How much of your novel do you know before you start writing?

This is something that’s been on my mind as I begin to shift from one (essentially complete) book to the next. I’ve so far treated the latter like a slow-cooker soup, gradually dicing in ingredients (character sketches, events, conflicts, etc.) and letting them all simmer together, and simmer, and simmer, and simmer– but I’ve yet to taste the result. I’ve yet to start actually writing. After my last book, which required some stressful restructuring in the latter half, I think I feel a sort of pressure to get all the events “in order,” if you will, before I begin– though I have also heard that too much planning can inhibit your story’s organic developments.

What about you: what is your process like? How much of your book do you know before you start writing?

Kindness: It Only Takes a Drop to Make Ripples

I had a small experience today that struck me as the perfect example of the principle that drove me to create The Good Karma Project, an illustrated book I started last December and have slowly been chipping away at. I haven’t spent nearly as much time talking about the process or publishing endeavors for this book as I have for my fictional works– in fact, because my head is in another game right now (namely, getting Shifters out to agents), I’ve hardly talked about The Good Karma Project at all– but this tiny pebble of thing that happened today was just too appropriate not to share.

There is significance in the fact that the entire event– action, reaction, effect, etc.– is miniscule. Or at least, it is as far as I know it to be. But let me explain.

Here’s what happened: this morning I called my computer supplier, under whom my laptop is warrantied, to see about getting a replacement battery. You know how it is when you call generic customer service: you get the automated prompts, have to press the right buttons or give the right voice commands, wait to the tune of some peppy, Scooby-Dooish elevator music for anywhere from two minutes to two hours, and often go through representative A to get to rep B, who transfers you to rep C, and sometimes you get bounced between people like a Pong ball caught in a pocket before you finally get the right person– and even then, sometimes the person can’t help you.

My transaction was straightforward and went smoothly, but we all know there are also calls that don’t go so well– when customers get irritated and lash out at the people trying to help them. I think anyone who has worked in retail, customer service, or really any kind of service can appreciate the difference between a positive customer and a negative one.

Anyway, when I was at point E in my transaction (having already jumped through automated hoops and initial waiting), the first rep I spoke with, after ascertaining the business I was about, said she needed to transfer me to someone that handled replacement parts. I said OK and thanked her.

The line, which had previously been occupied by that perennial jaunty wait music, was replaced with a more abrasive beeping and “Please wait…” command followed by silence. BEEEEEEEP. Please wait. … BEEEEEEEEEP. Please wait. …

After a minute or so the rep from before picked up, apologetic. “Julie?” she said. “That transfer didn’t quite work the way I wanted it to…”

The way she said it struck me as funny, so I laughed a little and, smiling,  said, “OK.”

Immediately I heard the change in her voice: it brightened. When I laughed and smiled, so did she. She said, cheerily, that she was attempting the transfer again. I said OK again and thanked her.

From there  I was successfully transferred to the correct representative, who helped me order the replacement battery I was after, and completed the call.

But I want to go back to this first agent. Look what happened there. She made a small mistake (the transfer didn’t go through) and apologized. Now, I can’t say what reaction most customers would have there. Some would surely shrug, and the worse ones might be irritable and rude. But I laughed and smiled, and I could immediately tell that that positive action touched this person on the other side of the line.

Ripple the first.

Now, I can’t tell you what happened with Ms. Representative after we hung up; that would be speculation. But maybe her day was a little brighter. Maybe she shared that smile with the next several customers, or her coworkers, or somebody she talked to during her break. Maybe she left work in a good mood and went out and did something to celebrate– treated herself to a fancy coffee or cinnamon roll– and then put her change in the tip jar. And maybe the baristas, with that tip, were able to buy a pack of gum to share or little quarter-machine prizes for their kids. Maybe those kids, taking their new trinkets to school, gave them to other children who liked them better.

Aaaand this is why I write fiction.

The point is, even the smallest action makes a difference. Our actions ripple out beyond us, sometimes far beyond us, reaching others in ways and places we might never have anticipated. A smile and laughter on my part, at the very least, kindled a smile and laughter in someone else.

This is in the principle that drives The Good Karma Project, a book about making positive differences in the world. I intend the book to be 101 pages– each an illustrated idea of a small way to make a positive (and potentially rippling) impact in the lives of others. Only about half the pages are completed at present, but given the nature of the book and its mission, I aim to make an eBook version available for free when it is finished– so stay tuned for updates!

Resources for Agent-Finding: More on Query Tracker

We all want to find Mr./Ms. Right…Agent

I’ve already mentioned Query Tracker as one of the searchable databases available to authors seeking agents. Query Tracker is great: anyone can search for agents via genre(s) and various filter tools and find them at the click of a button.

