The College of Countless Hours and Hard Work

When my son went to his college orientation, a professor stood in front of the small group of kids who who'd been admitted to the Fine Art college and told them they were special. When they questioned whether or not *every* professor told their orientation group the same thing, she reminded them that while all the other students (for the most part) had been admitted to their perspective colleges based on their high school records, kids in the fine arts had spent their whole lives preparing. They’d taken private music lessons since they'd been tiny, they'd pursued outside art and painting classes and spent years building a portfolio, they'd been in countless theater productions and took acting, dancing and voice lessons. In other words, even though they'd arrived in the same place as the other kids on campus, they'd put a lot more work into getting there and that made them special. I think writing is like that, too. We spend many, many years writing and sticking it out when it feels like we'll never end up where we want.

I'd bet none of those select few kids in that orientation room - many with scholarships - would say all their years of hard work were worthless. So why do we often feel as if we’ve failed when we spend a long time working on a book, story or article and it doesn’t sell or land us an agent?

Our work is never worthless. It’s only preparation for the places we’re heading.

Breaking up is hard to do

After revising my latest novel, I promptly sent it out to an agent who had expressed interest in it. I’ve been interacting with this particular agent at conferences and via email for many years. I thought she might be “The One.” (If there is such a thing.) She’d had some concerns about the direction of my career which is why she’d passed on offering representation last round. But I let her know that I’d made some decisions and hoped she was interested in reading the revisions and discussing my thoughts about my future.

I got a “No and please stop contacting me” within 48 hours. (Okay. She didn’t actually say to stop contacting her - it just felt like that! *grin*)

It was a depressing, l-think-I’ll-go-eat-a-bowl-of-cookie-dough-now experience, sure. But it was also, in a real way, liberating. Kind of like dating someone for a long time, realizing you want more from the relationship but the other person doesn’t. I walked away thinking, “Alrighty then. Well, at least I can cross *that* person’s name off my list!”

But here’s the thing. Several days later, I had lunch with a friend who happens to be one of Agent’s clients. We were talking about the “break up” and she told me she knew the agent had another client who was trying to write both MG and YA and not having much success dividing her energies and nailing both voices. (This was the main reason Agent took a pass on me earlier. She really like the MG book I submitted but not the first 30 pages of my YA book.) So my friend told me she could see why Agent would be reluctant to take on another client that she felt was in the same position.

Who knows? Maybe Agent was right. Perhaps I haven’t quite pulled off the YA voice in my other project. But maybe she let her prejudice and experience with this other writer cloud her judgement when it came to my work.

Either way, it was a good reminder that - sometimes - it's THEM and not you.

Happy writing!

~Carmella

5 Tips for Revising a Novel

Like a rollercoaster ride, the revision process is full of ups and downs. One moment, it feels like everything is going well. The changes you're making are definitely making the story stronger. Then a few minutes later, doubts creep in. Is what I want to do even working? Have I really addressed the doubts of my critique buddies? Is this new plot direction going to work? What if it ruins what I already have?

Some signs you might want to rethink your revisions:

1. It feels like your character is running on a hamster wheel, going around and around and not getting anywhere. Remember, the tension and conflict should be increasing.

2. The scene you just reworked bears a striking ressemblance to another scene earlier in your novel.

3. You fall asleep while you're writing. Maybe there's a little too much of that description or interior dialogue?

4. A never-before-seen character or object appears in your novel just before the climax to help get your protagonist out of a tricky situation. If your setting isn't Hogwarts, you might be in trouble.

5. After reading your latest chapter, the reader has a clear image of how your main character slurps up ice cream, eating out all the chocolate bits first and licking whipping cream off the spoon, but has no idea how your character got away from the evil monster and ended up in the ice cream shop. Oops! Go get a real sundae and then get back to the keyboard to show those key plot events!

Do you have any great revision tips to help get through the process?

Unreliable Narrators in MG

We MiGWriters were discussing one of our works in progress, and Car brought up the subject of her main character being an unreliable narrator on one plot point. Would it play for middle grade?

