Writability

Fixing the First Page Feature Giveaway #20!

We are officially halfway through February (O.O) which means March 1st is nearly here and also it's time to start gearing up for the next Fixing the First Page feature! 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 twentieth public critique on Writability, do the thing with the rafflecopter widget below. You have until Monday, February 22 at 11:59 EST to enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Vlog: 5 Myths About Authoring

There are a lot of myths and misconceptions when it comes to writing books and getting published. Today I'm dispelling five of them.

RELATED LINKS:

What publishing myths have you heard?

Twitter-sized bites:

"You need connections to get published" and other myths @Ava_Jae thinks can go die in a fire. #vlog (Click to tweet)

Author @Ava_Jae dispels 5 publishing myths in today's vlog. Have you heard these? (Click to tweet)

Getting Published in 15 Steps: From Post-Book Deal to Release Day

Photo credit: -MRGT on Flickr

So wayyyy back in 2013 I wrote a post on 15 steps to writing a novel, then back in 2014 I followed it up with 15 steps to getting published, up to the book deal. Now, with just two weeks and a day to go to Beyond the Red's release, I've got enough background info to finish off the series. :)

Do note that the orders to these steps varies wildly publisher to publisher, and even book to book. For most, all of these steps (or at least most) will happen at some point or another as long as there is a print release, but everyone's timeline is a little different.

That said, here we go. Fifteen steps from post-book deal to release day:

Join a debut group. This is, by no means, a mandatory step, but I very highly recommend it if you're a debut. For me, The Sweet Sixteens and Team Rogue YA has opened up the door for a ton of opportunities (like conferences! and mini book tours!), introduced me to so many wonderful people I now consider friends, helped me feel sane during this crazy publishing process *and* given me access to amazing books early. And honestly, the support alone is so very much worth it. :)

Talk blurbs. As I said before, when this happens varies, but eventually your editor will ask you if you have any ideas as to who you'd like to ask to get some blurbs. This is a terrifying and exciting thing that eventually leads to people you admire hopefully saying nice things about your book.

Share ideas for covers. This is such a fun part of the process. At some point, your publisher will start thinking cover ideas, and often the first step is asking you, the author, about what you had in mind for the cover/what covers you like that you'd like to emulate. Mood boards are a very fun (and useful!) thing to put together.

Cover mock ups. Self-explanatory—eventually you will see versions of your cover! And it is exciting! And amazing! And YAY!

Pre-orders open. At some point, your book will magically appear on Amazon, B&N, BAM!, etc. online. And people will be able to pre-order your book, which is a surreal and amazing thing.

Cover reveal. After you've seen several mock-ups and changes are made and everyone is happy, it's time to reveal the cover to the world! This is the first time people start to associate an image with your book, and it also allows you to start thinking about swag, and daydreaming about holding your book. Woot!

First pass. This is the time when you will finally get your first edit letter. For some, this is a time of wailing and gnashing of teeth. For others, it's scary, but exciting. For some especially lucky, it's both. How much work is involved, and how much time you have will depend on your book and your editor, but rest assured, changes will be made for the better.

Second, Third, Fourth, Final, etc. Pass. How many passes there are and when they happen, like many of the steps, will vary. But there will be plenty of passes, and you will read your book so many times you can recite passages in your sleep, and there will come a time when you feel as though you'd rather pull your fingernails off rather than read it again. This is normal. Probably. And this too shall pass. (Get it, pass? *clears throat* Anyway...)

ARCs! And then the day will come when you will get to hold your book in your hand because the ARCs have arrived! This is a super exciting/nerve-wracking time because not only do you have a book-shaped thing but many other people will get to read it too, for the first time. Ahhhhh!

More blurbs. If you didn't get blurbs earlier, probably you will start to get them right about now. And even if you did get blurbs earlier, you are likely to get more around now too. So more admirable people saying nice things about your book. Yay!

Early reviews. Now that ARCs are in the world, reviews will start trickling in. This is where you start to decide if you're the type of author that reads your reviews. There isn't a right or wrong answer, really—just make sure you take care of yourself during this kind of terrifying time.

