First Pages

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Nathan Bransford talks about five openings to avoid.

"Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying you can't use one of these openings or that there aren't good books that start this way.

"I am saying that you should think once, twice, and five thousand times about using these...."

And a few "first page" links from our class exercises:

 The Prince of Tides, by Pat Conroy.

One for the Money, by Janet Evanovich.

Special Topics in Calamity Physics, by Marissa Pessl.

Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer.

A Kiss Before Dying, by Ira Levin.

A Vision of Light, by Judith Merkel Riley

The Vampire Files, by P.N. Elrod

Darkly Dreaming Dexter, by Jeff Lindsay.

Bobbie Faye's Very (very, very, very) Bad Day, by Toni McGee Causey.

Darkest Fear (A Myron Bolitar Novel), by Harlan Coben.

Rascals!

So.  Tell me, class.  Did one of the Roberts set the clock ahead so we'd get out of class early?

Hmmm?

(Okay, this cracks me up.  Go watch the World Series.  And, go RANGERS!)

The Query Shark Speaks

Three recent lessons from the query shark [always spotlighted in the sidebar]:

1)  "Log lines are imported from Hollywood, and they have NO place in query letters. I don't care what any one else says, even normally smart agents. I'm right and they're not. Log lines are of the Devil. Shun them."  She makes excellent points here.  Read. Digest. Learn from her attitude whether you follow it totally or not. I think log lines are important for YOU to know what you're writing, whether you agree or disagree about putting them in a query letter.


2)  "Write simple declarative sentences, then add the pretty."  Some of the best advice on query letters I've ever seen in that single sentence.

3)  "Query letters can do a lot of things, including make you crazy, but one of the unexpected things is it can reveal problems with the actual novel."  THIS.  Blake Snyder makes the same point about pitches and loglines in Chapter [can't find it right now, grrr] of Save The Cat!, where he describes the situation where you're in a meeting and you realize the people you're pitching to aren't as impressed as you want them to be and you find yourself adding a new twist that wasn't there before--changing your pitch in midstream, meaning revealing/fixing a problem.

So, to sum up, the Query Shark began by telling you to ignore loglines, something Blake Snyder says is vital, but by our third example they are on the same page.  Of course, the Shark is looking at novels, and Snyder scripts. The Shark, at pitching to NY and Snyder, pitching to LA.  And finally, the Shark is talking about the end of the process, when you're trying to find an agent. Snyder is talking about the creative process, choosing the right subject and conflict from the very beginning.

They are both excellent resources. I suggest you pay attention!

Are you writing young adult?

I'm often caught by surprise by how many people are writing for YA but don't read what's out there now.

This article in the Winnipeg Free Press takes you beyond Harry Potter and Twilight, and into today's marketplace, the excellent writing and world-building and characterization of YA fiction.

The Harry Potter and Twilight series were blockbusters, of course, and Bourdon-King indicated that The Hunger Games, a popular science fiction trilogy by Suzanne Collins, is a current juggernaut.

"In the wake of that there's been a lot of sort of dystopian novels coming out. If you ask, I could probably list about a dozen or so that claim to be the next Hunger Games," said Bourdon-King, who will turn 25 next month.

"Publishers are really aware of the broad appeal that young adult fiction can have, not just to readers of 12 to 16, but to readers in their early 20s, to middle-aged moms, to retired people that just want a really great read.

"There's been a lot of just really stellar fiction that's been coming out, geared to young adult, but really the writing is so exceptional that it appeals to all ages."

If you really need to ask, "How big is the YA market right now?" Just look at some of the writers who have taken the plunge. Grisham, Coben, Reichs, for starters.

The Hunger Games trilogy has been on my radar for several years and I still haven't read it, which is really dumb, because now the movie is coming out and the series is complete and I'm behind the times, already. However, I'm not writing YA so it's not my real business to be reading it.

But if you're writing YA, it's yours.

Two Writing Contests

  30 Below Story Contest 2011

CALLING ON YOUNG WRITERS, artists, photographers, performers, and filmmakers, between eighteen and thirty: TELL US A STORY.We’re interested in narrative in the many forms it takes, including fiction, nonfiction, graphic stories, and audio/video works. 

$1,500 First Prize

$750 Second Prize

$300 Third Prize

Ten finalists receive $100 each.

Contest Deadline: October 29. See the Contest Guidelines. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fall 2011 Story Contest

With more than 120,000 readers and a host of excellent authors, including well-established and new and emerging ones, Narrative is a great place to publish your work.

Prior winners and finalists in Narrative contests have gone on to win other contests and to be published in prize collections, including thePushcart Prize, Best New Stories from the South, an Atlanticprize, and others. View some recent awards won by our writers.

Contest Deadline: November 30.

All entries will be considered for publication. 

$3,250 First Prize

$1,500 Second Prize

$750 Third Prize

Ten finalists receive $100 each.

See the Contest Guidelines. 

I'm adding a new writer to the sidebar.

I first discovered Patricia C. Wrede when I read the epistolary novel, Sorcery and Cecelia, which she co-authored with Caroline Stevermer. (I should have recognized my love for and my desire to write fantasy years earlier than it finally knocked me in the head.)

More recently, I bought and read A Matter of Magic, in which, "Magic and intrigue go hand in hand in Mairelon the Magician and The Magician's Ward, two fast-paced novels filled with mystery and romance, set against the intricate backdrop of Regency England."

But it wasn't until this weekend that I discovered Wrede's marvelous blog in which she frequently discusses writing issues. From today's entry:

Because there are two parts to “being a writer” the way they mean it. There’s writing, and there’s what happens afterward. Most of the people who talk about “being a writer,” whether they’re asking the question or whether they’re announcing to the world that they themselves want to be writers, are either talking about the perceived glamour and respect and status that they think goes along with publication and a writing career, or else they’re talking about the validation of getting published - the fact that someone, somewhere, has deemed their story worthy.

All that is stuff that happens after the writing part, if it happens at all. (And when it does happen, it’s nothing at all like the rosy dreams people have of what it’s going to be like…but that’s a different post, I think.)

And so I'm adding her to the sidebar of Helpful Writing Blogs.

Enjoy her books. Enjoy her wisdom.

The Writing Process

I love talking process. I love reading about process. Sometimes it even leads to the process of, you know, actually writing.

But when a science writer--someone who writes about facts and doesn't just make stuff up create stories? Talks about writing process? Even breaks it down into a graph? I sit up and take it seriously. I might even learn something!

Love, Amish Style...

Or, the "bonnet books."

A hot subgenre in romance, these are books written for the Christian market. Read what Lisa Miller has to say about them. (From Newsweek, December 13, 2010 and The Daily Beast, December 10, 2010)

Agent Rachelle Gardner addresses them, as well.