The Sharp Angle

What Are You Feeling In This Moment?

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia Sharp) — Mon, 13 May 2013 23:28:00 +0000

Do you struggle with flat characters? Flat dialogue? Flat emotion? Read on.

photo credit: rachel_titiriga via photopin cc

When I was a senior in high school, the drama coach took a chance on me--shy little soft-spoken me--and gave me the lead role in the school's only stage-play that year. I'd studied acting in an actual drama class the year before. I loved acting, but I was still very green. Fortunately the drama coach saw something in me that was worth developing. And I'm so glad she did. I still refer back to things I learned in my acting days that can help me now in my author days.

Because I was so shy, insecurity strangled my emotions more often than not. I would hear my lines coming out flatter than the stage I stood on, and it bothered me, but at the time I didn't know how to fix it. My drama coach did. That's why she was the coach and I was the player. She coached me when I needed it.

There was one day I still remember quite clearly, when I was having an especially rough day at school (senior year was not one of my high school favorites--but that's another story for another day), and I didn't want to be at rehearsal that day. It was one of those days I felt empty, not just broken. From somewhere in the auditorium seating my coach kept shouting for me to speak up, she couldn't hear me. And when she could hear me, the real problem became obvious.

We took a break. She pulled me aside. She asked me what I was feeling in that moment.

Nothing, I said. Or maybe I said nothing. I don't remember which, but it's the same thing.

She told me I hadn't missed any lines, but my lines were missing everything.

You can't just recite them, she said. You must live them. Every line spoken comes first from an emotion. They aren't just words, they're feelings. She gave me a few minutes alone to recite the scene in my head and figure out where those words were coming from inside my character.

I knew I should be doing this. It's a basic element of acting. But I needed the reminder that day.

Then we did the scene again. I could feel the difference, but was certain I was still doing it wrong, because everyone was so quiet afterward. The drama coach said we were done for the day. She told me good job, keep it up. The other cast members said good job too, but we always said that to each other. We had a camaraderie like that.

I didn't realize how much better I'd actually performed until someone came up to me that I'd never met before. He was an underclassman who worked on the stage crew. I never even saw him at rehearsals because he was always in the lightbox. To this day, I still can't remember his name, but I do remember something more significant.

His reaction to what he'd seen me do that day.

He was a freshman who worked crew and I was a senior who was the lead in the play. I intimidated him, even though, offstage, I was just as shy and insecure as he was. He didn't know that. It took a lot for him to do what he did, and I am so glad he did it, because from that day forward I used his reaction as a motivator to keep the right mindset while performing.

After the stage had cleared, I sat on the edge of it, my legs dangling down like a little girl, looking out at the empty auditorium, dreading the ever-approaching opening night that I was surely going to bomb. And this gangly fifteen year-old boy with a set of ginormous headphones cradling his neck, looping a fat black wire between the crook of his thumb and the bend of his elbow, walks out of the lightbox, right up to me, and says,

"That was pretty amazing."

"What was?"

"You."

"Me?"

"Yeah. You made me cry a little."

"Oh."

"It's okay. It was good."

Crying was the right reaction. It was that kind of scene. His tears made me smile.

Every time I felt the spotlight on me after that, I heard him say in my head, "It's okay. It was good," and imagined him trying to wipe his eyes without screwing up the stage lights.

The point of all of this is that your audience/reader WANTS to feel what the characters are feeling, because when they do, "it's good." If they cry when they're supposed to cry and laugh when they're supposed to laugh, get angry when they're supposed to get angry, etc, etc, etc, the story resonates. And they will not feel that unless you, the author, feel those emotions when you write the performance.

You can't just spew words onto the page. You must live them. You must know where they are coming from inside the character before they are born into the scene. So ANY time you write ANY action or dialogue from ANY character, even if it is not a viewpoint character--anyone who is in that scene--ask yourself, "What are you feeling in this moment?"

Because if it isn't first there inside you, you can't release it into your story.

~Lydia

MISMATCHED Cover Reveal

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia Sharp) — Sat, 04 May 2013 06:00:00 +0000

My inner geek is loving the fact that I get to reveal the cover of my fantasy novelette on Star Wars Day. May the fourth be with you!

The above image is owned by Musa Publishing. Please do not copy or share without permission.

MISMATCHED will be available to purchase on May 24, 2013. Please check back for details! In the meantime you can add it to your Goodreads shelf, here.

Have a great weekend!

~Lydia

Devouring a Heaping Plate Full of Busy

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia Sharp) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:00:00 +0000

edit: Apparently I failed to announce that you can now request my signature from Authorgraph. Yay! You don't have to purchase one of my books to request a signature, and the request itself is free. If you have a computer or mobile device, you can get my 'graph. I can even send you a personalized message along with it.

click here!

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Just a quick note to let you all know that posting around here is going to be sporadic over the next few weeks. I'm not taking a hiatus like I normally do this time of year, but my workload is filled to the brim so posts will be irregular.

Today is the first day of my workshop. This runs through May 17 and then I will have first chapter critiques to do.

Mismatched releases on May 24. Trying not to stress.

There is always something waiting for me to read in my submissions queue from Entangled. Not just read, but also write a report. I love doing this (love it! not at all complaining!) but it takes time away from blogging.

Some of you might remember the Gay YA blog that was on hiatus for the past few months. Well, they are active again and asked if I'd like to continue reviewing books for them. Of course I said yes! So now I have that too.

Plus writing two new novels at once. And a novelette that will hopefully be the sequel to Mismatched. And maybe I have a secret project that I can't tell you about. Maybe. (okay yes, fine, you forced it out of me--I have a secret project ~zips lips~)

Oh and I'm querying agents too. Responses have been positive, but that is still another Thing on My Plate.

That's all just my writing/publishing related work. I also have two other jobs that have recently increased my workload as well. And I'm successfully maintaining a regular exercise routine--YAY!--which fills about an hour of every day. And then there is this thing called A Family and Home that I have to take care of. So I'm devouring a heaping plate full of busy right now. Sorry if it seems I'm ignoring you or neglecting you because it's not intentional. I love you. I love you all.

If you really need to get a hold of me, or just want to check-in and make sure I haven't had a brain explosion or something (quite possible!), you can ping me on Twitter or Facebook, and there's always email.

~blows kisses~
~Lydia

Guest Post: Success After Rejection by SS Hampton, Sr.

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia Sharp) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:00:00 +0000

Please give a warm welcome to this week's guest blogger SS Hampton, Sr.!

This will be our final guest post for a while. Thanks so much to all who participated over the past few months!

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Well, So...My Story Was Rejected

The sales of my writings have not set the world on fire, but one can always hope. After all it has only been a little more than two years since I shifted my focus from e-magazines to e-publishers.

In 2011 there was a Call for Submissions for an anthology about lesbian shapeshifters. I debated about making a submission. After all, I am a man—what did I know about lesbians, let alone shapeshifters or werewolves? But the idea would not go away. I was intrigued by the challenge. Once, while researching a different story about werewolves I came across a reference to the Greek historian Herodotus and his mention of a tribe who were said to turn into wolves once a year.

After more thought, research, and outlining, “Second Saturday” was created on 24 June 2011 at 1,948 words. On 16 July 2011 I submitted the 4,500 word short story to the anthology.

It was rejected. No problem—rejection is a way of life for a writer. Get used to it or go run an acorn farm.

However, “Second Saturday” would not go away. I let it rest awhile as I do with many of my writings after rejection. I continued my research because there was a host of questions to be answered. I felt this had the potential to become a series. I needed a framework to write within. Everything had to make sense, and when there was a deviation from history it had to be a plausible deviation.

On 6 November 2011 I assembled all of my research into a background document.

The world of the Neuri, a prehistoric tribe of werewolves, was alive with possibilities. I had a good idea of where their homeland was located thanks to Herodotus, but I also knew that their “creation myth” told of their origin far to the north, in a world of snow and ice and where colorful spirits danced in the night sky. I knew the Neuri’s strengths and weaknesses, their social hierarchy, and how they lived in the surrounding world of mankind.

But still, what foods did prehistoric peoples eat? What clothing did they wear? How did weapons evolve from stone to bronze to iron? What was going on in the world around the Neuri as the human race emerged from the Stone Age and began building with mud bricks and learned to write on clay tablets? Were people aware of the Neuri or did they whisper superstitious stories about them around campfires? Did the Neuri avoid contact with humankind, or did they venture into the human world? Why? To learn, to hunt, or to conquer their two-legged cousins? How did they venture into the world? As wolves or in hairy albeit human form? If they change into wolves, then what the hell happened to their clothing and weaponry? Do they appear as wandering families or clans? Perhaps the Neuri sent out small packs of men, women, and children who traded with people far and near, and thereby learned about the human world.

Finally, all tribes begin somewhere. What if some of the Neuri families grew in importance and became clans? Over the span of thousands of years, what if these clans developed into migrating tribes and, identified by a corruption of their original names, they someday burst onto the Greek and Roman stage as tribes written of by Caesar and Herodotus?

And, do the usual conventions of a silver bullet (arrow or sword) killing a werewolf apply? How do wolves act individually and in packs, and how do they hunt? How do wolves establish their hunting territory? And how does this wolf behavior translate into human behavior and vice versa?