Well, after signing up with Query Tracker (free) and exploring the site a bit last week I found even more information available. Whereas Agent Query gives you just a few bullet points about each agent, Query Tracker also makes available:

1. Comments from fellow authors (many of whom have submitted to the agent in question). These often give an idea of an agent’s response time, among other things.
2. Reports. This feature is AMAZING. Here, you select an item from a dropdown box—e.g., “Manuscript Word Count,” “Genre – Fiction,” or “Query Replies”—and you’re presented with a chart that breaks down the agent’s own track record into useful figures. Take me, for example, with my sci-fi thriller. I look at the “Genre – Fiction” breakdown for XYZ agent and I see that out of 45 “Thrillers/Suspense” novels submitted to her, she only showed interest in three.
   1. A quick note: in ANY genre, the ratio of negative responses to positive ones (books submitted to agent vs. books the agent expressed interest in) is sobering. It’s probably worth familiarizing yourself with those numbers at least once so you know, realistically, what your chances of breaking into the market are like. That said, don’t be discouraged: be in it to win it!

3. Clients. Yes, a list of authors the agent has represented is typically something you can find on Google (and if you can’t, think twice about working with said agent!), but it’s nice that QT makes it readily accessible. Even better, it links the authors listed to Amazon pages so you can see specific books the agent has represented.

Of course, when you actually single out a handful of agents to submit to you’ll want to go more in-depth with your search: check out their websites, interviews they’ve done, the books and authors they’ve represented. But Query Tracker and its resources are a great place to start.

Happy hunting!

Writing Goals 5/20/2013

Here’s where I am with my first book and its journey towards publication:

Last week I officially started looking at agents and have compiled a beginning list of 52 possible representatives. This number will likely grow and shrink a great deal before, if I am fortunate/persistent/patient/borderline mad enough, I find the one person my novel and I are truly looking for. Actually submitting is still some work away.

For The Good Karma Project I’m happy to report that last week I both drew and edited three pages (which makes oh, 60 or so out of 101 pages complete? OVER THE HILL! Yeaaah!). For Juniper Lemon’s Happiness Index I completed primary character sketches, finished a background book on grief over lost siblings, and generally continued to jot down scenes and details as they came to me. Juniper Lemon’s is the first literary/character-driven book I’ve ever attempted, and (not that I have an arsenal to compare it against) I’m finding that the story is emerging much differently than a plot-driven one would. It’s new and different and I am absolutely loving it!

This week I want to:

• Look into manuscript format. I want to do at least one more thorough revision/polishing of Shifters before I start submitting– but after that, I’ll need to actually put the book into the format in which agents like to see it.
• Draw 2-4 new pages for The Good Karma Project.
• Read my next background book for Juniper Lemon’s Happiness Index– this one on OCD.
• Spend at least one hour each day freewriting for Juniper. I’ve been so focused on revisions, platform-building, and preparing to send Shifters out to agents that my actual story writing has been curtailed. I want to start warming myself up again so that when I’m really ready to sit down and wring Juniper out of me the writing blood is pumpin’.

BONUS GOAL: Break 1,000 followers on Twitter. Numbers are just numbers, but c’mon…there’s something gold-plated and dizzying about that coveted fourth digit…

That’s that, word-cats. As always, feel free to share your own writing progress and goals in the comments below

“One leg in”: The Julieism Dictionary’s First Entry

After a wonderful reader kindly observed that I’ve a tendency to fashion new words, I began more closely monitoring my expression so as to catch such plays in action. The result?

C’EST VRAI. I may not drop them at the rate a chocolate hen drops Cadburry eggs, but I drop ‘em.

Me being the creative mischief-maker that I am, I naturally resolved to take note of such creations and flood the world share favorites on the Magnificent Allshare that is the internet. I’ve already established a “Julieisms” page on my author website, and will now periodically deposit these expressions there as well as here.

My first entry for the running theme I am calling The Julieism Dictionary is this:

one leg in /wʌn lɛg ɪn/ adj. 1. half complete; having started, but being perpetually far from finishing something, usually a project 2. having only the first leg into one’s trousers

More nonsense is in the making– follow the excitement and corrupt expand your lexicon today!

What are your thoughts on book trailers?

Films have previews. Why shouldn’t books?

Today The Read Room is offering an open forum on what I’m (perhaps belatedly) beginning to notice as a growing trend in the literary world: trailers.

I’ll say up front that I know very little about book trailers at present– only that they come in many varieties, that I’ve chanced upon them more frequently lately, and have seen literary gurus offer advice on how to make an effective one.

To give you a sense of what a book trailer is/can be, here are five examples:

What are your thoughts on book trailers? Talk about anything: would you make one for your book? What would your ideal trailer look like? Do you think they’re useful? How do you think we’ll see book trailers employed in the future?

If you’re an author and you’ve made one, please share a link and I’d be glad to update this post to include it

 

Looking for a Literary Agent: 3 Starter Resources

So you’ve written a book. (If you haven’t yet, go back a few spaces: agents rarely consider queries for unfinished, debut novels!) What next?

You begin the search for an agent, of course!

