Kim: Conference Expectations

Great! You registered for a writer’s conference. It might be your first, or your twenty-seventh. Maybe it’s a regional SCBWI event, like the one I’m helping to put together in Seattle next month, which explains why I’ve chosen to blog about conferences. My brain is filled to the brim with conference. I’m so distracted thinking about conference tasks, I just splashed my own face with coffee. For everybody’s safety, we'll just stick with conferences as our topic.

You’re signed up, you’re excited, you’re ready for the most part— but why are you going? Do you know?

I attended my first writer’s conference in 2005. I didn’t really have any purpose other than seeing what it was all about. The faculty intimidated me and I remember talking to only two attendees. One asked if I was published and turned away when I said no. The other pushed postcards of her illustrations into my hand. I learned things about craft and the publishing industry in the sessions, but I walked away uncertain if I would invest in a conference again.

Why did you sign up for a conference?

Really think about your expectations. Think about whether they’re realistic, and if they’ll help you to gain what you need from the experience. I know. We’re writers. It’s hard to be realistic. Our brains go off on “But, what if…” tangents that color everyday activities. If we’re preoccupied with an upcoming conference, there is the potential to come up with some doozies just short of glass slippers and winning lottery numbers. But, what if (you ponder) Editor X stops the proceedings to proclaim that your prose made her weep, she was writing up a contract, and could everyone just rise for a spontaneous standing ovation? Alas, that is something that would only happen in our overworked imaginations.

Even if the conference stars aligned for the perfect ingredients to give your career the boost it needs, your serendipity would probably be such a gossamer web of small events and lumps of knowledge, you may not even be able to recognize it even in hindsight.

I (well, you know, Sara) sold my debut middle grade novel last month. I strongly believe that would not have happened if I hadn’t attended the writing conferences that I did. Not even if I had kept plugging along with classes and craft books for years and years. I’ve gained a ton of knowledge at conferences that I haven’t found anywhere else about the craft of writing, as well as the market. I’ve been looking back at all the wonderful fortuity and opportunities that brought me to this place, and a great deal of it came from attending writing conferences.

I signed up for manuscript consultations that offered critiques and constructive feedback. Sometimes editors and/or agents request to see more of your manuscript after a consultation, and sometimes they don’t. It’s a great confidence boost (and what writer doesn’t need that?), but the editors who asked me to send them the whole thing weren’t the one who wound up with the manuscript. And I’ve had critiques with authors that were just as, if not more, helpful.

I got to know my critique partners at conferences, and some of my best friends. Writing is lonely! Most of the time, I don’t mind. I’m an introvert at heart. People never believe me because I spend a lot of time up at the podium at our conference, and running around chatting at the others I attend. But, I am indeed an introvert. I hid under my bed at my own birthday party. It was my fifth birthday, but still. I wanted to hide under my bed at a few of my grown up birthday parties, too. But something about being around a bunch of people that get jazzed about books for kids the same way I do…that charges my batteries.

Let’s operate under the assumption that you are going to get published, if you haven’t been already. Congratulations! The market is not a place you will want to be in isolation when your book goes out of print, or your option isn’t picked up, or your cover gets whitewashed. When you’re stuck and discouraged? You need your writer friends. Who can help workshop ideas? Writer friends. Our non-writer friends are supportive, but they don’t really get it.

I considered quitting writing altogether last December. The thought hurt my heart, so I don’t think I would have gone through with it. I was just stuck on a revision and feeling frustrated. I went to the annual SCBWI Winter Conference in New York that January and really listened to the keynotes. I went back home inspired and wanting to write again.

So, what is your primary reason for shelling out the registration fee and signing up for a conference? Is it a book deal? Save your scratch and stay home. If it’s inspiration, community, or honing your craft that you are after, you are on the right track. And if you just want to be surrounded by a bunch of likeminded book loving neurotics with big dreams and weird ideas, you will be in the right place!

Make a note and remind yourself while you’re there what makes it worth it to you. Don’t waste an opportunity like I did my first time.

The important thing is being there and being open to all of the lovely (realistic) possibilities. And be careful with the coffee.

