An Interview with Yours Truly

Hi, everyone! I got interviewed this week over at the Teens Can Write, Too! blog, so if you're interested, please check it out! Here's the link:

http://teenscanwritetoo.wordpress.com/2012/06/08/if-you-had-an-agent-at-15/

It's got some false advertising, though...I literally turned sixteen the day John posted the interview. Look at me, lying about my age already. I'm off to go look for gray hairs and wrinkles now.

Top Ten Mishaps--um, Events of My Sophomore Year

Sophomore year is OVER. And I can seriously say that I couldn't have asked for a better year. So, I thought I'd write a post about the top ten stupid/hilarious/unbelievable/gooey events the past school year (because, let's face it, as teenagers we measure our lives in school years, not in actual years).

10: In Global Studies, on Columbus Day:
Teacher: Okay, guys, let's talk about Columbus!
Classmate: Oooooh! Wasn't he the guy who rode through America shouting that the British were coming?!

9: Passed our state's WKCE test with high enough scores to exempt most of my exams. Pretty sweet. (Still had to dissect a fetal pig for Human Anatomy and Physiology, though. Teacher wanted us to have the experience. *shudder*).

8. Legend of Korra premiere! I know, I'm such a dork. But The Last Airbender was seriously my favorite show when I was younger (okay, fine, on occasion I still do watch it with my little bro and sis...), and there was no way I was going to miss the new series. It's not as great as the original...but still pretty epic, no?

7. The Hunger Games premiere. I had seriously started counting down to it in March of freshman year. And it was worth it. I had plans to sneak out of my second-story bedroom window and pay one of my guy friends to drive me to the theater, but I chickened out. Boo.

6. Performance of Bach's Concerto in F Minor in a Big Fancy Concert Hall. See, I'd originally learned this for a concerto competition, but I ended up losing to a 24-yr old with a trombone. So since I didn't get to feature with a symphony orchestra, my piano teacher signed me up to play in this Big Fancy Televised Concert. I even recycled my prom dress for it and everything.

5. Tennis season. I only joined the team last summer because I needed a sport for college applications. And I was horrible when I'd started out. Like, seriously. I'd never really played before. But by the end of the season, I was our number two JV, and officially Good At A Sport Besides Swimming. Chances of making varsity this year are fairly high :)

4. Started social networking. Which I hadn't really considered doing for my book before my agent mentioned it. See, I have this issue with fads. So I never made a Facebook, never wore Silly Bandz (because they were RIDICULOUS), etc. But since social networking is so integral to the industry now, I kind of, you know, had to start tweeting and blogging, and it's seriously been so. Much. Fun.

3. Found a critique partner who actually, you know, CRITIQUES. I'd given my manuscript to two of my friends before, and while I love them to death, they didn't actually give me any helpful advice. Also started a blog with the fabulous CP in question, which you should totally check out: forloveofya.blogspot.com. Go there! Please.

2. Growing as a writer. Manuscript was rewritten...eight times this year? I'm very glad to say that I can look back and see that my writing has improved. It's encouraging :)

1. And the absolute highlight of my year...Finding an agent!!! :D Words cannot describe how amazing THE OFFER and THE CALL were. So. Unbelievably. Cool. I actually got the offer while I was in school, too! I mean...um...I totally wasn't on my phone at school or anything...

So that's it! This year really has been amazing. But that got me thinking...graduation was today, and of course the cliche "best for years of your life!" was thrown around about a million times. This year WILL NOT be the best I'll ever have (um, God forbid that I should count videos of heart transplants and pig dissections among the best in my life). So...junior year, no pressure or anything, but I expect you to be absolutely freaking epic. :D

Word Watchers (My MS's Diet Plan)

I know, I know, I promised to post the second part of my querying rant last week...but I got caught on other (less fun) stuff. Exams are coming up, tennis preseason is grueling, clubs need to be wrapped up, newspaper articles need to be planned for next year and new staff must be chosen, church functions have to be taken care of for the summer, piano competitions need to be prepared for, and then there's jazz band concerts and AP homework and summer job forms...gah. I'm tired.

So. I know I promised more about the querying process--and it'll come, hopefully sometime soon. But recently, my agent informed me that I need to cut about 20-25K from my MS...which wasn't a surprise, but it still left me feeling somewhat helpless as I stared at my overweight novel. So today I'd like to talk about the surgery table--the terrifying process of cutting words from the manuscript.

Yes, it's hard. Yes, it makes you want to cry (not that I do, of course. *sniffle*) to slice away words you had invested so much time in. But I've known from the beginning that my novel needed to go on a Word Watchers diet and lose some of that padding...I've just been putting it off, telling myself that, you know, I'd do it later. Eventually.

