Writers in the Storm

by Kathryn Craft
Turning Whine into Gold

In response to a tweet promoting a recent Twitter submission event, I received the following response:

 “To put it delicately, f*** the agents and editors. Never pander to what they're looking for.” (Asterisks mine.)

 I would like to thank this “delicate” tweeter. His 92-character comment is so chock full of negativity and cynicism that it will easily power three blog posts here. I delight in the opportunity to turn this kind of whine into gold.

Since it is conference season, this month I’d like to address this tweeter’s obvious assumption that agents and editors are “those who are trying to keep him from publication.”

If you suspect this is true, yet are still planning to pitch to these individuals at upcoming conferences, your hidden thoughts are simply abrading twitchy nerve endings in a way that could result in hives the moment you offer your sweaty hand in greeting. It is to you I would like to address my comments.

It is my stalwart belief that before you f*** anyone, you should get to know them. (I’m old fashioned that way.) Although I haven’t f***ed a single one (sorry, that would be another column altogether), I have worked with agents and editors for more than a decade in a variety of capacities as a writing conference organizer, and since 2011 I’ve been lucky enough to develop longer working relationships with a literary agent and two book editors.

This is what I know to be true about agents and editors.

 • They are often…wait for it…friendly. They work in a people-oriented industry, they love hanging out with writers and other avid readers, and they love building interpersonal relationships within their professional networks.

 • They are often young and idealistic—but not necessarily. Some are middle-aged and idealistic, some old and idealistic. Agents come in all sort of idealistic ages. But the constant is that they are believers—and they are willing to go to the wall for what they believe in.

 • They are gamblers. They love that rush that comes with personal discovery; anteing up on a new writer or project is hope renewed. The agent gambles with her time, the editor with her house’s resources—but both are playing with a deck stacked with their industry experience and gut instincts, and are eager to see how their bet plays out.

 • They are underpaid. Think about it—they are making money off of the income of writers, who may only be next to dancers in the least amount of money paid per hour of preparation and professional effort…which means that much of what they do is done for love.

 • They are smart minds and sensitive souls, highly attuned to story and the human condition. They are avid readers who are so eager to find their next great read that they are willing to spend their nights and weekends slogging through any number of queries to find the one that touches them in some important way.

 • They are negotiators and peacemakers who are willing to take on the day-to-day business of creating a good book so that you can do what only you can do best—which is to write and promote the work you love.

• They are all of these things, yet no two are alike. They are individuals, with highly developed tastes and interests. They own the notion of subjectivity, which allows them to do business in a range of genres and to acquire like-minded clients.

• And yes, they are gatekeepers. Agents may close the gate for so many reasons, all of which should inspire gratitude in the writer: the submission isn’t aligned with their interests, they think it’s great but don’t know how to sell it, the writer isn’t ready for prime time, or they just don’t have time to take on a new client right now. But once all of those aspects align, the agent or acquiring editor is the one who can be counted on to be at that gate to open it—for you!—and see you through the maze of traditional publishing.

Because an agent or editor’s success is dependent on yours, you will find no greater advocate.

If you are pitching this conference season, or are cold-querying, imagine that the person on the other end of your pitch is eager to read, hoping to fall in love, and wanting to work with you.

It’s probably true. And how could it hurt?

About Kathryn

Kathryn Craft is the author of two novels from Sourcebooks: The Art of Falling, which was released on January 28 and has already gone back for a second printing, and While the Leaves Stood Still (due Spring 2015). Her work as a developmental editor at Writing-Partner.com, specializing in storytelling structure and writing craft, follows a nineteen-year career as a dance critic. Long a leader in the southeastern Pennsylvania writing scene, she now serves on the board of the Philadelphia Writers Conference and as book club liaison for the Women’s Fiction Writers Association. She hosts lakeside writing retreats for women in northern New York State, leads Craftwriting workshops, and speaks often about writing. She lives with her husband in Bucks County, PA. Although a member of The Liars Club, she swears that everything in this bio is true.

by Jenny Hansen

I dream of being an organized person, but being an organized writer would be even better. I'm popping in here on a Sunday, so excited to have found my shortcut to organization, that I had to share!

Awhile back, I did a post here at WITS called 10 OneNote Features That Will Rock Your Writing World. I love this program so much, particularly for us writers, and I honestly didn't think it could get much better but...last week, it did.

