The five biggest mistakes I made as an aspiring author...

Finally, I sent in the edits to my editor, and now I'm waiting to see if they pass the mustard. So, until then, I'm back in the land of the living.

Holy Schnikies, Batman. I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted and visited blogs. I'm SO out of practice... hope I remember how. *nervous*

Please be gentle with me!

Okay, looking back at my blog idea file (those of you who know me can attest that YES, I'm that much of a geek to actually have one--hee), I found two awards and one meme I haven't done yet. So this week, the awards. 

Lovely A.M. Supinger over at Inner Owlet (BTW, she's every bit as cute as the name of her blog) gifted me with this:

Thank you, dahling! This gal never ceases to amaze me with her talent for story telling, and she's also artistically gifted ... which means she'll be getting a very special award in my upcoming  Second Bi-Annual Wonderland Bloggy Awards in a few weeks. (◕‿-) 

The rules for this award:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them. Done!
2. Pick some of your favorite blogs to share the award with!

A.M. picked two recipients, so I'm following in her hoof prints.

1. Bethany Crandell, of the notorious Rookie Riter blog. Why do I think her blog is lovely? For one, she's put up a new rocking background that fits her book (presently being subbed) to a T. Also, because I love to hang out there. Her insights are witty, irreverent, and laugh out loud funny. Not to mention, there's always a kernel of poignant truth in everything she says. Simply put, she's a gem.

2. Jenny Phresh of The Party Pony fame. She's been redecorating her place of late, and it's quiet lovely. Also, much like my other recipient, she always makes me laugh, and sometimes makes my heart sigh. So, anyone who can pull my emotional puppet strings like that, deserves a lovely award.

Next, Bailey over at Over Yonder Lit gave me the versatile blog award.

Thank you, Bailey! It's already on my sidebar which means I've passed it out another time or two, so I'll skip that bit, but here are five things about me ... with a writer's twist.

The five most naive mistakes I made when first starting out as a writer (IOW, five things aspiring writers should never do as proven by my bumbling bloopers):

1. Trying too hard to stand out. When I started querying the first book I ever wrote, I read LOTS of books and articles on how to go about it. One of them suggested you do something out of the ordinary to get noticed. So I decided to make a query brochure ... the tri-fold kind *in full color, mind* that had pictures of my characters, a short synopsis, excerpt from the book, and an author's bio (under a pseudonym, thankfully ... that's the one thing I did right). To further humiliate myself, I included a picture of me. Want to see?

*Shudders* Needless to say, I didn't get many responses. And those I got, well, they aren't worth mentioning. ;) So glad I only sent out five.  Lesson learned: The only way your query should stand out is a unique story premise and polished writing. Everything else needs to be standard and professional.

2. Thinking that finishing a book = instant success.  I just knew the first publisher who read my three page query letter (after I abandoned the brochures) would buy my MS. In truth, I got over 100 rejections before I ever learned how to write a query letter to begin with. And it took that many for me to realize maybe I wasn't going to get in with book one. Here's a picture of HALF of the rejections I received. Didn't have room to lay them all out, so imagine a line twice this long (Note: some of the rejections are on small slips of paper or postcards, so they're hard to see)...

Lesson learned: There are a lot more steps to getting published than writing a book. Educate yourself on those steps and ace them. It will give you an edge over the millions of other writers out there trying to get in the door.

 3. Assuming agents are out to make you miserable. I once did a post on my old blog poking fun at all of the pointless form rejections I'd received, even copying some word for word--omitting names, of course. A very savvy fellow blogger (who happened to be an assistant for an agent) pointed out that it might not be the smartest move, considering I was querying at the time, and if any agents googled me, they might be offended and write me off. Lesson learned: agents are people; they have limited time, ergo, they have form letters to help them do their job. Treat them w/respect if you expect it in return.

4. Thinking that once you get an agent, you'll have him/her for life, they'll love everything you write, and you will be published within months of signing. This may prove true for some, but I was with my first agent for over two years and while we sent out the MS she signed me for, I wrote three more. My book didn't sell, and she turned down two that I wrote, and wanted me to change the last one (SPLINTERED) so drastically it would've killed my vision for the book. We were on completely different pages for my career. So we parted ways. Lesson learned: Sometimes we don't find our literary soulmates until round 2 or 3 or 4. What's important is to be willing to make changes that resonate, but stay true to your voice and vision. Have the courage to do what's best for your longtime career.

5. Once an agent turns you down, never ever query them again. Refer once more to the long line of rejections above. One of those is actually from my present agent. She doesn't even remember that I sent a query her way for the first book I wrote (some six or so years ago), or even that she read a chapter of it. She turned it down because she didn't love the writing. Thinking that meant she'd never want to see anything else I wrote, I made a point not to query her with my YA. I queried her colleague instead. Had said colleague not sent the MS my agent's way after deciding it wasn't the right fit for her, I wouldn't be where I am today. Lesson learned: An agent's tastes can change over time, just as your writing will. Never be afraid to try an agent again, especially if you have a few more books under your belt. Chances are, one of you has changed enough to make a connection. You certainly won't know unless you try.

