Pitchwars 101: The First Chapter

If you're anything like me, you stay on the fence about everything until the very last possible minute. This series of short, last minute posts will hopefully be helpful to anyone still unsure about the contest itself, the query, the first chapter, and the synopsis.

Check out the previous parts of the series:

Pitchwars 101: An Overview

Pitchwars 101: The Query

The First Chapter Checklist:

• Is your first line the best that it can be?
• What more, is your first line representative of the rest of the book? Do you establish your style from the start?
• Are you giving enough description of surroundings to ground your reader?
• Do you avoid over-describing and overwhelming the reader?
• Are you avoiding weak descriptors? Do you use cliched words/phrases? Do you use two average words to illustrate something when you could use one, vivid word?
• Are you introducing too many named/major characters at once? If so, avoid.
• Are you starting in a place that draws the reader in? 
• Don't interpret this as you must start with a chase/explosion/fight. This is cliche if it's not suited for your book. If your story is more character driven/quieter, then don't start with an explosion if it doesn't make sense to have an explosion! This is an extreme example, but hopefully you get what I mean.
• Is the length about the same as the length of your other chapters? If not (significantly longer/shorter), is there a reason for this, or could your first chapter actually be split into two chapters, or is it lacking?
• Do we get a good initial feel for your character's personality?
• Is this done through showing and not telling? As in, if your character is brave, have the first chapter involve her doing something brave instead of telling us outright. A lot of times, I find that writers use "voice" to mask straight up telling. Just because your character is hilarious and snarky and has a lot to say doesn't mean you can spoon-feed the reader a lot of disguised telling. We can tell!
• Is the ending representative? If it ends on a killer cliff-hanger, is that something that reappears throughout your book? If it ends on a more final note, is that the general style of your chapter endings?

As you can tell, I toss out the word "representative" a lot. This is because I've read a lot of first chapters. I've read a lot of first chapters, and then gone on to read more of the book. I've also written a lot of first chapters. And I know every writer is bombarded again and again with the reminder that your first chapter has to hook the reader.

This advice can result in a lot of amazing first chapters, but it results in a lot of "fake" first chapters other times (especially when it comes to contest chapters!). By this I mean that it's very obvious that the first chapter is trying to hook you, but if the first chapter is a promise of some sorts (of what the rest of the book is going to deliver), then the rest of the book must keep that promise. If not, the disappointment is crushing and ruins my enjoyment of the book. 

SO. Write an interesting first chapter, but above all, write a first chapter that is true to your book. 

Hope this was helpful! As always, if you have any questions, you can ask me on twitter. Stay tuned for the final post--the synopsis!

Pitchwars 101: The Query

If you're anything like me, you stay on the fence about everything until the very last possible minute. This series of short, last minute posts will hopefully be helpful to anyone still unsure about the contest itself, the query, the first chapter, and the synopsis.

Check out my previous post in the Pitchwars 101 Series: An Overview

• The query at a glance:
• A simple introduction is fine and actually preferred. Address the person you're querying properly, and then jump right into the body of the query, unless you're personalizing.
• The body (the part where you talk about the story) of your query should be about 2-4 paragraphs. One giant paragraph is off-putting, and more than four, major paragraphs makes your query look like a synopsis
• A query and a synopsis are different! The query should read like a back-cover blurb on a book, whereas the synopsis reads more like cliffnotes/a wikipedia page. 
• After the body, there should be a mini paragraph where you share your word count, your genre + age category, and your comp titles (usually two). 
• Try to keep at least one of your comp titles as recent as possible
• Try to avoid using the cliched comp titles (e.g. Harry Potter, Twilight, Hunger Games, Game of Thrones, etc.)
• Word count should be rounded to the nearest thousandth. 
• After this mini paragraph comes your bio paragraph. If your bio doesn't have too much of a tie-in with your book (e.g. you're a curator at a museum, and your book is about museums), err on the side of keeping it short.
• All in all, you really want the body portion to shine, and then just make sure that you have your other components and that all the info is accurate (e.g. don't lie about your word count)
• The body of the query:
• Establish your world without being overwhelming or confusing. Drop some specific details that can immedaitely give the reader a flavor of your setting, but don't have too many of these details, or go overboard, and save the more complex elements for the actual book
• Establish the main arc of your plot, and enrich with a line or two about a subplot. The main arc of your plot should be very visible and be the main driver behind the tension and stakes.
• TENSION! STAKES! Lack of these two is my most often given crit. But don't kill it with vague, generic statements that are all too common. "She must save the world"/"She must do X, or die" is not enough on its own. Infuse these statements with the flavor of your characters and plot. They're so popular because they do work, but only when they're unique. 
• The tone of the body should match the tone of your book. Serious book? Try to keep the voice pretty serious. Funny, witty book? Drop hints of that in the query.

