Rena Olsen

I have recently noticed a new word popping up in the YA galaxy. “Shipping.” Now, I realize this is not a new word, and, in fact, has been used for centuries. But…not in the same way. Maybe I am giving away my novice status here, but my best guess at a definition for this new form of “shipping” is wishing for characters in a book to get together. So if Bobby, Sally, and Jimmy are in a book, and you “ship” Sally and Jimmy, it means you want them in a relationship, and not Bobby and Sally (or Bobby and Jimmy, as the case may be).

I was reading through my Twitter feed one day and someone had asked an author if she “ships” her own characters. (I can’t stop putting it in quotes…talking about shipping people just doesn’t sound legal!) This author said that no, she doesn’t “ship” her own characters, because it’s a different sort of point of view when you are creating them. Since I was still caught up in trying to figure out why people were sending characters by mail, I kind of brushed off this answer until recently.

I was having a conversation yesterday with a friend who just finished my book. She read it in a day, and has already threatened my life if I don’t continue the series. After securing a restraining order, I was thinking about the reaction that my book has garnered among friends and family thus far. It has all been positive (friends and family are fabulous at being supportive!), but in many case emotionally so. These people are totally invested in these characters I have created. They want to see things work out, and they have a need to see what happens next. They talk about them as if they are real people…

…which is exactly what I was going for. My plan is complete! Now everyone else is as crazy as me, and we can talk about the characters that sprang forth from my brain meat and into my story as if they are real, because THEY ARE.

But seriously, I was talking to this friend, and I realized that people who have read my book have in some ways become even more invested in these characters than I am. No, that’s not exactly what I mean. I am invested, but I also have control. (Sort of. Characters can be wily.) So while they are stuck with whatever I choose to put on the page, I can visit with my characters whenever I please. Go hang out in a haloscape with Eden, or check in to see how Kalon is. They are belong to me. 😉

So, to make my point, I agree with that author. I don’t “ship” my own characters, because I create them, and I create their relation”ships” in the stories, even if it sometimes seems that they have a life of their own. But it makes me enormously happy when other people “ship” my characters, because it means I’ve made them believable enough for a reader to have an opinion one way or the other.

And it also means that I can really mess with them…

…not me.

Ha! Fooled ya!

I’m pretty sure in my last entry I talked about a contest I was entering. I can’t be sure that was my last entry, and at this point I’m entirely too lazy to go and check, so work with me here, k? So this contest was one I had been planning on entering for months. I wanted to have my book finished and polished by the time I entered, because CLEARLY this was THE ONE that was going to lead me to my agent and a book deal and publication and possibly a hot tub. With jello. Not a hot tub full of jello. A hot tub in which jello could be eaten. From a bowl. With a spoon. Or a fork, if you’re weird.

Wow, that derailed rather quickly.

Soooo, the contest didn’t turn out exactly how I had planned. I prepared for the blog pitch, my 35 delicious word morsels to whet the appetite of any avid reader. Surely it would stand out enough to be in the top 50. Well. Not so much. They even expanded to the top 56, and still no dice. I think there were upwards of 300 entries though. I tell myself I was number 57. If you know better, don’t tell me. Let me just…imagine. Anyway.

Last Friday was the Twitter pitch party. And boy, did I warm up my thumbs for that one. I had to work, but every break I got I was on that phone. I had some saved pitches I had worked on, and made some up when Twitter stopped letting me use the same ones. (Please, I was not spamming, Twitter. Have a heart!) I pitched and I pitched and I retweeted for others and I pitched some more. Two times an hour from 8am until almost 6pm. And…

Nada. Zero. Goosegg.

Well, that’s not true. A couple likes from other writers, some retweets, and a few new followers. Made some good connections, which I love. So I don’t consider it a waste. Not at all.

It would have been easy to feel super defeated after all of that. I was texting with a writer friend and she was definitely feeling the defeat, the hopelessness, the fatigue. And I really was too. I had thankfully already made dinner plans, otherwise I thought it would have been a lovely evening to stay home and mope.

