YA Highway

*The girls are tweeting live from the conference! Make sure you're following yaHighway on twitter.

*Search for the hastag #LA10SCBWI to read all the writing tips and juicy tidbits of what's going down in LA.

*Kathleen rounded up some of the best tweets so far over at Tales of a Writing Geek.

Now prop yourself up in that lounge chair and soak in the sun. It's almost like you're right there in the Golden State . . . Almost ;)

SCBWI Updates

THIS WEEK IN THE RANDOM

And in real news - OH NO!!! Lady Gaga has kidnapped Commissioner Gordon! I'm reading out about this. Aren't you? The Onion tells all!

Wait? What do you mean The Onion isn't real news? But I thought . . .

And Commissioner Gordon is a Batman character? Not a real guy? But . . . Oh, I see.

Well, Lady Gaga really is a supervillain, so all is well! (A superawesome supervillain, obvs.)

Yay! I survived my first FTF post!!! I'm so proud of myself! And hopefully no one was harmed in the making of this post . . . hopefully.

* * *

Dear Kate,

Never leave me again, please. I beg of you. I may actually die if you go away for another Friday. I think the entire world, after seeing this post, agrees.

So, again, I ask: NEVER LEAVE ME!

Love always,

Kody

Field Trip Friday: July 30

I recently was asked by the exceptional agent I’m reading for (“La Agent” hereafter) to look at a manuscript on which she had requested some revisions. She didn’t tell me what her initial thoughts were, nor what kinds of changes she’d suggested to the writer (she’s always trying to test me :P) (not really) (maybe really). So I read. There were problems and not little ones, either. I started wondering about what kind of suggestions La Agent had given but, even more so, about how much of those suggestions the writer had taken to heart.

Not until I’d sent my thoughts on the manuscript back did La Agent reveal both her notes – and the fact that the writer took three days to complete the requested changes.

It is not an impossible feat to complete revisions in three days. The line edits portion of revisions are an easy fix. It’s also not impossible to complete some revisions in three nose-to-the-grindstone day;. even larger plot-specific or character development revisions can be completed in a short period of time, though I've yet to see a successful example since I began interning.

Writers really need to get it out of their heads to do quick revisions. Maybe it's a combination of excitement that "Wow, the agent likes it!" and fear that "Oh no, if I don't do the revisions quickly the agent will forget about me!" that helps drive these fast revisions. I promise, the agent won’t forget your work. Even in a month. Even in a year. I’m not lying about this. The agent obviously saw something intriguing and that spark of interest doesn’t just peter out. If an agent takes the hours to produce insightful comments on your manuscript, there is interest on the agent's part.

After I'd read the revised manuscript, La Agent and I discussed the original vs. the revised manuscript; talked about the continued problems we were seeing; and mourned the rejection to be sent to the writer (I can’t stress enough that agents really, really want to see great work from writers, really, really want to sign writers, and really, really don’t love sending rejections). But we also aired our frustrations over writers taking a Revise and Resubmit and not doing a thorough job of it.

We know you don’t have to follow every agent suggestion. You don’t have to add everything s/he wants you to add or cut everything s/he wants you to cut. This is your story. Revisions are suggestions – but they are coming from a place of experience in reading/writing and a knowledge of what editors are seeking. So, no, you don’t have to do everything an agent asks, but please take the suggestions to heart. Here are some suggestions for completing a Revise and Resubmit.

1. Take your time. Read the suggestions. Mull them over before making actual physical changes. Mulling does not take fifteen minutes. New definition of mull: To think or ponder for a long time. Decide how the suggestions affect/change your characters, your plot, tension, motivations. Rip everything apart to the point that band-aid solutions won’t stop the bleeding. Dig deeper. Revisions are not the same as “rearranging,” nor are they the same as “slap another scene in there somewhere.”

2. Utilize beta readers. If you don’t have any, find some. Find a writer you know and trust and who likes you enough to be honest and thorough but not so much that s/he feels they have to hold something back. We all know beta comments can sting, but you will not become a better writer if you can’t take constructive criticism. Make sure your beta reader(s) understand the changes you’ve tried to implement so that they know what to look for. Give them guidelines and questions to answer.

