That was a Week, that was

I mentioned yesterday that I had an enjoyable writing week. The reasons? Do you remember my post about winning the contest to Skype with agents? If not, you can reread it here. The upshot was that on Friday the 11th, I had a very enjoyable conversation with agents Kathleen Ortiz and Liz Jote.

They call themselves Neoagents, and even have a podcast to prove it. (A neoagent is someone who has been agenting for less than five years and is actively looking to build his or her list.) I found them both to be thoughtful, hilarious, and very personable. So, if you are looking to query a couple of awesome agents, add them to your list.

The other thing that put me in a good mood was that I rewrote my first chapter under the gun, because I wanted to enter it in the Sandy Writing Contest. One of my writing group friends, Cheryl Coupe, came in third place last year in the Children's & YA section, and recommended this contest highly. The deadline was yesterday evening, and I made it with 24 hours to spare. I guess I work well with a deadline in my sights.

Got to get that contest entry in

It has also been a year since my first blog post. Next Saturday I'm hosting a blog party and will be giving away a prize (or even two.) All you'll have to do is be a follower, old or new, and leave a comment. In the meantime, I'll have to get a tech-savvy friend to show me how I can get fireworks to burst on the screen.

I'l be here again on Wednesday to talk about muddled middles. Hope to see you then.

Isn't this what critique groups are for?

I love Mary Kole. (Perhaps not as much as I love Ursula Le Guin, but I love her nonetheless.) Mary is an associate agent at Andrea Brown Literary Agency and writes the popular kidlit.com blog. She is also a writer (which is why I think people love her so), and her Revision-O-Rama series in late December/early January is a must-read.

Mary ran a contest recently for novel beginnings and featured the most successful on her blog, as well as adding comments on why these beginnings worked for her. After the contest ended, someone suggested she think of demonstrating beginnings which didn't work. Somewhat reluctantly, I think, Mary agreed to do so.

She was immediately swamped with entries and her comments page shows that people think this is a great idea. Personally, I don't. My first thought was: why would someone want to have an agent look at their beginning that "needs a little help?" Isn't that what critique groups are for?

As I ponder these questions, I can only surmise that people are desperate for their work to be seen by an "expert" eye. I'm sure Mary's comments will be as kind and enlightening as they always are, but once these entries are on the internet, who knows what will happen. Will they be mocked in other on-line forums? Pilloried by internet hooligans?

My second pondering is: perhaps these guys don't have critique groups? I am a member of two (and I hope to post about their awesome-wonderfulness at a later date). But I live in an urban area. Perhaps there's someone in a hamlet in the Nevada desert who doesn't know a single other writer for miles around and has only the internet for company. (I'm trying hard to give everyone the benefit of the doubt here.)

For most people, however, a critique group is not too difficult to form. Anyone who is writing seriously should be a member of their local writers' orgs. In my case that's SCBWI-Oregon http://www.scbwior.com/index.html and Willamette Writers http://www.willamettewriters.com/. Willamette Writers, for example, has a monthly newsletter and monthly meetings where networking opportunities abound. That's how I found my first critique group. Yes, you do have to put yourself out there, but the rewards are great.

Will the critique group give you honest feedback? In my experience, yes. The best groups are tender yet tough; that is, they honor the work you're doing but know that part of this process is pointing out (respectfully, of course) what doesn't work on the page. Then you revise and revise and revise again till it works. (Critique groups also have infinite patience.)

Mary Kole talks about all this in her last Revision-O-Rama post. http://kidlit.com/category/revision/.

In my opinion, if you want her as your agent (and who wouldn't?!) then you would send her only your very best stuff at the query stage. You wouldn't want her eyes on any of your early, problematic pages, even if she is one of the best and kindest writing teachers around. Leave the "unworkable" stuff on your critique group's cutting room table.

What do others think?

Guide to Literary Agents blog contest

What did we ever do before the internet? It seems almost pre-historic when you think of it. I mean, God rest my aching wrists, I wrote my first stories on a typewriter (albeit an electric one--I'm not that antediluvian.) As for getting to know about agents and the like, you had to rely on a) either going to a conference to prove to yourself that they were not inhabitants of some outer solar system or b) looking up information in a book which, I swear, went out-of-date the moment you opened it. You'd send a query into the blue yonder and I'm sure I had at least one reply saying "I'm sorry, but this agent has been vaporized by intergalactic storm-troopers." What a waste of a 25 cent stamp! (Thanks, internet, for reminding me of the price of a first-class stamp in 1990.)

A dangerous writer no longer has to endure such frustrations. Now, all sorts of information pops onto one's computer screen at the touch of a keystroke. (This makes life very easy; it also can suck away at your precious time, link by tempting link.)

You no longer have to buy the book, because most literary agencies have gorgeous looking websites (not to mention blogs, Facebook, and Twitter.) And then there's the super-duper Guide to Literary Agents blog run by Chuck Sambuchino. http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/ There's everything there that your giddy little heart might want to know during your agent search. Chuck's even running a "Dear Agent" contest for the next couple of weeks. Send in the first 150-200 words of your MG or YA novel to be read by agent Jennifer Laughran of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency http://www.andreabrownlit.com/agents.php and vie for the chance to have a critique by her of your first 25 pages. (More details on the Guide to Literary Agents blog.)

That's enough reminiscing for today. I'm going to do the dangerous thing and enter the contest.