Dianne: Adventures in Adaptation

When I was asked to write a screenplay adaptation for my novel, We Hear the Dead, I tried to get out of it. I’d never written a screenplay, knew nothing about them, and frankly doubted I could do it. However, I did want to please the producer who’d just made an offer on a film option for my book, and she did have a point: I was the expert on Maggie Fox and Elisha Kane and Spiritualism. Anybody else would have to start researching from scratch. So, I finally agreed to write one draft, after which she’d find someone more competent to fix it up.

One draft became two; two became three. By that point, I was having fun – and learning a lot. The producer, Amy Green, acted as my crit partner, helping me hammer out revisions over the phone. Eight drafts later, I produced a screenplay which is now on the equivalent of “submission” in Hollywood.

It’s nothing like the novel.

That was the first lesson, and one I learned writing the opening scene. When you tell your story in a different medium, it’s going to be a different story. The novel and movie are based on historical events, so I had to work within certain parameters. But there was no way I could take the novel scene by scene and translate it into a script. If I wanted to retell this story as a graphic novel (assuming I had any artistic talent) or set it to music (an even farther stretch), it would come out different yet again. Maggie in the screenplay is different from Maggie in the book, even though her overall story arc is the same.

I also learned to be more concise, and – heaven knows – I needed it! One page of a screenplay written with the default settings of Final Draft translates into one minute of screen time. The script had to come in under 120 pages; closer to 90 would be better. I pared down lines to their essential elements. I slashed clever, witty dialogue and never looked back. Yet, it still had to be good writing. The screenplay will be read before it’s ever filmed – in fact, it won’t ever be filmed unless I can make a reader visualize it on the screen. I can’t just say: Elisha jumps on stage and rescues Maggie. They escape. I have to vividly portray the scene – her fear, his gallantry, their attraction – and do it in a single paragraph.

When I was finished, I realized I liked some scenes in the screenplay better than their equivalent parts in my novel. Lesson learned again. There’s always an alternate way to tell any story; consider all options when revising your manuscript. In fact, when facing revisions in any manuscript now, I consider how I might do it differently in a screenplay. Any scene that wouldn’t make the cut for a script might not belong in a novel, either.

Veera: Fact or Fiction?

Often friends and family ask me the question that many fiction writers get asked. “How much of the story is true?” I usually manage a vague reply that doesn’t really answer anything. The real answer is complicated and personal and would take a long time to explain, but I’m finally going to give it a go. Because I do think it’s important, for me at least, to answer.

In writing workshops everywhere, students are told to write about what they know. But why? I had a professor during my MFA program at Sarah Lawrence College, the late Jerry Badanes, who was very interested in my background--that I had a Jewish mother from Brooklyn and a Hindu father from India. During our conference sessions, he wanted to know everything about me culturally, which I found sort of annoying. He said I had such great material to draw from and how lucky I was to have such a rich heritage. But really, what did my background have to do with anything? I was writing fiction. That meant my characters could come from any place they wanted to. I had been trapped, I thought, by my confusing cultural identity all my life and if I wanted to escape it with my fiction, well, that was my prerogative. I didn’t believe in all that “write what you know,” stuff.

So I promptly wrote several short stories about ambiguous people with pale complexions going through midlife crises. He happily discussed these pieces with me, but I knew he wasn’t wowed by any of it. Then Jerry died unexpectedly from heart failure several months into my program. It was awful and shocking for everyone. Then over time, sadly, my memory of Jerry faded.

Many years and many stories later, I had my first child. Nothing makes you look harder at who you are when you start trying to figure out who your child is. Jerry’s gentle guidance started to come back to me. I finally began to explore what I was so afraid to do then. For the first time maybe, I started to write about what I knew.

Out came a novel, a novel not for adults, but for young readers who are the age I was when the issues of the novel were most powerful for me. And to my amazement, Delacorte Press is publishing it in 2012! Guess what it’s about? A girl with a Jewish mother and an Indian father trying to make sense of her cultural identity among other things. It’s called THE WHOLE STORY OF HALF A GIRL.