By the time I finished my final edit of the story, I understood the world of the Neuri as well as I could understand a still-evolving tribal history. I did not reveal everything in my first story as I wanted everything to gradually come to light through a variety of stories.

I submitted the 6,700 word short story, “Second Saturday” to Musa Publishing on 27 November 2011. It was accepted!

And I began working with a wonderful editor who helped the story become better than ever. Of course, the editor and I did not always see eye to eye; however, as she is the editor and brings fresh eyes and experience to bear on the manuscript I usually accepted her recommendations. Sometimes I even learned a few things, such as when she commented (paraphrasing here), “Women don’t get turned on that way.” Oh. Okay. I am learning. After all, I am a man writing lesbian werewolf erotica.

So, after much difficult labor “Second Saturday” was born in July 2012.

I am glad the story was not accepted by the anthology. If it had been the odds are that I would not have created the world of the Neuri in detail and planned additional stories about them. You know—additional stories like my WIP, “The Lady of the Evergreens,” that begins in the present and takes a deeper look at the Neuri emerging from the shadows of prehistory.

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About the author:

SS Hampton, Sr. is a full-blood Choctaw of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, a divorced grandfather to 13 wonderful grandchildren, a published photographer and photojournalist, and a member of the Military Writers Society of America. He is a serving member of the Army National Guard with the rank of staff sergeant.

His writings have appeared as stand-alone stories and in anthologies from Dark Opus Press, Edge Science Fiction & Fantasy, Melange Books, Musa Publishing, MuseItUp Publishing, Ravenous Romance, and as stand-alone stories in Horror Bound Magazine, Ruthie's Club, Lucrezia Magazine, The Harrow, and River Walk Journal, among others.

Goodreads Author Page

Where to Find "Second Saturday":

Musa Publishing

Amazon

B&N

Goodreads

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Thank you so much for being with us today--and congrats on your success!

~Lydia

It's Okay to Make a Mess (if you intend to clean it up)

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia Sharp) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:28:00 +0000

photo credit: martinak15 via photopin cc

The novel I completed last year had a very clean first draft. I don't mean clean in the sense that it didn't need any kind of revising or editing--there is no such thing. First drafts ALWAYS need to be fixed. What I mean by clean is that the entire story flowed from start to finish as I wrote it. There was very little jumping around. A lot of note-taking, yes definitely, but in terms of actually writing the story, it was all done in one smooth forward-sweeping motion. It was also finished relatively quickly, in just a couple of months.

Revisions, on the other hand, took much longer. In fact, a year later, I'm still finding things to tweak.

But that's neither here nor there. What I really want to talk about today is how different my current novel-in-progress is from all the others I've finished.

same author + new project = different process

I've completed five novels before this one. Each has come about in a different way and across a different span of time. My fourth novel took me 10 months and several re-starts (one of which included scrapping 200 pages) just to finish the first draft. My fifth novel required exactly zero re-starts (the opening scene is one of the few things that hasn't changed much from first draft to fiftieth) and I had a complete draft ready to be revised within a couple of months.

Novel number two was even faster--three weeks from first word to done--while my third novel was somewhere in the middle, taking a ho-hum three or four months to complete a first draft followed by about the same number of months revising. It was also my first novel to garner any kind of attention from agents, so don't underestimate what may seem like a boringly average writing process.

(Novel number one? We don't speak of that evil here.)

This year is much different for me from years past. This is the first year I'm working on new projects while simultaneously going through the editing, publishing, and promotion process with two other books. This is also the first year that I'm working for a publisher, in a position that requires me to not only read several mss per week but also write up a report for every ms I read.

I love this work. I love it all. Definitely not complaining.

But this has naturally slowed down my first drafts due to the simple fact that I have less time to devote to them. Plus, right now, I am simultaneously writing novels number 6 and 7. I've been ping-ponging between them because they each are requiring a slow build of development. They are both pretty complex, and since my brain is already stretched in a million different directions, I'm finding it difficult to come up with clever plot details as quickly as I usually would.

Novel number six, especially, is proving to be a difficult first draft. I've even gone as far as to dub it Problem Child #2 (the first problem child was novel number four--some of you might remember my struggles). It's a good story. I'm not giving up on it, no way. It's just being difficult, as novels sometimes are.

So I had to start working on number seven in between bouts of frustration on number six, or I would have lost my frigging head.

Novel number seven, though, is much more of a joy ride. My brain views it as its personal playground. But that doesn't mean it hasn't been without its own set of issues. Namely, it isn't lending itself to a linear first draft.

I've been scene-jumping. A lot. In addition to writing pages upon pages of unorganized notes--basically just writing whatever happens to come to my head at the time it comes, just to get it out. Whether that be notes on the plot, a character's backstory, an actual scene, whatever.

I'm making a HUGE mess with this book. But it's a good mess. It's the kind of mess you made in elementary school, when you were forced to wear one of your dad's old button-down shirts backwards so you didn't get paint or clay or glue or whatever all over your clothes. It's the kind of mess that makes you appear so gleeful and carefree as to be insane.

I've never written a book like this before. Sure I've scene-jumped before, and I've made messy notes before, but never to this degree. My actions kind of scared me at first. I'm a perfectionist. I hate messes...unless they are the good kind. The kind that frees your creative mind.

I had to literally step back from this manuscript and tell myself it's okay. All of it will come together eventually and it will be amazing. After all, it is lucky number seven.

Number six will be okay too, I'm sure of it. Maybe even better than okay. But number seven, you...you are already my favorite, because you are a beautiful mess.

Happy writing,
~Lydia

Guest Post: "Strong vs Weak" by Margaret Lesh

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia Sharp) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 10:00:00 +0000

Please give a warm welcome to this week's guest blogger, author Margaret Lesh!
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First off, I’d like to give a big thank you to the lovely and talented Lydia Sharp for hosting me today! Lydia’s novella Twin Sense is an excellent example of a strong story with well-developed characters accomplished in a novella length. Some writers find this difficult; I think it’s a real art myself. (But I digress and should get to the point of my post.)

The topic I chose today is writing weak versus strong heroines, or why I prefer the strong ones. It probably goes back to my childhood. When I was a little girl, I’d ball up my fists when I’d hear one of my classmates say something goofy like, “Boys are better than girls.” I’d totally fight them over it, and I did get into a couple of scrapes with boys back in the first and second grades. Lucky enough to have been born to a strong woman who continues to cause trouble to this day as an activist, and having three bold, brave older sisters, I consider myself to be strong and independent, and these qualities have definitely impacted my writing.

Thinking about the cast of characters in my YA novel Normalish and my rom-com Finding a Man for Sylvia, I can’t think of a single weak female character in either book. My women are strong and smart. They’re capable.

Stacy York, my teen heroine, may be a little broken and a bit boy crazy, but she’s got an inner strength and doesn’t give up, even when faced with tough situations. She also happens to be very funny. (At least I think so.)

Julia Florez, the well-intentioned matchmaker determined to find a man for her lonely neighbor Sylvia, is smart and strong, while at the same time managing to also be charming and kooky. Her best friend is a dominatrix. (Lisa loves men. She really loves them, sometimes with a riding crop in hand.)

Why no damsels in distress? I don’t want to put yet another weak female character out in the world—we get enough of that already, don’t we? I’d rather give my readers characters to, if not admire, then at least not think of as weak. Anything but weak.

So that’s my story. What do you think?

On a side note: My contemporary YA novel Normalish is on sale for 99 cents April 14th through April 30th.

Amazon
B&N
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California girl Margaret Lesh lives with her husband and son in a quiet suburb near Los Angeles. Co-creator of StoryRhyme.com, she writes middle grade, young adult, and women’s fiction. Her novels Normalish and Finding A Man For Sylvia are now available.

To learn more about her books, visit her website: http://www.margaretlesh.com.

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Thanks for being with us today, Margaret! And thank you so much for the kind words about Twin Sense!

~Lydia

Choosing Your Next Project

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia Sharp) — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:02:00 +0000

photo credit: Lori Greig via photopin cc

Many fiction writers will have, at some time or another, the problem of not knowing which story idea to work on, which one will be worth the time and effort. This dilemma usually occurs after you've finished a story and are preparing to tackle the next one. You're in story limbo, so you open up your Idea Folder--

You all have an Idea Folder, right? If not, start one today. Whenever a story idea hits your brain, add it to the Idea Folder. Some of those ideas may never get developed into a full-fledged story, ever. But you never know. Keep it handy just in case. You might even be able to combine two or three idea seeds into one that's worth planting.

So you open your Idea Folder and you're trying to figure out "which idea should I work on next?" and you keep thinking ALL OF THEM I WANT TO WRITE THEM ALL I CAN DO IT DON'T TELL ME I CAN'T. Because that's how the creative brain works. It is a greedy stubborn workoholic.

A small, quiet speck of that creative brain does have the ability to reason, though. This is the part of your mind you need to shine the spotlight on now, or you could spend months waffling back and forth between projects, never making significant progress on any of them. Am I speaking from experience? Yes, very much so.