3. Ideally, you’ve continued to mull over possible changes while your beta(s) read. If you think those changes make the manuscript better, implement them. It’s not required, but when you’re ready to send the manuscript back to the agent (in . . . a few weeks’ time? A couple months’? Those are both okay time frames), talk a little bit about the changes you made. I’d be more interested in reading a rambling e-mail from a writer detailing changes and concerns and her/his thought process than simply getting a “Here ya go!” with the new manuscript attached.

It really is okay to take your time. Beneficial, even.

At the end of this whole experience, La Agent made this comment in an e-mail to me. It’s a lightning flash/light bulb over the head kind of statement that drives home the idea that you need to take time with your R&R because, while you have "something," it isn’t there yet:

Dear Writers: If it was a simple revision, I would do it after I signed you.

(cross-post from http://www.kristindmiller.com/2010/07/i-recently-was-asked-by-exceptional.html)

How To Revise and Resubmit

Sources (and awesome pictures) are reporting that more and more meese are making their way to L.A. at this very moment.

It's bigger on the inside than it looks. Promise.

Never fear. Leila, Kody, Lee, and I will be hard at work holding down operations at the meese lodge.









While the girls will be shopping, chatting, and having a blast working hard, laboriously taking notes, and helping elderly people cross the street they'll try to pop in with some details of the conference. If not, I'm sure we can expect some great reports later next week!

In the meantime, we'll do our best to keep the blog wheels rolling.

*Tomorrow, the lovely and talented Kody, will be wrangling up your Field Trip Friday (I hear there's a lampshade involved in this process.)

So if you're not SCBWI-ing this weekend, stay tuned! 

Just keeping morale up.

Moose Spotting in LA

courtesy of ckaroli

Kristin O: So when I was stranded at the airport, I picked up this really, really fat novel...

Road Trip Wednesday: Best Book of the Month -- July

When I first started writing, simplicity was a concept I didn't really get. I assumed that if you were drafting a book, your job was to pack twists and subplots and side characters into that baby until your reader's head spun. I thought that your job was to infuse your story with obscure metaphors that caused betas to contemplate the meaning of life and the universe and everything.

Well, I was wrong.

Because when I started doing revisions for my agent, one of the first comments she had was, "We need to simplify."

I'm pretty sure I felt something short-circuit in my brain.

"What do you mean, simplify? I spent two years outlining this book and nailing down every detail of the world and creating character charts - it's not supposed to be simple. It's supposed to be deep and multi-faceted and full of symbolism!"

And this is the point when I realized why my agent was my agent and I was not. Because throughout these revisions, I began to understand that a simple storyline does not take away from the story itself.

Here's an example: I recently read a book that I really, really liked. It had wonderful characters and a gorgeous setting and a lot of awesome, intricate mythology. But after a certain point in the novel, I started to get confused. Suddenly the mythology was too intricate. There were too many characters. The gorgeous setting was getting lost under layers of excessive description. It was all just...too much. The book was rich and complicated, but the complexity took away from the heart of the story.

You can cut your character's three-page backstory without ruining the character. You can simplify the world-building without making the world crumble. You can limit yourself to a few lines of description without detracting from the beautiful setting.

Keep It Simple, Storyteller

You've done it. You've finished your manuscript and you love it so much your heart is ready to burst. It's mysterious. Coy. Full of intrigue. And heart-wrenching yet charming at the same time. You kinda want to have its babies.

And now you're going to rip it to shreds. But before we begin carving up that MS like a Christmas ham, we need to make sure we've got everything in order. So just what supplies will you need? Let's break out our... 

Revision Readiness Kit

In this Saturday series, YA Highway writers share the query letters that landed their agents -- and why the queries worked, from the agents themselves. Next up...

from Michelle:

Add me to the list of those crazies who enjoy writing queries - in fact, I usually do it before I write more than a chapter or so of the first draft. It's kind of like my guide, what I want the story to be, that keeps me focused as I write.

