Miss Snark's First Victim
Monday, February 11, 2013
February Secret Agent Early Info
Please note: This is NOT the call for submissions! The contest will open next Monday, February 18.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES (please read carefully):
*There are TWO WAYS to enter: a) via email to authoress.submissions(at)gmail.com OR via web form at msfv.thoughbin.org
* THIS WILL BE A LOTTERY: The submission window will be open from NOON to 5:00 PM EDT. Once the submission window is closed, the bot will randomly choose the winning entries.
* 2 alternates will also be accepted, for a total of 52 entries.
* PLEASE NOTE: You are responsible for figuring out your own time zone. "Time Zone differences" are NOT a reason for not getting your entry in.
* Submissions received before the contest opens will be rejected.
* Submissions are for COMPLETED MANUSCRIPTS ONLY. If you wouldn't want an agent to read the entire thing, DON'T SEND IT. If an "entire thing" doesn't exist, you shouldn't even be reading these rules.
* Manuscripts THAT HAVE BEEN IN A SECRET AGENT CONTEST DURING THE PAST SIX MONTHS (August-January) will not be accepted.
* You may submit A DIFFERENT MANUSCRIPT if you've participated in any previous Secret Agent contests.
*If yours was one of the 60 2012 Baker's Dozen entries, please do not enter the same manuscript in this month's contest.
* Only ONE ENTRY per person per contest. If you send more than one, your subsequent entry(ies) will be rejected.
* If you WON A CONTEST WITHIN THE PAST 12 MONTHS (i.e., offered any kind of prize from a Secret Agent), please DO NOT ENTER THIS CONTEST. (Unless it's a different manuscript.)
* Submissions are for THE FIRST 250 WORDS of your manuscript. Please do not stop in the middle of a
GO HERE to submit via our web form.
If you choose to submit via email, your submission for this contest should be formatted EXACTLY as follows:
SCREEN NAME: Your Screen Name Here
TITLE: Your Title Here
GENRE: Your Genre Here
(Followed by the excerpt here.)
* No "chapter one," chapter titles, etc.
* You will receive a confirmation email with your lottery number.
* Submissions go to authoress.submissions(at)gmail.com. They DO NOT GO to my facelesswords address. Or any other address.
*It doesn't matter what you put in the subject line. The only thing you MUST NOT do is to use "RE:" The bot will think you are attempting to respond to an email, and will reject you.
As always, there is no fee to enter the Secret Agent contest.
This month's contest will include the following genres:
Romance
Women's Fiction
YA (contemporary, historical, SFF)
NA (contemporary, historical, SFF)
Friday, February 8, 2013
Friday Fricassee
It's been another good week for the comment boxes. Thanks for your feedback on Tuesday's post and your heartfelt response to yesterday's post.
This would be a lonely place, if not for your involvement. You are the lifeblood of this blog!
One thing I picked up on in your feedback was that it seems I'm not clear enough--probably because I keep forgetting that we're constantly picking up new readers--about what actually goes on here. One reader didn't realize that WIPs are included in all in-house critiques, unless otherwise stated. (Only contests that involve agents require completed manuscripts, for obvious reasons.) One reader suggested I ought to announce the genres of the Secret Agent contests a week ahead of time. Um, I do. Every contest month, one week before submissions.
So I need to make sure ALL my pertinent information is easily accessible, so that everyone knows what's going on around here. Of course, you all need to do your part, too -- read the blog regularly, make sure you're subscribed, pay attention to dates that I throw out.
One suggestion that I love is the idea of a regular Twitter chat. Feel free to throw out ideas for what those chats might look like. (I love Twitter. I just...love Twitter.)
As for the CP "tag" -- this is something I will have to chat about with Michael, my fearless programmer. The MSFV submission process is completely automated (as you know), and even the smallest change can sometimes mean lots of time for him. I have no idea how anything works, so I defer these things to him.
So there you have it. And here's your head's up: The February Secret Agent Early Info will post on Monday.
Hooray!
Who's writing this weekend? I actually have half-a-beat-sheet for my new project (hearby dubbed Sacred Doodlefart Draft 1), and...wait for it...I'm hoping to start ACTUALLY WRITING the thing as early as next week.