Keep in mind that each writer has their own process, so the adage "do what works for you" trumps every step of what I'm about to share. But there might be a nugget or two here and there that you can incorporate into your own process to in some way improve upon the "doing what works for you" that you already have in place.

Here is what works for me: asking myself a lot of questions.

1. How much time can I devote to writing this particular project?

This goes hand-in-hand with,

2. How much time do I need to develop this particular story idea?

Different types of stories have different requirements. For example, I have a slew of contemp YA romance projects to choose from at any given time. I know I can write those relatively quickly. Something that requires a bit more world-building and research, though, such as magic realism or fantasy, will be given a much wider timeline. It will likely "simmer on the back burner" while I work on brisker projects, every so often giving it a little stir, until I am ready to focus on it solely.

If you're in a position to, or have a strong desire to, make a "slow" project a priority, by all means do so.

3. How passionate am I about this particular project?

This goes hand-in-hand with,

4. How commercial is the story idea?

(Obviously, the fourth question is only relevant to those of us who want to write and sell commercial fiction. Ignore it if you must.)

A story idea cannot just be "good enough", at least not in your eyes as the author.

I love all my story ideas, of course I do, but some of them have that extra little somethin'-somethin' that I can't resist. For example, when the idea hit me for my Alice In Wonderland re-imagining (not a retelling, there is a difference), I knew immediately that this would be a priority project as soon as the world-building and basic plot were established. However, because of the nature of the story's individual requirements, I've given it a very broad timeline for completion. I started working on it last month and likely won't finish a workable first draft before a year has passed.

So in the meantime, while that one is still in the early stages of development, I am working on a YA contemp romance novel that I can realistically complete a first draft of by the end of June. But like I said before, I have tons of these ideas in my Idea Folder...so how did I choose the one I'm working on now?

In addition to 1) having time for it, 2) being passionate about it, and 3) knowing it could possibly sell, I also gave it my "first chapter test" before deciding for sure that it's worth working on.

5. Do I have a lead character that can carry this story through from beginning to end?

There are a lot of elements to consider when choosing your lead character, but the main one I look at first is VOICE. If a lead character doesn't have a distinct voice that is appropriate for the story type and the story idea, I can't move forward on that project until I find the missing voice.

Once the basic idea is ready (which is a whole other process...), I'll try my hand at writing a tentative first chapter to find the lead's voice. Sometimes it shows up on the very first try. Sometimes I have to write and rewrite and rewrite until suddenly, there it is.

Voice is not something you can force. It has to come about naturally. Which is why some projects never get past this point. They fail my first chapter test again and again.

But! You can still keep that story idea. It might work in combination with another idea later, or the right voice might just come to you out of nowhere. And BOOM. You're good to go.

(shameless self promotion--VOICE is one of the three main topics for my upcoming writing workshop, The Push/Pull/Lock of an Effective Opening. If voice is something you struggle with, register HERE. /end shameless self promotion)

So that's what works for me. But what about you? How do you decide which project to work on next?

Happy writing,
~Lydia

A Word About Word of Mouth

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia Sharp) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 12:54:00 +0000

When you have a product to sell, no matter what it is, your number one sales tool is word of mouth. This is especially true for products in which the buyer's opinion--not their vital need--is a major deciding factor.

Word of mouth can work extremely fast, if the right people try it first. By the right people, I mean people who are influential in that product's market. If the right people love it, they will go forth and use their influentialness to let as many people as possible know about this awesome new thing.

But even with that best-case-scenario, the product still might not become The Next Big Thing unless every person who is told "you gotta try this!" is also convinced of its awesomeness after purchasing. Yes, after purchasing. Because if they still love it after purchasing, they will then go forth and tell everyone they know about it AND they will come back to you for more.

You can sell your product once and that's good. When you sell your product over and over again to the same people? That's success.

The extremely fast side of word-of-mouth is rare, though, when you compare it to how many people are out there selling products. It's a minute fraction of it all. Most people? Are enduring the slow build.

And the most frustrating part of this is that the slow build works exactly the same way as the extremely fast, it's just much slower. You still have to get people interested in trying your product. You still need those people to love it enough to convince others to try it AND come back to you for more.

The problem with books, though, is that if you are not one of those authors who can produce a lot of books (good, quality books) in a short period of time, you could potentially lose those initial customers even if they loved your work. Why? Because people in today's world are Busy. If something is not boom-boom-boom in their face, it slips out of their inner circle of importance. (please don't take that to mean I want you to spam everyone with "buy my book!" tweets--NO)

Unless a person has made a sincere and vital connection with your work and thus made it their priority to follow your every move, they might forget about you. Might. Until your next book comes out. This is not to say that you need to rush things. Not at all. Just understand this:

Getting one book published, even if people love it, is not enough to hold you up through an entire career. In fact, it might not even be enough to hold you up for an entire year. You have to continually produce good, quality books that people enjoy and tell others to read. And that takes time.

So my final word about word of mouth? BE PATIENT. BE PERSISTENT. BE PATIENT.

~Lydia

Notes from Both Sides of the Desk: We All Want the Same Thing

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia Sharp) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 11:00:00 +0000

Sometimes I wear the author hat. Sometimes I wear the editor hat. "Notes from Both Sides of the Desk" is the result of wearing both hats at the same time.
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Before we get into this edition of NfBSotD, please give Nicole Steinhaus a hearty CONGRATS on her promotion to Assistant Editor! She will be working with Karen Grove, Editorial Director of Entangled Publishing's New Adult imprint, Embrace.

Now! On with today's post!

Whether you are a writer or an editor we all want the same thing--A GOOD STORY. We are in the business of storytelling, which is by and large a business of entertainment. We are in this business because we enjoy reading A GOOD STORY. Not because we enjoy policing the fate of books, whether they be our own or someone else's.

A common phrase I've seen thrown at authors is that "editors are looking for any reason to reject your book" so if they find a reason--ANY reason--they will not take a chance on you. Publishing is too risky.

While that statement is somewhat based in truth, it gives entirely the wrong impression. The whole truth is: editors want to fall in love with every manuscript that passes their desk. They want to find the next GREAT STORY. And when a manuscript they're reading misses the mark, it's not fun. Editors do not wield a Giant Red Pen of Evil and draw huge X's through manuscripts while cackling maniacally, relishing in the all the ways they will shatter an author's dreams.

Yes, that is an exaggeration, but no, that doesn't happen. Not even close.

It is not enjoyable to find so many typos and grammatical errors that your eyes cross, or cheesy dialogue that makes your eyes roll, or a jumpy narrative that makes your eyes squint in confusion, or a dry voice that makes your eyes glaze over. Especially when the premise of that story initially excited you, and you have to reject a work because it will require too much time and effort to fix.

It is not enjoyable to fall in love with a character's voice, only to discover they have no growth and no real story to tell from beginning to end.

It is not enjoyable to fall head over heels in love with a manuscript, every part of it, only to have it shot down by the acquisitions board because it doesn't fit the market right now...or they just acquired something last month that was too similar...or [insert any other poorly timed reason for stomping on something you love here]

Etc. Etc. Etc.

On the author's side of the desk, we see rejection. We don't always know the exact reason for that rejection and that irks us, so we displace our frustration on the person who rejected us. But then we can brush off the dirt and move on.

On the editor's side of the desk, we see potential. We see promise. We see "this is really good, BUT...". We see stories fall apart in the middle and never put themselves back together. We see authors that we have to reject now, but secretly hope they will submit again later with something that shows they've been working hard at improving their craft.

And when reading a manuscript I LOVE, the last thing on my mind is--What can I find wrong here so I can reject it? No no NO. I'm thinking, "Please be good all the way through, please please please don't fall apart. I want to love you. I want to see you published so other people can love you too."

Every manuscript has areas that need improvement before it can be published. So it isn't that editors "search" for those errors--they know they will be there. And the minor, fixable errors do not bother you, but the major flaws can make you ill. Not happy to find them at all. Why?

Because we all want the same thing--A GOOD STORY.

Authors want to write a good story and editors want to publish a good story because we both serve the reader, and that's what the reader wants too--A GOOD STORY.

Happy storytelling,
~Lydia

The Push/Pull/Lock of an Effective Opening

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia Sharp) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 11:00:00 +0000

Registration is now open for my online writing workshop, The Push/Pull/Lock of an Effective Opening! This course begins on April 29 so there is still plenty of time to make room for it in your schedule.

For full workshop details and registration info, click HERE.

Student Skill Level: Beginning to Intermediate
Recommended for: Unpublished novelists (or anyone who is interested!)

Description: A fiction writing workshop for beginners and querying novelists struggling to get agent/editor interest in their sample pages, and everyone in between. This workshop will be held once per week for three weeks. Each day will include a combination of lecture, Q&A, and homework assignments.

At the end of the three weeks, students are encouraged to use what they learned to revise their manuscript opening and submit their first chapter (or first 10 pages, whichever is shorter) to the instructor for a one-on-one critique.

