A wonderful post on EDITING!

Hello there, my fabulous fans. I have exactly 70 followers now. How on earth did THAT happen? But WOOT! That makes me feel a little more awesome about myself.

Anyway, before I get into the heavy stuff I'll quickly update about the whole publishing thing. Since I last posted, mostly I've been getting form rejections. But yesterday I received another request for a full manuscript and another request for a partial! And the full request was from Laura Langlie who is Meg Cabot's agent! (*Squee*) I hear she replies fast though, so for all I know she could reject me in the next two minutes. But hey, at least she requested the full. Plus, Katherine Boyle is still reading my full, too. So *FINGERS AND TOES CROSSED*

Now onto EDITING.

Okay so a while back, someone requested that I write a post on editing. My response was something along the lines of "HAHA You are asking the wrong person." It's not that I don't like editing, or that I'm bad at it. It just scares me, since it's such an overwhelming process. I remember the innocent days when I thought "editing" just meant you fixed all the typos, and you were done! Huzzah! But noooo … There are all these horrible things called "plot holes".

But before I can go on a long angry rant about that, let's approach this in a more organized manner. So I guess I'll share how I, personally, go about editing. That doesn't mean there's a "right" way to do it, but this is my advice.

1. Once you finish writing your first draft, don't attack it right away. Let it sit for a while. Enjoy that wonderful "I finished writing a book" feeling. Start writing something else. I wait months and sometimes years to edit things … Partly because I'm a procrastinator and partly because it's good to look at a manuscript with fresh eyes when you're editing.

2. Before you start editing, read the whole manuscript first without changing anything. Take notes about things that might need work, and fix any typos or spelling/grammar mistakes you notice, but don't do anything major yet.

3. Remember: You have to pretend the book is not yours. Then you'll start thinking like "OMG, this book is my baby. I cannot kill my baby." And that's bad. You must learn to murder your children. Errr … I'm sorry, that's too morbid of an analogy. The point is, you can't help but be emotionally attached to your book. Writing a book is a long process that involves a close relationship with the story and the characters, etc. The hardest part is detaching yourself from it. Continuing with the child analogy … If you never punish a child or teach him/her anything, the kid's going to grow up to be a spoiled idiot. You have to give that child some tough love and whip him/her into shape, and he/she will grow into a good person. With books, it's the same way. Of course you love your book, but you have to teach it a few lessons. Books, like all children, have a rebellion stage, where they start to go off on their own and go out of control. You have to remind that crazy teenager who's boss! And then you have to let it grow up and make its way out into the world. :)

4. Allow someone else (or a lot of people) to read the manuscript and give feedback. And I don't mean your best friend or your grandma or your dog. It should be someone who you trust but also someone who won't be afraid to rip your book to shreds (figuratively, not literally. If you think someone would literally rip your manuscript apart, I wouldn't trust them as an editor if I were you …). Like I trust my mom, for example. Now I know a lot of people are like "Your mom? Psshhh that doesn't count!" But trust me, my mom kicks serious ass at editing. She rocks. Most of you probably can't trust your mom's because they'd be like "Oh goodness dear, what a lovely little story!" If your mom is a kick-butt editor like mine, then you are lucky. I also trust my good ninja-writer-friends who I met through Goodreads.com and now communicate with through Facebook and Skype also. It's good to have an online group of writing friends. There are tons and tons of websites to get writing feedback. Be careful about spilling writing all over the internet, but there are a lot of great websites for posting/critiquing websites, such as Goodreads (as I already mentioned), WEbook, Mibba, Critique Circle, Critters, etc. Get more than one person to read your book and give feedback. Others are better at catching the little mistakes (I find that I tend to read over my own typos hundreds of times without noticing them) and they catch the big gaping plot holes too. Now you don't have to take all of everyone's advice, but if there are patterns in the critiques (like a lot of people have problems with the same things) then you should probably change those things.

5. Make sure the writing has a good flow. A lot of readers get caught up on writing style, even if it's a great story, so this is important. When it comes to dealing with this, the first thing I do is take out all the useless words, which mostly consist of ADVERBS, ADJECTIVES, and DIALOGUE TAGS. I write these things in caps because they are evil. Well, not really. To a certain degree they're alright. But too much of any of them makes your writing sound awkward.

"Hello!" the beautiful, smart, young girl exclaimed brightly.

"Get out of my face!" the talking, purple, fat mushroom retorted angrily and indignantly.

You see what I mean? It gets ugly. (btw, I have no idea where the talking mushroom came from.) Unfortunately, I used to be obsessed with adjectives, adverbs, and dialogue tags. And sometimes the bad habit still sneaks up on me. It makes editing my old work total hell. But anyway, the point is, powerful verbs and nouns = good. Adverbs and adjectives encourage telling rather than showing, which is FOR THE WEAK. ARE YOU A WEAKLING? I DIDN'T THINK SO. And excessive use of dialogue tags exposes you as an amateur. Forget all those words like "exclaimed, shouted, screamed, shrieked, gargled" … whatever. Use them very very very occasionally, like if you REALLY need to, but not after every piece of dialogue. And if you must use dialogue tags at all, please just use something simple like "said, asked, answered" etc. This may be a shocker to you, but most of the time you don't need dialogue tags at all. *GASP* The actually interesting part is the dialogue. As long as the reader can clearly follow who's talking, there's not much use for dialogue tags except for an occasional reminder of who's saying what. We don't need to know how something is said, because it's usually implied in the context of the scene. You can pretty much tell how someone is saying something just by what they say. Like, "I hate your freaking guts you stupid talking mushroom!" … I think anyone could make a pretty good assumption of what tone that would be spoken in. You don't have to say that anyone "shouted angrily" for readers to get the idea. :P

Also, read out loud to yourself. It might feel silly at first, but it's a useful strategy. When you hear your own words out loud, it helps you get a better sense of how the writing flows or doesn't flow. And if it doesn't, you can play with it by talking to yourself until it sounds right.

