Rejection No.1

So, I'd finally sent those letters + synopsis and first 3 chapters (of my kids' book) off to a bunch of carefully selected agents. The first reply took 9 days to arrive...

I'm a real writer! I got my first rejection!

I've been away for the last few days, so it fell to my other half to open the dread-letter and tell me the news. I felt more sorry for him, to tell the truth.

It was a personal rather than a form letter (good), and the agent said she liked my central character (good) and thought my writing had 'some lovely touches' (v v good!). HOWEVER, she said that due to the genre it would be difficult to place with a publisher as the market is so saturated with that type of book (damn and blast) and it would only appeal to girls (well, yeah).

Maybe she was just being nice, but I tend to think that she probably has a point. Then again, if she'd loved it then this may have all been irrelevant.

Decoded, I think she probably meant: 'Your writing doesn't totally suck, but I don't like it nearly enough to take you on'. Which is fair enough!

So how did I feel? Actually, ok. It was quite novel getting my first rejection letter - although I am sure as eggs is eggs that the novelty will wear off very quickly! I felt disappointed and a bit grumpy for about half an hour, then borrowed a dog and went for a long walk on a beach. This did the trick. After a couple of days to think about it, I do feel a little worried that maybe my book will be difficult to sell because of the reasons the agent outlined, but then again I'm not going to let this eat away at me too much at the moment. The most important thing to think is: HECK, I've written it, now I need to try and sell it and get on and write some more.

To that end, I've written another 1000 words of my adult novel and plotted out a second children's book. Not bad, huh?

And then there's this...

Just in case I'm disappearing too far up my own JLo-sized backside...

This is me writing my children's book (kinda)

What was your first time like?

Firstly, a huge thanks to all who have congratulated me on the SCBWI anthology comp win, it's much appreciated! Still very excited about it all, believe me.

And now, on to the next stage:

Last draft is done. I'm getting ready to send my first query letters to agents for my kids' book. I've done my research, picked a shortlist of agents who I like the look of and might be interested in my work, bought my paper, envelopes and stamps...

...and procrastinated for a few days.

This feels MASSIVE. I am terrified.

I shouldn't be. I'm not as afraid of rejection as most people (I was an actor, lest ye should forget), I've already had a nibble from someone important, plus lots of positive comments from various people who should know their stuff and the competition win. More crucially, I understand that if, WHEN, I get rejection slips this doesn't mean I'm a bad writer. It doesn't spell death for my book. It might mean a lot of things - agents have differing tastes and client lists, or maybe the book isn't good enough YET, or maybe I just caught someone on a bad day, or blah blah blah. Some of the people I submit to will think my work sucks. It doesn't matter. Some will think it's derivative, some won't get my sense of humour, some will like it but think that it won't sell, some will be irritated by my layout - WHATEVER! How many stories do we all know of bestselling authors who got 60 or 70 rejections before the big YES?

I know all of this. Why am I so damn scared? Am I scared they'll...gulp...like it?

I've trawled the web for every decent (and crappy) article and resource on publishing: submitting a manuscript, agents in general, writing a synopsis, approaching editors and the acquisition process, and read Miss Snark et al until I want to throw up all over my damn keyboard! I'm prepared.

All I have to do now is press print and lick the envelope (with the shaking hands and dry mouth that's harder than it sounds), but I am being pathetic. I haven't felt this scared since I did a bungee jump. I'm normally quite a bold sort of gal.

(Get up on a stage in front of hundreds of people? Sure, no problem. Write a damn letter? Aaaaaargh!)

So, humour me. Share your stories. If you have any links to webstuff that might spur me on, please post them. Kind words of encouragement or a bitchslap are both equally encouraged. I'll let you know if I grow the cohones!

Pop!

The title refers to the sound of a champagne cork...

About a year ago I joined the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, or SCBWI. It's an international organisation and the British group organise a lot of great events such as talks, workshops and evenings with various interesting industry bods. The society is made up of writers and illustrators new and established, published and unpublished - there's a newsgroup and various crit groups and it's a very supportive and inspiring. I'd certainly recommend it to anyone who writes children's fiction.

A few months ago SCBWI held a competition for unpublished writers to have an extract of their work included in an anthology. This would then be sent out to agents and publishers as a kind of showcase of the best new undiscovered talent. I submitted the first 4 chapters of my children's chapter book and pretty much dismissed the idea that I'd get anywhere with it. It all happened at around the same time as the whole Miss Write debacle, so I was feeling a bit down on competitions.

Anyway...a week ago my phone rang and it was one of the organisers...I've been chosen as one of the winners!! My extract is one of 12 to be published in the anthology! We're having a launch party and everything!

I'm so chuffed and full of disbelief. The judging panel consisted of three top agents and editors from 3 major publishers and I feel so encouraged that they felt my extract was half decent! It's a HUGE boost. I've been busy doing a final edit to my book so that I can start the submissions process, so this couldn't have come at a better time for me! It feels like a massive step in the right direction and has given me a chance to get my work in front of people who would not normally consider it.

