Rejection Feedback

A few friends and I are in the middle of revisions (who isn't!), but in discussing our revision strategy, I've realized how much our views on rejection feedback has changed. We've gotten feedback in agent and editor rejections, but we are not jumping to implement it. This is quite a change from my previous views. My reaction to rejection feedback has actually gone through five different stages.


Stage One - Agonizing over rejection feedback without realizing it's a form

When I got my first few rejections, I parsed every word and I thought they revealed the truth about my manuscript. I tore my hair out because Agent A was intrigued by my premise, but not drawn into the opening chapters as much a she hoped. Agent B thought I had much to be proud of, but couldn't connect with the main narrative.

Argh!. I could make it to the next step if only I revise my opening chapters somehow, or make my main character more relatable.

Then I learned those were forms. The "feedback," positive and negative, meant nothing but no.

Stage Two - Wishing for feedback with rejection

Once I realized that general comments were forms, and I agonized because I WANTED feedback. If only the agents would tell me what was wrong, I could fix it. Why won't they tell me what is wrong? Don't I even deserve a REASON?

Stage Three - Revising to every comment

Finally! My rejections came with feedback. After every rejection, I would revise. But then the next revision had DIFFERENT feedback. How could I know what to do if everyone told me something different?

Stage Four - Wishing I didn't get feedback with rejection

And then I'd get a particularly stinging comment. Maybe it hit on a nagging problem I always suspected but didn't want to face, or is was way too blunt about something I never considered. Feedback like that got me thinking the opposite of Stage Two. Must rejections include feedback? Why isn't a simple no enough without sticking the knife in too?

Stage Five  - Just another opinion, and I appreciate all opinions.

This is where I am now. When I get feedback on a rejection, I'm grateful. I appreciate the thought and time that went into reading and commenting, and I consider the comments carefully.

That doesn't mean I revise based on them. The agent or editor did not want my work. The comment is not the real reason why -- they just didn't love it, or just didn't think they could sell it. Feedback is just extra, a little parting gift in an attempt to be helpful. Unless they say they'd like to see the manuscript again if I revise according to the comment, it's useless revising to please them. The horse has already left  the barn. I won't get another chance with that editor for this book.

So when I consider the comments carefully, I find that sometimes the reasons given by several editors contradict each other Sometimes it's clear that the book is not for them and no amount of revision is going to change that. I file those comments away.

But sometimes they are right. Some problems are fixable. But the final decision to revise or not comes from my own judgment. I'm looking for an editor who loves my work, and whatever makes that more likely is a good thing. I can't always see my own work clearly so I appreciate wise guidance wherever I get it, even if it has a big old NO attached in capital letters.

How do you use rejection feedback? Have your views on rejections changed and how?

And be sure to come back tomorrow for some big news and a contest from Operation Awesome!

Writing in the Multiverse

Recently I've been working on a requested revision of a picture book for my agent. It's a quite a bit different than the original, which is not uncommon for picture book revisions. Often a revision is a complete rewrite, taking the same concept down to a blank page and beginning anew. Other times, it's more like a variation on the motif -- new elements added, others deleted, to stay at that elusive 600 word mark within the framework. Sometimes at the end, only a handful of the original words remain.

But this version is a split from my original story -- an alternative, not replacing my previous one, but existing alongside it. Which is the real version? They both are. It feels like I'm writing in a multiverse -- each story is an equally true, existing at the same time. 

I have a friend who rewrote a fantasy into a realistic contemporary into a ghost story. Same character, same motivation, but that single character lives in a different instance of the multiverse where her story plays out in different ways, where magic is real or not real or operates under different rules.

Writing in a multiverse has its challenges. When the versions diverge,  commas corrected or sentences tightened in one version remain in the others. It's frustrating to come across an error you remember fixing, only to realize you were working in another universe when you fixed it.  

Rewriting a book in another direction can be an interesting exercise, whether the revision is requested by an editor or agent, or the writer is trying to make a well-loved story more saleable. Or maybe he's just wondering what would happen if some condition in the story changed -- what if the character chose a different option from a "choose your own adventure" map.

So when you have two or five versions of the same multiverse, which is the true one? For me, it will be the one that gets published. But until then, they are equally true.

Do you have more than one version of a story with a major change or different set of rules? Do you keep separate versions of any novels or does the new version always overwrite the other? Have you ever a sold a version of the story that you didn't feel was your "A" version -- that another iteration was better or truer?

Revising Your Teenage Voice: Lauren Morrill

It's A Delicate Balance...

