The Three Rs: Rewriting, Revision and Rejection

Rejection is a (big) part of any writer’s life. We’ve all read about how often great and successful writers were rejected before their novels were accepted—and knowing this can take the sting out of the rejections we receive. We can also take steps to try to limit the number of rejections we receive, by revising and rewriting our manuscripts until they are polished before submitting them. Fortunately, there are lots of agents, writers and editors out there who want to help us do just that, and here is some of the best advice I found in the blogosphere.

Weronika Janczuk, a new agent D4EO literary posts about what she thinks about when she critiques a manuscript in her post My Editorial Letters. It’s like a cheat sheet for writers—a list of all the things you need to consider when you are revising your novel.

Another agent, shares how she evaluates full manuscripts on Kidlit.com. Don’t be thrown by the kid lit angle—this is an excellent post and helpful regardless of the genre in which you write.

Ten Mistakes Writers Don’t See (But Can Easily Fix When They Do) from Holt Uncensored: Number one on this list is the use of repetition, such as repeating a crutch word. I’ve written about my crutch word, “just” a few times, and given you a couple ideas for finding yours (the find and edit feature of Word and using word clouds). The repetition referred to in this post goes a lot deeper than crutch words though...and that’s just the first item on the list.

Some practical suggestions on revisions:

• Scenes: Five Simple Questions for Revision from FictionNotes: These questions help you dig deeper into each scene to add depth, emotion and conflict to your novel. 
• The Writing is in the Rewriting. Deep down, we all know that, but when our critique partner suggests cutting a scene we really love, we don’t always want to listen. Stacey Ballis, in a guest post on Writer Unboxed, shares how she gets through the sometimes difficult process.
• Kathy Temean at Writing and Illustrating shares some practical suggestions for making the revision process easier and for making your sentences come to life in her post Novel Revisions.

Want to know why you’re being rejected?

• Agent Kristin , over at Pub Rants, passes along the disheartening news that she doesn’t read beyond the first two pages of 90% of the submissions she receives. She writes about four Killer Openings to avoid—killers because they kill your chances of having an agent read beyond them.
• Sarah, an associate literary agent with Curtis Brown, Ltd. shares the types of writers who “makes her reject you” in Lessons from Peggy Olson over at Glass Cases.
• And, saving perhaps the best for last, The Blood-Red Pencil blog offers the Top 25 Reasons Your Submissions are Rejected—after as little as one paragraph. The tips are from the Surrey, BC Writers Conference where agents and editors read aloud the first few pages of submissions to see how far they would read before they rejected the work.

Revise, Rewrite and (hopefully) avoid rejection.

Links Tent: Writing Software, Edits, Query Letters, Submissions

Thanks to Bubble Cow for sharing this news: Penguin UK is accepting non-agented submissions until October 2010. Find out How to Submit Your Book To Penguin. While you're there, add Bubble Cow to your Google Reader. Lots of great info about how to get published.

I stumbled across yWriter5, free writing novel writing software from Spacejock. I've just started playing with it but it's intriguing. You can easily keep track of how many (and which) scenes your characters are in, the word count for each viewpoint character and so much more. If you're already using this software, I'd love to hear what you think of it.

Want a professional editor for your novel? You can win a FREE edit from CA Marshall of your manuscript up to 100K. Check out Julie Lindsay's blog, Musings From the Slush Pile for details.

If you're querying, there is lots of great advice out there. What do you do when the advice you read is contradictory? Start by reading Nathan Bransford's great post on How to Deal with Contradictory Query Advice. After that, check out these query critiques: Query Shark and Literary Rambles: Erin's Queryhttp://caseylmccormick.blogspot.com/2010/09/public-critique-erins-query.html.

Who Do You Write Like?

You've probably come across this site already, but if you haven't, give it a shot. Paste a sample of your writing into the box and find out who you write like. I'm not sure how much--if any--analysis actually goes into it, or what that analysis might be based on, but it's a fun little distraction.

I pasted bits from the opening three chapters of my novel, each written from a different character's viewpoint. These are my results:

Ch. 1: Douglas Adams
Ch. 2: Raymond Chandler
Ch. 3: Margaret Atwood

Not even in my dreams, but thanks so much I Write Like.

Today's Backup Reminder Brought to you by One-Care

Do you back up your computer? I'm amazed by the number of people I know who don't. I hear horror stories all the time from friends who have lost everything when their computers crashed.

Mine just did, last week, apparently caused by some One-Care glitch that screwed up the whole thing. At first, I couldn't get on the Internet. I couldn't access Control Panel. Then I couldn't log onto the computer at all except in Safe-Mode, and then only for a few minutes before the computer shut off.

The fix was relatively simple, although a little scary. My computer hard drive was wiped out and the operating system re-installed. It's working great now, and I'm breathing again thanks to the successful return of all my files. Thousands of pictures and all my articles, stories and novels-in-progress are all safe and sound.

Are yours?

Back up often. Back up now.

Writing Tics

Nathan Bransford had a terrific post the other day, You Tell Me: What is Your Writing Tic? These are the bad habits that creep into our writing at alarming rates. Characters sighing all over the place, or rolling their eyes or nodding. I read through many of the comments and felt better that several people shared one of my big ones, using the word "just." I also found a lot of other things to be on the look out for in my own writing.