In this case, I had an okay query written for Frostproof when I started the first draft. About halfway through the book, I was stuck and turned back to the query. Reading through the second paragraph, the idea for organizing the ghosts according to their issues on the blog came to me, and I scribbled it down - it was in the query before it was in the book!

After I finished the first draft, a revision round, got some great beta feedback, and another revision round, I polished this up and sent it out. Unlike my first novel, which I queried unsuccessfully for a year, the process was speedy - Sarah was in my first round of agents. I queried Thursday, she requested a full on Saturday and called me on Sunday to offer representation. I'm fairly certain the baristas at my cafe thought I was having a stroke.

the query:

According to Ruth Pepperton's séance-loving stepmom Nita, every town has its ghosts – even Frostproof, Florida. But they can't tell you what they need unless you invite them. So Ruth does what any tech-savvy eighth grade girl would do: she starts a blog inviting all the Frostproof ghosts to tell her their problems.

It works better than she planned. Now Ruth is stuck with tons of weird, anonymous comments, not to mention troubled spirits messing around in the wiring of the school computers. When she misinterprets a comment and causes a humiliating accident at the Halloween dance, Ruth decides to get this spook thing under control. Organizing them is easy – Monday is for long-lost love laments, Tuesday is family drama, Wednesday and Thursday are revenge and unresolved business, and Friday is for general warnings of impending doom. (No blogging on the weekends – Ruth has a life, kind of.)

But when a few comments warn her of a serious threat to the town's upcoming Frost Festival, Ruth begins to regret getting into the spook business. Nita is trying to help, but she's having enough trouble with ghosts of her own. Now it's Ruth's turn to be the medium, and she needs to figure out what these spirits want before Frostproof's ghost population gets a dangerous increase in traffic.

I'm an associate editor for Matador Travel, an online travel magazine, and a blogger and co-founder of yaHighway.com. The first chapter is pasted below.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration!

from Sarah:

Michelle’s query immediately stood out to me because it embodies a lot of things I love in commercial middle-grade/tween fiction.

It is conceptually strong, with some very neat twists, and yet it also hits emotional notes too, which is very important. What could be more fun than a tween medium – and yet Michelle goes a step further than that, by mixing in the tech stuff too with her protagonist Ruth’s website/blog. It adds up to a contemporary spin that takes the ghostly element in new directions. Very cool, tween friendly, and, most importantly, I’d never seen it done before.

There is humour here, which is essential to this kind of fiction. You can’t help but smile when you read how Ruth is going to organize her spooks according to days of the week. It’s so cute and funny – it’s adorable! But very cleverly there’s also a sense of depth – something poignant is going on beneath the fun, conceptual exterior. We know not only that the ghosts will tell Ruth their problems, but crucially that Nita, the stepmom, has ‘ghosts of her own’. Hmm, what could those be? Immediately we are intrigued and want to read on, because we’re betting they will affect Ruth and that she will discover ghost-hunting has a strong and unexpected impact on her own life. And here lies another important truth about high-concept fiction – however clever the premise, you MUST touch the heart of the reader and make them relate to your protagonist, and that can be done even if your story is essentially light, fun and relatively fluffy.

So we have conceptual strength, humour, coolness, and potential poignancy. But that’s not all! Finally we discover that things are going to get dangerous in Frostproof – that the ghost population could grow. How? Why? Are things going to get a little dark? I think so – and that brings an element of ‘high stakes’ into the plot – another essential to the package.

I loved the freshness of this story and the careful, concise crafting of the query. I could tell this was someone with serious ambition and talent and that was confirmed when I read the sample pages. But then I could tell they would be good just from reading the submission. At the foot of Michelle’s query was a strong line of bio. She sounded interesting, industry-aware and very much in the zone of someone with a future in this area.

I picked up the phone and called her right away – and, I like to think, gave her a huge shock by immediately offering her representation.


Want to query Sarah Davies? Guidelines can be found at her agency's website.