Couldn't have come this far without you!
Have a joyful weekend!
This would be a lonely place, if not for your involvement. You are the lifeblood of this blog!
One thing I picked up on in your feedback was that it seems I'm not clear enough--probably because I keep forgetting that we're constantly picking up new readers--about what actually goes on here. One reader didn't realize that WIPs are included in all in-house critiques, unless otherwise stated. (Only contests that involve agents require completed manuscripts, for obvious reasons.) One reader suggested I ought to announce the genres of the Secret Agent contests a week ahead of time. Um, I do. Every contest month, one week before submissions.
So I need to make sure ALL my pertinent information is easily accessible, so that everyone knows what's going on around here. Of course, you all need to do your part, too -- read the blog regularly, make sure you're subscribed, pay attention to dates that I throw out.
One suggestion that I love is the idea of a regular Twitter chat. Feel free to throw out ideas for what those chats might look like. (I love Twitter. I just...love Twitter.)
As for the CP "tag" -- this is something I will have to chat about with Michael, my fearless programmer. The MSFV submission process is completely automated (as you know), and even the smallest change can sometimes mean lots of time for him. I have no idea how anything works, so I defer these things to him.
So there you have it. And here's your head's up: The February Secret Agent Early Info will post on Monday.
Hooray!
Who's writing this weekend? I actually have half-a-beat-sheet for my new project (hearby dubbed Sacred Doodlefart Draft 1), and...wait for it...I'm hoping to start ACTUALLY WRITING the thing as early as next week.
Couldn't have come this far without you!
Have a joyful weekend!
Thursday, February 7, 2013
The Story Inside You
Oh, the online advice. It's ever-abundant, and much of it is good. Then, occasionally, I read something that makes me want to bite my coffee mug.
It's not that this particular advice was wrong, per se. It just hit me wrong.
It was the Don't Choose a Genre Just Because It's a Huge Seller advice. And mostly, it's spot on. If there are already twenty million YA paranormal romances in the collective slush pile, you don't need to add another one. If you discover how big the best-of-the-bestselling authors' paychecks are, and you decide to write exactly what they are writing, for exactly that reason, then you're an absolute twit.
But.
For me, it was different. For me, it was the appearance of having attempted to ride a wave, when that wasn't it at all.
Yes, I'm talking about dystopian--my favorite go-to genre for both reading and writing. Here's the thing: I conceived the idea for City Limits two years before I wrote a single word. Mark that: two years. I did not know what the word "dystopian" meant. I hadn't read any dystopian novels. I just HAD A STORY GROWING INSIDE ME THAT CAME FROM SOMEWHERE DEEP INSIDE MY BRAIN.
When I finally found the courage to write it (yes, courage--because I think part of the reason I sat on it so long is because it felt so "big"), I was just learning what "dystopian" meant. It was one of those, "Huh. So that's what I'm writing!" things.
I was blissfully unaware of the wave that was sweeping through the YA bookshelves. No idea that Hunger Games had crashed onto the scene, opening the gates for countless (countless!) other dystopian tales.
By the time Josh and I took City Limits on submission, editors had all come down with Dystopian Fatigue (for which, apparently, there is no known cure, aside from complete avoidance of the genre). Lists were full two years out and more. The market--as well as editors' brains--was saturated.
My manuscript must have had that oh-here's-another-one-trying-to-be-Suzanne-Collins appearance. In truth, I hadn't heard her name when I started drafting. It was my story, from my brain. In the beginning, I didn't even know what to call it. And when I learned what I was actually writing, I wasn't even sure if the correct word was "dystopic" or "dystopian".
So, yeah. For me, it was simply VERY BAD TIMING. I might wring my hands over the if-only-I-had-written-it-right-away-and-not-waited-two-years thing. But the story would not have been what it ultimately became. Two years earlier, I wasn't ready to write the story.
Then, when I was finally ready, the market had already outrun me.
C'est la vie.
So, dear hearts. WRITE THE STORY THAT IS BURNING INSIDE YOU. If you have examined your motives, and you know in your heart that you are not attempting to ride a wave that's already cresting, and you believe that your story has a life of its own, and does not exist as a reflection of someone else's story--then KEEP WRITING IT.
