The language of writing

So I’ve been thinking of querying agents with my MG SF ms this week, but I’m not sure if my MC is the right age? Any advice?

Does the above sentence make sense to you? I’ve been reminded a couple of times this week that not everyone reading this blog has been obsessed by writing and publishing for the past almost-ten years, like me! And sometimes even I get confused by the different terminology. So I thought I’d do a little breakdown of some of the commonly used terms and abbreviations on this blog to help out those less familiar readers!

Querys/querying: a query is sort of like a cover letter for a CV – except in this case, your CV is your novel. For fiction, the query often includes the title, genre, age range (if a children’s book – no need if it’s for general readers) and word count, an enticing blurb (like you might read on the back cover of a book) and a little bit about the author. It is normally the first piece of writing a potential agent or editor will see from a writer, which is why writers spend so much time worrying about it!

ms – short for ‘manuscript’

MG – short for ‘middle grade’ – an age range for children’s books, generally 8-12 years old

YA – short for ‘young adult’ – another age range for children’s books, generally 12-18

ARC/proof/galley – a marketing tool used by publishers, an ARC (advance reader copy) is an uncorrected bound copy of the novel that gets sent to key reviewers to try to build anticipation for a book before its official release date. In the UK, they’re more commonly known as proofs.

SF/F – short for ‘science fiction and fantasy’ – two of my favourite genres!

WIP – short for ‘work in progress’

HC – short for HarperCollins

RHCB – short for Random House Children’s Books

The Absolute Write forums have an even more complete list than this, if all the publishing terminology needs even more deciphering!

And, for those who prefer a bit more epicness in my posts, here is the new Game of Thrones Season 2 trailer:

The wonder of a yurt

I saw this video on BoingBoing and I just had to share! The Oathbreaker’s Shadow is very much inspired by Mongolian culture, and several key scenes take place in a yurt. This is a very modern yurt (I don’t think my characters would have a polyethylene sheet to waterproof the inside of their homes), but it’s still a fascinating demonstration of an ancient tradition living on. I haven’t yet had the pleasure of visiting Mongolia, but when I do, I’m dying to spend a night or two in one of these.

An evening with Leonardo da Vinci

Last night I went to the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square to see the Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan exhibit. I was accompanied by fellow Voyager-ite Natasha, and together we spent an hour ooh-ing and aah-ing over the genius of Senor da Vinci. Despite the ticketed and timed entry, it was absolutely jam-packed. Over five centuries have passed since his death but that man can still draw a full house!

This particular exhibition focuses on his skills as a painter – setting aside for a moment the rest of his talent as an inventor, architect, engineer, mathematician, etc. etc. etc.! One thing that really struck me as I was walking around were the incredible studies he did on the minutest details – from a pair of clasped hands, to the draping of a cloth over a kneeling man, to the exact tilt of a head – everything was meticulously researched, experminted with, and and practised.

All of the notes we saw by Leonardo were written in his distinctive mirror writing. Seeing it in person reminded me that for a period of about six months in high school, I wrote all my journals in backwards writing after finding out that was how da Vinci did it. (I also wrote in ALL CAPS for a while – even in my exams – after seeing a friend do it, so it wasn’t just geniuses I copied… although that friend is now doing a very in-depth PhD so genius might not be too far off!)

Natasha and I belied our cultural prowess by making frequent references to The Da Vinci Code and Everafter, before heading off for some delicious Mexico City-style street food at Lupita.

Yet the most surprisingly and delightful thing about the whole exhibition, for me, was discovering a little Oathbreaker’s Shadow connection: Leonardo da Vinci’s intricate knot patterns. Knots are probably the most significant motif in Oathbreaker and so it was a little thrill to see they inspired the Grand Master too.

Best publishing advice I’ve ever received: The Lucky 13s

Today I’m blogging over at the Lucky 13s blog about the best publishing advice I’ve ever received. Check out the blog all this week for other views from 13ers.

 

Matilda: the musical

On Wednesday night, I took my mum and sister to see Matilda: The Musical for mum’s birthday. My mum is over from Canada, and so we have a little tradition of heading up to the West End to see a show — plus, this was one of my favourite books as a child and I’d heard only great things about the musical.

It absolutely did not disappoint. I’m a strong believer that the show experience starts from the moment you enter the theatre — and seeing the magnificent Cambridge Theatre stage covered in colourfully-lit, oversized Scrabble tiles really set the scene. The lyrics were funny, heartfelt and clever – perfectly encapsulating the original Dahl spirit. Our Matilda (I’m gutted that I didn’t take down her name) was a little superstar. Of course, the deliciously evil Miss Trunchbull absolutely stole the show.