Week one will cover:

How to push the reader from page to page
Instilling a sense of forward movement
Handling backstory in the opening chapters
Selecting an appropriate starting goal for your lead
Keeping the reader engaged beyond the first chapter

Week two will cover:

How to pull the reader in with voice
Necessary elements of a strong character voice
Creating unique characters
Effects of author style and point-of-view
Pitfalls that detract from voice

Week three will cover:

How to lock the reader into your story with the 3 Cs of Act One

Hope to see you there!

Happy writing,
~Lydia

Quick Tip: Remember the Quiet Moments

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia Sharp) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 11:00:00 +0000

There is a lot of advice out there on how to keep our stories intense, so much so that sometimes we forget our stories also need their quiet moments. It can't just be go go go from start to finish.

Books like that get published. They go go go at the start and don't stop until the end. I've read some of them and even liked them. But they leave me feeling breathless, and not in a good way. I have to put the book down for a while, whereas a story that is balanced, I can read all the way through in one sitting. Readers need a break from the tension sometimes. They need to stop and reflect and catch their breath--and so do the characters. If they don't, they aren't human.

The books I end up loving, not just liking, have good balance between the highs and lows of the story. They allow the reader to digest and absorb what's happening and how it affects the characters. Because how it affects the characters is often how it also affects the reader. But the reader won't process any of it if not given the chance to pause and reflect.

They will get to the end and think, "Wow, what a ride!" And that's it. They move on to the next thrill, leaving yours behind them. It made no lasting impact on their life.

Remember the quiet moments. As humans, we all need a little quiet time in between the madness of life.

Weekend Movie: OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia Sharp) — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 15:15:00 +0000

The Boy and I had high expectations for this movie. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is the first full-length chapter book we ever read together, and we've read it together many times since. So when we heard that there was going to be a prequel movie about how the wizard came to Oz, we were extremely excited. We finally had the opportunity to see it yesterday.

First impressions?

It's sssssssslllllllllllllllllooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww............

I mean really really slow, especially at the beginning. For a movie that is mainly geared toward children, and even I as an adult was thinking "holy frack get on with it already", that is shocking. The movie is over 2 hours long. There were no previews shown before this movie, and I'm guessing that's because they know a bunch of kids aren't going to sit still that long. Every minute counts.

But then...mega slowness in the story we all came to see. The theater we were in was filled with children, most of them younger than my son who is 9. I'm surprised they weren't all complaining through the opening.

The movie starts out in black and white, just like the Judy Garland version of Oz. Then, when Oz gets to...Oz (yeah that whole thing with him having the same name didn't go over too well with me either, but it's minor compared to my other beefs), everything goes into vibrant full color. Almost too colorful, to be honest. My retinas burned a little. But the kids really enjoyed this part. Kids like bright colors.

And then I was thinking, this is going to be great. We're finally in Oz now and the story is going to pick up speed.

Except it didn't. I mean it did, kind of, but not to the speed I was hoping for. And Mila Kunis....god, where do I even begin with Mila?

She was a poor casting choice for the Wicked Witch of the West. Part of this story was not just how Oz came to be the Great Wizard, but also how Theodora came to be the Wicked Witch of the West. Her character before that transformation was not believable. Not to me. She was weak and naive and gullible and it made me embarrassed for her. Then when her character made the switch, it was like...okay, what was the point of all that other stuff? Couldn't she have just been bad all along?

But I digress. Because it was pretty cool the way they made her cry and melt tracks into her own cheeks with her tears.

It's just that, Mila Kunis doesn't have the right voice for the Wicked Witch. No matter how much they CG her face to be all green and grotesque, it's still her voice you're hearing, and Mila's voice has an underlying childlike quality that just didn't fit that character at all. I squirmed every time she spoke, or attempted to cackle evilly. It was embarrassing. I wanted to pull her off-stage for fear of tomatoes being thrown.

But the kids liked it. My son thought it was cool. "Mom, she ate an apple and it made her wicked--just like Snow White!" Oh but wait, wrong story. Gah, seriously, what was with the apple? I almost yelled "boo!" when I saw that apple.

"Boo! Wrong story! Get your fairytales straight. This isn't Once Upon a Time where you can mix them all up willy-nilly, no."

There were a few things I did like, however, because they are things that for whatever reason are usually left out of the movie versions of this story world. Like the Quadlings and the Tinkers and the Winkies.

But even that wasn't enough to make up for the parts they got wrong. Again.

For example, when Oz comes to Oz in this movie, the Emerald City is already built and thriving. That isn't the way it happened in the original story. Oz built the Emerald City after arriving and defeating the witches of the East and West. It was not something he inherited after defeating them.

The Emerald City is not really green, either, that was just another of the Wizard's tricks. But if you're going to do it wrong by not having him build it in the first place, then who cares what it's really made of or what color it is, right?

Also I have yet to see a movie, aside from the Muppet version, that gets the flying monkey part right (which is really sad because the Muppet version is more like a spoof). The flying monkeys are controlled by a golden cap. Only the wearer of the cap can control them--and even then, that person is only allowed three wishes for the monkeys to carry out and then they must relinquish control. In this new version, the flying monkeys were just the Wicked Witches' minions, as they were in the Judy Garland version.

And this kind of pissed me off. Why does everyone ignore this part of the original story? grumble, grumble...

However, the showdown at the end of this movie is pretty intense. The epicness at the end almost completely makes up for the errors, the cheesiness, and the boring boring boring that leads up to it.

There were some parts that were really scary, and I'm shocked that the younger kids in the audience were not literally screaming at the sight of the monstrous flying monkeys, and later, the Wicked Witch of the East in her true form that's made out to look like a ferocious zombie. Even I jumped at that part.

Good points:

the CG is pretty amazing
there are some really intense battle scenes
the underlying message about being a good person
recognizable parts of the original story-- Glinda and her bubble transportation, the Cowardly Lion has a brief cameo, etc.
the ending utilizes every element that led up to it, and works well as a satisfying, epic showdown--very cleverly executed ending

Bad points:

inaccuracies all over the place (but that is expected in any movie adaptation)
the characterization of Oz didn't work for me; entirely unsympathetic
Mila Kunis as the Wicked Witch of the West--NO
too long; too much setup in the beginning; boring
parts that were meant to be emotional, missed the mark
parts that were meant to be comical, missed the mark

My final word? Worth watching if you aren't expecting much from it. Kids seem to like it more than adults, which I guess is okay because it's a kids' movie, but I think the best kids' movies are also enjoyed by adults. Don't expect it to blow you away, and if you're a hardcore Oz fan like me, don't expect it to be accurate.

Has anyone else seen this movie yet? Any thoughts?

~Lydia

Notes from Both Sides of the Desk: Pacing

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia Sharp) — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 12:23:00 +0000

Reading as an editor is quite a different experience from reading as an author. Even if you are reading another writer's work as their critique partner, there is a certain amount of bias lacing your thoughts because you know this person. And quite likely they will be reading your work in return.

It's different when you're doing a cold read of a submission from an author you've never heard of. Perhaps this author is unpublished, hoping this submission will be their big break. Or perhaps they have a book or two published, but you've just never personally read any of their work. Both instances give you an entirely different perspective of what you're reading.

You read with a complete lack of bias, which is necessary for evaluating a piece on its own merit.

One of the first reader reports I wrote for Entangled earlier this month was for a book that just wasn't working for me. This is actually a much more difficult task than to write a report for something you thoroughly enjoyed. There may be a slew of issues you can point out, but it has to be done in a way that shows you understand--not just that it isn't working, but why it isn't working. And sometimes also, why you feel it is something that isn't worth asking the author to fix in an R&R (revise and resubmit).

A major issue with this particular piece was the pacing. Many areas of the story rambled on about things that felt unnecessary, or detailed things that felt irrelevant. Pacing goes hand-in-hand with tension. If the tension of the moment is properly set up and presented, that high tension automatically increases the pace. If the tension is not there, or feels irrelevant, the pacing drags, giving the reader an incredible urge to skip pages in an effort to "get to the good parts."

Even though I know this, it's still difficult to apply it to my own work. As the writer, everything feels relevant and important. Which is why we need good critique partners who aren't afraid to tell us when something isn't working, and why it isn't working. Even then, we are still going to miss some areas needing improvement.

That's where a good editor steps in. A good editor can recognize an area that needs improvement AND whether or not it is something the author can fix--based on either a knowledge of working with this author in the past, or (in the case of an unpublished author) their skills shown in how they wrote the rest of the piece.

When I received first pass edits for Twin Sense, there were a lot of suggestions to cut whole passages for the sake of pacing. This crushed me (at first). But I am entirely happy with the end result.

Just yesterday I received edits from my brilliant editor for Mismatched, and I'm not gonna lie, first pass edits have a tendency to make me cry. They make me wonder why they bought my story in the first place, because it often seems there is more wrong with the story than right.

But from the editor's side of the desk, that isn't the way they see it at all. A good editor can give you suggestions--some that may seem harsh and impossible at first--and still be head over heels in love with your story. It is because of this initial love they feel for your work, and the initial gut feeling they got from your overall skills (in addition to other factors, like saleability), that they acquire the piece and spend time and effort helping you to make it the best it can possibly be.