6. Adding/removing scenes. Now, this is the tricky part, not really my strong point either. But I'll try. I'd say, only add a scene if you think it's necessary––like, if you need to develop a certain character a little bit more, or there's a gaping plot hole that you forgot to explain somewhere. Likewise, remove scenes if they're NOT necessary. Like maybe there's some long scene where the characters are all eating breakfast for 20 pages and nothing really happens. Maybe there are some good bits of dialogue or a great description in there somewhere, and you can still use those … just in a more interesting scene. Just because you remove a scene doesn't mean you can't take the gems out of it and use them elsewhere. But if there's a scene that drags out for too long and interrupts the flow of the story, you need to take it out. One of the worst things you can do as an author is be B-O-R-I-N-G.

Well, that's the advice I got for ya, and I hope it helps. If it doesn't, well SORRY. If it does, well YAY ME. As always, if you have questions for me you can leave a comment. :) Thanks for reading!

A long, rambling post that includes some bad news, some good news, a happy story, and some of my writing

Hey, folks. It is I, Brigid, once again. Life has been absolutely nuts in the past three weeks since I've posted––and I don't really have one topic to focus on, so this is going to be a long rant about a lot of things that are bouncing around in my brain.

I thought I'd start off by giving you the bad news. Then I'll get to the good news. Then I'll tell you about some awesome stuff I've been doing for the past couple weeks. Lastly, I realize that I've never really posted any of my writing directly on my blog, so I figured I would share a snippet of it for once.

Alrighty, here goes …

The Bad News

The bad news is,

a) Kristin Nelson double-rejected me. You know how I emailed her back before, after she read my partial and said it was "relentlessly dark" and all? Well, then I got the reply back from one of her assistants or something, who was like "Kristin says thanks, but she has too much to read" or something. Oh, well. That's pretty much what I expected. If dark and depressing isn't her thing, I guess she just wasn't the agent for me.

b) Jason Anthony also rejected me––although as far as I could tell, he seemed to like the manuscript at least a little … He basically said that he was impressed I'd written it at my age, and that my writing style was good, but he didn't like the structure and thought the story was too clichéd. So over all, "You're good for a kid, but you're not good enough. *pat pat*" At least he said he's interested in future projects, so I'll have somewhere to turn when I finish/edit something else.

As for Walking Shadow … Well, I started frantically sending out queries again a few days ago. Which brings me to …

The Good News

The good news is, I sent out somewhere between 20-30 queries in the past two days. *whew* Today I sent out a bunch at about 4:30. I just checked my email like half an hour ago and found I had one response that came at 5:16. So I'm like, "Wow, that was fast." And then I just stared at it, not wanting to open it.

I hate hate hate that feeling of opening a response to a query. I always tell myself "It's a rejection, it's a rejection, it's a rejection" but there's always that part of me that hopes so badly that it won't be.

And this time, it wasn't.

I GOT MY SECOND FULL MANUSCRIPT REQUEST FOR WALKING SHADOW, PEOPLES!

So, Katherine Boyle of the Veritas Literary Agency requested my full manuscript. Woot! Of course I made sure she's an AAR member and looked up her background on AbsoluteWrite. From what I've read, people say she's friendly and enthusiastic, and she's willing to request revisions if she thinks a manuscript has potential. So, that's good. :) I'm trying so hard not to get my hopes up but … Maybe this time will be different? Maybe maybe maybe?

Anyway …

Happy Story!

So, the past few weeks have been totally awesome because I've been hanging out with my ninja-writer friends: Acacia, Ilana, and Sella. Sella flew over here from CA and Acacia and Ilana both live in MA … So now we are all here in MA and it's been the greatest experience hanging out with all of them. I met all three of these amazing people through Goodreads.com––not that I am encouraging meeting with random people from the internet, because these guys aren't random. I've known them all for at least a year, and we've talked through Goodreads, Facebook, Skype, and over the phone pretty much every day since we "met". It's kind of an out-of-body experience though. You'd think it'd be weird, but when I met up with them in real life I didn't feel like it was any different––besides that they're even more amazing in person, but it's like we've been friends forever and ever. :D So yeah, since Sella got here we've had a bunch of sleepovers, and watched movies (and lightning storms, which Sella had never seen before :P), and stayed up all night … and oh yeah writing, that's pretty important too. ;) lol. It's been like the best summer ever! I love my ninjas!!!

My Writing

Okay, so here's what's up with my writing.

First of all, I finished my book Jump! Yay! I have now completed seven novels :)

I'm now switching my focus between Sky-Fall, Unraveling, and Rage. Not really sure which one I'm going to focus on next. … I told myself for months that Unraveling was next in line, but now I keep getting ideas for Sky-Fall and Rage too. Dammit. Well, I'll probably end up sharing tidbits of all of them in the future.

For now, since I talk about it so dang much, I thought I'd share some of Walking Shadow with you. So, enjoy this little excerpt. Peace out! ;)

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Jason stops dead in his tracks. He whirls around to face me again, so suddenly that it startles me.

“I don't know what I am, anymore,” he blurts. There's a wild, terrified gleam in his dark eyes now, like his fear is driving him into insanity. “I don't know what I've done. But I have to get back, somehow. I have to become human again.”

We're both silent, staring at each other like we're looking through a pane of glass––one of us on each side, separated but still able to see each other. The only thing I can hear is both of us breathing. My heart is pounding faster and faster in my chest.

I can tell that he's holding something back. I still see the image from him in my dream––curled up on the floor, bleeding, dying, so close to me but yet so far away, beyond my reach. I feel lightheaded, just thinking about it.

“What do you want me to do?” My voice is low, almost a whisper. “I don't––don't understand.”

His eyes go dull, like he's starting to get some of his sanity back. I can practically see it, when reality hits him. “I don't know, either. I don't know what you're or what I'm supposed to do. But I just can't keep living like this. Or not 'living', exactly, but you know what I mean.” He shakes his head. “I'm just really scared, okay? I know that maybe you can't help me, but if you could just consider it, at least. If you could just try …”

“You're not telling me something,” I interrupt him. The words burst out of me before I can stop them. He looks at me, taken aback. “Maybe I'm wrong, but …”

“No.” The surprise is gone from his face. “I mean, you're not wrong. You're right.”

“So, what are you not telling me?”

