Crashing The Gate! Writerly Advice From Industry Folks In The Know…
“Surround yourself with people who know more than you and soak up wisdom like a sponge.”
P.K. Witte
So you’re an aspiring children’s author? Doing all the right stuff? Joining a critique group? Member of SCBWI (if not Google it)? Reading blogs? Dissecting books? Taking classes? Going to conventions? Tweeting, Facebooking, blogging? Listening and talking to kids, kids, kids? And, argh… You really want to scream because it feels like the gate remains closed no matter what the heck you do?
No one really gets you? Sigh… Sure they do.
Don’t worry. Everyone’s felt like you. Now, Open The Gate-Come On In
Come on, give it a push. Step inside…
Because I get you. Fellow authors certainly get you. Agents, editors, publishers, all understand (honestly). They’re not out to thwart us/you. They want to help!
I Swear! (as in promise)
The Children’s writing industry is amazingly friendly and accessible. And I’ll prove it (cuz I like to prove stuff).
Just to show how accessible the Gate Keepers and fellow writers really are, I contacted some. Seriously, I put on my lucky black heels and queried folks “In The Know.” Just little old me, asking for quick bites of advice for hopeful writers. And you know what? They were delighted to push back the handle and Open The Gate!
This is what they had to say…
Ellen Hopkins
YA author of Burned, Impulse, Glass, Identical, Tricks, Fallout, Crank, & Perfect.
On writing, allow story to flow organically from character. Unless you’re writing a thriller or mystery, plot can overpower character, to the detriment of your story.
On career, remember your first book won’t be your only book. Publicize the heck out of that first one, but jump right into the next one. You’re here because you love to write, not to get famous. Fame follows writing that resonates.
Ginger L Clarke
Author of Watch Out, Maxed Out, Far Out, Black Out, Fake Out, Bug Out, Gross Out & Freak Out.
Be easy to work with. Anything that helps make editors’ harried lives easier is a point in your favor. I always try to be professional, friendly, and responsive, even when what I really feel is defensive, confused, and annoyed. Most editors jump around to different publishers frequently, so it pays to build good relationships that will endure. I have worked with most of my editors at multiple houses and count some of them as friends, not just colleagues, for which I am grateful.
Sarah Davies
Agent at Greenhouse Literary Agency.
The Greenhouse Literary Agency Cares about both the macro and the micro of your story. The macro being the overall plot and structure. The micro being the line on the page. It all matters-every phrase, every word choice, every comma. When you’re writing a great book, you need big ideas and a big vision-but also precision and finesse and a true feeling for language.
Corie Weaver
YA author of Coyote’s Daughter and Bear’s Heart.
Don’t beat yourself up. Life gets in the way, stuff happens. You’ll get back to your WIP as soon as you can. But don’t give up either!
Kristen Kittscher
Author of Young & Yang Detectives, coming early 2013!
The arts seem to be the one field in which people expect instant success. When someone gets a job as a teller in a bank, no one expects them to be CEO within the year. No one pesters the hobby gardener about when they’ll be going into large-scale organic farming. But mention you’re writing a kids’ book, and I guarantee the words “J.K. Rowling” will greet you a millisecond later. As a new writer, you’ll inevitably you’ll feel extra pressure from friends and family who ask about your progress. While they might merely be expressing interest in something you care about, instead you’ll hear undertones of impatience and skepticism. Try not to. After a year or two, they’ll ask only occasionally. After five years, they’ll shut up altogether and look away awkwardly at any mention of books, let alone yours. You’ll hear a lot about the weather and, possibly, baseball scores. A year or two more, and they’ll have forgotten you ever wanted to write a book in the first place. In short, be in this for the long haul. Be in it because you like making sense of life by writing stories. The rest is inconsequential!
Helen ‘Billy Elm’ Williams
MG author of Delroy in the Marog Kingdom.
When you’re on the road to publication, expect your editor to ask you to do a considerable amount of rewriting when you get your first set of proofs. I was taken by surprise. I thought it was a case of reading through to make sure there were no errors and tweaking here and there. Little did I know, the book could be completely rewritten at this stage. I didn’t quite have to do that, but there was more rewriting to be done than I expected, within a tight time frame.
Cynthia Leitich Smith
YA author of Tantalize, Eternal, Blessed, and Tantalize: Kieren’s Story.
Give yourself permission not to know what you’re doing. To explore, stumble, and challenge yourself again and again. There is no such thing as wasted writing. It all serves the journey as a whole.
