Mid Month Goals

It's Mid October. And look at this! I'm still alive!

It's like being on top of the world!

I'm still breathing!

Huray!!

With that said, now that I'm almost through the Month of Hell, it's time to start looking forward. National Novel Writing Month is November (that handy little #NaNoWriMo tag you see floating around twitter), and thus before I delve into a new novel, there are some things I feel I must do:

Wait for it....wait for it...

1) Finish editing the memoir. Find a cohesive ending that feels complete to me, and that chapter of my life. Take a deep breath, find a stiff drink, and keep my chin up.

2) Finish editing After Elizabeth, which...has been edited about a million times, but when agents say, "This is what I have a problem with," well, I'm going to listen.

3) Think. Do research. See if any voices start speaking to me. Take notes.

4) Start doing writing prompts to get the juices flowing. I recommend Old Friend from Far Away, and The Pocket Muse 2, and The Writer's Block.

5) Time management. Money management.

But really the big stressers are the editing. The memoir gives me anxiety attacks and insomnia. The novel just makes me feel overwhelmed. But once those are done, FULLY done, I'm ready for #NaNoWriMo

What about you guys? Any last minute things you need to tie up before diving in?

I'd Rather Write A Query Than...

I moved recently. I managed to go two months without having to pay rent, and yet I'm still broke. It doesn't help that I keep avoiding hospital bills until they take me to collections agencies, so then I HAVE to pay them. Oops. (Turns out, knee surgery in November was a poor life decision.)

This means that I'm trying to pick up another job so that I won't have days off. (Time is money, honey) Baxter will be cranky, but he needs to see the Vet, and eat food, too.

With that said, I've been spending a lot of time filling out job applications. It turns out I hate them. It also turns out that while I thought I loathed query letters, I prefer them to job aps. Here's a list of reasons why query letters are better than the run of the mill fill in the blank job applications:

Supposed to symbolize writing vs real job stuff

*Job applications have you fill out basic information: name, soc number, birth date, high school, college, special skills. Query letters only ask what is important; contact info, this is my novel, this is my publishing background. Boom. Done.

*Job applications require references, phone numbers that are years old, old manager's names. Some even require previous living locations. Yea..I barely remember what I had for breakfast, you expect me to remember six months ago? Pass. Query letters involve character names. Maybe a conference name or two if applicable.

*Job applications are PAGES long. Query letter is a PAGE long.

*Job applications force you to BS your way though it, "I'm a people person! I love this, and this, and I think I'd be awesome at this job!" Query letters don't care. "My name is Lynne. I've been published in, and I've attended these conferences." I've heard of people getting agents without having anything published before. We're judged solely on our ability to convey emotion, verses our ability to convince managers that we're awesome.

*"Have you ever been fired from a job before?" Umm....no? *Darts eyes back and forth* "Why?" Umm.....shit. In a query letter, you don't mention how many times you've been rejected. Awesome.

*You can use the f-word in a query letter and still get a request. (I know this, because I've done this). You can't do that with a job application.

*If things go well, that query letter will get you more money than this minimum wage job will.

So, while I need a new job, I'd rather be spending time here, on my computer, working on query letters and submissions. Just sayin'

The Idea Behind Querying

Being in the agent game is hard work, no? The query letter takes a million drafts, the query specific query letter takes even more. But there are reasons why this is done:

1) You know how you say, "My novel is complete at x-amount of words"?
2) You know how you say, "This is the genre of my novel"?
3) You know how you say, "This is a simultaneous submission"?
4) You know how you wrote a million drafts and edited the heck out of your novel?

We do these things, we write these things, so when an agent says, "Please send me fifty pages," or "Please send me your entire manuscript," you can push, "Upload Document" without flinching, or without having to go through and edit your 200+ page novel.

You make sure your word count is in the query, so the agent knows what they're getting into. You know your genre so your agent can start figuring out how to best market your novel. You drop the "simultaneous submission" to let the agent know that you're not putting all your eggs in one basket.

Even if your request gets rejected, keep your head up, allow yourself the 15 minute window, and start sending queries again.

Happy submitting! :)

Reality Check II: Do Your Research

In my last blog, I talked about the financial costs of conferences, which may lead to a follow up question: 

How the heck do we find conferences in the first place??

First, you need to figure out what you're looking for out of conferences.
*Agents?
*Editors?
*Feedback?
*Networking?
*Finding new places to submit to?
etc

I've found that there are conferences that are specific to what genre you're writing in, so that's kind of a jumping point. My sister is the one who got me into AWP. Before that, I didn't even know about writing conferences.

Some conferences actually give you time slots to meet with agents. This one was PNWA.

