When Writing Gets Hard

I've heard a lot of writers say the middle of the book is the hardest to write. For me, it's the end. Not so much coming up with an ending, more that I tend to have these mood swings when I write, going from 'My book is great!' to 'My book sucks' in a matter of minutes. The closer I get to finishing the book, the stronger the mood swings get, until I'm pretty much staring at my computer, convinced I've made a terrible mistake and thinking I should just trash the manuscript and start from scratch. Of course, I know better than to do that, but that's how I end up feeling.

Now here I am, a day or two out from finishing Knights of Avalon and feeling like a complete failure, which I know isn't true. My way of coping with this? Chocolate. Mass quantities of chocolate, and perhaps a Coke Slurpee later tonight.

I bought myself a pound and a half bar of Belgian milk chocolate a couple of days ago just because I knew this would happen. Seriously, the bar's huge, as big as one of my cats (though not as heavy). It's sort of my "In case of literary emergency, break glass and eat chocolate" bar. And you know what, I'm eating it, right now! It should get me through these last few chapters, then maybe I'll post a preview for you guys.

Update:

In case you all didn't believe me.

#Queryfail

Ohaithere! Where have I been for the last week? Oh, ya know, writing, and writing...did I mention writing? A little obsessively. Sometime soon, I'll tell you the wicked crazy dreams I've been having from the viewpoint of one of my own characters. You know why this blog is called Surviving Writing a Book? Besides the fact that's it a play on the title of my first novel, Surviving Matewan? It's because when I get into writing, when I really get into writing, it starts to get a little crazy.

But that's a mental detour for another day. At this moment, I want to weigh in on a controversy, because I cannot ignore the siren song of controversy, it is like the siren song of Coke Slurpees and eventually I must succumb. On Thursday, March the Fifth, a group of agents liveblogged via Twitter the queries they were reading, lavishing special attention on the egregiously bad ones, and sometimes describing what the query sender did wrong. Much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments ensued, as some in the writing world suggested that those involved in #Queryfail day were great big meanies.

First of all, it is very upsetting to see two of my favorite agents, who shall go nameless, fighting. I didn't know agents could do that. It's like finding out Mrs. Claus took out a restraining order on Santa. And yes, I know I'm being naive. OK, I'm still naive. Heh!

Second, yeah, sometimes #queryfail went from informative and funny to mean and sometimes that made me uncomfortable. But as far as I'm concerned, criticism happens and as you develop as a writer and show your work to others, whether it be via blog, query or actual published book, you're going to be able to control the criticism you receive less and less. Get used to it now. If agents were posting entire queries and ruthlessly snarking on them, maybe I'd feel differently, but that's not what they were doing.

Now, on to the content of #queryfail, because this is really why I don't feel badly for most of those who were snarked upon. A perusal of the #queryfails reveal several patterns:

• 1. Queries where the sender hadn't written a book at all. These include people who had a great idea and wanted help writing it, wanted to secure an agent before they had ever committed a word to paper, or were asking agents questions about payment and money.
• 2. Queries where the sender made unreasonable/unrealistic demands. For example, talking about going on Oprah or suggesting that they receive million dollar advances.
• 3. Queries that failed to follow basic guidelines and rules of grammar and civility, such as addressing the query, "To Whom It May Concern" and sending it out to 30 agents all at once, or queries that clearly weren't spellchecked, or where agents were sent genres they clearly don't represent.
• 4. Queries that skimped on the plot and talked about, instead of showed, how great the book was.

What really gets me is that the more egregious and atrociously written the query, the more it tended to suffer from more than one of the problems listed above. The person who's written the 250,000 word Middle Grade Erotic Vampire Thriller who's certain their book will be bigger than Harry Potter and Twighlight combined also doesn't believe in using commas or sending agents personalized e-mails because that'd crimp their creative genius.

All the query senders with problems #1-3 (I'm not talking about #4, because that's a common mistake that anybody can make), they don't respect the craft, because there' s just no excuse to be making those sorts of mistakes. It's not an issue of lack of talent or newbie rawness, we're talking about having a modicum of basic common sense and cursory research here.

Most of the folks sending those types of sloppy queries, they're looking to make a quick buck and they think writing's an easy way to do it, and you know why they think writing's an easy way to do it? Because they probably haven't written much, if anything, because if they did, they'd realize it's really hard and there's no quick money involved.

So no, I don't mind terribly if the agents snark on them, because they're wasting the agents' time, keeping them from getting to the queries of those people who've done their homework, and clearly don't take writing seriously, so why should anybody take them seriously?