Of course, no "query" blogpost would be complete without an example query, so for all the curious ones, here you go, two in fact!

This is the one I sent as part of my pitchwars sub:

Having snored through all her imperial lessons, seventeen-year-old princess Hesperia wouldn’t really know why the Ostian people loathe the seers and the magicians. Neither does she care to learn, not when she’d rather spend time in the imperial gardens, her one and only sanctuary.

Until the day she stumbles upon the king’s body in a bed of nightflowers.

With her father entombed in jade, her mother ill from grief, and her brother called away to tend to an impending war, Hesperia sacrifices her freedom to fill the empty throne. As queen, she vows to uncover the truth behind the death as one last gift to her honest father. But when the healers insist on calling the king’s passing a verdict of the gods, Hesperia realizes that the power of a crown may not be enough. 

Consulting a seer would result in death by a thousand cuts, yet Hesperia risks paying the price to secure an investigation and trial. The court, however manipulates the trial, framing enemies of the Ost as the king’s killer—enemies such as the seers and magicians. Hesperia must stay one step ahead of the schemes or watch the trial spiral into a tangle of prejudice and propaganda. She must protect her own secrets, craft her lies carefully, or lose her life. That is, if the truth behind her father’s death doesn’t destroy her first. 

At 96k, HESPERIA is a YA fantasy inspired by the social issues raised in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and the palace intrigue in THE WINNER'S CRIME. It is set in a world that is a cross between ancient Rome and China.

My family is Chinese and I've grown up knowing the great epics and popular legends of the culture. This had helped me craft the China-influenced setting as accurately as possible. When I am not writing, I am studying Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Thank you for your time and consideration!

And then this is the one I sent in my queries to agents post-PW, after my mentor and I polished it up:

As Princess of the Ost, seventeen-year-old Hesperia should be attending the blood trials with her family, not hiding from her maids in the watersilk ponds. But when she discovers her father’s body in a bed of nightflowers, she’s faced with a trial of her own: uncover the truth behind his death, or watch it go down in the scrolls as the verdict of the gods.

With her mother ill and her brother leading the army, Hesperia risks her life when she consorts with a forbidden seer to secure an investigation as a final gift to her beloved father. The war-hungry court manipulates the trial, however, framing the seers and magicians who have begun to re-emerge centuries after they were purged. With the help of a legendary assassin and her adopted brother and sister, Hesperia struggles to stay one step ahead of the court officials as the trial spirals into a tangle of prejudice and propaganda.

Now, Hesperia faces betrayal at every turn: from a neighboring country that seeks to use the seers and magicians for its own selfish aims, and from the only family she has left. With whispers of revolution simmering in the shadows, she must eradicate the cycle of persecution—or become its next victim. 

At 88k, HESPERIA is a YA fantasy inspired by the social issues raised in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and the palace intrigue in THE WINNER'S CRIME. It is set in a world that is a cross between ancient Rome and China.

As a Chinese American, I've grown up with many of the great Chinese epics and popular legends, which helped inspire the setting for HESPERIA. In addition to writing, drawing, and baking, I am a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in Psychology. I am a 2015 Pitch Wars finalist mentored by Mara Rutherford. 

So there you have it! Hopefully this before and after is helpful in giving you a sense of the quality of query that sparked interest among mentors and got me several requests for more materials, but as you can tell, there was room for changes and improvement! So don't fret too much about every single word of your query - it needs to demonstrate strong writing and do your story justice, but it's likely to change once you have a mentor.

Stay tuned for the next post on the first chapter!

Pitchwars 101: An Overview

If you're anything like me, you stay on the fence about everything until the very last possible minute. This series of short, last minute posts will hopefully be helpful to anyone still unsure about the contest itself, the query, the first chapter, and the synopsis. 

