Mystery Agent Revealed: Kathleen Ortiz

The fabulous twitter-pitch-loving March Mystery Agent is...

Kathleen Ortiz of Lowenstein Associates (pic and bio from her website)

Kathleen Ortiz began her career in publishing at Ballinger Publishing as an editorial assistant, writing and editing for their young adult section, and as an interactive media designer, working to boost the magazine’s online presence through social networking. She then moved on to UWire as online editor for the features, art & entertainment sections. She has also taught high school classes as a visual media instructor.
After teaching for a few years, and even a seven-year stint in veterinary nursing, Kathleen moved on to her true passion of working within the book industry. She interned with Fine Print Literary and Caren Johnson Literary Agency, and is currently working toward her M.S. in Publishing at Pace University.
Kathleen is currently Associate Agent and Foreign Rights Manager at Lowenstein Associates. With the continued demand for online marketing in publishing, a strong online platform is essential for today's authors. Kathleen uses her background in interactive media design to assist Lowenstein Associates’ clients with branding themselves. 

Kathleen's word on your entries:

Thanks to all who participated! And thanks for your patience!

There were (as I usually see in my slush / at conferences) a lot of YA paranormal. Let me stress that I am a huge fan of paranormal (it was the first genre I sold as an agent!), but there is SO much of it out there that it’s really hard to make it stand out without a really unique hook. So if your hook immediately made me think of another paranormal novel, I passed and went to the next pitch. Also, if your hook doesn’t grab me with an action of some sort, then I passed and went on to the next one. Something to think about when constructing your pitch for a conference (where agents will hear dozens of other paranormal pitches).

While there were several great pitches (140 characters or fewer is tough!), I had to narrow it down to the following:

Runner-ups (i.e. 25 pages requested):

            Alternate

            Shutter

            The Whip-Slip

            Vex

            Kinesthesia

            The Peanut Butter & Jelly Friendship

Second place (75 pages requested):

            The Hungry Ground

First place (Full manuscript):

            Waiting for Augusta

To the eight writers who won, please send me one Word document with the query letter as the first page, followed by the requested pages, to blog.kortizzle(at)gmail.com. In the subject line please write “Contest Winner: (title of MS).” I will confirm receipt within 48 hours and get back to you within four weeks. Looking forward to reading!!

Thanks again to all who entered!

Thank you, Kathleen! Eight winners! Congratulations, guys!! You offered an unprecedented number of entries (75) and a whole lot of talent and fresh ideas. On behalf of myself and the other ladies of Operation Awesome, I want to say thank you for making this contest so much fun!

And now, find out more about the March Mystery Agent. 

Mini-Interview: Kathleen Ortiz

Amparo: Your clients never stop singing your praises on their blogs and Twitter, and even made you a Happy Birthday video! Aside from doing those uber-nice things, how would you describe your dream client?

Kathleen: My dream client (and current clients) is comprised of a package of awesome, which includes creativity, open communication and an amazing sense of humor. (there could be issues if one isn't a fan of sarcasm)

 

Amparo: In a cage match between you and The Query Shark (the awesome Janet Reid), who would win and why? 

Kathleen: My legal team has advised me that while the probability of finding an already manufactured cage large enough to fit a TRex is quite slim, the Shark would win in a style that resembles the end scene of Karate Kid II. Including the nose honk.

Katrina: Best candy evah:

Kathleen: I actually hate candy, lol. I'm more of a cupcake and cookie girl *bats eyelashes*

Katrina: Most amazing TV show/movie:

Kathleen: Oh man. Too many to name. My current faves? True Blood and Grey's Anatomy (though GA has sunk to a low level. But Jesse Williams is hotttttttttttttttt)

Katrina: Do you have any agency or client news we can get excited about?

Kathleen: None that I can talk about right at this moment, but keep your eyes peeled to my blog.

Sounds mysterious! Can't wait to hear this news! BIG GIGANTIC AWESOME 

THANK YOU 

to Kathleen and the talented writers who shared their tweet-length pitches this month!

