My Failures Have Served Me Well

I LOVE Top Chef, probably to an obsessive degree.  My children know it as "Mommy's Show."  But, due to circumstances beyond my control, I didn't get to see the finale until yesterday (thank you, DVR).  I won't give anything away, but one thing Richard Blais, one of the final competitors, said toward the beginning of the show stuck with me.  He said, "My failures have served me well."

Let me give a quick history, so you can understand where I'm going with this.  You see, he competed on the show once before.  This season was an Allstars show, and the competitors were all the great contestants who didn't win the title of Top Chef during their seasons.  Hands down, Richard was the favorite to win during his season, but, in his words, "choked."

But, rather than go in with the attitude that he had to redeem himself (although there was a little bit of that), he really tried to focus on cooking his food, his way, and admitted losing the first time had given him an insight that his other competitors didn't have.  He'd had an "epic fail" the others hadn't, and his drive and focus were unwavering this time around.

So, have your failures served you well?  Mine have, and they still do.  I wrote a manuscript that nobody but my mom liked.  I've entered contests where I didn't even come close to finaling.  I've been rejected quite a few times, by agents and editors.  But from each of these experiences, I learned something and grew as a writer.  I know my failures aren't over.  There will be many more, but my attitude toward them has changed.

In this month's RWR, J. R. Ward discusses something similar.  She is open and honest about how devastating it was when her publisher dropped her years ago.  It felt like the end of the world, and she tells about crying in the parking lot of Whole Foods.  But she didn't stay down.  She started writing The Black Dagger Brotherhood series to do something new and different--to reinvent herself.  It was perfect timing and great writing.  Without a doubt, you probably know the rest of the story.  She is now Bestselling Author J. R. Ward.

So what does this mean for you and me?  How can we learn from our failures?  Start small.  Find someone you trust to read your work.  Let them give an honest criticism, and get ready for the feeling of failure.  But don't let it discourage.  Let it encourage.  Sure, there will be things to fix, but if you really are trying for a writing career, now you're one step closer because you've learned something about the craft of writing.  Rather than shut yourself off from failure, embrace it.  Find the kernal of goodness in what didn't work with your writing, and make it better.

Agents and editors want to see your best work, but in the end, it's all subjective, so the more eyes that see your writing before you send it out, the better you'll be able to weather a few problems along the way and make your story the best it can possibly be.

Happy Writing!

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What's That Book Got That Mine Don't?

What does the published book represented by your dream agent or published by your dream publishing house have that yours doesn't?  Besides good timing, you'd be surprised.  Literary agent Scott Eagan shared a story about a writer who wanted to write for the Silhouette line so badly, that she literally honed her writing to sound just like the books she was reading.  Now, before you go trying to figure out how to paraphrase a published book, that's not at all what he meant.  She studied certain aspects of the published books until she could write her stories with their format.  I'm not talking formula here either, though in a way, you can see patterns.

We are all working on our craft and learning at our own pace, so often we might not honestly be at the stage where we can objectively look at what's on the shelves now, and what about it appealed to our Top Ten agents/editors.  And, before I get too far, let me just say that Susan Meier does a great series of blogposts on this very subject, so I suggest you check them out at http://susanmeierworkshops.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-analyze-books-you-read.html

She has terrific ideas for how to analyze the books you read.  But there are other aspects that she doesn't really get into when it comes to analyzing a book of a particular line.  The truth is, different lines publish different kinds of books.  Sure two different houses might both publish vampire stories, but as Scott Eagan said, "the vampire from one line wouldn't hang out with the vampire from the other line."  There are differences, and if you want to work with a particular agent or editor, you need to identify those differences.

So, what do we need to look at?  I am targeting a particular line myself and have known I would like to write for them for a while, but I haven't submitted to them yet because my story just didn't seem right for them, even to me, but I wasn't sure why until I started analyzing some of the published books from that line.  These are the things I looked hard and nit-picky at:

• Hook--Not just what it is, but how is it different from others before it.
• Beginnings--I have heard not to start with dialogue, and I've also heard a great way to start is with dialogue.  So, which is it?  It probably depends on which line you want to write for.  Once you've studied a few published books, you'll have an idea.
• Dialogue vs. Narrative--I literally pulled out a highlighter and marked all the dialogue in the first chapter of each of my test books.  What did I notice?  Most of the first chapter was narrative in which the internal and external conflict of at least one of the main characters was revealed interspersed with meaningful dialogue.
• Sexual tension--How much, how is it revealed, are the stages of intimacy obvious?  Everyone knows you can't submit erotica to Love Inspired, but even an inspy line will have some romantic tension.  If you are targeting that line, you need to know how published authors were able to work that out.
• Character description--Some publishing lines are okay with a quick stats rundown of hair color, eye color, height, etc.  Others call for subtlety.  Read some published books and note in the margin when you get a visual of the character.  How was it revealed?
• Backstory--Once again, people get anxious that they have too much backstory or not enough backstory.  How do you know?  There's no definitive answer.  This is one where, once again, you have to consult those that made it to the shelves.
• Gender--For me, it's important to see what kind of heroes and heroines the line looks for and how he or she handles the dialogue, narrative, and description from each point of view.  Certain lines have only the Alphaist of Alphas, some allow Betas, and some have a hybrid that I have heard called a Balpha.  It's important to study and figure out whether the line you want to write for has the same kind of heroes and heroines that star in your book.

