Laura Pohl's Blog, page 3

How to find Sensitivity Readers

Laura Pohl

The publishing industry is changing.

For most, this is a really welcome change. Especially in kidlit, where there are harmful books that perpetrate stereotypes that contribute to racism and exclusion, it’s important to depict marginalized characters with accuracy. Kids are going to be the readers, and kids will be the ones affected in case you get something wrong. With that in mind, the concept of Sensitivity Readers was created.

For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past year, sensitivity readers are people you hire (much like an editor) who will go through your manuscript and make sure you haven’t fallen back into racist stereotypes or problematic depictions of marginalized communities. They are people with experience in said community — ie they’re usually from said community — and therefore have lived experience and common ground to call out what may be a problem and an offense in your book.

That said, finding the sensitivity reader that’s perfect for your book may be hard, especially if it’s intersectional. For example, if you write a character who’s a Black lesbian, the ideal sensitivity reader would be a Black lesbian too. If, however, you’re lesbian but not Black and you’re only concerned with representation on race, you could hire a sensitivity reader that’s a Black woman but doesn’t necessarily identify as a lesbian. This is of course all very complex that should be considered carefully, because intersection is important. And not always one person will understand about all marginalizations.

Another thing that is important when finding a sensitivity reader is making sure they also have a writing background. That doesn’t mean necessarily that they are writers themselves, but that they have taken part and are aware of the discourse going on about publishing. Just hiring someone who is from the same marginalized background as your character won’t do — they also have to be aware of what’s going on in publishing and all the stereotypes that have been used before. Although any person could point out most of the problematic things, there is a lot of nuance in the book industry, and this person you’re hiring should be aware of that. Senstivity readers are like any other professional in the industry — they should know how it works.

With those two things in mind, it’s time to start looking. I think the biggest resource to finding Sensitivity readers is through Writing in the margins database. You can also find them through Facebook groups and twitter by asking. Usually people will recommend a service if they’ve used a Sensitivity reader before. Be sure to check in with writers who have used SR services before if they have a recommendation. Most of them will be happy to provide names for you if they liked a person’s service.

What I recommend personally is talking to the Sensitivity reader before hiring them, making sure they are up to date with publishing debates as well as understand your type of writing. I mostly read kidlit, so I wouldn’t be the best sensitivity reader for adult, for example. Talking to the person who you’re hiring is extremely important, especially expressing your concerns over the work. A lot of SRs also have contracts of their own, so you might have to sign them and you can offer an NDA as well so both parties stay protected. A sensitivity reader is like an editor — you need to know them and trust them so you can work together, so the best thing to do is talk to them first, and even ask if they have testimonials and recommendations.

How to find Sensitivity Readers

I HAVE A BOOK DEAL!

Hey, everyone!

It’s so amazing to be able to announce something as cool as having a book deal. And now that it’s official, you can check it out here.

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The original news landed in publisher’s weekly, and THE LAST 8 is coming in 2019 to your shelves. Thanks so much for all the support I received from my friends, my family and my agent, and now it’s going to be a real book out in the world!

Knowing Your Genre, Part 4: Horror

Hello everyone, and this week on the blog we continue with my series of blog posts on literary genres. You can find the other posts by clicking here. Today, we’re going to talk about Horror.

Horror is one of my favorite genres, but it’s also very misunderstood and misinterpreted. Horror is more than gore like Saw or the Final Destination movies. It mostly should be about things that scare the reader and the person who consumes the media. Cat Scully did a wonderful thread on twitter about horror not equating to gore level which I think you should read.

Gore can be a part of horror fiction, of course, but it’s not necessarily scary. Unless you’re deadly scared of your head falling off or exploding, gore will be much more uncomfortable than it will be scary. Gore can be defined as an extreme depiction of the destruction of a body, be that in blood, guts, or anything that comes with it. If you’ve watched any of the movies I mentioned above, you’ve seen it before. That said, every movie that features gore heavily is horror, but not every horror has gore in it.

Horror can be often also more a subplot or a theme than an actual genre. We’ve all read novels or seen movies that have scared us but were not necessarily classified in the horror genre. Alien, for example, is a science fiction movie with heavy horror themes.

Horror, at its core, is about human beings facing what terrifies them. Stephen King has written several books in the most different genres, but all of them can be considered horror because of this one element: at the center of the narrative, there’s fear. Fear is what drives the story forward, be it in the form of a supernatural being, or just a strange new situation.

For that reason, Horror is usually divided in three big subsets in literature: pscyhological horror, paranormal horror and slasher films.

Paranormal Horror

In paranormal, we have the most traditional stories: stories of ghosts and monsters and strange happenings in a town no one can explain, but that terrorizes and kills human beings. One of the main elements in horror is death, because death evokes the feeling of unknown, which is usually explored in this genre. The unknown can be more powerful than definitions in this type of narrative, because what could be is scarier than what is.  Of course, this is more of a guideline than a rule, there are narratives that subvert this trope as well.

Paranormal usually involves ghosts, hauntings, witches, spirits, demons, haunted houses, haunted dolls, monsters, and anything that comes in-between. If there is a strong depiction of a monster, or if it’s mentioned in any way, it’s probably a paranormal horror story.

Good examples of paranormal horror in books: The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco, It by Stephen King, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake, The Women in the Walls by Amy Lukavics.
Good examples of paranormal horror in movies: It follows (2014), Babadook (2014), Rosemary’s Baby (1968), The Conjuring (2013), The Others (2001), Poltergheist (1982), The Witch (2016).

 

Psychological Horror

For psychological horror, we have the same elements of the dark, of fear, and all the other things that run inside a person’s mind when we face something beyong our control and something that we don’t understand. Psychological horror, however, puts the audience in a place where nothing out of the ordinary happens — and therefore, it’s all a product of a sick human mind.

These kind of narratives can be one of the most interesting things in the world to follow, since they are the product of what the mind is capable of — playing tricks on you, making you do horrible things, and twisting everything around you. Usually one of the tropes used (and that often is misused) is mental illness as one of the subjects or causes of such occurings, or the main character has just been through a traumatic situation that alters their perception of the world, causing their uneasiness and their fear.  Characters are disturbed, suffer from hallucinations, and are often faced with something incomprehensible to them that feels like madness. And although it doesn’t contain paranormal elements of any kind, it’s just as scary to read.

Good examples of psychological horror in books: Misery by Stephen King, We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris.
Good examples of psychological horror in movies: Black Swan (2010), The Shining (1980), It Comes At Night (2017), Get Out (2017), Funny Games (1997), Split (2016).