Other places you'll find Kathleen:

Her blog

Her website

Twitter (her avatar is a T-Rex. It's awesome.)

NeoAgent Podcasts!! New episodes every other week with Liz Jote and Kathleen Ortiz

Lowenstein Associates Agency Website

Publishers Marketplace

Absolute Write: Ask Agent

Query Tracker

WOW! Women on Writing interview

YA Highway interview

Casey McCormick's AGENT SPOTLIGHT

First Novels Club interview

Mother. Write. (Repeat.) interview

Old People Writing for Teens: Worst Query Offenses

Guide to Literary Agents interview

Here are those winning pitches for your enjoyment and/or study (to see all the pitches, check out the original contest post):

Runner-ups (i.e. 25 pages requested):

            Alternate

Elizabeth Briggs said...

Title: Alternate
Genre: YA Sci-fi

A teen hacker is drawn into a war between parallel universes when she meets an alternate version of herself from another dimension.

            Shutter

Courtney Lowe said...

Title: Shutter
Genre: YA Horror

Valkyrie Mina Flynn’s soulchained: she’s got 7 days to exorcise the demon Zamiel, or she’s dead and damned. She’s in for a hell of a week.

            The Whip-Slip

Elena Solodow said...

Title: The Whip-Slip
Genre: YA Fantasy

A teen whose touch heals or infects struggles to unearth her past before the forces of Life and Death deploy her as a weapon.

            Vex

Norma said...

Title - VEX
Genre - YA Fantasy with a techie twist

Virtual Environment Ten—VEX—turns deadly when Tana, 16, discovers something wants to download itself into her body and take over her life.

            Kinesthesia

Nora Coon said...

Title: KINESTHESIA
Genre: YA Alternate History

In an alternate 1961, 17-year-old Meri leaves her fishing town looking for a more exciting life. The chance to fight Nazis? That's a bonus.

            The Peanut Butter & Jelly Friendship

Janet Johnson said...

Title: The Peanut Butter and Jelly Friendship
Genre: MG Contemporary

When selling her appendix on e-bay doesn’t work, ten-year-old Annie seeks other ways to save her best friend’s house from foreclosure.

Second place (75 pages requested):

            The Hungry Ground

Rebecca said...

Title: THE HUNGRY GROUND
Genre: YA fantasy with an espresso-shot of horror

When the population of a nearby city vanishes overnight, aspiring detective Kalinda joins the search party. But the city isn't empty.

First place (Full manuscript):

            Waiting for Augusta

Jessica said...

Title: Waiting For Augusta
Genre: Contemporary Middle Grade

A runaway Alabama boy takes his dad’s cremation urn on an adventurous father-son trip to scatter the ashes in a special (& illegal) spot.

Gotta Love a Little Torture

Someone once asked me what I did to amp up the conflict in my stories? What did I do to create drama, to torture my characters?

It was a great question :) It tends to be the drama, the conflict, that drives a story…and you just can’t get that if your characters get everything they want and are happy all the time.

So how do I amp up the conflict, torture my characters? Simple...I take away whatever it is that my character wants the most. I throw up as many obstacles as I can. I tease her with it and then take it away. :D I let her be happy for a few short moments and then I crush all her hopes and dreams *mwahahahaha*

Okay, so it's not always so horrible (though really, it kinda is). I am actually in the process of rewriting my very first book. Back then, I wanted to write a book where the girl got her guy, kept him throughout the book, had an adventure that was scary blah blah blah, but where there was no real internal conflict. I thought it would be fun to have my book be different than all those other books out there where characters were being tortured all the time.

Guess what? It was boooooring.


Stanley Elkin said, “I would never write about a character who is not at the end of his rope.”

This is such a great piece of advice…a person at the end of their rope has no where to go but up….but there is always the threat of crashing down…and that makes a great story. If your characters never go through any kind of conflict or “torture,” then you have a story in which nothing happens. A happy person who has everything they want, and continues to be happy with everything they want…Where is the story in that?

