The blog-o-sphere is a mystical and lovely place... It feels kind of awesome reading about authors and agents, anticipating a good book before it's even out (Kiersten White's Paranormalcy makes me very happy. Eleven days...). And the contests! Seems like as soon as I start stressing about querying, there are a whole bunch of query and submission contests going around.
Karen Gowen is hosting this one: http://karenjonesgowen.blogspot.com/2010/08/lettuce-write-and-get-your-chapters.html Send in the first three chapters of your manuscript. While three winners get to send in a full for editor Allie Maldonando to review for them, every entry will recieve some feedback on the three chapters.
Another hosted by Adventures in Children's Publishing for MG/YA pitches: http://childrenspublishing.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-contest-yamg-pitch-to-query-letter.html At noon tomorrow they'll be open for fifty pitches, but the contest progresses in steps. The prize is a three-chapter critique from agent Sarah LaPolla (who was on my list of agents-to-query before I found out that she's on an indefinite vampire break. Twitter saves my butt, yay) who is also judging the contest. But they're encouraging a lot of critique between contestants, and there's a panel of "mentor authors" that'll comment on the entries, so at any rate it's a good way to get feedback.
Sara B. Larson is also holding a pitch contest: http://sarablarson.blogspot.com/2010/08/my-path-to-getting-agent-pt-6.html The winning pitch gets a query critique.
This is one of the coolest: http://motherwrite.blogspot.com/ Come up with a good title for Krista V.'s WIP (currently called Bob), and four wonderful prizes will be divided between the three winners, including 1st pg and query reviews by agents.
I hope I get around to entering all of them. <3
Teen writer succumbs to the devastating wiles of fiction. Also available: opinions, blabbering, author-worship.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Thursday, August 12, 2010
The Chronicle of Late Night Doubts
Dear non-existent reader,
It's about three thirty A. M. and I am not, unfortunately, sleep-typing, but completely awake. This is going to be one of those posts I hope I can look back on, one or two or five years from now, and laugh (either because I've proved myself wrong, or because I've proven myself right and gotten over it).
Lately, I've been wondering why I wrote Accidents. Which is really a stupid question - I wrote it because I realised that my last series, Colorblind, was a horrible dead-end idea, and I needed something new I could throw myself into with everything I'd learned up to that point. I'm not exactly sure when this was anymore - maybe summer/fall '07? I'm not saying I regret writing Accidents or Colorblind, because I learned alot from practical application that I couldn't learn in English class. I discovered my areas of fault, learned to be my own editor, developed the desire to be original, to be great, because I hated looking at what I'd written and not being able to say, "I love this. This is amazing. This is my best work yet, and even when I've become a better writer, I will not be able to make this any better. This is perfect." It's kind of the unattainable dream, right? I know that nothing I write will ever be perfect, but that has to be my goal, or there's nothing to shoot for. I don't want to just be as good as anyone else.
I know that some of my best writing so far has gone into Accidents. I don't think it's a bad book, or a bad concept, or that it wasn't worth my time. And I still think it's a good book to enter the market with. But the more I think about it, the more I feel like, why am I doing this? What connection do I feel to these characters? What am I trying to say?
Truthfully, I say a lot of things in the novel - little tidbits of myself, tucked in here and there - but in the grand scheme of things, the theme of Accidents is overcoming all the cr*p that life throws at you. It's something I care about, obviously, but I don't know if it'll really speak to other people in that way, because my MC has a rough time with that - the overcoming. It's not so much how a person should do it, but how my MC does do it, which isn't a perfect or healthy method at all. Maybe it'll be a warning to people. Maybe, if I get a chance to see the series to it's end, it'll give people a little hope that the passage of time really is a good healer. I just don't know.
People who've read it, or part of it, say things about the characters, the writing, the plot, but I haven't heard any thoughts on the theme. I'm worried that I've written a book that will not stay with you. But now that it's done, really the only thing I can do is keep moving forward with everything I do from now on.
I am always learning. It's a little painful.
Sincerely,
Shadows
It's about three thirty A. M. and I am not, unfortunately, sleep-typing, but completely awake. This is going to be one of those posts I hope I can look back on, one or two or five years from now, and laugh (either because I've proved myself wrong, or because I've proven myself right and gotten over it).
Lately, I've been wondering why I wrote Accidents. Which is really a stupid question - I wrote it because I realised that my last series, Colorblind, was a horrible dead-end idea, and I needed something new I could throw myself into with everything I'd learned up to that point. I'm not exactly sure when this was anymore - maybe summer/fall '07? I'm not saying I regret writing Accidents or Colorblind, because I learned alot from practical application that I couldn't learn in English class. I discovered my areas of fault, learned to be my own editor, developed the desire to be original, to be great, because I hated looking at what I'd written and not being able to say, "I love this. This is amazing. This is my best work yet, and even when I've become a better writer, I will not be able to make this any better. This is perfect." It's kind of the unattainable dream, right? I know that nothing I write will ever be perfect, but that has to be my goal, or there's nothing to shoot for. I don't want to just be as good as anyone else.
I know that some of my best writing so far has gone into Accidents. I don't think it's a bad book, or a bad concept, or that it wasn't worth my time. And I still think it's a good book to enter the market with. But the more I think about it, the more I feel like, why am I doing this? What connection do I feel to these characters? What am I trying to say?
Truthfully, I say a lot of things in the novel - little tidbits of myself, tucked in here and there - but in the grand scheme of things, the theme of Accidents is overcoming all the cr*p that life throws at you. It's something I care about, obviously, but I don't know if it'll really speak to other people in that way, because my MC has a rough time with that - the overcoming. It's not so much how a person should do it, but how my MC does do it, which isn't a perfect or healthy method at all. Maybe it'll be a warning to people. Maybe, if I get a chance to see the series to it's end, it'll give people a little hope that the passage of time really is a good healer. I just don't know.
People who've read it, or part of it, say things about the characters, the writing, the plot, but I haven't heard any thoughts on the theme. I'm worried that I've written a book that will not stay with you. But now that it's done, really the only thing I can do is keep moving forward with everything I do from now on.
I am always learning. It's a little painful.
Sincerely,
Shadows
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