Tackling Revisions

Sometimes when you get those first notes back - and you know perfectly well that you're going to have work to do - it's a little intimidating. Do you ever feel like you're looking at Mount Everest, armed with only gym shoes and a latte from Starbucks? I do.

So the logical answer is to take one step at a time, right? Well, sort of. Yes, that's how you approach it, but you also should probably take the time to sip your latte and go get yourself some appropriate gear before you start climbing. 

What kind of gear would you use for tackling a mountainous revision? Well, here's a checklist we can all add to:

1. Notes. Gather all your critique notes and organize them into categories. Maybe you realize that Character A has an issue with likability. Make that one category. That can be one step up the mountain when you're ready. Do a pass through looking only for opportunities to fix that. 
2. Read. It really helps me when I read a good book before I start. That always inspires me and jumpstarts my brain. 
3. Crash Course. Go back to your favorite craft book or blog post about the areas you seem to be having issues in or that intimidate you the most and study up on it. Then you have some good picks and a bungie cord to catch you if you start to slip.
4. Time. Make sure you have a plan as far as when you are going to attack this project. You can't just say, "I'll be done by two so I can pick up the kids." Well, you can, but not with the whole thing. Be realistic in other words. If you have fifteen minutes, great! But don't expect more than fifteen minutes worth of work. 
5. Chocolate, music, coffee, wine, whatever it is you use to get in the zone. Your favorite spot on the couch with your laptop perhaps. 

Good luck climbing that mountain, friends! Maybe I'll run into you on my way up and we can share some chocolate. ;D

How Much Do You Invest In Your Writing?

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”  - Ernest Hemingway

Most of us nod our heads to this, right? We put our time and effort into our work. We write, we learn, we study, we read, we write some more, we revise, we query, we deal with rejection, we start again. Sound familiar? If you're in this business as a lark or to make billions, I have some sad news...

STILL, there's more we can invest in our writing and I'm wondering how far you would go? As in money, moola, smackers, compensation. Well you get the idea. Here's a list of okay and not okay things to spend your money on if you're a writer. Most are serious. ;D But honestly, it's something I've been juggling lately as far as promotion goes, so I know I can't be the only one. Can you add to the list, please? I know it can't be complete.

Oh and one more thing - I'm not saying you HAVE to spend a single penny. I'm only saying it may not be such a bad idea if you're already investing all of your time and effort to consider some possibilities.

Things NOT to spend money on:

1. Agents who ask for money. This is not how it works. A legitimate agent is difficult to come by, but worth the hard work. If they offer representation it will be because they want to work with you and they get paid by selling your work. Simple as that. 
2. "Publishers" who ask for money. Same deal. If you self publish, that's different. But if it's a legitimate press they should be the ones to front the costs for the editor, printing, etc. Publicity is a different story. Many authors do not get a publicist, or if they do, they still find themselves doing much of the promotion, but you can always negotiate this in your contract.
3. Don't quit your day job. I know, this isn't directly spending money, but you're definitely losing it if you do this solely to write. I know plenty of authors who still work and find time to write even with a family. Is it hard? You bet! But if you have to write, you have to write. Just don't forget you also have to eat and sleep somewhere with a roof over your head.

Things you CAN spend money on, but you'll have to prioritize:

1. Editorial services. Is it necessary? NO. You might just have fantastic critique partners who are enough. You should have them no matter what. Mine are indispensable. But sometimes you're close, so close, but you need a little more help from a new set of eyes. OR sometimes you decide to self publish and then it's an absolute MUST.
2. Cover design. This is only if you ARE self-publishing. But a cover is very important. I'm in love with mine, but I know my publisher paid for it. It's worth it. 
3. Contests. I'm debating right now entering a few of these. But each one costs money and it adds up. I think in my case I will swallow the bullet and pick maybe 3 of my faves. I'll probably get some input and do a bit of research first though. Is it a guaranteed win? No. Of course not, but the more eyes on my book and the more possibilities the better.
4. Conferences and continuing education. I allocate myself several smaller workshops or one larger conference per year. Each one has absolutely been worth it for me. I get so much out of being with other writers and learning craft. I love it. You shouldn't spend this money though if you're expecting to meet someone who will instantly offer you publication. That's not what the networking is about. If you really can't afford it, you can always find online free conferences. There's Writeoncon, which is awesome and I believe there was (and hopefully will be) Indiecon online too. 
5. Books. You gotta read if you're gonna write. Libraries are good resources though! ;D

