waiting, dreaming of owls, and the weather

Hello readers,

I am really trying to post more these days, but I have such a hard time getting into it after work. With my fiction writing, I save up. I am able to work on it in other ways. I dream. I imagine. I listen to music that inspires me to think up new worlds and to envision the problems of characters who are just growing and yet to hit the page. I imagine symbols and themes, conflicts and resolutions. But all of that can be done when I am driving home from work or in the shower. Then, when I hit a vacation, which as a teacher, come pretty regularly, I start writing and usually get somewhere fairly fast. Blogging. Not so much. I think of ideas and then they fade away. BTW: Thank you to those who took the Lucky Seven meme bait.

I am dreaming of owls right now and I am waiting. The great honed owl that has been lurking around my yard is waiting too. He is like a vision, a harbinger of something to come. Of what, I do not know.

DISTILLATION  has been in a round of querying since September and there have been many full requests. Recently I was asked to revise with an offer of notes from an agent. I took it, feeling like those revisions were right on. That agent has, even more recently, as geologic time goes, replied. She likes it and will keep reading. She asked if other agents had the book. Yes they do. So, I wait. And wait. In the meantime more requests have come in and the owl hoots from inside the fog that has settled on my little town.

I am really trying hard to think about the next WIP and April vacation can't come soon enough. I am trying not to obsess. I know they will all get there when they do. Agents are busy and their clients are their first priority. I have paid attention, after all, all these months in writer school .

But still...it is hard. The fears and fantasies fly like that owl in my mind, wings whipping up dreams and nightmares alike.

To make things even more strange, the weather in Massachusetts is just bizarre. Today the temp was double what it should be. It is summer in March. I hope it is not a 120 degree summer when the real one does actually arrive. Combined with daylight savings time, I don't know what month it is, what time it is, or what is happening. Overall this is really a bit disconcerting.

But I wait, knowing that everything will be all right. Because things move and the world changes, but really everything is still the same.

Advice for the concerned family and friends of an aspiring author

So, someone in your family, or maybe your best friend, is "writing a novel." At first it was an interesting novelty and you made what you thought was the appropriate comment: "Maybe you'll get on Oprah." Then your friend, or sister, or whatever, asked you to read the first draft of the ms, and honestly, it wasn't that great; it needed work. But you told her it was awesome, because what else could you say, right? And you asked the most pertinent question you could think of: "Have you chosen a publisher yet?" You figured the publisher would fix the book for her. To your surprise, as generous as you were being, the aspiring writer then laughed and explained:

"It doesn't work that way. First I have to get some honest feedback and then revise. Eventually, I will query agents. That means I will do a lot of research to find the ones who are interested in my kind of story, and I will send them a letter asking if they would like to look at my book. It's harder than it sounds, because the letter has to be pitch perfect. It has to grab the agent's attention and make him or her interested enough to want to read some of my pages."

Oh, you thought. Well, how hard can it really be? The next time you see your friend, a few months have gone by. She is excited because she got some requests for the ms. "Great, you say, so how much are they going to pay you?"

"No," she rolls her eyes. "Agents don't pay writers. And I have to get an agent before I can get a publisher and money is not really what it's about. Most writers don't even get paid very much. I haven't even heard back on the requests for the full manuscript, yet."

"Oh," you say, confused. If money isn't what it's about then why is she doing it at all? But you don't want to seem shallow, so you say instead: "What's taking them so long?"

"It takes a long time," your friend tells you. "Agents have to take care of their signed clients first. They read manuscripts on nights and weekends. It could take up to six months to get back to me. I am still querying though."

WTF? you think. Now I know she really is crazy. Who would wait that long for a rejection? Especially if there was no money in it?

More time goes by, and your friend declines to come to your most recent Pampered Chef Party. She has to work on her book, she says. "What do you mean? I thought it was done?" you say, but are informed that she recieved some really helpful feedback with her last rejection. So she has decided to  rewrite the second half, realizing now that the ending fell a little short. "God," you moan. "Why would you do that? They rejected it. Maybe you should write something new, or better yet, come to my party."

Your friend politely declines and is not heard from again for a while. In fact others are starting to get worried. How many times can she edit this book? She's started to make excuses for not coming to all sorts of gatherings. Let it go already, you are all thinking. But she won't listen to reason. "It's nice to have dreams," you tell her when she finally answers the phone, "but be reasonable. Maybe you should just self-publish."

Next time you hear from her, an agent has said that the book was really good, but needed some more revision. So, your friend, as crazy as she is, is revising the thing again. Of course, being a good friend, you tell her she is insane to change her book just because an agent asked her to. Your friend just smiles obscurely, finishes her tea, and goes home. Now you are really worried. Quickly, your friend has become a delusional recluse.  Something needs to be done.

