Tag: writing goals

Posted in Writing

Multi-Person Writing Projects

Posted on by Amy McNulty

There’s much to be said about working on a writing project by yourself. When you’re tackling the first draft of a project, it’s all your own. Of course, if all goes well, you’ll have multiple readers and professionals down the line giving you input so you can shape the story or poem into the best possible version of your vision… But what about projects that you tackle with other writers right from the start?

I haven’t done it too often, but one of my favorite creative writing exercises is where one writer writers one sentence, another writer writes the next, building off that first sentence, and so on and so on. I’ve participated, but I actually haven’t seen any finished products.

I also love alternatively writing with a friend. I’ve written a comic series script with one of my friends and I’ve read a work in progress she writes as letters from one character to another with another writer. It’s a really fun, inspiring way to write. Can’t think of where a story goes next? Leave your part on a cliffhanger and let your co-writer figure out what comes next!

In honor of multi-person writing projects, I’ll go ahead and write the first line to a short piece of fiction. The first commenter can write the next line, and so on! (I apologize if my delay in approving comments gets things out of whack, but it’s all in fun.)

“If Pepper had to explain the origin of her name to one more stranger one more time, she was going to have to start carrying pepper spray with her wherever she went.”

Posted in Writing, Writing: Help

Happy Labor Day! (Are You Laboring?)

Posted on by Amy McNulty

Happy Labor Day to the rest of you in the US! If you’re a writer, particularly a freelance one, holidays are hard to take off, though. If you shimmy your schedule around just right, you may be able to take a day off here and there, but usually they’re out of the question. Especially if you’re being good and writing creatively every day like you ought! In which case, even when you don’t have the business writing to do, you’re still keeping up the discipline by working on a WIP.

An advantage of being a freelance writer, though, is that you can make your own schedule for the most part, and there are a number of days where you work fewer than eight hours. (And some days when you work more, ack. I try to avoid those. I never once pulled an all-nighter in college, but I have for some clients!) Of course, there’s always so much else to fit into any given day: cleaning, cooking and running errands… I don’t think I’ve experienced boredom outside of things like waiting in lines in years.

This week I have a huge freelancing project from one of my favorite clients, one that may extend for a number of months. I’m also roughly 10,000 words from finishing the first draft of the YA WIP that I started earlier this year and that I’ve been determined to work on almost every day for over a month now. (And boy, is it taking a lot more out of me than the first completed book!) I have big, exciting edits for another project. I have two other WIPs not touched in a while… Oh, and I have to live outside of staring at my computer at some point, too.

So how have I managed it so far? And why am I here at the blog? Because I’ve finished my work quota for the day. (Admittedly, I haven’t picked up the WIP quite yet, but I will.) So far (after fighting off panic about how much I need and want to do over the next few weeks) I’ve decided to:

  • Get the work writing done right away in the morning. I need to work on the non-fiction stuff when my mind’s still focused and I have the drive. Whenever I feel my drive slipping, I keep telling myself I’ll be done after lunch, and then I’ll have the afternoon to devote to other projects.
  • Turn distractions into a reward. I can easily spend an hour just goofing off at my favorite websites first thing when I get online if I choose (it’s nice and brain-numbing). Not so this week. I check my email, shut off the Internet, write two articles, check one fun website, rinse and repeat…
  • Stick to the WIP. I’ve spent too many weeks working on this one nearly every single day to give up now when the end is so close. (And I’m at risk of never wanting to pick it up again after all it’s put me through!) I just need to be more lax when it comes to word count. My best days were 2000-3000 words, but now I need to be okay with 500 on any given day, and then I can focus on other projects.
  • Take breaks! When I waste time goofing off online, I feel guilty spending too much time away from the computer doing anything more substantive than a quick run to the washing machine to start a load of laundry. When I’m disciplined, I feel I deserve a 15-minute break to read or step out for fresh air. It recharges me, and I don’t feel guilty.

So far, so good, I don’t feel like a burn out is imminent. What do you do when you’re incredibly busy, but there’s so much you need and want to do? How do you fit it all in?

Posted in Writing

Product/Pop Culture References in Writing

Posted on by Amy McNulty

The work in progress that’s been getting the bulk of my attention lately is contemporary. Or should I say “roughly contemporary.” I don’t plan on explicitly stating what the year is, but I do date it unintentionally because I describe events that took place recently as having taken place “last year.” I also drop product names like I would in everyday conversation whenever I feel it’s appropriate. I even mention celebrity names.