Ernest Hemingway, in a book of advice to writers, said that a writer should…“find what gave you emotion; what the action was that gave you excitement.”

I LOVE that quote. And it made me think, “What is it that gave me emotion? What gave me excitement?” Sure, I am happy when a character gets the guy at the end, or finds the treasure, or gets to live in the big pretty castle and lives happily ever after. But that isn’t what keeps me reading the story. What keeps me reading, what gives me goosebumps and makes my heart pound, is when the heroine cradles her dying love in her arms…when she is on the back of a thundering horse, shooting a gun over her shoulder at the villain chasing her….when she made some stupid mistake and screwed up the good thing she had going….THAT kind of stuff makes me want to turn the page.

Did the love interest really die? Will she get away? (Or will the retort of the gun knock her on her butt?…because that is always fun) :D Will she be able to fix her mistake and get the good thing going again, or has she just completely screwed up her life?

So, that is what I do to my characters. I give the reader a reason to turn the page, by giving my characters a reason to keep going, giving them something to fix, to resolve, to get over and move past. Death, pain, despair, torture, emotion, threat, danger….these all get the blood pumping, the tears pouring…and make that happy ending all the happier for the mess they had to go through to get there.

What do you do to torture your characters? How do you create your drama?

La-La-La-La-La-La Word Count

I must hit my word count.
I must hit my word count.
I must...

Must I?

Setting a word count goal is supposed to be good for us as writers. These targets push us. Keep us motivated, but they can also crush us. They make us write on days when we can't squeeze out the words   (and you end up deleting them the next day due to the dreaded word poop). Sometimes the total word count becomes more important than the quality of the words.

And the delete-rewrite-delete cycle begins.

During first draft mode I like to write a chapter at a time. If I'm having a writing spurt, I'll write about 1k a day. Some days are plotting. Some are rewriting days. Some days I write nothing.

But that's okay. We all have our different methods. The main goal is to finish, right? Does it matter how many words we hit per day so long as we write the darn book?

Holly Black wrote a wonderful post about tracking her word count while writing a draft of BLACK HEART. In the end, Holly Black averaged out the days/words the draft took to write. It came out at around 81 days and just over 800 words per day. You can check out the full post here.

What about you? Do you like to hit a daily word count?

YA Boys and Actors

Whenever I sit down (or walk around) to brainstorm what my characters look like, I usually rely on movies and TV shows. I know not every writer does this, but I love "using" people. 

Well, just their faces... 

And abs... 

*blushes*

ANYWAY, I get an idea for a fake dude. This Fake Dude has to look like something, right? So I browse through my collection of favorite Real Dudes to see if I can find a good fit. If not, there's always Google. And my imagination. But when I do find a good fit, I stick with it pretty much the whole way through. Real Dude is now my Fake Dude forever. 

Why am I talking about this? Well, I've been noticing how YA readers have been advocating for certain actors to play their favorite YA male characters in both movie and TV adaptations. It's like the world will end if Real Dude X doesn't get cast as Fake Dude X.  

Case in point:

Fans were FUMING when they found out Cedric Diggory Robert Pattinson was cast as Edward Cullen in Twilight. In their minds, this Real Dude was not their beloved Fake Dude. 

Recently, it was revealed that another actor came thisclose to getting the part:

That's the lovely Shiloh Fernandez from Red Riding Hood. That's also him glaring at Robert Pattinson for stealing his sparkly vampire thunder. Who knows how fans would've reacted to the news that Shiloh would be their Edward? Maybe they would've freaked out, too. Or maybe they would've swooned their faces off. *shrugs*

Then there's this other guy:

It seems like every Cassandra Clare and The Mortal Instruments fan wants Number Four Alex Pettyfer as the uber-awesome Jace Wayland *sigh* They will hurt someone if this doesn't happen. Or kick puppies. Maybe both. To fans, Alex is Jace. P-e-r-i-o-d. As a Jace fan, I do see Alex as Jace in physical terms, but... um... 