~I found out about PNWA through Vickie Motter's blog. For those of you not familiar with her, she's an agent who is on twitter and keeps an advice/review blog. On her blog, she posts the conferences she'll be attending which is helpful to writers like me who hope to meet her, and pitch to her.

~I found out about LeakyCon's Lit Day from Jennifer Laughran's blog.

Moral of the story is: find the agents you're interested in. Follow them; their blogs, their twitter accounts. They will usually say something about upcoming conferences, or some, like Ms. Motter, will have where she'll be for the next year. It's an easy way to find out about conferences you wouldn't have otherwise known about. (From there you can decide which ones are feasible, and which ones are out of the question.)


The coolest thing about conferences is that writing is infectious. Literally, I'll be sitting in a panel and have a million new thoughts to write about. The backs of my notebooks are FILLED with random stuff to start; poems, stories, ways to edit existing stuff. And then when there's a break, hit the bookshop to find other authors and literary magazines. It's a great place to talk to editors, authors, etc.

Kinda blurry, sorry. This is Kerry Cohen speaking. She's amazing.

Beyond that, TALK TO EVERYONE. Literally, every chance you get, introduce yourself. Sit next to people. Become the social butterfly you've always wanted to be. You don't know who you'll bump into. Seriously, from one of my conferences, I met a woman who offered to house me for a night because I'd been driving an hour each morning to the conference, and an hour each evening. She and I will be roommates at this year's AWP. At the same conference, I also met another person who housed me in Florida during Lit Day.

So, make a good impression and if you're serious about the game:

HAVE YOUR PITCH READY.
Everyone will ask, "What's your novel about."
Make sure you have an answer.

What Now?

I get to a point when I'm writing that I see the end (sort of) and something in the middle (sort of) but I've just written myself into a hole. Literally, I'll be writing and thinking "Yea, I got this, look at how fast I'm writing," and before I know it, I'll sit there at the screen and think, "Shit, what now?"

Sometimes I'm able to just play on facebook or twitter for a bit and get myself and my characters out of it, but sometimes the hole swallows me and it takes a little bit more to get out.

It's usually at that point I just keep asking "What now? What happens next?" It's also usually here that the crappy, quick, incoherent writing comes out so I can get back to the good stuff. But I'm okay with that. I'm okay with writing poorly. When I was at PNWA one of the panelists said something along the lines of, "Most everything you write is going to be crap. And that's okay." That's kind of the mindset I have. It's understood, you have to write crap to be able to write well. Me? My first draft is ALWAYS crap. Second draft is like mixed soft serve ice cream. Some of it's good, some of it's bad. Then...my final draft is what I start sending to agents.

But before all of that, before the draft is even finished, how do you go from being stuck in a hole, to crawling out? For me, I take time away. It's why for the more shallow holes I can go just play on some other media source. Sometimes that'll trigger something, or just allow my brain to slow down and stop getting frustrated. If that doesn't work, I step away from it. I go out with friends, take Baxter for a walk.

As you'll see, sometimes he just really wants to go...

If when I come back, I'm still stuck...I know I have to start writing again. (It happens sometimes, that I take too much time away from the work, don't think about it enough...etc. Oops!) The biggest thing that helps me is going back, sometimes only a couple of pages, sometimes all the way to the beginning and re-reading, getting re-acquainted with the roots of the story. I always find something I can add or take out. Once I catch up to the last line I'd written, I remember where I was, plus, I just added in that whole section (holy crap! 2,000 words! Yes!). Seriously, that happens sometimes.

This is why I'm not a plotter. Because as I write the story, it evolves, and I'm able to go back and make it stand for itself. Sure, sure, I have an idea when I start the story, I have situations I know I'll want to write in. But...it's connecting the dots and just going with the flow where the real writing (for me) comes in.

Happy NaNoWriMo!

Nudging Agents

You know how when you apply for a new job, you wait about a week for the employers to look over your resume, your application, and then you call and ask for the manager, and call, and call, and harass and then get hired?

Landing an agent is NOT like that.

A writer friend of mine and I were chatting today and she has several partials out in the world that she's waiting to hear back from. It's been about three months, and we discussed what to do. Some people say "Never nudge the agent!" some say "A little nudging is okay". I agree with the ladder. But there are things to consider:

**On the agency website, they usually have a section where it says "Query response time: 2-4 weeks, Partial: 4-8" etc. Make sure they've had it for x-length of time before contacting them
**After you've deemed that they've had it for x-length of time and one day, contact them via e-mail. Phone attacking is usually a poor life decision and freaks out agents (or so I've read on their blogs... :) ).
**In said e-mail, be sure to include name of novel, the fact that you're nudging after the allotted response time, and what your novel was about (essentially re-sending the query letter so they know what you're talking about)
**Thank them

I've only ever nudged an agent once, it was a brief, "Hi. A few months ago you requested --Novel Name-- from me. Your agency guidelines say response time is X-LENGTH OF TIME and it's a little after that. My novel is about QUERY LETTER, and I was just checking in to see if you've had the chance to review it. Thank you again for your time."