Other installments in our query series:

• Kirsten Hubbard's query (with comments from Michelle Andelman)
  
• Lee Bross's query (with comments from Mandy Hubbard)
• Kody Keplinger's query (with comments from Joanna Stampfel-Volpe)
• Kristin Miller's query (with comments from Suzie Townsend)
• Kristin Otts's query (with comments from Michelle Andelman)
  

Query Series: Michelle Schusterman & Sarah Davies

Image credit

Image credit

"...did Mozart ever say 'Sorry guys, I know I'm only six years old, but I'm about to blow your mind?' No. All he did was blow people's minds! No apology offered or needed."

"Picture books are easy to write. OR, YA writing is fine, but eventually you should 'graduate' to writing grown-up books.  Errr... screw you."

Field Trip Friday: July 23

I’ve always loved the poem Invictus by William Ernest Henley. It speaks to me as a writer and a human being. As writers, we face monumental challenges, we persevere in spite of overwhelming odds and hopefully, we rebound from bitter disappointments bloody but unbowed. But, for me, Henley’s words resonate on a deeper level. I use the underlying premise of his poem to build my characters and their alternative worlds.

In the Unbidden Magic series I write for Bell Bridge Books, I started with a simple idea. My protagonist, fifteen-year-old Allie Emerson, had a story to tell. I needed to get inside her head to tell it. I am her conduit. Because Allie is always in charge, I had no choice but to write her story in first person narrative. I tried, but found I could not do it any other way.

At the beginning of Moonstone, Allie lives with her single mother in a 24 foot travel trailer parked next to a cow pasture in a small rural town. From the onset, I felt it was important for the paranormal aspects of Allie’s life to be an extension of her normal world. In other words, I let Allie guide me as she explored her telekinetic power by causing Blaster the bull to run backwards, as well as using her powers to defend a classmate against a gang attack. Moonstone is about self-discovery.

In the second book, Moon Rise, Allie learns more about the moonstone’s functions and refines her powers but, because of psychic injury, she remains in the familiar world of home and school. In book 3, Moon Spun, Allie is ready for a bigger challenge. Enter the faeries! Allie explores a strange new world I call the Land of Boundless. However, because she still needs to be grounded in the real world, she accesses the portal to Boundless through an old cistern located behind the apple tree next to the trailer.

In book 4, (probably called Moon something) Allie will travel to southern California to search for a missing family member. The motivation for this decision springs from a surprise discovery in the previous book. Although book 5, the final book, finds Allie still living in the same travel trailer, much of the action takes place in Ireland. Bottom line: It’s Allie’s story. She lets me know when she’s ready to spread her wings.

As I continue writing the series I occasionally wander off course. It’s embarrassingly obvious because the writing sucks, big time. I fuss and flounder a while, before the light bulb clicks on and realization strikes. It’s time for the mental equivalent of a slap upside the head. Hey, guess what? You’re not listening. Allie’s the boss. She is the master of her fate. She is the captain of her soul. Don’t. You. Forget. It. Dummy!

So, there you have it. A brief journey through the dark, twisted labyrinth known as Marilee’s brain. Because of all the ideas in various stages of germination, it’s kind of a scary place to visit, but you’re welcome to drop in any time!

~ Marilee Brothers

Would you like to win a copy of one of Marilee's books? Marilee is giving away a book of the reader's choice to one lucky winner. To enter, comment below with which book you'd most like to win. Add one point (for a max of two points per entrant) if you tweeted, blogged or facebooked this contest. Contest closes Tuesday, August 3rd. Good luck!

Guest Post: Marilee Brothers On Being the Conduit For Her Characters

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

We'd love for you to participate! Just answer the prompt on your own blog and leave a link in the comments.

Road Trip Wednesday #38: Greatest Hits

ANGELFIRE Giveaway Winner!

It's sort of true: most TV is for losers. The awesome people of the YA world have no time to waste on television drivel. We are PRODUCTIVE AT TIMES, dangit. Luckily, I've totally fabricated tracked down the new fall lineup of the one station that's out to change all that: The Publishing Channel!

Hold on to your remotes, because things are about to get crazy in here...

