Category: Q&A

  • Q&A: Do you critique often? When you come across a manuscript that is particularly bad and you know that the writer is very new, how do you give help?

    You’ve talked about giving feedback for a novel that was particularly unfortunate. (The erotic 7th Heaven one….) Do you critique often? When you come across a manuscript that is particularly bad and you know that the writer is very new, how do you give help? Specifically, how do you not hurt feelings when the honest truth is that an entire manuscript really should be scrapped and rewritten from scratch? How do you balance encouragement with honesty?Thanks!

    I do not critique often. Only for a handful of friends. Extremely patient, forgiving friends. Because I am neither good at nor timely with my critiquing. 

    Mostly because I either like something or I do not like something, and I am absolute shit at explaining why or why not. 

    (Also, my taste is questionable. I loved Sharknado. I hated The Fault in Our Stars and Casablanca. If I am critiquing for you, you should want me to hate it. That’s how you know it’s good.)

    So I guess that’s the first lesson of critiquing anything: if you don’t want to do it, don’t do it. Because if you hate doing it and do it anyway, you’re likely going to do more harm than good. 

    If you want to do it but are shit at it, like me, let the other person know you are absolute shit at critiquing. Full disclosure, and all that jazz.

    OK. So.

    What do you do when you are obligated to give advice on a manuscript, and your advice is scrap it and move on? Drink vodka. 

    And then be honest.

    The vodka to honesty ratio depends on the person, but my advice is to drink enough vodka that you are honest, but not so much that you are brutally honest.

    (For those of you who, like me, cannot drink (or choose not to drink) alcohol, do the same as above, minus the vodka.)

    First things first, the whole critiquing a book thing is awkward. 

    For everyone. 

    No exceptions. 

    I have been friends with Carol and Liz for almost six years. It is always awkward to give feedback to them. It is always awkward to get feedback from them. I owe one of them feedback right now, and when I send it, it will be like the freaking ding-dong-ditch of emails. I will upload the attachment. Hit send. And then we will pretend it never happened. 

    So that part is normal. 

    Secondly, resisting feedback is also normal.

    So don’t take it personally, no matter what side you’re on. 

    Thirdly, stick to big picture stuff.

    I am a proponent of moving from large to small. So if you feel a book is conceptually flawed, or that a large chunk of it needs to be completely rewritten, say so, and leave it at that. 

    Don’t get bogged down in the minutiae of line editing. That kind of editing comes later, when the book is more structurally sound. 

    Fourthly—is fourthly even a word?—if you don’t say something, someone else will.  

    And that’s why it’s never OK to lie, to say you like something when you don’t, to say that something is ready to go on submission when it isn’t. 

    Because that friend of yours who’s writing really bad books? Probably won’t be writing bad books forever. Eventually she will learn from her own mistakes, and when she does, she will look back on her really bad books, see them for what they are, and know that you lied.

    To her face.

    And fifthly, if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.

    Even the shittiest of shitty first drafts have some spark of life in them, some glittering something shining amongst all that dirt. If you can’t see it, you’re probably not the right person to offer comments.

  • Q&A: Have you experienced any challenges in writing for different age groups?

    Have you experienced any challenges in writing for different age groups?

    Ooh. Yes. YES.

    I won’t even say it’s confined to age groups. Different genres have different pros and cons, highs and lows, ups and downs, chunkies and creamies.

    Writing chapter books can be challenging because the intended readers aren’t seasoned readers (obviously, since they’re like 7). They haven’t yet learned a lot of what is essentially shorthand. So lots of dialogue tags, adverbs and adjectives, short snappy sentences and paragraphs, exclamation points, other explainy things.

    I had a similar learning curve with category romance. I tend to be a very plot-driven writer, and I had to go back to basics and learn how to come at a story from a character-driven perspective. So scary for me, since I look at outlines as security blankets, and it’s hard to map out feels beforehand and have them still be authentic. 

  • Q&A: how is your writing routine different now that you have an agent?

    how is your writing routine different now that you have an agent?

    Considering I’ve been agented all of 20 days, 17 of which were spent either bogged down in edits, recovering from edits, or barfing my guts out, my writing routine hasn’t changed all that much. 

    But based on the three days I’ve actually spent writing, I find I simultaneously have more time and less time than I did before. 

    I never realized how much time I spent querying, whether actively (sending things out) or passively (reading agent interviews, pitch tips, etc). So much of it had become habitual that I often find myself checking for emails that have already come, etc. I’m still in the process of reclaiming that time and allotting it elsewhere. 

    There’s also seems to be less time, because for now, at least, I’m hyper-focused on one particular flavor of book, whereas before I was more or less doing whatever I felt like doing whenever I felt like doing it. 