He closes his eyes, like he's trying to concentrate on something. When he opens them again, they seem darker and blacker than ever. “You have to promise that you won't be afraid of me, if I show you.”

I wrap my arms tighter around myself. The cold of the autumn morning presses in around me. I want to tell him that I won't be scared. Normally, it would be true. I've never been truly afraid of anything, except my own mind. But I feel afraid of him now, with an intensity like I've never felt. Still, I need to know who he is. What he is.

I don't promise anything, but I give the command, keeping my voice and my gaze steady. “Show me.”

Once again, the wind picks up, as if in forewarning. This time it's stronger, making my hair whip into my face, snatching the leaves from the ground and throwing them into the air. More leaves fall from the tree branches above us, orange and yellow, so it looks like fire is falling from the sky.

Jason is still standing there, like he's waiting for something. But what is he waiting for? Is he waiting for me to change my mind? Is what he has to show me really that disturbing, that dangerous? Violent shudders go up my spine. What's he going to do, grow fangs and eat me?

Jason doesn't change. He doesn't shape-shift. He doesn't burst into flames. He just looks down at the gloves on his hands––and slowly, he starts to take them off. When his hands emerge from the gloves, they look perfectly ordinary. No fur or scales or claws or anything. Just normal, human hands. What am I supposed to see?

Jason puts his gloves in the pocket of his denim jacket. He's not looking at me anymore; he's looking around at the ground, like he's searching for something. He walks closer to me, and the cold, Otherworldly feeling of his presence nearly overwhelms my mind, filling it with blackness. I'm dizzy for a second, but I force myself to stay alert, to keep watching him.

He kneels on the ground, so close to me. His head is bent, still staring downward. I can't see what he's looking at, so I kneel down too. My legs are shaking so badly, I'm afraid I'll fall over. But I manage, clumsily, to make it onto my knees.

I brush red strands of hair out of my eyes, my fingers shaking. The only thing on the ground between us is a small patch of uncovered soil. In the middle of it, there's an anthill. It's getting a little late in the year for the ants to still be alive, I think. But that's probably not the point.

The tiny black creatures climb in and out of the small, dark hole. I lift my eyes, looking at Jason. His face is a blank mask. It's like he's concentrating on something––something that is beyond my perception. Then he reaches down, and he brushes one finger over some of the ants.

At first, nothing happens. I'm about to decide, once and for all, that he's crazy and that I should just walk away. Then, I see that something strange is happening to the ants that he touched. They stop in their tracks, as if they've been frozen in time. One by one, they start curling in on themselves, their little legs struggling like they're trying to fight against an invisible, crushing force. They crumple. They disintegrate. Their tiny bodies burst, leaking black fluid. The ants that Jason touched lie in a miserable, messy trail of death.

I almost fall backwards in horror. I stare and stare, not knowing what to feel. I feel like I've been punched hard in the stomach, like I'm choking, like I'm going to throw up. This is not what I expected in the least. It would be an understatement to say I'm surprised, and hardly anything surprises me. I haven't even breathed this entire time.

I can feel Jason watching me, like he's waiting for my reaction, and his gaze––even though I'm not even looking at him––chills me to the core. What does he expect me to say? What does he want me to say? Is he hoping that this convinced me to try to help him? Did it convince me?

I'm starting to think that I'll never be able to look up, but at last, I let out a deep breath and I lift my eyes; they lock on Jason's. Right away, my breath catches again. It's not that he looks different, but that there's the hint of something new there, like he's scared of what he's just done, but there's another part of him that doesn't see the horror in the situation, maybe even a part of him that enjoyed it. But fear and desperation overpower that satisfaction, so strong as they reach me, from across the small space between us, that I can almost taste them. I've never felt fear like his.

Again, I see him in the middle of the white room, in my dream, his bloody hand prints streaking the walls, his fingers dripping blood as he reaches for me. I can see his eyes overflowing with bloody tears, leaving red trails on his face. I hear those words, repeated, even though he doesn't say them aloud this time. It's like his very soul, if he has one, is screaming and calling out to me.

Help me, it cries, tearing me apart. Help me, help me, help me …

Happy Independence Daaayyy!!! (And I have lots of news to share :P)

Helloooo everyone! *ducks rotten tomatoes* Yeah yeah, I know I haven't posted in forever. Sorry! Well, I have lots and lots and lots to tell all my fabulous fans … you know, all two of you who read this or whatever. Heh heh.

Alrighty, so, the first thing I have to talk about is the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest, which ended like a month ago or so. The bad news is, I didn't win. The good news … I believe the last time I wrote I had made the quarterfinals of the contest. Well, I ultimately made the SEMIFINALS!!! THAT'S THE TOP 50 OUT OF 5000 YOUNG ADULT ENTRIES, TOP 100 OUT OF 10,000 TOTAL ENTRIES! AD;KFD;SKJFSKJ. I've known this for like three months and it still blows my mind. Anyway, a couple of great things came out of this, even though I didn't win. First of all, I made the semifinals based on a review and rating from a Publishers Weekly reviewer (AAHH!).

So, my friends, here is the PUBLISHERS WEEKLY review of my book Walking Shadow. I will put in bold all the phrases that made me die of happiness:

"Two teens connect under very unusual circumstances in this well-crafted novel. Both seventeen, Cassandra is a psychic and Jason has just died in a car crash. Cassandra is closed off socially, suffering from dreams of the souls that live in the Otherworld. Jason, after his death, makes a deal with the Lord of the Underworld to be returned to his past life, not realizing that he will be a ghost. When Cassandra is the only one who can see him in his ghostly form, Jason pleads with her to help him. Cassandra agrees, thinking that Jason might be able to help her lift the curse of psychic ability that has affected all the women in her family. A solution is presented to them, thanks to Celeste, a spirit from the Otherworld and Elaine, a ghost like Jason. If they are able to journey through the Underworld, Jason can regain his soul and Cassandra can lose her psychic ability. But this journey has never been completed by a human--will they be the first to achieve this? Told in two voices, these engaging main characters live and breathe on the page. While the idea of a journey to the Underworld is not new, there are interesting twists, such as Jason's ghostly state. The plot is well-paced and thoughtfully developed, the Underworld clearly established without long passages of exposition. Combining romance and action with a dual character study, this manuscript is a wonderful, thrilling read."

