Vlog: CPs vs Betas

Today I'm talking a frequent point of confusion: the difference between CPs (critique partners) and beta readers. Or at least, the difference to me.

RELATED LINKS: 

• Why You Need Critique Partners (Really) (vlog)
• How to Edit: The CP Trade (vlog)
• How to Handle Tough CP Feedback (vlog)
• 5 Places to Find Critique Partners
• Critique Partners: They're Not Optional
• How to Choose Critique Partners
• Writing Tips: CPs vs Betas (blog post version)

ALSO GOING ON: 

• I'm guest posting over at Janice Hardy's Fiction University today! Check it out for info on common first page issues. 


• And! You have until tomorrow at 11:59 PM EST to enter for a chance to win a first 250 critique featured right here on Writability!

Do you use both CPs and beta readers? How do you use them differently? 

Twitter-sized bites: 

Writer @Ava_Jae says, "you need outside feedback to get an objective view of your work." What do you think? #vlog (Click to tweet)  

Confused about the difference between CPs and betas? @Ava_Jae breaks it down in today's vlog. (Click to tweet)

A Basic Genre Index (Part One)

I frequently talk about genre and category here, and I tend to speak about them in pretty offhanded terms, with the assumption that everyone knows what I’m talking about. I imagine many of you do, but I’m also aware that it’s very likely at least some people don’t. And many could probably use clarification with some labels anyway.

So! I thought I’d create what was supposed to be a mini index of the major genres. Except the post was getting way too long, so I split it into two. Enjoy part one!


Fantasy

Photo credit: .Natty.Dread. on Flickr

Magic, dragons, elves, wizards, witches, portals, fairies, mages—anything goes in a fantasy novel. These books are built off fantastical worlds where the impossible is impossible and where the mythical is reality.

Examples: A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, Half Bad by Sally Green, The Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker, The Queen of Tearling by Erika Johansen, Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard, Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas, Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson, Graceling by Kristin Cashore.

For more info on writing fantasy, check out this post. (Others)

Paranormal

Photo credit: gaelx on Flickr

Technically this is a subgenera of fantasy, but it’s so big I thought it merited it’s own category. Paranormal books are a step closer to reality than epic fantasies, but they include supernatural creatures like angels, vampires, fairies, ghosts, werewolves, shapeshifters, etc. Think the TV show Supernatural.

Examples: Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, Ink by Amanda Sun, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin, Shiver and The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black, The Diviners by Libba Bray, Paranormalcy by Kiersten White, Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick, The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa. (Others)

For more info on writing paranormal, check out this post. 

Science Fiction (Sci-Fi)

Photo credit: Scott Smith (SRisonS) on Flickr

Science Fiction is similar to fantasy in that the worlds and situations aren’t real (at the time they are written, at least), but the so-called “fantastical” elements are based in science, rather than magic. The idea here is the made-up stuff could be real, scientifically-speaking. It’s just not real right now.

Examples: Across the Universe by Beth Revis, Salvage by Alexandra Duncan, The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey, The Martian by Andy Weir, The Cage by Megan Shepherd, The Edge of Forever by Melissa E. Hurst, Cinder by Marissa Meyer, These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner, Alienated by Melissa Landers. (Others)

For more info on writing sci-fi, check out this post. 

Dystopia

Photo credit: playingdead on Flickr

Dystopian novels are a subgenre of Sci-Fi, but as they’ve gotten pretty huge on their own, it felt important to list them separately. Dystopian novels frequently feature futuristic oppressive governments that are often overthrown at the end of the book. Expect speculative societies with extremely strict rules and characters who unwittingly find themselves at the center of a revolution (though that isn’t always the case).

Examples: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Divergent by Veronica Roth, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings, Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi, The Choosing by Rachelle Dekker, Red Rising by Pierce Brown, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, The 100 by Kass Morgan, The Selection by Kiera Cass, Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi, Legend by Marie Lu, Matched by Ally Condie. (Others)

For more info on writing dystopias, check out this post.

Horror

Photo credit: Moyan Brenn on Flickr

These books are written to scare. Or at least creep you out a little. Monsters, murderers, paranormal situations out to get you—these characters usually go through horrifying situations that end in a lot of people dying in terrible ways.

Examples: Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry, Follow You Home by Mark Edwards, Ten by Gretchen McNeil, Sweet by Emmy Laybourne, House by Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti, The Enemy by Charlie Higson, Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake, Feed by Mira Grant, World War Z by Max Brooks, anything written by Stephen King, The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris. (Others)

Thriller

Photo credit: @lattefarsan on Flickr

Thrillers are similar to horror, but here, it tends to be about a killer going after people (rather than something supernatural). Sometimes the two blend a little, but these are exciting, fast-paced novels where the threat of death is a constant.

