How I have responded to revision notes in the past:
1. Read letter.
2. Freak out about how much needs to be changed.
3. Start revising/rewriting immediately. Try to address all the changes at the same time.
4. Set ridiculous deadline for self.
How I have responded to the revision notes for my current WIP:
1. Read letter.
2. Put it away. For a week.
3. In the meantime, file away some future blog posts. Read books in my genre/category. Ponder.
4. Reread letter and annotate it with these labels: Yes, No, Maybe/Explore.
5. Start revisions. Focus on one change at a time, following it through the whole MS (thank Nathan Bransford for this step).
6. Set no deadlines; decide that the round will be done when it's done.
Which process do you think is working out better for me?
Some things just can't be rushed. Revising is one of those things. The time we spend writing a first draft or working on revisions can seem like one of the few steps of the publishing process that we (as writers) have control over. Except we don't, and we shouldn't, because creativity follows its own schedule.
By giving myself space to think and react to notes, I'm having such an easier/more enjoyable time working on my revisions. Story fixes are presenting themselves organically--in the form of happy A ha! moments--instead of being slapped on despite a poor fit.
What about you? Do you have a hard time letting yourself stop and smell the revisions/rewrites?
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
BEA, briefly!
I work in educational publishing, which sometimes feels a bit like the red-headed stepchild of the publishing industry. (For the record, I am insanely jealous of anyone with naturally red hair [or a good dye job] and I love stepchildren.) It's publishing, but weird/specialized publishing. We don't get to have all the swanky book parties and lunch dates, etc. But we do get to go to conferences, like BEA. So, yay!
I only went to BEA this year on Wednesday, and only for a couple of hours. I was there to rustle up catalogs and talk to publishers about picture books and children's poetry books, but I made sure to pick up a little swag for myself. ARCs and ARCS upon ARCs--so many that I thought I'd dislocate my shoulder dragging it all back from Javits.
I also went to Teen Author Carnival on Monday night, which was amazing! So many of my favorite authors in one place, and a chance to meet some of my agent sisters (Lisa Desrochers and Hannah Moskowitz, who had amazing things to say on their panels, and Arlaina Tibensky, whose book is coming out on July 26!) and FinePrint/Nancy Coffey people IRL. Yay again!
BEA is such an inspiring event for an aspiring author, and it's wild fun to see so many authors, industry pros, and booklovers in one place. Next year: a full day, at least. And a rolling suitcase for swag.
I only went to BEA this year on Wednesday, and only for a couple of hours. I was there to rustle up catalogs and talk to publishers about picture books and children's poetry books, but I made sure to pick up a little swag for myself. ARCs and ARCS upon ARCs--so many that I thought I'd dislocate my shoulder dragging it all back from Javits.
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| Add'l swag: Buttons. The left is always true. The right--mostly true. |
I also went to Teen Author Carnival on Monday night, which was amazing! So many of my favorite authors in one place, and a chance to meet some of my agent sisters (Lisa Desrochers and Hannah Moskowitz, who had amazing things to say on their panels, and Arlaina Tibensky, whose book is coming out on July 26!) and FinePrint/Nancy Coffey people IRL. Yay again!
BEA is such an inspiring event for an aspiring author, and it's wild fun to see so many authors, industry pros, and booklovers in one place. Next year: a full day, at least. And a rolling suitcase for swag.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
When You Reach Me
1) I missed Miranda's voice
2) Knowing the full story, I wanted to go back and pick up the trail of clues
3) I wanted to stay in that late-70s NYC world a little longer (did not see that reaction coming!)
Although I write upper-MG, I don't read nearly as much of it as I read YA. When You Reach Me changed my idea of what a MG novel can do--and filled me with inspiration. It's a fantastic book and so worthy of the Newbery medal and all the other accolades it's received. It's smart and hilarious and moving and philosophical and new and classic, all at the same time. Go. Read it!
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Goodbye, First Draft. Hello, Revisions!