There is no telling what the market will look like when you finally land an agent/go on submission. Just write THE BEST STORY YOU POSSIBLY CAN. Get it critiqued, revise it, get it critiqued some more, rewrite the whole dang thing from scratch if you need to. But if the story lives and breathes inside you, then LET IT OUT.
I don't regret having written City Limits. It landed me my fabulous, can't-do-this-thing-without-him agent, and it maintains its place in my heart (and, I think, in Josh's) as a Good Egg. As in, it's not shelved for eternity. Not really. Some day, somehow, it will find a home. A place in the world. Because I really want to share this story. It has something to say.
There is a place, of course, where one needs to stop and assess one's direction. For me, it has meant moving away from dystopian. BUT AUTHORESS, you say. YOU JUST SAID TO WRITE THE STORY THAT IS BURNING INSIDE ME.
Yes. And I did that--last year. I struggled greatly, because the story-inside-me was another dystopian. Josh gently warned me; my own common sense tried to nudge me in another direction. But in the end, I had to write the story. And again, I'm glad I did. I love it, and I believe in it the way I believe in City Limits. But unlike City Limits, this one is going to sit quietly on a virtual shelf. Because it would be a waste of time to attempt to travel the same path twice.
Dystopian and I, for now, are not meant to be.
It's okay, though! I'm up to my elbows in MG Fantasy, and it brings me a giddy sort of joy. Fantasy is my first love, after all--I've been gnawing on fantasy novels since early middle school. (We're talking adult fantasy--Katherine Kurtz and Patricia McKillip and Terry Brooks. Hard core, UBER-geeky fantasy!)
What's most interesting about my current project is that I actually wrote it before I wrote City Limits. Of course, that was before my writing had seasoned and matured. The novel's been through two major rewrites since then, in addition to moderate revisions in between. All that to say: YOU NEVER KNOW WHERE YOUR STORY WILL GO.
So keep writing it.
You know best what's inside you. You know best what you're capable of, and where your passions lie. That's the pool from which you must fish your stories. Not the current trends, not Goodreads, not your favorite authors, not your mom's opinion. The stories must come FROM DEEP INSIDE YOU.
Read all the advice you can; cull through it, keep the good stuff. Be savvy; know the market, be aware of what's trending. Don't write in a dark hole, dripping bits of your lifeblood into novels like some dark, tortured thing. But DON'T LOSE SIGHT OF YOUR INNER SELF, either.
Write what's inside you. Work hard and WRITE WELL. Some day, at the right time, things will fall into place for whichever story has come into its own.
Believe that. And keep writing.
That's what I'm doing. And that's what I will be doing, for as long as there are stories in my brain. (Which, I expect, will be the rest of my life.)
Now go write something.
*hugs*
It's not that this particular advice was wrong, per se. It just hit me wrong.
It was the Don't Choose a Genre Just Because It's a Huge Seller advice. And mostly, it's spot on. If there are already twenty million YA paranormal romances in the collective slush pile, you don't need to add another one. If you discover how big the best-of-the-bestselling authors' paychecks are, and you decide to write exactly what they are writing, for exactly that reason, then you're an absolute twit.
But.
For me, it was different. For me, it was the appearance of having attempted to ride a wave, when that wasn't it at all.
Yes, I'm talking about dystopian--my favorite go-to genre for both reading and writing. Here's the thing: I conceived the idea for City Limits two years before I wrote a single word. Mark that: two years. I did not know what the word "dystopian" meant. I hadn't read any dystopian novels. I just HAD A STORY GROWING INSIDE ME THAT CAME FROM SOMEWHERE DEEP INSIDE MY BRAIN.
When I finally found the courage to write it (yes, courage--because I think part of the reason I sat on it so long is because it felt so "big"), I was just learning what "dystopian" meant. It was one of those, "Huh. So that's what I'm writing!" things.
I was blissfully unaware of the wave that was sweeping through the YA bookshelves. No idea that Hunger Games had crashed onto the scene, opening the gates for countless (countless!) other dystopian tales.