• Everyone's experience is different. I know people who worked with their mentors to rewrite their book in the two month period. I know people who only had to line-edit. There really is a spectrum for everything--the amount of revision, your closeness with your mentor, etc. For example, Mara and I were close (and we remained friends and CP's long after the contest) but I'm sure there were other mentees and mentors who were "closer" in the sense that they emailed each other every single day, gif-warred on twitter, etc. It worked out that I tend to retreat when I write and revise, so Mara and I mostly checked in every week or so. I turned in my materials on time, and Mara read them and gave comments promptly. So if you enter Pitchwars, just remember that no mentee-mentor relationship is exactly the same. That's part of the magic--the experience is really what you and your mentor decide to make it.
  
• I've been in some other contests before, and I have to say that the Pitchwars community is unparalleled. Maybe it's because it's less of a contest and more of a process, and you're in it for 2+ months, but your fellow mentees will become your people even if you are the most introverted, awkward, shy person ever (Exhibit A: me).
  
• The two months will pass really quickly. I was in school while revision round was happening, and before I knew it, August had become the end of October, and Agent Round was just around the corner. For some, these two months will be utterly crazy. I mostly was editing to up the tension and pacing in the first 50 or so pages, so it wasn't overly intense, but juggling assignments and exams was still a pain. Buy yourself a planner if you don't have one already--it will become your best friend.
  
• The agent round is stressful for everyone, whether you're in the tons-of-requests club, the Zero-Request-Club, or somewhere in between. There's really no way to get around the stress, so make sure you fill up your day with positive things, people, and activities.
  
• After the contest, people's paths will start to diverge. Some will get immediate offers of representation out of the Agent round, which will lead into immediate book deals. Some will get immediate offers, but fail to get that immediate book deal. Some will land great agents at great agencies months after the contest. And some will ultimately move on and write another book, and try the whole process all over again. Some, like me, will be in the middle (I got my agent about 2 months after the end of the contest, right around the holiday season, and...I am currently rewriting my PW book). There really are infinite permutations of where your writing road might turn post-PW, and as long as you keep that in mind, it won't feel like you're being left behind.
  
• If you don't get into the contest, just remember this: there are two main factors involved in whether or not someone gets picked: quality and luck. Quality means the quality of your submission materials. If you've had multiple eyes on your first chapter, query, and synopsis, and you know that objectively they are as good as you could have gotten them, then it boils down to luck. Did you submit to the "right" mentors? Did your mentors get a lot of submissions in your genre, or few? Did you not submit to the "right" mentors, but did that kind person pass you on to someone he/she thought would be a better fit? I was a case where I had not submitted to Mara, and some super amazing mentor whom I had submitted to passed me along because Mara wanted some more fantasy subs. So all the pieces aligned for me, luckily. But constantly, I imagine if I hadn't been passed onto to Mara. There's a very likely chance I wouldn't have made it into Pitchwars. Or maybe I would have. No one knows. 

So there we have it, very brief overview of what PW is like, based on my experiences from last year. If you have any questions, comment below, or find me on twitter. Stay tuned for a brief post on the query portion of your submission!

October: Pitch Wars and a month in review

Many a time during October, I imagined myself writing this post. How triumphant I would feel, knowing that I had survived.

And now I finally get to write it! Albeit sick. But I have my tumbler of warm liquids close by and fuzzy socks on, so it's not too bad. 

So if you've read this post, then you know that October was off the crazy charts. I was college counseling three students who are not native English speakers. I had to comprehensively + line-edit all their essays. It was fun but, as you can probably imagine, quite a bit of work. I also had college going on the in background, and the usual onslaught of readings and exams.

And then I had Pitch Wars.

I've heard about various revision experiences, from getting a few line edits to changing the POV entirely to tearing out sections and rewriting. I'll be upfront and say that I did not have to rewrite my book, and so I guess I could have had it worse in terms of work-load. My biggest/hardest edit was increasing the tension and pacing in the beginning.  

At the same time, I am a notoriously slow reviser. First, I take a lot of time to mull over solutions. Then I take a lot of time to implement them because I mull over word choice and other nit-gritty things like that. I am also a slower drafter. Basically, I am slow at everything.

So despite the comparatively "smaller" revision, I ended up slaving over it. 

Going into October, I realized that I had all of this on my plate. And since I like placing a lot of stress on myself, I resolved that I would not let anything slide. I would give my kids all the counseling that they needed. I would get the grades I wanted. I would complete PW to my satisfaction.

And now I'm glad to say that I kept my promise to myself!

(With the exception of one exam that I'm pretty sure I did not do so hot on, but that was an early November exam, so not officially part of the October crazies).

