I Go All Advicey

 

I still feel so new at this being an author thing. I know I’ve been writing for quite some time, have labored over my novel, have worked hard to learn the craft, and have managed to land myself a two-book publishing deal for my debut young adult novel, but I still feel a bit like an imposter. That’s why I’ve hesitated to offer any sort of writing advice, because who am I to tell people…well, anything?

 

But there is one thing I know plenty about, and today I’ve decided to boot myself off the cliff, Thelma and Louise style, as I lay some advice on you.

 

Distraction and procrastination are, of course, two of the greatest enemies of creativity. The reality of the technological age is our medium (writing) coexists on a machine rife with distraction (hello, interwebs). As authors, there is now an expectation that we create and maintain a web presence, and when we are already predisposed to distra—ooh! Shiny!

 

Sorry, what was I saying?

 

Right. Distractions and procrastination feed off one another, playing into our natural tendencies to doubt our abilities. We’re a neurotic bunch (see agent Rachelle Gardener’s spot-on description:http://www.rachellegardner.com/2012/05/bad-habits-of-authors/ ), easily falling prey to self-doubt, which only fuels the procrastination monster. And the aforementioned web presence we must develop can lead to further procrastiona—excuse me for a sec. I need to go check Facebook. Oh, and somebody mentioned me on Twitter. Plus, I haven’t checked my Klout score in like three days. How many hits have I had on my blog today?

 

Sorry.

 

The distraction monster may still get the best of me at times, but I have one such monster I’ve recently figured out how to defeat. The research monster.

 

Research is an important part of storytelling, and no place for shortcuts. If you are not accurate in the realistic/verifiable details in your world-building, you lose the trust of your reader and cast doubt over the entire world you’ve painstakingly created. As a reader, I hate to find glaring errors in the logic or details of a story. To me, it shows the author didn’t care enough to do the extra work, and when you don’t do your research, it shows. Publishing is a competitive world, so why give your potential audience a reason to put your book down and grab something else on the shelf (virtual or brick and mortar). There are, literally, millions of choices.

 

It’s a delicate balance, the writing game. Most writers have day jobs (or happen to be stay at home parents, like yours truly), families, social lives, and this passion for writing that we cram in wherever and whenever we can. When you throw the necessary research into the mix, it makes the task of getting the words out of your head and onto the paper seem daunting.

 

And we’re perfectionists. We want the words we put to page to be perfect, living in a constant state of disappointment (and occasional elation, when we hit the sweet spot and manage to impress ourselves with our storytelling). This constant struggle for perfection feeds the monster, and she’s always hungry.

 

Research can derail writing momentum, so what do you do? Because if you’re anything like me, you can’t just give yourself permission to skip over the research bit and ride the writing momentum. But if you let the momentum slip away, you face the very real danger of getting stuck in research mode. Forever.

 

It becomes the perfect excuse to unchain the distraction monster. Well, I need to interview a physics professor about this next chapter, so I guess I’ll stop writing for the day—oh, look! A new cute baby video!

 

It really is as simple (and as hard) as just giving yourself permission to not have every detail just so in your first draft.

 

Crazy, I know, but it works.

 

For example, in my current WIP, I have the following sentence written:

 

Blah, blah, blah, medical stuff and lingo and so on. Interview a medical professional so you don’t sound like Dr. Drake Ramore.

I stared at the page for a moment, horrified, and then, guess what? I got a lot done. It was empowering to realize that first drafts are just that. Imperfect. Sometimes terrible. First drafts are not finished products, and if you allow yourself to get stymied by research at that stage, you will never get to a final draft.

 

Allow yourself to write it wrong. Just get the sentiment on paper. Keep going. The details of what a patient would see upon awaking in an intensive care unit just don’t matter in your first draft. It’s okay to get it wrong, so long as you make sure, later on, to get it right.

 

So stop what you’re doing—right now—and insert some senseless drivel into your WIP. And get on with the writing! I promise, your manuscript will survive.*

 

 

 

*But save a backup file, just to be sure. And if something horrible happens, it’s TOTALLY not my fault.

Big News!

It is every aspiring writer’s dream to have this great news, and I am thrilled to announce I have accepted a two-book publishing deal with Georgia McBride’s fabulous new imprint, Month 9 Books!