HOLY TALKING MUSHROOMS, can you believe that? I had to re-read it about ten times the first time I saw it because I couldn't believe it was real! I still don't believe it … GAHHH! So yeah, that was definitely a life-changing experience.

And as if things couldn't get any better … shortly after I made the semifinals, I received an e-mail from literary agent Jason Anthony (Lippincott Massie McQuilkin agency). Apparently he discovered my Kindle excerpt of Walking Shadow and enjoyed it, and then––get this––he found THIS BLOG (woot!) and also enjoyed it, and so he asked to have a phone conversation with me. Thus, I ended up having my first phone conversation with a literary agent, during which he asked to see the full manuscript. (Squee!) Well, I haven't heard back from him yet. But even so … This is the first time a literary agent has approached me, rather than vice versa. Feels purty special. I'll keep you peoples updated on this. Hopefully I will hear more from Mr. Anthony soon. :)

I also got a partial request from Kristin Nelson (Nelson Literary Agency) for the first 30 pages. She rejected me a few days ago saying she thought the writing was "solid" but it was "relentlessly dark" and she would have liked to see a glimpse of hope in it. Well … it's kind of hard to show hope shining through in the first 30 pages of a 500-page book, especially when the story is about one character who is doomed to die while the other is already dead. So, I don't know, maybe this was a horribly stupid idea, but I decided to stand up for myself and e-mail her back, explaining more about what the themes of the book are and that I want to show teenage kids that "love triumphs over fear" and that it does actually have a hopeful message … or something along those lines. I'm kind of afraid to go back and read it, but I felt good about it at the time. Oh, well. I expect that she'll either ignore me or reject me again, but at least I tried.

AWKWARD TRANSITION

So … other random things going on.

It's summer! Yay! I finished my horrible, intolerable, depressing, soul-crushing junior year of high school! I got my report card yesterday. Meh heh. Well, let's not talk about that. Just kidding, I pretty much did fine in everything (EXCEPT STUPID STUPID GOSH DARN MATH WHICH SHOULD DIE IN THE FIERY PITS OF HELL). Ah-hem. Nobody saw that.

Also, IT'S JULNOWRIMO!!!!! (which is like NaNoWriMo, only in July and not as important). Guess what?! I HAVEN'T STARTED YET. CRAP. Ah … well, I can still probably do it. I intend to finish writing Unraveling for JulNo, but right now I'm trying to finish up Jump, which I am like 3.5 chapters away from finishing. *sigh* Just need to get working on that, but I decided to do this blogging thing instead.

And another thing! I AM GOING TO MEET MY GOOD WRITING-NINJA FRIEND SELLA TOMORROW!!! HOOORAAAYYY! :] SO EXCITEDDD.

I guess that's all for now. I will try to post again soon … er … !!! :)

Success! ^_^

HELLO THERE! :)

I believe I mentioned in one of my previous posts that I had entered my novel, Walking Shadow, in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest, and that it had advanced to the second round. Wellll … as of March 23rd, it has now advanced to the third round! That's right––I am a quarterfinalist! That's the top 250 novels out of 5000! HOLY CRAP!

Several of my amazing, wonderful, and freakishly talented writer friends made it to the second round but not the third round. :( I love you, my ninjas. YOU SHOULD HAVE MADE IT TOO! GRRR! >:(

Anyway … So, a 5000 word excerpt of my book is now available on Kindle. You can download it for your Kindle, and if you don't have a Kindle you can easily download a Kindle application for your computer for free (which is basically just like reading it as a PDF, so you don't need to have a Kindle). My excerpt is free too. If you have an Amazon account, please leave a customer review! I want to know what you guys think. :] Thanks!

LINKAGE TIME!

Amazon Breakthough Novel Award homepage

Walking Shadow - Excerpt (UPDATE 2/12/11 - This link no longer worky. They took all the excerpts down––however you can still read the excerpt here and see the Publisher's Weekly review here.)

As for how my writing's going … Well, I haven't written much lately. Life has been hectic. I started yet another book––so that makes four at once. This one's called Sky-Fall and it basically involves warfare with giant robots. Fun fun. I'll figure out more of it later.

I've started writing again for the first time in, like, a week or two. So that's good. Write or Die is my hero. Best website ever. If you're a writer, I highly recommend that you check it out, because it really helps me get my writing done. Just be sure to copy/paste the work you do on it, or it'll disappear.

Write or Die

Oh! Another piece of exciting news: Karey Shane (aka KSR Kingsworth), author of Secret Speakers and the Search for Selador's Gate and a good friend of mine, randomly selected me to interview Cynthia Leitich Smith, author of Tantalize and Eternal. Squee! :) So, I will post a link to the interview when it's up on her website. I'm excited!

Alrighty, that's all I've got to say for today. :) Stay tuned!!!

UPDATE: Here is the link to the interview!

Rejection, Rejection, Rejection … (I was hoping that saying it a bunch of times would make it sound less scary. It didn't work.)

Hi there, people. As I mentioned in my last post, I am now going to dedicate an entire post to the idea of REJECTION! And don't run away screaming, because this is important. It's a tough topic, and everyone hates it. But all writers go through it, also––a lot of it. So I'm going to share my experience with rejection, and all my lovely thoughts on it.

So, I believe I mentioned in some post, from like a billion years ago, that some literary agent had requested my manuscript. REJECTED. Since then, another agent requested a partial of my manuscript. ALSO REJECTED.

Now, that's a good 40 or 50 rejections I have, by now. I don't know how "normal" that is. I think it varies for every writer. Some people are rejected 10 times, and some are rejected 100 or more times. You never know. Writing is a tricky business like that.

But whether you get rejected twice or a million billion times––if you are a writer, you're going to experience rejection. So, you have to have a thick skin. If you don't have one, get one. Rejection is hard, of course, but it's not an entirely bad thing. Now, I'm not saying I like rejection. It's not fun. It's very frustrating.