I hate paper. I lose paper. A program like this, available on my phone, is practically orgasmic for me because: "YES! No more paper." That means: No more writing down the best plot idea in history, and then losing the index card/Post-it/notebook it's written on.

Whew.

Microsoft just unveiled several new changes to OneNote, but here are the three I think will make writers dance with joy.

1. It's now free.

Yep, a cool new app...available across all platforms and tablets...gratis. (Let the squeeing begin!) Writers are poor, so this is exceptional news.

2. OneNote for the Mac.

All I hear from my Mac pals is "Evernote..Evernote" and I looked at it to see what the fuss is about. Evernote is good. OneNote is even better. However, it wasn't available for the Mac until last week. (Download from iTunes)

3. One word: Livescribe

Some writers simply MUST write longhand. It's part of their creative process and that's what they do. The End.

Your time has arrived, Longhand Writers.

Currently, I write with my stylus on my Surface, then use the "Ink to Text" feature to convert my writing to searchable text, which is pretty cool. But the tablet is small, and it stops my flow to scroll down.

What if I could just use special notebooks and a Livescribe 3 pen to write and make diagrams, then send all that straight to OneNote on ANY device? Oooooooh!

A great visual of the new OneNote:

If you'd like to have a class on OneNote, led by yours truly, a two-week online course begins tomorrow. (Don't fret. It's On Demand as well, so you can watch any old time.) The materials are geared toward creatives but it's open to anyone.

The class details:

• Course title: OneNote: The Simple Organization Tool for Writers
• Course time: webinar is tomorrow, Monday March 24th at 7 pm EST - it's available OnDemand afterwards, so don't worry if you can't make it.
• The initial webinar is followed by two weeks of online time where we cover the material and create notebooks.
• I want to save my WITS pals some moolah! Use discount code MORECOWBELL for $10 off!

Lastly, we're going to have THREE special things for this kickoff class:

• A member of the Microsoft OneNote team will audit the class to answer any questions.
• A drawing will held for attendees to give away one subscription of Office 365.
• Interested authors will be entered into a drawing to guest post for the Office blog. In return for the description of how OneNote helped you "get it done," Microsoft will promote the winner's novel at the bottom of the post.

Really, y'all...how can you beat that? (You can't! This inaugural class is the only one that will have all this, since it comes so quickly on the heels of Microsoft's rollout.) Click here to sign up!

Are you an organized writer? (If so, what are your tricks?) Did you know Microsoft was doing all these cool upgrades? What are your questions?

About Jenny Hansen

By day, Jenny provides training and social media marketing for an accounting firm. By night she writes humor, memoir, women’s fiction and short stories. After 15 years as a corporate software trainer, she’s delighted to sit down while she works.

When she’s not at her personal blog, More Cowbell, Jenny can be found on Twitter at JennyHansenCA or at Writers In The Storm. Jenny also writes the Risky Baby Business posts at More Cowbell, a series that focuses on babies, new parents and high-risk pregnancy.

By Sharla Rae

Writing children into our stories can be both fun and dramatic, especially when using them as foils for our main characters. But if it’s been a few years since you’ve interacted with them personally, it’s easy to become out of touch with their world.

You’ll find a few references to teens in my list of descriptions at the end of this blog, but my main focus today is on younger children. I did, however, come across an excellent blog by John Green and Veronica Roth called The 8 Habits of Highly successful Young Adult Fiction Authors. They have excellent ideas for portraying teens so be sure to take a look.

10 Tips For Writing Children Characters:

The number one rule is when writing children can be said of any character: don’t fall into the caricature trap.

Children should be as interesting as the other characters in a book. After all, if they are in your novel, there’s a reason.

Don’t over due a child character’s childishness. Kids are just small human beings with immature emotions. Humor and tears should be motivated just as an adult character’s should be.

Keep the child’s dialogue age appropriate, not too mature or too childish.  Few children actually lisp and baby talk is annoying to read. It’s just as irritating if a child of 5 talks like a professor.

Children are not stupid and child characters shouldn’t be either. They are aware of their parents’ reality; they just cope with it by using a more naïve and impulsive decision-making process.

Kids move. Constantly! They are balls of electric energy that can’t help jiggling, wagging, bouncing, humming, stomping, twisting their heads and bodies etc. Even when they watch TV, they’ll pull out a doll or an action figure and act out what they are watching, sometimes to the point of forgetting to watch the actual program!

The minds of children ping on one subject after another. The logic makes perfect sense to them if not the adult. Some of this is due to a short attention span.