MONDAY Comedy Rocks
8:00-8:30 How I Met Your Agent Okay, so we're all pretty tired of listening to Mr. Author tell his querying story directly to his manuscript. Seriously, WHEN is he going to get that offer of representation? Whatever. It's funny.
8:30-9:00 The Library Let's just say: there ain't no room for shh-ing in this library. Watch as readers and librarians collide behind the bookshelves, dealing with their trials and travails in a wild mocumentary. Yeah, baby!
9:00-10:00 Crit Group After ten years on the air, Crit Group is back for its final season. Dude. Will Ron and Raquel FINALLY confess their love for each others' novels? Will writing team Mona and Chad take the leap and buy a new, bigger laptop? You gotta watch to find out.

TUESDAY Claws Come Out
8:00-9:00 83420 In the pulsing center of suburban Idaho, 22-year-old novelist Tina Winchester deals with the drama, heartbreak, and setbacks of being the prettiest writer in a 4550-mile radius. Will she make it to the CVS in time to buy her new notebook from Cute Checkout Guy? Should she really have eaten that last brownie? You never know in 83420.
9:00-10:00 The Intern Diaries There's more to being an intern than getting coffee. Inspired by The Intern's hit blog, The Intern, the show follows four publishing peons as they are dispatched upon the world with nothing but mostly-useless English degrees and a wavering sense of self-worth! Will they impress their bosses? Or will they be eaten?

WEDNESDAY That Show That Will Not Go Away
8:00-10:00 Blog Idol Contestants from all backgrounds blog it out week by week, fighting to gain the most followers by the finale. That's right: it's time to choose YOUR blog idol.

THURSDAY I Feel Good
8:00-9:00 Joy A group of misfit teen writers join together to create The Joy Club! Under the watchful eye of their mentor - who's struggling with some broken writing dreams of his own - they'll rise to the top and show everyone what a group of weirdo writers can do. Also, they like to randomly recite pieces of writing. SWEET.
9:00-10:00 Extreme Makeover: Manuscript Edition BUILD THIS MANUSCRIPT! With the help of devilishly good-looking host Tyre Pencillington, one writer's manuscript will be torn down, overhauled, and made ready for agents, all in the span of week. Impossible, you say? Well, you're an unhelpful dweeb.

FRIDAY Epic Competition
8:00-9:00 Who Wants To Get a Massive Book Deal? Teams of authors and agents duke it out in a high-stakes game show. Watch as teams pitch editors, field rejections, and break into publishing houses in the dead of night! (Show is not responsible for any arrests or restraining orders, 'KAY?)
9:00-10:00 So You Think You Can Procrastinate Yeah, we all do it. But who is the master of procrastination? Various challenges, including Watch YouTube for 5 Hours Straight, Stalk Twitter, and Bake More Cupcakes, test each contestant's will to the max.

SATURDAY Dramarama
8:00-9:00 CSI: Conference Scene Investigation In 2008, Editor John Doe was found ripped in half by two jealous conferencegoers. Last year alone, 3 people were stampeded to death in book swagging accidents. When it comes to conferences, passions run high... and it takes the CSI to solve the case. Don't forget your sexy black sunglasses!
9:00-10:00 Cliche Hunters A team of professional cliche hunters go on a quest to eradicate all overdone novels from the shelves. But when they come across a YA paranormal love triangle novel with a Fun New Twist, their previous conceptions are scrambled... with DEADLY consequences.

SUNDAY ????
Whoa. What the heck? This page is blank! Maybe you can help fill in TPS's lineup. What shows would you dig watching on The Publishing Channel?

The Publishing Channel's Fab New Fall Schedule!

Everyone has at least one strange thing that they do when they’re at home by themselves. My thing is that I sing. Endlessly.

I want to say that I sing beautifully, but the truth is that mostly my singing is not in the least bit beautiful. To sing, to really sing, you have to be willing to sing loudly and wildly. And sometimes your voice crashes and you get this sound like you have a hoarse banshee loose in your throat. The cats look at you oddly. The neighbour upstairs suddenly slams a door, and you have a feeling it might have been that thing you just did, but you’re not sure.

