Category: Uncategorized

“Why Would a Kid Read it Again and Again?”

Lately, when editing my manuscripts, I’ve been asking myself this question: Would a kid want to read this again and again?

Is it funny? Will it make kids think?  Will they feel that they can relate to the characters? Is the story unique? What’s the “wow factor” of this book and will it have kids coming back for more?

The next question I ask is potentially even more important than the first: Why would a parent think that their child would read this book over and over again? It’s not often that a child purchases a picture book. It’s the parents that do the initial screening. Sure a kid might pick a book up off a shelf in a store, but if that book doesn’t pass the parental sieve, it’s not going home in the hands of that child.

And what’s the point of buying your child a picture book if they read it once and then it gathers dust as bookshelf clutter until mom or dad eventually toss it into a Goodwill bag?

It’s a tough task, making a book appealing to both parents and children. They’re very different age groups experiencing the world in very different ways. Hopefully, with enough reflection, I’ll be able to pull it off.

What are your strategies for finding this balance?

 

Much love and keep writing.

Advertisement

Write What You Know

There’s a scene in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women where Dr. Bhaer gives Jo feedback on one of her stories. He says, “Jo, there is more to you than this, if you have the courage to write it…You must write from life, from the depths of your soul!”

Every now and then when my hands begin to twitch and my jaw clenches from trying to force something into writing I think of this scene. And then I ask myself, am I writing from life? Am I writing from what I know to be true and good and real?

If the answer is no, I scrap it.

There’s too much in the depths of my soul to be wasting time writing what I don’t know. There’s too much beauty in the bay forest and the creek beyond my back door and the redwood outside my window. There’s too much wonder behind the stars that light my path at night. These are the things that I know. These are the things that are good. And these are the things I will write.

Querying: What is My Story About?

whats-it-about

The sun is shining, the world is beautiful, it’s Monday, and somehow I have off work! Instead of strapping on a pack and taking a group of 5th graders hiking, I’m posting up at my living room table, keyboard at the ready. Queries are slowly trickling into my “sent” box and life feels glorious.

As I’m back on the query train, I’ve been thinking about the process a lot these days. I recently received some stellar query advice from picture book author, Dev Petty. I know I’ve been shouting Dev out a lot these days, but during her talk a few weeks ago she said so many inspirational nuggets of wisdom that I’ve needed a few weeks to process them all.

When it comes to querying, Dev says that, without using any character names, you should be able to answer this question in less than one sentence:

What is my book about?

An agent probably won’t ever ask you to explain your book in a single sentence but having the ability to do so will give you the foundation of your query letter. You’re the author after all. You should be able to narrow the essence of your manuscript down to just a few short words. If you can’t do it, no one else will be able to.

An excellent example that Dev gave us was Sendak’s classic, Where the Wild Things Are. She asked us all the simple question: What is this book about? A few brave souls volunteered their answers:

“It’s about a boy who runs away from home.”

“It’s about a boy who gets mad and goes on an imaginary adventure.”

After a few, Dev cut us off. As it turns out, this one can be narrowed down to less than a sentence. The very essence of Where the Wild Things Are is anger. The book is about anger.

It’s true. Arguably, the most well-loved picture book of all time is about anger. But it’s so easy to get caught up in the plot and sub plot and characters. That’s part of what makes writing queries and synopses difficult—all of the distractions that seem so important to summarize, but would ultimately be useless without the books fundamental message.

I started thinking in these terms about the picture books and YA manuscript I’ve written so far. Pairing them down to a sentence or even just a word makes talking about them seem so much more manageable.

My book is about perspectives in nature, or learning from your choices, or human nature. This is the first step, setting the framework for the rest of your query. If the book is about perspectives in nature, what essential plot points do I need to communicate in order to convey that message?

So far, this process has been working wonders for me. It’s turned query writing into a puzzle: identify the essence of the story, add in the details that support it.

I’ve got another picture book in the works these days and will definitely be using this approach when it comes query time.