Examples: Hushed by Kelley York, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, Black Iris by Leah Raeder, Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll, Thr3e and Adam by Ted Dekker, The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, The Devil You Know by Trish Doller, Delicate Monsters by Stephanie Keuhn, The Rules by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguié. (Others)

Humor

Photo credit: Arnett Gill on Flickr

These books are funny. The point is to tell a story that makes you laugh quite a bit. These are often written by celebrities, and when they’re not they tend to also cross into other genres. So yes.

Examples: Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris, Yes Please by Amy Poehler, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling, Beauty Queens by Libba Bray, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews, Denton’s Little Deathdate by Lance Rubin, Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh. (Others)

So that’s just the first part! I’ll finish part two for you guys shortly. :)

UPDATE (7/24/15): Part two is live!

Twitter-sized bite:

Do you find genres confusing? @Ava_Jae breaks down some of the most common genres in today's post. (Click to tweet) 

Fixing the First Page Feature Giveaway #13

Photo credit: Nellie0224 on Flickr

Incredibly, we are more than halfway through July, which means it's time to gear up for the next Fixing the First Page giveaway! Yay!

For those who’ve missed it in the past, the Fixing the First Page features is a public first 250 word critique. Using the lovely rafflecopter widget, anyone interested in winning a PUBLIC (as in, featured in a post on this blog) first page critique can enter.

For an example of what this critique will look like, here's the last Fixing the First Page post.

Rules!

• ONLY the first 250 words will be critiqued (up to finishing the sentence). If you win and send me more, I will crop it myself. No exceptions.


• ONLY the first page. I don’t want 250 random words from your manuscript, or from chapter 3. If you win the critique and send me anything other than the first 250 words of your manuscript, I will choose someone else.


• I will actually critique it. Here. On the blog. I will say things as nicely as I can, but I do tend to be a little blunt. If you’re not sure you can handle a public critique, then you may want to take some time to think about it before you enter.


• Genre restrictions. I'm most experienced with YA & NA, but I will still accept MG and Adult. HOWEVER. If your first page has any erotic content on it, I ask that you don’t enter. I want to be able to post the critique and the first 250 in its entirety without making anyone uncomfortable, and if you win and you enter a page with erotic content, I will choose someone else.


• You must have your first page ready. Should you win, you need to be able to submit your first page within 48 hours of my contacting you to let you know you won. If 48 hours pass and I haven’t heard from you, again, I will choose someone else.


• You’ll get the most out of this if it isn’t a first draft. Obviously, I have no way of knowing if you’re handing me a first draft (though I will probably suspect because it’s usually not that difficult to tell). I won’t refuse your page if it’s a first draft, but you should know that this critique will likely be of more use if you’ve already had your betas/CPs look over it. Why? Because if you don’t, the critique I give you will probably contain a lot of notes that your betas & CPs could have/would have told you.


• There will not be a round 2 (unless you win again in a future contest). I hate to have to say this, but if you win a critique, it’s NOT an invitation to send me a bunch of your revisions. I wish I had the time available to be able to look at revisions, but sadly, I don’t. If you try to break this rule, I will nicely say no, and also remember to choose someone else should you win a second contest. Which would make me sad. :(

So that’s it! If you’re okay with all of the above and would like to enter to be the twelfth public critique on Writability, do the thing with the rafflecopter widget below. You have until Wednesday, July 22 at 11:59 EST to enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Discussion: How Long Do You Let Your WIPs Cool?

Photo credit: Alessandro Lorizzo on Flickr

So many a year ago, I wrote about the importance of letting your manuscripts cool between finishing the first draft and starting the first read through. And while I do still believe it’s important for many writers for the reasons I listed in that post, my process has a changed a little since getting agented.

It used to be when I finished a first draft, I’d put it away and eagerly wait a month before looking at it again. This worked well when I was working on one project at a time, at thirty or so days gave me enough distance to then look at the writing more critically than I would have had I started reading right after first drafting.

A month worked really well for ages up until last year when a couple things happened:

1. I signed with my agent (yay!) 
2. We sold Beyond the Red (YAY!) 
3. I wrote two first drafts back to back (oh…kay?) 
4. I looked at my NaNo MS from 2013 and knew I couldn’t just leave it. 
5. I maybe sort of pitched a bunch of books to my agent and suddenly I was juggling a bunch of projects. (Yay? Yay!) 

So now I had all of these manuscripts and after working out a good order for which manuscript would get attention first, I realized all of the projects would be getting wayyyyy more than a month-long cooling off period.

First came the #NerdyWIP I’ve talked about, which had a cooling off period of…five or six months? Something like that.