Which is why when I tell people who know me about this book, they ask how much of it is true. Natural curiosity, I guess. Well the part about struggling with cultural identity is true. Some other things are true too. The main character, Sonia, has to switch schools, but for different reasons than I did. Everything else is sort of true and sort of not. The way her father speaks, the way her mother drags her pinky nail along her lips when she’s thinking, the way her sister plays the drums--those parts are taken directly from the people who inspired the characters, but most everything else about my main characters isn’t exactly true. Not exactly. It’s a big collection of fictional threads inspired by facts woven into an entirely new piece of fabric. Isn’t every story? So maybe the phrase “Write what you know,” should really be “start from a place you know.” That place may be in the form of a person, a memory, a sentimental piece of china, I don’t know. You might stay there for a long time, you might not. But it’s a good place to start, a truthful place to start. So that’s my answer. And thank you Jerry--for helping me find my voice. I wish I could have thanked you in person.

Karen: Returning to the Dream: On writing sequels

I very much love what John Gardner said in his On Becoming a Novelist: good fiction is “a vivid and continuous dream.” Now that I’m writing sequels to my debut novel, this quote has sparked a question: What happens when you wake from this dream, only to return to it in a later book?

As a reader, I devour the first book in a series, drool over the not-yet-published sequel, then plunge in and cross my fingers, hoping that, among the flashy new characters and plot twists, I find old friends and kindly reminders of names, family trees, and facts I might have forgotten. And sure enough, my favorite authors lull me into their stories without losing or boring me along the way. Of course, that’s easy for a reader to want. The writer is the one who has to stitch it all together.

With this in mind, I started my second novel a bit nervously. When I wrote my debut, Other, I wasn’t even thinking about a sequel being concocted. But it was, and it was called Bloodborn. More of a companion novel than a direct sequel, Bloodborn takes tertiary characters from Other and makes them primary. Since both novels are set in an alternate America where paranormal people (Others) exist publically, with a variety of cultural effects, I had some of my own worldbuilding rules to abide by.

(I could have played the, “I am the author; I am the god of this story!” card and smote all my old characters, repopulating my world with unicorns and dragons, but I have the distinct impression my editor—and readers—would flog me.)

Most importantly, though, I wanted the two books to feel the same.

If a reader loves Other, I want them to love Bloodborn, or at least feel they are returning to the dreamworld I created before. Of course, Bloodborn features a different cast of characters. There are cameo appearances from the stars of Other, and nearly all the werewolves reappear, but other than that, Brock, our protagonist, is a stranger to the reader. No, it’s trickier than that—he’s actually an antagonist in Other, so the reader should be predisposed to dislike him. Maybe hate his guts for being prejudiced and unkind. Why, Karen, would you be so masochistic? Because I relish a good challenge.

See, while Bloodborn tackles some of the same themes in Other­—prejudice, finding yourself, and being able to go public with your identity—it doesn’t rehash the same plotline. Brock hates werewolves. That’s why he’s a bad guy in the first book, and an anti-hero in the second. Now that he’s been bitten, he’s become the very thing he despised. He must overcome his hatred, or the consequences will be fatal. Before, we see only hints of this brewing conflict, only the beginning of Brock’s struggles to change into a better person. Other isn’t his story. Bloodborn, however, is.

I can’t speak for my readers, and say whether Bloodborn has succeeded magnificently or not. It doesn’t come out until September 8. But I can say that as a writer, I learned this: I didn’t need to redream Other. Sure, one night you might have this fantastic dream, but trying to force it back into being the next time you’re in bed can result only in shadowy disappointment.

While you definitely want to keep the continuity of a series intact—otherwise a reader will have a rude awakening—you, as author, also have the power to explore far beyond the borders of the earlier story. A new novel in a series might star recurring characters, in the same unforgettable world, but it also should dare to tantalize and surprise the imagination with new possibilities. Don’t be afraid to move beyond the conflicts and characters of your earlier story, and delve even deeper in your world.

Sweet dreams.

Jeff: Inspiration: Exit Through the Gift Shop

Hi all, thought I'd take this chance to share a recent inspiration. Have you guys seen Banksy's Oscar-nominated documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop? If not, I highly recommend it. As soon as it was over there was nothing I wanted to do more than grab my laptop and get back to my revision. Gotta love a piece of art that can do that.