*withholds opinion for fear of being stoned to death*

But I'm asking you, writers: do you envision your male characters as actors, too? If so, pretty please tell me which ones! I LOVE discovering new abs to-

I mean, new faces to stare at. :)

Nightmares and Realities

My children adore Ponyo, the masterful Hayao Miyazaki reinvention of the Little Mermaid, a tale of a goldfish who wants to be a little girl. I always found the film’s images deeply unsettling – a Japanese fishing village inundated by waves, massive prehistoric fish swimming through nursing homes, ships and cars tossed and disabled by nature out of balance.

The first images of the Japanese tsunami reminded me of a too-real version of Miyazaki’s dream seascape. I thought I would never want to watch that movie again.

Now I’m not as sure. Japan continues to roil in crisis, thousands dead, property destroyed, millions imperiled by nuclear disaster. In the film, Ponyo became a girl, and nature returned to normal. The villagers were unscathed as the water receded, and the boy Sosuke reunited with his mother and fisherman father. I will never watch the movie the same way, but I will watch it and wish it were true.

Children’s literature, fantasies, and movies help us face nightmare visions and emerge stronger. I pray that Japan does as well.

Visit Redcross.org or text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 from your phone.

Friendly Reminder: Back Up Your Book!

I'm posting late today because of the tragedies in Japan and Hawaii we've been watching all morning. I also had a little trouble with my technology today. My cell phone couldn't get through to my sister in Hawaii (she is in-land and fine, I've now heard from my mom) and my internet crashed for a while. The crises elsewhere dwarf this, but it was a good reminder to me that while I'm working on finishing up my fifth novel and shooting for publication, catastrophe is always only a silk string of fate away.

It is a call to be prepared and mindful, even about our writing goals. So this is your friendly nudge: back up your book! Do one of these simple things today. Right now.

• Use an online back-up service
• Save your work to a flash drive
• Send an email to yourself with your full manuscript or whatever you've got thus far

My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by the 8.9 earthquake in Japan and the subsequent tsunamis and fires. May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Owning My Insanity

They say the definition of insanity is repeating the same action expecting different results...or something along those lines.

It got me thinking. Are we, my dear writers, insane? Sending out query after query, revising over and over, plowing on despite the rejections and accidental deletions and manuscript fails and revision dead ends....

Or are we just persistent? Driven? Determined? Plain ol' stubborn? :D

I'm inclined to think it's a mixture of all of the above. I think it takes a certain amount of insanity to put yourself through the wringer that is the publishing industry. But at the same time, that wringer weeds out those who have a true passion for what they are doing from those who might have been trying out a passing fancy.

Because, let's face it, unless you absolutely love what you are doing, this game can really get to you.

The thought of revising, and editing, and rewriting, and querying both chills and excites me. It's daunting, to say the least. A seemingly never ending cycle of emails and snail mails and requests and rejections and critiques and bleeding manuscripts and hair-pulling-out sessions and late night IMs to ever-patient writer pals. Incredible highs followed by crushing lows....we seem to be our own special type of adrenaline junky.

Do I go jumping off cliffs?

Heck no!! I send a query letter, baby!!

Do I race a car around a track at 200 miles an hour?

No way! I go through my manuscript one more time and send that puppy off to the agent that I just know is impatiently waiting by their inbox.

I HIT SEND!!! WOOOOOO!!! What a rush!

Did I curl up in the fetal position and cry uncontrollably when that tree fell on my car a few years ago?

Pshaw! I save that sort of devastation for REAL tragedies...like when that agent who LOVED my manuscript decides they just don't love it as much as they should. Or when my perfectly polished and ready for the shelves manuscript comes back from a CP so shredded I can hardly recognize it

(just kidding....or am I?) ;-D

So, are we insane? Maybe. But you know what I love about writers? At least the ones I know, the ones who are so determined to make it they stick to their guns no matter what delightful particles of nastiness may be poised to smack them in the face -

They own their insanity.