Apparently I Need to Eat

I know! Who knew? So I'm working on my new manuscript, Knights of Avalon, and I'm really getting into the story and then as the day goes by, I start feeling bad, like really bad, like lay down in bed under the covers bad. But I'm not sick, so I'm sitting there, trying to figure out why I feel so weak and dizzy when I suddenly realize I haven't had anything to eat or drink, except for a few Milano cookies (half off! Nom nom nom), for the last 18 hours or so.

Now, I like to eat. I'm extremely fond of eating and drinking. I do it on a regular basis and Bear Grylls tells me it's extremely important to do, especially when wandering in the Patagonia or the wilds of Alaska. But on rare occasion, I get so wrapped up in what I'm doing that I kinda forget, until the room gets all spinny on me and I'm like, "Oh yeah, body needs sustenance." So I drank some water, ate some food, got myself a Coke Slurpee and much better! Yay for food and water!

Here's a status report on where I am with my writing:

Surviving Matewan: Am holding off on further queries at this time. Various people are reading the revised manuscript, I'm gathering up feedback and will make further revisions based on their recommendations. Goals so far include: Getting the word count down, coming up with a stronger opening line, and more showy and less telly.

Knights of Avalon: I am having way too much fun with this book for this to be healthy (see above). We'll see if it's any good, but the writing process is going a lot faster this time around, and I have to think all the experience I gained from the first book has something to do with it. Hopefully an increase in speed does not equal a decrease in quality, but I'm not forcing it, and I think that's what's important.

Rejection, It's What's for Dinner

And for lunch, and for breakfast...

No worries, I haven't received a rejection from the very kind agent who is reading my full. But while I nervously await a response, I thought I'd talk a little bit more about the writer's constant companion, rejection. More specifically, what do you do when you get a partial or a full rejected. Besides cry.

Let me tell you, getting rejected at the query stage is bad, but getting a full rejected is absolutely heart-breaking. It's like climbing up Mount Everest, only to have someone pry loose your hands and kick you all the way down the mountain. It undeniably, unabashedly sucks.

But it can be a valuable learning experience, because it's usually the first time a professional has reviewed your manuscript. As opposed to your Mom, or your beagle (the beagle says my manuscript is "a work of literary genius" by the way).

So when you do receive a partial or full rejection, based on personal experience, these are the steps I suggest you take:

1. Get away from the computer. You're upset, you're angry. Don't respond right away or you might say something you regret. Walk the dogs, get yourself a Coke Slurpee, watch Bear Grylls avoid alligators in a Louisiana bayou. Give yourself a chance to cool down.
2. Once you have cooled down, carefully read the agent's feedback. When it comes to writing, agents have x-ray vision. They can usually pick apart your book and point out its flaws in ways ordinary mortals can't. You don't have to follow the advice they give, but you'd be well-advised to at least consider what they have to say.
3. When you've read the feedback, write back and thank the agent for considering your work. I guess you don't have to do this, the agent's e-mail inbox is probably full enough as it is, but that's what I've done in the past. You might even be able to ask the agent a follow-up question regarding their comments if you think they'd be open to it. Some agents are, some aren't.
4. After that, go back to your manuscript and apply what you've learned!

I wanted to go into a little more detail about my own personal experience. I was lucky enough to have a really amazing agent reviewing my manuscript. She rejected it for weak characterization, which shocked me at first, because the characters are so real and detailed in my head, but somehow that wasn't coming through in my writing.

I couldn't figure out how to fix the problem, so I asked her for a specific example and she gave me two. Like I said, agents have x-ray vision. She somehow took apart the book, showed me the insides, and pinpointed exactly why the story wasn't working. So yeah, it hurt, but my manuscript is so much better thanks to her input.

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog!

Three crazy years ago, I decided I was going to write a book. Not just any book, but a good book. I thought it'd take me a few months. I was wrong about that. But after all manner of obstacles and thanks to my Ahab-like obsession with finishing my novel, it was done. And by 'done' I mean I'm not touching the manuscript until an agent/editor/reader suggests revisions because I've looked it over so many times my eyes have glazed over, my brain has liquified, and I can no longer see the flaws in my own work. Maybe after a few months, I'll look at it again and do further re-writes. But for now, it's done and I get a Coke Slurpee for all my hard work.

My book? A little Middle Grade historical fiction piece called "Surviving Matewan." The title of the blog being a play on the book title. It's set in 1920, Matewan, West Virginia and is about 12-year-old Molly Anne McCoy, a coal miner's daughter who must keep her family safe during an epic and bloody showdown between the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and the coal companies.

This isn't the first time I've written a book. I've written bad books before. Singing animals, forced rhymes, I apologize to all the agents I sent those books too. My latest book is much better, I swear. I'll be posting updates on my attempts to get published, more background on the book itself, and the exercise in insanity that is writing a novel.

Thanks for stopping by!