WIP Wedneday #1 -- Querying vs. Middles

So, WIP Wednesdays are no uncommon thing, and I certainly babble about my WIPs often enough, but I liked the idea of having a structured time and place for that. Author and blogger Anna Staniszewski does these lovely once-a-month-or-so WIP Wednesdays which I liked better than weekly updates, so I thought I'd adopt that concept over here.

And the thing is? I LOVE hearing how other people's WIPs are going, what projects they're working on, etc; so I hope you guys will share about your WIPs  as well. (I really mean that! Share! Comment! I want to hear about it!)

Project one - MIRRORPASS

I just wanted to do a quickie update on MIRRORPASS since it's still out on submissions. So far? Those have been going pretty good. I debated how much to share, and I think I'm going to go with, "there's been interest." Nothing extraordinary, but not too shabby, either. Right now I'm working on reigning in the daydreams and keeping my perspective, but I know some days I end up walking around with a secret smile on my face. I think I described it to one friend as feeling like a swallowed star.

Project two - Shutterbug

A little catchup first. Some interesting things have happened since I wrote this post mid-October. Basically, I wrote the first third of the novel in this mad rush during September, and then kind of remembered I was a college student with homework assignments, so I spent the entirety of October playing catchup, not writing much at all. And then I spent a lot of November...also not writing.

When I look at my writing records, it wasn't all that bad, but it felt bad. I went from writing 35k in two weeks, to writing a scant handful of times in the next two months.

September - 35k
October - 8k
November - 9k

And my current wordcount is 57k.

I have definitely slowed down (although I am still proud of that progress.) Some of this was intentional; after the mad September rush, I needed to gather my thoughts and recover some creative stamina. But I was also getting a little nervous about how fast I was going. Was this going to last? Should I keep pushing myself? Would that kill it? If I slowed down, would I be able to start again, or would I lose it?

When pushing started making me grumpy about the whole project, I slowed down and started working at a more natural pace. It took me a little bit to find a solid balance between pacing myself, pushing myself, and procrastinating (hello, Pinterest) but I think I'm settling into a good rhythm. 

Nice as it was to write that much that fast, this feels much more natural to me. I tend to brainstorm a lot. I'll write for three or four days, then stop for a week or two just to think about what happens next. If I don't do this, I hit deadzones where I have to back up and figure out where I went wrong. The problem with this method, though, is middles. Because middles take a lot of figuring out.

When writing MIRRORPASS, I came up with this theory that the best and natural way to handle middles is to send your characters on some kind of journey. It could be a physical journey, or it could be a personal quest, or it could be the Rocky Balboa training montage, or in a romance it might be the period when the characters are falling blissfully in love and their relationship is coming into it's own. So even though Shutterbug is past the halfway point wordcount wise, I have finally hit my middle journey--Toby setting off on his search to find Mirelle.

This is exciting. And a little scary. And a bit intimidating. I have a lot of plot threads I have to weave with perfect intricacy, or things are going to get clunky fast. Some areas are still gray smudges to me. I'm trying to accomplish some things I've never done before--like getting my characters to fall in love, and a John Green-esque quest. It's going to take a lot of thought to pull off.

At the same time, though, the middle is where Major Things Begin To Happen. Stuff is Set Into Motion. All sorts of dramatic, painfully sweet scenes are coming up, some of them scenes I have been dreaming of since the very beginning. Then once I'm through the smudgy grey area, the climax buildup is going to happen fast. That is where things get super exciting. Like, I get jittery thinking about it.

So, currently? My biggest problem is that I need to just write. To not let the idea of the middle or the gray areas get to me. Because honestly, once I start writing, this novel just flows so easy. It's ridiculous to keep waffling like this.

As motivation, I sent the draft off to a couple first readers, and I also set myself a loose deadline to finish it by the end of December break. So there, wafflepants. I've got a deadline now. Time to bring it.

Okay. Your guys' turn! Tell me about your WIPs. Still working on your Nano novels, or did you skip Nano like me, and do you have something else you're working on? Any progress? Setbacks? Successes? Please do share!

Truly and always,
-Creative A

Agents Are Subjective...But So Am I

Quick announcement before I dive into the post--after much debate, I decided to postone the contest until December. I feel horrible about promising this and not doing it right away. I've been trying to work on that. But while writing up the post and getting all the details together, I realized that logistically, it was wiser to wait. So while that stinks, it gets to be SO MUCH COOLER if I do it in December. So bear with me. It will be worth it, I promise.

Segue!