I am probably the worst person to give this advice because my singing is so hit and miss, but basically the trick is to fly at the note with full force. That’s what a singer on idol does, when they’re belting and their voice seems ten times bigger than they are. They don’t flinch. Because that freezes everything up; it makes the vocal crash go from possible to inevitable. They pretend they’re not scared, they take their breath in the right place, and slide or fly into that note, depending on what works best. Or they do it absentmindedly, they tell themselves it doesn’t really matter what their voice does right now. And in giving it that freedom, it does exactly what they need it to do. It hits; it holds. Sometimes it opens.

I remember this day a few years ago when I was singing along with an old tape absentmindedly, without really thinking about singing at all. As usual my voice sounded thin and I’d taken in too much air that couldn’t go anywhere. Then suddenly the extra air wasn’t in my way anymore, instead it was flooding the notes. And I could hear this voice I’d never heard before, breathy but also deep and powerful. And it was coming from me. I want to say that this was a miracle moment and I’ve always sung wonderfully with this amazing deep full voice ever since, but that would be a huge lie. Sure, sometimes I do. But quite often I sing appallingly. Ask my neighbours.

Uncovering your singing voice isn’t all that different to uncovering your writing voice. Except that writing is actually kinder than singing. If you fly at a note in writing and miss, no one has to know about it but you.

But it is scary to have a voice, one that is yours and not someone else’s. Your head produces a sentence, and then the doubts start popping up. They often wear the faces of loved ones and some English teacher you once had and that rockstar literary agent you’ve been daydreaming about. You think, oh god. My best friend would hate this. I just compared a character to a vegetable, for goodness’ sake. My mother would be horrified at this description of that boy’s body. I am not meant to know what boys’ bodies actually look like. Rockstar Literary Agent would read this paragraph and laugh. And then Rockstar Literary Agent would show it to colleagues, and it will become one of those office jokes that never die.

So you start thinking, right. I’ll tone that down. I won’t let myself write that piece of description, I’ll use the safest words possible, I’ll avoid explaining why his smell was sexy. Because whatever I write, I have to own up to it. Even when other people like it. It’s safer to sing quietly, right? That way no one will hear you if you mess up.

Yes. But then no one will hear you at all.

I’m not saying that all the risky sentences should be left in; far from it. Often you have to admit something is straining too hard, or is way out of tune. But that’s a judgement best made when editing. In the meantime, it’s better to take the risk. Because if you don’t risk being bad, you’ll never know how good you can be either.

There’s a tricky balance. If you try too hard, you can strain your throat, or write sentences full of lumpy misshapen words attempting to be grand. You have to fool your brain into thinking you are not actually trying to write well, or sing well. You just happen to be writing. And it will come out as it comes out. And for a while, it ends up sounding awful, or weak, or overblown. You know that when you reach the editing stage, things will become brutal and violent. You can hear your English teacher asking, in a polite but slightly nervous voice, exactly what you’re trying to do, in the same way that you ask a kid about to test their homemade hang glider by jumping off the roof.

But then, by accident, something good happens, so good that it feels like you’ve invented a new way to fly. It is ten times bigger than you are, and it hits the notes exactly so well it is like hearing them for the first time all over again.

And that is how you find your voice.



Picture by renjith krishnan at freedigitalphotos.net 

On Being a Banshee

In our new Publishing Interviews Series, Kody Keplinger sits down with people on the other side of book publishing -- agents, editors, and more -- providing insight into industry happenings and just what goes into getting a young adult novel on shelves.



Sara Kendall is a graduate of Scripps College, and is the
literary assistant at Nancy Coffey Literary and Media Representation. She is an English major, an aspiring literary agent, and a lover of desserts.

Thanks for joining us today, Sara! I'm sure we're all eager to hear what, exactly, an assistant does.


When did you decide you wanted to work in publishing?

My original goal in life was to be a veterinarian. But I formally renounced that ambition on my eighth birthday (I have distinct memories of making this announcement to my family). My third grade teacher had made some off-handed comment to me the day before about "becoming an editor" when I grew up, and I took it very seriously. I didn't know what an editor did; she told me they read books and I was instantly won over.