They embrace, rejoice in it, and with a smile on their face and a song in their heart they put yet one more query letter in the mail, knowing that THIS time, the answer will be different. Despite the rejections that are literally wallpapering their office, they KNOW that eventually, someone is going to say yes. Despite the millions of times they know they are going to have to edit and re-edit their manuscripts, they keep opening those files and starting over from the beginning....just one more time.....again.


They are my heroes :D

And if that's insanity, well count me in. Sounds like a grand plan to me :)

How about you? Are you a proud, card-carrying member of the Insanity Club?

A World Of My Own!

Last July I went to Universal Studios in California. After I'd been on The Simpson's Ride (alone I may add... my parents are wusses) we went on the Studio Tour.

Driving round in the tour bus we took in the sights of the studios -- the King Kong ride was awesome -- but it was the street sets that struck me most.

Driving up you see a series of buildings that look three dimensional, some can be, most aren't. While some sets are towns, most are facades to create the illusion of a city or town.

This got me thinking about writing, more specifically, about setting and world building.

As writers we spend time developing characters and have them interact with the environment around them. Sometimes locations only serve to perform the scene. Sometimes the setting IS the scene. Creating a world both we, and the reader, can believe is an important tool to make your story come to life.

In my new MS I had to tackle some serious backstory and world building and I have a lot of notes. Lots. Lots. Lots. Even if I don't use everything the notes aren't a waste. I need to know what happened in the past to understand where my MC came from and the life she lives now. I want a 360 degree view of the surroundings. I want to see the sun dappled clouds on the horizon, smell the embers of dying fires...sorry I got lost in the moment there. ;)

Anyway, my point is this. To create my story and character I need to believe in the world they live in. The idea is like the 2D set at Universal Studios -- one layer of a fully realised vision. So I need to invest some time building the different layers, even if my character is only passing through, to create the 3D effect I hope to achieve.

And scene. :)

Any tips for word building? Leave 'em after the beep...

Passive Voice: Misconceptions and Facts

Let me start off by saying one thing: I am not a grammar expert, by any means. I am merely a writer that wants to understand the words and structure of her craft. 

I’ve come a long ways with grammar. When I first started my writing journey, I was ten years out of college. The most writing I’d done, at that point, was the term papers and small creative writing projects in high school…on a typewriter. Yes, my friends, THAT long ago. So after writing the opening pages of my first draft, I put up a sample on a well-known writing forum for review. Now, I thought I’d edited it to perfection. After some ripping apart by strangers, one of them stated, “Well, if you had edited it better before putting it up….”

“What? I edited it. A lot”

“Oh really? Well, I figured that you hadn’t since you used the semicolon improperly four times on the first page.”

My mouth dropped open. I quickly looked up the proper function of a semicolon. And the stranger was quite right about my error. I learned that I had a long ways to go in the grammar department. 

Fast forward to several months back. I received a terrific critique marking my excessive use of passive voice. I had, in fact, used “was” too much. Instead of changing them all, I decided to do some research on passive voice. Passive voice is one of those things I’d never fully understood. And, like my semicolon days, I wanted not just to change it, but I wanted to understand it.

My research helped me to understand a couple of things.

1. What passive voice is.
2. What passive voice isn't.

Here is what my book, Nitty-Gritty Grammar, has to say about Active and Passive Voice.

Verbs can be active or passive. Active verbs put the person or thing doing the action in charge. With the passive voice, the subject receives the action.

So passive voice is not just what verb you use. Passive voice is sentence construction.

Here are some other definitions online of passive voice (I will include links at the bottom of this post).

• A passive construction occurs when you make the object of an action into the subject of a sentence. That is, whoever or whatever is performing the action is not the grammatical subject of the sentence.

• We call a verb passive when a writer uses a "to be" verb to place the focus on the object of the sentence, rather than on the subject.

• Passive voice is used when the focus is on the action. It is not important or not known, however, who or what is performing the action.

 

• Passive voice should not be confused with verb tense.

Verb tense is action + time. What happened and when.

Passive/active voice is the subject in relation to the action. Is the subject the doer or the recipient of the action

• A form of the verb “To be” is combined with a past participle to form the passive.