I’m not a great ‘reviewer’ of things (probably because I just haven’t had the practice) so I’m not going to say much more about the show itself other than, if you have the opportunity, this is definitely one to watch.

But Matilda struck a huge chord with me because, at its heart, it is a story about power of storytelling. This is especially true for the musical version, a large part of which portrays Matilda delighting her local librarian with installments of a story about an acrobat and an escapologist, all magically brought to life on the stage behind her as she tells it.

Donning my numerous publishing hats, I am surrounded by incredible storytellers… and I’ve also seen my fair share of the not-so-good. I’ve seen so many writers who can compose a stunning sentence, or dream up an amazing character, but who still struggle to tell a good story. It is an art as much as anything else, but one that I believe can be learned.

Reading – and reading widely – helps. But, as seeing Matilda reminded me, books are hardly the only medium for telling a good story. Musicals do it. Plays. Movies. TV series. Even certain songs. And I believe it’s important as writers to keep our eyes and ears open. Plus, you never know when one medium of storytelling might inspire another… as mine did, during a musical.

Januquery

Writing a query letter to an agent can be a very stressful part of any author’s journey. But never fear, Januquery is here to help! The lovely Gennifer Albin, whose debut novel Crewel is coming out in Fall 2012, has been hosting us Lucky 13ers as we critique queries throughout the month of January.

Today, it’s my turn! Head on over to Gennifer’s blog to see what I had to say about the query for a MG fantasy novel Dust and Bones.

The Dreaded Prologue

This weekend I was working on the beginning section of The Oathbreaker’s Shadow and ended up reminiscing over some old drafts.  As I was opening documents cryptically titled things like TOS-mostrecent.doc and TOS-noTHISismostrecent.doc [note to self: devise better electronic filing system], I noticed one point of difference between my current manuscript and almost all of the previous drafts: the dreaded prologue.

Yep, I am guilty of committing that newbie author sin (especially prevalent in fantasy novels) of starting my novel in a completely random place for no good reason at all.

My first prologue (there were, in fact, five incarnations of the terrible beast) was in a completely different voice/point of view than the rest of the novel, from a character who only gets one line of dialogue again over the course of the next 80,000 words. Why did I ever think that was a good idea? My entire book is written from one point of view – Raim’s – so why should the opening of the novel be any different? And why would I assume that that character (who, as I said, only gets one other line dedicated to him) would be more interesting that the one I dedicated an entire book too? Nonsense.

Still, I persisted. Another incarnation was in the form of a flashforward. Woot, I’d gained enough sense to realize I had to stick to Raim’s point of view. Boo, I still used a prologue. This was, in fact, a vanity prologue. What is a vanity prologue, you say? Well, I basically picked my favourite section of the book and stuck it in front as a ‘prologue’ which foreshadowed where Raim would end up. (In fact, that section was vastly overwritten, and wow did it ever show looking back on it.)  

Then I even got sneaky with myself. I read about agents hating prologues, so I changed the word ‘Prologue’ to ‘Chapter One’ and thought: Ah, problem solved.

La la la la I will have a prologue no matter what you say!

Turns out? Still a bad beginning to a book.

Eventually – and on the very wise advice of my agent – I just highlighted that entire prologue-slash-first-chapter and hit delete. Gone. It felt painful – like I was taking the crutches away and seeing if the book would still stand up.

Luckily, it did – and that’s how I sold it: dreaded Prologue-free.

Just please don’t make me get rid of the epilogue!

(ETA: As one colleague quite rightly pointed out, sometimes prologues work incredibly well, especially in complex narratives – hey, George RR Martin has one in A Game of Thrones – but in my case it was only obscuring what the true start of the novel was!)

Why running is like writing (and vice versa)

As I stepped out of the front door of my apartment block this morning, the air was frosty but the sky was bright and clear. The perfect kind of morning to run the four miles in to work rather than cram myself onto a sardine-like train from the UK’s busiest train station. I’ve learned to love running now, but at the moment it’s classified as ‘training’ until May 27, 2012, when I complete the Edinburgh Marathon.

Me running in the Royal Parks 1/2 Marathon in 2009 - my first proper race

In fact, in a lot of ways training for a marathon is a lot like writing a novel. Here are my reasons why…

1. You need the right gear… but gear won’t do the work for you!
Yes, you need the right gear to run. Properly fitted trainers, clothes that wick away sweat, maybe a heart-rate monitor so you can judge the improvements in your fitness… they will all help to better your training. But you can get carried away with gear – Nike+ or a GPS running watch? Barefoot running shoes or comfortable, sturdy Asics? You can get carried away with writing gadgets too. Plain Microsoft Word or Scrivener? Fountain pen or ball-point? Laptop? iPad? Spiral notebook? To start running you really just need a pair of running shoes, some clothes you can sweat in, and the road. Just like all you really need to write is good old pen and paper. You can’t let the pursuit of perfect gear prevent you from starting.