I was in tenth grade when I really started to figure out what people in publishing did. I dabbled in journalism and a couple other English-y things, but I always came back to books. I started looking for internships as soon I got to college.


I know you started working as an intern. Can you tell us about your experience interning before getting hired at Nancy Coffey? How many internships did you go through? When did you start interning?

I started interning the summer after my freshman year of college. Landing a first internship was difficult, and I've heard similar statements from other people in the industry. I mostly answered phones and emails that first summer, which gave me good office training for my other internships. The summer after sophomore year, I got an internship at the Irene Webb Literary Agency, which was, at the time, right near my home in CA, and it was an unbelievable experience. By the end of it, I was fairly certain I wanted to be an agent. But I wanted to experience the "other side" of publishing before I made up my mind.

The summer after my junior year, I did an internship at HarperCollins. It was a fantastic place to work, and I loved being there. They have a great internship program, and I learned a lot there. It was also my first time in New York! I met with FinePrint and Nancy Coffey Lit that summer--they kindly let me come in and do an informational interview so I could figure out how lit agencies worked in the big city. I graduated a semester early from school, and spent the Spring semester interning at FinePrint and Nancy Coffey--another amazing internship program that offers tons of hands-on experience and really prepares you for a job in publishing.


Can you tell us what an intern at a literary agency does? What kind of hands-on experience did you get?

As an intern, you learn how to do *everything.* At my internships with both the Irene Webb Lit Agency and with FinePrint/Nancy Coffey, I got to read and respond to query letters, learn to write Reader's Reports, read requested manuscripts, learn how to write an editorial letter, how to write a pitch, learn how auctions are run, how contracts work, how film rights work, how foreign rights work...haha, really everything! And I was really lucky in that I got to work for places that really wanted their interns to get a lot out of their experience--which is something I've heard from a lot of fellow publishing interns. I'm not sure how many industries you can say that about.


Now, as an assistant, what does your job require? What do you do for work?

As an assistant, I've gotten to do *more* of everything, haha! In addition to the things I learned to do as an intern, I've also gotten to spend more time on our amazing clients' projects, and started to get to know them better, which I've really enjoyed. I'm currently doing a blog tour for a client, attending a truly awesome three part session on contracts, learning to maintain our website, and helping Joanna set up an agency blog (yay!). Duties vary from day to day, but there are always manuscripts to be read, and cupcakes to be eaten.

...Cupcakes are an important part of the job. *cough* We seem to receive a large number of them in the office. And I've taken that duty very seriously.


What are your goals as you continue to work in publishing? Where do you want to be in 5 years?

I would really love to be an agent someday--hopefully a place I'll be in five years!


What is your favorite part of your job?

Okay, this may sound weird, but...line edits. Line edits are my favorite part of the job. I just started doing them, and they are amazing. Generally line edits are done as sort of the "final stage" before a manuscript is sent out to editors, after the agent and the author have gone through a round or three of bigger edits. You get to see the entire project--from character voice to sentence construction--come completely together. It's very satisfying.


And because we must know, who are your favorite YA authors? Favorite books?

AH, ALL OF THEM. Is that an answer? Probably not, haha.

Okay, let's see. I think it'd be cheating to just go through and list all of our YA authors and all of FinePrint's YA authors, but I do really love their work--including the fabulous work of Kody Keplinger (duh). (Interview Note: I swear I didn't make her say that!) So outside of them, I would have to say I love Libba Bray, Sarah Rees Brennan, Elizabeth Scott, Melissa Marr, Shannon Hale, Richard Peck (just finished Three Quarters Dead--a.mazing), Laurie Halse Anderson, Cat Bauer (Harley, Like a Person...also amazing), Francesca Lia Block, Ally Carter, Meg Cabot (especially the Mediator series), Frances Hodgson Burnett, Gail Giles (Dead Girls Don't Write Letters is one of my favorite books of all time) ...this isn't really narrowing things down, is it?

BUZZ QUESTIONS! I asked Sara to answer these as fast as possible without thinking.