After reading an editor's notes, I can't just dive into revisions. For the sake of my analytic side and my emotional side, I have to take a day or two (maybe even a week) to let it soak in before I know the best way to approach it. I will not just cut entire passages or scenes or chapters without weighing the options first. Cutting words is not the only way to speed up a story's pace. If you don't agree with an editor's suggestion, simply tell them so, but be ready to defend your position with a valid argument. Also be ready to accept their argument if what they're suggesting really is best for the story.

Because your editor is not a tyrant. They are invested in you and your story. They want you to succeed. There may be two sides to this desk you're both working at, but it is the same desk.

~Lydia

P.S. As my knowledge and experience on the editor's side of the desk increases over time, I'll be posting more articles like this one that compare the same situation in the author's and editor's perspective. My hope in doing so is to bring balance to the writer's viewpoint.

Guest Post: Writing a Sequel by Kim Flowers (plus a double giveaway!)

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia Sharp) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 11:00:00 +0000

Please give a warm welcome to this week's guest author, Kim Flowers!

Kim has generously donated two of her books to giveaway here--details are at the end of the post!

***GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. THANKS TO ALL WHO ENTERED!***

To Be Continued . . . The Psychotic Craft of Sequel Writing

Many writers have an idea for a fantastic series, but then face the dilemma of querying an agent or a publisher. Should you focus on the first novel without mentioning a sequel? Do you mention a sequel but not the fact that you have a trilogy planned? Or do you outline your ten-novel epic drama in the synopsis? I do have some answers, and the rest I’ll make up! Okay, I’m kidding!

I’ve heard it could be more difficult for a first-timer to get picked up with a series, but I don’t have experience in this, because my first novel is a stand-alone. My second book, a YA dystopia called “The Divide: Uprising”, is going to have a sequel. I queried my publisher about the details of the first book in the series only. At the end of the letter I mentioned the other book. This is the way I have heard is acceptable, and it worked for me. Upon acceptance, more information about later books will be requested when needed.

I never planned on being a series writer. My only previous experience with sequels was in middle school, when I wrote a short story for a local police magazine run by a family friend. The story was about a kid who starts using drugs, and I had no idea what I was talking about. I was supposed to continue this high drama in a later issue, but I never finished it! So, considering I’ve choked before, and now found myself facing a sequel for not only a novel but also a short story, I had some serious concerns.

I didn’t even plan on a sequel for my short YA steampunk, “Amelia’s Revolution”. But after hearing enthusiasm from other readers about reading more, especially about Amelia’s best friend Two-Spirit, I gave it a shot.“Two-Spirit’s Red Road” will be published in June, and I have now defeated the demons from my past.

It’s important to know at least a vague idea of the plot arcs you’re going to employ in a series. In each of my short stories, there is a battle to overcome, a satisfying ending, and a new problem in the next installment. I like to think of the Harry Potter books as an example of good series endings. Voldemort may still be alive at the end of the first book, but Harry defeated him in battle and wants to prepare for the day they’ll meet again. The differences between a satisfying ending and one that is written on purpose as a lead-in to the next book can be very subtle, but readers can tell them apart, and I feel cheated by contrived cliffhangers.

Experimenting with format in sequels is something else you can consider. My short stories are told from the POV of whichever character is named in the title. (There will also be a third installment, told from the POV of Amelia’s girlfriend Nadine.) In The Divide series, book one is told from the POV of one character, Serenity, with part one in past tense and part two in present tense. Book two will be all present tense, told from Serenity’s POV, and will also feature a blue-mohawked troublemaker named Malaki. My decision to do this was partially influenced by Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles. Some of these books are told by Lestat in first person, and some from multiple POVs in third-person.

When it comes down to it, the best advice I have for creating a sequel is to just sit down and write it! Getting the short story completed first helped my confidence. “The Divide: Unity” will be challenging to write, but I feel ready now. My first step will be re-reading “The Divide: Uprising” and making notes, but different tactics work for different people. For those who don’t outline, like me, I don’t believe anyone who says this means the story will fail. The story won’t fall apart unless we let it fall apart. If you get trapped in any story, you can write your way out of it! I do like to decide what my beginning, middle climax, and general ending will be, but I’ll never really know what will happen until I get out my laptop and go for it.

I would like to thank Lydia for allowing me to be a guest blogger here today. And I would like to have a double giveaway! A free e-copy of “Amelia’s Revolution”, AND a free signed paperback of “The Divide, Book 1: Uprising.”

***giveaway is open now through Sunday night at midnight EST***

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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About the author:

Kim Flowers is an author of YA books and short stories through QueerTeen Press. She lives with her wife and son in Indiana.

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About "Amelia's Revolution":

Amelia and her father, the governor of Delaware, attend a formal dinner to meet with a delegate for Queen Victoria who declares the United States must sign a treaty with Britain to reinstate colonial rule or there will be war. Amelia runs away to warn the rest of the town, but not before she sees the most beautiful girl on earth. To Amelia’s horror, the beautiful girl -- Nadine -- is one of the British delegate’s slaves.

In this steampunk version of history, slavery had been abolished after the American Revolution. Automatons do the manual labor, and the nation's multiple cultures live in harmony. But in Britain there are still slaves, and gender-queer people are persecuted. Amelia knows she can’t allow any treaty with Britain to be signed. She sneaks to the harbor of their coastal capital city and discovers not only the delegate’s ship, but an armada on the horizon.

Amelia, her best friend Two-Spirit, and Nadine must organize a rebellion involving slaves, Lenni-Lenape warriors, automatons, and a mechanical horse cavalry. Will they be able to stop the British Imperial Navy? And will Amelia win Nadine’s heart if she can help her become free?

add it on goodreads

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About The Divide: Uprising:

During the Second Civil War, a new U.S. political party called the Family Protection Movement established The Divide, which separates Normal people from those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender.

Seventeen-year old Serenity Blackwater lives in the normal Midwestern town of Mapleville, but she is not normal. She hacks into an illegal gay chat room and meets Dawn, a lesbian who lives in a gay community less than a mile away. Serenity discovers normal people can bribe their way inside the walls and decides to go, both to meet Dawn and check out what may be her future home.

Dawn is even more beautiful than Serenity hoped, and the two soon become a couple. But Serenity only has a few months before she must take the Normal Verification Test, and then she’ll be separated from her family forever. So she joins the Human Equality Organization, an underground group working to end The Divide. Dawn thinks the rebellion is too dangerous, and since Dawn’s ex-girlfriend Malaki is also a member, Serenity doesn’t tell Dawn about her involvement.

Serenity reveals to the HEO that her parents are leading a campaign to organize attacks on all Gay Communities. With her help, the HEO creates Project Jericho, in which all Gay Communities walls will implode at once. But after too many delays, and when Dawn discovers Serenity has been spending more time with Malaki than her, Serenity knows she has to start the revolution herself. She heads to D.C. to contact a group of senators secretly against The Divide ... or straight into a trap set by the Family Protection Movement.

add it on goodreads

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Thanks so much for being with us today, Kim!

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Would you like to be a guest blogger? Email your topic idea to lydiasharp4sff (at) yahoo (dot) com. Please put "guest post" somewhere in the subject line. You do not have to be a published author to be a guest blogger here, just a serious writer or a publishing industry professional or intern. We'd love to hear from you!

Writing from an Authentic Teen Viewpoint

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia Sharp) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 11:46:00 +0000

Good Lovely Monday Morning!

Today I'm at Write It Sideways to answer your questions about how to write YA effectively through an authentic teen viewpoint. I'm closing comments here so if you have a question or comment for me about this topic, please post it on my Write It Sideways post. Thanks for reading!

~Lydia

Guest Post: Frugal Living Tips for Pre-Published Writers by Cinthia Ritchie

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia Sharp) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 11:00:00 +0000

Please give a warm welcome to this week's guest blogger, Cinthia Ritchie!

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Frugal Living Tips for Pre-Published Writers

When the newspaper I worked for folded the same day I received my final novel edits, I took it as a message from god: “You were meant to write fiction, not assembly reports,” I imagined him (or perhaps her), decreeing. I delayed my job search and concentrated on my book. I had enough in savings to cover basic expenses, and besides, hadn’t I always wanted to stay home and write full time?

Fast forward three months, when I opened my Visa bill and panicked. How could I have spent so much while sitting on my behind writing each day?

Well, the truth is I wasn’t writing that much. Mostly, I wandered around stores and obsessed over why I wasn’t writing. Sometimes I bought things, too, small purchases designed to prod my muse into shape: A tube of scented handcream here, a bottle of bright green nail polish there (my muse was a bit girly, you see).

Before I knew it, I had fifteen tubes of scented handcream and forty bottles of nail polish, and nothing to show for my time-off except softer skin and flashier nails.

That evening I sat down and scrawled out a budget. I did this recklessly, almost brutally, slashing items with wild abandon. The adaptation wasn’t easy, yet once I adjusted I rarely felt deprived. In fact, the quantity and quality of my writing improved, along with a growing sense of independence and freedom.

That was over a year ago, and I’m still not working a “real” job, though I do take on freelance work from time to time. Leaving a job isn’t for everyone, of course. But for anyone considering a similar respite from the 9-to-5 world, the following tipscanhelp defer costs while easing peace of mind.