Book jacket comps. At some point, if your book is publishing in hardcover, you will see the comps for your book jacket, and now you'll really get a sense for what your book will look like. It's a very, very cool thing that I totally loved.

Final copies printed! RED ALERT. YOUR BOOK IS REAL.

Final copies distributed! YOUR BOOK IS IN YOUR HAND. AND ARRIVING AT BOOKSTORES. AND SOON PEOPLE WILL BUY IT. AHHHH!

RELEASE DAY. Self-explanatory and holy wow it's real. Everything is real! HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY, YOU!

Twitter-sized bite:

How to get published, from post-book deal to release day, condensed into 15 steps. (Click to tweet)

How to Manipulate Pace

Photo credit: sugr.stoc on Flickr

I'd wager to say that probably over half of the DNF reviews I see on Goodreads for various books are at least partially due to pacing issues not clicking into place. What the "right" pace is can very much depend on the particular reader, but the wrong pace—especially if it's too slow—can often mean putting a book down and not picking it back up again.

It was no surprise to me, then, that pacing is something I often see commented on as problematic in submissions I see for my editorial work as well as reasons readers did or did not enjoy a book in reviews.

When you're writing, however, pacing can sometimes be a little tricky to get right, which is a bummer because hearing that your pacing is off can be a scary critique, as it often means a lot of manuscript surgery. If you do, however, find that you need to adjust the pacing of your manuscript, here are a few adjustments you may want to consider.

Note: As a general rule, if your pace is lagging, you'll want to think about cuts, and if your pace is moving too quickly, you'll want to think about additions. Remember, the more white space there is on a page, the faster the reading will feel.

Add/remove scenes. If you're getting large-scale feedback (or just suspect) that your beginning/middle/end/whatever needs pace adjustment, think about where you can add or remove scenes. If you're cutting, what can you remove without losing vital information? What scenes can you merge together? If you're adding, where can you add meaningful breaks or buff up existing scenes to add in some breathing room?

Think about chapter length. Similarly, adjusting chapter length can help manipulate how quick or slow the reading feels. Short chapters tend to translate to feeling as if you're reading quickly and the reverse happens with long chapters (though that's not to say long chapters can't be equally excellent or interesting). If you want to speed up the pacing in a certain area of your manuscript, you may want to think about splitting some chapters here and there—or merging them where you need to slow down some.

Take a look at paragraph and sentence length. Maybe your pace problem isn't widespread, but it's not quite right for a particular scene. This is where you'll really want to hone in on paragraph and sentence-level changes. If you need to speed your scene up—say, in a fight scene—think about shortening up those sentences and paragraphs, and maybe even playing around with a sprinkle of one-word sentences or one-sentence paragraphs. If you have the opposite problem, think about merging some short paragraphs together and stringing short sentences together.

Pacing isn't always easy to get right, but with enough practice and thoughtful manipulation, it'll be another skill you can add to your writer toolbox.

What pacing tips would you add to the list?

Twitter-sized bite:

Struggling to get your WIP's pacing right? @Ava_Jae shares some helpful tips. (Click to tweet)

On Writing Realistic Dialogue

Photo credit: kattebelletje on Flickr

Dialogue is a tricky thing to master. Trying to write speech in a way that mimics the way we speak isn't something that comes naturally—like just about everything writing-related, it takes a lot of practice and a lot of reading to get a good feel for it.

I've written some do's and don't's for writing realistic dialogue in the past, so I won't reiterate all of that, exactly, but I think there's still more to be said for writing dialogue that doesn't fall flat, so here are five more points to think about:

Language is always evolving. I recently took a Linguistics class (such a good decision, writing-wise), and the number one lesson repeated throughout the semester was this: language is always changing. This is really important to consider, especially if you write YA, because teens are huge drivers of language change and it changes *so* quickly. Slang that was popular just five years ago is already falling out of favor: teens don't say really "(epic) fail" or "pwned" anymore, for example. It's your responsibility, as a writer, to keep up to date with the way language is changing, especially if you write for teens.

Think carefully about each of your characters. How much education do they have? What regional dialect are they a part of (remember: everyone has an accent)? Do they swear a lot (or at all)? Are they likely to speak formally or informally? Do they tend towards long or short sentences? All of these factors and more will play into how they speak, and it's up to you to make sure each character has their own distinctive speech style.