    There’s also that whole afraid-I’m-going-to-disappoint-everyone-slash-be-outted-as-a-writing-fraud thing, too. But I like to ignore that whenever possible.

  • Q&A: My bra is killing me. Thought you should know.

    My bra is killing me. Thought you should know.

    *puts on bra specialist hat*

    You’re likely wearing the wrong size. If you haven’t been professionally fitted for a bra in the past six months, you should go into your favorite lingerie store and ask a salesperson to measure you. Don’t worry about getting naked–it’s a simple measure that can be done over your street clothes.

  • Q&A: How do you feel about outlining/planning versus sitting down and just writing through a draft?

    Hello from #amwriting! 🙂 How do you feel about outlining/planning versus sitting down and just writing through a draft?

    Hello from tumblr! 🙂 I do like to have an idea of where a book starts and where it ends and what happens in the middle, but I try very hard not to force process. Whatever it takes to get a finished book, and all that jazz.

  • Q&A: What are your top 5 books/movies/tv shows/albums?

    What are your top 5 books/movies/tv shows/albums?

    ONLY FIVE?? You are a cruel, sadistic bastard.

    Books

    Harry Potter series by J K Rowling
    Mediator series by Meg Cabot
    Syrup by Max Barry
    Fear Street series by R L Stine, particularly the Cheerleaders trilogy
    Any Harlequin Presents, which is cheating but I don’t care.

    Movies

    A Goofy Movie
    Holiday Inn
    A Very Long Engagement
    Amelie
    Pride & Prejudice (the Colin Firth version)

    TV Shows

    Sailor Moon
    Firefly
    Supernatural
    Ancient Aliens
    Dr. Who
    Tie between Cosmos and Through the Wormhole
    Any science documentary, really, with special interest in physics, geology, and weather.

    Albums

    Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, The Smashing Pumpkins
    Fumbling Towards Ecstasy and Surfacing, Sarah McLachlan
    Go!, Letters to Cleo
    Scarlet’s Walk, Tori Amos
    When the Pawn, Fiona Apple

  • Q&A: What is the difference between an alpha reader, beta reader, critique partner?

    What is the difference between an alpha, beta, critique partner? I’ve seen them used synonymously and I don’t understand what the differences are? Good luck in the #BlazeBlitz!! 😀

    Hmm. I don’t know that there is a definitive answer, and a lot of people do use the terms synonymously, but if I had to wager a guess, I would say an alpha reader reads along as the author writes, a critique partner is often a fellow writer who offers input and advice after a significant portion, if not all, of the book is complete, and a beta reader reads after much of the critiquing and editing is done as a pair of fresh eyes on the project. Not every writer has all or any of these, though getting fresh eyes on your manuscript at some point definitely helps.

    I didn’t enter the Blaze Blitz, but have several friends who did! Wishing everyone who entered the best of luck!

  • Q&A: Which of your characters are you most like?

    Which one of your characters are you most like? Least like? Which one of someone else’s characters are you most like? Least like?

    Hmm. I share similarities with all of my characters, even the antagonists, but I wouldn’t say I’m most or least like any of them. 

    Of other people’s characters, I’m most like Arabella Figg from Harry Potter, because she lives alone with a bunch of cats and I think that’s awesome, and least like Lisbeth Salander from Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series. 

  • Q&A: I finished my novel, but I don’t know how to edit. Help!

    I finished my first novel during NaNoWriMo ’12. It’s crap, but I don’t know how to edit it. i’ve tried a few times but it’s like I get confused and I don’t know what’s good and what isn’t. It’s a complete mess and I don’t know how to clean it up. Help?

    Honest answer? Don’t even try. Most first books are crap and cannot be fixed. I’m not saying yours is, but most are. 

    So instead of worrying about how to fix it–which, after two and a half years, is pretty obvious you can’t, at least not right now–write another book.

    A better book.

    One you won’t have to clean up quite so much.

    And then, after you’ve written this new book, write another new book.

    And after you’ve written that new book, go back to the first book and look at it again.

    Because either you will see that it cannot be salvaged and should be shelved indefinitely, or you’ll have learned enough in writing other books that you have a better idea of how to fix it. 

  • Q&A: What’s the difference between internal and external conflict?

    What’s the difference between internal and external conflict?

    External conflict are things that get in the way of your character achieving her goals. ie, At the demand of her father, King Shithead, Princess Purity must be married off to Count Doucherag.

    Internal conflicts are the reasons why the external conflicts are, in fact, conflicts. ie, Why Princess Purity would consider marrying Count Doucherag even though she’s in love with Prince McDreamy-Hair and not just tell her father to stick his demand up his ass. 

    Internal conflict matters because you want your characters to have agency. You want them to happen to the story and have their decisions and actions move the story, rather than the story moving them.