But I didn’t. And I worked during the weekend to write the evil synopsis. And researched agents. And lamented over the fact that they are all looking for something different in a submission. And then pushed up my sleeves and began preparing individual queries for each agent I was hoping to query. And I sent out some queries. And now I wait. And while I wait, I will work. Work on researching more agents in case it’s a ‘nah’ from all the ones I sent out. Work on my next project. Work on things unrelated to writing, because we all need a break from time to time.

And hope.

In my last post I mentioned that I really suck at summarizing things, which can make conversations with people about writing very awkward. (Sidenote…when I was talking about how people react when I say I write, I wasn’t talking about ALL people. I looove talking about writing, and as long as someone is genuinely curious and respectful about it, I don’t mind whatever questions come out!)

ANYWAY.

Back to summarizing. Keeping things succinct is not my gift. I don’t write short stories. It’s a skill that I am working on, but I need a lot more practice. Unfortunately, when I’m doing things like entering Twitter pitch contests or writing a query letter, not having that skill can really damage my chances. Because, clearly, ALL of my story is important. So then I think I should cut NOTHING or EVERYTHING. And it ends up like this:

Eden is cool. She lives Underground. Then some bad stuff happens. Kalon.

Descriptive, right?

This is the problem I have run into with a contest I am entering tomorrow. PitchMAS. I had to work my pitch into 35 words. This is the first contest I will be trying with this book. I’m nervous, although the worst that can happen is that it doesn’t get picked. Then I just work on querying.

The thing is, I know this is a good book. I have had some great feedback, from people who know me well and would tell me they love it regardless of its actual quality, but also from those who don’t know me as well, and/or would tell me the blunt truth even if they hated it. I also realize that anyone who knows me is also able to read into the personality behind the words. I only hope that that personality comes across to others as well, and that they enjoy it as much as my beta readers have!

I had a panic moment earlier today, because I am at a family reunion at a Presbyterian camp (I worked here 10 years ago…that is just insane!) and I wasn’t sure I was going to have internet access to enter the contest tomorrow! I was already making plans to go creep in the Perkins parking lot, and even buy a slice of pie inside if need be. But, clearly, it’s working just fine. A wee bit slow, but working! Hopefully still will be tomorrow too 😉

Wish me luck!

Sometimes I think people don’t think before they speak. Okay. Strike that “sometimes.” People in general just speak what’s on their mind before considering it and deciding whether it’s a) logical or b) insulting/condescending.

I have found this to be especially true when it comes to the way people react when I talk about writing. Here’s how that conversation usually goes:

Them: So you like to write? What do you write?
Me: Well, I’ve completed two novels.
Them: Oh! Are they, like, published?
Me: …no…
Them: *sympathetic nod* So, like, how long are they?
Me: Well, you know, novel-length. 300-350 pages
Them: *shocked face* Really? They’re like, real books?
Me: …yes…
Them: So what are they about?

Okay, we’ll get to the “what are they about” question later, but for now, let’s focus on the first part of the conversation. (Also, please don’t judge that bitty conversation as a sample of my ability to write dialogue…I swear I’m better than that!) Seriously, though, 95% of the people with whom I talk about my writing ask the publishing question first, then get this condescending, sympathetic look on their face when I tell them, no, I’m not actually published. Yet. As if being a writer is dependent upon getting published. As if publishing legitimizes the writing. Lies. I am a writer, dammit!

Whew. Got a little worked up there. Anyway.

The other thing that happens a good portion of the time is this response: “I have thought about writing a book.” or “I started a book once.” or “If I had time, I have so many great ideas for books I would write!” Now, I’m not trying to be that condescending, sympathetic person when people say this to me. In fact, I would love to have more writing buddies! But the way people say it…as if it’s not that hard if you have the time or the ideas. I truly believe that many people could be writers. But in order to be a writer, you must actually write. Even if you are writing badly.

