WINNER! Winner! Chicken dinner!

Apologies for the late post.  Minion #2 is sick :( and I've been cuddling her a lot.

So first the winner of the writer's survival guide goes to post #26, according to random.org (incidentally, 26 is my lucky number...all amazing things happen to me involve 26 or 2 and 6, no lie --I believe this bodes well for our winner)

#26 is CAROLSUE!  Congrats!  email me, girl!

And if you are interested in helping storm relief in Joplin, MO and you donate to the Greater Kansas City Joplin Missouri Disaster Relief Fund, I will do a private query critique for you by email.  This is open to the first 10 people to post or email me that they donated.  I will respond to all queries within 2 weeks with feedback and suggestions.

Some of my family is in Joplin and they were spared, but they're watching the devastation of their entire town day by day.  If you can help, please do!

Wherein Things Do Not Get Less Surreal

This showed up in the book deals on Publisher's Weekly this morning (right before I went to bed and then I couldn't sleep):

Deals: Week of 6/6/11 
FSG Gets 'Crewel' ...for the Kids
Mollie Glick at Foundry sold North American rights at auction to Gen Albin's debut YA novel, Crewel. Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers senior editor Janine O'Malley bought the book last Friday, June 3, after four other pre-empts came in earlier in the week. Albin, who founded the parenting blog theconnectedmom.com and edited the Missouri Review while getting her M.A. at the University of Missouri, blends science fiction, suspense, and romance in the story, which is set in a world where women designated as "Spinsters" can control time. The novel follows a 16-year-old set to become a Spinster—Glick said the special designation comes at a price as these women must "enter a world of secrets and lethal intrigue"—who has a special power that will play a key role in the destiny of the world.


And yes, I'm still pinching myself!


Tomorrow I'll be picking a winner for the writer's survival kit, and offering you a chance to get private, personal query feedback to benefit storm relief in Joplin, MO.

Part 1: I Demand You Write a Book

Part 1:  I Demand You Write a Book
Part 2:  How WriteOnCon Changed My Life in Less than a Week (coming 5/9)
Part 3:  Announcing the Agent (hopefully coming 5/10)

I'm going to preface this by saying, I still have not made a decision about what agent I will go with as I'm waiting to hear back from a few, but Monday is the deadline, so I thought I could write this part of the story.

Let's start at the beginning - a very good place to start.  I always meant to write.  Abandoned manuscripts litter my past; most of them no longer than a few pages.  I thought I'd write in grad school, but, um, that was so not possible.  Fast forward to last June and a telephone call from my mother-in-law.

After she asked about the kids (I had a 2 year-old and a newborn at the time), she dropped this bomb on me:

"I demand you write a book."

Color me flabbergasted.  Hello!  I had a baby and a toddler, and I already wrote a successful parenting blog. I was totally offended.  But she knows me too well.  Her comment really ate at me.  So, just as she planned, I started to write a book.

I never got past 50 pages with it, and those 50 pages were rewritten several times.  My husband began to tease me that my obit would read: "Author of the 20 most promising first chapters ever written."

And then in August inspiration struck, and I wrote one page - a prologue that remains pretty much in tact to this day.  And then a few days later tragedy struck.  I dumped an entire glass of water on my mac and fried it beyond repair.  Thankfully I had sent the prologue to a friend, but I no longer had a way to work.  I worked on my husband's PC while my baby slept and wrote 15k of a very different version of the novel, but it wasn't working, so I stopped writing.

Then I heard about NaNoWriMo, I thought: "I'm going to do this."  I told my husband and he agreed to help.  On November 1st, I started on page one.  At first I worked at night with my daughter asleep on my lap, typing one-handed well past midnight.  Soon I decided I needed to go out to work.  I started going to the library and using the public computers and my flash drive.  I had to work in seventy minute increments because of the time limits, but I pressed on and on November 30th, I crossed the 50k finish line.  And yes, I cried.

***My awesome CP just reminded me to add that my mother-in-law bought me a new netbook for Christmas to show how proud she was.  It's purple and awesome.  She's awesome.

The next thing I did was print it out and start to read.  It. Was. A. Mess.  The dialogue was good but everything else sucked.  There was no world building or character development and the plot was fuzzy at best.  Thankfully I have awesome critique partners who brainstormed a lot with me.  By the the beginning of March, I had a finished second draft.  It was better but still lacking.  I built more and fleshed out.  The pages of that hard copy look like they're bleeding.  I drank a lot of coffee (I now have a Starbucks gold card).  I finished it around April 15th.  What a great day.  I sent it off to my critique partners, and printed it out for my husband to read.

