Reader’s Block

 Let’s skip over the fact that I’ve failed to blog for nearly two years. Lots has happened! I started grad school. Switched to a very, very cool program. (I’m working on my MFA in Creative Writing at Stonecoast and am currently studying epistolary fiction and non-traditional novel forms.)

I’m currently 14 books into my 2022 reading year, and it’s going great so far. But my phone (Reddit) has been a huge distraction to prolonged focus. This issue started in the early days of the pandemic and hasn’t lessened. I have to choose my books carefully, and if I reach too hard for a “should read” book, I play game after game on my phone instead. (See, for example, <i>An American Marriage </i>. It’s good! But I know the read is going to hurt, which makes it hard for me to keep going.) 

Apparently, David Markson wrote a novel called </i> Reader’s Block</i>. I haven’t read it. But that title! Resonance. I’m adding the book to my thesis reading list for next semester. 

Hunger Games Birthday Party

I don't think of myself as creative.  I think of myself more as a reteller or a modify-er or an adapter than a creator of original content.  I'm not sure what it means to be original, exactly.  I write novels.  But, is any story truly original?  For Mother-Son Glow Night at the elementary school, my son and I wore all black instead of neon on all white.  We took bright tape and made ourselves into colorful stick figures--love those black lights.  But, maybe I saw a picture of something like that somewhere?  And, I throw birthday parties.  Before kids, Paul and I threw themed parties for holidays and Harry Potter book/movies launches.  These days, it's mostly kid parties.  We've hosted The Lion the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Peter Pan/Tinker Bell, Super Mario, How to Train Your Dragon, firefighter, My Little Pony, Alton Brown's Good Eats (okay, that was creative), Angelina Ballerina, Sing, Warrior Cats, and Harry Potter.

This January, we recreated The Hunger Games as a 13th birthday party.

When guests arrived, they wrote their names on slips of paper and dropped those into a glass bowl for the reaping. They each chose a district and decorated a jumpsuit based their district's specialization.  The kids got really creative!  They modeled their attire, and the most creative uniform earned its creator a prize.

The next activity was makeup.  Tributes made up themselves or each other, and they could stencil on tattoos, do a beauty makeup, or practice their camouflaging skills.  Another judging, another prize. (The prizes were framed posters of quotes from the books.)

Now that they were all made-up and costumed, they had one-on-one interviews with Caesar Flickerman.  This activity was a version of the cannot-tell-a-lie/don't smile game.  Caesar shared with the audience one ridiculous thing about each tribute, and the tribute had to pretend it was true and elaborate on their supposed skill--without cracking up.  This was hilarious.  The winner (a girl who apparently chews others' fingernails when nervous) won a prize.

Enough stalling.  Time for the arena!  Decked out in their clothes-protecting coveralls, tributes entered the arena (about an acre and a half encompassing our yard and the yards of our two closest neighbors).  They were each armed with colored chalk powder (think Holi or a color run).  A pile of silver bags lay in the middle of the driveway at the start--the cornucopia.  Silver bags containing additional weaponry (liquid/powdered chalks and squirt bottles/guns), water bottles, and beef jerky lay scattered around the arena.  Every 15 minutes or so marked a new day, and if contestants went two days without finding food or water, they died.  Dead tributes--lost to hunger or battle--could reenter the arena as "mutts."  The contest lasted about 6 days.

Afterwards, cold kids warmed up with hot chocolate inside, and we moved on to the Victor's Feast.  In addition to cake and ice cream, attendees enjoyed capital stew with wild rice, "Peeta" bread, Prim's goat cheese, and nightlock berries (blueberries and blackberries).  In the center of the table was a tiny, glass goblet containing an emesis inducer. (It was just vinegar, and the kids enjoyed daring each other to try it.)

Once full, they moved on to "tributes for the Capital," or gifts for the birthday girl.  As they left, guests took silver "sponsor gifts" home with them.  These were the party favors and contained soup, bread from Mellark bakery, burn ointment, bandages, tracker-jacker repellent, and tracker-jacker antidote.  They also got a photo taken immediately after The Hunger Games, when they were muddy, cold, and covered in colored chalk.

We had a blast!

I Have an Agent!

