What Your Editor is Reading

From the author of the Memory Keeper's Daughter, Kim Edwards, comes The Lake of Dreams.

A Little Writer's Digest Humor (and some good advice)

This week over on Writer's Digest, bestselling author Karen Slaughter shares her 10 Ways to Stay Sane When Frustrated With Your Writing. My favorite:

[5] HGTV, THE DIY NETWORK AND FINE LIVING are great because they remind you that your characters live in houses and give you ideas for how to describe these spaces in interesting ways. For instance, in Triptych, it’s said that Will put down tiles in Angie’s bathroom on a 45-degree angle to make the space look larger. In Broken, I talk a lot about different kinds of trees and plant life. Thank you, “Yard Crashers.”

Publishing and Dating

Check out Lisa Bullard and Laura Purdie Salas's fun post on why finding that first publisher is a lot like dating. (Which I guess makes me...Patti from the Millionaire Matchmaker? Yeah, let's go with that.)


"Don’t give up after one failed relationship. Giving up after being rejected by just one editor or agent—however much you thought they were your perfect match—would be like giving up on marriage after you break up with your middle school crush. Allow some time for wallowing, and then figure out what you’ve learned from the rejection and move on."

Max Barry's Fifteen Ways to Write a Novel

Another great read for those of you hacking away at first drafts, third drafts, second novels, or eight novels: Max Barry's Fifteen Ways to Write a Novel.


The funny thing is, as I read through this list, I recognize each and every one of you . Honest to God, by the time I finish reading your manuscript, I know exactly how you wrote it - or at least how you wrote the first draft.


For instance:


The Jigsaw

What: You start writing the scenes (or pieces of scenes) that interest you the most, and don’t worry about connecting them until later.

Why: You capture the initial energy of ideas. You can avoid becoming derailed by detail. You make sure your novel revolves around your big ideas.

Why Not: It can be difficult to figure out how to connect the scenes after the fact. You need to rewrite heavily in order to incorporate ideas you had later for earlier sections. Your characters can be shakier because you wrote scenes for them before you knew the journey they’d make to get there.

Some of my most successful writers are Jigsaw-ers. I know you because I'll tear through pages and pages of brilliance, only to get stopped short on some transition scene that makes no damn sense. You're the ones who have half your pages marked "great!" "perfect imagery!" or "wow!" and the other half marked with "Why would this character do this?" "Why did this happen?" "???" 

You're a handful Mr. and Ms. Jigsaw, but you sure do produce some excellent work. 

You each have your own little quirks, of course. The Word Target, if I wanted to, I could figure out your target number, because, oh, perhaps every 1,000 words or so you're just throwing some words at me. Edit! The Coffee Shop - did you know that caffeine jitters infuse your pages with the scent of java and the speed of a runaway cheetah chasing another cheetah chasing a jet plane? It's true! The Headphones - check out page 238. Those are Paul Simon lyrics. Yup, really. 

You're all a blast to work with, and I love the challenge of figuring out revision plans that work with each and every one of your styles. But I'd like to use Mr. Barry's post as a challenge for all of my clients out there working on revisions, and even to future clients working on first drafts. 

Revise and self-edit to the point that I cannot tell which category you fit into, because your manuscript is so seamless, well paced, and trimmed that the hallmarks of method are erased by smooth execution. Just another aspect of the craft to perfect!

The Best Possible Way to Handle a Rejection Letter

Courtesy of Naseem Rakha, author of the Crying Tree over on Backspace.

What Your Editor is Reading

Alice Hoffman's The Red Garden

Go Read This - Blog Edition

I know many of you (if not most!) are familiar with the editor/agent/writer blogosphere, but in case you missed them, here are a few to get your brain working this fine morning.


Jessica over at Book Ends is looking for something new...


"Steampunk. Please, please send me steampunk of all sorts. Adult, young adult, romance, mystery. I personally love this genre and can’t get enough of it."




Agent Kristen at Pub Rants provides some very good advice on self-submitting to small publishing houses. 


"So, resist the temptation and if you are submitting directly, make sure you pick the best editor first time around as you really only have the one shot. And of course, good luck."




Janet Reid gives you the inside scoop on winning free registration for the Backspace Writers Conference. 




And finally, if you're in the process of developing your query or synopsis, make sure you're spending plenty of time with your Evil Editor and the Query Shark!