One time, in one of my many toe dips into online dating (those are a story for another time…), this guy approached me (in the internet sense) by telling me that he was also a writer. I had not yet learned to be leery of such claims, so I enthusiastically responded, asking about what he wrote and how long he’d been writing, and any number of other cliche writing questions. His response? “I wrote like a page about a year ago.” Okay. Cool. We all work at a different pace. It took me three years to finish my first novel. So I asked what he wrote about. “Horror.” Awesome. Different genre than I’m used to, but there are plenty of amazing horror novels out there that leave me rocking in the corner after throwing the book in the freezer because the characters can’t hurt me from there. So how did he become interested in writing horror? “I work at Dairy Queen, and I thought of a lot of ways people could die.”

Hm.

So here’s the point in all this babble. Writing is easy. Anyone can write. People compose Facebook statuses by the millions every day. But Writing (capital W, which I realize is hard to compare since I had to use a capital to start the sentence about writing [small w]) is hard. Really hard. Like birthing a child (or so I’ve heard), but over months of time. Serious Writing takes dedication and drive and a certain degree of masochism. But serious writers cannot help themselves.

Honestly, a couple years ago, even in the midst of writing my first novel, I wouldn’t have called myself a writer. But now, that’s exactly what I am. Among other things, of course. I have always written. Now I Write.

In the end though, no one can tell you if you’re a writer or not. You know if you are. And you don’t have to listen to anyone else tell you otherwise. Because you’re a writer, dammit. Just like me.

(Sidenote: Does the word “write” look strange to anyone else now?)

Want to know how to write? Google it. Seriously. There are thousands (at least) of sites out there with lists of advice for getting published. Do this. Don’t do this. Make an outline. Just write. Don’t let anyone read it right away. Have reading partners as you go. Write every day. Feel free to take a day off. Write in the morning when you first get up. Write at night. Write until you are out of ideas. Stop when you want to keep going. Start your story in the thick of the action. But not too much action. 25 ways to be a better writer. 50 tips from published writers on writing. 72 fail-proof ways to get a crappy first draft done. And the books. Oh, you can buy books upon books on how to write a book. And probably on how to write a book about how to write a book. It’s like bookception. Also, how not to write a book, which is a whole new form of mind blowingness.

(I’m totally making up a lot of words today. It’s because I’m a writer, which is synonymous with “wordsmith,” which I’m pretty sure means the smithing of words, which I’m pretty sure gives me permission to make up whatever words I want. But I digress…)

I am guilty of trying to consume every bit of writing “advice” out there. Twitter is bursting with these lists, posted by agents and literary agencies and my favorite authors, and if they say the lists are good, they must be good, right? RIGHT???

And then I get sucked into that black hole. You know the one. Where there is no possible way to follow every bit of advice, so you follow none of it, trash your work in progress, throw your laptop across the room, and set fire to it. (The fire setting thing was much easier when writing was done on paper, but that’s a story for another time.)

There comes a point where you really have to stop listening to what everyone else says and listen to what works for you. One of the “rules” of writing I have learned is that there are no rules. There are suggestions, that it may be in your best interest to follow, but for every “rule,” there are a hundred (or more) exceptions.

So don’t be like me, fellow writers, reading list after list on your iPhone, curled into a ball, gently rocking to the melody only you can hear. Consider instead the words of Anne Enright: “The way to write a book is to actually write a book. A pen is useful, typing is also good. Keep putting words on the page.”

Break the rules. Go against all the advice. Be deliberately oppositional towards every suggestion you’ve ever heard. Just as long as you are writing.

That’s my advice. Take it or leave it. 😉

But seriously, you should probably take it.

