My Agent Told Me To Make A Blog

What does it mean for an author to be on submission? In a word, angst. Being "on submission" means your agent has pitched your manuscript to editors at publishing houses. As the author, literally the only thing you have to do is wait. And you know what? It's balls. I have no idea when I will get an offer. It could be tomorrow, next month, or next year. I get updates from my agent about rejections, so toward the end of the month, if I haven't heard anything, I know it's only going to be bad news. Meanwhile, a bunch of super big-name publishing houses have my MS in their hands, and I'm sitting here imagining them reading it, and freaking out. Did they read it already? Did they reject it already? Is it still in a pile to be read? Submissions is both better and worse than querying. Querying, when you're soliciting agents to represent you, is generally a first foray into the professional world. At that point, you have no idea if what you've written ...

I'm very fortunate that the non-writers in my life take me and my work seriously (for the most part). Many are not so lucky. If you have a writer friend, here are some gentle reminders... Writing is hard work. - I don't know why writing isn't given the same respect as say, practicing to be a concert pianist or a gourmet chef, but it does require just as much practice, training, understanding of theory, and hours of hard work. It's not as simple as sitting down and transcribing your thoughts onto the page. It's a complicated craft, and a single sentence can represent years of studying theory and wordsmithing. We need community, critique, lots of books to read, and if possible, events and mentors IRL. If you know someone who is working on a novel, respect how much time and dedication it requires. Writing takes a long time. - Similarly, but a slightly different point: a novel takes a long time to write, especially if it's your first. Practiced writers take mo...

I planned to write this post ages ago, but I had a hard time deciding what to say. Then, as time passed, my daily schedule kept changing, and kept changing, and I still have no idea what I'll ultimately settle into. I decided that rather than making one post about my process, it would end up an ongoing series of updates with what I've tried and what I've liked. Because, surprisingly or unsurprisingly, writing really doesn't like to obey a schedule. When I still had the Day Job, I often daydreamed what my perfect writing schedule would be like. I'd start every morning with a critique, to get the engines warmed up, then have several hours of writing time. After lunch would be an hour or two for dog walks, parrot training, house work, groceries, and all those menial not-writing things, then back at it for afternoon writing. In the evening I'd practice the cello somewhere after dinner, and read for an hour before bed. And I totally wrote out this whole thing very ...

Aksdfajhdslkfalksfkjs I don't know what to say. I'm at a loss for words. I edited, and edited. I got an agent! And we edited more, and even more. We fixed the middle, the ending, the main character, the love interest--then we fixed all the problems created by accident while doing so. I got tired of friends and coworkers constantly asking if I'd sold my book yet. The last round of revisions took me more than five months. Some of that included job-quitting and house-moving, so technically more like three months. Still, there was a lot of rewriting, stitching together, throwing out chapters, and a constant worry of, "Oh god I've made it worse, she's going to hate it." It's probably 90% changed from the first draft by now. After I sent it back to Agent, my timing was so wonderful, two other clients also sent manuscripts back at the same time, and on top of it Agent had to go and get married, sheesh! Understandably, mine took a while to get to. Wh...

I've finally realized what the worst, hardest, most frustrating thing about writing is for me. It took a few instances across a few different projects, but I've just noticed this is consistently the thing that sticks me in one place for weeks on end. Editing a chapter to finally work, then realize it doesn't work and have to scrap it. Multiple times in a row. Ending of my first book? A month of rewriting and throwing out chapters. Beginning of my second book? Another month of rewriting and throwing out chapters. In the drafting stages, I can get through it by reminding myself that I can fix all this crap later. In the editing stages, it is "later," and time to fix that crap. It's never the same issue twice, so it's not like I can predict and avoid. I suppose it's related to the fact that I largely "discovery write," and ideas crystallize as words form on the page. I may write through an entire scene, and then realize near the end there...

The past few months have been adventurous. We bought a house, which involved all the annoying house-buying paperwork and errands that you'd expect. We then moved house, which of course involved all the annoying moving that you'd expect. We have an additional cat, who's the best cat of all so far. I set up an office, with a new desk, chair, and shelving that I assembled all myself. And a beanbag chair that the cats like to monopolize. As far as reading goes, I've started American Gods , finished the Writing Excuses anthology Shadows Beneath , and am working through a collection of Lovecraftian Cthulhu-mythos short stories. Oh! and I quickly reread A Wrinkle in Time in preparation for the movie. Writing-wise, I've made a lot of important progress. I was stuck on a major revision for months. Like, point-of-nervous-breakdown stuck-- so much had to be changed, gutted, and rewritten. There were certain chapters that took weeks of writing, throwing out, and rewr...