For those who haven't heard about it, Exit Through the Gift Shop follows filmmaker Thierry Guetta as he shadows street artists like Shepard Fairey, Space Invader and Banksy to record their work and methods. These are all artists who work (for the most part) outside the usual art world of museums, galleries and auctions and focus on putting their art out in public spaces, generally without permission. The work consists of spray painted graffiti, wheat pasted prints, stickers, mosaics, etc. and runs the gamut from the aggressively political to the surreal and whimsical. (For a good street art gallery check out Streetsy. For a look at Banksy's work go here. )

There's alot to like here. First, you get an exciting peek at these artist's processes as they dart around cities trying to put up pieces of art while staying one step ahead of the police. There's something incredibly pure about it all. These are artists doing what they do not because they lust for money and fame (few get either) but because they love what they do and they want people to see it. They're incredibly talented people that simply want to communicate with, challenge or delight groups of total strangers for the short period of time before the authorities appear and remove their work.

Now, I know that this has been said many times before, but heck, I for one can always use reminding...as a writer it's easy to get caught up in advances and bestseller lists and prizes and reviews and who's got the mos twitter followers and blog followers and facebook friends. Happens to me all the time. And I'm not saying that all of that stuff isn't important in its way, it's just great to see a movie like this and be reminded that the focus should be as simple as making something that you think is cool and getting it in front of others in hopes they'll think it's cool too. Everything else is secondary. This is a point the later half of the movie drives home pretty hard when it goes into great detail about what happens when an artist puts commerce way ahead of the work. Scary stuff.

Have you guys seen the movie? What did you think? Any thoughts on the "is it all a prank?" questions surrounding the film?

Interview With Erica Sussman

As promised last week, here is the interview with Erica Sussman, Senior Editor at HarperTeen. Erica is all kinds of awesome, and has been fantastic to work with throughout all aspects of the publishing process, and I was really excited have her on the blog. So, without further ado:

Rob: We probably ought to start with the standard "how did you become an editor?" question.

Erica: It was kind of random, actually! I had been teaching in a private school in Brooklyn, and one of my best friends was working at HarperCollins Children’s Books. She didn’t see herself staying in publishing long term, and she kept telling me that I would love her job, and that I should work in children’s publishing. I wasn’t loving life as a teacher as much as I thought I would, so I decided to apply for an open spot at Harper. When I went in for the interview, I had no idea what to expect, but I had the greatest time talking first to the HR director, and then the two editors who would become my managers, about children’s books. It was amazing. When I left, I knew that this would be the best possible career for me. And the rest is history!

Rob: Are you one of those people who corrects everyone's grammar?

Erica: Ha! No. That would be annoying. I do cringe when people say “I did good” because my parents drilled the “I did well” rule into my head as a kid. But I promise that, even though I cringe, I do not correct them out loud. I have a feeling that would earn me some enemies.

Rob: I've heard you say elsewhere that you usually know right away whether you'll like a manuscript. Is there anything that will make you quickly reject a manuscript? Any pet peeves?

Erica: I do know right away! But it’s nothing particular that I can tell you – it’s really just if the writing or the voice don’t pull me in. I can forgive a LOT of problems in a manuscript if the voice is compelling. It’s harder for me to forgive problems if the voice isn’t engaging enough. After all, most problems in plotting and structure are fixable – and if I didn’t like editing, I wouldn’t be an editor. A voice, on the other hand, is not easily fixable. Most times, either a manuscript has a voice that gets me right from the start, or it doesn’t. And I do mean literally right from the start. The first few pages are key.


Rob: When Sara first sent you Variant, you initially passed on it (though you wrote a very helpful note, and offered to take a second look if revisions were made). Could you walk us through that whole process? What made you reject it at first, and what caused you to look at it again? (That seems pretty unusual in the submission process.) And, of course, why/how did you decide to accept it after the revisions?

