The Curse

Okay, it's official. I'm cursed. I wrote on this blog once before about how a certain Chapter Seventeen was giving me all sorts of grief. It took way too many revisions for me to count in order to make that chapter finally behave itself. But as I worked on the story--moving chapters around, combining some chapters, getting rid of some all together--chapter seventeen stopped being chapter seventeen long ago. It has a whole new number now and I really like the way it finally came out in the end. But I still shudder when I think about what it took to get there. So today I began the struggle all over again, with a brand new chapter that won't behave. This one is every bit as bad as the other, maybe even worse. I can see there are weeks of hard work ahead of me to figure out how to make it behave. So why am I writing about this? I just went to write the chapter number for this new troublesome chapter.  It is Chapter Seventeen.

*Cue Twilight Zone music*

Waiting for a Nibble

Publishing is a lot like fishing on a lake. You cast out your manuscript and sit there just waiting for a publishing fish to bite. Only in publishing, the wait can sometimes be years. It took two years for Scholastic to finally get back and make me an offer for Forbidden Sea. The waiting game is not fun--but it is a necessary evil that all authors must learn to live with. I have just finished a new book proposal and my agent is now beginning to make the rounds by sending it to all the publishers on her list. I  have lots of other manuscripts to work on in the mean time, but I always feel tense when the waiting begins all over again. I think this particular manuscript has a real chance to get published--but for now, I have to wait. : (

Less is More

One of the hardest things for an author is figuring out how to cut down a manuscript to the right length. When I write a rough draft, I like to put everything in including the kitchen sink. All those lovely ideas I just want so bad to write, I get them all in whether they fit or not. This is the fun part for me as an author. Getting to write all the exciting stuff without worrying about how it fits together or if it is slowing down the plot. But then comes the time of reckoning. Revisions. This is when I have to go through a story and brutally cut out anything that is not important to the main plot of the story. A normal young adult length novel can be anywhere from 50,000 to 80,000 words long. (Only insanely popular authors like J. K. Rowling get to break this rule.) One of the manuscripts I am currently working on at the moment is at 127,000 words long. You can see that some major surgery has to take place before I can submit the manuscript to a publisher. You have no idea how hard it is to choose what gets cut out and what doesn't. So many beautiful, touching, and hilarious little details have to go. Only the very best may stay. It can be a little bit daunting. But in the end, it is always worth it!