I've read some agency blogs that say nudging is okay. I also understand that agents get busy and sometimes bogged down in the slush pile. Don't be overbearing. This isn't like trying to get a job at a Target, there is a lot of waiting involved, and professionalism. If you get antzy, start writing something new, get your mind off things.

But if you're asking how to handle editors who have partials....I have no idea. I'm still learning about how to handle those situations.

Thank You Janet Reid

I'm not sure if any of you follow Janet Reid's blog, but you should if you don't. Go back through her archives and find this:

BE READY

So, after this advice and changing my intentions of conference attending, I am ready. I have pages printed, I have queries printed, I have business cards. I am ready for this, if anyone is willing to look at anything or critique anything. Even if they tell me what I wrote sucks, it's a starting point.

Be better, get better.

I'm ready.

(And off I go. No...but really, I probably won't blog until I come back. Tomorrow I work all day *I'm actually writing this at work* and then I'm powerkiting, buying clothes for the conference, and then packing, doing laundry, and cleaning out my car. Then I'm off!!)

Conference Prep

The LeakyCon Lit Day is rapidly approaching and while I feel unprepared something inside me tells me I'm ready. It's weird because I've never really been nervous about a conference. But...this round of conferences is different.

Why?

Because the previous times I've been to conferences it was for educational purposes. I wasn't pitching; I was finding out about the dynamics of the publishing world. I was seeing what people had to say. And now, with three and a half novels under my belt, I at last feel like I'm ready for this.

And so, I'm nervous. My intentions have changed. I'm not attending this conference purely for educational purposes. Ideally, I'll walk away with an agent, but if not, that's okay. I'll at least learn and maybe get critiqued on my pitching.

In all honesty, I need to work on my pitch. I need to do what Janet Reid has told her follows and Be Prepared. I need to print off x-amount of pages, query letters, whatever else I can do that may help show an agent that I'm ready and I'm willing to work for this.

Why?

Because I'm ready for this.

Tips For A Query Letter

So..I have massive amounts of writers block right now but I haven't blogged in awhile, so I figured I'll cover the basics of a query letter.

*Always address the letter to a SPECIFIC agent, not an agency, also not a "Dear Agent" you want "Dear X". 

*Make the letter personal but professional. Does this agent represent the genre of your book? Did you like the book? Why do you feel like your writing would be a good fit?

*What is the audience you're aiming for? YA? Adult? What genre is your novel? Paranormal? Romance? Heavy fantasy? Make sure to include this information SOMEWHERE in the letter.

*What is your novel about? --This is the hardest part of the query letter. Personally, I'm usually too emotionally involved in my writing to take a step back and say "This is my plot". I get help from friends who read my material and say "This is what I got out of the story". Make it interesting, use proper grammar, use correct spelling. It's like a mini-story.

*Do you have credentials? Have you been published before? Where? For what? Would the agent have heard of you? Do you attend conferences? 

*Try to keep this under a page (approximately 250 words)

*Sign your name and give information on how to contact you (name, address, phone number, e-mail address, etc)

*Lastly, before you send that letter, make sure you've checked the guidelines. Did the agency ask for pages pasted into the body of the e-mail? A synopsis? 

Those are the fast easy tips that I've come across in a lot of industry blogs. Hope this helps! Good luck! Oh--and if you get rejected, don't worry. It happens to all of us. Just keep trying!

Write What You Know

Yesterday an agent tweeted, asking if writing what you know really is the route to take. Personally, I think it is. 

If you'd asked me years ago (when the movie Never Been Kissed came out), I would have said no, because I didn't understand the value of the statement. I thought it meant to write what you know...like, what you learn in your algebra or physics class (or that time in my chemistry class when I got in a fight with my teacher walked out, threw my book across the hall and punched a wall)...I didn't understand at the time that writing what you know is writing what you've been able to experience.

I let myself off the hook a lot with my writing. Even when I have goals and deadlines I set for myself, if I miss them I don't mind all that much. Why? Because I'm out living my life and without these experiences, I wouldn't be able to articulate what some of my characters go through. In example, my main character right now is in the psych ward of a hospital...which I can speak about knowledgeably because of my experience there two years ago. From there I can build with characters I met there, things I wish would have happened, things that didn't happen, things that confused me, things that seemed so painfully obvious but weren't...things I really wanted to say or think. I can do this with my character because she's not me, she is having a completely different experience....but I know what it's like to be there. I know the anxiety, the fear, the want or need to get out when you've been committed against your will.