 

Much love & keep writing.

 

Is Your Picture Book Ready to Send?

This past weekend I attended a talk by picture book author, Dev Petty, at my local SCBWI chapter meeting. Dev is the author of I Don’t Want to Be a Frog and I Don’t Want to be Big. As promised in my last post, here is a list of questions that Dev asks herself before sending her picture books to agents.

  • What are my goals?
  • Have I read current and popular picture books?
  • If so, what have I learned about current popular flow, rhythm, and style?
  • Have I considered writing in different tenses, points of view, and formats?
  • Have I considered deeper options, metaphors, and ideas?
  • What is the most interesting way I can turn my idea into a story?
  • Does my story have a strong beginning and a satisfying ending?
  • Does my story have an original voice?
  • Did I leave room for the illustrator?
  • Did I consider action on the page?
  • Did I leave room for the reader to participate with the text/images?
  • Do I get quickly into the action and story problem?
  • Did I read it out loud? Many times? To different audiences?
  • Is my story too long? (More than 900 words for a picture book)
  • Is it rhyming? If so will that hinder my chances of getting published? Dev made a good point about the fact that rhyming texts are harder to edit for publishers. She also shared that agents/publishers tend to be more enthusiastic about signing picture books with prose than with rhyme.
  • Is more than one beta reader telling me the same thing?
  • Can I remove anything that isn’t adding to the story?
  • Do I have a handful of other stories to show agents should the request them? (More on this question in my next post)
  • Does my query letter voice reflect my writing voice?
  • Do I have a social media presence?

So there you have it, the thought process of a published, successful picture book writer. I fully intend to ask myself all of these questions before sending manuscripts out in the future. Hopefully they’ll work for me (and for you!) like they worked for Dev.

51fc22beej2bl-_sx258_bo1204203200_

Much love and keep writing.

Aaand We’re Back

Hi friends,

It’s been about a year since my blog went silent—a year, two new teaching jobs, two cross-country moves, and a trans-Atlantic relationship, since my last post. I can blame the crickets on circumstance, or I can just fess up. Maintaining a blog is a lot of work. Sometimes when life gets hectic something’s gotta go and for me it was the blog.

Despite my cyber silence, my plight for publishing has far from ceased. Queries continue to fly from my ever-hopeful fingertips but to no avail. Something about my first book just wasn’t cutting it. So I took it to the cleaners, ransacked the ending, a few major plot points, and started rebuilding. The direction it’s taking feels good and new and fresh and promising. But I got stuck. I’m frozen somewhere between my old manuscript and my vision for the future. So instead of prying reluctant words from my brain, I recently set it aside. My neurons simply refuse to fire in the order it will take to finish that book right now. So screw ’em. They’ll come around eventually.

In the meantime, besides short stories, other YA novel ideas, and journaling, I’ve turned my attention towards another writing outlet: picture books. They’re short, and snappy, and to the point. And the best part is, they make little kids think. Tiny little ones all over the country read, and are read picture books every day. And their tiny little brains use the information in those books to help them make sense of the crazy world that they so recently arrived in. What a cool opportunity to be a part of. So I wrote the first draft of a picture book a few weeks ago. And just a few days later got an email from my local SCBWI chapter with the subject, “Is Your Picture Book Ready to Send? A Checklist for All Writers.” The universe works in weird ways sometimes. Well, all the time actually.

The email turned out to be an advertisement for a local meeting with a guest speaker named Dev Petty, author of I Don’t Want to Be a Frog and I Don’t Want to be Big. During her talk she provided the list of questions she always asks herself before sending manuscripts to agents. I fully intend to break down the important points of her talk in my next blog post, but the real point here is that this meeting really inspired me to get back on the blogging train. It’s time to sweep the crickets out and get back to business. I have returned to the cyber world. And here I shall stay.

Stay tuned and keep writing.