What can you add? Oh and to save you a bit of money, we are offering THE BINDING STONE free on Kindle September 9 and 10th!!! So go grab a copy!

Social Media Tip of the Century

Social media giving you a headache? I admit that having published a book I find that promoting said book is darn tricky. I don't want to keep saying, "Hey, buy my book!" because we all know how annoying that is. I have a decent platform through this blog and Twitter. I did the blog tour thing and contests and goodreads and so on. But now what? 

I have to reach my audience. So I also started an FB author page, a Pinterest account (which is sooooo much fun), revived my Tumblr, and have about 7 followers (woohoo!) on Instagram. But how on earth do I manage all these things and know what to post where and when? I have a baby you know, not to mention two other kids and, oh yeah, writing to do. 

My friend, Martina Boone, tipped me off to the most awesome tool for social media I've seen in well, forever. So I want to share with all of you! 

It's called IFTTT. Seriously. Go there now. It's all logic and recipes. You make an account then tell it through these easy peasy recipes to use logic and help you out. Example: If I post to FB, THEN post to Twitter. So I made chains. I wish there were a few more in existence, but now instead of posting to all of the above I can say, post a picture from a website to Pinterest, then IFTTT will take that and post to FB, which will then tell it to post to Twitter and Tumblr. So I do it once, and *poof* it's everywhere! Cool right? You can also turn your recipes on and off if you don't want it to post everywhere. 

I am seriously so excited about this that I had to share with all of you. Did you know about this? 

Accomplishments

How do you label an accomplishment? There are the obvious ones: Score a great agent, get a book deal, etc. But there are also smaller milestones. We have to celebrate them all (preferably with chocolate). Of course you already know how amazing it is if you finish writing a book. Not everyone can or has done that (it just feels that way because we all congregate together LOL). 

Since I had my wonderful little angel just over a year ago I've had to rearrange my "hours" a bit. But I didn't stress too much over it because I KNEW I had to write. That I wasn't giving it up. It's so much a part of me that I wouldn't be a whole person without it, and she deserves a whole mom. 

Obviously though I couldn't do the full time thing anymore. X hours of reading, writing, and social media. Something had to give. But how did I decide? And when did I fit it in? 

Sometimes I don't, plain and simple. Sometimes I have to postpone my goal. But I try to make those daily goals small enough that they aren't impossible, that I can make them up fairly quickly if I have to, and most of all that I feel that I've truly accomplished something. 

It can be as small as writing this blog post. Let me give you some more examples of smaller things you can do and count it as a win (some have to do with where you are of course):

• query an agent you've been researching
• submit to a small publisher
• write a thousand words (or some other specific goal in line with your own process).
• revise a chapter
• do a critique
• reply to all your blog comments

All of these things deserve a pat on the back. And the more you do that? The better you feel about your writer self. The only downside? You might end up eating too much chocolate. 

How Important is the Writing Itself?

We talk all the time about character, plot and world. But I was thinking about the last bunch of books I read and wondering about what it was that made the difference for me between LOVE IT and EH. What I realized surprised me. If the writing itself was beautiful and seamless I was able to dive into the story and characters and world so much easier. If there were simple errors that I've been taught I should avoid in my own work, I had a harder time and found myself pulled out and ultimately enjoyed it less. 