Oops, you’re sick: No problem. Most local health clinics offer sliding fee appointments and same-day scheduling. For women’s health needs, Planned Parenthood prices according to income. For hospital worries, catastrophic health insurance policies offer high deductible plans for reasonable rates.

Teeth hurt? University and career colleges with dental and dental hygiene programs perform low-cost cleaning and basic procedures by advanced level students, and some even offer orthodontic care.

I hate my hair: Get a great cut or style for under $10 at local beauty schools/colleges, where supervised students work through internship programs. Don’t forget to leave a tip.

Hello, hello: Ditch the smart phone and landline (painful but necessary) and cut your cell phone bill in half by partnering with others on a family plan.

Surfing the net: Pare down your Internet plan to the bare minimum (You don’t need to watch YouTube, you’re supposed to be writing). If you live in an apartment or condo, share Internet costs with neighbors or use the free wireless available in many common areas.

I’m hungry: Don’t even think of skimping on food! Instead, share warehouse memberships such as Costco or Sam’s Club with a friend, buy in bulk and split costs.

Gotta exercise: Sitting on your behind all day can take its toll. Squeeze in a hearty and inexpensive workout at local recreation centers, university gyms, YMCA or nationwide branches such as Planet Fitness, which offers $10 monthly memberships with short-term options.

Uh-oh, my car died: Car repairs can set anyone back, but don’t panic. Many technical institutes and high school vocational offer student supervised repairs at a low cost. If that’s not available, research for the best deal, since mechanic rates vary. Worst case scenario: Put the bill on your credit card or, better yet, ride the bus or bike while you gather enough cash to cover the bill.

Lovin’ Downton Abbey: Think you really need 200 TV channels? Not if you’re supposed to be writing. Ditch the cable and watch PBS instead.

One last thing: Don’t forget to have fun. Check out free local concerts, First Friday art walks, craft fairs, street dances, nature hikes, bike rides, library DVD and book rentals, and more. It won’t take long to realize that you don’t need a lot of money to lead an interesting and productive life.

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About the author:

Cinthia Ritchie is a former journalist and Pushcart Prize nominee who lives and runs mountains in Alaska. She’s a recipient of two Rasmuson Individual Artist Awards, a Connie Boocheever Fellowship, residencies at Hedgebrook, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts and Hidden River Arts, the Brenda Ueland Prose Award, Memoir Prose Award, Sport Literate Essay Award, Northwest PEN Women Creative Nonfiction Award, Drexel Magazine Creative Nonfiction Award and Once Written Grand Prize Award.

Her work can be found in New York Times Magazine, Sport Literate, Water-Stone Review, Memoir, Under the Sun, Literary Mama, Slow Trains Literary Journal, Sugar Mule, Breadcrumbs and Scabs, Third Wednesday, Writer’s Digest, Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, Cactus Heart Press and over 30 other literary magazines and small presses.

Her debut novel, Dolls Behaving Badly, released Feb. 5 from Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group.

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About Dolls Behaving Badly:

Carla Richards is a lot of things. She's a waitress at Anchorage's premier dining establishment, Mexico in an Igloo; an artist who secretly makes erotic dolls for extra income; a divorcée who can't quite detach from her ex-husband; and a single mom trying to support her gifted eight-year-old son, her pregnant sister, and her babysitter-turned-resident-teenager.

She's one overdue bill away from completely losing control--when inspiration strikes in the form of a TV personality. Now she's scribbling away in a diary, flirting with an anthropologist, and making appointments with a credit counselor.

Still, getting her life and dreams back on track is difficult. Is perfection really within reach? Or will she wind up with something even better?

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Thanks so much for being here today, Cinthia, and CONGRATS on your debut!

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Would you like to be a guest blogger? Email your topic idea to lydiasharp4sff (at) yahoo (dot) com. Please put "guest post" somewhere in the subject line. You do not have to be a published author to be a guest blogger here, just a serious writer or a publishing industry professional or intern. We'd love to hear from you!

Your Questions Answered!

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia Sharp) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 11:00:00 +0000

Last month I asked what you wanted to know about YA writing, and I'd answer one of your questions in my next Write It Sideways post. The rest of them, I'd answer here.

On Write It Sideways I will be discussing the topic brought up by Martina:

It seems to me that there is little difference between the craft of a YA novel or that of an adult novel. The differences are more of voice, perspective, and the depth of the POV. I'd love a post on how you perceive those differences!

This is an excellent topic, and something I'm actually asked often. Check back here for the direct link to my answer at Write It Sideways on Monday March 18.

In the meantime, I'll do my best to discuss the other topics brought up in the original thread. If any of you think of anything else you'd like to ask/discuss here, let me know in the comments and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

What do you think are the best and worst elements of YA in general?

I don't really categorize story elements into "best" and "worst". All I can offer is my opinion, but we all have different opinions. And it is my opinion that if something gets published, it's considered "good" to someone. Who am I to say anything about it is "bad"?

Personally, as a reader, I love YA because it's emotionally intense, not necessarily physically intense. The emotions are so pivotal to the outworking of the story. They are raw, passionate, powerful.

An ineffective presentation of these emotions will turn me off. I say "ineffective" because the word "unrealistic" isn't accurate. Any emotion can be realistic if the character is presented in a way that builds up to that emotion effectively. I think this is where a lot of new YA writers go wrong--they don't know how to effectively present a teen viewpoint. Any teen viewpoint (because there is more than just one).

there's differences between YA and middle grade. That would be a good topic.

This is a good topic, but I don't know enough about middle grade to answer it.

Voice is always something that is hard to nail. That would be another great post.

Voice = Viewpoint. It's a combination of the individual character's unique viewpoint and the individual author's unique writing style. I would love to do an entire post about this, but I'm actually covering it quite thoroughly in my upcoming writing workshop in May. Hoping I'll see some of you there! I should have registration links soon.

Pitch-writing is another hard one. If you could do a post on that with some good pitch examples that would be really helpful.

I've done several posts on this. Here are a few to get you started:

Keys to an Effective Logline

Writing a Query Letter (slash) Pitch (slash) Jacket Blurb

If You Can't Say It Succinctly Then Don't Say It At All

I would like to hear about writing a pitch. The advice seems all over the place. More specific details on story and voice and then the less that is said the better. I am having a hard time finding the middle ground. Then they tell you to show don't tell but writing less is better.

Different agents and editors have different tastes and preferences, that is why writers are seeing advice that seems contradictory. The advice is not actually contradictory. It is individualized. But the problem is that each person giving it is presenting their preference as if it is a rule, so many new writers are genuinely confused and disheartened.

But there is something that does apply to all good pitches--brevity.

When someone reads your query letter and they say they "need more information/details/explanation", what they are NOT telling you is to expand it with more words (not usually). What they ARE telling you is that the words you have used in your pitch are not getting the point across. Revise by rewording, not by adding more words.

This also applies to those who want you to show rather than tell. But "show, don't tell" in a query letter isn't quite the same thing as "show, don't tell" in a manuscript. If I think a query letter reads too "tell-y" it's because it has been written like a news report of events, not with any kind of flair. It does NOT mean that I want the writer to get super deep into the protagonist's emotions and motivations and whatnot, and it definitely does not mean I want you to go overboard with some kind of quirky/sarcastic voice or amp up the shock factor simply for the sake of being shocking/getting my attention. That has the opposite of the intended effect.

So again, your words need to be revised, not necessarily increased, to show the conflict and why the reader should care about this conflict rather than tell the reader your protagonist is in a bad situation and expect them to automatically care. Also, don't tell the reader this story is full of suspense/humor/romance/whatever--show them what the story is about and they will come to this conclusion on their own.

Any other questions? Need more clarification? Hit me up in the comments.

~Lydia

Looking Back Doesn't Always Turn You Into Salt

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia Sharp) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 14:21:00 +0000

[quick announcement first! As of yesterday, I am now among the army of interns with the fabulous Entangled Publishing. This new workload may affect my blog posting schedule... which has already been reduced, I know. But I'll do my best to keep posting regularly, and will keep the call for guest posts open. If I need to go on hiatus for a month or two (which I usually do in the spring anyway), I promise it will be nothing more than a break. Love you all too much to go away forever! ~blows kisses~ ]

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This is not a post about Lot's wife. This is a post about looking back. Not on belongings we left behind, but on our "failed" creations. Looking back on our trunked novels.

I'm fervently working on my sixth novel. But I can't help but check-in on my other babies from time to time. There is one in particular (baby #2) that I'd adamantly decided would never be published. I wrote it fast, revised it fast (which really wasn't much of a revision at all), queried it fast, and trunked it fast.

The poor thing had been locked inside a coffin before it had even learned to walk. And looking back on that, I wasn't being fair. I didn't do this on purpose, though. The hard truth is, I had no clue what I was doing back then. I knew how to write a novel, yes, but I didn't know how to make it into something publishable, and I sure as heck didn't know how to sell it, not even to an agent.

I queried 50+ agents and got 0 requests, and from that I concluded that the novel was not publishable. I was wrong. What that should have told me was that my query letter wasn't doing its job. I should not have gone beyond my first batch of 10 with 0 requests without significantly revising my query letter.