 

Slasher

Slasher movies are one of the most well-remembered genres when talking about horror. They usually feature gore, and its plot revolves around a serial killer picking off victims one-by-one. Although slasher movies can seem saturated, there are many great ones that put a new spin on the serial killer genre. They’re often tense, fast-paced, and known for horrible deaths, and we cheer for the main character to survive until the end.

Good examples of slasher in books: Final Girls by Riley Sager, There’s Someone Inside your House by Stephanie Perkins.
Good examples of slasher in movies: Halloween (1978), Scream (1996), Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Friday the 13th (1980)

 

The thing about these categories is that even though they seem clear, an artist may choose to mix them up together. One of the greatest examples I’ve seen lately of this is Babadook, an indie-horror film that has a paranormal monster called the Babadook haunting a house, but it actually works as a depiction of the main character’s depression and PTSD after her husband died.

We also have other subgenres like gothic horror, which a great example is Crimson Peak, directed by Guillermo del Toro. Crimson Peak mixes horror elements of ghosts in the Victorian era. Or even movies that can be considered meta and genre-breaking like Drew Goddard’s Cabin in the Woods, which takes all the tropes we love from horror movies and uses them to make an unforgettable twist.

In a way, horror is a much more popular as a film genre than a book genre, mostly because it’s easier to create the atmosphere of terror with the use of images, or even use the jumpscare, the technique that movies use to make you jump out of the seat where a monster suddenly appears in a scene. In that sense, books are harder to do — which is why everyone takes their hats off for Stephen King, who manages to create a creepy and strange atmosphere in his writing that perfectly translate the elements of horror we love.

In the next post, we’re going to wrap the rest of the genres and end the “Knowing Your Genre” blog series. I hope you’ve enjoyed so far — and if you like being scared, I recommend watching all of the movies I mentioned. They’re some of my favorites, and are excellent in quality.

What’s your favorite horror movie? And do you have any horror books recommendations?

 

Knowing Your Genre, Part 3: Magical Realism

Magical Realism is one of the hardest genres to define in fiction. It’s both speculative and literary, and it involves elements that no one can quite pinpoint. When asked about magical realism, agents and editors will give an answer that resembles something along the lines of “it’s a book where something magical becomes ordinary”.

The problem with that description is that it can also describe some fantasy worlds. For example, in the world of “Marked” by Kristin Cast and PC Cast, vampires are normal. Everyone in the world knows about the existence of vampires. Vampires are something ordinary and they are known by other humans. However, the book is not magical realism.

There’s a recurring problem going on when we talk about magical realism. Some talk about literary magic, some others talk about a book where everything is normal but there are a few occurrences that are strange but you can’t quite put your finger into what they are. And then there’s the thing about MR — everyone wants a book that is magical realism, but very few people can actually write it.

I’ll start this explanation with a bit of history on the Magical Realism genre. Cam from Just a Book Eater blog explains some of it in this thread, but it’s essentially about how Magical Realism was born as a direct response of post colonialism. South and Central America had been colonized for so long that it felt like we didn’t have a history of our own, so we were forced to create it. The history of our countries is a bloody one, full of atrocities, and Magical Realism was created as a response to that.  It was created as a way to deal with our history, and with the colonization and the taking away of an identity.

When we talk about the origins of Magical Realism, it has to do with Latin America. It has to do with writers like Gabriel García Marquez, Isabel Allende, Jorge Luis Borges. They write as a way to deal with a history so bloody that it often reads as fantastical, and the only way that might be dealt with is by dosing it with magic and the use of the fantastic inside the narrative.

Magical Realism, ultimately, it’s not about that aesthetic. It’s not Maggie Stiefvater’s books where horses rise from the sea or trees speak latin. It’s about the roots of family, it’s about dealing with the history past and what was lost, and it’s a lot more about finding the meaning of history than it is about the elements of the fantastic. Take Gabriel García Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, for example. We have several instances where strange things occur, and there’s one particular instance where he narrates, through strange elements, the vanishing of a whole group of people, women and children included. When we go back to look at it, it’s actually about a massacre that killed thousands of people, but it’s described in a such a way that it’s almost too fantastic to believe. Because often our history is so terrible that it is easier to deal with it to treat it as something out of a fantasy book.

García Marquez has some particular good lines on why Magical Realism is such an important genre, and why it singles out as a particular South American reality, from his Nobel prize winner speech.

And if these difficulties, whose essence we share, hinder us, it is understandable that the rational talents on this side of the world, exalted in the contemplation of their own cultures, should have found themselves without valid means to interpret us. It is only natural that they insist on measuring us with the yardstick that they use for themselves, forgetting that the ravages of life are not the same for all, and that the quest of our own identity is just as arduous and bloody for us as it was for them. The interpretation of our reality through patterns not our own, serves only to make us ever more unknown, ever less free, ever more solitary.

Magical Realism in South America is the story of generations. It’s the story of families and what was taken from them, it’s the story of the struggle in a world where there is no history. It’s finding your feet after South America is no longer a colony, and finding what it means to be born here.

For those still confused, Magical Realism doesn’t rely on the use of any tropes or characteristics used on other genres that deal with the fantastical. You don’t encounter vampires or paranormal creatures usually, but you may encounter a ghost or two — in this case, the ghost is always portrayed as a person, and not a haunting. This means the ghost, instead of possessing supernatural powers, is still there like a person, except is now in ghost form. The ghosts that appear have often more to do with the element of family that is really strong in MR novels rather than the whole existence of the paranormal. For MR, we never really know if the ghost does exist or if it’s just a figment of the imagination of one of the characters.

Magical Realism follows a specific structure when it comes to worldbuilding: they are all magic things, little miracles that happen on the every day life. A girl born with wings. Someone so beautiful they are followed by butterflies. These things are part of the world MR takes place, but they don’t take precedent over the story being told. MR is focused more on the daily life and the life of a generation of families rather than these magical things that punctuate the narrative. Meaning: character and plot are more essential and important than anything else in the novel.

Unlike fantasy, Magical Realism follows no rule of thumb in regards to what is magic. In fantasy, you usually have a strict set of rules, and cohesion inside the narrative. The world follows these rules. MR doesn’t have any rule or guideline by which magic things happen — they simply happen, but they also don’t affect the overall plot. For example, the solution to a problem in the plot is never in the use of magic. Magic may appear in points of the story, but it never affects the main plot as a whole, or changes the course of the story by being there. In MR, the fantastic elements work a lot more like a setting than part of the plot or the characters themselves, fluctuating between existence and non-existence, but going no further than the first layer of the story.

There are several discussions in the literary world whether or not to classify other things as Magical Realism rather than just the South American/Latinx authors. Personally, I don’t believe Magical Realism is an exclusive label, but it shouldn’t be used without knowing its origins. At the same time, we have some African Magical Realism (also born out of the post-colonial reality), and some Russian literature which can be labeled as MR as well (born from the roots of totalitarianism). They are both interesting genres that fall into this spectre, because they also deal with a reality that is violent, and that only people who have experienced it can understand.