By the time Josh and I took City Limits on submission, editors had all come down with Dystopian Fatigue (for which, apparently, there is no known cure, aside from complete avoidance of the genre). Lists were full two years out and more. The market--as well as editors' brains--was saturated.
My manuscript must have had that oh-here's-another-one-trying-to-be-Suzanne-Collins appearance. In truth, I hadn't heard her name when I started drafting. It was my story, from my brain. In the beginning, I didn't even know what to call it. And when I learned what I was actually writing, I wasn't even sure if the correct word was "dystopic" or "dystopian".
So, yeah. For me, it was simply VERY BAD TIMING. I might wring my hands over the if-only-I-had-written-it-right-away-and-not-waited-two-years thing. But the story would not have been what it ultimately became. Two years earlier, I wasn't ready to write the story.
Then, when I was finally ready, the market had already outrun me.
C'est la vie.
So, dear hearts. WRITE THE STORY THAT IS BURNING INSIDE YOU. If you have examined your motives, and you know in your heart that you are not attempting to ride a wave that's already cresting, and you believe that your story has a life of its own, and does not exist as a reflection of someone else's story--then KEEP WRITING IT.
There is no telling what the market will look like when you finally land an agent/go on submission. Just write THE BEST STORY YOU POSSIBLY CAN. Get it critiqued, revise it, get it critiqued some more, rewrite the whole dang thing from scratch if you need to. But if the story lives and breathes inside you, then LET IT OUT.
I don't regret having written City Limits. It landed me my fabulous, can't-do-this-thing-without-him agent, and it maintains its place in my heart (and, I think, in Josh's) as a Good Egg. As in, it's not shelved for eternity. Not really. Some day, somehow, it will find a home. A place in the world. Because I really want to share this story. It has something to say.
There is a place, of course, where one needs to stop and assess one's direction. For me, it has meant moving away from dystopian. BUT AUTHORESS, you say. YOU JUST SAID TO WRITE THE STORY THAT IS BURNING INSIDE ME.
Yes. And I did that--last year. I struggled greatly, because the story-inside-me was another dystopian. Josh gently warned me; my own common sense tried to nudge me in another direction. But in the end, I had to write the story. And again, I'm glad I did. I love it, and I believe in it the way I believe in City Limits. But unlike City Limits, this one is going to sit quietly on a virtual shelf. Because it would be a waste of time to attempt to travel the same path twice.
Dystopian and I, for now, are not meant to be.
It's okay, though! I'm up to my elbows in MG Fantasy, and it brings me a giddy sort of joy. Fantasy is my first love, after all--I've been gnawing on fantasy novels since early middle school. (We're talking adult fantasy--Katherine Kurtz and Patricia McKillip and Terry Brooks. Hard core, UBER-geeky fantasy!)
What's most interesting about my current project is that I actually wrote it before I wrote City Limits. Of course, that was before my writing had seasoned and matured. The novel's been through two major rewrites since then, in addition to moderate revisions in between. All that to say: YOU NEVER KNOW WHERE YOUR STORY WILL GO.
So keep writing it.
You know best what's inside you. You know best what you're capable of, and where your passions lie. That's the pool from which you must fish your stories. Not the current trends, not Goodreads, not your favorite authors, not your mom's opinion. The stories must come FROM DEEP INSIDE YOU.
Read all the advice you can; cull through it, keep the good stuff. Be savvy; know the market, be aware of what's trending. Don't write in a dark hole, dripping bits of your lifeblood into novels like some dark, tortured thing. But DON'T LOSE SIGHT OF YOUR INNER SELF, either.
Write what's inside you. Work hard and WRITE WELL. Some day, at the right time, things will fall into place for whichever story has come into its own.
Believe that. And keep writing.
That's what I'm doing. And that's what I will be doing, for as long as there are stories in my brain. (Which, I expect, will be the rest of my life.)
Now go write something.
*hugs*
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
It's Feedback Time!
You know I like to keep things rolling around here, and you also know that I like hearing your feedback. So today's your day to let it all hang out.