I can also talk about my best friend dying when she was only 17 years old, being cheated on, having a sister or two, having crushes, having a dog, being angry, having shitty parents, being hurt, being attacked by a friend's mom, going on adventures, kayaking, living, not wanting to live, being happy, crashing....these are all things I've been through, things I can talk about...and then I can fictionalize with my characters so their experiences aren't mine but I know the way they felt in certain situations because I know the way I felt in similar situations.  (This is part of that whole there is more truth in fiction than we'd like to believe, and more lies in memoir than we'd prefer to recognize. See THIS BLOG.)

My best advice to people is to write what you know. If you're writing fiction, don't write your memoir but build off of those experiences, you'll have insight to your character's life, it'll make your novel more believable. Be passionate, don't talk about something you don't know (unless, you know, you want to).

More of this blog is:
Don't feel bad when you don't have time to write, you're just doing research, gaining experience for your next novel or chatper :)

MIA

Well hello there. I've been kinda MIA for a bit, and I apologize. There have been things good and bad that have been going on in my life, but I don't want to be too "woe is me" so I'll share some goodness:

1) I went to see Silverstein in concert. If you don't know this band and like lyrics, and language, and powerful words...look them up. They are a Screamo band, but if you can look passed that and listen to Shane Told's voice...it's amazing. Another reason why Silverstein rocks, is because Shane is also their screamer. He's able to turn his voice into something so raw and ugly, and then something so simple and (honestly) beautiful, I stand in awe.

Easily One Of The Best Moments Of My Life
This Is Shane Told

2) I got some awesome birthday presents yesterday and a couple of days before from my good friend, Pat. He got me "Now Write" books for both creative nonfiction, and fiction. This is amazing, and once I move out of my bug infested house, I cannot wait to sit down with these and knock out some writing exercises. (Especially because I've been so angry recently it's given me another bout of writer's block. Ugh)

3) It has officially been a week since I submitted my manuscript. And I haven't gotten rejected yet. Although, I did receive another rejection the other day from an agent...it was a form letter but I couldn't stop laughing because it was the most friendly form rejection in the entire world (which included a link to other agents to possibly submit to). I love the literary world.

4) A few days before all of this, I received an e-mail from James Frey thanking me for my support of him and his writing. It was very nice, and made my night.

Best Birthday Eve, Ever

I am very excited :)

Today, after a very intense meeting up north, I came home to have another intense conversation about the direction(s) my life could head and how much I've grown in the last year or two. I checked my e-mail, which is rare to do since I work on a computer for eight hours a day, and usually just want to be away from technology....but I opened my e-mail to find more rejections and then...

Thanks so much for submitting. (Great, another rejection). Your query intrigues me, (Okay, but it's still not my thing, blah blah blah, rip off the band-aid already) so I’d love to take a look at your full manuscript (Wait...what???). I re-read this line a couple times while saying out loud on my sister's bed, "Oh my God, Oh my God...."

Please send it via Microsoft Word attachment at your earliest convenience. (And then I start screaming)

I look forward to hearing from you. (And screaming more. Followed rapidly by jumping up and down, clobbering my dog and telling him I love him, and choking on my lean pocket dinner, and screaming and trying to find a place where my cell phone gets signal).

From this point, I ran in figure eights in my road, and called most everyone in my phone, while jumping and becoming aware that while I box every other day, I am still vastly out of shape....only one or two people actually answered, but that's okay. 

This has been the best birthday eve, EVER. 

Reality check real fast:

I am super excited. Beyond words flattered and excited. At the same time I've been watching agent's statistics and am well aware that while this is a step in the right direction, there is a HUGE chance I will still be rejected. Nonetheless, I am SOOOOOO happy tonight. Reality can sink in Wednesday. I think I'll enjoy my birthday tomorrow :)

Agent Feedback!

This is my OMG
THIS IS AWESOME
Face

I am soooo excited right now. The lovely agents over at FinePrint Lit are offering a chance to have your first page (250 words) of your novel dissected. I sent both of my novels' first pages. I'm very, very excited to hear back from them as most rejections are form letters, and I'd like to know if I'm losing people on my first page.

Here's the link if you'd like to send yours their way!

The Editing Phase

The rejection letters are rolling in. Some amazingly awesome rejections...some average. But the fact is, they're still rejections, and they're probably my fault. So how to remedy this? Oh, right. Edit. Edit. Edit. 

The biggest thing I need to work on is my hook. My "What is your novel about"? I'm finding that each time someone asks me what my novels are about, my answer changes. How does it change? It gets stronger. The problem I'm running into as the writer, is that I know my stories inside and out. I can almost tell you on which page these people interact, what they say...etc. But on the smaller scale of things, these interactions don't matter and won't hold up in a query letter.