I think the key to staying somewhat sane (the bf would argue otherwise and say that I was not sane at all) is to remember to do the little things. For example, I rarely paint my nails during the summer, but come fall and winter, there's just something satisfying about having nice nails to go with my sweaters. So despite not having that much time, I tried to take a little time for myself every other week to paint my nails. I even got some new Essie colors to inspire me!

That might sound like something really small, and I agree it was. I had to give up some bigger things. My fall break is one example. While my roommates from Texas and New Jersey all left to go home for their fall break, I stayed at my dorm for the majority of it even though I live twenty minutes away. I decided to use that quiet time to work on revisions, and I'm glad to say that I got a lot done during those days! When everyone returned, refreshed, I was anything but refreshed, but sometimes you can't have everything (even I recognize that). 

But the thing about giving things up to accomplish something is to make sure that you then celebrate your accomplishment. I fall victim to getting swept into the frenzy of everything and not truly savoring my accomplishments. This time I was determined so carve out some time and not fall into that habit. 

So three of my good friends and I went to Linvilla Orchards for apple picking. This is the place that I used to go to for my birthday as a kid. It's been years since I last went. 

I actually didn't end up picking/buying any apples, but it was still incredibly fun. We all went out to dinner afterwards, and then I splurged on some fancy tea. 

In the end, was it a rough month? Yes, it was. Probably the roughest month of all time. But was it worth it? Yes, a thousand times.

And I couldn't have done it without the support of all the various people in my life. Thank you to:

- My parents, who realized that I wasn't eating as well as I should have. My mom, who works close to my college campus, took me out to lunch many a time during the month. She also read through the first 50 of HESPERIA again when I asked her to evaluate the changes. 

- My CP's Molly, Laura, Anne, and Deb. Some of you have read HESPERIA as I was writing it, some have read later drafts, but no matter what time of the MS I found you at, you have all helped it grow so much. 

- My fellow writer friends who have been so supportive on fb and twitter.

- My biffles Sean and Cindy, who remind me to have fun even when I'm all grumpy and convinced that there is no time for fun. 

- The Pitch Wars mentee community. You guys are the bomb. I'm neither the most social person ever nor the person who posts the wittiest and funniest posts, and so sometimes I find fb groups intimidating, but I'm so, so glad that this community is one that I feel like I'll turn to for a longgggg time. Thanks for all the hugfests, guys :)

- My mentor Mara, who literally opened this golden door of opportunity for me. Her fierce championing of the manuscript still blows me away sometimes, and I still have to pinch myself to believe it's real. Without her, this post wouldn't exist. Without her, I wouldn't have had the chance to go on this journey of my life. So thank you. Thank you.

- And lastly, the bf I've mentioned before. He's worn many hats for me--beta reader, idea brainstormer, restaurant exploring partner, cheerleader, and best hug-giver. We just celebrated 1.5 years together today, so he's really had a chance to see all the scary that is involved in the journey of a writer seeking publication.

Luckily, I haven't scared him away yet :D

How was your October?

2015 PitchWars Mentee Blog Hop: The Inspiration Behind HESPERIA

If you'd like to learn more about HESPERIA, here are some older posts on the MS:

-Nanowrimo Check-in #1 (where I talk about the conception of HESPERIA)

-Nanowrimo Check-in #2 (where you get to read an excerpt from draft #1)

-Post-Manuscript Completion Thoughts (where I get quite emotional over the roller-coaster that was the drafting process of HESPERIA)

-On Contests (where I talk about how HESPERIA fared in PitchSlam)

-Diversity in YA and my reservations (where I talk about the way I feature diversity in HESPERIA and how it doesn't really fit the conventional mold of "Asian characters")

This amazing art is by SansaXIX. Check out her profile for more.

As you can tell, this isn't the first time I'm talking about this MS on the blog, so I'll try to keep this post from becoming long-winded like all my other posts (and of course, I've probably jinxed myself by saying that). 

But yes, feel free to check out my other posts on the journey that this MS has been through.

Now to the point of this blog hop. HESPERIA, unlike some of my other MS's, didn't arise from a particular scene that I dreamed of or envisioned. Instead, I was very stuck in my other MS, THE SERENDIPITY LABS (description in my Novels tab). I took a break, during which I did a lot of knitting--finished my first scarf, in fact!--and Asian drama watching.

