All Flung Out: Chicago NRWA Spring Fling

Well, I’m back to my regularly scheduled doctorhood today.

I got in late last night and I’m working a 24+ hour shift today. So I didn’t have a chance to finish blogging about the conference.

Wow. What a crazy, wonderful experience that was!

Saturday, I drove in early for more workshops. I had a great session on writing query pitches with Kristin Nelson, which was highly cool. She had us share parts of our pitches and then helped us know what to focus on. Awesome… seriously worth the price of the conference all on its own.

Next was a “Meet the Agents” panel, where we got to ask questions to all the amazing agents that were participating in the conference. It also meant I got a chance to hear from the agent I was scheduled to meet with later, Erin C. Niumata.

At lunch, another agent, Christina Hogrebe, just happened to be sitting at my table. She was very kind and told me not to panic about my meeting that afternoon, which helped. Also highly cool.

Despite her sound advice, I was a basketcase by the time I was supposed to present my pitch. I mean, I swear… I’m a physician. I speak to strangers all day long. Often giving bad news to them. I was on the debate team and speech team in high school. I give presentations constantly. And I have never, ever been so nervous to make a speech before.

I had seven minutes total time (the volunteers were clicking a kitchen timer on as you walked through the door).

After introducing myself and apologizing for my nervousness, I sat down.

Voice-cracking and probably WAY too fast, I delivered my little speech.

“What were you nervous about? That’s a great pitch!”
My face is on fire. “Thank you. I really appreciate that.”
“How long is the manuscript?”
“90,000 words”
“That’s a good length. Is it complete?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I’d like to look at it. I need a synopsis and the first 50 pages. Can you do that?”

You bet I can.

“Thank you. If your book is as good as your pitch, it will be great.”

I shook her hand and nearly walked right into the volunteer who was coming to say we had one minute to wrap it up.

90 minutes later, my hands were still shaking.

The whole conference was just phenomenal. I met so many warm, funny, and fabulous people. I learned many cool things and got great advice. I survived my first pitch meeting. And I went home with a bag full of great books and other cool loot. I’m so thrilled that I decided to go.

To borrow a phrase from my wonderful test reader Kendra, “Two wildly enthusiastic thumbs up!!!”

Now I have to figure out which RWA chapter to join.

Genre-Crossing and The Edge of Memory

I have struggled a bit with developing the pitch for my novel, since it doesn’t fit easily into a single category. I had lunch with an English teacher friend who’s just finished reading and asked her what she thought about genres.

“Well, it’s sort of a romantic, psychological thriller,” she said.

“With paranormal elements.”

She snorted her iced tea. “Yes, but you tread so lightly there I think you can safely avoid mentioning it.”

“I think the best fit category is Upmarket Women’s Fiction.”

“Well, whatever it is, it’s gripping.”

So there you have it.

We also discussed the new title, and I explained the reservations I had with the former working title “Still Haunted” which were:

1. It falsely led people to expect a balls-out ghost story, whereas the ghost elements were subtle and late in the novel
2. By the end, the protagonist is not really so haunted anymore.

My friend suggested “Still Haunted.  Until Recently.” as an alternate title. 

I prefer “Up to a Short While Ago, Quite, Quite Haunted”

Maybe I should try that title for my next queries. 

What I’ve learned about writing a novel and trying to publish, part one.

I am admittedly an utter newbie to this whole process, so I’m no expert.

But in medicine, the philosophy is “See one. Do one. Teach one.” As soon as you learn something, you pass on the knowledge to those behind you on the learning curve.

And, you don’t find the words “Academic Director” in your title without being inclined to try to teach.

There are several things I’ve learned along this crazy journey that I’d never thought about or that straight-out surprised me. So, I’ve decided to mention what I’ve learned here in case it’s helpful to someone else.

I came home after a 24-hour shift in October and unexpectedly started writing what has turned out to be “The Edge of Memory.” I wrote the first two chapters that day. By that night, I posted to my chitties:

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I have started doing something I have always wanted to do.

It’s a huge overwhelming creative undertaking.

And I both want to tell people all about it and ask their opinions, AND keep it all jealousy close to my chest.

I honestly don’t know if I will ever complete this task.

And while on one hand, telling people about it might provide motivation, it would also embarrass the heck out of me if I never manage to follow through.

I feel like a kid learning to ride a bike… I am pedaling like a madwoman and have just seemingly found my balance, so I want to shout, “Hey! Look at me go!”, but that might just be inviting everyone to watch me fall.

Can anybody relate? Anybody who is not actually learning to ride a bike, that is?

My friend Sandra posted in that thread that she understood completely and that she had signed up to write 50,000 words for National Novel Writing Month in November. Which is another thing I had never heard of.

That was the first time I considered wordcount. How long is a novel supposed to be? What counts as a “novel” versus a novella?