...between how teenagers really talk and how interesting your writing is going to be. You have to walk the line, and it's not something you're likely to get on your first draft. The biggest piece of revising into that perfect balance is to recognize where the lines are. So first of all...

Don't Have Dawson-itis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ODVp9JwPiw  

I remember when Dawson's Creek first hit the airwaves, and all the reviews remarked on the unique way the characters spoke, as if in between chemistry and study hall, they're brokering peace treaties for the U.N. It was cute and interesting... for a minute... but even for that minute there was never any idea that teenagers actually talk like that. Because they don't. In fact, no one talks like that. And nothing will make your writing more put-downable than overly articulate, overly introspective teenagers. 

Avoid a Case of the OMG SHOES 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCF3ywukQYA  

It's possible, though, to go too far the other way. Every time I read a book with too many "likes" and "OMGs" all I can think about is Kelly from the (sorta nsfw) YouTube video OMG Shoes. When people talk (and not just teens are guilty of it), there are a whole lot of "likes" and "ums," along with overuse of "so," "just," "really," and "very." I'm guilty of it for sure, I bet you are as well, and in your quest to be realistic, you may be tempted to use them liberally. Don't. Overuse in an effort to develop a voice will trip up your reader, take them out of the story, and possibly give them an OMG SHOES impression of your character that you don't want to be there. If you use those typical dialogue tics sparingly, your reader will get your character's voice in their head enough that they'll start assuming those every time they hear that character speak.

Be Nosey   

This one is probably the oldest advice on the planet, but I'm going to repeat it here because it works. When I lived in Boston, I loved listening in on conversations at local coffee shops and diners. You'll get a sense not just of what people say, but the way they say it. But your character's voice doesn't just come from their words. It comes from the way they express themselves. This includes tics, body movements, and facial expressions. What does your character do with her hands while she's talking? Does she tap her foot? Play with her fork? Is she scrolling through her phone mid-sentence? Gazing out the window? Looking her companion dead in the eye? All of these things matter, and they all paint a picture of a certain kind person. So when you're at your local Starbucks, don't just listen in. Watch a little (not too much, you don't want to freak people out!). Make notes of some of the physical characteristics you see, and if they fit your character, start working them in.

Read The Masters

As soon as I saw the title for this post, all I could think about was Megan McCafferty's Jessica Darling series. Jessica's voice leaps off the page from the very start of Sloppy Firsts. 

That series also gives us another great point of reference in the way Jessica grows over the course of five books. Comparing the voice of Sloppy Firsts, when she's 16, to the voice in Perfect Fifths, when Jessica is 25, gives us an excellent picture of the way voices can mature. For example:

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“Right now I feel guilty to be alive. Why? Because I’m wasting it. I’ve been given this life and all I do is mope it away.
What’s worse is, I am totally aware of how ridiculous I am. It would be a lot easier if I believed I was the center of the universe, because then I wouldn’t know any better NOT to make a big deal out of everything. I know how small my problems are, yet that doesn’t stop me from obsessing about them.
I have to stop doing this.
How do other people get happy? I look at people laughing and smiling and enjoying themselves and try to get inside their heads. How do Bridget, Manda, and Sara do it? Or Pepe? Or EVERYONE but me?
Why does everything I see bother me? Why can’t I just get over these daily wrongdoings? Why can’t I just move on and make the best of what I’ve got?
I wish I knew.”
 -SLOPPY FIRSTS

“The stories teach them valuable life lessons. That good things happen to bad people. That it’s possible to make a bad situation even worse if you don’t think it through. That parents are clueless except when they’re not. That it’s good to try new things even when a new thing is kind of disgusting, because new experiences make you a well-rounded person. That art can be transcendent. That lust is all-powerful, that drugs are fun, and that not everyone who does them is a loser. That losing people is part of life. That where comedy goes, tragedy isn’t far behind. That everyone has issues with their bodies, but some take it too far, almost to death. That fear can be exhilarating. That boys are assholes. That it’s important to look forward and never look back…”
-PERFECT FIFTHS

In the first passage? Lots of questions. Lots of emphasis. Lots of feeling like you're at the end of your rope, like you're going to pinch a fit maybe, but possibly not because you might be too old for it. Lots of thinking externally as a way to thinking internally. And the second? It's someone with a bit more knowledge. Someone with perspective. Someone who feels a bit more comfortable with like, someone who feels like they might know a little bit about what it's all about.


Read Out Loud

My last tip is another one that a lot of people share, but again, I'm going to repeat it here because it's uber-helpful. I read all my writing out loud to see if it flows off the tongue the same way it rolls through my brain. This is especially important for dialogue. If it sounds strange coming out of your mouth, it probably sounds strange coming out of your main character's mouth, too. 