• In passive voice, the target of the action gets promoted to the subject position. Instead of saying, "Steve loves Amy," I would say, "Amy is loved by Steve." The subject of the sentence becomes Amy, but she isn't doing anything. Rather, she is just the recipient of Steve's love. The focus of the sentence has changed from Steve to Amy. If you wanted to make the title of the Marvin Gaye song passive, you would say “It was heard by me through the grapevine,” not such a catchy title anymore.

So I want to make this point very clear to all the writers out there who have a wrong concept of passive voice. Passive voice has to do with the construction of the sentence, not just on the use of “to be” verbs. 

Was is NOT a passive verb.

Let me say that again.

Using WAS does not necessarily make the sentence passive.

Here are a few examples of passive and active sentences.

Active: The boy threw the ball.

Passive: The ball was thrown by the boy.

Active: I will invite Joe to the party.

Passive: Joe will be invited to the party by me.

There are tons of examples on the following links. I recommend reading them all, so we can veto this “was” misconception once and for all. These are only a few references to the truth of passive/active voice.

• http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/activepassive.html 
• http://www.amypadgett.com/2008/04/passive-voice.html 
• http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/to_be.htm
• http://www.be-a-better-writer.com/passive-verbs.html
• http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsPassiveVoice.htm
• http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/passivevoice.html
• http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/passive
• http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/active-voice-versus-passive-voice.aspx

Now, before you all come at me with pitch forks and anti “was” signs, I do want to clarify that even though using the forms of “to be” doesn’t necessarily constitute passive voice, it can signify lazy writing. I highly recommend cutting out as many “was” words as you can, to make a more descriptive and unique passage. 

However, I will say that I read a book recently, by one of my favorite authors. He/she is even on the NY Times bestseller list…multiple times. In the first four sentences, the author used “was” six times (none of them in a passive construction). It goes to prove that, even though cutting down on “to be” verbs are helpful, the most important thing to do in writing is to tell a damn good story.

Agent Wish List 101

Katrina already wrote an amazing post on cyber-stalking researching agents. Read it, then come back.

Read it already? Good.

Now that you know how and where to research literary agents, it's time to dive into what comes after--compiling a list of your favorites. *fist pump*

Folks, I give you the Agent Wish List.

I've settled on a few things that will help you figure out which agents should be at the top of your querying list. Today, I'm going to share them with you :)

Le list:

1) What they represent

Genres are where it begins and where it ends, folks. You don't want to pitch your picture book to an agent who's sold crime thrillers--unless that agent reps both genres. This is the first thing you should be looking for, mainly because by querying someone with something they don't love, you're guaranteeing yourself a rejection. And nobody likes those.

2) What they're dying to find right now

I mentioned genre being the most important thing to consider, right? Well, for your Agent Wish List, you should also search for what those agents are actively seeking the moment you're about to start querying. Why? Let's say you completed Step One and found an agent who reps MG fantasy, which is the genre your manuscript falls into. Sweet! But what if you stumbled upon an interview with that agent and he/she said they're sick of dragons? And your manuscript is about a country boy who wakes up one fine morning and learns he must save the last... dragon? Yep. Back to the drawing board.

This step guarantees two things: a) you can personalize your query and let the agents know you've taken the time to get to know their specific tastes, not just what they represent; b) you're querying someone who will most likely request your sample pages. Double win. 

3) New agents AND old agents at the same time

It's normal to want to query agents who rep your favorite authors, especially if those authors are NYT Bestsellers or Printz award winners. Older, more experienced agents may have a great sales track record and a bunch of amazing clients, but you can't leave new agents in the dust. Most of the time, those are the ones hungriest for submissions. They'll be more inclined to offer specific feedback on your query/partial/full. Their response times might be a little faster.

My advice? Balance it out. Create an Agent Wish List with the same amount of new and old agents. Like, if your Wish List has eight agents, four should be new, four should be older. 