And then on April 22nd, I did something that would change my life....

to be continued...

Crafting a Query #2

A few months ago before I was ever thinking about querying, I wrote a post about it (read it here).  That post has lots of good info on work-shopping your query as it relies heavily on years of teaching composition.  Today I wanted to talk about what goes in the query though.

I recently wrote about 100 queries...most of them sucked, one did not.  It's out on submission and doing relatively well.  But I had to write all those icky queries  first.  I learned through failure.  I would write up a query and come home and read it to my husband, mail it my critique partners, and post it on forums.  My CP's would give it a passing grade, but more like a C than an A+.  The forums offered suggestions.  My husband ripped it to shreds.  I love that about him, because he was right every time.  I got caught up in trying to boil down my 300 page novel to a paragraph, and while I did it pretty effectively a few times, the results were meh.  No spark.  It was only by working on it again and again with other people's help that I got it to somewhere I was happy with.  Then last weekend I did an agent workshop online and she critiqued my query and liked it!  If you have a chance to do a workshop, do it!  It's invaluable.

The point is that writing a query is hard and it will take time and heart ache unless you are a flippin' genius.  Now what I did in my query won't work for everyone, but I think the basic principles I used and learned from others might.  If I ever do get an agent,  I promise to share it.  For now, let me share some tips that might help you write a query.

1.  Stick to the first 30 pages or the inciting incident.  The fabulous Kristin Nelson suggested this and it changed my life.

2.  This should go without saying, but make sure all your info is personalized and correct and that you follow submission guidelines.

3.  Write a query that makes people want to read a book.

I have read so much advice about the proper form, exactly how many paragraphs you can have, what info has to be in there.  Fact is that all those elements can be there and your query can get as dry as toast, or you can totally break all the rules and have a compelling query, or you can do just like they say and get tons of requests (good example of a query that works and breaks the rules here).  All that matters is that people want to read the book.  Agents are human and they want to be seduced into a read like everyone else.

How to do this? First write a standard query.  What do you like about it?  What is absolutely essential?  Can you focus on those elements?  Is there tension evident?  Do you give a sense of the protagonist's stakes?  Now experiment, focus on drawing out one or two elements from the original query.  Now read 100 book covers in your genre.  Which ones make you open to the first page? Why?  Okay.  Rewrite query over and over.  Ask people who have read your book if it conveys the narrative.  Ask people who haven't read your book if it makes sense.  Tweak accordingly.

And always have a bottle of wine handy.

Danger! Danger! the inevitable-show-don't-tell post

Sometimes I tell in my manuscript instead of showing, all novelists do.  The trick is to know when to bypass description, dialogue, and narrative and just show to keep the proper pacing, and here's a hint: it's not often.  But one place you should never tell is in your query and pitch.  But the show-don't-tell idea is a tad different for these items than your manuscript (naturally you are telling your story in your query and you don't have all the tools to show that you have in a novel).  What I'm talking about is telling an agent what the tone of your story is instead of showing them.

For instance saying "TITLE is a fast-paced thriller" when the synopsis of your story reads like a road map to boringville.

Or saying "readers will laugh out loud" when your query is dry as day-old bread.  Make us laugh!

Telling your reader these things undermines your query in two ways.
1) It makes a promise that your query better deliver
2) It shows your not confidant in your pitch's writing

So cozy up to the delete and start showing what your novel can do.

Pitching your book- LIVE Edition

I might have the opportunity to pitch my book at a super cool local event with some agenty types.  It's a long story, which I'll spare you, but I thought this would be a great idea to talk about the difference between a pitch and a query, and there is a difference.

In my misspent youth, I participated in something called the National Forensic League.  Despite your expectation that I was off solving murders, I was actually competing each weekend in dramatic competitions.  The basic idea was a one man show included a 30-45 second intro, which had to give boil down the whole play  (of which I was doing only 10 minutes) for the audience and get their attention.  Why do you need to know this?  Because I was pretty damn good, so believe me when I tell you the most important thing in a live pitch is your hook.  The second?  Your ability to present/perform.

WHAT?

That's right. The second most important thing when thinking specifically about your pitch is how you present it, not the script you've written.  Here's why (put away your pitch forks!), you're a writer.  I assume you can write!  That's the easy part.  How you sell yourself is much harder.