So, I've been having to take a step back. What makes my story interesting? Why would other people want to read it? And finally, what is my story about? I'm going to continually ask myself these questions until I'm in Seattle actually meeting with people at the PNWA conference (or Orlando and the LitDay adventure!!).

Outside of query editing, I've finished my second round of Igniting a Firestarter. It is now 215 pages, and just above 61,000 words. Last night I also resubmitted Confessions of an Immortal Heart which meant more editing for that novel (still around 73,000 words). I'm also excited because I've picked up more readers for both novels...by pitch alone. 

If you read my interviews with myself, I ask "What are your novels about?" I used to HATE that question. Now, I look forward to it because it puts me on the spot, and I need to say something quickly to whoever asks so they don't lose interest. I feel like this will help with speed pitching to agents, or even regular pitching. 

I cannot wait for Orlando and Seattle. Cannot. Wait.

Things I Am Looking Forward To:

Usually, my days tend to be kind of bllllaaaahhhh. Work 9-5, clean the warehouse on my days off, ogle agents and people who are published. Write..edit...read....play with my sister or my dog...or the Wii Fit

But, these days, I'm constantly finding myself jumping up and down (no, I have not yet landed an agent, nor have I heard word back from the magazine competitions...which reply closer to April or May)

Early April:
The lovely agents at FinePrint Lit will be announcing their winner for the Backspace Query Competition, also Burnside Review and various other magazines/competitions will be announcing their winners.

April 12: Rebecca Rasmussen's novel, The Bird Sisters is released!

April 19: My birthday!!!!

April 26--Take Action Tour:
Silverstein and Bayside concerts in Raleigh!

July 13--LeakyCon 2011, LitDay
John Green, Scott Westerfeld, Kate Schafer Testerman, plus other awesome people and agents, and publishers (I'm swooning right now!)

August 4-7--PNWA Conference!!
You get to speed pitch, listen to speakers, meet agents, SOCIALIZE, make friends....I cannot wait. I cannot wait. Not only this, but I will be staying with my lovely friend, Jennifer Olson who I have not seen in far, far too long. (Yay!!!)

Things I will need for the writing conferences:

• My voice recorder cleared out (currently has battery acid) so I can have fresh batteries and record notes people say to me. Also so I can be all Dirty Work and say "Note to self..." (Or so I won't have to call my voicemail and say "Steph, this is Steph. This is the idea for a story/novel/portion of your memoir I was thinking of while stuck in stop-and-go traffic." Driving a stick is hazardous (sp?), talking is not.
• Business cards (awaiting them, any day now!)
• Pages of two FINISHED and EDITED novels: Confessions of an Immortal Heart and Igniting a Firestarter
• Speed pitch--written, practiced, verbalized (at PNWA it's 3 minute sessions. Gotta talk quick! Be ready to provide pages. This is what I learned from Janet Reid's blog).
• Confidence
• A good hook
• Nice clothing (thank you tax refund!)
• Money to buy books! And apparel! And awesomeness!



Another One On Goals

I believe in goals. I believe they help you stay on track and push yourself to do better. It might be because I was a Cross Country runner throughout high school and our biggest competition was ourselves...or it might be because I LOVE the satisfaction that comes hand in hand with accomplishment, so I strive to give myself a reason to feel it. Either way, I always have goals. Long term, short term, temporary....

My first novel (tentatively called The Dying Process, or Confessions of an Immortal Heart) had its skeleton written mostly by the time I finished high school. In college, it got its ending, and now it's trying to find itself an agent. The goal of course for this, is to be published. The temporary goal is to see if I'll write a sequel...which I've been considering for about a month now..

My second novel...is still in the works. It was started for Tammy Henry (who also deserves a shout out here as being my first official reader for novel number one!!) because she gave me the little green book and a pack of pens to write with. I hand wrote over 80 pages that ended up getting typed up (and there are still more that I haven't....). But this one has me at a writers block, and has, sadly for a few years. I think about it from time to time (and the narrator has graced me with some vivid, vivid nightmares)...and I hope someday to also get this one published (this one is more on the adult side of the audience). So the goal for this, is to actually finish it....sooner rather than later.

My third novel...was started Thursday, February 24, 2011. In this time, the narrator has been circulating in my mind and shelled out 55 pages (15,420 words!). I am in awe of how much I've done. Seriously, I'm like a writing machine right now. Because of this, my goal is to write 10 pages a day. I told someone jokingly, that I'd have a novel written in about 20 days at this pace. Now I'm considering really trying that out. I know how the novel will end, I know the plot and characters...it's just tying one piece to the other in a coherent fashion. I read the first chapter to my sister the other morning, and she gave me the biggest compliment I could receive from her: "I think I'd actually read this one!" (See previous blogs for an explanation as to why this is huge.) 