It’s a strange feeling for me. My finished manuscript is fantasy (yay for making up a world from scratch!) and my other WIP doesn’t feel like it needs any particular setting other than “roughly about whenever you’re reading it,” so there aren’t any product or pop culture references. In this one, I just felt like the characters needed to discuss things like a real person would. But then again, whenever I read these things in other books, I can’t help but feel like the book is dated.

When I take a look at my other stab at contemporary YA fiction (part of the mess that eventually morphed into the finished manuscript, which I love–and there’s no contemporary in the final product), I cringe for more reasons than one, but one passage in particular stood out. I had the narrator commenting on a iPhone like it was a brand-new thing. Now it’s several years old, and the character’s response to it seems outdated. By the time this WIP sees the light of day (which I hope it does!), will I be left with a similar feeling?

Do you think peppering a contemporary manuscript with product names or pop culture references is acceptable or distracting? Do you think it dates the action too much?

Posted in Writing

Hearing Your Manuscript’s Voice: Narrative Mode

Posted on by Amy McNulty

The work-in-progress that’s been getting the most attention from me lately (despite occasional feelings of this-sucks-itis, only overcome by thoughts of but-you’re-practically-almost-finished-so-keep-going) is in the third person. And it’s actually the first time in years and years that I’ve written a story in third person. It’s so confusing to my brain that I accidentally wrote in first person for a few paragraphs the other day… Never mind that I have two main characters, which is actually part of the reason why I decided to tell the tale in third person. That, and it’s middle grade and the MG books I’ve read tend to be third person more often than not.

My other WIP is first person, although I can’t even blame that for mixing up the two works, as the main characters WIP #1 are about as different from main character in WIP #2 as can be. Still, besides the fact that WIP #2 is YA and a good chunk of the YA books I read are in first person (as is the manuscript-on-submission), there is absolutely no way I could tell this story from any other point of view. The story literally hinges on his perception of the world; from anyone else’s, there wouldn’t be as much of a plot. Any filmed version of the story (ha ha) would have to adjust to the way he sees the world; I don’t even know if it could be done. The voice of the manuscript is essential to the story as a whole.

I think that’s what I like about first person narrative, even if it isn’t always so integral to the plot as it is in WIP #2. Yes, I know that third person narrative scenes tend to have a POV or two, but you may not get so deeply entrenched in a character’s head, and feel all of those messy feelings and biases as the character reacts to the situations you throw at him or her. Third person works better for WIP #1 because the plot is more important than any character’s POV, but still, I wonder if the feeling of detachment I have as I write it is what’s slowing me down. (Manuscript-on-submission’s best words-written-in-a-day stat: about 10,000 [I kid not…]. WIP #1: about 1000…. If I’m lucky…)

How do you find your manuscript’s voice? Do you prefer writing first or third (second seems like a choose-your-own-adventure novel to me, but I’m sure it’s been done effectively!) or switch freely between the two from work to work? Do you prefer reading in any particular narrative style?

Posted in Writing, Writing: Help

The Query Conundrum: Tips for Creating the Perfect Query

Posted on by Amy McNulty

During my entire agent search, I visited writing forums and writer blogs on pretty much a daily basis to get tips on how to get my book out there. (Also to distract myself from all of the waiting that’s unavoidable in this business!) One topic I saw discussed time and time again was the query. Some people claimed to spend weeks on crafting the perfect query–and sometimes even then, they’d go back and do a second or third version of the query for the same book. They’d post queries for other writers to critique and compete in agent-sponsored contests for professional feedback on their queries. It’s clearly a major source of frustration.

Me? I wrote my query in about half an hour and never revised it. I did ask one vague question on a forum before I began, though, having to do with how to phrase the “it’s a stand-alone story with series potential” aspect and if I should mention the unsatisfying (?) but still conclusive (?) ending I hoped would cause people to want more but not scare away anyone who wanted a stand-alone book. I also sought feedback from my beta readers, but they both thought it was fine. Of everything in the writing process, I spent the least amount of time on writing the query. (And don’t worry, not everything went so smoothly for me–my multiple stabs at the dreaded synopsis took weeks and weeks… A story for another day!)