It has been a few weeks since I finished the first draft of my second novel. Honestly, after I finished, I kind of deflated a bit. I wanted to keep going, keep up the momentum, but I really needed to take a step back. After I sent it off to beta readers, I also had a big move to a temporary summer office, and the stress of figuring out a summer schedule and stalking calling to convince parents to bring their children in throughout the summer. Also, paperwork. Mountains of it. Hours of extra work. My brain has been pretty much wrung dry by the time I get home, and most evenings that I am actually home are spent staring at the computer screen as I play game after game of Mah-jong. And think.

I think about what I wrote, if it makes sense, how it can be made better. I think about what project I want to work on next, if it’s presumptuous to work on a sequel to the one I just finished, or if I should be focusing on something else for a while. I think about what it would be like to be married to Chris Pine. All sorts of things.

Last week I had the opportunity to meet with a 12 year old who was one of the first to finish my book. Since I’m writing for 12-17ish year olds (and those 12-17 year olds at heart, like myself), I was super excited to talk with her. Plus, this girl is like the little sister I never had, and one of my favorite book buddies. She has very strong opinions. We talked for three hours. Not completely about my book, but a lot of the time was spent on that topic. She had really great things to say, and I’m not kidding when I say this girl is hard to please. She is very honest too. The Hunger Games is her favorite series, and she said it wasn’t as good as that. Honestly, that’s a good thing, because if she had said it was, then I would have worried that she wasn’t being honest with me!

I have complained before about how I am horrible at endings, and that was her one main problem with the book. Her exact words (regarding the ending) were, “It’s not terrible. I’ve read worse.” Not exactly a ringing endorsement, though I joked that would be the quote I use on the cover of the book. She had really insightful things to say about why the ending wasn’t quite “long-dramatic-sigh” worthy. She is someone who memorizes first and last lines of books and quoted me several of her favorites.

So I went home and stacked a small portion of my YA book collection together and read the last several paragraphs of each book, comparing them and the way I felt about the ending. I don’t think I’m quite an ending connoisseur like my young friend, but I sat down and rewrote/added to the ending. And she loved it! “It was definitely long-dramatic-sigh worthy,” was her actual response. Of course, she still had more thoughts, which I love. I am seeing her again tonight, so we’ll see what she comes up with!

I am really looking forward to hearing from more of my beta readers. I am also going to work on finding a writing group in the area. I think having more eyes on it, especially those who can look at it critically, will be extremely important. Until then…I have decided to work on the sequel. If the first one never gets published, I still need to finish out the series for myself, and for the few readers that are already asking what happens next. Maybe I can finish book two before the snow flies again! Here’s hoping…

About 24 hours ago I typed the last sentence of the first draft of my second novel. That makes sense, right? It took about 8 months for me to finish this one, which is a vast improvement over my first one, which took three years. This new one is also 10,000 words longer, which I’m not sure is a good thing, but since it’s the first draft, it may not stay quite that long.

Of course, I was excited. I am pretty passionate about this book, moreso than I ever was about my first one. Not that I didn’t enjoy my first novel, there was just a lot less excitement in that one. It was more reflective, and probably what my first novel needed to be. It will probably remain shelved forever, as most first attempts do. But I digress.

The ending was as ridiculous as I knew it would be. I am reading a book called “How Not to Write a Novel,” by Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman, and tonight I opened it to see that I was on a chapter called “Endings.” As much as I enjoy reading the book and realizing that I avoided many of the common mistakes novice novelists make, I also recognized myself in some of the descriptions, especially in the section on backstory overpowering what is currently going on. I need to cut my ending by half. I know that already. More about that later though. 

I am forcing myself to take a short break before I begin my first round of revisions. See, for me, the easy part is the writing. I can do what I want the first time around. It just spills out. I hate revisions. With a passion. Now, every time I read through, which I have done several times already just to make sure things are making sense, I change things. Phrasing here, a character there. But usually small changes. This first round of revisions will be major surgery. Cutting my baby apart to make a better baby. Okay. Ew. Perhaps I should try a different analogy next time.