Here are just a few tips for things to look for when you revise that might make the difference for your reader:

• Avoid cliches. Particularly when using comparisons like metaphors. I know it's tough, but time spent thinking of fresh ways to say things really goes a long way.
• Vary sentence and paragraph structure. Don't start every line with I. Make sure the page is a mix of dialogue and description. It makes a difference!
• Don't repeat yourself. Find the best, most unique way to say something and trust us to get it. If it's important, spend more time and detail on it than other places. 
• Lose the helping verbs. Don't be passive. Make everything you can active and in the moment. She had followed the footsteps should be She followed the footsteps. 
• Search and destroy. Find the words you use too much, locate superfluous adverbs and adjectives and see if they are needed. If there are two or more in one place, pick one. 

Will you miss some things? Heck yeah! You're human and that's why we have other eyes besides our own looking at our work. But we should get our work in it's best form before putting it out there. It's worth the effort. 

What distracts you about writing when you're reading a book?

So Many Blogs So Little Time

So today it's my turn on Scene13! I'd love it if you'd stop by and join the conversation there. *bats eyelashes*

In the meantime I will leave you with some quotes from Oscar Wilde:

“The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.” 

“It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.” 

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” 

And finally:

“I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.” 

Jan Lewis on Writer's Spreadsheets

Today I am handing control over to the amazing Jan Lewis who most of you probably know from Adventures in Children's and YA Publishing. Take it away, Jan!

When Lisa first asked me to guest post, I jumped at the chance. Then, I was like "uh-oh". I've never done a guest post before and had NO idea what to write about. Then my friend Martina reminded me that I should write what I know. So what do I know? Spreadsheets. I am the spreadsheet queen. I use them for anything and everything. So, today I'm going to share with you a couple of ways that I use spreadsheets.

Photo by CraigMoulding on Flickr

1. Blog Organization The most important way I use spreadsheets is to organize things for Adventures in YA Publishing. As the Scheduling and Contest Coordinator (sounds official, right?), I use spreadsheets on a daily basis to keep myself organized. The blog post schedule has its own spreadsheet with monthly tabs, so when I'm trying to schedule a new author, I can find our availability quickly. I keep the contact info for each scheduled author on the spreadsheet as well, so if I need to send a reminder email, I don't have to go looking through the inbox for it. I also have a spreadsheet where I keep track on Agent contact info and records of past participation for our agent round-up posts and contests. Again, this is way easier for me than weeding through emails, websites, and blog posts to find what I need.

2. Agent Tracking For any aspiring author, a spreadsheet of agent contact info would be an excellent tool for querying. Example column headings could include: Agent, Agency, Genres Accepted, Submission Guidelines, Average Response Time, Date Queried, Response. Or anything else that is relevant to your agent search. You can download the Agent Tracker I created for myself. Here are some great links where you can find info on agents and what they're looking for: QueryTracker Agent Query Connect ‎ Literary Rambles On my spreadsheet, I also included a "Wishlist" column. There's an interesting Tumblr that pulls Tweets posted by agents with their Manuscript Wish Lists. And of course, you can always check out our Agent Roundup posts on Adventures in YA Publishing for some insight into what agents are looking for: July Agent Roundup May Agent Roundup February Agent Roundup

I hope that you can use these ideas to make your writing life simpler and more organized. I'll be posting more spreadsheet ideas on Adventures in YA Publishing in the next few months, so be sure to keep an eye out! If you have any questions, please ask in the comments, and I will definitely answer to the best of my ability. Or if you have a use for spreadsheets that I didn't mention, please tell us about it. I'm always looking for new ways to use them!

Bio: Jan Lewis is the Scheduling and Contest Coordinator at Adventures in YA Publishing. She writes YA fantasy of the contemporary and traditional varieties. Instead of unpublished, she prefers to call herself pre-published. While she enjoys drafting, her heart is truly in rewriting and editing. In the past, she may or may not have been called a "Grammar Nazi." She loves spreadsheets, ladybugs, fairies, blue roses, cats, musical theater, and pretty much all things geek. She lives in Oklahoma with a husband, two kids, two cats, a dog, and a mother. You can find Jan on Twitter at @janlewis77.