However, Magical Realism has also evolved as to encompass a wider, bigger definition — as to anything that focuses solely on character’s journey and the real world, but where occasionally strange and whimsical things happen, but they’re seen by the characters as normal or just inside their reality. Although this is a more unconventional definition, it can also work. But remember — Magical Realism is not just another genre to write or fall into. It has an important history, unlike other genres in fiction, which is rooted in oppression and another reality.

If you’re a non-Latinx or non-African writer writing Magical Realism, you should always consider the reality of the genre and how it was born, and how it’s different for many people. There are other Latinxs who don’t like seeing the label used for other work other than Latinxs, and it’s strange to think that some people don’t know that the concept of Magical Realism was invented in South America. Another label you might want to use instead is ‘fabulism’, which works very much like Magical Realism but doesn’t share the same roots in genre.

Magical Realism is hard to define, by itself, and a lot of people are confused by the concept. It’s something that even experts struggle with classifying. If you want some further reading, this article by Bruce Holland Rogers also works as introducing many concepts of this genre.

Meanwhile, I’ll leave you to some examples of good Magical Realism fiction.

Good examples of Latinx Magical Realism: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Marquez, The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende, Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel.

Non-Latinx Magical Realism: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht.

In YA:  When the Moon was Ours by Anne-Marie McLemore (Latinx), Bone Gap by Laura Ruby, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton, The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Dalton.

Knowing Your Genre, Part 2: Science Fiction

Hi everyone, and welcome to the second blog post on the series on Genres I’m doing. Last week I talked about fantasy subgenres, and this week my sole focus is science fiction.

For those who are still kinda confused, there’s a difference between Fantasy and Science-Fiction. People often lump them together, as if it’s one big genre, but in reality, they’re separated mainly by one thing: in one hand we have magic, and on the other, we have science.

Those are the simplest, most basic terms to define what falls under which category. Under fantasy, the world is shaped by magic and its properties, and any event can be explained that way. In sci-fi, the way to head towards an explanation is science. Sure, science in sci-fi isn’t the most accurate thing, but it’s the way we humans dream how science could be.

Of course, there’s a lot more complexity than that. Science fiction doesn’t only englobe maths and chemistry and physics, but also often sociology or history, especially when exploring human nature as a theme. Science fiction doesn’t rely on magic — it relies on understanding humans, and understanding the world around them. Which is often why things like “alternative history” or “dystopia” are also considered in the big wide genre of science-fiction. Much like fantasy, sci-fi has one of the widest range of subgenres, and it doesn’t disappoint.

And with no further ado, let’s discuss some of the genres of sci fi and some of its main subgenres.

Alien Invasion

Alien invasion is as simple as it sounds. It’s about aliens invading the Earth. Ta-da! Usually, the focus of the alien invasion are the aliens themselves: how they came to Earth, what they want here, how humans are battling them. The battle itself can take many forms, but the story’s plot focuses mostly on the invasion arc (and how humans stop it).

Good examples of Alien Invasion: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey, Independence Day, Pacific Rim, The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells.

Alternate History

Alternate History is a genre where the storyteller imagines a different future for a specific event in the world: a single choice or a single event changed, and the whole world changes around us. It may not focus so much on science as in maths and physics, and more on the social sciences — how the world would be restructured, how humans would react to a change of events, and so on. The most common example of this is “What would happen if Germany had won WWII?”

Good examples of Alternate History: The Man in the High Castle, by Phillip K Dick, Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin.

Apocalyptic

Sounds simple, right? Apocalyptic science fiction has often to do with the end of the world, or the apocalypse as we know it. Usually, it’s grounded in reality — meaning natural disasters, nuclear war, epidemics and plagues are turning the world into ash. The phenomenon of the apocalypse itself can be explained scientifically, and it is something that could happen on the real world.

Good examples of Apocalyptic Sci-Fi: 2012, The Day After Tomorrow, I Am Legend, World War Z by Max Brooks.

Cyberpunk

Cyberpunk is a subgenre of sci-fi that is often set in the future. Its main focus is the technology around it and how society has evolved to the point where we’re driving around in flying cars, having robot arms, and everything is pretty much connected in technology. A lot of the main characters are cyborgs, and the focus of this is to bring attention on how much humans rely on inventions.

Good examples of Cyberpunk: Neuromancer by William Gibbson, Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, Matrix.

Dystopia

With the explosion of Dystopia some years ago, I doubt I really need to explain what it is. A dystopia starts with the principle of a perfect world — and then it suddenly presents its ugliness. It’s the future of humanity, but gone extremely wrong. Dystopias often present a bleak future, with disregard for human life, authoritative governments, human experiments and the like. There are many ways it could go, but it’s all about the setting, ultimately: in the future, something goes wrong for humanity, and we’re forced to fight our way out of this terrible destiny.

Good examples of dystopia: 1984 by George Orwell, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Brave New World by Adolf Huxley, Divergent by Veronica Roth.

Hard Sci-Fi

Hard Sci-Fi is the equivalent of “High Fantasy” but for science-fiction. It’s all about how the world is created and what elements are used in the worldbuilding. Usually, it’s super high-tech — with complex spaceships and sky cities, with robots and everything technology can bring. The science is also deeply embedded in the worldbuilding itself. It’s never grazed over. We can delve deep into the possibilities that scientific discoveries will bring, and just let ourselves be taken by a bright future full of hardware and robot arms.

Good examples of Hard Sci-Fi: The Martian by Andy Weirr (a personal favorite), 2001 by Arthur C Clarke, Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff.

Military

Military Sci-Fi is the novel that mostly deals with war and military institutions. It’s a very specific subset of the sci-fi genre, but one of the most popular ones. As humans, war is an ever present subject, and military sci-fi deals with that — often in the form of humans vs aliens, or humans vs robots. The main character is most often a lowly soldier who gets recruited to the front to see the horrors of battle.

Great examples of Military Sci-Fi: The Old Man’s War by John Scalzi, Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein, Edge of Tomorrow, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.

Multiverse

Multiverse is exactly what it suggests — sci-fi set in several worlds, which expand the idea that the world we live in is but one reflection of the enormous, giant universe. In multiverse, the MC usually hops between all the universes, exploring alternative realities and worlds that are similar to our own, but not quite. Universe hopping is very common in this type of fiction, as well as portals.

Great examples of Multiverse: One Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray, Every Heart a Doorway by Seannan McGuire, Tandem by Anna Jarzab, Dark Matter by Blake Crouch.

