Hardness is Good
Jul 14, 2011 
Sorry I missed Monday, but I underestimated the fatigue factor of jet lag. Definitely still recovering here.
So with a promise for something exciting come Monday, here’s a quote from A League of Their Own:
“If it weren’t hard, everyone would do it. It’s the hard that makes baseball great.” – Jimmy Dougan (Tom Hanks)
Of course, you can swap out baseball for whatever hard thing you’re working at and the idea still holds true. If you can’t guess, I replace it with “writing.” If it all came too easily, I don’t think I’d appreciate the craft of writing as much as I do. And I certainly wouldn’t appreciate any success I may have.
So I’m glad that writing is hard! (Though I can’t believe I just put that in writing.)
How about you? What would you swap in for “baseball”?
Your Audience Reluctantly Speaks
Today, my self-proclaimed 26-year-old nephew (read that as 14-year-old) will share his views on what makes a good book.
It may have been more or less like pulling teeth to get him to write this. But since I said pretty please with sugar on top, he caved. What can I say? I’m the cool aunt. Okay, okay. The almost-as-cool-as-their-other-aunt aunt. Aunt. And one more for good measure, aunt. Sounds totally weird now, doesn’t it?
Okay, enough fun. On to the wise words of my nephew, a.k.a. Zeke:
And now, a word from your audience . . .
So I am gone. Yup, gone, as in off to France (Again! I know!). But, my super amazing niece and nephew are here with my in-laws to take care of my family. And as they are the target audience for many of us, I just may have begged a little for them to fill in for me.
So first, here’s my 12-year-old niece, a.k.a. Binks, on her favorite book/author and why:
My favorite author is Rick Riordan the author of the Percy Jackson and The Olympians, The Kane series, and The Lost Hero. My favorite part is all the action and the Greek and Roman and Egyptian Gods. I love that he can teach all about the Greek cultures. I didn’t know a lot about any of these cultures but now I know a lot.
P.S. Since Monday is the 4th of July, I won’t be posting then, but look for my nephew’s commentary on the 7th. Happy 4th!
Agent-Judged Contest!
Shelley Watters is sponsoring a Birthday Blowout Agent-Judged contest of the first 250 words of our completed manuscripts. The winner gets a full request, and a runner-up will get a partial!
If your MS is finished, head over to her blog to enter. This time the agent judge is Victoria Marini of Gelfman Schneider Literary Agency, who is currently building her client list. Very cool!
For those interested, here are Shelley’s rules:
- You must be a follower of her blog and/or Twitter.
- You must spread the word, via twitter, fb, blog post, whatever.
- Your work must be complete.
- Your work must fall into one of the following genres: YA, Middle Grade, memoir, pop-culture non-fiction, and women’s commercial fiction.
- On June 27th (today!), go to Shelley’s blog and post your entry on her dedicated contest entry blog post.
Best of luck to everyone who enters!
This vs. That: Star Wars vs. Star Trek
I’m a little leary of a backlash by enraged fans after posting the results of this one, but since I’m a risk taker, I’ll go for it.
First though, I have to admit, the voting surprised me this time around. And apparently, this is a burning question to many folks out there in cyberspace. It was like a double contest: first in the voting, and second in the searches used to find the post. Did they search using STAR WARS vs. Star Trek, or STAR TREK vs. Star Wars?
Okay, I won’t keep you in suspense any longer. Here are the results:
Total votes: 21
Star Wars: 9 votes; 43%
Star Trek: 6 votes; 29%
Neither: 3 votes; 14%
Impossible to choose: 2 votes; 9%
Need more info: 1 vote; 5%
And, because I know you’re all dying to know, here’s the second unofficial contest from the searches:
Star Wars vs. Star Trek: 9
Star Trek vs. Star Wars: 9
Yup, exactly equal as of the writing of this post. Fascinating.
[UPDATE: Star Trek surged into the lead with 12 searches as of this morning!]
Perhaps my fandom totally blinded me on this one, but I really thought Star Wars would be the obvious choice (except, of course for you, Vicki!). So yes, I voted Star Wars. Lets just say that even my two-year old knows who Anakin is, and insists on finding a Star Wars book to check out of the library whenever we go. And she’s a girl. (Not that that SHOULD have anything to do with it, but *ahem* there we are).
So, now that I’ve enraged a bunch of people (I’m sure), on to the next debate:
IH8SK8S – The Story Behind the Plate
Thank you to everyone who chimed in with their own backstory to the now infamous license plate “IH8SK8S.” I enjoyed reading them. But here’s the skinny:
Driver X is haunted by a past filled with tragedy related to skates. And I know most of you thought ice skates, but you’re all wrong. They were roller skates.
Incident #1: Christmas, Driver X is 6.
All she wanted for Christmas was a pair of roller skates. She sent several letters to Santa detailing her desires, and even endured sitting on Santa’s lap at the mall to be double sure he got the message. She left catalogs open on her parent’s bed with the exact make, model and size circled in bright pink marker. She just knew she was going to get those skates.
She didn’t. Worse, her older sister got a pair.
Incident #2: Two years later, what has come to be known as “The Incident.”
The Elementary School Driver X attended sponsored a skating night at the local skating rink. Unfortunately, because Driver X didn’t get that pair of skates for Christmas two years earlier, she was a lousy skater. Halfway around her first circle, she fell and broke her hand. Her right hand. The one she writes with.
Normally, this wouldn’t matter, but the next day happened to be when Jeopardy! for Kids was administering a test at her school to qualify participants. Driver X not only missed the test, but her chance for fame.
Incident #3: Eight years later.