You know how I love writing and do pretty much nothing else with my spare time? Maybe you didn't know that. I'll bring you up to speed: if I'm not writing, I'm reading about writing, or in a chat room with other writers, or critiquing someone's writing, or watching lectures on writing, or just generally... talking and thinking about writing. The best days at work are when I have a big space without appointments so I can get some progress done on my draft while I'm there. It didn't take long for me to figure out that I want to eventually be a writer. My criteria for this started far-off, and gradually shrank... "I'll quit my job when I'm making more money from writing than from vet." "I'll quit when I've sold at least a couple books and have a steady income." "I'll switch to writing when I've sold a solid 3 books, so I know the first two aren't flukes." "I'll quit my job after I pu...

I'm sorry for missing my post last week. I'd like to blame it on a scheduling snafoo or some dramatic emergency at work, but the truth is I just plain didn't do it. I didn't feel like writing because my husband flew off to China for work that morning, which is something he does every few months. He'll be gone for one or two weeks, and theoretically the quiet evenings would be the perfect time to get tons of writing done. The reality is that my routine gets so disrupted, I spend the entire time moping, eating junk food, and watching Grey's Anatomy. As cliche as it is, I can't sleep well when he's not here, because the bed is big and empty and we don't watch our shows together at night--and by the end of the week I'm sleep-deprived and running on fumes. This got me thinking about how much my relationship with my husband influences my writing. There's the real-life stuff (how he affects the daily routine, his role in idea-generation and prob...

If you are a writer without a writing group, go get one now. I have peers who go to regular face-to-face groups, and I was forever jealous of them. Online critiquing is advantageous because you can more easily find writing partners who match your tastes and skill level, as opposed to whomever is geographically close. That's where the magic of voice conferencing comes into play! Here's my suggestion: meet your perfect writing partners online through critiquing websites, then create your own face-to-face-at-a-distance group! My writing group took a bit of doing to get off the ground. It started with me and one other person occasionally brainstorming over Skype. We then invited another and had a few haphazard discussion meetings, which petered out as we got busy. Finally, we invited a fourth person to round us out, and I decided to put my foot down and make us a schedule. Now, we meet every Sunday at a designated time (which took some figuring out, between the US, Canada, Sw...

What's the most important thing you learned about writing last year? Whether it's about writing in general, your own personal method, or even some small piece of advice that wound up being tremendously helpful. I learned heaps last year, and I think that's true for every year. Let's face it, there's a lot to learn about writing, and it doesn't stop! I think I know what I'm going to pick. I certainly became more familiar with the industry, elements of good queries, how to format a MS, and how to research agents. Technique-wise, I started coming to terms with the fact that I'm not much of an outliner . Content-wise, I discovered that tons of agents and publishers are actually really interested in more diversity, and my tendency for LGBT leads isn't a hindrance but, in fact, a positive. But honestly, the thing that made the biggest difference, the most memorable eureka moment, was what I expressed in my post about the difference in critques betwee...

I'm back on this first day of the new year, with a huge stockpile of hopefully interesting blog posts, and we're going to kick off with some reflection! Last year was a big year for writing, for me. I finished my first MS, I queried my first agents, I talked to several real agents on the phone, and then I actually signed a contract with a fantastic agency. I also finally escaped the vestigial clutches of vet school reading burnout, and managed to read a bunch of great books, mostly by contemporary fantasy authors. So what are my hopes and plans for this year? See the Pull of Gravity polished up beyond my best dreams of how good it can be, and find it a home with an enthusiastic publisher. Finish up a second MS, my dark fantasy novel. Keep blogging consistently, and hopefully keep up the quality. Read, read, and read some more! Here's to a fresh new year, and lots of writing!

Writing is a shockingly intimate thing. Whenever I've gotten to know someone through writing, I've never been surprised at who they are. Say I Facebook friend them or start chatting in private messages--I seem to already know them. I'm not surprised by their opinions, their mannerisms, their positions on controversial topics. Conversely, if I already know someone, and I then read some of their writing, it often reveals facets to them that I've never seen before. I really think you show a lot of yourself in your writing. This is particularly fascinating when you consider that characters are often quite different to the authors. The characters may be wildly different from each other, as well, with drastically varying views on a topic or theme. But there's still something in the author's voice that shines through. Maybe it's because each character generally has something of us inside them, even if it's only one tiny piece. Maybe it's the topics we c...

Completing a first draft is a huge milestone. If you've never done it before, it's almost unbelievable. To look back and see a whole novel that you wrote, with all these scenes, and events, and characters and things. Then there's editing. For most people, I think this is a dreaded step. For me, the only way I was able to finish the draft was to say, "No editing allowed until the full first draft is finished." It was like an itch I was desperate to scratch, and when I finally got the chance to unleash the edit-monster, it was glorious. I plowed right into it. Oh how much I love chewing apart the prose, cutting needless paragraphs, tweaking and pruning and making each chapter shine. This part of the story is a little blurrier in my memory. I did most of it after school while looking for work, and I think I plowed through so much editing, it's hard to distinguish. I gave each chapter to alpha readers, then rewrote, then asked a writing group about it, then ...