Post-Apocalyptic

Post-Apocalyptic is neither dystopia nor apocalyptic. In apocalyptic science fiction, we see the world ending, and we experience it. Post-apocalyptic is what happens after the world ends. There are many great takes on this, and they usually focus on how humanity learns to survive after the world as they know come to an end. The main story is never why the world ended, but mostly how it began again, and the aftermath of dealing with the loss of everything we know.

Great examples of Post-Apocalyptic fiction: Blood Red Road by Moira Young, Angelfall by Susan Ee, The Maze Runner by James Dashner, Snowpiercer.

Space Opera

Space Opera is best known as the widely popular Star Wars. Star Wars, we can agree on, is not even vaguely scientific. Still, it’s set in space, it’s got spaceships, it’s got robots. But it’s also full of adventure and the actual science of these things is swept aside to make way for a big plot of some magic, heroic narratives and thrilling quests. It’s, at the lack of a better description, fantasy set in space.

Great examples of Space Opera: Dune by Frank Herbert, 27 Hours by Tristina Wright, Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, Zodiac by Romina Russell.

Soft Sci-fi

Soft science-fiction is the sci-fi version of ‘low fantasy’. The science appears and it’s there on the setting, but it doesn’t have pages and pages of explanation on how robots are made and how the mechanics of spaceship works. It’s a lot more to do with the human nature exploring, aided by science. Or it can also take the form of other sciences, and offer a more sociological take on a book. Most dystopias can be classified as soft science fiction as well, because although they’re set on the future, they also offer a sociological take on the plot.

Great examples of soft sci-fi: Star Trek movies, The Giver by Lois Lowry, The Handmaiden’s Tale, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Steampunk

Steampunk is the subgenre of sci-fi that brings the science to the Victorian Era. We have hot air balloons, we have trains, but we also have robots arms and advanced machinery fueled by charcoal. It’s the industrial revolution, to the standpoint where no machines are beyond reach, and they’re all fitting in that Victorian aesthetic. Automatons, zeppelins, goggles, inventions and big guns. Steampunk is all this, and I recommend you this post on it.

Great examples of Steampunk: A League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Leviathan by Scott Westerfield, Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard.

Time Travel

Time traveling is another subgenre that defines itself. We all know what time travel is. There are no rules for time travel fiction — but for sci-fi, it usually means a time machine. Time travel can also be used as a subplot for other stories like romance (The Time Traveler’s Wife) or thrillers (The Butterfly Effect). The original sci-fi time travel stories are usually used as a plot device to go to the future of humanity to discover what’s become of us, or if we have a terrible future, go back to the past and try to fix it or learn where we went wrong. Both of these are great examples of how the genre can be done, and it can be subverted in any manner of ways.

Great examples of Time Travel: 12 Monkeys, Looper, The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov.

 

As you can see, science fiction is a huge genre, much like fantasy. It can mash up with anything (Westerns and sci-fi, anyone? We’ve got Westworld and Cowboys VS Aliens), or do a twist on all kinds of different narratives. Sciece fiction can be classified as one or many subgenres, and take as many forms as human technology and imagination allows us.

Next week or so, I’m going to talk a little more on a very weird, very unique, and very complicated genre: Magical realism.

Once again, I hope this post helped!

Knowing Your Genre, Part One: Fantasy

Hello everyone! With PitchWars almost in the corner and everyone getting ready for submission, it’s time we all have everything set — there’s always time for last minute revisions and changing your queries, but don’t stress it out.

After posting my wishlist, there was a particular question that I got asked a couple of times: What is the difference between Urban Fantasy and Contemporary Fantasy?

This, of course, led to a big thread on twitter which you can read here. But most of all, it also led people to questioning which genres they write in, and how to classify their story. Speculative fiction, especially science fiction and fantasy, has LOTS of subgenres, and all of them can get confused and mixed up.

In this series of posts, I’ll be discussing what goes where. Part one is Fantasy. Part two is Science Fiction. Part three is Magical Realism and writing literary magic. Part four is Horror. And then in Part Five I’ll wrap up with a post on the “easier” genres to identify, that is — Literary, Romance, Western, Contemporary Fiction. The last ones aren’t exactly my specialty, which is why I’m going to be a little briefer about them.

Remember: genres are a different thing than age category. Adult, Middle Grade, and Young Adult have ALL of these genres. age category determines your audience. Your genre determines what type of story you’re writing for that audience.

Another thing to remember before I really start digging deeper into subgenres for this post. There’s a difference between what we call Genre Fiction and Literary. On genre fiction, we have a plot-driven story most of the time. Literary focuses more on a character, or character journey. Of course, good writers can make those lines blur, and have both a character and plot driven story. But as far as it goes, this is the basic difference between them both.

And now that all those things are out of the way, let’s dig in, shall we?

Fantasy is a big wide genre. If we are to define it in its most basic form, it’s anything/everything to do with magic. Be it another world, be it strange otherworldly creatures, be it monsters, or be it literal magic made by wizards and spells. One of the things I like the most about fantasy is how different they can be from each other — we get Harry Potter, we get Lord of the Rings, we get The Golden Compass. It comes in every shape and size, and for such a big audience that when people say they don’t like fantasy, I just think they haven’t found the right type of fantasy for them.

And because it’s so big and wide, it can be confusing for a writer to define what exactly they’re writing. So this post is to help classify your work, and what exactly makes up which thing.

Disclaimer: I’m no expert in this! I mean, I do have a degree in Literature, read Todorov’s Theory of the Fantastic, etc. But my biggest experience comes from being a fantasy writer, as well as being a BIG reader of fantasy.

So, as I said, fantasy is a wide wide world and encompasses a lot of subgenres. I’m only going to talk about the more common ones, but there’s this gigantic list here you can consult if you’re interested.

And now let’s dig into it.

Contemporary Fantasy

Contemporary Fantasy might be one of the hardest things to define (as well as the easiest). A lot of people confuse it with Urban Fantasy, or Paranormal or Low Fantasy, but contemporary fantasy is its own thing.

Mostly, it’s defined by the magic in the life of a character. Harry Potter is one of the biggest examples of this — the setting itself isn’t important. What is important is Harry, his life, his choices. Magic is a thing that changes him, marvels him, but it is not what shapes the story. Harry and his choices (magical or not) shape the story.

Fantasy elements are woven inside the setting, but it never becomes the main part of the story. If you’ve confused Contemporary Fantasy and Urban Fantasy, last week I did a thread on twitter which prompted this post.

Good examples of Contemporary Fantasy: Harry Potter, The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, House of Ivy and Sorrow by Natalie Whipple, The Archived by VE Schwab.