2. There are no shortcuts
When training for a marathon, you gotta put in the miles. There’s just no getting around it. Yes, when I’m running to work I’m sometimes tempted to detour toward the bus stop I know will take me straight to the office. But I know that that’s not going to help me on marathon day. Same with writing a novel – you have to put the words down on paper, or else you’re never going to end up with a finished product.

3. Sometimes you feel you’re not getting anywhere
I’m now running anywhere between 20-30 miles/week but when it comes to getting fitter, sometimes I feel like I’m not getting anywhere. Some runs are just plain hard, and I don’t understand why my body will scream against a 4-mile run when it ran 8 miles the week before. Writing feels like that sometimes. There are times when I feel like my writing is not getting any better (it might even be getting worse!), and the finish line feels further away than it ever did before. The only solution to this, I find, is to switch it up. Instead of a run, I jump on the cross-trainer at the gym, or go to the climbing wall with a work friend. Instead of forcing myself to write another paragraph on Oathbreaker 2, I’ll do a freeform writing exercise, or update the blog, or read a book to get inspired.

4. You need to have the proper fuel
In order to run, you have to fuel your body properly. My pre-run breakfast consists of porridge and a banana – boring, but it works! And for any run longer than about 6 miles, I take a bottle of orange-flavour Lucozade Sport. For this month’s Lucky 13s 13th day post, all the 13ers (including moi) are discussing what they eat and drink to get them through their writing days.

5. There will be pain
I’ve actually been fairly lucky when it comes to running injuries and (touch wood) I’ve never experienced anything that has been completely debilitating. That doesn’t mean there hasn’t been pain, however! Pain in muscles I didn’t even know I had. Soreness that won’t disappear for days, blisters in between my toes, twinges in my knees and beside my shin bone. In writing, there is pain too. The pain of rejection – injuring the pride you didn’t even really know you had – the agony of not being able to solve a plot point in a storyline that you created, the reviews that cut to the bone… oh yes, and the most common of writing ailments: the dreaded papercut! Sometimes those sting really bad, man…

*

I haven’t completed the marathon yet, but I have completed a novel and I can imagine those experiences will have some similarities too. Friends, family and complete strangers will marvel, and say that they could never do a thing like that… they couldn’t run a mile, or they couldn’t dream of putting down that many words. But what they don’t realize is that to achieve those goals you just have to put in the miles, put in the sweat, put in the tears.

Or at the very least, give it a go. And if it’s not a marathon or a whole novel yet, start with a 10K race or a short story.

For every writing or running journey, you gotta start somewhere.

The Joy of Books

This lovely video, made by the amazingly creative brain Sean Ohlenkamp and filmed at Type Books in Toronto, has been doing the rounds of all my friends and family on Facebook and Twitter.

I always used to daydream about what my toys would get up to when I left the room and it’s easy to imagine books being just as mischevious! At least at work, we always find our books mysteriously disappearing and reappearing… maybe if we set up a camera, we’d discover their secret. 

Have you seen it yet?

Getting the most out of your work experience experience (Working in Publishing, part 2)

Almost everyone I know in publishing started out doing work experience, myself included. For some people it lasted for a couple of weeks, for others it stretched to months, and the merits/ethics of it have been debated for years. It’s an unfortunate reality that to land your dream job in publishing you sometimes have to work for free in one of the most expensive cities on the planet, but it can’t be denied that it’s an invaluable foot-in-the-door.

With the help of one of my colleagues at HC (as in, one of the lovely ladies who shares my open-plan pod), I have compiled what I hope is a helpful list of tips for people embarking on work experience for a publishing house.

This list presumes that you have a work experience placement already. In terms of getting a work placement, all I can say is keep an open mind and cast a wide net! I never expected to end up working on commercial non-fiction when my dream role was in SF/F, but I gained such valuable experience it’s worth doing whatever you can get your hands on! In the beginning, don’t worry about being pigeon-holed.

Not everyone is as picky as this mug... but one of my ex-bosses was!

And now, on to the tips…

1. Be Friendly
It might sound obvious, but being friendly and polite is so important. You don’t need to be a social butterfly but if you make the effort to get involved – offer to help out on other teams, go for lunch or drinks when you’re invited and make an effort to get to know people in other departments – it’s much easier to be memorable. Publishing involves working closely with lots of different people, and so you should show you can work well in a team. Don’t worry about being bothersome – especially the junior staff, we know how you feel – we were probably in your shoes recently!