My first piece of advice: allow yourself to have those silly emotional breakdowns. I have one every two months or so. I think that, in a weird way, it's healthy to have those moments where you're like "OH MY GOD! WHAT IF I NEVER GET PUBLISHED? WHAT IF I NEVER BECOME AN AUTHOR? OR WHAT IF I ONLY BECOME AN AUTHOR AFTER I DIE?" I mean, every writer has those moments and it's perfectly fine. I find it sort of motivating, actually. So, when you've suffered rejection after rejection, you don't have to hold it all inside. Rant to somebody. And usually that person will assure you that you do not fail at life, and that you're going to be fine, and that someday you will be published (hopefully before you die). Yes, breakdowns are annoying and embarrassing, but at least, once you come out of them, you feel a little bit better about yourself, because you know you can take the rejection and keep going.

Secondly, don't take rejections personally. Believe it or not, literary agents are human beings too! They have those days when they wake up and think "You know what? I hate today." And maybe that means they're going to reject everyone who queries them that day. It could be that your book just doesn't fit with the agent's personal taste. Plus, these days, when the economy is so messed up, literary agents are especially reluctant to offer representation unless they're REALLY sure the book is going to sell.

Now, I'm reading this book called How to Become a Famous Writer Before You're Dead by Ariel Gore. 'Tis a great book with a lot of good advice. One passage that especially caught my attention was one on rejection. If this doesn't make you feel better about rejection … I don't know what will:

"… Classics famously and repeatedly rejected: War and Peace, The Good Earth, Watership Down, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Fountainhead, To Kill a Mockingbird, Remembrance of Things Past, and Joy of Cooking. Doris Lessing was once rejected by her own publishers when she submitted a novel under a pseudonym. And, in early 2006, the Sunday Times of London took two Booker Prize-winning novels … and submitted them as works by aspiring authors. None of the agents or editors queried recognized the manuscripts as prizewinners … of the twenty-one replies, all but one were rejections. … All this to say that if you get a rejection slip, you're in pretty good company." (p. 187)

So, there you have it. Just because your book gets rejected doesn't mean that it sucks. It could be amazing prize-worthy material. You just have to wait for your lucky day. Because a lot of getting published has to do with luck. Yes, of course it helps to have an awesome query letter/synopsis/excerpt/etc. But like I said, literary agents have moods and such. So it depends on a lot of things that are beyond your control––which is aggravating, I know.

But the thing is, you gotta keep trying. Odds are, one out of the a million literary agents in the world is going to want to represent your novel. Just keep sending out those queries like there's no tomorrow. And keep revising your query, too; ask friends/family for feedback. In the meantime, try to get some recognition. Try publishing some short stories, or entering contests, or starting a blog (wooo!). That way you'll have more to brag about in your query letters. ;)

I strongly recommend checking out this website, Preditors & Editors, which has a great list of agents, publishers, contests, critique groups, etc. and notes on how reliable said agents/publishers/contests/critique groups are. (http://pred-ed.com/)

Personally, I interpret all the rejections I've received as a wake-up call. After getting feedback from a couple agents, I've decided that my book isn't really ready for publishing and needs some revisions first. Maybe your manuscript has been rejected a gazillion times (more or less) and you're starting to feel the same way. No problem. This is another good thing about rejection. When you start off trying to get published, you're sort of in denial … like, "Okay, I am SO done with this book. I've already rewritten it ten times, so I'm just going to get it published and it will be out of the way forever!" Well, of course things can't be that convenient. The more your book gets rejected, and the more it sits around, the more you think about it. And the more you think about it, the more flaws you see in it. And you start thinking, "All right, maybe this means something. Maybe rewriting it a couple times wouldn't hurt …" It's not a good feeling. It's pretty overwhelming. But writing and editing and rewriting and begging for feedback––these are all the painful parts of being an author.

If you don't know where to start, there are a lot of great writing feedback websites you can try. Now, I've only just started using these sites, but they seem very helpful and organized to me, and P&E has them listed as recommended critique groups. So, check 'em out!

WEbook: http://www.webook.com

(This site has a lot of different sections. You can post any writing for feedback, chapter-by-chapter. People can leave feedback for different categories––general, plot, character development, etc. There's a section called PageToFame where people submit the first pages of their novels, then other members rate them, and literary agents look at the ones with the best ratings. You have to pay to submit––this is the ONLY section you have to pay for––but rating the pages is free. And fun. There's also a feature called AgentInbox that helps you put together a query letter, synopsis, excerpt, etc. Then it gives you agents who represent your genre and you can send your submission to agents right from the website. I've used it and it seems like a great feature. There are also groups and discussion forums on the site.)

Critters Workshop: http://www.critters.org/index.ht

(This site is only for science fiction, fantasy, and horror. You can submit both short stories and manuscripts, and it sounds like submissions are supposed to get approximately 10 critiques or so. I haven't submitted anything yet, but I've read through the website and it has a ton of information. So, I won't go on a long rant describing the whole thing. I recommend checking out the website for more of a description, rules, guidelines, etc. Anyway, I'm impressed with its level of organization and I'm looking forward to using it.)

Critique Circle: http://www.critiquecircle.com

(Looks pretty similar to Critters, except it accepts all genres [except poetry]. Once again, it looks very organized. The website claims: "At present time there are 2,463 active members.
We have processed 48,260 stories and 220,558 critiques." Sounds good to me. I'm just waiting for my application thingie to be approved, and then I can say more about this one.)

Note: the best way to get feedback is to give feedback first. If you join any of these sites, it's important to give some other members some good, honest, and constructive feedback, and they will be likely to return the favor. :)

So, that is my advice for the day. Stop wallowing in your self-pity and go do something productive. ^_^

BRIGID RISES FROM THE DEAD!!!

Well, hi. This is awkward.

So, I am aware that I haven't posted anything in, like, half a year. How embarrassing. But of course, I have a perfectly reasonable explanation. See, I was abducted by aliens. And then, when I finally convinced them to send me back home, they accidentally dropped me off in China. So, I had to swim across the Pacific Ocean, where I had to battle giant sea monsters. And when I finally got to the United States, I found that the country had been overtaken by zombies, so I had to kick some zombie butt on the way back home, which took up a lot of my time. Then I finally got back home, where there was a monster pile of homework waiting for me and it tried to eat me and then it killed me and I came back from the dead.