Dark Fantasy

Dark Fantasy is complicated, because it can be the subgenre of a subgenre. Dark fantasy is woven into the elements of a story, especially atmosphere. It creates a dark, scary, terrible world to live in. It often involves violence and murder and brutality, and doesn’t shy away from the darker topics.

It’s often about a twisted main character, antiheroes, and even more terrible villains. Some people also define it more as contains a certain type of element: old, ancient gods, rituals, cults, dark powers, Chuthlu, etc. You can write a high fantasy which is really dark as well, for example, so it’s not a necessarily defining genre.

Good Examples of Dark Fantasy: The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman, Monstress by Marjorie Liu, Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence.

Epic Fantasy

Epic Fantasy is about the journey. It can be a sub-subgenre of High Fantasy (see below) that works in big numbers. It has battlefronts and swords, and everything is big. The story is pretty much neverending, and involves about ten different main characters, and everything is sweeping and big. Epic fantasy is about things and battles that have come before your story, and also about what comes to pass. Yes, it can be confused with High Fantasy a lot — especially because many epic fantasies are also high fantasies.

What defines epic is well, the epicness! It’s also about world stakes: if your characters don’t accomplish their mission in time, the whole world will end. I’d say those are pretty epic stakes.

Good Examples of Epic Fantasy: Wizard’s First Rule by terry Goodkind, Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan, Lord of the Rings, Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb.

Gaslamp Fantasy

Gaslamp Fantasy is one of the least talked about genres, mostly because it’s weird-ish. It’s the fantasy equivalent of Steampunk. While in Steampunk you have things rooted on science, on Gaslamp you have things rooted on magic! It’s really that simple.

Gaslamp, like its sci-fi counterpart, is mainly built around the Victorian era, which gives it a sort of Gothic vibe. It’s an alternative world for Victorian books, where they can be full of magic, as well as have grand balls and the such. It’s usually set in England, and can alternate between the 1800 (whichever year).

Good examples of Gaslamp fantasy: A Shadow Bright and Burning by Jessica Cluess, The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas, Gemma Doyle by Libba Bray, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clark.

High Fantasy

High Fantasy might be one of my favorite subgenres. It’s about otherworld settings, new species, new rules, new magic. There’s no limit to the imagination. You can explore characters with new powers, fantastic beings, dragons, magic, new gods, anything you like.

When we talk about High Fantasy, we talk about fantasy often set in another world that contains more than just humans, and has often swords, dragons and battles. High Fantasy is not necessarily Second-world fantasy (fantasy set in a world other than our own) but it’s often used as an equivalent because that’s the most common type of high fantasy out there. High Fantasy, mostly, is defined by a complex world with magic at its core and that is intrinsic to the story.

Good examples of High Fantasy: Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas, Snow like Ashes by Sara Raasch, The Star Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi, Graceling by Kristin Cashore.

Historical Fantasy

Historical Fantasy is a really simple concept to explain: it’s set in the past, but it has fantasy elements. (And yes, Gaslamp fantasy is a subgenre of historical, only it has a specific time period.) Historical fantasy can go from Ancient Greek History to the Golden Age of Piracy to World War One. It has no limits, since the past is a long period of time, and anyone can play with it.

Historical Fantasy can have both known characters to our world, or it can be completely made up, mentioning only events. Some time-travel fantasy is considered historical because people travel to the past. Historical fantasy is one of the most beloved subgenres of fantasy, since it can include absolutely any time period, and all types of different magic and creatures.

Great examples of Historical Fantasy: The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig, Dread Nation by Justina Ireland, Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers, Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, The Diviners by Libba Bray, My Lady Jane by Brodi Ashton-Cynthia Hand-Jodi Meadows, The Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller.

Low Fantasy

Low Fantasy are books in which the fantasy elements appear, but they do very little for the story. Sometimes it can also be a fantasy set in a different world, but with a place that has no magic at all! Sounds strage, right? But it happens. Fantasy can also happen without magic, because it’s the atmosphere that shapes it.

And when magic appears in the story, it isn’t a big part of it, or doesn’t alter too much of the story. It’s usually not essential, but it’s just kinda there.

Good examples of Low Fantasy: Daughters of Ruin by KD Castner, Game of Thrones (The first book) by George RR Martin, Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.

Magical Realism

Magical Realism can be considered fantasy because of its fantastic elements, but it’s actually its very own thing. I’m going to delve deeper into it on Part Three of this series of posts, so you can check back here for links.

For the most basic definition of Magical Realism, it’s our everyday world where magic is at its core, and it’s not unexpected. The characters live with magic everyday, and whimsical happenings are seen as normal.

Mythical Fantasy

Mythical fantasy is, once again, more subgenre of a subgenre than a whole thing. It’s usually composed of fantasy books that deal with myths and old folklore — origin of worlds, gods, and other origin myths known to ancient religions.

You can find Mythical Fantasy especially related to Greek and Roman mythology, the most common ones to research. Of course, Mythical fantasy can take root in any other mythology in the world — Orisha myths, Chinese myths, Nordic mythology. Or some can mix up a little of everything, like American Gods by Neil Gaiman. The root of it all is that it deals with the relationship between humans and the gods they believe in, and in fantasy, it often can relate to demigods and otherworldly powers.

Good Examples of Mythic Fantasy: Runemarks by Joanna Harris, American Gods by Neil Gaiman, Rick Riordan’s MG series like Percy Jackson, Kane Chronicles and Gods of Asgard, Deathless by Catherynne M Valente, The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter.

Paranormal

Paranormal is one of those genres that usually are confused with others (Contemporary Fantasy or Urban Fantasy), however, it becomes it’s own thing. When we talk about paranormal, as a genre, it means a paranormal romance.

A paranormal romance is defined by very simple standards: the main character, often a human, falls in love with a paranormal creature. This can be a vampire, a werewolf, a ghost, a warlock, a demigod, an angel, and almost every book we saw in the early 2010’s YA books. The most prominent element of this genre is the romance, and the stakes and story all evolve around the struggles of the main couple to get together/sort their differences. Paranormal forces are defined as things that don’t belong to this world in regards to creatures and phenomenons that are caused by such creatures. It differs from other fantasies because it is always set in our world.

We do have books that can be defined as “paranormal” only within the genre that don’t focus on romance, but then it becomes such a thin line that it’s rarely distinguished from Urban Fantasy at all. Stranger Things, the TV Show, could be defined as paranormal fiction, for example, and it does not have a romance in the center.

The background of the story can be anything at all — ranging from big city to country to anything at all, as long as the romance with a paranormal creature takes center stage.

Good examples of Paranormal Fantasy: Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick, Obsidian by Jennifer L Armentrout, Beautiful Creatures by Margaret Stohl & Kami Garcia.