When writing Beyond the Red, this was something I had to think about a lot, given that my two main characters come from very different backgrounds and levels of education. It wouldn't make sense for Sepharon (alien) royalty to speak the same way a guy who was raised by human nomads did. Culture, education, and even personality should all be considered when differentiating the way your characters speak.

Not all conversations are straightforward. Real-life conversations can be very complicated and nuanced. People frequently don't say exactly what's on their minds—we speak through subtext, we use tone and body language to add meaning to our words, we answer questions with questions or silence, and we change topics or end conversations when we don't want to talk about something. Consider:

"I told him we'd go to the afterparty," Leah said.

Bree laughed. "Of course you did."

OR

"I told him we'd go to the afterparty," Leah said.
Bree rolled her eyes. "Of course you did."

Same exact words in both of these conversations, but I don't need to explain how Bree's body language completely changes what she's saying.

Don't omit contractions needlessly. 9/10 times when I read dialogue that feels stilted, this is part of the problem. People speak with contractions all the time—without them, we sound like robots at best, and laughable at worst. Even if you're writing historical or a formal character, you do not want to omit every single contraction: your characters will only sound stiff and unnatural.

Many teens swear. While not all teens swear, writing teen characters who deliberately don't swear (oh, fiddlesticks!) can often sound contrived. If your teen character doesn't swear, it's okay...but make sure you aren't censoring just because—and definitely make sure your teen isn't surrounded by other teens who magically don't swear either. It's honestly just not very realistic—and teens will notice.

These are just a couple points on writing realistic dialogue, but now I want to hear from you. What tips do you have for writing speech that doesn't sound stilted?

Twitter-sized bites:

How do you write realistic dialogue? @Ava_Jae shares five tips to consider. (Click to tweet)

Struggling to write realistic dialogue? @Ava_Jae shares five tips you may want to implement. #writetip (Click to tweet)

Vlog: On Writing Sequels

Should you write sequels before selling the first book of a series? Today I'm sharing my take on a publishing question with no one right answer.

RELATED LINKS:

Twitter-sized bite:

Is writing sequels before you're agented/published worth it? @Ava_Jae shares her thoughts in today's vlog. #pubtip (Click to tweet)

BEYOND THE RED Pre-Order Giveaway!

So, incredibly, Beyond the Red will be released in three weeks (eep!). I'm really excited to get it out there so you guys can read and there's a lot going on in March (like a conference! And events in Maryland!) and *EXCITEMENT.*

To further add to the excitement, last week I was able to announce a thing I've been trying to put together for a while: signed pre-orders are now a thing you can get! All pre-orders ordered through my local indie, Nicola's Books, by February 22 will be signed by yours truly. They take international orders, but through a separate channel, so if you're an international reader, please let me know through my contact page that you're interested and I'll get you the info you need. :)

However! I know that many of you have already pre-ordered—which is amazing!—and I want to be able to do something special for everyone who has pre-ordered, and everyone who will pre-order.

So to thank you guys, I'm running a giveaway now until release day, March 1st. All you need to enter is proof of a pre-order—which I'll only ask for if you win. And speaking of winning...

This is my first name in Sephari—the language spoken by the natives on Sepharon, where Beyond the Red takes place. If you've seen a peek at the chapter openers in Beyond the Red, it might look a little familiar to you:

So what does this have to do with the giveaway, you ask? Welllll...

FIFTEEN winners will get prize packs that include:

Their first name in Sephari
A personalized postcard
A signed bookmark

All you guys need to do is pre-order if you haven't already by February 29th and enter the rafflecopter below. I'm going on the honor system here, so it's easy to hit the button below but please have proof of pre-order ready in case you win.

So that's what I've got! Thanks again to all of you who have supported, regardless of whether or not you've ordered. I appreciate every single one of you guys. :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Twitter-sized bite:

Have you pre-ordered BEYOND THE RED by @Ava_Jae? Enter by 2/29/16 for a chance to win 1 of 15 prize packs! (Click to tweet)