Another useful tip I found in the comments was a link about Wordle, a free online tool for creating word clouds. Word clouds show you which words you use most often in a piece of writing. Tracy Buchanan explains it really well in the post What Are Your "Crutch" Words. The beautiful thing about Wordle is that you can cut and paste your entire novel into the cloud generator and see what words you've overused.

I created a word cloud of my novel in progress and made a list of words to seek and destroy when I edit. I probably don't have to tell you that the word "just" was bigger than I'd hoped. On the plus side (?), I used the word "back" even more often.

Wasting Time

I don't know about you, but I never have enough time to write. Don't get me wrong. I write every day. Sometimes I even write a lot. But there's never enough time to write as much as I'd like. I've been working steadily at getting rid of some of my little time wasters. Even when I'm logged in and working on the computer, I can sometimes go MINUTES without checking email. I'm exaggerating--a little--but my point is that I know I'm guilty of wasting time like this, and I'm working hard at creating better habits.
The WM Freelance Connection has a fantastic post today, When a Writer Wastes Time on Unnecessary Evils (and That Writer is Me).  It's an honest look at some of the little ways in which we wast time--and then complain about how we don't have enough time to write.

One of the things I cut from my routine was writing my blog, but I think I've carved enough "few minutes" out of my time wasting to get back at it.

Ring-Master's Law of Deadlines

When you are on deadline:

1. You will always get sick—usually with something that affects your brain power and/or your ability to speak.
2. At least one child will also get sick, miserable and clingy.
3. None of your sources will be available to talk to you in the few hours that all of your children are at school.
4. Your child will not be able to amuse himself, remain quiet or keep himself out of trouble for the two minutes it takes to double-check something by phone, no matter how content, quiet or out of trouble he was before you picked up the phone.
5. Because of the above, you will be plagued with self-doubt about your writing, editing and time management skills.
6. You will get the assignment done on time anyway and move on to the next one. There are no excuses.

Honest or Nice?

When friends ask me to edit or review their writing, I worry that they are really asking me to tell them what great writers they are. After all, I’m their friend and I’m supposed to be nice to them...right?

My dilemma is that my idea of being nice might not be the same as theirs. I don’t think it’s nice to tell them that their novels/stories/essays/articles are great when there are problems with them. To me, helping them make their writing as strong as possible to give them the best possible chance of publication, is being nice...even if that means telling them that a character is not real enough or a storyline sags.

If you don’t buy that, take a look at these posts by a couple of literary agents:

Janet Reid, aka Query Shark (that blog alone should prove my point) posted some statistics to torture yourself with in 2010. Publishing is a tough business.

Rachelle Gardner tells you what your friends might be afraid to and suggests you Wake Up and Smell the Coffee. For a (in Ms. Gardner’s words) “kinder, gentler, and much more informative” take on the same topic, she refers you to Michael Hyatt’s post.

Quick Tip: Team Up to Reach Your Goals

The beauty of NaNoWriMo is that it not only challenges you to reach a difficult writing goal (1667 words per day), but it helps you be accountable for that goal with its forums, word counters and support. But November is over all too quickly (especially if you're behind on that word count!) and then all that great stuff is NaNo more.

The solution? Find a new support team.

InkyGirl invites you to join her in The 1000 Words/Day Challenge in 2010, or one of the lesser-word count challenges (500 or 250 words a day). Her goal is simple: to inspire writers to write.

Heather Wright at The Wright Words wants to Fill the NaNo Void too.  She has a simple way to help keep you motivated in sticking to your personal writing goal.

Links Tents: Goals and Resolutions

I'm taking back what I said about not making resolutions this year after reading a few great blog posts about them. Here are some "must make" resolutions:

• Blogalicious offers this list of 13 New Year's Writing Resolutions every writer should make.
• Freelance Folder chimes in with their own list of 10 New Year's Resolutions Every Freelancer Should Have. 
• Heather Wright suggests a resolution all of us should make, whether we are writers or not, with A Resolution for All Occasions. 

If you have set, or are trying to set, more concrete goals, here are a few blog posts that will help you with that:

• Rachelle Gardner, Literary Agent, suggests Setting Goals and Finding Joy, and includes a few more links to help you in your goal. (Apologies to both you and Ms. Gardner for the pun--I really can't help myself.)
• Quips & Tips for Successful Writers helps you set your Blogging Goals--7 Types of Goals to Set for Your Blog. (I have an addition to that list for bloggers like me--posting regularly.)
• We all know how quickly well-intentioned goals and resolutions can fall by the wayside, so QueryTracker.net offers suggestions for Setting, Keeping, and Achieving Your Writing Goals This Year.
• Men With Pens has a series of posts about project management, which involves SMART goals and SMART freelancing. The last installment, Keep the Freelance Clock Ticking, includes links to the other parts of the series.
  

New Year's Goals

My apologies for being MIA for so long. The holidays, a deadline and family took precedence and my usual “plan ahead” philosophy fell by the wayside. I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and rang in the New Year with family and friends.

Now that the festivities are over, it’s time to take stock, reflect on last year’s accomplishments, and think about what 2010 will bring.

I don’t make resolutions, but I do set goals for myself. This year, I’ve focused on business/writing goals. I’ve set goals that challenge me but aren’t so high that I don’t believe I can reach them . . . although I did set one in November that seemed impossibly high and managed to hit it. (Remember NaNo?)

What about you? Do you make New Year’s resolutions or set goals for the coming year?