Last Book you read? Thirteen Reasons Why. Finished it this morning on the subway. If you haven't read this yet, go read it now. Seriously.
Favorite Book Cover? A Great and Terrible Beauty
Favorite Character? Vidanric, from Sherwood Smith's Crown Duel books. He was my first literary crush ;) Oh, and both Smith and her books should be on my favorites list.
Last movie you watched? Despicable Me. SO FLUFFY.
The person you most want to meet (living or dead)? Okay, so this is completely without thinking, right? No deep internal discussion on who I most want to sit down with? Because off the top of my head--Max Brenner. That man makes excellent chocolate.

Publishing Interviews: Sara Kendall, Nancy Coffey Literary and Media Representation

Prologue to Romeo & Juliet, found here.

Y'all... no. Just no. source

Amna = genius.

Field Trip Friday: July 16

So tense, she needs a backrub.

Tension. It's one of those words we writers hear all the time, in articles, in critiques, even in tweets. We need tension and we need conflict in every scene, on every page. And while all of us can define tension, figuring out how to work it in is another ball game.

One mistake I made when I first started writing was assuming that "conflict" was akin to "sh*t blowing up." Likewise, I think a lot of writers, myself included, sometimes relate tension to fighting. Fights are tense. And hey, blowing sh*t up is a good way to introduce conflict - what works for Bruce Willis works for me. But allow me to feign sophistication for a moment, and break tension down into four types.


The tension of the task

The task, or the quest - the journey, the goal, the point of your story and how the characters arrive at the end. What they have to sacrifice along the way. The choices they have to make. The consequences of those choices. Tension, every step of the way.

The tension of relationships

Otherwise defined, in the most elite of writing manuals, as "smexy tension." Well, not always. Sexual tension is obviously a big one, especially in YA, but tension can be present in other relationships - friendships, parents, teachers, zombies - because as the main character (and other characters) grow and change, their relationships change as well. And very often, change leads to tension.

The tension of surprise

The "O HAI" moment, or moments, in your story. Maybe the main character discovers a secret, maybe the antagonist isn't who we thought, maybe the love interest isn't so lovely after all - throw in a twist and watch your characters scramble. Instant tension.

The tension of mystery

Probably the most natural of the four, at least in my opinion. Few things make me feel more tense than not knowing. Imagine you're waiting for an important call from the doctor. And waiting. And waiting. At some point, you don't care if it's bad news - you just want the phone to ring. You want an answer. You want closure - and until you get it, you've got tension.

Enter McClane, baby.

Stirring it in

What's interesting is seeing how master writers work these different types of tension into their stories. I'm sure I'm not alone here; when I think "tense read," The Hunger Games is one of the first books that comes to mind.  

The task? Kill or be killed...yeah, I'd say that's a good set-up for some tension.  

The relationships? Um, Team Gale, meet Team Peeta.  

Surprise? Mystery? Let's see - show of hands of those counting the seconds until Mockingjay? Right. It's pretty clear Collins had all the elements, mixed them up real nice, and churned out one paper-cut-giving, heart-attack-inducing, page turner of a story.

But how about another fantastic dystopian - The Giver? It's tense, undeniably - yet so different from The Hunger Games, so quiet in comparison. But all the elements are there. The task - Jonas' struggle as he sees his world for what it is, and what he has to do. The relationships - it's fascinating to watch his relationship with the Giver develop, and the horror Jonas feels with his parents after a scene in which he witnesses his father performing a task at work - completely heartbreaking, and totally tense.

The tension of surprise is of course a strong one as Jonas learns more about the past, but in my opinion, it's the tension of mystery that makes this such an amazing story. Lowry introduces us to this "perfect world" with the slightest hint of something sinister under the surface, resulting in a chilling, tense and compulsively readable story.

Make your own mix

If you feel like a scene in your own work is falling flat, it's probably lacking tension. But before you start writing another screaming match - or, in my case, blow up a fountain for the hell of it - consider these four ingredients. Task, relationships, surprise, mystery. Are they all in there? Which is most important in this scene? Focusing on just one might help you see a way to introduce another level of tension into your story.

Finding the Formula for Tension