So it's Saturday . . . morning-ish (Yeah, I slept in past 11. It was a long week, okay?!) and I am sitting down with a big cup of coffee and my revision notes.* The 20K I have of a new first draft is filed away in a drawer, and I'm ready to slice-and-dice my WIP.
Normally I feel angst-y and nervous when I start revisions. Overwhelmed and scared that I won't be able to make the changes that need to be made. Happily, I don't feel that this time. Impatient? Yes, I am always impatient. But I have such great notes from my agent, and such a clear plan of how to implement the changes, that I feel confident. Even if this will be hard work. Even if I will have to kill my darlings.
Hope you're all having lovely weekends!
*Despite the fact that the sun is out for the first time in a week!
Normally I feel angst-y and nervous when I start revisions. Overwhelmed and scared that I won't be able to make the changes that need to be made. Happily, I don't feel that this time. Impatient? Yes, I am always impatient. But I have such great notes from my agent, and such a clear plan of how to implement the changes, that I feel confident. Even if this will be hard work. Even if I will have to kill my darlings.
Hope you're all having lovely weekends!
*Despite the fact that the sun is out for the first time in a week!
Friday, May 20, 2011
Loving Frank
The ending is shocking, quite literally. I won't tell you what happens to Mamah Borthwick Cheney--even though it's historical fiction, so spoilers are already part of the historical record. I will tell you that I made the mistake of finishing the book on my way in to work and had to spend a good amount of time hiding out in the bathroom once I got there, until I could move on with my day.
(If one of the marks of great fiction is a huge, possibly traumatizing effect on the reader--this was definitely great fiction.)
I grew up less than an hour from Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright's home and masterpiece. I've toured it more than once; I've also been to many of the buildings he created (or inspired) in southern Wisconsin and the Chicago area. I love his architecture. Reading Loving Frank was a fantastic way to learn about his life.
From the book's website:
I have been standing on the side of life, watching it float by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current.
So writes Mamah Borthwick Cheney in her diary as she struggles to justify her clandestine love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. Four years earlier, in 1903, Mamah and her husband, Edwin, had commissioned the renowned architect to design a new home for them. During the construction of the house, a powerful attraction developed between Mamah and Frank, and in time the lovers, each married with children, embarked on a course that would shock Chicago society and forever change their lives.
In this ambitious debut novel, fact and fiction blend together brilliantly. While scholars have largely relegated Mamah to a footnote in the life of America’s greatest architect, author Nancy Horan gives full weight to their dramatic love story and illuminates Cheney’s profound influence on Wright.
Mamah is an incredible, complex character--intelligent, strong, passionate, flawed, magnetic, and frustrating. I loved how her story was told with sometimes brutal honesty. At many points, I found her unlikeable. But her story was told with enough empathy that Mamah never becomes unrelatable. (FLW on the other hand--could be kind of a douche. There, I said it.)
Loving Frank is rich and thought-provoking and beautifully written. It's a love story, but also the story of a deeply personal and intellectual journey. Tragic ending and all, I highly recommend it.
(If one of the marks of great fiction is a huge, possibly traumatizing effect on the reader--this was definitely great fiction.)
I grew up less than an hour from Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright's home and masterpiece. I've toured it more than once; I've also been to many of the buildings he created (or inspired) in southern Wisconsin and the Chicago area. I love his architecture. Reading Loving Frank was a fantastic way to learn about his life.
From the book's website:
So writes Mamah Borthwick Cheney in her diary as she struggles to justify her clandestine love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. Four years earlier, in 1903, Mamah and her husband, Edwin, had commissioned the renowned architect to design a new home for them. During the construction of the house, a powerful attraction developed between Mamah and Frank, and in time the lovers, each married with children, embarked on a course that would shock Chicago society and forever change their lives.
In this ambitious debut novel, fact and fiction blend together brilliantly. While scholars have largely relegated Mamah to a footnote in the life of America’s greatest architect, author Nancy Horan gives full weight to their dramatic love story and illuminates Cheney’s profound influence on Wright.