You can read all about SCBWI and the anthology here.

And yes, in the last week I've had a couple of bottles of fizzy to mark the occasion!

One of those slightly vague and enigmatic posts...

I've been a bit quiet of late, blog-wise.

Been very busy writing, mainly editing my children's book like a woman possessed. Still going well.

Got a couple of things in the pipeline that I'm excited about...will say more as time goes on! All a bit tentative at the mo'!

Cuts - and What is your Ruling Passion?

The editing on my children's book is still going well. My initial cull got rid of a whopping 5,000 words! That's a third of the bloody book!! Seems incredible, but I over-write wantonly. It's a major issue for me, especially in dialogue. Which may or may not be weird, considering that my major writing experience up to this point has been writing plays.

Only another 1500-2000 words to lose and then it will be within publisher's guidelines for the age group. I'm not going to force it, but I think I can lose that reasonably comfortably and not compromise the story.

I had a major breakthrough at the weekend with my novel. I had been wondering why I'd stalled at 70% completed. I had the next section plotted, knew the ending, was in the flow - all should have been a breeze. But it felt clunky.

Well...

I've been reading 'How to Write a Damn Good Novel II' by James N Frey. I'm not hugely into 'How to...' books, but someone had recommended it so I thought I'd give it a whirl. It's an easy read but is definitely aimed at those who've had a bit of experience of writing or done a course. I don't agree 100% with all he says, but it's certainly made me think about my work.

He talks about how the main character has to have a clear 'ruling passion', the driving force/reason/intent that governs his or her actions in the book. For example, character's main ruling passion might be to find his true father, but he may have different ruling passions in different scenes; say, getting drunk or passing his driving test. Some of his ruling passions are mutually compatible, some aren't. If they aren't, this causes conflict which can be dramatically interesting, but the writer should always keep in mind the main ruling passion and not go off on too many tangents!

As a former actor, I should have been more hip to this. In acting these ruling passions are called 'objectives', the governing passion is the 'super-objective'. To be convincing, it's essential to know at any given time - as a writer or an actor - what your character wants!

It all sounds like such obvious stuff, but when I was made to think about it I realised that I'd lost the grip on my character's main ruling passion. It had kind of faded away amongst all the mayhem. So I thought of ways to strengthen it, cut a character, changed a bit of plot and restructured my ending! Not huge changes, but what a difference - now I feel like I know where I'm going again. And why.

Thanks James N Frey, you lil' devil, you.

As an aside to all of this, when I was a drama school and we were learning about all this 'objectives' stuff, I always used to think, 'Well, that's crap. I don't know what I want all of the time, why should my character?' Fair enough. But does that make interesting theatre? Or interesting writing? Moments of indecision are interesting/necessary/dramatic perhaps, but who wants to watch or read something about someone flopping around like a wet cod, with no direction or purpose? Not bloody me.

That's the KajJay take on it - for now, anyway. I'll probably change my mind in a week, but then as Bobby Brown (or indeed, Britney) once said, that's my prerogative...;-)

New Competition!

I haven't read all the t&cs etc, but at first glance the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award looks kinda interesting...(sorry, have tried to link to it but it won't work - they've made it really difficult to find! Go to Amazon.com - US site - and do a search for "Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest" or similar and you should find it somewhere in the BOOKS section).


I think I'm going to be excluded from it, however. I have a close family member who works for one of the affiliates of one of the sponsors. He found out about it from work and told me, much good that it will do. Boo, and also, hoo. I wonder how strict they're being?!

How many is too many?

A question:

I have over 30 named characters in my book - is this too many?

There is one main character, plus her 3 close friends and 2 love interests. These are the lead characters who keep popping up every chapter or every couple of chapters, either in person they're referenced by someone else.

Then there are probably another half a dozen satellite characters who appear/are mentioned occasionally.

Then there's everyone else. Various work mates, a doorman, a maitre d', an agent, an ex, an old friend. People who had to have real names, perhaps a bit of dialogue, a brief description. Characters who hopefully bring colour to my story, depth to my main characters who interact with them and they also serve as catalysts to certain plot points.

Personally I hate it when a character says, 'Oh, Jane's coming round later, with that letter she told us about...' and as the reader you're thinking - 'Who the hell is Jane?' and flicking back 100 pages or so to find the last reference to this bloody Jane. So I have been careful to avoid this. My bit part characters are exactly that; most of them don't reoccur and if they do I make damn sure the reader knows who they are (but hopefully in a skillful and unclunky way?!).

I've cut a couple of them, but I haven't finished the bloody book yet! There will be more! They're breeding without my permission!

Actually, they are totally under my control. But do you think I need a cull? Is 30+ too many?

I'd be fascinated to know how other people's novels measure up. How many named characters are there in your book?