So let's break it down:

The Script - unless you are an amazing off-the-cuff speaker, write something out and read it/memorize it.
It should contain a hook, what the book's about, stats, and an elevator pitch to wrap it up.

Hook - Think tagline or teaser.  Study covers, blurbs, movie boxes, etc.  Choose a suck-your-breath in line from your MSS or come up with a slogan for your book.  Your first words should get your audience's attention and keep it!

A very brief description of the book and its genre.

An elevator pitch to wrap it up...For instance, Harry Potter is Lord of the Rings meets Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Presentation - you should keep your script short enough to be read in 50 seconds (give yourself leeway for laughter, pauses, unforeseen natural disasters) in a casual, well-paced tone.  Do not try to speed read unless your book is a manual on learning to speed read.  Make eye contact and be confidant - you are the expert on your book!

Best of luck!


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Introducing Query Grader Wednesday!

I read a lot of queries on YALITCHAT and writing blogs and I find myself wanting to "grade" them.   It's a remnant of my old teaching self.  I've graded a lot of papers, thousands actually, and hold my Masters in English Literature, so if you've ever wished you could email off a copy of your query to an old prof for proofreading, here's your chance.

It's pretty simple.  On Mondays, respond to the query post by answering the query I post for you (you gotta sing for your supper).  On Monday night, I'll choose the "winner" and email them for their query, which they must email back by noon on Tuesday.  On Wednesday, I'll post the graded version of the query.

Here's the fineprint:

-Queries will be graded fairly.  It may be harsh, but it will be constructive.  The goal is to get you an agent not pad your ego.

- You may submit a redo, which will be regraded as my time allows.

- I want to have fun with this but also provide a useful service.  

So if you'd like to be my first query, respond to this question below and include your email:

If I was a sea monster, I would be _____________. 

Best answer wins!

Crafting a Query

In a past life (okay it was two years ago), I taught lit at the University of Missouri.  This was a great gig.  Not only was it like getting to host a book club I could pass judgment on, I learned a lot about writing.  That's right, I learned more about the craft through teaching than taking classes.  When you are expected to teach others, you begin to examine methodology more deeply.  You can't just write, you have to show someone else how to do it themselves.

So naturally as I begin to think about what happens when the revisions are done, I've starting to think about  the query and what better way to approach it then with a little lesson plan.

Successful queries are ones that convey your story and writing ability using an economy of words.  The first step is to have a good story, a good query is dependent on it.  The second step is to have a concise, well-written synopsis.  One bad paragraph or poorly structured sentence and you are in the slush pile.

A query should contain these elements:

1.  It should be addressed to a specific agent, no sirs or madams here!  And make sure you actually have done your homework and this is the best person.

2.  The first paragraph should contain all the vital info of the story in 2-3 lines, AND it should have a hook.  Start looking at your DVDs and books for blurbs, then try your hand at writing a blurb.  NOTE: While this may be the first thing in the letter, it doesn't have to be written first!  It may be easier to come back, read your synopsis and then boil it down to two sentences.

3.  A one to two paragraph synopsis of your entire plot NOT your every scene.  Focus on the good stuff.  That scene where your heroine slips into a vat of pudding might be hilarious, but unless she uncovers a body in the pudding and begins hunting the killer, it doesn't belong in your synopsis.

4.  A little about you.  You don't have to have fancy degrees or published stories, but if you do toot your horn.  If you don't, don't talk about how you wanted to write a book since you learned the alphabet song or wax poetic on your love of libraries, we could all say that. What makes you a unique and valuable voice in the literary world?

Got it written?  Great!  Go back and cut 25 words.

You heard me.  I know you think you need it all, but one of the greatest tricks in a writer's toolbox is the ability to delete and combine.  I know you can do it.

Done?  Fabulous.   Print 2 copies and go grab your neighbor, friend, husband, literate 8 year-old and have them read it out loud to you.  If they stumble over words, underline the spot. Circle the things that sound wrong.  Listen to how it sounds read by someone else.  Repeat with someone else.

Hate me yet?

Good.  Now go post it to your writing support group.  Chances are they'll rip it to shreds.  Wonderful.  Address concerns and keep revising until it sounds eloquent read by someone else and the writing group is gushing about its clarity and tone.

This is your first step in the publishing process.  Make sure you are the wheat not the chaff.