However, it's good, in a way, that I've allowed that novel to rest for a few years. During that time I wrote 3 more novels, many more short stories and novellas, and learned more about the craft and the industry. Also, publishing has changed in that time, not just me. So when I look back on this novel now, I no longer see it as a failure.

I see it as potential.

Knowing what I know now, I have completely scrapped that godawful query letter of doom. The novel itself will need significant revision, but not a complete rewrite from scratch like the query letter. It will take a lot of time and effort to help this baby live up to its potential, but honestly, I think it's worth it.

Sometimes it just isn't the right time for a book to be published, and it may also not be the right time for its author to be published. Both myself and this book were not ready back then, but I think we are now.

So this time, looking back has not resulted in death, or even punishment. I am not salty over my baby's prior "failure" because it wasn't really a total failure like I thought. Looking back has revived both of us.

Have you ever dared to look back?

~Lydia

Guest Post: Deleting by Jennifer R. Hubbard

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia Sharp) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 12:00:00 +0000

Please give a warm welcome to this week's guest blogger, YA author Jennifer R. Hubbard!

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Deleting

I love deleting.

It’s my favorite kind of revision because it’s so easy. Just highlight and hit “Delete,” and you’re done! (Or, if the words seem too precious to lose forever, cut and paste into a separate file.) But there’s no brain-straining to come up with a new scene or a deeper motivation for the character, the way there is when you have to add material.

I write short. I barely make 40,000 words with the first draft of a novel. It may come from my background writing short stories, or my natural preference for lean prose, or my years of writing nonfiction in which the point is to be as clear and concise as possible. Whatever the reason, most of my editing passes involve adding more than I take out.

My style isn’t better than that of writers who tend to write long—it’s just different, bringing its own special brand of headaches—but it does help me in spotting where fellow writers’ manuscripts could use a trim. My critiquers help me expand, and I help them cut back.

With that in mind, I thought I’d compile a list of common places to cut back a manuscript, should you find yours getting too wordy. (I’ll also note that even with my own delete-happy style, I have received some of these recommendations from editors myself.)

Unnecessary framing narratives – If the main character is an adult looking back on childhood, or the story is narrated by a character whose only function is to relay the story without any growth or change on his own part, or if a prologue introduces the same information that appears later in the book, then good questions to ask include:

Do I really need this frame?
What happens if I cut it out?
Does the story lose anything, or does it even become more immediate and compelling without that extra narrative distance?

Backstory – We don’t have to tell readers everything we know about our characters, only what they absolutely need in order to understand what’s going on. Even when the history is directly relevant, a little mystery can be a good thing. If readers sense friction between two characters, that friction will pique their curiosity and raise the tension in the scene. Perhaps, then, it’s better to have another character drop a single hint about the source of that tension rather than explaining at length how the characters used to be in love, or how one character cheated the other out of a fortune. It’s amazing how much information readers can gather from a few hints and watching the characters interact.

Characters who don’t do anything – Every character should have a purpose in the story that cannot be accomplished by any other character. If that purpose can be accomplished by another, then it should. Characters can be combined or deleted altogether. I cut one character from my first book, and I never missed him at all; the few things he did and said were handed off to other characters.

Chitchat – In real life, we exchange hellos and how-are-yous; we comment on the weather and the traffic and the fact that the coffee machine is broken again. But nobody wants to read those exchanges, unless the weather or the traffic or the coffee machine are directly involved in the murder/love affair/political plot that is the subject of the book. It’s okay to start a scene at the point after the greetings and small talk are over.

Transitions – At scene changes, readers only need the briefest summary or cue to orient themselves. They don’t want to see the bus ride, the walk, or the long uneventful week that does nothing but get the character from Point A to Point B. The white space between scenes performs the same function as the curtain at a play: the audience knows that when the curtain rises again, the characters are now somewhere else. Readers just need to know they’re at Point B, and they’re all set.

Modifiers – Adjective-noun and adverb-verb combinations can often be pared down by using stronger nouns and verbs, or by letting readers get the information from the context. Watch for descriptions of characters such as “a ____ frame,” “a _____ expression,” and “a _____ look on her face,” which can usually be expressed more directly or inferred from other cues in the scene.

What strategies do YOU use to help you trim a manuscript?

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About the author:

Jennifer R. Hubbard lives and writes near Philadelphia, PA. She is a night person who believes that mornings were meant to be slept through, a chocolate lover, and a hiker. She has written short fiction as well as the contemporary young adult novels The Secret Year and Try Not to Breathe.

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About Try Not to Breathe:

Learning to live is more than just choosing not to die, as sixteen-year-old Ryan discovers in the year following his suicide attempt. Despite his mother’s anxious hovering and the rumors at school, he’s trying to forget the darkness from which he has escaped. But it doesn’t help that he’s still hiding guilty secrets, or that he longs for a girl who may not return his feelings.

Then he befriends Nicki, who is using psychics to seek contact with her dead father. This unlikely friendship thaws Ryan to the point where he can face the worst in himself. He and Nicki confide in one another the things they never thought they’d tell anyone—but their confessions are trickier than they seem, and the fallout tests the bounds of friendship and forgiveness.

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Thank you so much for being here today, Jennifer!

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Would you like to be a guest blogger? Email your topic idea to lydiasharp4sff (at) yahoo (dot) com. Please put "guest post" somewhere in the subject line. You do not have to be a published author to be a guest blogger here, just a serious writer or a publishing industry professional or intern. We'd love to hear from you!

The NEXT Next Big Thing

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia Sharp) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 12:00:00 +0000

[snip snip]

Happy writing,
~Lydia

Questions to Ask Before Making Marketing Decisions

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia Sharp) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 14:09:00 +0000

Being an author is a form of self-employment. Even though you work with others to create and sell a product (your book), you can and should be involved in that product's marketing. The more books you sell, the more you get in return, whether it be money, validation, or in rare cases, fame.

But how do you know what you should do to market your book? This is an especially tough question when you're just starting out and have the least funds available and the least visibility to ride on. It can feel like you're stuck in an endless cycle of "I need X to promote and I need to promote to get X."

It reminds me of when I was a teenager looking for my first job. I needed a car to get to a job but I couldn't afford a car until I got a job. There is no easy solution that doesn't involve asking Mom for help.

As a debut author you're starting up a new business--you and your books--and it takes so long to get to that step of being published that we can easily forget it's one of the earliest steps taken in an endless flight of stairs. Any new business takes time to build. This is the case whether you are a debut self-published author or a debut author with a "big traditional" publisher, and everything in between. Your publisher may be old and established but you and your books are not. The customer still has to be sold on your product.

If I were to open a pizza parlor today, I couldn't expect to be running ads during the Super Bowl tomorrow (so to speak...I know the Super Bowl is technically behind us now, just go with it). That would surely increase my reach to new customers, but the expense required would bankrupt me. Also, if the restaurant is in only one location, not a national chain, advertising to a national audience is inappropriate. A cheap ad in a local publication would make much more sense. You could even include a coupon as extra incentive.

But before you go offering that discount (which is just one example of a marketing idea), there are some tough questions you need to answer first. No one is going to see this but you, so it's in your best interest to be brutally honest with yourself.

How much will this idea cost to implement? (remember that cost is not only measured in funds, but also in time, effort, and available resources)

How much profit are you making?

How much sales will it generate? Will it pay for itself?

Will this idea generate future business?

Will this idea help you meet your goals?

The last question will be especially tough if you don't have specific career goals established ahead of time.

Why are you doing this?

Where do you want to be in a year, 5 years, 10 years?

How do you plan to get there?

One of the cheapest ways to market books today is through social media. Cheap, yes, but is it effective? Is it helping you reach your goals? Do you have time to devote to this regularly and write new books? The answer depends on the individual author. And that is just one avenue of marketing you can utilize from a sea of ideas. All you need to do is think it up, answer the above questions, and implement the ideas you feel are worth it.

Much (much!) easier said than done.

Are there any experienced authors out there who would like to share which marketing ideas have worked for them and which haven't?

~Lydia

Guest Post: Breaking the Mould by Paul Anthony Shortt

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia Sharp) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 12:30:00 +0000

Please give a hearty welcome to this week's guest author, Paul Anthony Shortt!

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Breaking the Mould - Reinventing Roles in Fantasy Fiction

The wise old wizard. The virtuous princess. The peasant boy with a secret heritage. The decrepit evil overlord. The beautiful but deadly noblewoman. The graceful elf. The dour dwarf.

Long-established staples of the fantasy genre. Writers and readers rely on them as shorthand, to keep the reader’s attention focused, and not lost trying to work out which character serves what role. But is there more to these roles? Can these characters step out of their expected stereotypes and surprise us?

I often find myself disappointed when a story plays around with tropes in an effort to surprise the audience. Surprise, for its own sake, is often misguided.

However, offering a different interpretation can open up all sorts of new possibilities. Who is to say that the hero’s mentor must be a wise old man dedicated to the cause of good? Why can’t he be a chain-smoking ex-womaniser who wants to keep as far from fighting as possible?