My agent's exact words to me: "Well, now it's later!"

Me: "Aw, boo."

So...here marks the beginning of a long, painful, unavoidable process of revising once again, only this time, I'm strictly NOT ALLOWED to add words. Seriously. I wrote it in all caps on my whiteboard and everything. This is happenin', guys. (I'm hoping that if I keep telling myself that, it actually will happen. Positive reinforcement. Though, I got up yesterday morning at five to cut, and ended up adding a thousand words instead. But. Thinkpositivethinkpositivethinkpositive).

My posts might be a bit sporadic from now on, though. I was kind of hoping I'd have more time this summer, but after drawing up a Master Calendar (Summer Edition), it looks like between guiding my MS through a Word Watchers diet, working, summer gym, tennis practice, AP Chem/History/Lit homework, SAT/ACT studying...OH, COME ON. I JUST WANT ENOUGH TIME TO SLEEP IN FOR ONE DAY. ONE. IS THAT REALLY TOO MUCH TO ASK?!

Oh! And I almost forgot: I've recently started a new blog with the fabulous Mark O'Brien. Go check it out! forloveofya.blogspot.com

Querying! (Part I)

It's almost the one-year anniversary of the day I started querying! And since summer is a popular time to query agents (and to mark the occasion), I thought I'd put my meager opinions out there for all of you who will be sending out your queries soon.

When I started out, I had literally no idea of what I was doing. I wasn't clear on what an agent did, or why I needed one besides the fact most publishing houses don't accept unsolicited manuscripts anymore. I didn't know what websites to use or how to connect with people who were on the same step of the process as I was (or that I needed to connect with other people). I didn't know what a query letter was, much less how to write one. (If this describes you, go peruse around www.agentqueryconnect.com or www.querytracker.net Or even if it doesn't describe you. Those two websites are freaking amazing).

So. I kind of just...did it. Trial and error. Which was very, very stupid. Because my query letter sucked. And I queried all of my top agents first. And I got rejected, again and again and again...

So how do you write a query letter? Well, they usually consist of a hook, a paragraph with the premise and conflict of your manuscript, and a bio of yourself. The one that follows got me four full requests and an offer in two weeks, after querying nine agencies.

Dear <agent>, 

Faye defines her life in numbers.

Nine hundred children who are trapped together in a circle of mountains every year to fight a War that keeps the rest of the land at peace. Eight years since she watched a man with golden eyes murder her parents and swore to avenge them. Three faces she sees in her nightmares every night. Two ways she can die: by the betrayal of the Fate which should gift her with powers beyond all reckoning, or by being drained of every drop of the peculiarly colored blood that marks her as one of the Fated.

One boy that appears in her life without warning and undermines everything she believed in.

Arrogant and unreachable, Aro is one of the enemy king’s most prized soldiers. A cynic who knows the price of trust, he keeps a long list of things he doesn’t believe in: second chances, because people never change, regret, because it only comes when it’s too late to do anything but wallow, innocence, goodness, sanity…

And since he doesn’t believe that opinions are worth anything, he ignores his own when his king orders him to capture Faye during a War. He never expected to save Faye’s life. Faye, for her part, never expected to give him the chance to do so. And neither of them ever expected feel anything more than animosity for each other. But when a number of looming threats force them on an unprecedented attempt to cross the mountains, battling avalanches and seemingly insurmountable odds, neither can continue to ignore the similarities that are binding them together.

Wildflower (100,000) is the story of a girl who has learned to keep her heart locked away, a boy who knows that love is a weakness, and emotions that can be defined by neither numbers nor lists. Also, I thought you might like to know that the Lowenstein Agency and the L. Perkins Agency currently have the full manuscript, the Kristin Nelson Agency has a partial. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Best regards,

I pasted this here mostly for those of you who'd like to see an example query. Keep in mind, though, that I chose to break a number of rules with this. It's rather lengthy for a query , and it's written from two different POVs, and looking back, there are a lot of things I could have done better. This week's post was supposed to be something of an intro to this blog series, and next week I plan to dissect the above query a bit more and list a few things I wish I'd known before I started querying.

Um. So it's probably pretty obvious that I've never done a blog series, either. Or really given querying advice. So...maybe you guys could put questions in the comments or something? Suggestions?

Moping

Sometimes, I love my manuscript. I love my characters. I overlook all of my typos and spelling and grammatical errors. I love every single line.

Today is not one of those days.

Today is just...blech. I'm not letting  myself touch my manuscript , because I'll probably end up deleting the majority of it. In fact, right now, I'm tempted to email my agent and ask her if she'd be willing to wait for another revision. The problem is, right now I feel like my project is such crap that no amount of revising would make it worthy of publication. That maybe, I should just ditch it and start on something new because this is never, ever going to be good.