 

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LAUREN MORRILL grew up in Maryville, Tennessee, where she was a short-term Girl Scout, a (not so) proud member of the marching band, and a trouble-making editor for the school newspaper. She graduated from Indiana University with a major in history and a minor in rock & roll, and now lives in Macon, GA with her husband and their dog, Lucy. When she's not writing, she spends a lot of hours getting knocked around playing roller derby. MEANT TO BE is her first novel.

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Meant to be or not meant to be . . . that is the question.

It's one thing to fall head over heels into a puddle of hazelnut coffee, and quite another to fall for the—gasp—wrong guy. Straight-A junior Julia may be accident prone, but she's queen of following rules and being prepared. That's why she keeps a pencil sharpener in her purse and a pocket Shakespeare in her, well, pocket. And that's also why she's chosen Mark Bixford, her childhood crush, as her MTB ("meant to be").

But this spring break, Julia's rules are about to get defenestrated (SAT word: to be thrown from a window) when she's partnered with her personal nemesis, class-clown Jason, on a school trip to London. After one wild party, Julia starts receiving romantic texts . . . from an unknown number! Jason promises to help discover the identity of her mysterious new suitor if she agrees to break a few rules along the way. And thus begins a wild goose chase through London, leading Julia closer and closer to the biggest surprise of all: true love. Because sometimes the things you least expect are the most meant to be.

Find MEANT TO BE in the following stores!

Indiebound

Amazon

Barnes & Noble 

 

Goal, Motivation and Conflict: Phoebe North

As a recovering poet, words come easily to me. I've long been able to luxuriate in scene descriptions, laying out the intricacies of my world for readers. And yet no matter how beautifully written my early novels were, readers of them were often puzzled. Though there was some semblance of a plot present in those books--my characters moved from one scene to the next--there was often a sense of narrative disconnect. It was years before I realized why: my characters lacked clear motivation and goals, and so my stories were therefore lacking in forward momentum.

To writers who are plot-driven or character-driven, the idea that one's protagonist and even secondary characters must want things might seem to be self-evident. But for me, it wasn't. Asked to describe my characters, I would often say something like, "She's shy, passive. More a listener than a doer." That's not to say that one can't write passive characters, but even shy people wantthings: to be understood, to make friends, to talk to the cute boy in the band without turning red as a beet. In truth, I was using these passive characters as a shield to avoid areas of narrative that challenged me. My wallflower characters kept me in my comfort zone, the place of pretty words and places. But they didn't lead to good books.

Now I try to keep my characters' motivations at the forefront of my mind in drafting. In any manuscript, your protagonist, particularly, must have overarching desires. These are often grounded in familial background or childhood. Your character might want fame (because they were ignored); they might want love (because they were an orphan). In each scene, these desires will manifest themselves in different ways. In one, your heroine might want to steal a magic ring from an evil wizard--but this is probably rooted in her desire to liberate her people from an evil empire. In every case, awareness of a character's macro desires over the course of a novel informs a character's micro desires in any given scene.

And it's through these micro desires that conflicts arise between characters. Your evil wizard might want to hold on to the ring because she's power hungry (perhaps due to feeling powerless, always standing in the shadow of her more powerful sorceress sister). Knowing this will add life to your narrative--depth. These character conflicts are what keeps a narrative moving and developing organically, and what persuades a reader to stick with you through the novel's climax.

It's a funny thing; now that I've learned to focus on character motivation, I don't have a lot of time to let my characters chew the scenery any more. I'm too focused on telling their story to fritter my wordcount away.

PHOEBE NORTH was born on her sister’s fifth birthday–December 26th, 1983. She spent the first twenty-two years of her life in New Jersey, where, in the shadows of the Watchung Mountains, she lugged innumerable library books home to read in the bathtub, at the dinner table, in front of the television, and under the blankets with a flashlight when she should have been asleep.

She was a dork: obsessed, variously, with Star Trek, Star Wars (who says you can’t love both?), renaissance festivals, The X-files, Andy Kaufman, Alien Nation, dragons, and Mystery Science Theater 3000. In high school, she dyed her hair every color you can think of–but a Tenctonese can’t hide her spots.

After college, she departed for warmer climes, enrolling in the University of Florida’s MFA program to study poetry. But it was in Gainesville that she learned to embrace her inner dork. After studying children’s literature with scholars Kenneth Kidd and John Cech, she started writing books about magic and love and aliens for teenagers. And realized she loved it almost as much as she loves Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

She now lives in New York State with her cat, her husband, and many licensed novels. She likes to cook, watch Degrassi, sew, take her cat for walks, and, of course, write. Despite many soaked pages, she still loves to read in the bath.