Then the #YAFantasyWIP got a ton of love after sitting in the drawer for well over a year.

And now I’ll be turning to the second MS I drafted last summer, just about a year later.

Waiting this much longer, even unintentionally, has its perks. When I go back to those WIPs, I’m usually pretty darn excited because I’ve been waiting so long to get back to them, and I also remember very little about them which may not sound like a perk, but actually makes it so much easier to look at not just the writing critically, but the plot, and characters, and everything else.

So lately that’s what I’ve been doing. And while this may very well change with circumstance, it’s been an interesting schedule to work with.

So how about you? How long do you let your WIPs cool before the first read through? 

Twitter-sized bite: 

How long do you let your WIP cool between 1st drafting & 1st read through? Join the discussion on @Ava_Jae's blog. (Click to tweet)

Vlog: How to Finish a WIP

You asked, I answered: how do you finish a work in progress when you frequently get stuck?

RELATED LINKS: 

• How to Finish Writing a Novel
• Discussion: Do You Finish Every Novel Idea You Start?

Twitter-sized bites: 

"Sometimes an idea isn't meant to be. And that's okay." #writetip (Click to tweet) 

How do you finish a WIP when you frequently get stuck? @Ava_Jae vlogs her thoughts. (Click to tweet)

On Developing Characters

Photo credit: notfrancois on Flickr

Fun fact: after I’ve finished plotting a potential book from start to finish and I’ve prepared everything I need to to start writing, I know very little about my characters.

I mean, when it comes to my protagonist and love interest(s), I know super basics like name and physical description, but if I’ve fleshed out any personality at all it’s usually only a really vague idea, if anything.

The truth is, I don’t really get to know my characters until I’ve started first drafting—and that also goes for my protagonist. And for me, this where the fun almost-pantsing comes in—because while I know pretty much how the plot is going to lay out, I don’t really know how my characters are going to develop, at least, not in the first draft.

This is also why I don’t call a WIP a WIP until I’ve hit 10,000 words—I have, on more than one occasion, started writing a totally solid idea then put it away because the protagonist’s voice just didn’t sit with me. But that’s something I really can’t predict until I’ve started writing.

There are a few things my protagonists tend to have in common: they’re often snarky because I’m a snarkmonster IRL, they’re often internally conflicted because I love writing internal conflict, and many times they’re outcasts of some sort, because I love writing characters on the fringe of society.

But honestly? That stuff can manifest in limitless ways, and there’s still so much room for drastically different personalities, and ways of speaking and thinking and viewing the world. And I love figuring it out along the way, and I never tire of having a protagonist surprise me with a stray thought, or memory, or off-handed comment, or unexpected action that I never could have predicted from day one.

In later drafts is where I then take those personality seeds and push them further. It’s where I dig into characters and unearth the stuff the first draft hinted at—it’s where I push them harder to be raw and real.

Unlike plotting, I tend to develop my characters really instinctively. From a wisp of an idea upon character conception to a fully-developed, layered character over time.

And that’s how I develop my characters. How do you develop yours?

Twitter-sized bite:

Writer @Ava_Jae shares how she develops characters instinctively. What does character development look like for you? (Click to tweet)

Discussion: What’s Your Favorite Type of Swag?

Photo credit: darknesschildsin on Flickr

So somehow, 2015 is halfway over, which means things are starting to gear up for 2016 debuts. Which is crazy, and exciting, and yay.

One discussion point I frequently see on Twitter is what everyone’s favorite swag is, which I think is an excellent question, partially because I hadn’t thought much about it before I saw people asking and partially because…well it’ll be good to know when I start ordering swag. So. :D

Personally, I like bookmarks because they’re useful and pretty, but I also like pins, those rubber bracelet things (I still have one that says “Nerd is the New Black” for Megan Erickson’s Make It Count), and though I’ve yet to get a book poster, I would love me some book posters.

I’ve also seen people mention tote bags (cool!), and I know pens exist but I never found those all that interesting probably because I don’t often use pens (and on Twitter at least, I haven’t seen them mentioned much). I’ve also seen super creative suggestions though, like necklaces and book-specific swag like Down With the Shine’s jars (which makes sense if you look at the super-awesome cover) or Mockingjay pins for The Hunger Games.

I’ve seen super-cool t-shirts, fun postcards, nail polish, awesome temporary tattoos, cute magnets, and I’ve heard people mention bookplates.

So all in all, the swag choices are close to limitless. But for those of you who like swag, I’m curious: what’s your favorite type of swag?

Twitter-sized bite:

Do you like book swag? What's your favorite type? Join the discussion on @Ava_Jae's blog. (Click to tweet)