Star Wars turned the expectation of the wise mentor on its head when Yoda was introduced in The Empire Strikes Back. He was short and dirty, a mischievous little goblin that seemed nothing like the image of a great Jedi warrior. But his ability as Luke’s mentor is beyond doubt. In fact, his unusual appearance helped carry across his own message, that you can’t judge things by how they seem, and that the Force was about more than just fighting and physical might.

Does the ruling queen need to be regal and confident? What if she were stricken by age; a hunched crone with just the sharp clarity in her eye to hint at her lost vitality?

Why must the princess’ virtue, or lack thereof, determine her worth as a future ruler? These days we already have self-rescuing princesses. Why not one who smokes? Or swears? Or has had romantic relationships before the hero came along? Surely she’s worth more as a character in her own right than a virginal prize to be taken?

Many of these roles were defined long ago, often before modern literature. They’ve become so ingrained into our minds and media that even children who haven’t yet read very many books will expect that the wizard is an old man, the hero is a handsome young man, often (secretly) a prince, who must rescue the fair maiden from the evil sorcerer/king. I’ve often spoken on my own blog about the Hero’s Journey, the model which can be applied to stories to point out the plot elements which our brains look for. This is part of that. We’ve just come to accept that certain roles have certain requirements.

But I think we miss out on so much when we don’t challenge ourselves to play around more with these roles. Maybe the mentor is an orc, or other typically brutish monster. He could be a fake, knowing nothing about real magic and only using guesswork based on old storybooks. Have the princess save the peasant. Or have the princess reject romantic advances entirely!

Perhaps the destined hero is a jerk, or dies before he can save the world, leaving it up to someone else to take up the challenge. Or what if there is no destined hero? What if the prophecy tells that the evil lord will rise, and no one will stop him? How would your characters respond to that? What would they do? And what kind of story could you tell about the ones who decide that, prophecy or not, they’re going to make a stand?

A word of warning, however. Changing something just for the sake of being different is a risky proposition. There have been so many books and movies that tried to be different for no real reason, and they have been left by the wayside. It’s like everything in writing. Everything you do has to have a purpose.

Ask yourself, what are you trying to say by going against the grain? In Shrek, when Princess Fiona’s “true love’s form” was revealed, it wasn’t just a dig at Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, it was a statement about the nature of beauty and being true to one’s self. This statement was backed up by revealing the Dragon to be a sympathetic, lonely character, who was ultimately instrumental in saving the day at the end.

Remember this as you write, that old tropes exist for a reason. While we can, and should, challenge ourselves to reinvent them, we must also make sure we don’t lose sight of the true goal; to create a story both entertaining and meaningful.

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About the author:

A child at heart who turned to writing and role playing games when there simply weren't enough action figures to play out the stories he wanted, Paul Anthony Shortt has been writing all his life. Growing up surrounded by music, film and theatre gave him a deep love of all forms of storytelling, each teaching him something new he could use. When not playing with the people in his head, he enjoys cooking and regular meet-ups with his gaming group.

He lives near Dublin, Ireland with his wife Jen, their twin daughters, and their dogs, Pepper and Jasper.

blog
twitter
facebook
google+
goodreads

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About Locked Within:

The supernatural realm and the mundane world have existed side by side since the dawn of time. Predators walk the streets, hidden by our own ignorance. Once, the city of New York was protected, but that was another age.

Now a creature emerges from the city's past to kill again, with no one to hear the screams of its victims. The lost and the weak, crushed under the heels of the city's supernatural masters, have given up hope.

But one man finds himself drawn to these deaths. Plagued by dreams of past lives, his obsession may cost him friends, loved ones, even his life. To stop this monster, he must unlock the strength he once had. He must remember the warrior he was, to become the hero he was born to be.

His name is Nathan Shepherd, and he remembers.

Amazon
Goodreads

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Thanks so much for being with us today, Paul!

~Lydia

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Would you like to be a guest blogger? Email your topic idea to lydiasharp4sff (at) yahoo (dot) com. Please put "guest post" somewhere in the subject line. You do not have to be a published author to be a guest blogger here, just a serious writer or a publishing industry professional or intern. We'd love to hear from you!

Quick Update on MISMATCHED

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia Sharp) — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 17:17:00 +0000

Mismatched has a tentative release date of May 24, 2013. Here is the official blurb:

On the night of her initiation ceremony into her chosen clan, Liu'bimec feels a scorching pain from something other than the marking iron. Her heart-stone responds as if her life-match is close. It burns hot within her, ready to bond. But none of the men she approaches induce a heart-stone bond, and if she does not bond with her life-match by the time a year has passed, she will be banished. Her heart-stone had guided her, but was it wrong?

Her questions only multiply when she finally does find her life-match. He is not a he at all, but a she, and if it were known they have bonded, Liu would face something far worse than banishment—an empty life without her match.

This has fantasy.
This has romance.
This has fire, fire, and more fire.
This is my favorite fantasy story I've written to date.
Did I mention there's fire in this? Because YES. There is FIRE.

If you'd like to let me know NOW how excited you are about this one (it's been over 2 years since I had a fantasy story published! YAY for fantasy lovers!), please add it to your Goodreads shelf, HERE.

I'll have more updates as we get closer to the release date.

Thanks for reading!

~Lydia

Quotable Quotes: Crave the Impossible

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia Sharp) — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 12:00:00 +0000

Just a quick reminder: Today is the last day to enter my mega huge "Love to Write" giveaway! Details and entry form are HERE. Thank you!
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What impossible thing have you believed lately?

What impossible thing have you denied lately?

What impossible thing have you done lately?

"If impossible things are happening every day,

then why shouldn't I have impossible hopes and dreams?"

~Lydia

Guest Post: Classic Romance vs Contemporary Romance by Terri Rochenski

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia Sharp) — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Please give a warm welcome to romance and sf/f author Terri Rochenski!

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Thanks so much, Lydia, for having me here today! I’m super thrilled to have this opportunity. Feelin’ the love. I wanted to share a topic one of my Goodreads groups debated recently.

Classic vs. Contemporary

What’s the difference? What makes a book a classic? A contemporary? Everyone has an opinion, and there’s no real wrong answer. According to Webster, ‘classic’ is the first or highest quality, class or rank, while ‘contemporary’ is of the present time; modern. My focus today is on romance, one of the genres I’ve been lucky enough to have been published in.

The Classic Romance

In my opinion, there are two types of classics – those you should have read and never did, and those you’ve read five times and still put back on your to-read list. A book that falls under BOTH categories is a rare jewel. Two such books pop into my mind immediately.

Books that have stood the test of time. Wonderfully written romances, timeless stories that engage the senses and transport the readers to another era and place. Themes that are universal.

The Contemporary Romance

‘Contemporary’ when dealing with the genre of romance is anything that takes place after World War II. Think Nora Roberts – even her paranormal fence-riding novels are mostly contemporary. Danielle Steele. Nicholas Sparks. There are thousands out there. Think too, of Fifty Shades of Grey. Never read it – probably won’t, but I’m pretty sure just about everyone has heard of this book.

So where does my favorite subgenre of romance, historical fit in? Under the subgenre of historical romance, of course. But but but but! Tons have been written during this modern era, and they’re classics in my mind! Lisa Kleypas and Stephanie Laurens, my two favorite authors, line my shelves with tattered paperbacks. Both have a few I would consider classic although they were written during my lifetime.

o_O *scratching head*

And then there’s the contemporary classic. ??? Ones over say, twenty years old, written during the contemporary era, but classics in that they have made history in readers’ minds. The one argued about in my GR group was Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander. I’m sure most of you have heard of that one. While I loved the book, and read it twice, I’m not sure I’d consider it a classic.

Argue all you want, but like I said above, there’s no real wrong answer. Each book should be evaluated by the reader and snuggled into whatever category they want.

What’s your favorite classic book? Contemporary? What’s that one gem of a book that falls under both categories for you?

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About the author:

Terri started writing stories in the 8th grade, when a little gnome whispered in her brain. Gundi’s Great Adventure never hit the best seller list, but it started a long love affair with storytelling.

Today she enjoys an escape to Middle Earth during the rare ‘me’ moments her two young daughters allow. When not playing with toys, picking them back up, or kissing boo-boos, she can be found sprawled on the couch with a book or pencil in hand, and toothpicks propping her eyelids open.

Contact links:

website
blog
twitter
facebook
goodreads

About "Sacrificial Oath" in the Make Believe anthology:

An impetuous act unwittingly makes Alesuela the fulfillment of the Sovereign’s Blood Oath to their Goddess. In five days, she’ll be forced to make the greatest choice of her life: become the virginal sacrifice already promised, or force the man she loves most to die in her place.

With an impossible choice in front of her, she searches for ways to undo the oath, and in her quest, finds not everything in her life is as she expects.

Where to find it:

J. Taylor Publishing
Amazon
B&N
Goodreads

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Thanks so much for being with us today, Terri!

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Would you like to be a guest blogger? Email your topic idea to lydiasharp4sff (at) yahoo (dot) com. Please put "guest post" somewhere in the subject line. You do not have to be a published author to be a guest blogger here, just a serious writer or a publishing industry professional or intern. We'd love to hear from you!