Backspace Lesson #5: Bringing it all Home

I've spent the month of June walking you through pieces of my conference experience. By now, you know I had a great time (hello, understatement), but now it's time to wrap it up.

At the end of the May 2011 Backspace Conference, I hugged a lot of great, new friends, exchanged tons of cards, and promised to stay in touch. But beyond that, I promised myself to bring it all home. The lessons, the tips, the tricks, the details, the BOOKS, just everything, and apply it to my writing.

So, what did I do?

I pulled out my much-loved MS and a blank Word doc and started a rewrite. At about 25,000 words, here are the biggest changes.

1. Destroy the backstory/flashbacks. (SO tough!)
2. Start the story where the story begins.
3. Tone down the description. Be concise.
4. Make my MS more likeable. Snarky's great until it steps over the line to annoying/depressing.
5. Cut some of the extra characters. As Mr. King writes, kill your darlings.
6. Tension on every page (thank you, Mr. Maass)

I'm enjoying the first draft process and learning that, yes, I'll be able to do it again after this first book. That's an encouraging feeling and something I was really wondering about before the conference.

If you've felt the conferencing itch, there's a condensed Backspace Conference in November. All agents. 100 writers. Two query workshops and two first pages workshops with panel discussions sprinkled in. I'm still on the fence, but the early bird rate runs until the end of August.

Thanks for letting me share some of my conference fun. I'd love to hear your stories too!

-Marie

Backspace Lesson #4: Read, read, read. Then read some more!

The query letter workshop was an eye opener. Not so much from the 'what the heck's wrong with my query' perspective, but more from seeing the agent's reactions to the twelve queries in our YA group. Some were met with nods or head tilts or questions, others with requests for pages and one 'wow, this is hot.'

Go Koreen! ;)

We had the pleasure of sitting in a group with Kathleen Ortiz and Roseanne Wells, who were both amazing and so wonderfully honest. And I noticed that with each query, they recommended similar-sounding books for the author to read. They wanted to see a couple comparison books in the body of the query. And there were so many excellent examples from The Hunger Games of what to definitely do that I lost count. Ahh, I love me some Peeta.

Anyway!

My point (yes, I have one!) is that agents are reading, editors are reading, published authors are reading. Everyone is reading all the time, and it would be ludicrous for aspiring authors to get in a mode where we cut out our own reading. Read in the genre you write. Read outside the genre you write. Read books that sound so-not-for-you, and read the ones for which you're counting down the seconds (I'm looking at you, Original Sin). I try to get in a few chapters during my lunch hour, and when the book gets amazing, I'll bring it home and read a few more before I fall asleep.

By the way, this is the craziest thing in the world to do, because you don't want to stop. So, of course, you keep reading, and then it's midnight, and you say to yourself 'just one more chapter.' Yeah, how often do you read six or, you know, just finish the book? That's not just me, right? :)

Write like you're possessed, but read the same way. Set goals. Stick to them. And give every book three chapters before you give up. That's only fair, right?

Happy reading!

-Marie

Backspace Lesson #3: Listen to Donald Maass

The final day of the Backspace conference was an optional workshop with Donald Maass called Writing the Breakout Novel. He spoke for eight hours with a few water breaks and a lunch. In that time, I took about thirty pages of notes. No joke.

Don talked about character development, what actually sells books (word of mouth!), and an ocean of other things in a room full of people scribbling/typing every word like our lives depended on it. But the most eye-opening parts of his workshop revolved around enhancing conflict and creating tension.

Grab a pen and paper. This will take less than five minutes, I promise.

1. What does your MG want the most?
2. What is the complete opposite?

3. Now, can the MG want both of those things?

Then show that.

Here's an example. Say your story begins with your MG getting out of prison. That's all he's wanted for the two years he was in there. To get out, get back to his wife and son, and get on with his life. Once he's out, though, Life kicks into high gear. He discovers that his wife has cheated on him and his son is mixed up with the drug dealer who landed dear, old dad in prison in the first place. There are times when all your MG wants is to go back to the shelter of prison where someone else had things under control. And it wouldn't take much. There's still a bag of cocaine in his sock drawer...

Now, that's a weak example, but think about the possibilities. All the opportunities for conflict.

Some of the other questions Donald Maass asked, and what you can do with the answer in your manuscript were:

Who is your MG's greatest ally? Take that person away.
What's one thing your MG would never do? Make him/her do it.
What is the worst thing that could possibly happen to keep your MG from his/her goal?

Guess what? MAKE IT HAPPEN!

We're storytellers. We can do whatever we want! But no one will read it if we flatten out the roller coaster. So, run your character through the mud. Give your villain the advantage. Bring on the bad. And once your character is beyond all hope, has lost everything, can't possibly solve the looming issue, take thirty pages to fix it.

