Wednesday 27 February 2013

An Unpaid Debt.


 In my pic of the winter TBR pile here, I never got to include Laura Jarratt’s Skin Deep. 

 I said that I’d update it when it arrived, which turned out to be last week. 

Although Winter is just about over, as it is a brilliant read, and was a nominee at the RoNA’s last night, I wanted to include a pic of it now.

A worthy nominee and close to my heart for the language it uses. (I do enjoy finding other writers who use the word “knob” when referring to characters, in their work...)


Monday 25 February 2013

Weapons of Mass...


Saw this on t'internet and thought of all writers everywhere.

 The design is available as prints, T-shirts, hoodies and the iPhone cover shown.

The artist is Bianca Green and the work is available at her site if you click her name above, or in the UK at Monde Mosaic, along with lots of other gorgeous art and designs. 

Made me smile.

Friday 22 February 2013

Out of (our) Control

Rejection is part of the life of every writer, at least every writer who wants to get their work out there. Whether it is negative feedback from a critique group, or the form response from an agent, we may not want it, but as writers we need to get used to it and be able to move on from it. (I've blogged before about the medicinal powers of chocolate in this scenario, here.)

So while I am currently in a round of submissions, I have concluded that it really is a game of chance that your work will meet the needs, timing and tastes of the person you have sent it to. One agent might love your voice, but not have room on their list for another work of your genre; another may have the room, but not connect with your voice. It’s so subjective and time dependent, both of which are completely out of the writer's control. Funnily, until you get the rejections, and read their notes, (if you are lucky enough to get some,) you don’t really get to see this.
Instead we, as delicate-souled creatives with a mean inner critic, naturally assume that unless told otherwise, that a No translates to “your writing sucks." Which, of course, cues much boo-hooing and chocolate consumption. There is nothing wrong with either the boo-hooing and the chocolate therapy; our hopes have been given a kicking, we are within our rights to vent and soothe. BUT once we've had that moment, we need to be a little more analytical.
Here is where I have got to. If an agent rejects The Work, it can be because;
1)    The work sucks. (Sorry, but we have to acknowledge this. Some work is bad. We've all seen bad work, (even in print which is gutting) and hopefully we recognize it when we produce it and either take the time to correct it or never let it see the light of day. Not everyone does. So, there must be a chance that this is why the work is rejected.)
2)    The work doesn’t suck, but it could be better, and deep down you know that, but you are so desperate to get it out there, that you hope that they'll overlook the rough bits which can be tightened up later, right? Sorry. No. The Work should be the best it can be, when you set it loose. You've worked so hard on it, it deserves its best shot, and I think agents can spot the ones that aren’t,  from beyond a mile off.)
3)    The agent doesn’t take this genre of work. (Simply, better homework should have been done.)
4)    The agent is not taking anymore clients. (How could you know this unless it manifestly says so on their website? This is not within your control.)
5)    The agent is a fool and cannot see the inherent brilliance of The Work. (Possible. JK Rowling got rejections. For more agents who must be kicking themselves, see here. Not all agents are equal. So let’s say that this rejection was a lucky escape. Phew! And it isn’t within your control either.)
6)    The agent LOVES your work, but already has four authors on their list in the same genre as The Work. (Agents need to spread their bets too, and give each of their existing authors a fair shot. This one is again, out of your control.)
7)    The market is saturated with your genre. (Again, this is out of your control. You are writing the story you need to tell and when you started there wasn’t much of it in the marketplace. In the years you’ve spent honing it, that has changed. You couldn’t know this. Sometimes that’s just timing.)
Let’s look at the stats. (Say it with the voice of a sports commentator, it works better.) Of those 7 reasons for rejection (which were the first to come into my head), only 3 are within the writer's control. That is less than 50 percent (Oohh look, I'm doing Maths again!! It's been a while). You cannot beat yourself up over something that was less than half in your control. 
You can however improve your chances, firstly by negating points 1 & 2. Then you take out point 3 by getting to know your prospective agents and what they are looking for. By sending your researched/stalked/pinpointed agents the very best you’ve got, the rest is out of your hands. You can only cross your fingers, invoke every superstition (yes, I sought out and touched a supposedly lucky heart-shaped stone in Venice recently. That’s just covering all bases, isn’t it?) and hope that the planets are in the right alignment for your wishes to come true.
With that in mind, perhaps the angst of submissions and the pain of rejection might diminish at at least a little? And then there is always the chocolate...

Good luck!

Monday 18 February 2013

A Beta Place


Anyone looking for a beta reader for their YA, MG or NA novel?
It isn’t always easy to find someone of the right age, or with knowledge of your genre, to cast an eye over your manuscript, who isn’t also looking for return feedback on their own work. Not that you are averse to reciprocating, but when you already have eight or more critique partners already, time can become short. (Eight would be ridiculous, by the way. Pick your faves and rediscover what breathing is like.) Or you might want someone new to evaluate it, someone who hasn't seen and suffered every verbal-zit in your WIP.
Well, worry no longer - I found YA Stands the other day, and WOO HOO!
There are lovely people out there in the ether, volunteering to Beta read your-ready-to-submit-but-want-a-final-opinion manuscript. For Free. Honestly. No strings. It’s a useful, supportive site in general, but this part just makes me feel a little bit fuzzy about the world and some of the people in it.
Just to summarise; giving up their time, for you, for free. How fab is that?
 (Fabber than the pun in the title, but I couldn’t resist. Apologies.)