I researched this topic when I was procrastinating on actual writing, or incubating some plot problem. And I found a lot of different answers, so I hoped my novel would end up somewhere in the overlapping range of 80,000 to 100,000 words.

I formatted my novel file to 6 x 9 paperback size. Pulling Kent Haruf’s Plainsong from my shelf, I obsessively thumbed through how many pages I’d written thus far to gauge whether I was on track throughout my first draft.

As fate and my characters would have it, my novel stands at barely over 90,000 words. It has 40 chapters averaging 2000 – 2500 words each. So, I ended up just about where I wanted to be, which justifies all the research and obsessing.

But I could have saved a lot of time if FinePrint Agent Colleen Lindsay had posted this analysis on novel lengths a few months earlier. Incidentally, her blog is quite funny and worth checking out even if you’re not interested in publishing.

So, things I have learned about novel lengths so far:

1. 80,000 – 100,000 is a good average
2. Erring on the shorter side is probably best if you’re a new writer
3. There are different expected novel lengths by genre
4. Less than 50,000-60,000 words will probably be considered a novella (rather than a novel) and is harder to publish.

I’ll post some other things I’ve learned along the way in my next entry.

The Edge of Memory Cards for Writing Conference

In my continued quest to figure out how to get published, I’ve been researching writing conferences. The Chicago Spring Fling conference I’m attending at the end of this month is sneaking up on me faster than I’d expected.

In addition to cooking up a verbal pitch, I’ve read that I also need to prepare business cards. So, I whipped these up this morning

A new hook for me, too. So we’ll see how that works out.

If you were looking for jugglers, I’d have been a juggler.

Well, I am dangerously close to trying to query. I’ve picked out 5 agents to start with. I’ve researched them and composed letters for each one.

But I still struggle with what to call my book. I honestly think it could be marketed in a number of different ways, and I’m not sure which is the most effective.

I’m going with Upmarket Commercial Fiction for the moment, so I’ve chosen agents who are interested in representing that category. If I don’t find a good agent match this way, I’ll try marketing as something else. Even as a juggler.

Incidentally, I am a juggler. The pool was double-booked for swim class in my junior year of high school, so I spent 6 weeks learning juggling instead (there was very limited equipment available). Your tax dollars at work.

I R Editing… a smidge, anyway.

So, I’ve been searching the internet for a good definition of women’s fiction. The category seems to be a bit vague, really, other than that it should appeal to women.

So, with that nebulous information, I’ve decided to enter a contest in the category of “Women’s Fiction with Romantic Elements”. At the very least, someone will read what I’ve written, and even if they say, “Pfft! What are you thinking? This doesn’t qualify!” I will at least have that information to go on.

I honestly think it could be marketed either way.

So, for the purposes of the contest, I edited my first 3 chapters. While I was doing it, I was afraid I was only making it worse, but after letting it settle for a couple days, I’ve reread it and I think it is much better.

So, yay! Three chapters edited and 37 to go. *snort*

I think I will still need to do a bit more in those first 3 chapters to accomplish the setting timewise. As it stands, I have it now set in 1981. Which means I need to address some big news issues that would be bound to come up (e.g. Pope John Paul getting shot). But that would have been beyond the scope of the contest entry.

I could set in 1982, but apparently there was a freak blizzard in April that year, which I would also have to address, I think.

Hmmm….

Test readers: I will make another private page to post the revised first 3 chapters, so you can review them if you like. 😉 The password will be the same.

Agent Secrets

I spent a large chunk of today looking up information on literary agents. I am starting to really itch to work on the editing, and I know I am still too close to the material to edit well yet, so I am channeling my energy into researching the publishing process instead.

It is a crazy experience, I have to say… not quite as surreal as coming home from work one day and spontaneously starting a novel, but still odd nonetheless.

Searching for an agent is a little like online dating, I’d expect, although I’ve never actually tried that. I’ve been surfing through photos and bios, reading what these agents are looking for and wondering whether it might be me.

One of the questions I struggle with is “What genre is your novel?” I mean, obviously it is fiction, but as far as subcategories go, I’m a little stymied. But genre classification is apparently quite critical when you are looking for an agent.
Is it literary fiction? Maybe… I’ve made some use of symbolism and etymology, for certain, but it is still quite story-driven.

Is it historical fiction? It is set somewhat in the past, but I don’t think it’s far enough in the past for the timing to be so prominent as to define the genre.

Is it a mystery? Sort of. But certainly not a traditional mystery story. No detectives or private investigators involved.

Is it a thriller/suspense novel? Maybe… I certainly hope it is thrilling to read, but I don’t know that it is really in step with what people expect in a “thriller”.

Is it “Women’s Fiction”? I don’t think so… not intentionally. Although most of it is about my female main character’s thoughts and feelings about what happens to her, so maybe that is more geared towards a female audience.

So, does anyone who has read have any thoughts on this? Does it strike you as similar to another novel for which I could peek at the genre classification?

Well, enough stalling… it is time for bed. 🙂