I know that making Frankenbook is necessary, but ugh. I also know I should be taking time to celebrate the accomplishment of writing another book, but it’s hard when I know the road ahead of me. It’s like I’m Dorothy, and I’m following the yellow brick road, and I’ve just finished this part of my journey and I look up to find I’ve only barely reached the edge of Munchkinland. There’s a whole lotta yellow brick road ahead of me, and many obstacles before I can reach the Wizard, who will, of course, grant me whatever I wish as long as I kill the witch. Or something like that. I’m not sure where I’m going with this. It’s kind of late to be writing an entry, but I wanted to write before I head out of town for the weekend.

So really, I am excited to be finished, but the road is long, and my journey is just beginning. First comes revisions, then beta readers and critique partners, then more revisions, and some revisions, then querying and rejection and crying and eating my feelings and maybe, just maybe, something amazing will happen after all of that. I have hope. Regardless, I will continue to write. It’s what I do 😉

I don’t pretend to be an expert writer. Okay, maybe sometimes I pretend, but I do realize that blog posts, Facebook statuses, and 1.75 novels does not an expert make. But, in my (not so) vast experience, I decided that figuring out the perfect ending is almost the most difficult part of writing. Which is why I tend to stall out right before those last climactic pages.

The perfect ending is essential to making writing really work. This is where you tie everything up in a big bow, give explanations for any foreshadowing you gleefully injected into earlier chapters, and try to really give your story meaning. If you write an entire crime novel and there is little to no explanation, no reasoning, too many unanswered questions…the reader will close the book feeling unsatisfied and kind of icky. (I think “kind of icky” is actually the technical term.) I don’t want people feeling icky about my books. A bad ending can overshadow even a fabulous first 3/4. There are books I have read that I wished I had closed before I reached that last crucial point, because it would have remained more pleasant in my mind.

That’s a lot of pressure.

I am at that point once again in my second novel. Trying to pull the pieces together in a way that makes sense…it’s insane. Now, perhaps if I were a *better* writer, I would have been taking notes and making sure to keep track of what I needed to answer. But…I’m not that kind of writer. I’m a word vomiter. So hopefully if there are issues, I can clear them up in revisions, with help from a few trusted beta readers.

Still, I have been agonizing over how to end this thing. How to close things up in a way that makes sense, that is “realistic.” If things are too pretty, it can throw a reader out of the story too. “You mean…they were involved in a major firefight, half of the bad guys died, and none of the main characters were even injured? What are they, superheroes?” (To those who write about superheroes, my apologies, that’s totally realistic.) How “nice” do I make my ending? How many casualties? How angry will readers get if this happens, and have I hooked them enough to keep them reading if I make it to a sequel?

Thankfully, I have a great friend reading and giving me a chance to bounce ideas off of her…although I believe she may be even more emotionally invested in my characters than I am at times, which might taint her opinion just a bit 😉

I have also been dealing with that “I suck-itis” lately. Keeping up with agents and other blog posts and articles about writing is a good idea, but, as I’ve mentioned, it can also contribute to that hopeless feeling that I’ll be stuck in the slush pile trenches forever. Lately I have been dealing with the fact that my YA novel is already much longer than it is *supposed* to be, but I still have story to tell, and don’t want to sacrifice it yet. I know the cutting will come, but I need to tell the story first.

So, hopefully I will finish this week. I said that two weeks ago. One of these weeks it’s bound to happen. I am so close. I just need a bigger bow…

In the meantime, watch this video of a recently signed author talking about her journey to finding an agent. She compares querying to dating, and it’s really pretty entertaining. It can happen!

Dear publishers, agents, reviewers, etc,

I think we need to talk. I had hoped that this wasn’t a conversation that we would ever need to have, but I’m not sure it can wait anymore. It’s the elephant in the room, publishing industry. Something that must be addressed before another day passes.

I have yet to see my name on those book shelves. I go to Barnes and Noble. Nothing. Amazon search? Turns up zero results. Not even the public library has any record of me.

I thought it was pretty simple, publishing industry. I write something brilliant, you publish it. We both win. Where is this disconnect happening? How can we fix this?