My favorite genre of Asian drama is wuxia, which basically translates into swords/historical/fantasy. And I especially love the dramas that have a bit of action but are grounded in political intrigue. Which means I loveeeee dramas set in the imperial palace, or during a particular dynasty. 

So I finished my 59 episode binge of Legend of Lu Zhen. It wasn't the greatest--there was a lot of petty drama between the different consorts and maids, which is meh--but I still enjoyed it. It got me thinking that I wished that there could be an China-inspired fantasy with the production values of, say, Game of Thrones. Because that would totally rock. There are so many inspiration-serving Chinese legends and classics and epics as a result of its enormous history. So many of those legends and classics (such as Water Margin, Dream of the Red Chamber, Journey to the West) are unaccessible to Western audiences, however, not because they haven't been translated, but I suspect because of cultural barriers. Plus, being classics, they aren't really...as palatable or easy to get into as YA fiction. I certainly haven't read those monsters--I've watched drama adaptations of them.

With the thought of something Asian inspired and something classical in my mind, an idea suddenly hit me. Why not take a really popular and pretty accessible Western novel in the classical canon, fantasify it, and give it an Asian twist? By the way, I thought I was sooo clever when I thought of doing a "retelling" of a classic, since there were so many fairytale retellings out there but not as many classic retellings (other than Shakespeare ones and Jane Austen ones). Well turns out I'm not so clever because as HuffPost shows, classic retellings are going to be a big thing in 2016. 

*weeps*

(I see now how my posts grow so long-winded)

Anyway, I settled on To Kill a Mockingbird because I really enjoyed the themes of the book and how they were delivered so innocently and simply. The court scene chapters were also some of my favorites to ever read in any classic, and I thought it'd be really cool to incorporate them in a fantasy setting and infuse them with political intrigue.

And the rest is history.

I'd say that the themes in HESPERIA are pretty clear, and you can probably tell the TKAM influence if you read it. For example, Hesperia's prejudice and discrimination toward her half-brother Roon serve to represent a microcosm of the prejudice and discrimination rampant in the book against the seers and magicians. It's only when she starts realizing that people only discriminate because of their own insecurities (in the case of Hesperia, the friction between her blood-brother and not being loved by her own mother. For the people of the kingdom, it's insecurity about their safety and peace) that she is able start to overcome her prejudice toward the seers and magicians.

There are some pretty crucial parts of the trials that mirror the trials in TKAM.

And if you pay attention to some of the characters, you'll see that some have been inspired by characters in TKAM (namely Roon and the Damalee = Boo Radley, Warnick = Tom Robinson).

Okay, I'm done! Didn't mean for that to turn into an analysis of literature. Many of my blog readers are people who've stuck with me through thick and thin, and so hopefully this is sort of interesting to you, especially if you've read the MS :)

Check out the rest of the Mentees' posts here. 

An Update of Sorts

As I've mentioned before, I'm PACKED* this month. I haven't ever had to juggle so much. But while reflecting on the busyness, I actually find some things hilarious. So this is a quick snapshot of what's going on in my life.

*college counseling three kids who are applying to a bunch of 11/1 deadlines, participating in Pitchwars, the launch of Penn's peer counseling group (and of course, college, which almost feels deceptively insignificant at this point but really isn't...so much work)

On the food scene:

-I've consumed a lot of peanut butter sandwiches:

-And a lot of almonds:

-And a lot of coffee (by a lot I really mean my cup-a-day, but I was actually off coffee for a while before this month. Now I'm back to getting headaches when I don't drink it in the mornings!)

On the school scene:

-I'm done midterms! For like, a week and a half! And then I have round two of exams! Weee!!!

On the reading scene:

-*cue cricket chirps* I really need to read the MS for a CP before the month of October ends. So once I have reading time in my life again, that's the first thing I'm doing. 

-Does college-required reading count? Not really in my mind...

On the clothing scene:

-Comfy and easy to wash clothes all day, all night. Pajamas are my friend.

On the social scene:

- Me to the BF: Hey, read this. *shoves MS into his face*

BF: *reluctantly stops spectating a video game tournament* *reads* It's good.

Me: Pinpoint exactly what it is that is good. And tell me if its better than the original. It needs to be better than the original. I'm just not really sure if it is.

BF: Well...you know I like the original. Basically, I like everything you write. Everything is unicorns and rainbows. *eyes drift back to video game*

Me: *uses amazing detective skills and reads into that as a bad sign* Welp. Everything I write sucks. I hate revising. You're unhelpful. Goodbye.