A rash of vandalisms had been perpetrated against her High School by a self-proclaimed “Skating Bandit.” Desperate to find the culprit, the administrators performed a secret, systematic locker check.
Normally, this wouldn’t matter, but guess who brought a certain pair of roller skates owned by her older sister to school that day as part of an assignment to give an oral report on an unhappy childhood memory?
Eight weeks of community service AND an incident report added to her permanent record. We won’t mention the trips to the psychologist.
Final Incident: Ten years later.
In Which I Ponder About a License Plate. (Again.)
Yesterday, I saw a license plate that caught my interest:
I know, you’re probably thinking, “Hmmm . . . she must be in pretty desperate need for some entertainment,” but bear with me.
Most license plates I see state something about the driver. Whether it’s a name, fan status for a sports team, a reference to something they love (sports, cars, hobbies, hats, whatever). In essence, these personalized 8 letters reveal something that the driver deems to be significant in his or her life. It characterizes him or her.
So why use the opportunity to tell people what you hate? It’s what you are not instead of what you are. Really, it’s an anti-characterization.
As a writer, my brain went into overdrive to create the backstory for this driver. But before I share MY made-up backstory, I want to hear yours.
WHY does this person hate skates so much???
P.S. And on a blogger business note, starting next week, I’ll be cutting down to only two posts a week for the summer. M/H
Confessions of a Soccer Mom
I love soccer. LOVE it.1. The players don’t work together. Any given player will take out his own player to get the ball.
- In my first draft, my chapters don’t work together. The beginning lacks the build-up to the end, and the end just plain ignores what happened in the beginning to go its own direction. I won’t even mention the plodding middle.
2. The poor players trip oven their own feet. Often. (It might have something to do with their shoe-tying abilities, but I can’t be sure.)
- Do I really need to mention the bad (stink-worthy, putrid, horrible, awkward to add a few adjectives) writing? Ack. Painful to read. And I’m supposed to make this seem effortless? Yikes!
3. The players forget which direction they’re going. And that’s usually the fortuituous moment that their aim is accurate.
- Have you ever accidentally changed a character’s name midway through a draft? Or suddenly your mc has black hair instead of blond? No? Me neither.
- In that first draft, it’s like I’ve forgotten all the rules of writing. Setting comes in chunks that feel like Aunt Bertha’s famous stone pudding in your gut. Backstory takes the real story hostage, and adverbs go on a rampage. Dialogue feels like talking heads who portrary stiff characters who all sound like the same person. You get the idea.
- And back to the ending. It might be a tad rushed because I was T-I-R-E-D of writing the dang book. But why can’t Prince Charming just kill the bad guy with one quick plunge of his sword instead of orchestrating a whole fight scene? Economy of words, right?
Summer Dreaming
Here in Virginia, we still have one more week to go before Summer break (well—technically—one more week and two days). In reality, I’ll have less free time once school lets out. But in my imagination, I see myself high-tailing it to a remote location such as this:
I see myself kicking back, laptop warming my legs while I stare dreamily out across the ocean, plotting my next best seller.
My husband will bring me platefuls of chocolate-dipped strawberries, and skillfully prepare all the meals. My only concern will be writing.
Yeah.
Definitely Summer dreaming.
So where does your Summer dreaming take you?
Agent Interview: Molly Jaffa
For a list of what she is and isn’t looking for, please see her agent page at the Folio literary website.
While assisting agency partner Jeff Kleinman, I was fortunate enough to work on some really fantastic projects that went on to be very successful, both commercially and artistically. I had the opportunity to really dig in to manuscripts, to help authors transform their work line-by-line, and to make sure it reached the audience it deserved. Playing a part in that process, however small, amazed me. I fell in love with agenting and never looked back.
For me, and agenting is the perfect marriage of business and creativity. So when a full-time position opened up at Folio, I jumped at it, and I’ve been there ever since.
I think that when compared to many adult titles, MG and YA novels often seem to have higher stakes and a greater sense of urgency behind them. There’s something about a story that’s set during a character’s coming-of-age period that makes it feel especially vital. There’s very little room for a meandering, passive story in MG or YA. The protagonist’s age means that everything happening to him or her seems like it could have a profound effect on shaping who he or she is as a human being. Every emotion is amplified; every choice holds extra weight. On a pure storytelling level, that’s really gripping.
I’ve also found a real sense of community in the children’s book world. The agents, editors, and writers are all a pleasure to work with.
to appeal to kids AND teens AND their parents and it will sell a million copies!”), because those show me that the author doesn’t know the market very well.
On a weird note, I just saw “Bridesmaids” and loved it. It would be great to see some YA with similarly multifaceted, funny female characters that talk about something other than boy issues. If it passes the Bechdel Test (Google it!), I’m interested.
Beyond that–and this sounds harsh, but bear with me–it’s boredom that makes me stop. If something inside me isn’t compelling me to scroll down to the next page, then I’ll pass. It’s a very subjective thing. If I’m not totally captivated by a manuscript, then that author should be free to find an agent who is.
- More time in the day! I need more time to read all the fabulous submissions I get.
- More fabulous submissions, of course. I know, it’s a vicious cycle.
- A crystal ball that would allow me to see the future of publishing. If people want to know what it’s telling me, they can pay me in Starbucks cards.
***You can query Molly at molly@foliolit.com. Please include your query and the first ten pages of your manuscript in the body of the email, and the word “query” in the subject line.
Thanks so much, Molly, for your time and your great responses! I would definitely be purchasing some Starbucks cards for a look in that crystal ball. 😀
Best of luck to all you queriers!