I love unreliable narrators, and I can think of examples where it works in middle grade. Take Diary of a Wimpy Kid. We know Greg isn't a great friend to Rowley, even though Greg is convinced that he is. Middle grade readers see the difference between Greg's actions and his thoughts. For a classic example, in the Secret Garden, Mary's ornery personality is so clear that we know her surroundings aren't nearly as disagreeable as she says they are. The trick is to present both what is really going on and what the character is thinking, and to have some reason why the character sees the world as it isn't. I think if you can pull that off, you can have a successfully unreliable middle grade narrator.

There are two traps you don't want to fall into. If you only present what the character thinks and why they think it, but don't show what's really going on, you have a mystery on your hands, gang. My son has read a lot of the Boxcar Children books, and they all use that basic plot: kids meet mysterious character, have reason to think he's shady, and in the last chapter, all is revealed and they find out the mysterious character is really their long lost cousin.

The second trap is the idiot plot. You present what the character thinks and what is really going on, but you never show why the character has reason to think what he thinks. That leaves the reader scratching his head, wondering how your character can't see the truth. We need to know why Janet thinks Jack is making a pass at Chrissy when he never has before. Since we never find out, and Janet has no reason to think Jack's motives have changed, Three's Company descends to farce or idiot plot.

None of this might be helpful to Car, but I feel good having analyzed that into the ground. In summary, your unreliable narrator works in middle grade if you clearly show 1) what the viewpoint character thinks; 2) why the viewpoint character thinks it; and 3) what is actually happening instead.

I'd love to hear your counterarguments and/or other examples of unreliable narrators in middle grade.

-- Kate

Traditions

My fellow MiG Andrea Mack is doing a fabulous series over on her blog, That’s Another Story, called the ABC’s of Writing Middle Grade Fiction. (I think she’s up to the letter W). I always come away with plenty to think about and if you haven’t checked it yet, well, what the heck are you waiting for?! (And she's got links, people! Lots of terrific links.)

With apologies to Andrea for borrowing her idea, I’d like to take on the letter T, for tradition.

Traditions are very important to kids. I was reminded of this fact this past weekend when my husband and I took our three kids to Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. Each year, we take three days to do this trip. And we always try to do it early in June, before the hot weather and heavy tourist crowds move in. My kids look forward to this annual trek and it’s practically the only time my (oh, let’s go with) money conscience husband lets the kids go a bit wild with spending. (“Funnel cake fries? Okay, here's $10. It's chilly. You guys want to buy sweatshirts?") Yes, the trip is expensive. Especially since we love to stay in the park resorts. But it’s worth it. My kids, now all teenagers, talk about the trip, plan for it and always bring back memories of being together. (And Heaven help me and my husband if we suggest we eat at another place for dinner inside the park. Lesson learned.) The trip is part of our family fabric.

Putting in family traditions in your YA or MG is an easy way to spice up a bland manuscript. Traditions can also be a great opportunity to give readers insight into a character or the family they come from. The traditions don’t have to be big. Maybe they’re small, like a family joke or saying.

Here are a few family traditions I came up with that might be good in a YA or MG:

Funny, family rules to traditional game (like getting $500 when you Pass Go or making 4's wild while playing Poker)

An annual trip to a beach or the ice cream shop down the street on the first day of summer

Opening a single gift on Christmas Eve

Adding a “Cha cha cha” verse to the Happy Birthday song or making the birthday boy or girl wear a silly hat all day

Having pizza on Thanksgiving because no one likes turkey

Saying “Applesauce!” after someone sneezes

Your aunt always writing you a check for your birthday for the same amount as your age

Watching a Christmas movie in the middle of July

Waking up at the crack of dawn to go on a donut run in your pjs

Can you think of any of great traditions to add to the list?

~Carmella

Winner of 7 Wonders Book!

Today we are announcing the winner of the autographed  copy of Carmella Van Vleet's latest book,  Seven Wonders of the World: Discover Amazing Monuments to Civilization.

The winner is....

brookefav

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Comic: "The Scream" for writers