Mamah is an incredible, complex character--intelligent, strong, passionate, flawed, magnetic, and frustrating. I loved how her story was told with sometimes brutal honesty. At many points, I found her unlikeable. But her story was told with enough empathy that Mamah never becomes unrelatable. (FLW on the other hand--could be kind of a douche. There, I said it.)
Loving Frank is rich and thought-provoking and beautifully written. It's a love story, but also the story of a deeply personal and intellectual journey. Tragic ending and all, I highly recommend it.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Patience and Perfectionism
I'm convinced that patience is the most difficult aspect of writing. I don't mean patience in terms of waiting--although writers do a lot of that, from waiting for beta comments to waiting for word on submissions to waiting for pub dates. I mean the patience involved in storytelling itself.
The best way I can describe my personal experience of writing a first draft is: It's as though I can feel the story bubbling up like the contents of a pot on the stove. It's going to overflow, and I can't get it off the burner fast enough (or in this case, get the story out of my brain and onto the pages nearly fast enough). Just the time needed to write the story down, in its roughest form, is too long. I'm going to boil over. I'm impatient.
And perfectionism is the enemy of patience. Perfectionism demands that everything be perfect, like now. So I feel palpable pressure not just to tell the story, but also to tell it well. Anne Lamott is on the money with her term sh!tty first drafts, and I can accept that my first drafts are (understandably) lukewarm messes. But I wish it were otherwise, that my manuscripts would take form both quickly and seamlessly. That's not realistic. The writing process takes time and revision.
Can you tell that I'm finally reading Bird by Bird right now? It's wonderful. I'm also working on a first draft while I wait to start more revisions of a WIP. And I'm having patience issues with my first draft as we speak. I stuck a post-it on my desk that reads: BIRD BY BIRD, Rebecca. It's there to remind me that 300 pages or whatever this MS ends up being are not going to fly out in a flock. They will arrive bird by bird.
I must be patient.
The best way I can describe my personal experience of writing a first draft is: It's as though I can feel the story bubbling up like the contents of a pot on the stove. It's going to overflow, and I can't get it off the burner fast enough (or in this case, get the story out of my brain and onto the pages nearly fast enough). Just the time needed to write the story down, in its roughest form, is too long. I'm going to boil over. I'm impatient.
And perfectionism is the enemy of patience. Perfectionism demands that everything be perfect, like now. So I feel palpable pressure not just to tell the story, but also to tell it well. Anne Lamott is on the money with her term sh!tty first drafts, and I can accept that my first drafts are (understandably) lukewarm messes. But I wish it were otherwise, that my manuscripts would take form both quickly and seamlessly. That's not realistic. The writing process takes time and revision.
Can you tell that I'm finally reading Bird by Bird right now? It's wonderful. I'm also working on a first draft while I wait to start more revisions of a WIP. And I'm having patience issues with my first draft as we speak. I stuck a post-it on my desk that reads: BIRD BY BIRD, Rebecca. It's there to remind me that 300 pages or whatever this MS ends up being are not going to fly out in a flock. They will arrive bird by bird.
I must be patient.
Friday, May 13, 2011
The Hunger Games with Barbies
Yay, Blogger is back! Now I can share this awesome weirdness with you:
I love it. Check out Part II here
I love it. Check out Part II here
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Isn't that title perfect? It has a nice rhythm, it's evocative, it creates an image before you've even read the jacket copy. I feel like this book wound up on my (mental) TBR shelf before I even knew what it was about.
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is, in fact, a bitter and sweet story. Parts are painful to read, especially if you develop as much concern and empathy for the characters as I did. Other parts are funny, moving, heartwarming, and lovely.
A summary, courtesy of Jamie Ford's website:
In the opening pages of Jamie Ford’s stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle’s Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol. . . .
Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable duo whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and the human heart.