Okay, so none of that story is true, except the part about the homework-monster. But basically, I have been too busy with school and my job and my procrastination to update my blog. So, now I am back and I must be more dedicated now or everyone should come after me with torches and pitchforks.

SO BRIGID. WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO?

Well … uh … rejection. Lots and lots of rejection. But I think I will dedicate an entire separate post just to that. More on that later. For now I'm just going to get y'all caught up on all the random stuff I'm doing.

Ahem. So, on a happier note: Since I last posted, I finished writing my sixth book, Walking Shadow. I wrote it during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, which takes place in November). If you do not know what this fabulous event is, you should check out nanowrimo.org (well, if you're a writer and you also happen to be insane).

Walking Shadow is a fantasy that is basically about these two kids who have to make a journey through the Underworld, and there are demons and deals with the devil and Shakespeare references and all sorts of other wonderful things. I like to think of it as, like, Greek mythology meets Alice in Wonderland––but of course, with its own weird twists. For now, I still love this story, but knowing me I'll probably hate it in a month or two and feel like re-writing the whole thing. Oh well …

ANYWAY. As for my other projects:

First of all, I am writing Jump, sequel to my book Edge (which I finished writing last July) and second book in a trilogy (I hope … if I can get it all organized and everything). I won't go into much detail on this one, since, you know, it's a sequel and everything. Even if I explained the entire first book it wouldn't make much sense, since the plot's pretty unorganized and full of holes and I don't even understand it myself. I need to get working on piecing it all together. But, to explain it in a few words, it's this sci-fi/action thing about clones and mind-wiping and superpowers and stuff. It's gotten a lot more complicated than I intended and now I'm kind of going crazy with it … but, if I do a lot of rewriting and adding of stuff then I think it could be pretty cool.

Secondly, I am working on Unraveling. This one I'm probably the most excited about, mostly because I think it's going to be my first completed realistic fiction novel. … And I haven't made a real attempt at realistic fiction since I was 11––and THAT story accidentally morphed into this weird fantasy involving a talking stuffed pig. But I promise, no talking inanimate objects in this one. It's about this teenage girl going who goes back to her hometown two years after she moved away, and as she wanders around she reflects on life and her childhood, and most importantly on the events that led her to become enemies with the girl who was once her best friend. YAY! I was sort of inspired by Catcher in the Rye––coincidentally, I got the idea like an hour before I found out that J.D. Salinger had died (nooooooo!!!) so I guess I took that as some sort of sign. Haha. That, and I wanted to write something that everyone could relate to. Everyone has suffered through the ruin of a friendship, whether you or your friend moves away, or you get into some huge argument, or you just let it slip away, or you hated your friend all along … blah blah. And a lot of people have read it and been like "OMG this reminds me of my old friend who did such-and-such", so I guess it's working. Bwa haha.

Then, last of all, I started another story called Rage. I'm not really sure about the details on this one at the moment, since I only started it like three weeks ago. But anyway, it's this myth- and fairytale-inspired story about an isolated village under the control of a force that the people call the Monster, although no one has ever seen him. But whoever he is, he controls the weather and keeps them all trapped inside this place which is surrounded by demon-infested forests, plus he demands the sacrifice of a teenage girl every once in a while. The sacrifices have to go into the forest alone and no one knows what happens to them … dunh dunh dunnhhhh. Yeah, so I'm still planning/outlining this one and there's not much plot so far. But it's getting there.

Soooo other stuff I'm doing!

Well, I entered Walking Shadow in the Amazon Novel Breakthrough Award contest––which is this contest for unpublished and self-published novels, and the winner gets a $15,000 publishing deal with Penguin. So, woot woot! I made to the second round, which is the top 1000 novels out of about 5000, so that is pretty cool. I'll hear about the third round on March 23rd. *Scared*

I also got an account on WEbook, which is this pretty cool writing feedback site that I found. If you want to check out some of my writing you can do so here: http://www.webook.com/member/BrigidGH

And of course, I am always on goodreads.com, doing my book reviews and posting writing. I have more stories posted here: http://www.goodreads.com/story/list/886144

YAY!!! So that's what I did while I was dead. Very soon (like, within less than sixth months––haha) I plan to write an entire post on rejection, because I've been thinking about it a lot recently. Stay tuned … :)

Woohoo! Publishing is fun fun fun! Really.

Hey, you people. Sorry I haven't posted in, like, more than a month. I've been crazy busy starting junior year and all … Gah. Stupid homework. *Cries*

Well, anyway. I promised to keep y'all updated about the whole "publishing" thing I'm trying to do. Soooo let's talk about that. :)

Okay, so, good news. :D After my query letter was rejected by – oh, I don't know – sixteen literary agents or so, I finally got an e-mail response from Lindsay Ribar – assistant to literary agent Matt Bialer – asking to see my full manuscript.

O_O !!!! OMG! Well first of all, I totally freaked out and started screaming. And my mom got all scared because she thought there was a psycho kidnapper in our house or something. But yeah, that's not really relevant.

So, this was approximately a month ago. Since then I've been frantically editing the last few chapters of my book. I finished at last, about a week ago. And the day afterward, I submitted my manuscript. *Whew* I haven't gotten any response yet ... not even a "Thanks for submitting your manuscript!" And I'm kind of flipping out because I don't know if that's a bad sign or whether I'm being paranoid. Oh, well. When I hear back I'll let you guys know. ;)

Now, I'm thinking that some of you are probably reading this and saying, "Uhhh yeah, what is a query letter? What is a literary agent? What is a manuscript?"

So this would be a great opportunity for me to tell you all about publishing, wouldn't it? :] Now, I'm not an expert; I've never been published. But I've learned a lot about publishing in the past few months, so I'll share what I know and any advice I have.

Here I go. *Ah hemmm*

Let's start with the three simple things you should do before you even consider getting published. I know a lot of this will seem like "No, duh". But while these things may seem obvious, they are important!

1. Your book should be finished. Yeah, anyone can get a good idea for a book, or a good first half of a book. What you need, to begin with, is a full manuscript. If you have a complete draft, literary agents will be more interested – because they'll know that you actually have the motivation to write books, not just think about writing them.