Portal Fantasy

Portal Fantasy is a specific type of fantasy where characters from our world travel through a portal to another world/dimension. This can happen only once in the story, or several times. The portals don’t necessarily have to be explained — they can be a door, a magical portal, or an object that transports them.

As long as it travels between worlds, and this is explained with magic, it’s Portal Fantasy. You can confuse it with multiverse sci-fi, but in sci-fi, there’s a scientific explanation for the traveling. In fantasy, a magic door opens up and lets you walk inside a completely new world.

Good examples of Portal Fantasy: The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis, The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab, Inkheart by Cornelia Funke.

Urban Fantasy

Urban Fantasy is the subgenre that got us into this in the first place. Urban Fantasy is a tricky thing to define — it looks like contemporary fantasy, it looks like it’s paranormal, but it’s often its own thing.

For Urban Fantasy, one of the key elements is the setting. In UF, we get the city itself as a setting, and not just any city — the urbanization, the buildings, the underground tunnels, the technology of nowadays and everything in between. In UF, the city is much more than just a simple setting, it’s a character. It’s something that influences the narrative and the character’s choices and especially the tone and atmosphere of the novel.

UF is often dark, gloomy, with this hazy darkness that revolves around it. It involves underground organizations, motorcycles, and a plane of magic that is hidden within the world we know. Often, the main character is a very regular person who discovers this world beneath, and is thus inserted into the magic (while not actively being part of it).

Good examples of Urban Fantasy: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, Moon Called by Patricia Briggs, Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr, Shadowshaper by Daniel J Older, Strange Angels by Lilli St. Crow.

Wuxia

Wuxia is a very specific subgenre of high fantasy where all the main characters practice martial arts, or have ties to this. Its nomination comes from the wuxia genre of movies, especially popular in China, which ties martial arts and ancient magic together.

Personally, it’s also one of my favorites, especially when done by Asian authors. The martial arts in the book are usually taken to a step beyond human capability, almost tying it with magic and supernatural powers. These stories are often set in a Fantastical Imperial China, and feature warriors that bring strong philosophical ideals and codes of honor. I highly recommend watching Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or The House of the Flying Daggers if you want to see the visuals for it. Seriously, if you haven’t seen either of these movies, WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR LIFE?

Great examples of Wuxia Fantasy: The Seven Swords of Mount Haven by Liang Yusheng, the Crane-Iron series by Wang Dulu, Journey to the West by Cheng’en Wu.

 

I know there are still a lot of genres missing.

So, what’s the importance of you, as a writer, labeling your book correctly? When you label your book with the right genre, agents can easily place you in a shelf, as well as editors. Readers who are already fans of the genre will want to pick up your book, as well as it makes it easier for marketing.

Knowing your genre is a key importance of writing a query letter and understanding what exactly you’re writing. So when you deem your book an “urban fantasy”, all readers know exactly what to expect. And if you get your genre wrong… then some readers may not pick up the book at all.

Genre is about creating expectations, and sticking to them. You can bend and change things all you want, and try for crossovers, but at the end of the day, genre is a key element to understanding your own work — and understanding how others will view it.

Next week, I’ll talk about Science Fiction and its subgenres, so stay tuned!

 

Pitch Wars Mentor Wishlist

Did I ever think I would be writing this title? No. Is it very cool that I’m writing it? Hella yes!

I’m so excited to be a mentor for Pitch Wars 2017. If you look down my blog, you can probably see my mentee bio for Pitch Wars 2016 and 2015. I entered but didn’t get in. Which is OK! I also have an agent now, so if you don’t get into Pitch Wars this year, it’s totally fine. You will not be lost in a sea of despair because of one contest.

So let’s get to this bio.

My name is Laura Pohl, I’m a YA SFF writer represented by Sarah LaPolla of Bradford Literary. I’m a Brazilian Latina and very into Star Wars and Hamilton. I love writing stuff in caps lock, and occasionally dye my hair some weird color. I’m totally obsessed with pinterest and have a board for each of my ideas (which hopefully will all be written eventually). I also do freelance editing for a living, so I have some hands-on experience with editing manuscripts and getting them to shine.

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I lived in Brazil for most of my life, but moved in 2007 to Australia, where I first learned to speak English! It was a pretty cool time, and I miss it very much. I love Australia, and though I never got to go back, I still miss great places in Sydney like Thai Riffic or Glorian Jean’s cafe. I’m now living in São Paulo and just graduated from the University of São Paulo, where I studied Literature. I also traveled to some awesome places in Europe and this year I went to Egypt.

I love traveling and reading, and I watch a bunch of TV shows. And I mean a bunch because I have no criteria — this means I watch Supernatural, My Little Pony, and everything in-between. I love good story and good characters, so no matter the format, I’m in for the story.

Fun facts about me: I cry every time someone sends me a puppy picture. REALLY. I break into songs every so often. I went to see Wonder Woman three times and I always ended up tear-eyed. I love make up and collect an absurd amount of funko pop figurines. And if you hate the GOT writing for the TV Show, then you’ll probably find the best dissing-partner you’ll ever meet! GOT, YOU SHALL NOT PASS.

I’m mentoring YOUNG ADULT this year, and I will only accept submissions in this category. Please keep that in mind!

 

What I’m looking for

I want to receive entries by POC/LGBT writers. As a bi Latina, I can totally comprehend the woes of the publishing industry and how often it can be frustrating that no one can “connect” to your story. But not to worry. I want to connect to your story! I want to read it! I want to polish it! I want to slap your book into agents’ faces and say SELL THIS!!!!

A-hem. Anyway, so yeah, I’ll be especially looking out for subs by POC. It does not have to be necessarily #ownvoices. You can write a Caribbean retelling of Sherlock Holmes and be an Asian-American, or be a Latina writing about the gold rush in USA. As long as your story is awesome and you’re POC/LGBT/Native, I want your submission.