The query resulted in about a 10% interest from agents (i.e., requests for partials/fulls), although of course it obviously wasn’t to every agent’s taste (which accounts for the other 90%!). Still, I was pretty confident in the query, especially since pre-major revision to the beginning of the book (which inevitably changed the first 5/10/30 pages a chunk of agents ask for with the query) I was pretty sure my query was getting more response than my pages, since almost all of the requests pre-revision were from the agents who only got the query with no sample pages (their preference).

..But I’m not going to post the query. Sorry! The manuscript’s being prepped for the submission stage, and I’m not yet comfortable sharing the details online. (Not that anyone’s going to steal it, but even so!) But I will share some tips I hope can help you nail that perfect query:

  • Read the back/inside dust jacket teasers for your favorite books. This is essentially what you’re trying to recreate for your book. Break down what those writers (not necessarily the authors themselves) did to get you to pick up the book with just a few sentences. They didn’t give away the ending, of course, but they set up the conflict, introduce the main character (and a central secondary character or two) and hint at the major problem behind the plot of the book.
  • Think of yourself as a salesperson. Maybe one reason I enjoyed writing my query was because my other hat as a writer tends to lean towards salesmanship. (Whatever my clients’ clients have to sell, be it product or service, I spend hours writing to try to convince the random web visitor they can’t do without it, even if I’d never heard of it until I got the assignment… Without being too knock-you-over-the-head about it!) The few sentences in a query need to “sell” the book; they need to be so dripping with voice, danger, conflict, and/or some form of drama, they scream, “Pick me up and read me to find out more!”
  • Get critiqued. If you’re struggling, there’s nothing wrong with reaching out to your beta readers, writing forums, and agent-sponsored contests for help! That’s what they’re there for.
  • Query in batches. Test to see if your query is getting any response. If you query 10-15 agents and not a single one requests material, it may be time to re-write the query from scratch. (Or your problem may lie in the sample pages. Try a few agents who ask for the query only at the start to see if it’s the query or the pages that’s the culprit!)
  • Double-check the individual agent’s preferences. This involves more than just knowing whether or not the agent reps works in your genre or wants samples pages/a synopsis from the start (although paying attention to these points is essential, too!). Some agents–although they’re rare from what I saw–actually do want the whole story spoiled in a query. Others are very strict about the length of the query or want to know whether or not you’re sending the query out to other agents at the same time. (Tip: DO send it out to multiple agents. The process takes too long to limit yourself to one agent at a time!)
  • Break it into manageable chunks. My query was probably a tad longer than what I’d seen in all of the advice–which sometimes says the thing ought not to be more than three or four sentences or so. But don’t make it too long. (The whole query letter ought to be no longer than a page–and that includes the bio, info about word count and genre, and introduction as well as the book teaser.) The actual book teaser part doesn’t have to stick to three or four sentences, but it should fit into these four categories:
  1. The hook. Most places say one-sentence. Mine was four (albeit very small sentences, intentionally chopped up for the effect of “voice”). Let this opening line (or lines) especially drip with the voice of your work. Let it say something unexpected–or better yet, twist something expected into something unexpected. It may be the furthest an agent reads into your query, so it better work to grab their attention! For example (totally made up story here), which is the better hook? “15-year-old Andy just found out he’s a fairy” or something like “Most 15-year-olds are looking forward to getting their learner’s permit so they can learn how to drive. Andy’s got to worry about learning how to control the glistening fairy wings that just sprouted from his back so he can stop floating in front of his friends.”
  2. The world. Not every story necessarily needs this part in the query, but mine did since it’s a fantasy. Explain briefly what kind of world your story takes place in, so the drama you’re going to allude to makes sense.
  3. The set-up. Explain where your main character finds him or herself at the beginning of the story and what kind of problems he or she faces before the big drama/action of the book kicks into gear. (Hint, a lot of times your main character will evolve from the person he or she was at the beginning by the end of the book; explain how he or she starts out in the query.)
  4. The conflict. Here’s the juicy part. Explain the main conflict of the book in one to three sentences and take us up to just before the big climax–without spoiling us about what that big climax may be. Leave it open-ended!

Do you struggle with queries? What are some tips that work for you?