One of my all time favorite YA historical fictions is Yoshiko Uchida's A Jar of Dreams; I read it way back in middle school but I still think about the characters. A Jar of Dreams has a similar setting and characters--young people affected by the WWII internment camps. Approximately half of Hotel is set during the war, and the protagonist, Henry, is 12-13 at that time. It always frightens and shocks me to read about the Japanese interment camps--but while it's not easy to think about that part of our history, it's important to remember it. Although it's not categorized as YA, Hotel has strong YA appeal, and I could see it easily being taught in classrooms. It strikes a perfect balance between the lightness of the love story and the depth of the history.
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is, in fact, a bitter and sweet story. Parts are painful to read, especially if you develop as much concern and empathy for the characters as I did. Other parts are funny, moving, heartwarming, and lovely.
A summary, courtesy of Jamie Ford's website:
In the opening pages of Jamie Ford’s stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle’s Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol. . . .Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable duo whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and the human heart.
One of my all time favorite YA historical fictions is Yoshiko Uchida's A Jar of Dreams; I read it way back in middle school but I still think about the characters. A Jar of Dreams has a similar setting and characters--young people affected by the WWII internment camps. Approximately half of Hotel is set during the war, and the protagonist, Henry, is 12-13 at that time. It always frightens and shocks me to read about the Japanese interment camps--but while it's not easy to think about that part of our history, it's important to remember it. Although it's not categorized as YA, Hotel has strong YA appeal, and I could see it easily being taught in classrooms. It strikes a perfect balance between the lightness of the love story and the depth of the history.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Occupational Hazard: Posturing
I know I've whined previously about my crappy posture. In case you never read those posts, let me reiterate: My. Posture. Sucks. Despite the fact that I am a short person (so, really, I have no business slouching); despite the fact that I do a lot of yoga. (See: Exhibits A and B, below.)
Being a voracious reader and a dedicated writer has not helped the cause. Lately I've taken to reading while sitting in a comfy armchair--except I sit in it with my legs slung over one armrest and my head plopped on the other, torso on the seat. (Believe it or not, it's quite comfortable.) I write either on the couch, neck craned so I can stare down at my laptop, or hunched over at my desk. Is it any wonder I've had some serious neck and shoulder strain recently?
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| Exhibit A. This is my idea of "standing up straight." For reals. |
 |
| Exhibit B. See how it looks like my head is coming out of my chest? Poor posture is creepy. |
I decided to do something about this weekend, so I went to my first Feldenkrais class.* What is Feldenkrais, you ask? After one session, I don't think I can explain it myself. According to the Feldenkrais Institute, it is:
The Feldenkrais Method® is a remarkable approach to human movement, learning and change. The method is based on sound principles of physics, neurology and physiology, and the conditions under which the nervous system learns best. Feldenkrais is recognized for the strategies it employs to improve posture, flexibility, coordination, athletic and artistic ability and to help those with restricted movement, chronic pain and tension (including back pain and other common ailments), as well as neurological, developmental and psychological problems.
I went to a Awareness through Movement (ATM) class for beginners. Basically, we spent most of an hour on our mats as the instructor guided us through small, incremental, natural movements. I didn't think it was doing much for me until I got up at the end of the class--and felt a huge difference in the quality of how I was moving around.
I could see how having a greater awareness of movement could help writers not just with the strain that writing, as an activity can create. The ATM class I attended used a lot of visualization and close study of how the body moves, or would move, in various situations. That attention to movement definitely could be applied to writing scenes with a focus on action, movement, or physical sensations. Perhaps Feldenkrais can help writers not only take good care of their bodies, but also expand how they approach writing physicality.
I'm going back for at least 5 more classes (because I already paid for them), so we'll see if Feldenkrais makes a difference in my sh!tty stance. I can say, though, that while I sat writing a scene today, I not only was more tuned in to how I was holding my neck, but picturing the motions my characters were making. Cool.
*At this point, you might be saying to yourself, "Oh my God, she is such a hippie." Well, yeah. I'm not going to dispute that. Although I also love fancy shoes, greasy real bacon, and non-organic doughnuts.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Like, you really can't go home again.