Wednesday 13 February 2013

Love & Ideas


I don’t know if you believe in Love at First Sight. I'm not sure I do. (*Gasp!* Yes, I know blasphemy coming from a YA enthusiast, right? And today of all days. Shame on me.) If I’m honest then I lean towards it being Lust at First Sight and then if the relationship has legs we look back and think “Ahh yes, I knew instantly. There was that connection.”  Sometimes, the relationship doesn’t get past the initial investigation (that would be simply speaking in some cases) and sometimes the immediate attraction can’t cope with the pressure we put on it. I believe that the same can be said with the ideas we have for stories.

Recently Miss Snark’s First Victim wrote a blog where she described being stuck and the ideas not coming. One reader commented about the fragility of new ideas, that we need to hold them in delicate hands, rather than squeezing the b’jeezus out of them before they are strong enough to stand their ground. (I’ve paraphrased somewhat, but that’s about the bulk of it.)

So many of my own new ideas get crushed and abandoned because I expect them to do too much too soon, and I don’t allow the time just to investigate them and to let them blossom. I have been known to think that if they are strong enough, if they are truly The One, they’ll endure the pressure and emerge triumphant. Looking at it now, I suspect this is a misconception and also a self-perpetuating one at that.
What brought this home to me was a recent TV programme by Cherry Healy where she was looking at Dating habits. (Yes, I know. I should get out more.) One 30something woman was following a dating guide that had her challenged to obtain five phone numbers a week for six weeks. (Eek!) She said it was hard but it boosted her confidence and she went on lots of dates. Then, for Valentine’s Day, she wrote a letter to her "favourite", one of the earlier dates, telling him what she had been doing and inviting him over. She bought a cake and heart biscuits, she decorated her front room with balloons and she made him a “Number 1” rosette. She was literally bouncing with excitement. They had had ONE (1) date. Naturally the chap got spooked. The lady got “really cheesed off” with his response, stating he clearly wasn’t the right guy for her - like he had failed the big test. Cherry scarpered pretty quickly, mortified. Understandable. My toes were curling too.
 Whilst I concede that it is possible that there is Love at First Sight, just as you could immediately have The Big Idea, I think that the circumstances will have to be exceptional. More often things need a slower burn once the fuse is lit. Sometimes you meet someone through an established friend or through a new pursuit. Or there are those people who are friends first and things develop from there. Surely, when you take away the pressure, that’s the same way that lovely new ideas work too? True Love has to blossom, as do True Ideas.

Happy Valentine's Day!



Tuesday 12 February 2013

I {heart} ?

 My Spring TBR list is well under construction. (Three weeks weeks to go!!)  The books are sitting there on my shelf and I can't help looking at them, getting excited. (OK, so I might even have stroked them once or twice.)

It dawned on me yesterday that of the fifteen scheduled books, five- so a whole third- are by just two particular authors. I've also read two of their books this season.

Given it is Valentine's week, I thought I should 'fess up; I do believe I currently have writer crushes on John Green and David Levithan.   

But don't tell anyone, obviously. 

No, really. Shhhh...

Thursday 7 February 2013

Hitting capacity


I was reading a post by agent Rachelle Gardner the other day about guarding your creativity and how excessive blog-hopping can be detrimental to being able to focus on your own creative projects. (I say this, linking you over to that blog. Damn those links! So sneaky...) I have to agree. With each new technology there seems to be more and more fragmentation of our attention. It used to be that a cracking book could consume me and cloud my ability to write, but now there are all these other things that can take my time and fill my head. Twitter is addictive, the blog-hopping so difficult to resist and facebook would slay me. Don't get me wrong, some can be extremely inspiring or randomly give me the plot clue or blogging idea I have been looking for, but it is still constantly more for my head to contend with. How are the fledgling ideas supposed to have a chance to be heard, let alone mull and grow?

As Gardner concludes, we need to find a balance. How true.  I'm fairly sure I hit my brain capacity a while ago, especially after I had the kids. In this light I find I relate to Homer Simpson, with his "one thing in, one thing out" policy. I only hope that it isn't an important thing that drops as I allow something random in, but you never can tell, can you?  In addition, all of that is just the friction of social media versus creativity. Bung in those unexpected real-life issues and something has to give somewhere. I’m in that triple mix at the moment and if I can just stay mindful of it, I'll fight to make it the social media that suffers and not the writing.

So tell me, how do you set your balance and what are the things that you safeguard?

Monday 4 February 2013

#askagent

Just wanted to flag up an event that appears to happen many Sunday evenings on Twitter. I know that this goes on elsewhere on the planet under the same hashtag,  but this one, based on the UK market seems to be regular. 

 Literary agents Juliet Mushens (The Agency Group), Julia Churchill (The Greenhouse Literary Agency), Juliet Pickering (Blake Friedman) Jo Unwin (Conville &Walsh) and Molly Ker Hawn (The Bent Agency) in some combination, give up around 45 minutes to answer any questions tweeted at them, using the hashtag #askagent. The time can be a little variable, 8pm or 8.30pm GMT but it is there or there abouts (Seems agents have lives too. Who knew?)

It isn't always easy or cheap to meet agents, let alone to pound them with everything you wanted to know about agents and publishing, but this is a fab way to get a direct answer to those questions in a matter of minutes. (You can of course go through all the past questions searching Twitter via the hashtag, which will bring up questions from all over.)

At the very least it is worth lurking and following the questions. It's honest responses, it's free and you don't even have to leave the house.