Don’t you remember how I won that contest in the third grade? I won best story in the entire state of Iowa. For third graders, anyway. There are a lot of people in Iowa. More corn, but still a respectable number of people. I just looked up the population of Iowa, and there are over three million of us. And lots of those are third graders. I mean, it’s a pretty big deal. The story was about an anthropomorphic tooth named Jenny that fell out of her host’s mouth and went on an epic adventure. That’s what the cartoon tagline would be: Small tooth, epic adventure. I don’t think I knew the word epic when I was in third grade, but that’s beside the point.

The point is that twenty years ago, the public was introduced to a promising young author, and they are still waiting. Waiting for ME, publishing industry. I think that together we can put together a story that will outshine even the planned (and never completed) sequel to Jenny the Tooth, where Jenny ends up in a museum. It was to be called Jenny the Tooth in the Museum. Third graders are not very creative in titling things.

So let’s work together and make this happen. Querying will start again in the next few months, and I’ll need you all on your best game. We can do it. Go team!

Love, Rena

So the problem with creativity is that it doesn’t work on a schedule. Certainly not any sort of schedule a normal human being should be keeping, anyway. For example, my creative impulses hit around 10pm. Not when it’s light out. Not even in those twilight hours of half darkness. If I’m lucky, I might get the juices flowing between 9 and 9:30pm. But before that, pretty much anything I write is drivel, and unusable. This week I have been exceptionally creative, logging in total over 11.5K words in the course of a few nights. This translates into around 36 Word document pages, which would be almost 100 book pages. And remember, I don’t start until after 10pm.

Now you can imagine that this has put a bit of a strain on my day job. My sleep self has been playing tricks on me, turning off or resetting my primary alarm. Thank goodness for the backup! Still, I have walked into work later than planned, which means staying later than planned, which means paperwork and a quiet(ish) building, which is not always helpful when tired.

As always, the self-doubt plagues. I was doing some research tonight, and on a whim I looked up the typical length for a YA novel. Most places are saying 50K-65K or 75K tops. Mine is already 81.5K, and I have a little ways to go. What does that mean for my chances of scoring an agent? Hopefully nothing. The sites were also saying that in the end, it’s the content that matters. And right now, longer YA is hot. Of course, a couple years down the road, who knows? And that’s the most optimistic outlook for when my book might end up being published, IF I get an agent this year and IF it is sold to a publisher. And those are huge IFs. Those are dreaming IFs.

So as I was reading this, and thinking about other blogs I read about what not to write and what not to do and the difficulty of breaking into the publishing industry in any real way, I came across the website of author Alyson Noel. Now, I actually have never heard of her, but I was reading her advice on writing/publishing, and it’s actually really awesome. This was my favorite part:

What is “I-suck-itis” and how do I make sure I don’t get infected?

I-suck-itis is that feeling you get when you’re happily engrossed in your writing, everything’s going great, and then, smack out of nowhere, that horrible, annoying, little voice in your head pipes in with all sorts of judging, and snarking, and horrible little comments—determined to convince you that you’ll never be as good as so and so. 

When that happens, the only cure is to tell that little voice to mind it’s own business, thankyouverymuch. That you are just trying to get the first draft written and have every intention to go back and revise later. Because the truth is, writing is all about re-writing, and to paraphrase Nora Roberts: You can’t fix a blank page! 

 Why do I love this? Because it’s normal. It’s completely NORMAL to have days when you decide you suck. It’s completely NORMAL to compare yourself to others. I read it time and again, and I just thought this was a fabulous way of explaining it, and then swatting it away. If you’re interested in her other advice, check out the page on her website here. 

So, in the end, I really am excited with where my book is heading. At this point, I need to finish, and worry about revisions later. I don’t want to think about slashing my baby to cut the word count back, but I refuse to worry about it now. For now, Eden and Kalon have an adventure to finish. The sooner the better, so I can start getting some sleep!