Bruce Hale
Author of the award-winning Chet Gecko Mysteries.
Persistence is more important than talent any day. We’ve all got some talent stuck to us somewhere, like cat fur, but even the most talented writer won’t succeed if she gives up in the face of rejection.
Elizabeth Fama
YA author of Overboard. Monstrous Beauty coming summer 2012!
It’s important to treat yourself as a professional when you’re writing, because until you’ve published your first book (which you shouldn’t be in a rush to do…that’s my first piece of advice always) you can feel like you’re a lone satellite orbiting a planet that you’ll never land on, which is wasted emotional energy. In addition to joining a critique group, one way to both feel and become more professional is to search out informative blogs — not just blogs about the process of writing, but also respected blogger reviews of books in your writing genre. It’s a great way to keep your finger on the pulse of the business: to understand which books are being talked about and why, and to keep abreast of the nebulous buzz that the industry is generating. I keep my Google reader loaded with all of these sites (there are a lot of them, and you’ll get a feel for which ones you like and respect), and I sift through the updates quickly every morning before I start writing. It’s like reading a personalized “newspaper” devoted to your neck of the industry.
Kristen Lamb
Author of We Are Not Alone—The Writer’s Guide to Social Media & Are You There, Blog? It’s Me, Writer.
Write no matter what. Writers write, even when we don’t feel like it. Those kids that interrupt you every thirty seconds are a blessing. Think of it like running pulling a weighted sled. This is author training. If you can learn to maintain your focus despite all of life’s distractions, think of how amazingly productive you will be when one day you do have that private office and can afford a meth-addicted howler monkey with a sidearm to guard your writing time. Heck, you will probably be twice as productive at least. This job is like one giant funnel. Toss in a few million people with a dream and only a handful will shake out at the end. Is it because fortune smiled on them? A few, yes. But, for most, the harder they worked, the “luckier” they got. They stuck it out and made the tough choices. Successful people and especially successful writers must learn to have a healthy relationship with failure. If we aren’t failing, then we aren’t doing anything interesting. Failure is a tombstone or a stepping stone. Cool thing is that we get to choose which. It isn’t enough to persevere. We must always be reevaluating what we’re doing. We must be learning, growing and improving. I see writers who keep shopping the same novel year after year, rejection after rejection. Move on! Just doing the same thing over and over forever isn’t heroic, it’s moronic. Persistence looks a lot like stupid.
Harold Underdown
Children’s book editor, consultant. Author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Children’s Books. Creator of The Purple Crayon website—a brilliant place for writers, illustrators and publishers.
Write the story you want to write, and keep working on it until it’s done. THEN worry about the market.
Tamara Ireland Stone
YA author of Time Between Us, coming fall 2012. Movie Rights aquired by CBS!
Agents and Editors often say they’re looking for stories at the intersection of literary and commercial. There are plenty of books that can help you with literary technique, but if you want to pop up the commercial elements of your story, take a quick lesson on screenwriting with Save the Cat Goes to the Movies. It will change the way you think about your manuscript (and forever change the way you watch films). We write for teens. We’re competing with a lot of other fast-paced entertainment options. If we want to write books that kids can’t put down, we’ve got to make our characters come to life and keep the action moving. Screenwriting techniques can help you create the tight plots and well-paced stories publishers are looking for.
Sarah Skilton
YA author of Bruised, coming fall 2012!
Support other writers, and read till your eyes bleed. But don’t just read the genre you write — read everything that even remotely interests you, from non-fiction to graphic novels to YA to historical fiction and everything in between, because if you only read one genre, you may get stuck inside parameters that are somewhat arbitrary, rather than see the unique possibilities only you can bring to the table. Don’t worry about what you “should” be writing. Write the book you’d most want to read. That way, your passion for the project will shine through, regardless of topic or trend. If you write from your heart, then no matter what happens with your book, the weeks and months spent writing it will be time you truly enjoyed.
And there you have it! Thirteen out of the fifteen industry folks I queried replied with wonderful wisdom and heart! Humungous Thanks to everyone for opening the gate and letting us in. The writer’s community is beyond compare! Oh, click the pics for website links.
Pamela K Witte
WRITER OF 27 POSTS | WEBSITE
Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts–and in such distinguished company, too!
You bet Cynthia. You rock! Thanks so much for sharing your advice and time with me and my readers!
Pam, You’ve been busy!! What a great blog with lots of good advice. I love the name–Ink & Angst.