I hope you can glean some positive insights out of my ignorance. :) You know what they say about hindsight? It's even better when it's someone else's. I wanted to post this to prove that no matter how many mistakes you make, the only mistake that can keep you from getting published is to quit trying.

I did some stupid things, but the one thing I did right is I hung in there and never stopped writing. Now I'm about to finally see my dream come true. It can be that way for everyone aspiring to be published.

Never give up, and it will be your turn to sit on the shelves one day soon. 

Have a great weekend!

Silencing your infernal ... er, internal ... editor, so you can smell the roses.

As writers, we've all experienced it. Cozied up in an easy chair, we crack open a brand new book, breathe in the fresh pages, and let the words swallow us whole.  Then our eyes stumble. Once, twice, three times. Before we know it, we've slammed our eyes AND the book shut, disgusted such a travesty was ever published.

How can a story with so many glaring mistakes and such weak writing ever have made it past an agent, much less an editor, and onto the printing press?  What a monumental waste of paper and ink! Didn't those publishers see the wooden dialogue?  What about the info-dump in chapter one, or the dream sequence that hopped from one POV to the next?  And there were at least seven commas in sentence # fifteen on page ten.

But is the book really so bad? Would we have noticed the blunders had we not read every book out there on "How to write", had we not taken every creative writing class offered at the local community college and attended each and every workshop / conference accessible?  Would we have cared, were we not inundated every moment with rules, rules, and more rules, that will assure us acceptance by an agent and ultimately publication with some big New York house?

Something happens when an avid reader learns to write.  Books that used to carry us to new and wondrous places, can't carry us past the lumpy cushion on the loveseat.  It's a catch 22. I can't argue that my internal editor has improved my writing by leaps and bounds, but yet it's stifled my enjoyment of the written word somewhat. The innocence is gone. 

And I know I'm not alone.

I've heard more than one frustrated writer ask why there are so many "bad" books that get agented and published (loathe to admit I've been guilty of such thoughts myself). How can "those kinds of books" possibly make it past querying, submitting, and slush piles to be a shiny new title on the shelves when they're lacking quality?

Thing is, do any of us really agree on what constitues a "bad" book?

Is it:

1) adverbs dominating each sentence?
2) too many passives?
3) excessive use of "that"?  (my personal weakness--grrr)
4) comma splices, dangling participles, punctuation faux pas, etc...?
5) head hopping?
6) cookie cutter cardboard characters or wooden dialogue?
7) unsatisfying plot / ending?
8) a flowery or sparse prose?
9) information dumping?

Okay.  So, numbers 1-4 are universal grating points.  Nothing is more frustrating than when we see someone slide into home plate and be counted safe while breaking all of the grammatical rules we've been taught as writers.  The rules we bang our heads against the walls day in and day out to uphold.  I'm so anal myself, that before I finish revisions on a MS, I'll go through with the FIND tool and search for all "was-derivatives", "thats" and LY adverbs in an effort to make those sentences stronger. 

But should we let it ruin what might be a perfectly good story by dwelling on the errors instead of skimming over them and reading on to find the meat?  There had to be something there that made an agent and editor love it enough to accept it despite its faults.  Aren't you curious to discover what that was? Maybe even learn something in the process?

And what about numbers 5-9?  There comes a point when we cross the line from grammatical to personal writing style, and some of the "rules" we've learned as writers can bleed into voice to be counted as style, much as it makes us choke to admit it.   

Read multiple reviews for the same book and you'll see it all boils down to subjectivity.  Where one reader sees wooden dialogue, another will think the dialogue sings.  While one sees the prose as too drippy and purple, another is swept away by the lyrical flow.  Head hopping or info dumping?  That can be argued as the author's personal approach to narrative, as long as they can swing it without jolting the reader from the story. 

It's kind of magical actually, when an author can bend the "rules" we've all been taught, and do it in such a way that the typical reader won't notice ... in such a way that the reader isn't shaken from the story but instead is left floating in a suspension of blind faith until the story's final sentence. 

Maybe, as writers, when we put on our reading caps, we need to borrow that nugget of wisdom from everyone's favorite pirate, Captain Jack Sparrow: "Hang the code and hang the rules. They're more like guidelines anyway."

Personally, I'm going to try it. I'm nostalgic for my innocence.  I miss the pleasure of just reading. 

It's time to smell the roses through someone else's nose, to taste the flavor of rain on their tongue. It's time to get lost in a story again.

*For a related post on this subject, visit Elizabeth Moon's blog entry on  "Why Bad Books Work."