Frankly, Blogger has been frustrating the cheese out of me. It has a nifty little "schedule" feature that lets you decide what time you want your posts to appear; this is an integral part of our bot system, which assigns posting times at one-minute intervals for all our contests and critiques.
Except--it hasn't been working. It exploded for the first time during the Baker's Dozen, and hasn't stopped exploding since. In other words, the scheduled posts aren't posting, and I'm ending up having to post them by hand. Which isn't difficult or anything, but it is tedious and time-wasting.
(It was especially interesting during the January Secret Agent Contest, when only about a third of the entries posted--randomly.)
I say this to let you know that, while I am going to continue to do in-house critiques between the Secret Agents regardless, it has certainly put a dampener on things. If I seem reluctant to do anything that requires 40 or 50 entries to post, this is why.
(This is also why we're not doing another critique this week, before it's time to move into February's Secret Agent Contest. I just... Yeah.)
Anyway! What are your favorites? What were you hoping to see last year that we never quite got around to? What are the most helpful critique rounds? The least helpful?
Any newfangled ideas you'd like to throw out there?
And what about non-critique, non-contest posts? What do you like to hear about? More Authoress? Less Authoress? LOTS OF GRAMMAR RULES? (I'm kidding.) (Well, mostly kidding.)
(Twitch.)
Seriously, I want you to fill the comment box with your thoughts today. Consider this a public meeting! Miss Snark's First Victim is turning 5 in April, and I want to make sure the blog continues to be a source of information, encouragement, and critique opportunities for all of you.
Have at it!
Frankly, Blogger has been frustrating the cheese out of me. It has a nifty little "schedule" feature that lets you decide what time you want your posts to appear; this is an integral part of our bot system, which assigns posting times at one-minute intervals for all our contests and critiques.
Except--it hasn't been working. It exploded for the first time during the Baker's Dozen, and hasn't stopped exploding since. In other words, the scheduled posts aren't posting, and I'm ending up having to post them by hand. Which isn't difficult or anything, but it is tedious and time-wasting.
(It was especially interesting during the January Secret Agent Contest, when only about a third of the entries posted--randomly.)
I say this to let you know that, while I am going to continue to do in-house critiques between the Secret Agents regardless, it has certainly put a dampener on things. If I seem reluctant to do anything that requires 40 or 50 entries to post, this is why.
(This is also why we're not doing another critique this week, before it's time to move into February's Secret Agent Contest. I just... Yeah.)
Anyway! What are your favorites? What were you hoping to see last year that we never quite got around to? What are the most helpful critique rounds? The least helpful?
Any newfangled ideas you'd like to throw out there?
And what about non-critique, non-contest posts? What do you like to hear about? More Authoress? Less Authoress? LOTS OF GRAMMAR RULES? (I'm kidding.) (Well, mostly kidding.)
(Twitch.)
Seriously, I want you to fill the comment box with your thoughts today. Consider this a public meeting! Miss Snark's First Victim is turning 5 in April, and I want to make sure the blog continues to be a source of information, encouragement, and critique opportunities for all of you.
Have at it!
Friday, February 1, 2013
Friday Fricassee
It's amazing how, every time I take the plunge and post something really transparent, I receive an outpouring of support and camaraderie of mammoth proportions. What an immeasurable gift! It reinforces the truth that we are in this together. And it reminds me that it's okay to fall backward with my eyes closed and let others catch me.
You never let me hit the ground.
And so, armed with nearly 70 comments, in addition to tweets and personal emails, I am ready to tackle this recalcitrant plot. Well, "tackle" is probably the wrong word. These words, spoken wisely in the comment box, have hit home:
My best advice is to hold your story as 'lightly' as you can in your mind. With so much pressure on yourself (I hear you there!) to find the perfect plot, you could be squeezing your creative self a little too tightly.
That's me in a proverbial nutshell -- holding too tightly, thinking too hard, forcing myself to COME UP WITH SOMETHING OR DIE TRYING. And this approach has backfired over the past several weeks.
It's amazing how your collective advice alone has helped me to relax. Knowing I'm not alone, and receiving so much wonderful advice, has taken away the nasty free-fall feeling. I'm resting in my ability to plot this story. And it feels wonderful!