2. Your book has to be edited. I know, I know. You're probably rolling your eyes and saying, "Well DUH!" But here's the thing: I see a lot of young writers trying to get published before they're really ready for it. You can't just write one draft and expect that it's good enough to be considered for publication. I know that the first time you finish something, you're really proud of it and it may seem flawless. But if you give it a break and come back to it, you'll see that there are a lot of mistakes and plot holes that you missed before.

No worries – just take a deep breath and EDIT, EDIT, EDIT. We love editing! YAY! ... Okay, actually editing is a pain in the butt. But we need it. And no, editing it once isn't enough. I'm talking three to five drafts – and don't just fix all the typos and call it a day. I mean, you've got to rip it apart. Write new scenes, take pointless/boring/stupid scenes out. Develop your characters and plot as much as possible. Be honest with yourself; you want your book to be GOOD, not just "good enough". If editing doesn't make you so frustrated that you cry, you're not editing hard enough. Seriously.

3. You need feedback. Editing your book by yourself isn't enough. You need someone else's opinion – preferably more than one person. The more feedback, the better. And no, it doesn't necessarily have to be a professional editor (of course, if you can get one, that would be great). I mean, hey – I edited my book with my mom. But whoever edits your book with you, it should be someone you trust, and someone who will be totally and completely honest. It needs to be someone who will do more than fix your typos. He/she should tell you if there are plot holes, clichés, etc. He/she should be scribbling notes all over your manuscript like crazy, holding nothing back.

And when you receive feedback, don't take it personally. Yes, some of it will be hard to deal with – if, say, someone points out some huge gaping evil plot hole that you never noticed before. But if you made a mistake, it's not because you're stupid (well, maybe you are, but that's probably not the reason). I've written five books and I still think writing books is hard. In fact, the more I write, the harder it seems.

But I've learned that feedback is essential. Take that feedback and use it! Other people usually see the problems you never thought about. Although it's really hard to fill in those holes sometimes, it pays off in the end. You just have to keep whacking away at it.

Oh, and if anybody here ever needs some honest feedback, I'm willing to give it. But I warn you – I'm a pretty hardcore editor. I get it from my mom. :]

So, once your book is finished and edited and all that jazz ... IT'S PUBLISHING TIME!!! BOOYAAHH!!! But just FYI – as you're trying to get published, you'll probably find yourself doing some more editing, reshaping your idea, etc. And literary agents/publishers may request rewrites/revisions. So be warned: your book probably isn't done yet.

Anyway. As for publishing … It's not a simple process. You would think it would be easy. I mean, a couple years ago, I thought it was like 1. Write a book, 2. It gets published miraculously, by some unknown force.

But, no. You thought writing your book was hard? HA! Publishing is just as, if not more, difficult. It's a long, annoying, and frustrating process. But the key is to keep trying. Face it: you're going to go through tons of rejection, and you are not alone. At all. Thousands of other aspiring authors share your pain and suffering. Think of any amazing, award-winning author, and I promise you – he/she went through rejection too, probably dozens of times. It's the writers that keep trying and don't give up that get published. When you get rejected, don't take it personally. Literary agents have to read tons of queries a day, and most of those are badly-written or formatted wrong or for the wrong genre … You see what I'm saying: it's a hard job. And you might have been rejected because the agent happened to be in a crappy mood that day, not necessarily that your query was bad. You never know. Besides, it's subjective; the book you've written isn't for everyone. So it will appeal more to one agent than another (or twenty others).

So, where do you start? Well, it helps to know the basics of what you're getting yourself into. Like I said, it's complicated – plus, I'm sixteen, and not very experienced, so forgive me for not knowing every single detail. But I'll tell you what I know. :)

Ok. So here's how it works (ideally, anyway): You submit query letters to literary agents. You get rejected by a bunch of 'em. One finally agrees to represent your book. He/she writes to publishing companies, asking them to publish the book. If a publishing company likes the book, they publish it. YAY! I know, sounds easy. But it takes a loooong time.

Anyhoooo. Here's the steps you should take, once you're ready to publish:

RESEARCH! LOOK UP LITERARY AGENTS!

Literary agents are the fabulous people who represent books. No, you don't necessarily need one, but most authors highly recommend getting an agent. Some small publishing companies will consider unagented manuscripts, but the big famous publishing companies won't – and if they do, you have a very small chance of getting published.

So, before you do anything, do your research. I suggest using agentquery.com or 1000literaryagents.com.

First of all, find agents that represents the genre of your book. If your book is a fantasy and the agent only represents nonfiction ... guess what? He/she isn't going to consider representing you! The agent will specify what he/she represents on his/her website. And on sites like agentquery, you can narrow down the list of agents to those who represent your genre. Compile a list of lots and lots of agents!

Secondly, do a background check. Google-stalk the agents you're considering. If the agent asks for any sort of advance payment, it's a SCAM!!! RUN AWAY!!! Preditors & Editors is a good site to do background checks on agents (http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/).

And finally, once you have a good list ... IT'S QUERY TIME!!!!

WRITE A QUERY LETTER!

Query letters! Yaaay! We love query letters!

Yaaay ... Wait, Brigid. What's a query letter?

Well, a query letter is basically a letter saying, "Hiya literary agent! I wrote this book and I think you'll like it! It's awesome so you should represent it!" But it's a lot more formal than that.

There is no "right" way to write a query, exactly. But typically, there are four important parts, sometimes five.

1) The Hook

The hook is a single sentence that summarizes what your book is about. It should be relevant, concise, and it should catch the agent's attention.

According to agentquery.com, the best way to come up with a hook is to use what they call The "When" Formula, which goes something like this: "When [event happens], [main character's name] – [short description of character (meaning important stuff like personality and age, not the character's eye color)] – must [face a conflict and resolve it in some awesome way]."

Huh? I know, that looks confusing. Lemme give you an example. Here's the hook I used for my query for Reborn:

"When an evil spirit endangers everything she’s ever known, immortal seventeen-year-old Kami must make a decision between her feelings and the safety of her universe."