Erica: I’m so excited to answer this question, basically because, in my mind, I didn’t reject Variant. What I did was tell Sara that I would have trouble positioning it in the way I would want to for our sales and marketing teams if it wasn’t revised. I see a LOT of manuscripts from agents, and I ask to take maybe 2-3 through revisions each year. At the most. If I want to see something again, or I give suggestions for how it can be even stronger, that means I really like it. Sometimes, though, even if I like something, it doesn’t make sense for me to take it into meetings at Harper if I don’t think it’s going to wow our editorial, sales, and marketing teams. Our acquisitions process at HarperCollins is twofold – first we take manuscripts to our Editorial meeting, where the Editorial team, including our Editor-in-Chief and Publisher weigh in on it. If that group agrees that the manuscript will be a good addition to the Harper list, we take it next to our Acquisitions meeting, where we present the project to our Sales and Marketing teams.

We publish a lot of books at Harper. A lot. And oftentimes, the impression that a manuscript leaves readers with after Editorial and Acquisitions meetings is the impression that stays. First impressions are absolutely the most important in our process. If I’m concerned that a manuscript won’t be able to immediately wow the room in it’s original state, but I love it and see a place for it, the best thing for me is to be able to take it through a revision and then show the even-stronger-manuscript to the team at Harper.

With Variant, I really REALLY liked it – I was excited by how different it was and how interesting it was. And I loved Benson (the narrator) right from the start. However, I was concerned about how to position it because it the pacing wasn’t as strong in places as it could have been, and some of the twists and turns were a little confusing. When I asked Sara if you would be willing to revise for me, I did tell her that if she suddenly received an offer, that she should let me know so that I could determine whether it would make sense for me to take it in to meetings as is. Luckily, the other interest only seemed to come in after you revised for me – so, win-win! I was able to take a revised, stronger manuscript in and position it strongly for our sales and marketing teams and get everyone on board.

So there. I never really rejected it. :)

Of course, a good thing to keep in mind, is that an editor asking for revisions isn’t a guarantee that the revised manuscript will get through. I’ve had to pass on a lot of manuscripts that writers revised for me, for a variety of reasons.

Rob: Three book questions: What book (assuming there was only one, and if you can remember) caused your love of reading? What book has been most life-changing? And what book have you read and re-read more than any other?

Erica: Hm. This is hard. I think the books that caused my true love of reading were the Baby-Sitters Club books. I loved them. I devoured them. I read them, and re-read them, and re-read them some more. I just loved them. I even wrote my college essay about how much I loved the series and how it had been so important to me as a child. (I’m sure the admissions officers were a little baffled by a college essay about children’s books…)

I’m not sure any book has been life-changing, per se. I wish I could point to one! But alas. I can’t. I should probably make something up here. Oh well.

The books that I have re-read the most in recent years, hands down, are Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Jellicoe Road. I know everyone out there has heard of (and hopefully read!) HP7, but I’m sure plenty of people haven’t yet discovered Jellicoe Road, by Melina Marchetta. It won the Printz in 2009 and it blows me away every time I read it. I’ve read it at least 10 times now and I always discover something new. I love it love it love it. I can’t recommend it highly enough.


Rob: It seems like a large part of an editor's job is to be the author's therapist--talking them (me) off the ledge when they got bad news/reviews/etc. Is there any other aspect of being an editor that you were surprised to find yourself doing?

Erica: Hm. There’s a lot I didn’t know about before I got into this career path. I think I, like most people, probably thought that the job involved spending the days sitting around and reading manuscripts. Not so! I don’t know anyone who has time to just sit around in the office and read submissions. That’s nighttime and weekend work for all of us.

It’s nice that you think I talk you off of ledges. I like to think I’m helpful like that. Of course, if there are that many ledges in your house, maybe you should move? No, no. Kidding. I’ve really really enjoyed the aspect of the editor-author relationship throughout the years. It’s so much fun to work with authors through the creative process and I love getting to know them. Authors are generally awesome.

Rob: What do you like to do when you're not editing/reading/talking authors off ledges?

Erica: I like to cook a lot. I’m relatively obsessed with my dog, so if I’m home and I don’t have work to do, I’m usually playing with her or trying to get her to go on walks. (We have the one dog who doesn’t really like to go outside…she’s a little shy around loud cars and people) I also watch a lot of TV. Probably too much, but what can I say? I like to be entertained and at a certain point, I can’t read anymore.