And on these days, I'm good for absolutely nothing. I mope around the house and stalk people on Twitter and glare at my computer screen and talk to myself until my mother asks if I have a boy hidden in my closet and mope some more. Usually, in my darker moods, I retreat to my room and lose myself inside that hopelessly mangled place I call my head, and I'm all sunshiney again when I come back. But. I can't do that right now. Which sucks.

So. Now I'm here. Moping on my blog, waiting for inspiration. And maybe it's coming. Maybe it isn't, and I'll wake up tomorrow newly in love with my setting and characters and plot. But what I've realized through the many ups and downs of the writing process is that I can't give up. I've promised my characters that I'd tell their story. And so I will.

I just don't feel good enough to do that right now. So I'm going to go take a nap instead.

This past week, I was told that most authors don't like what they write. But I don't believe that. True, I don't know a lot of authors. But I do know that no one would have the perseverance to see their novels through publication if they didn't love them. A lot.

How about you guys? How do you deal with these days? Or do you curl up and have conversations with yourself in the mirror? Not that I do that, of course. Um.

On a different note, I'd considered titling this post "Mopey Dick." I didn't end up going through with it, because it seemed too perverted, but I did succeed in amusing myself.

5 Things Do While You're Waiting

Personally, I think one of the hardest parts of being a writer is waiting.

And waiting...and waiting...and waiting...

Waiting on feedback from critique partners. Waiting for a response from the agents you've queried. Waiting to hear back from the editors your agent has submitted to (or waiting for that stage to begin). I have a hard time waiting for my nails to dry. Needless to say, my first few weeks of querying were absolutely excruciating. I checked my email hopefully every five minutes, only to be miserably disappointed every time. And waiting for responses to partials and fulls was even worse, since agents can take up to four months with those. At one point, I remember thinking to myself, "I wish Ms. Superagent would just reject my manuscript already. I'd rather have some response than...this."

And...my wish came true.

My parents always know when I'm waiting for something, because my phone bill for that month skyrockets. At school, I constantly check my email between classes (and during classes--that's me, living on the edge). In fact, I read the email in which my agent first offered representation during Global Studies, while I should have been doing research on Haiti. And being the suave, collected person I am, flipped out and yelped, "Oh, my God!" loud enough for my entire class to hear. Then I lied and pretended to be all excited about some piece of information I'd just discovered about Haiti's government (for those of you who read my last blog post, you know why).

Waiting sucks. It really does. And I've spent countless hours staring at my inbox, wasting time I could have used to do something, you know, somewhat productive. For those of you who are querying or waiting on something else, here are five things you can do instead of spending every waking moment wondering why you're being ignored:

1. Social Media: Go commiserate with people who are going through the same thing on Facebook, Twitter, whatever. A great writer's community is www.agentqueryconnect.com, which has a forum especially for the submission process.

2. Start working on your next project: Pour your efforts into a sequel or new idea. Remember that character who wouldn't leave you alone while you were working on your ex-WIP, but you had to ignore because you were already committed to a manuscript? Connect with them. Listen to their stories.

3. Get out: Go do all of the things you had to skip out on to entertain the voices in your head. Grab a few friends and go shopping, the movies, whatever. Personally, I go to the tennis court and play for a few hours, because I tend to get my best ideas when I'm physically active.

4. Watch a movie/Read a book: Give your creativity a rest and enjoy what someone else has poured their blood, sweat, and tears into. When I'm waiting on something, I always, always watch Get Smart. Steve Carell is my hero.

5. Connect with your book: When I'm writing or revising, I'm always on a strict schedule, and as soon as I'm done, I'm on a strict revising schedule. Waiting gives me time to make maps of my fantasy world, sketch out my characters and settings, compose music for the lyrics in my manuscript, and find other ways to make my world come alive.

A Map of My World!

Guys! I've just finished drawing a map of my the setting of my novel (I was bored waiting for my beta readers to get back to me, alright? Don't judge), and I'm so very proud of it that I'm posting it here!

I usually sketch out a map when I'm writing my first draft, especially if it's a fantasy novel, because it helps me visualize the setting and the characters' physical and emotional journeys. I've actually drawn this particular map three times already, and this time I think I've finally go it right. I was a bit more obsessive drawing/artsy-wise while working on this project because it offered a lot of opportunities for me to create visuals (I've also drawn out prison blueprints, building faces, and castle floor plans for my WIP), and frankly, I'm more attached to it emotionally. And for whatever reason, I enjoy drawing these maps :)