Pam:
An absolutely fabulous blog. Helpful, insightful, brilliant. This took much time and thought to pull it together. It will be appreciated by many.
Hugs.
Wow! Great tips. Thanks!
Cynthia and Harold get the award for Most Valuable Thought in Fewest Words. Which is, incidentally, a sign of great writing.
I really enjoyed reading these, and especially appreciated what Elizabeth Fama said about not being in a hurry to publish that first book. Excellent advice all around — thanks for compiling these, and for including me!
Oh, just so everyone knows, if you click on the pics, you’ll go straight to the featured person’s website/blog! Groovy huh?
Very cool! I’m honored to be included in this, Pam.
I think the last little bit of my advice might have gotten cut off, which was just “Try not to (hear the skepticism)!” I hope writers are in this because they like making sense of life by writing stories. The rest is inconsequential.
I second Elizabeth’s comment! I love Cynthia’s input for both her advice and her economy of words. I love the line, “There is no such thing as wasted writing.” It’s so true, and so easy to forget.
There’s so much great advice here! Thanks for taking the time to make this happen, Pam. And thanks for including me–I’m so honored.
Thanks so much, Pam, for collecting these pearls of wisdom. I’m honoured that you included me in their company – the reward for following some of he advice given here! I have to reread to make some more specific comment, but thunder is rolling. You know what that means. Congratulations on your technical skills. How did you engineer clicking on the photos to get to our blogs? Brilliant!
Great site! I love the photo at the top!! Gate crasher with Jimmy Choos!
Great site! I love the photo at the top!! Gate crasher with Jimmy Choos!
Great post, guys! You give us all hope and perspective.
Great blog, Pam. Sooooo useful, and encouraging. A fabulous gate crash. You WILL get there, I can see.
I just loooove this! And love that my buds Kristen and Sarah are on here – they’re just wonderful women in real life as well.
I need a dozen or so “Gate Crashers” for next month’s installment. Leave a message if you’re interested!
Terrific job Pam. Makes sense why you have been so excited about this post coming out. It was great advice and very welcome to me as a new writer. Thanks I&A Sister! Anji BTW you rocked the black dress!
thanks for the insight and I will be keeping an eye or two on you!
Great job Pam…and a great idea. I see you are still at it. Good for you!
I would like to say thanks to Tamara for mentioning Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat. I love his books. It really seems that all writing is built upon the same underpinnings. Once you read about screenwriting, you start seeing the basic structure and tenants in everything. Thanks to everyone for giving great advice, and thanks to Pam for pulling it all together.
Excellent blog Pam! Writing is such an isolated sport, sometimes we forget there are others out there going through the same trials and tribulations trying to break into the writer’s market. Thank you for showing us we are not alone!
This is a great website for anyone who enjoys reading, (or writing)!
Another great post! I especially like Cynthia’s advice to give yourself permission to explore. And I’ll have to look up that book on screenwriting!
So coool Pam! Loved reading what all had to say. I look forward to more!
Super post, Pam, thanks for taking the time to gather these gems from some experts we admire. Have never thought of looking to screenwriting for help, so this was a great new tip for me.
Great post, Pam! It’s always inspirational to hear the words of advice from those who went before us, carving the path for us to follow. Thanks for sharing this with all of us. Now…I’m off to do my daily pages!!
All great advice, and thanks for posting my little piece. Your readers might like to drop in on the Greenhouse website and see what we’re up to – http://www.greenhouseliterary.com. Or visit our Facebook fan page – just search on our agency name.
Wishing you all the best.
Great collection of insights from people established in the industry. Way to go, Pam!
[...] while I was giving (solicited) advice to the Ink & Angst blog, I realized that it’s not so bad to get advice from newbies like me, as our advice still [...]
Kristen, thanks so much for mentioning Ink & Angst in your blog! Your advice is sterling!
http://t.co/ksOxVkBR
Happy to! I really enjoyed this collection of wisdom and wanted to pass it along. Thanks for adding the rest of my wordy advice:-)
Several people have mentioned the screenwriting books by Blake Snyder. They are amazing! First check out Save the Cat The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need, then move on to the rest!
Here’s the link to his website. http://www.blakesnyder.com/
Happy learning!
Great tips! Thanks to everyone for sharing and to Pam for having to courage to ask!
Great job from a proud dad!
So much here, from so many views. A great place for some guidelines to the novice and new ideas from the practiced.