This novel has the potential to be a series, which is daunting to even consider. Where I'm thinking of ending it however, it would at least need a sequel to tie up some loose ends that'll be floating in the reader's mind.

So primary goal for this novel: write 10 pages a day, or more (that way I'll have some slack off time the following day).

Today was supposed to be spent working on short stories and things like that because some competitions are wrapping up tomorrow for submissions....and...I'm thinking I don't have enough money right now. Plus there are several coming up March 15-16 and 31 that I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY want to enter into. So...I think I'll hold off on the March 1st deadlines, focus all my energy on novel three, and in a week or so, hit the competitions hard. 

Wish me luck, and have an awesome day!

15 Minute Window

So, you've received your first rejection letter. No? Maybe your sixth? Maybe more?

Firstly, congrats on submitting to that many people. Hopefully you researched them, and decided that you were what they were looking for.  (Remember, personalize each query, each submission, if you didn't do this, this may be why you're staring at a shiney rejection letter)
Secondly, from the second you open that letter, you have what I consider the 15 Minute Window. In this time you're allowed to think:
What the f@#k?!
Oh man, I'm so sad!
Why didn't they like me?
Who cares I don't need them! I'll find someone better.

***********NOTICE*********

I said THINK these things. DO NOT, EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER send a letter to the agent telling them this. Keep these things to yourself, or maybe a friend who is in person. Do NOT write a blog complaining, do not blow up your facebook wall, or your twitter if you have it. THINK these things. Or eat some ice cream. Maybe some oreos (which reminds me...I just ran out). Maybe even open a beer.

For these fifteen minutes, you're allowed to cry, to throw things, to punch your pillows, whatever you feel, (except attack the agent or editor who rejected you). Once that 15 Minute Window passes...

GET YOUR HEAD BACK IN THE GAME

Chances are you were rejected due to a flaw in your manuscript. If people you've only QUERIED are rejecting you, maybe you need to start with your pitch. Re-edit. If you've been re-editing for what feels like forever and you're sick of your story, take a break from it. Start something new. JUST. KEEP. WRITING. Keep the creativity flowing. Hey, maybe even turn the person you were rejected from into an evil monster with sixteen eyes.

Keep trucking along. At some point, re-edit everything: your synopsis, your query, your MANUSCRIPT. Then find other agencies, other contests, and resubmit.

Yes, it's sad you've been rejected (I'm openly weeping for you right now). But the rest of us have been cast away too (even if it was being the kid picked last for dodge ball).

Keep your head up. This is a long distance race, not a short sprint :)

Goals And Good News!

So, here's this:

       1) go to www.amazon.com/abna
       2) download the PDF list of second round entries for your category
       3) search for the author name from your submission form and the title of your entry

Look up the name Stephanie Schmidt and BAM you'll see my name. My novel has advanced to round two of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest.

Okay, now for the real blog.

When writing or submitting always have goals. If you start writing something, are you going to be okay with stopping in the middle to return? Are you aiming for this to be a longer story? A shorter story? Are you open for anything?
When submitting to an agent, what do you want? Will you be satisfied with the asking for a partial? Will you be okay with rejection? Are you shooting for the moon and asking for an agent during your first round of queries?
Now...competitions. Do you want an honorable mention? Are you prepared to not even hit the mark? Are you prepared to win?

Here are my thoughts on life:
Writing--When I start, I allow the story to take me wherever it wants to. If the narrator's voice is strong and I feel a lot of anger or passion behind it, I know I'm in for a little bit of a longer story. Although, if she cuts me off, I'm okay with that too. I can always go back and edit and add more.
Agents--I just went through my first round of queries. Going into it my GOAL was a request for a partial, which I received and am SUPER stoked about. Even if they reject me, it gives me reassurance I have some semblance of an idea as to what the hell I'm doing. It also took out the sting of the rejections I had received, and probably will receive. I met my goal, I can relax a little bit, refocus, and make a bigger goal, the all elusive actual AGENT and FULL request (of course, not in that order!)
Competitions--I recently entered into the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest and my novel has advanced to round two! Out of close to 10,000 (that's what it gets capped at) entries, they selected 1,000 to move onto round two. My name, my work, has moved onto round two.

Here is why I'll get rejected:
Because my manuscript wasn't nearly as polished as it is now. Also, I was rushed for time (deadline was at midnight, I submitted at like 11:55pm, maybe even 11:58pm)...and forgot to de-color my text. (When I had written the novel, each chapter was a different color to help me go back to it/remember what the chapter was about).
BUT--I had a goal, that I would make it onto round two. And I did.