4) Online presence

For the purposes of this post, online presence should not be confused with blogging or Tweeting--it's about finding what you can about agents, and seeing whether you two would be a good fit. Sometimes non-blogging/Tweeting agents do a bazillion interviews instead, or even just one. Sometimes they participate in workshops and writers who attend later blog about their experiences (what they learned, how they think it'll help them improve, etc.). Sometimes the agents' clients will rave about their editorial skills, or how much they believe in their manuscripts. And sometimes those agents do guest posts on writing/industry blogs. The point? Don't think Blogger/Wordpress/Twitter are all the options you have! There are other ways for you to get know agents and their tastes, so make sure you go all out and don't shun those who steer clear of the obvious social media outlets. 

So there you have it, folks. My tips on crafting your Agent Wish List. Hope it helps!!

Now tell me: is there anything else you take into consideration? Let me know so I can add it to the list!

And then the first guy said to the other guy...

On Friday Katrina wrote about how writers get past the hard part in their stories. I sobbed quietly in the comments that I was facing my own Waterloo – the synopsis. Now I’ll sob a little louder.

I use a working synopsis as part of my writing road map. I’d love to be able to send that out to agents and editors, but it’s not suitable for public consumption.

So I used it as a starting point, then I kluged in copy from the synopsis feature in Scrivener. It got the story from A to Z, but used way too many letters to get there. I think I might have used a few numbers and random symbols too. I had to face facts -- this thing isn’t going to write itself while I watch Top Chef and eat Cheezits.

It’s hard to strip our own stories down to essentials. A common strategy is to pretend you’re explaining the plot to a friend. Good advice – but there are pitfalls. Most of the time, when a friend recounts a plot of a movie or book, it’s neither interesting nor coherent.

“And then the hero discovers that the bad guy was actually the stranger who helped him in the first scene! Oh wait, did I forget to tell you about that?”

Most synopses have a “you had to be there” kind of flatness, despite our best attempts to layer them with crackling voice and writing.

I understand why editors and agents want them. They might love the first chapter, but if the plot falls into a thousand messy pieces, they want to know before they get to page 248. So I’m working on my synopsis – procrastinating a bit. Maybe a lot.

In the meantime, Top Chef this week was really awesome. I’d tell you what happened, but you really have to see it yourself.

Useful advice from:

Nathan Bransford
Absolute Write

What's your best advice for a writing a synopsis? Who do you want to win Top Chef? (I'm rooting for Carla. Who else?)

The Hard Part

Some writers have trouble conjuring book ideas. They can spin sentences like silk but couldn't come up with a high concept hook to save their lives.

Other writers struggle through the first pages only to write like the wind once the world is properly established.

Still some writers find the middle the most beguiling part of story--anything can happen and nothing is given.

And a few of us hate writing endings as much as we hate saying goodbye at the airport.

I've struggled with all of the above! But currently I'm finding the beguiling middle and afterglow ending impossible to nail down.

When I get to something that feels like the hard part of writing, it helps me to do a few things:

• back off from the story and let it simmer
• watch awesome TV with killer characterization and plot
• exercise
• clean
• dream
• re-imagine and re-outline
• force myself to write
• force myself to cut what I just wrote
• start writing again
• finally get it right and move on

What do you do when you get to the hard part? And what's the hardest part for you? 

Book vs. Movie - Confessions of An Adaptation Snob

So my family and I went to see I Am Number Four recently. We enjoyed it. And, as I tend to do, much to my husband's dismay, I spent the entire car ride home comparing the book to the movie. (Hey, I've gotten better. At least I don't do this DURING the movie anymore. During the fourth Harry Potter movie, I kept leaning over and whispering to him what was different) :D We were at home though, so it isn't quite as bad as it sounds :D

Now, as adaptations go, I Am Number Four was pretty good. Stayed close to the book and the differences were understandable and not so far beyond the book that they were in another realm entirely. So all in all, I left having enjoyed the movie more than being irritated by its differences from the book.