These are only a few items you want to look at to see whether what you write would ever fit at the publishing house with which you dream of working someday or is written in a way that would appeal to the agent you hope to snag.

Can you think of characteristics that stand out in the books from the authors or publishing houses you love?  This is the key to getting noticed and hopefully published.

Happy writing!

How To Lose an Agent/Editor in Five Easy Steps

Obviously, the title is not literal, but thanks to the KYRW workshop this past weekend, I got some excellent information about how to know whether or not you're ready to submit your work to an agent or editor.  So, today I will share five ways to really screw the pooch (no dogs were harmed in the writing of this blog) when it comes to agents and editors.

1. Don't target specific agents/editors, just send a mass e-mail to all of them.
2. Really show you hate to research by not having read any of the books that said agent or editor has been involved with publishing.
3. Don't narrow your book down to one genre or possible publishing house.  After all, they all publish the same books and have the same readers.
4. Don't waste time with critique partners or groups.  Get your work out there as soon as possible.  That's what agents and editors do--clean up the writer's mistakes.
5. Do chase what's hot right now (which just happens to be long-winded diaries written by shape-shifting zombies that take place in exotic locales like Egypt).

So, there you have it.  All the reasons an agent or editor will run screaming in the exact OPPOSITE direction of you.  Truth is, I have been guilty of at least three of these (okay, I feel your snarky stare--all of them).  What about you?  What are things you wish you'd known when you first started out?  Or what are you still unsure about?

More on these this week.  I plan to blog about each way to lose an agent/editor, going into more detail for each.

Happy Writing!

Coming to You Live

Currently I am sitting in KYRW Spring Into Writing conference with literary agent Scott Eagan.I am learning so much about what NOT to do when it comes to submitting to agents and editors.  First and foremost, I learned that I am soooo NOT ready!

But I am learning how to get ready, and that is exciting.  I have oodles to blog about this week, including some pictures of the places we went (not at all related to Dr. Suess).  Here's a little tidbit that I've heard but it finally clicked:  I need to know who I want as my publisher and where my work fits RIGHT NOW.  Why?  I'll go into more detail later, but agents need to know if your writing would even work there because it really doesn't every where.

Duh!

I will also give more detail on how you go about doing that because, let's face it, we don't know what's going on in agent's and editor's heads, most of the time.  I mean, come on, my book is THE best thing EVER (thick sarcasm intended).

But I've taken good notes and even did a pitch, so I will spill my thoughts on all of it this week.  If you comment within the next two hours, I can ask him right now.

Happy writing!

Ten Minute Procrastiwriter

I am a notorious procrastinator.  Matter of fact, between the previous sentence and this one, I managed to waste about twenty minutes looking for the perfect picture, googling people's names, updating my facebook status.  Okay, so maybe it's not so much procrastination as ADD or maybe it's just ODD, but I have a tendency to lose track of time.  It just slips away like dropped change rolling around on the floor.  I don't know where it went, but I miss it when it's gone.

True to form, I procrastinated getting my current WIP where I wanted it to be by this time.  You see, there is a workshop this weekend (information can be found at http://www.kentuckyromancewriters.com/Meetings.htm), and I'd planned to have at least two manuscripts to pitch to literary agent, Scott Eagan, but now I only have the one ready for him to see.  *sigh* It's not like these opportunities come very often, but no sense dwelling on hard-headed procrastination epic fails, right?

But it has made me re-evaluate my situation.  I know I can't always give my time and attention to my writing like a full-time writer might, but I have to make myself stick to the goals I have for myself somehow.  Therefore, my new-fangled idea is this:  over the next month, every day, even if I can't write any more than the time allotted, I vow to write for at least ten minutes a day.  Even if I have so many other things to do, I will give ten minutes to my writing.  By doing this, I hope it will stretch a little past that (maybe even a lot past that, sometimes), and I'll get more accomplished.  However, even if I can't write for anymore than ten minutes, I will have written something for that day.

I will update you on my progress.  Before I go though, I'm curious how others make progress when so many other of life's issues take precedence.  How do you keep BICHOK (butt in chair, hands on keyboard)?

Happy writing!

Good Info for You and You and You

I am so excited to be able to announce the following awesome opportunity in central Kentucky in the month of March.

Third Annual Spring Into Writing Workshop

with Scott Eagan of Greyhaus Literary Agency on Saturday, March 19, 2011

9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Come pitch to an agent who specializes in women's fiction and romance.  For more information about registration, follow this link:

http://www.kentuckyromancewriters.com/

For more information about Scott Eagan and Greyhaus Literary Agency, follow this link:

http://www.greyhausagency.com/

Happy writing!

Contests

Two contests I came across tonight that you might be interested in.

Win some e-books by commenting before February 1st at the following blogpost:

http://annewhitfield.blogspot.com/2011/01/contest.html

The other is a flash fiction contest where the judge is agent Elaine Spencer of The Knight Agency. It can be found at the following website:

http://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/contest.php

Happy writing!