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That said, let’s get to the genres I’ll be looking for. I’m mentoring YA, and in the categories, that’s what I want to see in my inbox:

Science Fiction and subgenres. I love all things sci-fi, and am looking forward to receiving plenty. If you’ve got something like Alien, Annihilation, Asimov, Westworld or Independence Day, pleeeeeease, pleeeeeease send it to me. I’ll love you forever. Dystopia and post-apocalyptic are also OK for me!
Fantasy. Fantasy of epic proportions! Plenty of characters! Magic! Ensemble cast! Blood! Killing! Prophecies! Send me whatever you want. I’ll want especially if it’s set in a non-Western world (or just non-European, tbh. If you’ve got Caribbean or Venezuelan or Brazilian fantasy, I’m in. Native fantasy too, that would be a change).
Contemporary Fantasy: Set in the real world with magic. Kind of like Raven Boys. Extra points if you’ve got a funny main character.
Magical Realism: This is particularly harder for me. I’m not into the whole European/ American setting in magical realism. Now if you’ve got some South American spunk with close-knit families and crazy people, I’m in for it.
Horror. This is trickier for me — I love some Horror aspects of stories of ghosts, demons and witches. I also have a healthy love for slasher films, so if you’ve got anything like Scream with a diverse cast, I want it! I’m not a particular fan of any other subgenres like zombies, monsters or anything that is more action/battles than suspense. I love wanting to read more and still being dead scared of it.
Westerns: Trains, shooting people, saloons, gold diggers, please submit to me! I’d love to find a Western by a Native voice to get a different, non-tired perspective. (And non-racist too, might I add).
Historical Fantasy: Here’s where you show me your mermaids and pirates, your feudal Japan, your Ancient China, your Native from Native POV. No England or France, but I’m open to all the rest. I especially love Russia, so Imperial Russia is a cool thing too. Or India, or Iran. You know.
Thriller: I love sci-fi and fantasy more, so this would be a long shot. However, I love thrillers that are about spies, or about heists, or anything like Gone Girl. Obsessive female friendships and really dark cults. If you’ve got a female character murdering people all over town, I really want it. Really. Give me your crazy psycopathic female characters and I will cherish them forever.

 

I’m super open to dark, gory stuff. I really enjoy reading books with dark themes or where the characters make questionable choices. I love everything along the speculative genre, so if you think it falls into that, send it over!

This is also a list of random things I love — and if your story has any of it, I’d love to see it!

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List of tropes I love:

Bunch of misfits come together to accomplish something
Found Family
Enemies to Lovers
Friends to Lovers
Lovers to Enemies
Love Saves Everything
ANTIHEROS!!!!!

 

What I’m NOT looking for

If your story has a veeeery strong romantic element, it’s not for me. It’s very hard for me to get into romance (Unless it has some villainous aspects like the Darkling and Alina, or Koschei and Maryia from Deathless), so I would not be the best choice for any romantic story. Romance is just usually really meeeeeh for me, and if your story is just romance, I’m not a good fit. If you’ve got romances with the love interest being the villain, then by all means, send it over!
I don’t really like zombies or steampunk. I feel meeeh about them both. Or Fae/Fairies/elves. Unless your faeries are of the flesh-eating kind, I’m not really interested in them. (So no, no romantic ACOTAR-like stuff).
NO BAD BOYS SHALL PASS. Bad boys are so boring. If there’s romance, give me soft/sweet boys.
Urban Fantasy is not usually my thing. Sure, you can try, but there’s very few that I actually like.
I’m not so great at people leading revolution or rebellions or whatever. Unless you’ve got a new take on this, or subvert the general trope, I’m not the mentor for it.
I’m not particularly good in line editing. I try my best, but it’s just not my thing.
Not good for male main characters. Honestly, I think they’re boring and overdone. I’m all for female MCs. (Female trans MCs are indeed included in this post, and if you have a fantasy or sci-fi with a Trans girl, PLEEEEEEEEEEEASE send it to me. I’m begging you).

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What I’m good at

Hey, this just sounds like bragging now.

I’m particularly fond of character development, so I’ll make your characters shine! I’m also obsessed with worldbuilding, so if you’re thinking your world is lacking that, I’ve got it. I’m really good at editing dialogue too and making it feel real.  Basically, I will edit your manuscript a lot and fix all your little plot holes too.

[image error]Never fear, we’ll not be lost in the plot-less mines of Moria in some aimless sidequest.

 

How I work:

I’ll hand in a big edit letter for you, with overall manuscript comments. It’ll be pretty much like your CPs, so no need to get scared. I promise to make cute remarks on the edges, like “OMG I CAN’T BELIEVE SHE DID THAT” and all. I have a pretty fast turn-around, which means I can probably hand in the letter within a two-week period.

Then you get all the time to edit while we work on your query letter, synopsis and pitch. By the end, we can still see if there’s time to do another round of revisions on your MS to make sure it’s shining when the agent round comes.

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Just kidding. As a mentee, you’ll have to be really open to some changes, but I’m usually not a radical.

Why you should submit to me

Because I’m super cool????

I work really well with people and will probably talk over other books and tv series and movies. I can talk about a bunch of stuff and I’m always very quick to answer any message you send. I’m super excited to work with YOU.

Yes, you specifically.

Turn around, I’m watching you.

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I’m not generally including favorite books or anything, but you can check out my Goodreads account which is very up to date and includes all my favorite reads. I always talk about movies I like and watched on the blog, and you can always come talk to me in Twitter if you’re in doub whether or not you would submit to me.

I’m very commited to the We Need Diverse Books project so this is why my main focus is to get more POC writers in the industry. We need these books for ourselves and for all the other kids who are underrepresented.

Unfortunately, I’m not promising personal feedback to everyone who submits to me. Alas, I wish I could — but I might not have the time. While in PW I’m also organizing my own contest, PitchAmérica, which focuses on spreading more Latinx love in the publishing industry.

There is a word you’re also looking for: the word is BECOME [red].

 

Check out all the other YA and NA mentors below!

Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets — Thumb-Linky widget will appear right here!

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Your Experience is Not Universal: and that’s okay

There’s been a constant discussion on twitter about writing and who gets to write what. As for contemporary, there’s always been that unspoken rule about #ownvoices — someone writing from their own experience will have better knowledge of the subject, and thus will know what they are talking about, and it’ll be written with better grasp and better research.

But ultimately, the call for #ownvoices books has generated into a problem, and is being used as a weapon against marginalized creators, to supress them in a role that’s “not enough”. I think Justina Ireland’s essay here responds to it in a perfect tone.

It’s ridiculous that a movement originally designed to promote POC, disabled and LGBT writers has now turned into tone policing and being bashed just because the experience doesn’t match the readers own.

Here’s a new piece of information for you: no experience will match your own. NO EXPERIENCE WILL MATCH YOUR OWN.

And you know what? That’s perfectly okay. I’ve rarely read a book where I identified with the character 100% — white Latinx, bi, with depression — and that hasn’t me stopped reading books or even enjoying them, or – gasp – identifying with the character. It’s one thing when the writing is hurtful, but in most cases, it’s reviews bashing a book because an experience is “unrealistic”. Which is just silly.

There’s a difference on an experience being different than your own, and problematic writing. Problematic writing is often spurred by lack of research or use of sensitivity readers – thus making it a craft issue — and a different experience is just a different experience, and doesn’t hurt anyone. For example, I could write about my own experience in discovering being bi, but someone else writing about a bi character who discovers it differently will not lessen my own experience. It won’t be “unreal”. Julie Murphy’s book, Ramona Blue, was bashed even before it became available, simply because the main character discovered she was bi but thought she previously only liked girls. And guess what? It happens. It’s a valid experience. And it isn’t “hurtful” or erasing lesbians to talk about something like that.