I should probably explain that I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to movie adaptations. I tend to love the books so much that I just really hate when the movie versions stray too far. Like the HBO series True Blood. The Sookie Stackhouse books are among my favorites so I was a bit sad (and annoyed) when the cable series not only strayed but took a sky dive from the books' plotlines. Now, I do actually like the series, for the most part, usually, (mostly because of Alexander Skaarsgard if I'm going to be honest) :D but man, some of the storylines they throw in there are just stroke inducing for me.

I also hesitate to watch historical movies that are based on real life events or people for the same reason. I tried to watch The Tudors but the historical inaccuracies bugged me so much I just couldn't get into it. I love period films, but if they are based on real events, they gotta be accurate or I start to twitch :) And I start to announce to everyone (in a considerately quiet voice, or after the movie if I'm being really good) that what they just saw isn't what really happened. Hey, one of my degrees is in History....I have issues about that kind of thing :)

After we saw I Am Number Four, I thought of other book-to-movie adaptations I enjoyed. The Twilight series (though there are definitely aspects of the films I don't like); The Firm and The Client (John Grisham books turned movies) - these were probably the first book adaptations I'd ever seen that stayed really close to the book; movies based on the classics like Jane Eyre and Emma; Ella Enchanted (I actually saw the movie first on this one and read the book second...and sort of liked the movie better :) ; and the Harry Potter films - there are of course many things that get left out of the films and the books are sooo much better, but over all the movies are pretty great.

So, all this got me wondering if I am the only adaptation snob out there. Can you enjoy a movie for itself and disregard the book it is supposed to be bringing to life? Or do you want the movie to stay as close to the book as possible?

Earache Editing

How awesome was yesterday, right? A huge good luck to those who got their tweet pitches in. To those who didn't, fingers crossed for the next M.A. contest.

I'm afraid I'm not feeling my chirpy cookie self today. An attack of earache has me in its throbbing, evil grasp. But never fear, I've found a way to post through the pain -- and link it to writing.

Earache is one of those things that sneaks up on you. You can be walking around, content in your own world, and then bam, a gust of wind rushes in your ears. You know it's coming, but you try to ignore it. Hours later you're awake at 2am clutching a hot water bottle watching CSI: Las Vegas repeats.

But earache has a productive side. Oh yes. You know the nagging feeling you get when your ear throbs? Well, it's kind of like with editing. You write your MS, walk around all chirpy and la la la, but you know it's coming. You want to ignore it, but you can't.

After my fantabulous CPs give me their feedback, I begin. I tend to use my gut feeling for a lot of my editing. You know, the little nag inside you that tells you something isn't quite right? With earache you treat it. You take some painkillers, grab a hot water bottle and snuggle down for a nap, waiting for the throb to go away. With editing, the throb is something you can't ignore. So you open your word document, get your editing tools, and wait for the throb to start. If I don't feel the throb on a certain area, I pretty much leave it alone.

My earache editing motto: feel the throb, treat the problem.

What about you? Got any editing tips to share?

Mystery Agent: March

UPDATE: CLOSED!! Thanks for all the awesome entries!!

Well, our favorite time on the OA has come once again. I know it's hard to believe because February flew by with oodles of agent events and book giveaways. Oliver, our owl, is especially excited about this particular contest. Even though he can't "hoot" in this one, he appreciates a good "tweet" now and then. 

We are graced with another fantastic mystery agent, one you won't want to miss. So get those tweet-sized pitches ready to roll, for the contest is NOW OPEN!

Here are the rules.


1) Entry limit: 75 entrants.

2) Pitch length: 140 characters. Think Tweet. Since we're talking 140 characters, Title and Genre don't have to be part of the pitch -- add them on to the comment somewhere.

3) Genres: YA (especially thriller, cyberpunk, horror, historical romance); MG; women's fiction; romance (especially with a strong, female heroine). 


4) Novels pitched must be complete. 


5) You may only enter once. If you entered a previous contest, you may also enter this one.

Are you ready to share your fabulous pitch? We're so ready to read them. The first 75 pitches (posted in the comments) will be considered. Last month, we had to disqualify a few for not following the rules. So don't get caught in that situation!

Good luck! May the best pitch win.

Ready...


Set...


Tweet....