 

Beta Reader Appreciations

ThankYouforWeb1

 

Today’s post is about gratitude. More specifically, it’s about the endless appreciation I have for my readers. Composing a novel is a rewarding yet maddening process. The journey from to a jumbled clot of half-formed ideas to a coherent parcel of neatly synced details is a long one. It’s like creating an incredibly elaborate patchwork quilt. Every detail is it’s own patch and not only does each patch have to compliment the ones directly next to it, it has to tie into the ones above and diagonal to it. It has to fit with the border. There have to be patterns and themes. And too top it all off, everything has to be neatly stitched together–so well stitched that you can’t see the stitches.

The more time you spend on a novel the harder it is to look at it objectively, to see if each patch is in place or if you’ve missed a stitch. Everything gets muddled inside your head. It’s for this reason that I’ve come to appreciate the immense importance of having people read your work as you go–of having beta readers.

Over the last year and a half I’ve been lucky enough to have some incredible people volunteer to read and edit my novel. My parents were the first. They’ve been more supportive and helpful than I could ever ask for and I wouldn’t have made it this far if it weren’t for them. Others who have taken many hours out of their days to read and give me feedback include my brother, grandma, my two beautiful aunts, Cameron Daniel, Becca Farmer, Lars Nordgreen, Ren Luckenbaugh, Max Pollock, Aaron Juchau, Andrew Punsoni, Kimberly Sabatini, Mark Holaday, Tanner Connolly, Danielle Renino, and anyone else who I might have missed. I’ve thanked all of these wonderful people individually but today I wanted to take a moment to revisit the support they’ve shown me. Whether you read the first few pages or all 270, my novel would be nowhere near it’s current state if it weren’t for you. Thank you for backing me in this journey.

 

 

Much love & keep writing.

 

10 Query Tips from a Literary Assistant — Week of 11/21/2014

Lane Heymont

I’m a literary assistant at The Seymour Agency. Our agents, Mary Sue Seymour, Nicole Resciniti, and Julie Gwinn represent a range of genre: Christian/Inspirational, Fantasy/Science Fiction, Urban Fantasy, Women’s Lit, Romance.

As usual, this week’s tips come from my Twitter feed (@LaneHeymont). Enjoy!

1) A writer should have at least 1-3 projects in the works at any given point. When you sign a book deal, your agent or editor might ask, “Hey, what do you have next? What are you working?” Publishing moves at a glacial pace until it picks up speed like a freight train and suddenly you’re moving at 500 mph. Always have something else in the works.

2) Talking negatively about yourself in a query is not the way to win over an agent. Neither is boasting how fantastic you are. You are not the next H.G. Wells or Oscar Wilde. Ironic part is…

View original post 398 more words

Drafting Procrastination: Beginning the Writing Process

World,

As you’ve been informed, book number one is complete. I’ve probably read the damn thing through a hundred times. My family has read it. My friends have read it. Other writers have read it. I’ve edited/revised it after each person sent it back to me with comments. And then I edited it again just for the hell of it.

 

What I’m getting at here is: It’s time to write another book.

Let me rephrase that: It’s been time to write another book.

 

I’ve actually been meaning to start it for the last week. It’s funny what can come up when you mean to start drafting a book. Suddenly, you notice how dirty your floor is. You’d better sweep and mop it. Maybe it needs a vacuum too? You definitely don’t have enough groceries for the next two weeks so you might as well stock up your fridge like you’re preparing for the apocolypse. Now is HANDS DOWN the perfect time to clean out the toaster and reorganize your underwear drawer. Your roller blades need new wheels? Better make the hour-long journey to the best skate shop on Yelp to get them replaced. Oh, and while you’re at it, maybe you should write a blog post about how difficult it is to start writing a book.

What I’m trying to say here, people, is that starting a book is a daunting task and I’ve been doing everything possible to distract myself from it. Time to get it together. Writers all over the world are frantically pounding out the beginning of their 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo and I’m cleaning out my toaster?