Now it's time to press on, and keep working for that agent!!

The Rejection Process

I'm slowly considering renaming my blog from The Submission Process to The Rejection Process. The goal this time around, though, was to have people ask for a partial, and one has, so I'm happy with round one of submissions, at least :) I will keep climbing this crazy ladder!

Rejection of any sort makes you doubt yourself. It puts those questions in your head, Am I not good enough? What's wrong with me? But in reality, I know nothing is wrong with me. I am a strong writer, though some areas may be weak, which is why my sister and I live edit almost nightly (except for right now because she has company down in Louisiana.) I can't remember whose blog I read, but they said something along the lines of: Being an agent and selecting who to represent is like walking into a huge bookstore. As you do so, you look at a few, and only end up buying one. It's the same with representing an author. My novel is one of those thousands of nameless books in that bookstore. It has to reach the right reader. This gives me perspective and it lessens each blow that says "I don't want you." It's nothing personal, it's just re-shelving me and my book.

When I first wrote this The Dying Process, it was SO weak. I still have an early draft if you'd ever like to read it and laugh with me. But it was the skeleton of something that is blowing my mind and making me consider starting a sequel. There are some parts that I've re-read and almost started crying because I can feel the character's pain an anguish at losing her other half. I want to cry with her because I've lost mine. But the fact that I have these emotions that she's capable of triggering them gives me hope that my writing can and will reach an agent, reach a publisher and start getting my work out there.

At work today, people who offered to read my story were discussing it and allowed me to listen in on some. The biggest compliment I received was them saying, "It's playing out like a movie in my head. I can see everything you're saying perfectly." Followed by, "I can't wait to read the rest."

Rebecca Rasmussen just put up a blog post about having heart, and sticking it out. I believe in my work. My sisters believe in my work. In middle school Mrs. Watchorn continually pushed me along with my writing. In high school people used to steal my notebooks asking "What haven't I read yet?" In college, I had people asking me to sign their copies of Zephyr. I know I am capable of writing things that reach people, that people want to read. 

So as Jay-Z told me as I opened my first big rejection letter, "You gotta get that dirt off your shoulders," and as Reliant K tells me, "I'm pressing on."

An Interview With Myself About Confessions Of An Immortal Heart

So...I'm bored and tired so I'm going to interview myself to answer all of your lovely questions about Confessions of an Immortal Heart. Why am I asking them? Because they're things I've been wanting to explain to people who are in the process of reading, or potential agents:

When did you write this?

I wrote this my sophomore year of high school? I know it wasn't my freshmen year, but I may have started it then. I finished it sometime in college when I submitted (kind of crappily) to an agent. Of course I got rejected.

Why did you write this?

Erika Wilke told me one day to write a story for her...so I started...and kept going...and it kept going. I felt bad because I kept saying "Oh, you'll have it by Easter, by my birthday...by the time I graduate...." but she still hasn't gotten a copy....(Now she and I don't really talk that much..)

So.....What happens if this gets published?

Well, hopefully I'd be able to do a book tour. I've moved around a lot, so I have three solid fan bases: in the towns of Shepherd, Mt. Pleasant, Auburn, and Bay City, Michigan (my home state), so I feel like that would be a good place to start. (I'd LOVE to have a book signing at Book Mark in Mt. Pleasant, or somewhere in Bay City, and I feel like I would have a good turn out.)
In Biddeford/Portland, Maine, where I attended the University of New England (getting a Med Bio degree!). I have a lot of friends that way who constantly say, "When you get published, I'll be in the store to buy it!" When I was published in Zephyr, a few people made me sign their copies which was HUGELY flattering. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have a signing at Bullmoose. And then on the Outerbanks of North Carolina where I currently reside. It's a smaller following, but I work for a pretty big company (Kitty Hawk Kites), so I feel maybe we could do a co-thing? Try to get both of our names out there?
Thankfully with these places, I feel I'd be able to set up the book signings myself (with maybe some research and direction from an agent/editor...but if they don't have time, I could figure it out. It's not that hard to call places and I'm familiar with the areas in question/the bookstores.)

So, the main characters don't have names...why?

When I first wrote it, I just kept going back to "I" and "me" and "he" and "him" thinking that I would name the characters later. But as time progressed, I listened to people talk about their significant others, and they constantly said, "I'm going out with him" "She's mad at me again". The more I listened the more I heard that we as people don't usually use names, and it's seems like it's a sign of affection. If you're with someone, you love them, and everyone else knows. You talk about them without using their names....so...if you're telling a story about losing the person you love, everyone should know who that is without having to say the name.
I feel like this tactic makes the character more relateable (some may disagree, like my sister). But without names, the characters can become anyone they want to be, it can become your story, it can become mine.
Plus, I read Swann's Way in college, and the narrator was "I"...so I felt it was okay.

