I am very excited to be participating in the 2012 Gearing Up To Get An Agent blogfest and pitch contest! Our first task is to get to know some fellow participants, which might be the most exciting part for me. I am only now foraying into the writerly community, and I completely geek out at the connections I've made with other writers. So without further blabbery, I will get on with the questions Deana posted for us!
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Friday, August 31, 2012
Friday, August 17, 2012
Writerly Lessons: What I Learned This Week
As I mentioned in my other blog post, I attended WriteOnCon for the first time this past week. I have also had a really eventful non-writerly week as life is taking off in full force the week before classes begin again. So I will be brief so that I can get some time in to actually write today. Stay tuned for the end for a special little announcement!
Lessons I Learned This Week:
Lessons I Learned This Week:
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Word Count: The New Bane of My Writerly Existence!
A few weeks ago the bane of my writerly existence was synopses, shortly followed by query letters. Now? Well, now it is just word count. You would think that words of any sort--counted or not--would be a writer's best friend. Right? Wrong. At least, not when you are writing something that falls into the Young Adult category and have a word count that is over 70k.
Like, way over 70k. Twice that to be precise.
Like, way over 70k. Twice that to be precise.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Writerly Query Experiment
Instead of writing anymore on book three (even though progress is lacking), I have decided to take some time to work on my query letter since I had a stroke of inspiration for it. And since it has been a whole five minutes since I blogged, I thought I would leave it to my wonderful readership to help me decide which to use. Or if I should scrap the entire thing and start fresh. All (polite!) comments are welcome. Except for spam about male enhancements. Or spam in general.
On to the query letters!
The first also happens to be the one that I so boldly (and possibly stupidly) sent out almost two weeks ago to twenty four literary agents. I might owe them apology letters. You guys tell me. I sat down and wrote this, hoping to capture some of my writerly essence in the voice, and then didn't bother to revise much at all.
On to the query letters!
The first also happens to be the one that I so boldly (and possibly stupidly) sent out almost two weeks ago to twenty four literary agents. I might owe them apology letters. You guys tell me. I sat down and wrote this, hoping to capture some of my writerly essence in the voice, and then didn't bother to revise much at all.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Writerly Dilemma
For those of you who follow this blog and happen to be beta readers (*coughfamilycough*) of my series and don't want spoilers, stop reading now. For those of you who follow this blog and do not actually share DNA with me and intend on reading my series when I eventually publish it...Well, first of all: ohmygoshiloveyou and second of all, stop reading if you don't want spoilers.
That being said, here's my dilemma: I hate book three. Those of you who know me in real life have heard me bitch about book one in much the same way but it's different, I swear. I am just plain tired of book one because I have rewritten it countless times and edited it even more (and I'm still not done with it). I love book two. Book two is full of awesome. It's exciting, it's sad, and then it's exciting all over again. Book three...well, the plot elements are necessary, but they are also something I am deeply struggling with.
That being said, here's my dilemma: I hate book three. Those of you who know me in real life have heard me bitch about book one in much the same way but it's different, I swear. I am just plain tired of book one because I have rewritten it countless times and edited it even more (and I'm still not done with it). I love book two. Book two is full of awesome. It's exciting, it's sad, and then it's exciting all over again. Book three...well, the plot elements are necessary, but they are also something I am deeply struggling with.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Writerly Confidence
An odd title for a blog about receiving my first rejection letter, but there it is. Yup--I got my first rejection in today! Let me just start off by saying that I really hate the term "rejection letter" because it has such an obvious negative connotation. Rejections are personal. They are usually synonymous with heartbreak and can lead to some pretty overwhelming feelings of insecurity.
Rejection letters from literary agents are not necessarily personal. They might write you personally, but that's not what I mean. It doesn't mean that they think you are devoid of talent or that they think you are the lamest writer in the world with no hopes of selling your book whatsoever. It just means that they don't think they can sell your book. Maybe it didn't speak to them. Maybe they already have three dozen other YA fantasy novels they are trying to work. Whatever their reasons for rejecting your query, the bottom line is that they didn't think it would be a good fit. And you really have to ask yourself the question: Would I want someone who doesn't really believe in my novel as much as I do trying to sell it? The answer should be a firm "no" possibly with a few expletives for emphasis.
Rejection letters from literary agents are not necessarily personal. They might write you personally, but that's not what I mean. It doesn't mean that they think you are devoid of talent or that they think you are the lamest writer in the world with no hopes of selling your book whatsoever. It just means that they don't think they can sell your book. Maybe it didn't speak to them. Maybe they already have three dozen other YA fantasy novels they are trying to work. Whatever their reasons for rejecting your query, the bottom line is that they didn't think it would be a good fit. And you really have to ask yourself the question: Would I want someone who doesn't really believe in my novel as much as I do trying to sell it? The answer should be a firm "no" possibly with a few expletives for emphasis.
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