Continuing on the saga of how I wound up with a blog titled "my agent told me to make a blog," I've talked so far about opening my eyes to the world of writing, getting my feet wet with critique, and developing a writing "family." Then there's the actual writing part. So far, I only have one brave manuscript that's made the whole journey. There's another one or two in the incubator, but Mr. Debut Novel was the one that went through all the growing pains. I think I've been working on this book for... four years? Or something like that. I know it's not as dramatic sounding as the stories people have been fussing over for twenty years, but it feels like ages to me, okay! I know for a fact that future novels will not take as long, because poor Debut Novel was the one that tripped over every pothole and landed in the ditch at every sharp turn. Thanks to all its bruises, I'm now a little more in control of the wheel. I mentioned before tha...

I previously discussed joining writing forums and critique groups as a means to becoming a better writer. This started me on the path of training my inner editor and looking at writing critically. It had the side-effect of meeting many other writers, and most importantly, people who write things I really like. There's a lot of trial and error with establishing critique partners. Critique Circle has "public" queues for you to meet strangers (as opposed to the private queues, where you invite your established buddies to look over specific work). In general, online resources are fantastic for this because you can look for people who write in your own genre, or with a style to your taste. A face-to-face critique group is geographically limited, and usually you're stuck with whatever tastes and genres the other handful of writers have. And boy, not every potential critique relationship works out, so it's nice not being stuck with the same group of people. I'v...

Last time , I talked about my early writing days of clueless, aimless, ignorant nonsense. Back before I even thought of the writing industry as an industry, before I knew the difference between an agent and a publisher, and when I carried over my childhood writing hobby into adulthood. The key ingredient that allowed me to pupate from wee baby author into proper professional author was: critique. Brandon Sanderson's creative writing videos on Youtube were put up and managed by the website Write About Dragons , so naturally I wandered over there and discovered some helpful blog posts. One person there directed aspiring authors to check out Critique Circle , so I did. And if you don't mind me getting overly dramatic on you, that changed my life. That's really where I found my footing, learned what was what, and got launched in the direction of professional writing. I have checked out other writing sites, and none of them fit me as well as CC. Some are too unprofessional, ...

I wrote a brief summary of my writerly journey back when I started the blog ( The Road So Far ), but it was pretty bare bones, and I didn't mention all the details, such as when I realized I sucked at writing. So I thought I'd go into a little more depth now. Like I've said in the past, writing was always a hobby of mine. Sometimes I ignored it and spent more time on the piano, and my other hobbies frequently wax and wan in relation to gaming. When my World of Warcraft guild fell apart, I moved on to League of Legends, which is way too addicting for me to even have installed on my computer anymore. (Now I've gone and allowed myself to install the Binding of Isaac... and unsurprisingly, my writing output has, uh, decreased). But through thick and thin, I always had stories going. They weren't full-bodied novels--I pretty much never had plots, or much setting, or much of anything. I had characters and fun scenes or adventures I'd write (or start to write). Mos...

Last time , I observed how characters are expected to be more predictable and consistent than people are in real life. It turns into a bit of a balancing act, because if there's anything worse than a confusingly erratic character, it's one who's so simple, they can be defined by a single word/phrase/role. This is a very common topic on what makes good writing. Characters being flat or well-rounded is a huge area for critique/praise/discussion in books and book reviews. Generally, you know a character's flat when they're nothing more than their role: "the love interest;" "the wise mentor;" "the plucky thief." I mentioned how complex and surprising people can be in my experiences with vet clients , and brought up that same idea: character first, role second. A good example is me! The whole reason I thought of this post is how surprised someone was one day when I wore a dress. People are often surprised when I wear a dress or skirt, ...

People are complicated, confusing, inconsistent creatures. It's interesting to me that characters are often required and/or expected to be a lot more well-defined and consistent than real people. In real life, someone could be cheerful one day, terse the next, and all anyone would think is that they're having a bad day. In a book, if you're not careful, it seems like their personality is all over the place. It's a lot harder for a character to randomly try something or behave a certain way, without a lot of set-up--which is totally not the case in real life. Once, a game commentator mentioned something very similar in his own life.  Day9 has done extensive StarCraft casting and analysis for years. One day he was streaming Team Fortress 2 or some such, because hey, he occasionally plays other games for fun, and he complained about how strongly viewers react when he deviates from the norm--"OMG are you not casting StarCraft anymore?!" He commented on how stre...

You'd think I'd get more used to having an agent, not less. I'm sure as time goes by, my reasons for loving my agent will only pile onto the list. I've heard other authors talk about how wonderful they are when it comes to contract negotiations, fighting on your behalf with the publisher (the book cover, for example), and generally keeping your writing life in order. That stuff is all part of publishing-land, which I have yet to explore. For now, I'm a mere initiate to the Agented Authors Club. But it's an excellent place to be! I love having an agent in general, and I also love my agent. ( Caitlin McDonald of Donald Maass ) 1. She Has Superpowers Apparently she can wave a magic wand and come up with ten different ways to fix plot holes, character arcs, structural issues, and whatever other dilemmas I run into. Problems that have stumped me and my writing partners for years are like breakfast to her. Not only does she have a zillion ideas, those ideas ...