are:

Friday Obsessions!
Wooot!


1. Pineapple Greek Yogurt
So, you know how I had a baby about three months ago? And how I probably ate a little a lot too much when I was pregnant with her, and how I have like twenty five pounds to lose now?

Apparently I'm way less likely to lose the pounds if I eat marshmallow cereal for breakfast. It sucks, but you gotta do what you gotta do. (I'm not looking for dieting advice. It makes me stabby. Please don't give it to me. Seriously. I would probably delete your comment, that's how stabby it makes me. Not joking.)

I've been eating Greek yogurt because of the high-protein, low-fat, low-calories thing. But between you and me? That stuff SUCKS. It's like tangy and thick and bleh. But yesterday, I found Greek yogurt with pineapple on the bottom.

You guys? It. Is. Incredible.
I mean, not INCREDIBLE, but way better. Hallelujah.

2. We Are In Love by Cider Sky.


Oh, this song. So young, so strong, so beautiful. So Merrin and Elias. Yeah, I know, I'm supposed to be thinking of the next book, but damn I love these two.



3. The Drafting Cave
Speaking of The Next Book, I'm just about to hit the homestretch. I kind of failed it during Camp NaNoWriMo, and only got something like 28K done in the month of June.

But now I'm at 43K, and figured out that if I pull 3k/day between now and next Friday, not counting Saturday, I can hit 65K (finished!) a week from now.

Aaaaaand that's pretty much all I need for motivation.
I'll report back next Friday, but please cheer for me and my sweet YA romance!


Okay, your turn! What were you obsessed with this week?
(Rachel posted her week's obsessions yesterday. By all means, guys, if you post about yours, link up!)

Reflections on the Voice Workshop at Brenda's Place.

Hey, sweet readers!

Last week, I was super honored to be asked to participate as a critiquer for the entries in That Doggone Voice Workshop over at author and contest-thrower extraordinaire Brenda Drake's blog.

She asked me to write up some reflections on my experience, and I thought I'd post them on my blog so that anyone else who was interested might like to read. (You can read my fellow critiquer Becca's reflections here.)

Brenda ran this workshop because Voice is just SO difficult to grab a hold of and wrestle into a book. And as hard as it is, it's that much more difficult in just the first 250 words of a novel. Writers have to ground the reader in the story's world, tell us something about the main character, give us a story hook, entice us to turn the page, AND establish voice. 

We seriously lucked out with the entries in this contest. They were all great! From a random entry picker, it's like a miracle that every single writer was so talented. Wow. 

So, well done, all of you.

Confession time: I realized while I was writing this recap that I actually have no solid advice on a surefire way to establish voice in your writing, because all I've ever done is listen to my characters and write down what they said. But then I realized that that's really not such bad advice. Look, you've done the hard work of dreaming up this story and characters to go with it. Trust those characters that they know how to tell their own story. 

A lot of the snags I hit when reading the entries had to do with the writer of the story jumping in and cutting off the Main Character.

"Wait," the writer seemed to be saying, "I don't think you know what you're doing here, Main Character. Shut up for a second and let me step in and explain to the reader the precise pink tone of that Heffalump's fur, or the exact tang of the fancy vodka you're drinking. Or even what you really meant to say when you said that one thing." 

Well, here's the thing, writers - 
With all due respect, no reader picks up a book to hear us tell our characters' stories for them. Readers crack those pages open to step into our characters' minds for a moment. So, forget about YOUR voice and let us hear THEIR voices.

Of course, during revisions we've got to comb back through and make sure our characters don't switch favorite slang words midway through the manuscript, or use words from an SAT prep course when they're a normal twelve-year old. But for most voicey stuff, my advice is simple - sit back, close your eyes, and imagine what your character would see, feel, and think. Then write that down. Again - You've done the hard work in dreaming her up - now let her do a little work for you.

Thanks again for letting me play! I had so much fun reading, and am seriously impressed by everyone's hard work!