I enjoyed the querying process, but I’m done!  In November, I received offers of representation for my latest manuscript, Opposite of Down. And, in early December, I signed with an amazing agent and agency.

I‘m thrilled to announce that I’m now represented by Naomi Davis at BookEnds Literary Agency.

My favorite Christmas present this year is the editorial letter from Naomi. The changes she recommends for my manuscript are manageable, in line with my vision for the book, and will make it so much stronger. ❤️❤️❤️

Back to revising.

Writing from Hobby to Career--Part 2

I've always wanted to be a writer.  When I was little, I wanted to be a doctor.  (And I was already writing stories.)  By the time I was a teenager, I wanted to be a doctor-writer.  I read my mom's copy of Prince of Tides and imagined my days as both a psychiatrist and an author.  I went away to college (full pre-med track but also an English Lit major) and saved all my science textbooks and notes for future use in fiction.

Fortunately, I realized that "it sounds fun and also might make for good stories" wasn't good enough reason to go to medical school.  (If it were free, I'd totally still go.  Medical school still sounds fun to me! But I still don't want to actually work as a doctor.)

I want to work as a writer.  So, here's how I took my writing from hobby status to career status.

Hobby status.  I wrote novels (4+ of them), short stories, and essays.  I blogged daily.  I threw myself into NaNoWriMo.  I drafted in a cafe while my daughter was at preschool.  I participated in a critique group.  I read a lot.  I followed industry blogs and websites.  I took classes on campus and online.  I joined a writing group and attended a convention.  Pretty serious hobby, right?

Career status.  I got more serious about all of the above.  I wrote three more novels, each time identifying my weakest tendencies and attacking them.  I don't like hurting my precious characters?  Fine.  Next novel has DEAD CHILDREN in the backstory.  My close-third-person perspective isn't close enough?  Fine.  Next novel is first person, present tense.  My pacing is soggy?  Fine.  I'll outline a novel I love and map my own outline/character/story to the pacing of the published novel I like.  I began writing year 'round, not just when it fit into my schedule.  I threw myself into a weekly critique group then joined a monthly critique group on top of that.  I submitted work to contests and first page reads for feedback.  I had headshots taken and a website developed.  I became more thoughtful and intentional in my social media presence.  I joined a second writing organization (and a goaltenders group and a writing accountability group).  I started querying my critiqued manuscripts to agents.

But the biggest switch was mental.  I stopped thinking of writing as a "some day" activity.  I stopped putting everything else in my life first.  I stopped apologizing for the time and money I spend on writing.  I started acting like writing was my job.  "I won't be here when you get home from school, because I'll be with my writing group.  Let yourself in and text me--I'll be home soon."  "No, I'm sorry, I can't volunteer in the school library on Tuesday afternoons--I'm in critique group then."  I began thinking of myself as a writer.

And you know what?  I am a writer.  I have many career goals I have yet to achieve, but I'm doing the work I can do to achieve them.  My writing is far better than it was ten years ago, but hopefully nowhere near as good as it will be ten year from now.

In the meantime, as they say, "Writers write."

Writing from Hobby to Career--Part I

Twitter is full of writers feeling guilty for not writing.  In the evenings.  Over weekends.  On vacation.

Lots of people in more traditional jobs work from home on evenings/weekends/vacations.  Does your career commonly have the "I should always be working" guilt that writing has for many authors?

I have a hypothesis about why so many writers feel this way.

Most of us start writing as a "hobby" before we go pro.  We write late at night, after our families are asleep.  Or we wake early to write in the pre-dawn quiet.  We might borrow thirty minutes of our lunch breaks at work.  Grab the opportunity provided by waiting in the car-rider pick-up line at school.  We plot during exercise.  Draft during kids' TV shows.  Edit aloud in the shower.

And most authors never fully leave that space.  Many keep a "day" job until they retire.  But, even if an author is fortunate enough to be able to chose to make writing their only job, the mentality of writing fitting into every free moment, every liminal space, every unstructured corner of our lives is hard to lose.

Our practice of writing is from its inception entwined with borrowed, stolen, and found moments.