Posted in News, Writing

Busy Week: Got an Agent, Outlined a Trilogy… Got a Cat to Shed Lbs

Posted on by Amy McNulty

I’m excited to announce that I’m now an agented YA author! Last week, Jason Yarn of Paradigm Talent Agency offered me representation after a record-setting read. (Well, record-setting certainly according to my record of material requests and finished reads!) I was impressed by his enthusiasm (and probably more than a little in shock), but I had four other agents who had yet to reply regarding manuscript requests, so I took a week off to make the decision. (And to nudge the other agents.)

I didn’t sit idly by during that week off, though! Client work slowed to a crawl, so I devoted much of the work day to getting ready for a possibly viable future as a creative writer. (I’m not “quitting my day job,” but my “day job” is simply writing from home anyway, so…). I:

  • Made this website (Hello! Thanks for reading so soon after I created this thing!)
  • Wrote three chapters of the sequel to my book in case it goes somewhere and because I’d been dying to do so for months but didn’t really have an excuse to (my strategy was to concentrate on other WIPs in case this manuscript never got picked up)
  • Somehow inexplicably (well, I can kind of explain it–I’ll do an entry on brainstorming soon) came up with the entire outline of the rest of book two and all of book three in this intended series (and even started thinking of ideas for a fourth book, but I didn’t write them down–I’m getting way ahead of myself!)

And now, aside from editing, I promised myself I’d put this series aside. I’m trying to be an optimist, but I’m also a realist, so I don’t want to put all of my eggs in one basket. Back to the other WIPs…

I accepted Jason’s offer late Tuesday night, and we’re working on edits to the manuscript, getting the retainer signed and all of that good stuff. It’s probably going on submission soon, and I’ll be sure to update with official announcements when I can.

And amongst all of this writing development, I took my cat to the vet. With a little portion adjustment and exercise, she lost almost two and a half pounds over the past year, as per the vet’s instructions! I guess the diet paid off. Too bad the poor thing has developed a habit of spending most of the waking day begging for more food. Anytime I walk past her food bowl, she gets into position nearby and gives me her best attempt at puppy dog eyes. I feel like a cold-hearted bastard every time. Which is probably precisely what she’s hoping… But she’s not getting too many treats from me!

Posted in Writing, Writing: Help

Finding the Time and Motivation to Write

Posted on by Amy McNulty

If you’ve read the (long) summary I gave of my experience completing that first manuscript, you might think I’m the last person qualified to dispense advice on finding the time and motivation to write. But you’d be hard-pressed to find a writer who hasn’t struggled with distraction, busy schedules and fatigue at some point. You’re going to have some days that are more motivating than others. You’re probably going to fall off the writing wagon and let days, weeks or even months go by without properly working toward your goals.You’ll have plenty of excuses—my personal favorite involves staring at my computer all day writing (business topics), making me less apt to want to spend my free time staring at my computer writing…—but in the end, only you have the power to see your writing goals through.

Here are some tips I’ve found that help me find the time and motivation to write:

  • Make time, don’t “find” time. Get up half an hour earlier or stay up half an hour later. Work during your lunch break. If you have kids, work while they’re at school or ask your partner or a friend to watch them for just an hour each day so you can work while not distracted. Give up an hour of TV.
  • If you go a day or two without writing, try especially hard to get back into the groove ASAP. The longer you go without writing, the harder it will be to re-capture your muse.
  • Make friends who also love writing and share your works-in-progress with each other.
    Watching a friend meet her goals and getting support and encouragement from one another can help you keep going.
  • Exercise often. I’m someone who groans at the idea of exercise, but taking a break from the computer and getting your blood pumping can wake you up and make you feel more alert.
  • Broaden your writing goals. If working on one manuscript is starting to get like pulling teeth, take a day or two to devote to short story, poetry or essay writing. Start a new manuscript; you can have more than one going at once.
  • Discover your writing “style.” Some people write well by first plotting their manuscripts in detail, so they can write with a “map” to follow, allowing themselves to make changes as they come up with them. (Oh, how I envy you….) Others write better with an idea or scene in mind. Just write whatever comes to you–you can fix it all in editing. If you feel like writing a scene that takes place in the middle of a chapter and going back to write the part beforehand later, try it.
  • Turn off the Internet. If you’re typing your manuscript, more likely than not you have access to the Internet and all the little memes and entertainment news and social network pages that bring our brains such joy, even if they’re of no import at the end of the day. It can be tempting to keep checking those every few minutes when writing is going especially slowly for you. Shut off the Internet if possible when you write… And try not to turn it back on.

What tips do you have that have worked for you?