And you are correct, dear family member or friend. Here is what you should do:

Be really proud of your writer for following through and working hard. She has slogged through the slush pile and taken her rejections in stride. She has worked hard to revise her book when flaws became apparent, she has worked to follow the rules and to get noticed. If she pulls it off, she will have fulfilled that dream you thought she should toss away because attaining it was too hard. And remember this is what it means to follow a dream. It means giving up other things and working a lot to get better and better until it's great.

If you really want it, you will find a way. If you don't, you will find an excuse. Writing is what she wants to do. It is not a hobby or a whim. It is a second job worth doing.

So smile and pat her on the back and tell her you are proud of her and ask her questions about her characters and her process, and listen, because writers write what they know and guess what, she knows you.

So you are afraid to go to a writer's conference?

A few weeks back, when reading some of the blogs I follow, there was a discussion about the fear of Writer's Conferences.

Well, if you want to immerse yourself in the world of writing - a good writing conference is just the ticket. I am so glad I went to the Muse and the Marketplace in Boston this past weekend.

Saturday started out giddy. I ran into my writing group friend and met some of the people she already knew and everyone was so excited. Of course we were a little nervous too because some of us, me included, had our agent meetings first thing.

The agent meeting: was okay - not great. My agent wouldn't shake my hand because she was sick - which did not seem like a fortuitous beginning. She looked tired and claimed that since this was her first time at the conference she wasn't really sure what her role was. But... she gave me enormously helpful feedback on my Query, even if some of it was different than the pointers I have read before. She offered advice on genre - telling me "Women's Fiction with a supernatural thread," which was interesting and something I had not thought to call it.

She then went on to my ms and told me she loved haunted house stories, which was encouraging, but she didn't understand why I didn't start with the house. I did originally start with the house - but that got changed based on workshopping. She then said she wanted more back story. I had more back story - but based on workshopping removed a lot of it. So - that made me cringe. I agreed with the changes my writing group suggested (eventually) and I think the beginning is a lot stronger. But, not for this agent and the agent is what matters.

In the end of our 20 minute meeting - she said - make the changes and "query me." Not the same as send me the pages directly with a big bright red "Requested" stamp on it - but still it's something.

She was not scary at all. I felt comfortable with her even though she didn't shake my hand and I was able to talk to her just like a regular person. Which is probably because she is one.

After that, on to a panel of agents and editors explaining the terms and procedures of the publishing industry. Very informative. They did seem like an unreachable club - but they were friendly and funny and made it very clear they were in the business to sell books. "We don't like to crush people's dreams," one of them actually said, "what ever you do, write from the heart." This was funny is a sick sort of way.

They stress over and over that good writing is what wins the day. But, they also made no bones about how subjective it is. 'If your mc reminds me of my ex-boyfriend, I stop reading...If you wrote about a house fire, I stop reading. My house burned down last year and I can't love a story about one, and an agent should love your story, otherwise they won't be a good representative.' I am paraphrasing, but these are actual things they said.

I think the lesson I took from this is that perseverance is key. We all know that of course - but in the face of rejection it is hard. What one hates another might love. I also saw this again and again in the Agent Idol sessions where a reader read the anonymous first pages of peoples' manuscripts submitted then and there. The agent was told to raise their hand at the point during the reading that they would have put it down. There was wide variety - sometimes one would put up a hand - but the others wouldn't. Sometimes all three would refrain, or if there was a major point of confusion - all three hands would go up. It is very subjective.

From this I also heard again and again how important it is to find agents who represent your kind of book. All of them said - from multiple panels - that they LIKE you to compare your book to other works. But don't just pick the most recent best seller, and be accurate. Say what it is that makes your book similar to another book. Don't pick the ones that are cliche at this point from Harry Potter to Janet Ivanovitch. So that is useful - but not as easy as it sounds.

Also genre - do pick a genre - but there was SO MUCH variation on genre definition. Not what a genre is - but what a book's genre is. It all depends on what an individual focuses on in that book. And it can change with marketing ideas. So even though you might say your book is historical fiction with a supernatural thread - someone else might call it a paranormal thriller - or women's fiction with a supernatural thread. Also - good to know - but not very easy to get right.

And of course - the query, the query, the query. That is the most important thing. Get it right in the query. I was encourage to learn from my agent that my query, though in need of work, did leave her intrigued.

So - those are the first lessons. It was enormously enlightening overall. And it was really nice to hear them talk about it in person. To see them agree or disagree. To make them explain themselves and people did.

Later I will write Conference Re-Cap # 2 on meeting authors and how authors got their agents.