My sister and I spent hours reading SVH books as kids: I remember checking out huge stacks of them from our local library, then lying out on our deck in the sun and speed-reading them. I also remember the disappointment on our faces the day we flipped the library's teen paperback rack around and around and around, then realized that we had read all of them already. Bummer.
So heck yeah I was excited to upload my eBook of Sweet Valley Confidential: 10 Years Later.
Reason #1 I was excited: Nostalgia. Overload.
Reason #2 I was excited: The twins, in this new book, are approximately my age. They were definitely not approximately my age when I last read the books, around age 12-13. Maybe I will identify with them on some level!
Reason #3 I was excited: If these people were dealing with sudden heart failure and party drugs and eating disorders and kidnappers and cancer and car accidents and MAJOR DRAMA as teens, imagine what they will be dealing with as adults! Spies! Flesh-eating bacteria! Amnesia (was that already covered? Probably)! Reality TV! THE INTERWEBS! The possibilities were endless.
I think most of all I thought I'd be transported to what it felt like to read those books back in the day--like the reading equivalent of eating a Jell-O pudding pop. Delicious. Not exactly filling, but not the worst thing for you, either. Perfect for summertime.
But I was underwhelmed by the experience. The book was more-or-less what I expected, actually--I just wanted more from reading it. (Although it definitely did not live up to Reason #3 above--not nearly enough 2011-centric plot craziness.) Maybe what works for me as fun, escapist reading has changed. Maybe I've romanticized how much I once enjoyed that weird little fictive world. Maybe I was reading way too much into the book, like the reviewer over at New York did. ("The Depressing Lessons of Sweet Valley Confidential"--she makes good points, though.)
Maybe you just can't go home again, at least to Sweet Valley.
Or maybe I just needed to follow Forever YA's review/drinking game. Oh, well. I can always reread.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
We interrupt your regularly scheduled RTW:
To ask you to check out:
Over the past two weeks, record-breaking storms have killed over 300 people and destroyed countless homes, neighborhoods, and towns. Tornadoes tore across the south, fires raged across Texas and Oklahoma, and flooding continues to affect communities all over the country. The writing community has rallied before to raise funds for many worthwhile causes, and we're hoping you'll show your support for the areas affected by one of the worst weeks in national weather history.
Having grown up in a tornado-y place, it was hard to watch the scenes of devastation after last week's storms. I'm proud to be a part of a writing community dedicated not only to creating great books, but to helping out communities in need.
Go to: helpwritenow.blogspot.com for more info and to participate!
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
The Meme Generation
LOLcats. Rickrolling. FAIL. Jumping the Shark.
Have you ever had to explain this stuff to, say, your parents? (No offense, Mom & Dad--I'm not pegging you as out of touch. In fact, you're the ones who use iPhones while I make a fool of myself with the 2011 equivalent of a Zack Morris cell phone.) Or perhaps even to yourself--once upon a time, it took me months of confusion before I figured out that jumping the shark was not some kind of dirty euphemism.
Smithsonian has a long piece on memes in the May issue, and it's pretty interesting:
What Defines a Meme: Our world is a place where information can behave like human genes and ideas can replicate, mutate and evolve (Read the full article)
Plus, they've rounded up "10 Unforgettable Web Memes" here, from Chuck Norris facts to flash mobs.
Why this is relevant to a writing/reading-focused blog: I've noticed, at least in contemporary lit, that memes have a way of quickly working their way in. How many books pubbed recently have included the word awesomesauce? Or had a character talking about an "epic FAIL"? And of course, as the article points out, stories themselves are often memes--The Odyssey being the example given. Thanks to the Internet, memes travel fast today, and appear in pop culture almost instantaneously--including publishing.