She is represented by Michelle Andelman of Regal Literary. Her first novel, STARGLASS, is forthcoming from Simon and Schuster in July of 2013.

 

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My darling daughter,

Know that I never would have left the Earth if it hadn’t already been doomed.

The generation ship Asherah coasts through space, bound for a planet its passengers have never even seen. On the eve of their arrival, sixteen-year-old botanist Terra discovers that her orderly society has fractured. Walking home one night through the long-abandoned engine rooms, she witnesses the murder of an innocent man. Now, called on by the Children of Abel, a group of rebels intent on destroying the High Council, Terra must prove her mettle–assassinate the ship’s rising captain. In order to carry out her task, Terra must betray her father, deceive her teacher, and challenge everything the Council has ever taught her was true.

The rebels think that Terra has nothing left to lose. But when she falls for Silvan Rafferty, the boy that she’s meant to kill, Terra learns that “doing your duty” isn’t always as easy as it seems.

Advanced praise for Starglass:

Murder, rebellion, and spaceships done right: Phoebe North’s STARGLASS gave me the best kind of chills. I can’t wait to see what the sequel has in store.

-Jodi Meadows, author of Incarnate

Preorder STARGLASS from the following retailers!

Indiebound

Amazon

Barnes & Noble 

Taking Your Time to Get it Right - Natalie Lakosil of Bradford Literary Agency

Taking Your Time to Get it Right

by Natalie Lakosil
of Bradford Literary Agency

I’ve written before on why NaNoWriMo isn’t my favorite; it all circles around the impulsiveness that comes from a freshly finished WIP. Definitely, that accomplishment deserves a BIG CONGRATS WITH LOTS OF CONFETTI AND THIS AWESOME CAT

But then slow down. Funnel that excitement into your NEXT challenge: revising and polishing until it’s PERFECT.

Why?

Well now. First, first drafts suck. And you only get one chance; no matter how much you want to try it, unsolicited revise and resubmits (asking an agent to take a look at a revised they didn't ask to see) are not really a good idea - and even solicited revise and resubmits are rare. Why waste that one chance to get it out there? And don't try to fool us; agents have incredible memories. I can spot something I've seen before - and do, often.

If you're worried about market timing, you need to remember that publishing is incredibly cyclical. Today's dead meat will be tomorrow's dinner. I like to reference the romance industry for this, because things turn over in that genre so quickly; around 2006 it was all about erotic romance. Moved on to chick lit and romantic suspense. Then to paranormal. Then to paranormal and historicals. Then to contemporary. Now erotic and contemporary, with a rebirth (sort of) of chick lit emerging in sexy New Adult (not that that's all New Adult is by any means). And next....well, you get it. Every time the market shifted the previous craze was dead. But it all circles back on what a publisher wants, so even if you miss this turn of the wheel, catch it on the next spin.

Last, a good book will sell, no matter what the market is like. No, really. And I don't just mean a good enough book or a good right now book or a good for the genre book; I mean a good, carefully revised, fresh book with a breakout voice, unforgettable characters, and a solid, well-paced and enticing plot. Think you can encompass all of the latter in a first draft? SEND IT TO ME. Otherwise...happy revising!



Natalie Lakosil represents the authors of:

Already Released: 

Goodreads

Goodreads

Goodreads

Goodreads

Not yet released:

Goodreads author

Goodreads

Goodreads

Goodreads

Goodreads

What Are You Bringing to the New Year's Revision Conference?

So Operation Awesome's New Year's Revision Conference is happening January 4, 5, and 6!

Here's a list of things you may (or may not) need:

• Red pen or pencil
• Word processing program
• Colored markers
• Index cards
• Post-Its
• Scissors
• Tape
• 500-piece Craftsman tool kit
• Giant pot of coffee

Here's some things you definitely need:

• Willingness to improve
• A manuscript.

A manuscript? That's where I get in trouble. I didn't do NaNo. I need to write a new book first, right?

Not exactly. I have a pile of picture books that need attention, stories that are polished to what I consider perfection (but my agent does not) and those that are draftier than my front door. Plus I have an "almost" novel that has a certain something that agents and editors have always loved but not been willing to buy.

So I'm ready! Whether you are revising a NaNo draft, polishing a nearly-there gem, pulling a much-loved book from your trunk, you can participate in NYRC. Whether you are working with an agent or editor, looking for one, or getting ready to self-publish, you can participate in NYRC.

So what book are you going to bring with you? 

And if you haven't entered yet, don't miss our NYRC Book Giveaway, happening now!