I myself am now seeking representation for Shifters, a sci-fi thriller and my own first novel. I only started the *official* search for possible agents yesterday, but I’ve already found some excellent beginning resources and tips to share with you.

First, before you start the search, I highly recommend reading this Writer Beware: Agent Advisories and Tips from SFWA. It’s a comprehensive list of cautions and “things you should know” before you start looking for agents– including how to make sure the agent you’re looking at is qualified and reputable, fees to avoid, and more. Arm yourself with knowledge.

Once confident about what you’re looking for and what you should eschew, check out these 3 great resources for finding agents:

1. Agent Query – This is a searchable database designed expressly for finding literary agents. It’s far faster than its hamster-squashing, colossal textbook counterparts: you check the boxes of your book’s genre(s), enter in any relevant keywords and BOOM! results. Agent Query also offers excellent guidelines about how to write queries, how to submit, formatting, etc.
2. Query Tracker – This is a multi-purpose resource website and features something like Agent Query’s searchable database with easy-to-read icons and results. It actually offers more search-refining filters than Agent Query does, including search by query method and even agent gender!
3. Writer’s Digest Guide to Literary Agents Blog by Chuck Sambuchino Remember the godsend that established the Successful Queries series? Well, among other things turns out he also hosts a rolling segment all about literary agents, and frequently features “spotlight” agents that are either new to the literary scene and actively seeking clients or are established and calling for new clients. Either way, you can’t go wrong!

That’s all for now, but trust me, those three resources alone are enough to keep you busy a while. When I first found the Guide to Literary Agents Blog I might’ve read all day if my eyes hadn’t started to water!

Explore and let us know what you find. And if there are any agent-finding resources you yourself favor, feel free to share below! If not, I expect I’ll be posting again with my latest resource haul soon. Best of luck, aspiring novelists!

And The Search Begins!

What did I do today?

Oh, not much…just

officially began the search for an agent!!!!!

I’ve been working my first novel, Shifters, on and off for over a year now. I’ve been thinking about it even longer. Now I have a fairly polished manuscript, a working synopsis, and an agent letter template. I’m still awaiting the general feedback of one particular ideal/trusted beta reader to see if my manuscript might undergo any significant changes before I send it out, but I’ve essentially run out of things to do besides line up my first submissions.

How does it feel?

It’s thrilling.

It’s intimidating.

It kind of makes me feel (at least for having completed everything else up to this point) like I can do anything. Probably because I’m in that happy stage where, as I haven’t sent anything out yet, I haven’t had to endure the long waits or rejections.

It’s a mix of emotions sort of like this:

BRING IT

Man, all that snip-snappity dancing really takes it out of ye. Tomorrow (when my arms have stopped flailing) I’ll share some of the initial agent-finding resources and pointers I’ve found useful. Until then

Affirmation for the Artist

Since I decided to pursue my dream of being an author, a number of revelations have occurred to me. The one I want to share today is this: that as writers, artists, musicians, and other independents (at least in the vocational sense)– especially unpublished, un-commissioned, and struggling ones– our affirmation comes largely from within; and as such we must either be strong for ourselves or fail.

Paychecks. Publications. Praise. These things are all hard for the struggling artist to come by, especially in the beginning. How is one to go on when nothing– no money, no prestige, at times even no one– exists to validate our work? When we even have negative funds, reproach, and discouragement working against us?

I’d think the answer’s the same no matter where we are in our journey: our affirmation must come first and foremost from within us. We must believe in the work we are doing and the integrity of the effort we’re giving it. We must believe in ourselves at all times– especially when nobody else will.

I think, when one becomes comfortable with this idea– with relieving oneself of the need of the approval of others– it is immensely freeing. Yes, there will still be agents and representatives and business people and business deals and guidelines to be worked with along the way or at the end of Rejection Brick Road, but if you’re happy with who you are and what you’re doing– what else do you really need? You’re your own well, spring, and fountain.

And if you’re gonna be a fountain, you might as well look like this.

ALRIGHT, yes, a paycheck would be nice.

But you get the idea.

Writing Goals 5/13/2013

It’s strange to think of finishing with a book– and yet I grow closer to it each day, or at least to finishing all I can do with Shifters before agent and/or publisher interest.

Last week I focused on honing the query for Shifters: the synopsis, settling on the best genre and “target audience” classifications, and putting everything together in a cohesive letter template.

This week I want to start agent research: looking into agents and agencies interested in my genre, what books such agents have represented, and who Shifters might best suit.

In his memoir On Writing, Stephen King advises launching into new work while you’re letting the written work sit (granted, this was meant as between revisions, but I think the same concept applies). That said, I will continue phasing in work on newer projects:

• Another 2-4 illustrations for The Good Karma Project
• Continued background reading for Juniper Lemon’s Happiness Index (I have already read one book on OCD, and one and a half on death/grieving)
• Continued character sketches for Juniper Lemon’s (with any luck I will finish them this week.)

And that’s where I am in my writing endeavors and journey towards publication. Stay wordy, my friends.