The criticism of things may also become a question of “purity”, and that takes us nowhere good. For example, I’ve seen many Asian-Americans talking about how Julie Dao is the “wrong” kind of Asian to write a story inspired by China, or that because she was born in the USA she does not have a right to write any fantasy set there. It’s tiring, frankly, and many other people have spoken out about this — and where it takes us.

The thing about demanding ownvoices by marginalized writers is that we don’t demand any stories from white, cishet allo writers. They may write about whatever they want, but no one demands they write about “growing up Mormon in Utah” or even “growing up white in NY”, because guess what, their experience is “universal”. For marginalized writers, it’s a considered niche within the publishing industry to write about their own marginalizations, and there’s this constant pressure that your book has to do well or it’ll just prove the point that marginalized writers don’t sell. It’s a double standard, because white writers may tank with series and be given a second chance, but that’s not so for (especially) POC writers.

When you bash a book by a marginalized writer featuring a diverse character, you’re part of the problem. Not because you can’t critique it, but because you expect nothing less than perfect by a POC/LGBT writer. You expect them to be better than all the white writers together, because you give them a second chance, but not the POC writers. You expect them to be something that no one can ever be, to write something unproblematic or universal. You forgive many, many writing mistakes from white writers, but in this quest to become “woke” or unproblematic, you end up bashing people who are the allies.

Guess what happens when many POC writers are bashed? Publishers won’t take the risk anymore. They already believe it’s a risk. And if people are calling it out with in-fighting, they’ll drop everything like it’s hot. And in that case, POC writers.

Look, there is no quest to become the “One Diversity Ally to Rule Them All”. You can’t keep trying to call out EVERYTHING in a book just to be the wokest of them all. There’s no such thing. If you care so much about diversity, you should care about their creators — and in this case, WOC, who have bigger career risks when being called out. You’re hurting careers when you decide to actively bash a book. You’ll notice that in many debates, WOC simply go quiet and say nothing at all, rather than being outspoken and putting their careers at risk.

This is a complicated matter. As much as we’d like for it to be simple, it isn’t. When you call out a problematic book by a white writer, the book will get pushed but overall, their career won’t be at risk. When it’s a WOC and especially Black Women, this is not the same. Which is why reviewers need to be extra mindful when reviewing this books for problematic content.

Any book can have problematic content. None of us are perfect. We should always strive to be better. But on this strange quest on the internet between book reviewers, it always sounds like a strange competition is going on — who gets to call out who, who manages to rise above it and call it first. I’m not even going to delve into when a book gets confused with the author (that instead of pointing problematic books it becomes a deep hatred of the author itself), because that’s another subject entirely.

But those are the two things to keep it with you: your experience will never be universal. We are unique human beings that experience things in different ways, which is why we should not be critical of experiences shown in ownvoices book. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t match your own: but it may help someone else. Someone else will enjoy the book. And that’s okay.

And that when criticizing marginalized authors, be extra careful of the way you do it. Internet trolls and the such are always at the ready to try and burn a WOC’s career to the ground, and it doesn’t help when an ally turns against them. What would not generally affect a white woman definetly affects WOC as a whole, because unfortunately, they don’t get to be individuals or be treated singularly by the publishing industry as a whole.

#PitchWars: Getting Ready

It’s a little more than a month for PitchWars submission window to open. That sounds like a lot of time, or only a little time, depending on where you stand.

Here are some tips of what you should be doing now.

Polish your novel. You have one week or two at most to do any other big edits. There’s no more time to send it to CPs, so now you should be editing the last of things, just making sure it all fits in. Remember: it does not have to be perfect. A perfect novel has no place in PitchWars.  You only need to polish it as long as you think you’re able.
Polish your query. Your query should be as good as your first pages. Make sure it has stakes, make sure we know who the characters are. We need to know motivations and why they need to accomplish their goal, and what happens if they don’t accomplish that goal.
Write a synopsis. Every mentor is going to ask for one. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does have to have a beggining, a middle, and an ending. Tell the ending! We need the spoilers just to make sure the story is making sense. Here’s a tip on how to write one from one of our PitchWars mentors. I cannot emphasize enough how many people in my own year went ‘omg I forgot the synopsis!’ after they’d gotten a request.
Exchange your first chapter and query. A new reader might spot something that an old reader hasn’t. Be it stakes, pacing, or something else, a new pair of eyes never hurts. Plenty of people are looking for that on twitter.
Know your difficulties in a novel. Why are you subbing to PitchWars? Do you want your characters or setting fleshed out? Are you having difficulty with the pacing? Do you think you need a bigger ending, or you are not sure which plot is working? Work out what you want, because mentors are going to ask, and you’ll need to be able to tell them your concerns.
Make a list of all these things! Make sure you have all PitchWars dates. Our wishlists go live on the 18th, so you need to take time to read through all mentor’s posts and make sure you select which one is a good fit for your novel. If you have plenty of time, you’ll get organized and no need to fret over your submission.

 

So just checking again, things you need:

Polished manuscript.
Polished Query;
A synopsis;
An extra polished first chapter that’s attention grabbing!
A list of Pitch Wars dates. You can find it in the calendar on Brenda’s website.

 

Make sure to keep checking twitter because a lot of mentors are giving away first chapter/query critiques (Me included!). This is great because you get expert wisdom from the mentors themselves to your query, and this can go a long way.

If you want to do big edits, there’s still time. Last year I figured out a plot I was missing and did a complete overhaul on only four days. It was insane, yes, but it was also worth it. I deleted about 35k of my story and rewrote many scenes from scratch. So don’t lose hope — there’s still time.

Just make sure you got a list to help you.

 

 

Small Update

Pride Month is here!

I really wish I could do a big blog post on favorite characters, or even writing LGBT characters, or anything like that, but fact is: I’m moving! Yay!

And that’s taking a LOT of my time. I’ve mostly been putting stuff into bags, packing my books, crying over how desorganized it all feels, etc. But the good news is that I have new furniture and will soon be able to set up all my belongings in the best Khloé Kardashian fashion (that is, extra organized and extra labels on EVERYTHING.)

I’m really excited to be staying more in São Paulo, because as you know, I finished college last year. I’ve been doing freelance work here and there (and am open to editing manuscripts!) and it’s so great because I love this city so much. I’m really looking forward to what my mom keeps calling “new stage” in life. I always feel like stages had too much to do with Mario videogames, so that always feels weird.

I hope you guys are having a great month of June, and I hope I can do an actual, proper blog post before the month ends. Any suggestions on themes?