They can be momentarily distracted but seldom fooled. If they want or need something, they will remember and circle back too it.

For little ones, especially toddlers, security is their number one concern. Mom or Dad or another “trusted” caretaker had better be within sight or hearing or panic erupts. Most have built-in radar when it comes to strangers and danger. But when they are playing or in a secure situation, that radar may be distracted. Hence, why parents often warn them about strangers with puppies and candy.

Research children. Listen and watch. How do they really talk? What do they talk about? What makes them belly laugh? What do they worry about? What are some of their quirks?

Note: I researched, compiled, paraphrased, and added my own insights to the above list of tips using the links at the end of this blog. Be sure to click on them. There’s a wealth of information.

Is there a difference between writing a child in a historical novel verses a contemporary?

I recently asked my daughter who has three little ones what she believes is the biggest difference between kids today and kids in her grandparents’ day. Her answer was immediate. Maturity at an earlier age.

In some ways, I agree but not entirely. This subject could be argued on many levels but I’ll touch on two basic points.

1) Kids will always be kids.

I can’t help but think of Disney’s Peter Pan. In the original story, we have the lost boys of the Victorian era who lived in Never Never Land. Later in a 1991 a sequel called Hook, a mature Peter played by Robin Williams returns to the enchanted land of his childhood. We discover a new group of present-day lost boys. They dress differently, their hair is punked and their lingo is modern. But they are very much like the original inhabitants -- little boys with big imaginations enjoying little boy games.

2) I’d argue that kids in the 1800s were just as mature as their modern counterparts albeit in a different way.

Life in the past appeared simple but children weren’t sheltered from their family’s struggles and were often part of the solution. Even the smallest child had chores. He might milk a cow while his older brother pushed a plow. Hard work yes, but it wasn’t cruel. It was survival. Children understood and accepted this, demonstrating a high level of maturity in doing so. And yet, they still enjoyed their childhoods.

Few modern children are expected to do rigorous chores that mean the difference between eating or starving. [At least not in America] They do, however, cope with the ever-growing situation of the single parent home. This coping breeds a kind of maturity because, again, a child’s major concern is security.

Today, TV and computers educate children beyond their years about the harsh realities of the world, like drugs and crime. But those same tools also contribute greatly to a faster rate of academic learning and thus maturity.

That doesn’t mean kids today are smarter. They just have fancier tools and are expected to pack a lot more learning into a shorter time span.

Tykes, past and present deal with many of the same childhood issues. What’s different is that with modern technology we “hear” about these issues more, making them seem greatly pronounced.

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  Bullies
  
  
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  Divorced/missing parents/Orphaned
  
  
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  Problems with schoolwork and the need to succeed and make parent figures proud
  
  
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  Fitting in and being accepted by peers
  
  
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  Chores around the house they’d rather not do
  
  
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  Economic strife due to family situations or outside forces
  
  
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  Sibling rivalry
  
  
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  Embarrassing situations
  
  
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  Discrimination because of color or culture or religion
  
  

Just for fun, I’ve included a youtube video the The Little Rascals, a popular show during the 1930s and early 40s.  The situations are exaggerated for entertainment value and there is no way many of these shows would be politically correct in today’s society, but the children’s antics are hilarious.  They are a good example of how a child’s imagination can run amuck.  

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ0TrZrIOjw]

Now compare the The Little Rascals to the Wimpy Kid in this video, Diary of A Wimpy Kid.

[youtube=http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=7ZVEIgPeDCE]

Here’s my list of descriptive words and phrases for children. I hope they help you with brainstorming. Enjoy.

Fun links:

Five Hints For Writing Child Characters, article by Gary William Murning
Children Are Better Seen and Heard (Take God Note) Writers Unboxed
Writing Child Characters – From The writershelpers.
Writing Realistic Children
Slang Words: What Young People Were Saying in 2013
Slang Dictionary for teens
Say What: A Glossary of Teen Slang
Kid Speak

Sharla has published three historical romance novels: SONG OF THE WILLOW, LOVE AND FORTUNE, and SILVER CARESS. SONG OF THE WILLOW, her first solo effort, was nominated by “Romantic Times Magazine” for best first historical.

When she’s not writing and researching ways to bedevil her book characters, Sharla enjoys collecting authentically costumed dolls from all over the world, traveling (to seek more dolls!), and reading tons of books. You can find Sharla here at Writers In The Storm or on Twitter at @SharlaWrites.