Have you ever had to explain this stuff to, say, your parents? (No offense, Mom & Dad--I'm not pegging you as out of touch. In fact, you're the ones who use iPhones while I make a fool of myself with the 2011 equivalent of a Zack Morris cell phone.) Or perhaps even to yourself--once upon a time, it took me months of confusion before I figured out that jumping the shark was not some kind of dirty euphemism.
Smithsonian has a long piece on memes in the May issue, and it's pretty interesting:
What Defines a Meme: Our world is a place where information can behave like human genes and ideas can replicate, mutate and evolve (Read the full article)
Plus, they've rounded up "10 Unforgettable Web Memes" here, from Chuck Norris facts to flash mobs.
Why this is relevant to a writing/reading-focused blog: I've noticed, at least in contemporary lit, that memes have a way of quickly working their way in. How many books pubbed recently have included the word awesomesauce? Or had a character talking about an "epic FAIL"? And of course, as the article points out, stories themselves are often memes--The Odyssey being the example given. Thanks to the Internet, memes travel fast today, and appear in pop culture almost instantaneously--including publishing.
Monday, May 2, 2011
First Drafts are my Frenemies
After finishing my first draft of my first book, I remember hearing (or reading) someone say that s/he hated writing a first draft--s/he loved revising. And I thought that was totally nuts. Isn't the best part of writing those moments of first-draft flow, when the story is leaping forth from your fingers on the keyboard? That's when writing feels like magic. How, I wondered, could revising ever top that juicy creativity? Revising was going to be hard.
Well, several WIPs later and . . . I kind of agree now. First drafts are rough (literally,* and figuratively).
I'm writing a first draft right now, and I am second-guessing and self-editing at every turn. Which is fine, so long as I keep moving forward. But as I'm writing, I'm longing to be revising. Revising my previous WIP (and still a WIP, as the revision cycle isn't done for that MS) was wonderful. Fun. Tricky like a riddle, but with enough clues that I never got frustrated. I had more "flow" moments working on that revised draft than I ever did during the plodding first one. Fleshing out characters and lengthening scenes was so satisfying. I had so much confidence in the choices I was making, and so much enthusiasm about where I wanted the story to go.
Now that I am faced with a blank page and a blinking cursor, I'm actually thinking of the revisions TK as the reward for the hard work I'm currently doing. Sure, I'm playing favorites with the process and I'm sure my loyalties will change in the future. (Look for a "I love first drafts the best wahh revising is too hard" post in, oh, 6 months.) But right now, revising is my bestie. First drafts--my frenemies.
*Is it "literally"? Because if the rough in "rough draft" is meant in a figurative sense, then I don't know if calling a first draft "rough" can be a literal use of the word.**
**I'm sorry. This level of overthinking is what happens when you regularly edit Vocabulary Strategy lessons. They turn your brain into word salad.
Well, several WIPs later and . . . I kind of agree now. First drafts are rough (literally,* and figuratively).
I'm writing a first draft right now, and I am second-guessing and self-editing at every turn. Which is fine, so long as I keep moving forward. But as I'm writing, I'm longing to be revising. Revising my previous WIP (and still a WIP, as the revision cycle isn't done for that MS) was wonderful. Fun. Tricky like a riddle, but with enough clues that I never got frustrated. I had more "flow" moments working on that revised draft than I ever did during the plodding first one. Fleshing out characters and lengthening scenes was so satisfying. I had so much confidence in the choices I was making, and so much enthusiasm about where I wanted the story to go.
Now that I am faced with a blank page and a blinking cursor, I'm actually thinking of the revisions TK as the reward for the hard work I'm currently doing. Sure, I'm playing favorites with the process and I'm sure my loyalties will change in the future. (Look for a "I love first drafts the best wahh revising is too hard" post in, oh, 6 months.) But right now, revising is my bestie. First drafts--my frenemies.
*Is it "literally"? Because if the rough in "rough draft" is meant in a figurative sense, then I don't know if calling a first draft "rough" can be a literal use of the word.**
**I'm sorry. This level of overthinking is what happens when you regularly edit Vocabulary Strategy lessons. They turn your brain into word salad.
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