-And literally, that's all I have going on socially. I have been interacting with a minimal number of human beings. 

How's October going for you?

In My Experience: Murdering Your Darlings

As someone who had been on the whole writing bandwagon for some time now, I'm more than familiar with some of the popular terms and phrases that float around the writing community. I've always wanted to do a series of posts on how some of these terms apply to me and what my experience is with them. So from now on, I'm going to call them the "In My Experience" posts, or IME.

 

Today I really want to talk about the phrase "murder your darlings". In short, it means cutting away the words, scenes, chapters, or even whole plots and characters that you love but that may not serve the purpose of advancing or deepening the novel. "Advancing" and "deepening" are obviously fluid words that can be subjectively defined. There are many posts out there that do the task of delineating exactly what is considered a "darling" and how you might "murder" them, and I encourage you to find them if you are still curious, because I won't be going into much more depth.

The selection of this particular phrase is inspired by the fact that I was lucky enough to have the wonderful Mara select me as her mentee for this year's PitchWars. Because of this, I'm a part of the 2015 PitchWars mentee Faceook group, where talented and awesome writers encourage each other and commiserate together. The term "murder your darlings" has popped up in the stream of FB posts quite frequently because the abundance of darlings is a common problem that writers face. Now their wise mentors are encouraging them to take up the knife and cut away.

So IME, how have I dealt with murdering the darlings?

I haven't, and here is why.

If you've read some other posts of mine, you probably know that when I first got into writing, it was through the medium of fanfiction. And if you have ever read or written some fanfiction, you know the prevalence of "fluff" scenes. Fluffy scenes are basically the darlings. It makes sense that the darlings and fluff thrive in fanfiction. Readers and writers already adore the original work or canon that inspires the fanfic. They aren't necessarily reading or writing the next best classic or looking for something "deep". I've been in a place where all I wanted to read about was two characters, whose relationship was never really explored in the cannon, just talking and doing cutesy things together. 

In my own fanfiction, I've written more than my fair share of fluff. My ability to write drool-worthy fluff was praised by my readers (who are the most supportive readers a writer could have), and this in turn bolstered my confidence in my general ability to write. Why not, I began to think, write a novel?

So I did. The end-result was a plotless thing that was entirely fluff. 

(Thinking back, this novel sort of got all the fluff out of my system. Nowadays, I rarely feel the burning desire to write fluff.)

I open it sometimes and reread some of the chapters. I still love it. But after finishing that MS and sending out like...one query, I shelved it because I realized that I had approached the novel as fanfiction, simply with my original characters rather than someone else's. 

Ever since, I've turned my plentiful experience as a fanfiction writer into a ruler, against which I measure how "fluffy" something might be while I'm drafting. This is how my fluff litmus test goes down:

Am I writing this scene/character interaction/character/chapter/(insert unit of writing here):

1. Primarily for romance?

• This one is pretty self-explanatory because I think it's the main cause of too many darlings. From the perspective of a YA writer, I can see why I'd want to sweep the reader off his/her feet with that gorgeous romance. But it's all too easy for the writer to also get swept off his/her feet, and that's when we have scenes that are just there for the romance and don't do much else.

2. Because I really just want X thing to happen because I know that I can write it well? 

• Example: A writer who is also a cook who likes to write random food scenes into the novel. This is not to say that you can't have scenes or an entire book built on top of cooking and food. You can if the food is central to the plot. IME, I do, however, have a tendency want to write what I know best or what comes easiest to me, which isn't always best for the story.

3. Solely to make myself, the writer, happy? 

• This question sounds pretty bad. No, I'm not saying that your writing should make you unhappy. I assure you that I love writing, but I've realized that some of my best scenes are the products of some struggle and complex planning in my head. Contrast this to the ease of writing fanfiction--the fluff just pours out and can put this grin on your face and you soak it up yourself. It's probably why my most popular fanfic ended up at 140k words, a pretty big no-no for conventional YA novels).

I'll subconsciously run through these questions when I'm drafting if I suspect that something is becoming a little too indulgent in the novel. If I answer "yes" to one or more, I'll take a step back and examine if I really need/want this scene. Most of the times, the answer is no. If the answer is "yes", I'll try to weave in something else so that the scene can multitask. 