Two more comments I've taken to heart:
Just put two of your characters together and Wing it.
Why don't you try writing a couple scenes you know are going to be in the book and then come back to the plot?
Now, I'd already done the write-a-scene thing, but it didn't help much, because I was handicapped by what I hadn't figured out. Yesterday, I sat down and wrote a scene of dialogue between my protagonist and the not-so-perfect boy who turns her life upside-down. It was a Reveal Scene (love those), and it dealt with the THING. As in, the THING I still haven't defined.
Undaunted, I gave the THING a ridiculous name, and kept writing the scene. I've never been one to use place-markers, though I know it's common. It's that dang anal-retentiveness! It's "I absolutely cannot move forward if I DON'T HAVE ALL THE RIGHT WORDS!"
I got over that (for the first time, really), and wrote the scene with a place-marker. And I could already feel my mind freeing up.
A snippet:
“So.” She folded her arms, pretending to be casual. “The mutiny was my people’s fault, and your mother brought the SACRED DOODLEFART with her, and it’s hidden somewhere on the moon. Have I missed anything?”
Haven’s face didn’t even twitch. “That’s about it.”
“And you know this because…?”
“I’ve told you. My dad was captain of the Frontier.”
“Which makes him an expert on the SACRED DOODLEFART?”
It's silly as can be, but it's got my brain moving forward. And that's the whole point.
This whole journey is so bizarre, isn't it?
Anyway, thank you. A million times, in a million languages--thank you.
I'm looking forward to an angst-free weekend (yes, I'm claiming that right now), which wouldn't be a possibility without your help. May your writing brains be happy this weekend, too! Goodness knows you deserve it.
You never let me hit the ground.
And so, armed with nearly 70 comments, in addition to tweets and personal emails, I am ready to tackle this recalcitrant plot. Well, "tackle" is probably the wrong word. These words, spoken wisely in the comment box, have hit home:
My best advice is to hold your story as 'lightly' as you can in your mind. With so much pressure on yourself (I hear you there!) to find the perfect plot, you could be squeezing your creative self a little too tightly.
That's me in a proverbial nutshell -- holding too tightly, thinking too hard, forcing myself to COME UP WITH SOMETHING OR DIE TRYING. And this approach has backfired over the past several weeks.
It's amazing how your collective advice alone has helped me to relax. Knowing I'm not alone, and receiving so much wonderful advice, has taken away the nasty free-fall feeling. I'm resting in my ability to plot this story. And it feels wonderful!
Two more comments I've taken to heart:
Just put two of your characters together and Wing it.
Why don't you try writing a couple scenes you know are going to be in the book and then come back to the plot?
Now, I'd already done the write-a-scene thing, but it didn't help much, because I was handicapped by what I hadn't figured out. Yesterday, I sat down and wrote a scene of dialogue between my protagonist and the not-so-perfect boy who turns her life upside-down. It was a Reveal Scene (love those), and it dealt with the THING. As in, the THING I still haven't defined.
Undaunted, I gave the THING a ridiculous name, and kept writing the scene. I've never been one to use place-markers, though I know it's common. It's that dang anal-retentiveness! It's "I absolutely cannot move forward if I DON'T HAVE ALL THE RIGHT WORDS!"
I got over that (for the first time, really), and wrote the scene with a place-marker. And I could already feel my mind freeing up.
A snippet:
“So.” She folded her arms, pretending to be casual. “The mutiny was my people’s fault, and your mother brought the SACRED DOODLEFART with her, and it’s hidden somewhere on the moon. Have I missed anything?”
Haven’s face didn’t even twitch. “That’s about it.”
“And you know this because…?”
“I’ve told you. My dad was captain of the Frontier.”
“Which makes him an expert on the SACRED DOODLEFART?”
It's silly as can be, but it's got my brain moving forward. And that's the whole point.
This whole journey is so bizarre, isn't it?
Anyway, thank you. A million times, in a million languages--thank you.
I'm looking forward to an angst-free weekend (yes, I'm claiming that right now), which wouldn't be a possibility without your help. May your writing brains be happy this weekend, too! Goodness knows you deserve it.
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