My young adult novel, Atman Station (working title) is slated to hit the shelves in December 2013.

I’m still in a bit of shock over the whole thing. It’s a strange feeling when you’ve been working at something for so long, and then all of a sudden it happens. I am one of the lucky few, I know, and I am immensely grateful for this opportunity.

I’m trying to find the right words to explain what this means to me, and being completely unable to do so is an odd feeling. As a writer it’s my job to express feelings and emotions in written form (duh), yet I find myself at a loss, even after a week. It is my hope that once the shock wears off, I’ll be better equipped to convey in a coherent way what this all means to me.

I’ll know it’s time when I finally get rid of this look I’ve been wearing this past week:

I’m Going Slightly Mad…

Join me in a journey into madness…mwahahahaha!

*ahem*

Sorry about that. What I meant to say was, today I feel like discussing the process of querying agents, as I am in a swirling vortex of query-induced crazy right now. Hopefully you feel like reading about it, otherwise you’ve picked the wrong day to visit my blog (although I do have some other lovely posts which might be of interest to you).

Based on my—albeit very limited—experience, this is a process which can turn the most sane and rational person (like me, for example. Stop laughing. I said stop it!) into an obsessive, paranoid, irrational, impatient mess.

And I blame the internet.

For those who don’t know, let me give you a little set-up on what it is to query. Let’s say I have toiled for many long years (months, days) and have in my hands the most perfect, brilliant manuscript, destined to be the next Harry Potter/Twilight/Percy Jackson. What do I do next? Well, after many, many rewrites (at least one) and lots of peer critiques (grandma loves it), my next step is to find an agent who will a) see what a super-genius I am, b) help me polish my manuscript until it shines and c) find my work a home with a publisher, thus making me the next sparkly vampire sensation, and making us both gazillions of dollars. There are about a thousand other things agents do, but I’m just knocking it down to the basics, here.

So how do I get an agent to recognize what a brilliant writer I am? First off, I write a query letter, summing up my novel in a neat little package. Some agents wish to see a sample chapter or two, some want a synopsis—essentially a slightly longer query, which hits the story’s high-points from beginning to end.

As you can imagine, agents get a lot of queries.

A LOT.

Some get over 100 per day. So, in addition to all the stuff they do for their clients, meetings with editors, and so on, they sift through this daily deluge, known as the “slush pile,” searching for the next great writer.

We aspiring novelists, all absolutely certain we are that next great writer, send off our queries and quickly descend into needy, demanding shells of our former selves (Excuse me while I go check my inbox. No, really…). And this is where I blame the internet.

You see, it used to be a writer would type up their query, sample pages and synopsis and mail it off with a SASE to said agent. And repeat.

And then wait.

*crickets*

Months later, the writer would receive their submission back with a postcard saying “Thanks, but no thanks,” or words to that effect. Or, if they were supersupersuperduper lucky, they might get a request for a partial or full manuscript to review, and the mailing/waiting process would begin again. In this sort of process, I have to imagine you can’t obsess that much. I mean, you kind of have to let it go. It’s out of your hands, and there’s no way to really follow the process along.

In the age of the interwebz, however, most agents allow (and many prefer) e-queries, which can often result in near-immediate responses. Within hours, or days, you can get that rejection sling-shotted back to your inbox.

But here’s the problem. The refresh button.

No reply yet? WHAT? It’s been two days!

*refresh*

Huh. I wonder if something’s wrong with my email. Or theirs. What if they didn’t get it?? What if I’m in their spam folder with all the Nigerian Princes??

This is not a healthy way to live.

Another problem? Social media. We now have access to celebrities, CEOs, and yes, agents, like never before. Most agents are on Twitter, which can be really handy for the aspiring writer. Tweets like “I am now caught up with all submissions through January 24^th” give the submitter an idea of how long they may have to wait. But for an obsessive narcissist, you could find yourself doing this:

Why are they tweeting about kittens when they haven’t responded to my query yet??? Hey! Nachos aren’t THAT important, especially while I’m waiting for a reply!!

Whoa. Take a step back there, sister.

We’re not always the precious snowflake we think we are.

I’d love to keep chatting, but I really have to go check my inbox. It’s been at least five minutes…