There are downsides to being really strict on the fluff during the drafting stage, of course. For example, I more often than not underwrite instead of overwrite. I might have to go back to develop things more. The romantic arcs of my novels tend to take a backseat to the plot, so sometimes I do have to go back and insert more romance, or fluff. But I find inserting fluff more easier than cutting it away. Maybe it's simply because I'm a pessimist, but it feels better for me to grit my teeth and get the bare-bones, essential parts (and often harder to write parts) of the novel down before I indulge. 

Lastly, I am all for darlings. After all, while fanfiction and novels are beasts of different sorts, they often both have the same goal: bringing joy to the reader. And so of course there is a place for darlings, just in moderation. 

Hopefully, through reading about my experience with those beloved and dreaded darlings, you might gain some insights on how you treat them yourself! I'd love to hear your thoughts on the phrase! And good luck and much chocolate to everyone who is revising like I am for PitchWars!

On contests

part I out of II

This entry was inspired by a post by the lovely Storm Owl. You can check it out (and the rest of her blog) here. 

I recently surprised myself by entering two pitch contests (Nestpitch and Pitchslam). Why? Because I'm always a pessimist when it comes to contests--all contests, not just writing ones.

I'm not a competitive person. I never liked applying for scholarships, internships, or anything where the chances of receiving something are low because you have a thousand other people, just as qualified as you, vying for your spot. I convince myself that the statistics are against me, and that I might as well not compete. After all, there are other methods of getting to places, methods that don't require contests.

However, being pessimistic also helps sometimes, for me at least. As in when I do enter, I have zero expectations. Obviously they'll rise every now and then, but I'm quick to squash them.

I was been extremely fortunate to be chosen as a finalist in Pitchslam, and even more fortunate for HESPERIA, my YA fantasy, to garner some interest from agents.

But the key is here is fortunate. Because I know what I'm going up against when it comes to pitch contests. I'll generalize and say that writers are really hard-working, smart, motivated people, and they make for fierce competition. They're cognizant of the market, able to whip out some super high-concept, hooky premises and even hookier pitches, no matter the length.

Generally speaking, a lot of writers' first pages rock.

Which is why I was nervous entering the ring with HESPERIA. Having written my own share of gripping (or my attempts at) first pages, I knew where HESPERIA would be at a disadvantage.

Voice: Hesperia herself as a character is more subtle. Her voice is naturally muted, suppressed by the years she's been groomed to become queen.

Pacing/Action/Intrigue: She's running from the imperial maids. No one has died yet, no wars have broken out. No one mysterious or dangerous has appeared. Hesperia's actions could easily be interpreted as frolicking through the gardens.

Pitch: My comp titles (which weren't even included) are TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD meets GAME OF THRONES. Needless to say, the two don't exactly seem to mesh that well together at first glance and can leave the reader scratching her head. When it comes down to it, it's hard to package HESPERIA into a neat bundle of 35 words without stripping it down to its barest of bones and leaving stuff out--a lot of stuff out.

Do these things make HESPERIA a bad novel? No. The novel is certainly not perfect, but it accomplished my writer's vision and does what it needs to do.

The aforementioned things do not at all make HESPERIA a bad novel.

They DO, however, make it a harder novel to do well with in contests.

There will always be the manuscripts that are made for contests, just by nature of the premise, genre, characters, voice, etc. Granted, they may need some rewrites. They may need new beginnings. But at their cores, they can be contest-ready with some polish and shine.

Then there are the other manuscripts, the ones that aren't as photogenic in contests.

To clarify, I don't mean that these manuscripts will flounder and fail. First off, many are brilliant. Many of them will actually make it to the final rounds--I've seen it. But they require more work. Whatever the reason may be--bad timing, oversaturated genre, not as relatable characters--they are not as cooperative when you as a writer are trying to fit them into their best suits and dresses.

At that point, you have two choices. You can always (and I mean always) whip your manuscript into spectacular contest shape with the work. But sometimes, this may call for you to adjust your authorial vision. You might have to relinquish bits and pieces that you love. For example, you and your CP might love your first page, but it's not really doing its job in contests.

Do you change it? If you do, the contest-version first page might not necessarily be better that the first. It'll be better for contests and for the competitive contest atmosphere.

To sum up, always remember that "better" is relative once you've already poured the tears and sweat over your novel. You can't make everyone happy. Certain types of novels absolutely bask in contests and in front of audiences. And other types of novels are just as good but will fare better through different channels of achieving an agent/publication.

Have you ever had a novel that you worked hard on and personally loved, but didn't end up resonating with others?