Here’s something I’ve been hearing agents say a lot lately: “I need to fall in love.” This is one of the hardest things about querying. You can write an outstanding query, and have some incredible opening pages, and you can know in your gut it’s good—but you can’t guarantee an agent will love it. 

And that’s rough. While researching potential agents for MIRRORPASS submissions, I heard the “fall in love” phrase over and over again. Agents said they wanted voices that would hook them and plots that would make them miss a subway stop. They said the market is so tough, and their inboxes are so full of queries, that they can’t take on a project unless it’s absolutely perfect for them. 

Some factors of “perfection” garnered from interviews and profiles :

·         It has to fit them and their tastes.

·         It can’t be too much like another client’s book.

·         They need to know right off which editors they could pitch this to.

·         And they have to love it.

Which is pretty subjective. It’s more timing, circumstance, and personal taste than the quality of the manuscript. I get this. I do. But before doing all this research, it was a bit intellectual for me. I still approached submissions with a mindset hinting of, “if my book is good enough, then they’ll love it.”

Because that’s the writer’s job, right? We do our best to have a strong hook, unique voice, compelling premise, breakout stakes, and flawed characters, not to mention developing a professional writing style devoid of too many filter words, “ly” adverbs, stilted dialogue, and flat descriptions. There’s this sensation that if you do all that, eventually you’ll write The One, the special book that will make agents and editors swoon. 

It’s like a subconscious formula of success. If I do these things, my books will be good. Agents love good books. Therefore, agents will love my book if it’s good.  

There’s merit to the idea—good writing increases your chances of someone liking your book—but it’s also flawed.  

Agents receive a lot of strong submissions. Research agents for five seconds, and this becomes obvious. But agents don’t talk about their client’s projects like they’re just good books. When an agent talks about an upcoming client project, you can almost feel the sparkle in their eyes. They gush. They enthuse. They’re passionate. There was clearly a difference between projects they thought were good or interesting or unique, or even ones that had huge potential, and the actual projects that sparked some deeper fervor inside them. 

And still, I didn’t get it, until I found myself doing the exact same thing during my agent hunt. 

I found myself wanting to fall in love.

This wasn’t about agents being good or not. There are so many incredible YA agents out there, it was even a bit overwhelming. Agencies like Andrea Brown, Writer’s House, and Nancy Coffey were exceptional. Many of them were called “super agents” by their clients and interviewers. They had a great client list, lots of big deals, good connections, a fantastic agency—everything an author could want.

Now, some of them I liked. Some of them I didn’t. Some of them were right for me, technically, but I couldn’t shake the odd sensation that they weren’t right for me...that something didn’t mesh. I could name plenty of superficial reasons why—“she sells too many vamp books, I don’t do vamps, and what’s with the cutsy contemp?”—but when it came down to it, I wasn’t sure what my problem was. Anyone else would be happy to have to have this person as their agent. Why not me?

And then I stumbled upon a few agents I loved. 

I knew the difference right away. I sat up straighter. My heart started pounding. I found myself reading their interviews voraciously, soaking in every word and pasting quotes in my agent file. I found myself daydreaming about how The Call would go (though I hadn’t even queried them yet) and how cool it would be to become their client. I’d stare at their agent file, and just grin.

But I can’t tell you why those people stood out to me. They just did. It wasn’t intellectual or technical or a result of their accomplishments. There was just something about them that made me know, in my gut, they were the kind of person I wanted to work with. They had somehow surpassed like and gone straight to love.

Which, I realized, is how agents react to manuscripts. They don’t have the time and skill to take on projects unless they love them. In return, I was crossing superstar agents off my list because I just didn’t connect with them. And if I did love an agent, I wanted them to love my work back. What was the point of becoming their client otherwise?

Personally, I believe in my book. I’ve worked hard on it. I’m passionate about it. I want an agent to feel that same passion. If they thought my novel was excellent, that it had potential, but they felt no person connection—well, I’d rather they reject me. 

But.

Even though I felt that way, even though I didn’t love every agent on my list, there’s a reason they got on my list to begin with. They had success stories and great clients. They worked with a reputable agency. They stood out. I knew that if I clicked with these people, they would make me a great agent. 

And it’s the same with good writing. No, good writing isn’t guaranteed to make those superstar agents swoon. But it’s enough to get you on the list, so to speak. It makes you stand out long enough for them to finish the query, or your sample pages, or ask for a partial or a full. In the end, they may not have loved it—they might not sign you. But it was good enough for them to give it a shot, to consider it, to take a look.

And if you keep writing solid stories with strong hooks, unique voices, and breakout stakes, eventually you’re bound to write the novel that someone will love. 

That’s what I tell myself, anyway ;)

Truly and always,
-Creative A