NaNoWriMo

It's National Novel Writing Month!  And I'm, well, I'm writing.  Hopefully 50,000 new words before December 1st.  I don't start a new project each November.  What I do is work on a novel throughout the spring/summer/fall then finish a first draft in a furious 50,000 word burst.

In some ways, that's easier than doing a proper NaNoWriMo--I already know my characters, voice, and story.  On the other hand, beginnings are easiest and most exciting.  Middles are challenging--keep them tight and not at all soggy!  And endings are tricky--pick up all the threads you've introduced intentionally or subconsciously and tie all the pieces together.

In December, I'm a soggy noodle.  A soggy noodle with a lot of Christmas/end-of-year stuff to accomplish.  But it's worth it to have written a book a year for the past few years.  I revisit each chapter as I send it to my critique group, so the draft is solid by the end of the chapter-level-critique process each spring.

I love the camaraderie of critique groups, writing groups, and accountability groups--including NaNoWriMo--in what can be a solitary occupation.  I wouldn't change a thing.

Is Querying Hard?

That's what writers who've been through the process say.  "Querying is hard."  I always thought they meant that rejection is hard.  And that's true--rejection is not a lot of fun.  I wrote novels (and edited and critiqued and workshopped them) for twelve years before I was both a strong enough writer and also ready to weather the waves of rejection.

Still, the process seemed overwhelming, and I wasn't sure how to start.  Bearing in mind that I'm new to querying and am far from expert at the process, here's how I've approached the task of finding an agent.  The below notes are for fiction only.

1) Complete your novel.  Revise it.  Work it through critique groups and beta readers.  Enter contests to get feedback.  Polish it until it shines.  When you can't make it any better without professional/editorial feedback, move on to step two.

2) Why query agents?  If you want to indie/self publish, or you're pursuing small-press publication, you can maybe skip querying agents with your manuscript.  But, if you're hoping to be published by a major publishing house, you'll probably need a literary agent.  Most editors/big houses do not accept unsolicited submissions.

3) According to QueryTracker.net, there are about 2,000 literary agents.  Which one is right for you?  And how do you know?  I started at QueryTracker.  Agents > Search for Agents > Advanced Search > Genres.  Selecting my genre narrowed 2000 agents to 117.  This is a far more manageable number.  What next?

4) One of my critique partners, John Frain, spent much of last year searching for an agent.  He created a table to help keep track of various factors to help him determine which agents were likely to be good fits for his work and career goals.  I took his table, tweaked the headings, and asked Paul to make it into a spreadsheet for me.  Now, bear in mind that my categories are completely arbitrary and possibly wrong.  I needed a place to start.  The first two columns are Agent Name and Agency.  I've removed those from the attached image, but I've found including Agency as a separate column is critical.  Many agencies have "only query one agent at a time" or "a no from one is a no from all" policies, so being able to sort by Agency is important in the AgentTracker spreadsheet.

5) Now, I know who to query first!  I started with "matches" of 8 and above and am working my way thought the list, sending several queries a week.  But, how do I keep track of all my submissions?  That's a different spreadsheet.  Again, Agent Name and Agency columns are redacted.  Also, some agents use QueryManager rather than email for submissions.  I include those links within my Agent Query Submissions spreadsheet, but removed them for this image.  I use colors to differentiate the two different novels I'm querying right now.  (I've also learned to send only one project to each agent.)

6) The query!  Finally!  I worked on my query letters for weeks.  I read Query Shark and other industry blogs/columns until my eyes blurred.  I went through several drafts of each letter.  I ran them past my critique partners and, for one project, a professional editor.  I continually tweak the letters.  But even a solid query letter isn't enough.  In my experience, a personalized query earns more personalized responses (both personalized rejections and requests for more).  By "personalized query," I mean more than simply addressing the letter to its intended recipient.  That's a given.  I mean: I'm querying you because you represent this author whose career I admire and here's why.  Or: your website says you're looking for projects like this and here's how my project does that.

Populating the AgentTracker spreadsheet took me easily 60 hours of work.  But each customized query takes the better part of an hour by itself.

So far, perhaps because I was so ready for it, the rejection hasn't been too hard to handle.  Still, querying is hard (time-consuming, creatively demanding) work.  It's also--dare I say it?--a lot of fun.