There! That's not so bad, is it? Now, come up with your own. :)

2) Introduction:

Say why you're querying the specific agent – show off that you've done some research. The agent wants to know that you queried him/her for a particular reason, not that you're sending out queries randomly. It can be something as simple as "I understand that you represent [genre], which is why I think [my book, from that genre] will interest you." But if, say, they've represented a book similar to your book, you might want to mention that too.

Also, make sure that you mention the genre and basic setting of your book, and the approximate word/page count.

3) The plot summary:

Next, you're going to write a short synopsis of your book. That doesn't mean that you have to write every single last thing that happens. Keep it very, very concise; I would say less than 200 words – you want your entire query letter to fit on a single page. Think of it as the blurb that you read on the inside cover of a book. It should tell the agent a) what the book is basically about, b) who the important characters are, and c) what the main conflict is. This isn't the place to give everything away.

Always write the summary in the present tense!

And never ever ever ever ...

- Put extraneous details in the summary. Like, "And then Bob walks down the street. The sky is blue. He eats a ham sandwich for lunch." Snooorrre. Focus on writing about the conflict.

- Put empty questions in the summary. Ex: "Will Bob be able to defeat the evil, talking doughnuts from Mars???" Umm, I don't know. Will he? I don't think I care ...

I would care if you wrote it more like, "Bob will have to face his deepest fears in order to defeat the evil, talking doughnuts from Mars!" I know it's a bad example, but you see what I'm saying?

4) Comparison:

This part is ... optional, I guess you could say. Some people say you should include it, and some say you shouldn't. I would say don't include it unless the agent says on his/her website that he/she wants you to include a comparison with another book.

Anyway, here is where you would compare your book to a couple other other well-known books. The point of this is to make your book sound relevant – but you don't want to sound unoriginal either. Why would an agent want to represent a book that's been written/published before? If you must include the comparison, I would advise mentioning how your book also differs from the "similar book". Or at least say that your book has some elements similar to one book, and some elements similar to another book.

5) Conclusion:

Tie it up with a short paragraph or two.

If you have any publishing experience, mention that. And no, the agent won't care if you got a poem published in your school newspaper – I mean, like, if you've had something published in a literary magazine or something. If you've never been published, then don't say anything. If you say that you've never been published, then it seems like you're putting yourself down, and if you don't mention being published, the agent will assume you're unpublished. Instead, you might want to say what makes your point of view unique, or relevant to the topic of your book.

If the agent wants a sample chapter, synopsis, or both, then mention that you've included them.

If it's an email query, DO NOT include sample material/synopses as attachments. Never ever ever! Ever! Unless the agent specifically asks for them to be sent as attachments. Include all sample material and the synopsis in the body of the email.

If you have a full manuscript – which you should – then mention that the full manuscript is available. Then end the letter with something along the lines of "Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you."

If you're still confused, I recommend reading this: http://agentquery.com/writer_hq.aspx

And, as an example, here's the query I wrote for Reborn ... The one that got Lindsay Ribar to ask for my manuscript, that is. Woot woot. :]

Dear Matt Bialer:

When an evil spirit endangers everything she’s ever known, immortal seventeen-year-old Kami must make a decision between her feelings and the safety of her universe.

I understand that you represent fantasy and that you are seeking unique new voices, which is why my novel, Reborn, may interest you. It is a young adult urban fantasy and the first book in a proposed trilogy, consisting of approximately 130,000 words (236 pages). The story takes place in an imaginary dimension of our own, modern world.

Kami is one of the Protectors: a race of immortal teenagers whose purpose is to protect humankind from a rival group of immortals, the Destroyers. The Protectors and the Destroyers are trapped in an ongoing battle and an endless cycle of death and rebirth. Kami's five hundred years as a Protector have made her a fierce and confident fighter, but when she meets mysterious and unpredictable Jack, she starts to question her purpose in life. Eighteen-year-old Jack is a “Reborn”, or the newest reincarnation of an immortal spirit. Kami forms an immediate friendship with Jack when he joins the Protectors, but as her feelings for him grow stronger, so do his dark and terrifying powers. When Jack and Kami learn the disturbing story that connects their past lives, they find out that a demonic spirit, Ravi, is raging inside of Jack. Seeking revenge, Ravi threatens to take over Jack’s mind and, through him, conquer the immortal world. Although Jack struggles against Ravi, Kami knows that he is slowly succumbing to his evil self. If Kami wants to save herself and the other immortals, she will have to kill Jack. The only problem: she’s falling in love with him.

As a teenager myself, I can relate to young readers through my writing. Reborn explores themes about the futility of violence, but it is also a tale of dangerous romance – like a cross between S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight.

I have included the first five pages of Reborn. A full manuscript is available at your request. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Brigid Gorry-Hines

WRITE A SYNOPSIS!

Now, not all agents will ask for a synopsis. In fact, a lot of them don't. If they do, it means they want a longer, more detailed summary of your book – besides the one included in the body of the query letter.

The synopsis shouldn't be longer than three typed pages or so. It should summarize everything: beginning, middle, end. YES, that means you should "give away" the ending. And you should summarize all the most important events in the story. Note the "important" – once again, no extraneous details!

At the top of the synopsis, use this heading:

Synopsis of [Title]

Genre: [genre]

Word count: [number] words

By [your name]

Other than that, there's not really a format. I would post the one I wrote for Reborn … but, um, it's hideous. I don't like writing synopses; they're hard. Personally, I haven't queried many agents that asked for a synopsis. But it's good to have one in handy, just in case.

SEND THAT QUERY!

When you have a good query letter, start sending it out!

I like sending queries by email, because you tend to get a faster response (and you kill less trees!), but not all agents accept email queries; some prefer queries by snail-mail. The agent will specify whether he/she wants an email or snail-mail query on his/her website.

Like I said, you'll get rejected bunches of times. But keep going! Send that query to agent after agent. Unless an agent only accepts "exclusive" queries, I recommend querying multiple agents at once. But as you go along, make small changes in the query to appeal to the specific agents. And keep revising the letter – make it a little better every time you send it. ;)

Other than that ... That's pretty much all my advice on publishing. Wish me luck on my publishing endeavors. And if you have any more questions, feel free to ask. :)