I would highly recommend everyone to go through this workshop. At the very least, buy the book and the workbook, because your fiction will look completely different when you're finished. My precious manuscript has the same umbrella plot and characters, but I'm changing everything else. :) Too dramatic? Trust me, it's not. You know those books that you literally can't put down, where the author makes every, single word urge you to turn the page, where you take personal days off work because you stayed up all night finishing Catching Fire and Mockingjay? Umm, not like I've ever done that or anything. Well, I want my book to hold you in the same way. I want you to scream in frustration, smile a secret smile along with my MG, gasp at the end of some chapters. I want my readers desperate for more.

Don't you? ;) Then Donald Maass's book is a great investment.

-Marie

Backspace Lesson #2: Be Positive!

The Key Note speaker at the Backspace Conference was none other than Jonathan Maberry, author of PATIENT ZERO and ROT AND RUIN and a slew of other books. I ran into him in the elevator after his talk and chatted for sixteen floors with him and his wife about absolutely nothing author-related. It was great! Published authors seem intimidating at first glance, but at one time (long, long ago), they were in my shoes, so imagine all the tidbits of wisdom they can share?

But I'm getting sidetracked...

Jonathan Maberry's message focused on The Power of Positivity. He emphasized that the world, especially the internet, is being crushed by a kind of gloomy despair, and at the end of the day, no one needs that. You don't need it. I don't need it. That girl in the third row wearing a pinstriped hat and glasses? Nope, she doesn't need it either. Bad things happen, true, and I'm not the kind of person who glosses over that fact, but for the things we can control (our tweets, our blogging, our actions), wouldn't we all be better off if we took a positive spin on as many things as possible? Definitely!

So, in the spirit of Positivity, I'm making a goal, right here right now, to bite my tongue on nagging complaints. 'It's hot.' 'I'm tired.' 'That celebrity's hair is stupid.' Blahblahblah, you get the idea. Will I catch them all? *shakes head* But I'll try my hardest. How about you? Any plans to be more positive? It's not going to completely alter who you are, but it might make your day a little more colorful. :)

To wrap up, let's (briefly) discuss a certain opinion piece from the Wall Street Journal. I won't link to it, because A) you've probably already seen it and B) well, I'll just bite me tongue on B). Anyway, a quick-and-dirty of the article is that YA is too dark, too pushing-the-envelope, and kids shouldn't be exposed to it. As a non-parent, I won't say that parents just don't understand (come on, Will Smith? DJ Jazzy Jeff? Yeah). But I had two parents who tried their best to give me a fantastic childhood free of the bigger and badder things in life, and I believe they succeeded, but not everyone grows up in Sciotoville, Ohio, and graduates in a class of 37 kids.

The world has teeth, and doesn't it pay to give kids/tweens/teens/young adults as much information as possible? Again, I'm no parent, but sex and drugs and rape and oppression and so many other things live in our great, big world. Education is our first line of defense. Read with your kids, and try not to judge a book by its cover. The marketing team that designed it may or may not have read the book. But, seriously, did I mention I'm not a parent? This is my own opinion and should be taken as such.

Any thoughts? I'd love to hear them!

-Marie
  

Backspace Lesson #1 - MINGLE!

We all have those Social Butterfly moments, but if you're anything like me, they come on the heels of dreaded Cold Feet Syndrome. Clammy hands, dry mouth, knocking knees, nervous (and extremely loud and high-pitched) laughter. It's easier to make a beeline for the nearest restroom stall than calm down and introduce yourself.

Backspace gave me the opportunity to mingle with published and unpublished authors, agents, and other professionals in publishing. Tons of opportunities to mingle. The trick? A smidgen of confidence and diving right in.

Yes I flubbed up my pitch.

Of course I asked crazy questions.

No doubt I laughed way too loud and probably scared people away.

But those things happen to everyone. Especially the laughing thing. Please tell me someone else does that. Umm, seriously, does anyone do that? *crickets chirping* Yikes.

Anyway! It was the exceptional unpublished authors who boosted my confidence. People in my situation who weren't afraid to march up to the agent panel, introduce themselves, and see what happened. If Day One of the conference was finding my footing, Day Two was about standing taller, smiling more, and trying super duper hard to dim my hyena laugh. I give myself a 70% success rate on that. ;)

Thank you to Laura, Nebraska, Eliza, Koreen, and so many others for being brave, teaching me to mingle, and encouraging (and, at times, lovingly peer pressuring) me to take the plunge. It was beyond worth it!

How do you pump yourself up at conferences? Are you immune to Cold Feet? What's your trick? And I'm still waiting to hear about that laugh!

-Marie