Since starting my book a few of my friends who also wish to be novelists have asked me for advice. I always find myself saying the same thing: JUST DO IT. Just sit down and do it. It’s scary, I know, sitting down with a computer or notebook and embarking on a journey whose end is so very far from sight. I sat on the concept behind my first book for four years before putting anything on paper. But once the first draft is done all that hemming and hawing just seems like a waste of what could have been time spent typing or brainstorming or outlining character arcs.

The point is, I need to take my own advice.

Novel number two, here I come.

Wish me luck.

California[relo]cation

Tomorrow I am moving to Berkeley California.

It’s such a simple sentence in form. It’s seven words long. It has a subject and a verb. There’s nothing complex about it. And yet this one sentence carries so much weight: the tears spilled on my mom’s shoulder as I hugged her good-bye, the look on my dad’s face as he waved to me from the door. It encompasses the impending distance between myself and the wonderful beings I call my friends, the thousands of memories left behind within the walls of my childhood room, all the laughter and growth and love that I’ve been so fortunate to have experienced. It possesses the strength and courage that it took to leave what I know behind in exchange for the adventure of meeting new people and discovering new passions, the promise and excitement of a new life.

Seven simple words can hold so much.

 

Wish me luck.

1236732_10202176546158831_91388938_n

Demystifying the Writing Conference

IMG_7146

Dear Cyberspace,

A miraculous thing happened this weekend. I survived my first writer’s conference! I can’t tell you exactly why I was so nervous. I think it was mostly the fact that I didn’t quite know what to expect. Going into the conference I knew three things: there would be workshops on different aspects of the writing/publishing/marketing process, I would meet a lot of fellow writers, and I would have to pitch my book to as many agents as possible during an hour long pitch slam. Ok, so I just said I couldn’t tell you exactly why I was so nervous. I lied. Now that I think of it, I know exactly why. It can be summed up in two words: pitch slam.

Let me give you some insight into this phenomenon if you aren’t already familiar with it. The hour long session is broken up into three minute intervals during which you sit with an agent and give a 90 second book pitch. With the left over time the agent asks you questions about your book and, if they like what they hear, pass you their business card along with instructions as to what they want you to send them. Requested materials range from a query letter to a synopsis to the first three chapters of your novel.

Picture, if you will, a large room lined with thirty or so tables. At each of those tables sits two literary agents with their names posted behind them on the wall. Now, picture a line of two hundred people standing outside the door to this room. These people have been standing there for, say, forty-five minutes. The door opens and they scramble frantically into the room in hope of being the first in line to sit down with one of the agents. Keep in mind that there are 200+ aspiring authors scuttling around this room and only 60 agents. So if one of the agents that you want to talk to is already taken you begin to form a line behind them. As you’re waiting in this line the clock is ticking down. Are you behind three people? That’s three minutes each. Nine minutes of time you could be talking to other agents wasted. What if you’re behind five people? There must be a reason that this agent is so popular, right? It must be worth it? Your eyes wander around the room…There’s an agent with an open chair in front of them! Should you abandon your line and go talk to him? Glances back at the agent you’re waiting for. But she looks so nice! What if she’s THE ONE? Looks back to the agent with the vacant chair in front of him. What if he’s THE ONE?!

Talk about stressful.

Anyway, I survived the experience despite my sky rocketing heart rate. I ended up pitching to six agents in all and four of them requested the first fifty pages of my manuscript! Somehow they understood me as I stammered through my pitch and decided that they like my idea! Needless to say, I left that room feeling pretty proud of myself. I’ll be emailing them my first few chapters by the end of the week.

As for the rest of the conference, it really was just meeting people and sitting in on workshops. Here are some of the sessions I attended:

  • Networking for Writer’s
  • Blog Your Way to a Book Deal
  • How to Sell Your First 1,000 Copies
  • Turn Your Readers Into Marketers

All of the workshops I attended bolded, highlighted, and underlined the importance of blogging as an author. So here I am and here I’ll stay.

More soon.