I was once told by a fellow who does write – “You must ‘garb’ them with your first sentence”, it should set the readers desire for more. As a reader, I am not a writer, I must agree with him. His name is Mark, a creative writer and accomplished photographer.
My thoughts – study the great writers and use plenty of effective adjectives.
Great website and so creative in and of itself.
Wonderful tips for writers and some good advice
for life itself.
Keep up the good work and be encouraged as you
are encouraging others
Thanks for inviting me to participate, Pam. Such interesting and different perspectives from everyone. I think there’s something here to encourage every new and/or struggling writer.
I love Kristen Lamb’s We Are Not Alone: The Writer’s Guide to Social Media. This is a definite must read for every writer, whether traditionally published, indie publishing, or as yet unpublished.
PK Witte,
Your site is the catapult momentum to your next level of writing nirvana. I am so pleased with it’s outward expression of what your inner passion and creativity can mainfest. This site an inspiration to all artists. Please keep writing.
PS – there is no gate keeping you out, just one keeping you in. This site has obliterated that internal gate!
xoxo Cat
Such FAB advice from everyone, I really enjoyed reading it. And no matter how many manuscripts you’ve written or books published, the advice is so good to keep in mind. We all have those bad days and imps of doubt! Some days they’re actually demons!
Ah! Information!
I’ve always appreciated advice and information from writing professionals, so having it come as a virtual deluge of tiny, easily digested and understood capsules– i.e. nuggets– is certainly appreciated.
Hope to see more stuff like this, particularly quotes from editors and agents. Too often advice from authors can be vague or applicable only unto themselves, but editors have a way of being a bit more objective.
Pam, Why arn’t I surprised? You would not be Pam if you were not at the top. Your pal, Wayne
What an incredibly resourceful blog. I’ll be sure to revisit you here. Thank you for posting the marketing tools. Also, I love finding great work off the beaten path.
Pam, would it be possible for you to ask Elizabeth Fama which blogs she follows? She says there are lots, but there’s a limit to the number of blogs a person can follow. I’m particularly interested in those of reviewers she mentioned.
Helen, I’ve asked Elizabeth for an answer to your question and she said she’d reply soon. Keep an eye out!
Hi Helen,
Of course it all depends on what your particular writing interest is. I like hearing about MG and YA, and graphic novels/comics so I follow industry news of all of those.
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast — PB, illustrators
A Chair, a Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy
Galleycat — lots of news tidbits all day (adult books incl.)
A Fuse#8 Production — of course
Bookshelves of Doom– Leila is a hoot, this is almost a Tumblr
100 Scope Notes – great weekly Headlines on Wed.
Cynsations — author interviews, author guest posts, weekly news wrap-ups
PW comic digests (sent as e-mails)
For review blogs, I try to concentrate on reviewers who cover mostly YA or MG-YA. Here are several (but not all) that are on my list:
The Book Smugglers
Stacked
Galleysmith
The Story Siren
i swim for oceans
Angieville
Novel Thoughts–almost exclusively positive reviews, but these three bloggers are great representatives of YA readers
Presenting Lenore -bear with “Cat Tuesdays”
Pure Imagination
YA Bliss
Candace’s Book Blog
This only scratches the surface. My g-reader changes weekly!
Hi Elizabeth,
Thank you so much for this list. I will take a look at them. My interest is mainly MG. You must be very disciplined and have excellent time management skills to be able to keep up with so many.
Oops! The Horn Book blog!
Elizabeth,
Thanks for the awesome industry news and review blog ideas! I’ll be adding some of these to my own daily list!
Wiecie co? nie wierzę w to by ten związek długo przetrwał. Alicja jest teraz znana w Hollywood i LA z tego, że ma dziecko z tym całym Colinem
[...] WritersArticles of note Popular PostsCrashing The Gate! Writerly Advice From Industry Folks In The Know…Crashing The Gate! Writerly Advice From Industry Folks In The Know…Gate Crashers Introduce the [...]
[...] Posts Crashing The Gate! Writerly Advice From Industry Folks In The Know…Crashing The Gate! Writerly Advice From Industry Folks In The Know…Gate Crashers Introduce the [...]
Јust dеѕire to ѕay your article is as astоniѕhing.
Thе clearneѕs in уοur ροst
iѕ just cool and i cаn asѕume you are аn еxpeгt on this subject.
Fine ωith уοur permіsѕion let mе to gгаb yοur feed to keep uρdateԁ with
forthcoming ρoѕt. Thanks a mіllion аnd please сarrу
оn the еnjoyable wοrk.
“Ink & Angst