Rob: Even though this interview will be posted after the Super Bowl, explain why the Green Bay Packers are your favorite football team.

Erica: Heh. Nice try. I am a Jets fan through and through (J-E-T-S, JETS JETS JETS!), with the Buffalo Bills coming in a close 2nd (for nostalgia’s sake – I lived in Buffalo until I was 10). However, I do love the Packers, mostly because I like how dedicated the fans are (I’m big on fan spirit). I also love Aaron Rodgers since he was my QB on my Fantasy Football team the first year he started on the Packers. (And I have already decided that Jordy Nelson gets a spot on my Fantasy Football squad next season. Go, Jordy!).

So again, many thank to Erica for answering a few of my questions! Erica—you did good.

Jonathan: Love Among the Ruins

Boys do like romance in their novels, but they would rather be staked down over an anthill rather than admit it. I mean, even in movies that are absolutely sacred to my brothers in the Church of Testosterone, we do want John McClane to hook back up with his wife at the end of DIE HARD. We want Indiana Jones to get the gal. We want Superman to wind up with Lois Lane.

What we don’t want to hear (or read about) is the day-to-day aspects of those romances. Later, when we’re in our late teens, that will become more important. During college it will become very important to the point of poetic obsession. Brooding may even be involved. After college, it’s all about the hunt for the perfect female.

Give all that, when I sat down to write ROT & RUIN, my first teen novel, I was faced with the realization that I had to write a romance. Sure, there are zombies, and gunfights, and daring escapes, and chases on horseback, and murder and evil bounty hunters. But ROT & RUIN is also about falling in love.

Benny Imura, the fifteen year old protagonist, is maybe a little young for his age. Like I was at that age, he’s a bit dense, more cranky than he needs to be, and incapable of placing value on things close at hand. There is a girl, Nix Riley, who loves him. She’s a little younger, and Benny grew up with her. He CAN’T fall in love with her, even if those feelings are starting to percolate. That way lies madness. Actually, that way lies the quick demise of whatever ‘mystique’ we think we’ve built around ourselves. Guys, you see, want to be slouchy cool and mysterious. It’s impossible to be mysterious with a girl you grew up with. She knows everything about you. That’s half of the problem that Benny faces: no way to be all cool and mysterious and edgy.

The bigger and deeper problem is that of possible rejection and its dire consequences. If Benny decided that he did, after all, have feelings for Nix, what would happen his estimation that she had the hits for him was inaccurate? What if she didn’t love him? What if she rejected him? For Benny that’s the end of the world, at least in terms of his self-worth is concerned, because if the person who truly does know everything about you rejects you…then surely she must be basing that on actual knowledge that you’re just a loser.

I’ve read enough boy-oriented fiction to know that I could have left the romance out of the story…but where would be the fun in that? Especially from the writer’s point of view. It is our goal in life to create as many complications for our characters as possible. A story about happy people on a sunny day where nothing bad happens is booooring. Stir in complications, catastrophes, complexities, conundrums, conflict, clashes (and, apparently a lot of other ‘c’ words), stir vigorously and you have real drama.

So…much as I love poor Benny Imura, I could not leave him in emotional neutral, so just as he starts to get interested in Nix, I introduce the Lost Girl –a mysterious, beautiful ‘older’ girl living wild in the Ruin (oooo—air of mystery!)—and then I have Nix kidnapped.

This allowed me to use the main adventure of the novel as Benny’s pathway toward understanding his feelings for Nix (and for the Lost Girl); and for getting Benny to the point where he has a clearer idea of what romance is, what commitment means, and who he is.

So far….none of the boys have complained that there is romance in the book. With all the zombies and gunplay, some of them haven’t noticed. The girl readers, on the other hand (always a little sharper in my experience) have noticed the romance, and based on the letters I’ve received, they like it quite well.

Whew!

I just finished the second in the series, DUST & DECAY, in which each character wrestles with personal demons (instead of interpersonal struggles); and we just sold books #3 and #4. I’m already planning how to introduce all those C-words into the lives of Benny, Nix and the Lost Girl. I’m pretty sure the readers will dig it; just as I’m pretty sure the characters are going to want to sic a zombie on me.