Joanna Volpe of Nancy Coffee Literary is having the best contest ever!!!
Monday, August 29th, for one hour (7am-8am EST), you may send her an email query and she will respond with completely honest feedback. You need to go to the contest rules to make sure your query will be considered. You can do that here.
I am so excited about this contest. Can you imagine? Sending a query to an expert and having them provide more than just a form rejection. Really getting to know what they thought. Whether or not it's the query itself or the story line that needs work. I mean, we all want the agent to call and offer representation, but we get more rejections than we do that dreamed of phone call. So why not take this opportunity and get some real feedback. Who knows, maybe your feedback from Ms. Volpe will even be a request for a partial or full.
I know that my story as a stand alone chapter book is a tough sell to publishers. What I would love to know is if the story has promise. Enough promise to convince an agent that it's worth it to represent and try to get it published. If it's not, it's time to move on and chalk it up to experience. If it is worth it, then I'mma gonna keep on pushin' it.
Yes, I can handle the truth!!!
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Saturday, August 27, 2011
From Ideas to Story
"I've got so many ideas I just can't get them all down."
"The voices of my characters are in my head and I need to write to get them to be quiet."
I've read these statements on Twitter, on writing chat rooms, etc. I'm not envious of these people, I'm amazed by them. It's these kind of statements that make me wonder if I'm fooling myself into thinking I'm a writer. I like to write, I enjoy writing, and I want to write stories that others will read and say 'wow'. I know every writer does things a little bit differently, but do they all have ideas and creativity flowing all the time?
And I don't have so many ideas that I can't get them all down. I don't have voices in my head demanding to be put on paper. Does that mean I don't have what it takes? Maybe I'm not creative enough? Is every writer bombarded by ideas and story lines all the time?
For example, here's the way my thoughts normally go. I rarely start with a story idea. I actually start by thinking that I want to write something. But what should I write about? I daydream for a bit and then I get an image of a character in my mind. It unfolds like a movie. He's in 7th grade. He's popular. He's good at soccer. He's walking down the hallway at his school and there are some nerdy boys watching him. But not out of jealousy. Like they're waiting for something to happen. For him to join them in some adventure.
But what? What adventure? What mystery can ensue that will force a popular boy to team up with some nerdy boys to ......whatever. I'm stumped. Is there a bad teacher threatening to do something? It's been done before. Is there a bomb in the school by the school bully? Too quick to solve. I don't know where to go from the original thought. So the boy is just stumbling around in my brain. I've got nothing for him to do that hasn't been done before. And he's not speaking to me, telling me what he should be doing. So he isn't even helping! He just keeps walking down the school hallway.
So this is where some writers claim to be pantsters. You know, they don't plan, they just start and see where it takes them. But I have trouble really understanding how that works. Do they start out with just a character and see where he goes, or do they really have a general idea of the mystery/activity/heart of the story and just don't know the details on how they get there.
Are you a pantster? How much of a story is clear to you when you begin writing it down? Help a sister out, wouldya? Leave a comment so I can find out what others do. Thanks!!
"The voices of my characters are in my head and I need to write to get them to be quiet."
I've read these statements on Twitter, on writing chat rooms, etc. I'm not envious of these people, I'm amazed by them. It's these kind of statements that make me wonder if I'm fooling myself into thinking I'm a writer. I like to write, I enjoy writing, and I want to write stories that others will read and say 'wow'. I know every writer does things a little bit differently, but do they all have ideas and creativity flowing all the time?
And I don't have so many ideas that I can't get them all down. I don't have voices in my head demanding to be put on paper. Does that mean I don't have what it takes? Maybe I'm not creative enough? Is every writer bombarded by ideas and story lines all the time?
For example, here's the way my thoughts normally go. I rarely start with a story idea. I actually start by thinking that I want to write something. But what should I write about? I daydream for a bit and then I get an image of a character in my mind. It unfolds like a movie. He's in 7th grade. He's popular. He's good at soccer. He's walking down the hallway at his school and there are some nerdy boys watching him. But not out of jealousy. Like they're waiting for something to happen. For him to join them in some adventure.
But what? What adventure? What mystery can ensue that will force a popular boy to team up with some nerdy boys to ......whatever. I'm stumped. Is there a bad teacher threatening to do something? It's been done before. Is there a bomb in the school by the school bully? Too quick to solve. I don't know where to go from the original thought. So the boy is just stumbling around in my brain. I've got nothing for him to do that hasn't been done before. And he's not speaking to me, telling me what he should be doing. So he isn't even helping! He just keeps walking down the school hallway.
So this is where some writers claim to be pantsters. You know, they don't plan, they just start and see where it takes them. But I have trouble really understanding how that works. Do they start out with just a character and see where he goes, or do they really have a general idea of the mystery/activity/heart of the story and just don't know the details on how they get there.
Are you a pantster? How much of a story is clear to you when you begin writing it down? Help a sister out, wouldya? Leave a comment so I can find out what others do. Thanks!!