How many rounds of editing has this piece gone through?

Oh geeze....umm...a million?
When it was first finished, I left it alone for a few years and went back to it. As I read through it, I found that the writing was unGodly weak, but I had some solid ideas behind the writing. Around the same time I read Three Weeks With My Brother, by Nick Sparks, and he talked about his first book, and how he scrapped it, and I considered doing the same with this...but there was something about it saying "Just edit me, just edit me!" so for the last few years, it's what I've been doing.
When I finally got it to the point I started considering submitting to agents, I sent it out to friends who were avid readers and read things like Twilight, or Harry Potter, and things that were slightly outside our realm of comfort (except, again for my sister...this is NOT her genre). They LOVED the idea behind it. My sister on the other hand said, "I read three pages, lost interest. Please don't make me read anymore."

Wow, that was harsh....what did you do?

Well...I looked at from the reader/author relationship. If she's not connecting well enough to the character, it's a problem on my end of things. I ended up cutting the intro from about 20 pages, down to 5. I described in more detail the world the narrator lived in and rearranged a million scenes.
She later had a problem with the first meeting scene, so I added more dialog with that. I also completely deleted chapter 9 because...well...it sucked. I'm not afraid of changing things as long as it conveys what the story is about

And what is the novel about?

Hahahaha, I hate this question. Actually after the first rejection today, I went to Taco Tuesdays and told the bartender about being rejected after she asked me how I was. We finished our conversation and I heard someone behind me say "So...what's your novel about?"
I laughed and said, "Okay, but you gotta not judge me."
So in short: The narrator is immortal (and unnamed as previously discussed). While most stories have the man stronger, this one revolves around her trying to protect him in some way. Well....he gets murdered, and she basically loses her mind and goes on a killing rampage.
(In this description, I leave out the fact that 90% of the novel builds up to that moment, and explains their relationship together. It follows their meeting where she hated him, to falling in love with him, right up to his death).

Wow. That's pretty intense. What is your inspiration behind this?

Well...there's a lot. The relationship/emotional aspect of the story revolves around my relationship with the guy I loved in high school. Some of the stories are based around things we did, and really it gives me the strongest sense of love and the ability to write about what I felt at that time period.
The death scene and those emotions around it are tied into the death of my best friend, Kellie Lynne Wheeler, who was killed in a car accident when she was seventeen. (I was in my sophomore year of high school when my sister called and told me the news...). It's hard going from returning home from school each day and waiting by the computer to chat with her...to suddenly never seeing her log on again. I wanted something to cement the fact that it's okay to grieve forever, to be in pain from the absence of someone you love. I was so pissed when I went to school, and a week later one of my friends said, "It's been a week, you're not over it yet?" I wanted to strangle him.
I wrote the murder scenes when I was pissed off at my sisters for one reason or another. It helped manage my anger :)

What do books do you consider to be similar?

Umm....the romances are similar to that of the Twilight Saga (the whole "Oh man, this person is my entire world, and I feel like I'd die without them) and the Kissed By An Angel Trilogy (the guy dies and she has to learn how to function again....)

What is your target age group?

When I started this, I was in high school, so that was my original target. But now I'm 22, and have friends my age, and older, and younger. Most of the people who've been reading this are between the ages of 20-40+, but most of us still feel like young adults. I think because of the LOSS and LOVE factors of the novel, anyone who has lost someone can related to the narrator's story. So really, all ages, I guess (though there are some rather graphic scenes)...so maybe young adult and older? If you're making me be specific, I'd aim for 14 and older.

Would you be willing to do an audio CD or anything like that?

I would be. I'm not sure how those work, like...would I be the one reading, or do they hire someone to do it? I'd honestly kind of like to be the reader (don't get me wrong, I hate the sound of my voice), but I LOVE Sylvia Plath, and for the first time last year, I heard a recording of her reading, and it was....horrifying, and inspiring, and if my work reaches anyone, I'd like them to be able to hear -me-. If not...that's okay, I'm sure I'll get to do a partial reading at some point in my life :) Yey youtube!

What other things are you working on?

Well, I'm midway through my second novel, which I started writing because of the great Tammy Henry. If that one gets published, it will be dedicated to her. It's tentatively called The Secret Keeper. I've been working on the ending for quite some time now....
I also write short stories, nonfiction, and poetry, so a lot of my time has been spent submitting things to competitions and trying to bulk up my resume/publishing background.


Okay, I feel like that's sufficient. If you guys have any questions about the novel, the submission process, or anything else, feel free to let me know and I'll answer!