Gabe Cole Novoa's Blog, page 35

Discussion: YA Anthologies

Photo credit: VioletMusic on FlickrSo I'm in the middle of reading my first ever YA anthology ( Slasher Girls and Monster Boys  edited by April Genevieve Tucholke), which I'm really enjoying. It's been a while since I've really sat down with some short stories (the last I read were for class) and more than that it's the first time I can remember that I actually picked up some short stories for pleasure reading. And so far, at least, it's been a great decision.

I've noticed YA anthologies have slowly become more popular as of late, from A Tyranny of Petticoats  to Slasher Girls and probably many others I'm just forgetting about right now. And it makes sense—it allows a bunch of kick-ass authors to collaborate into one book with a bunch of awesome stories. It also makes for easy bite-size reading, because you can read a story in a sitting, which generally doesn't take too long.

In Slasher Girls, the stories so far have been about twenty to thirty pages each, and it's been a good experience seeing the arc of a story laid out and completed quickly (probably would be a good writing exercise too!). All in all, it's been an interesting experience so far, and I think I'll probably want to do it again, so I'll have to keep an eye out for more anthologies. So I'm curious— have any of you read any YA anthologies? And did you like them? 

Twitter-sized bite: 

Do you enjoy YA anthologies? Join the discussion on @Ava_Jae's blog. (Click to tweet)

Fixing the First Page Winner #25!

Photo credit: Ju Muncinelli on FlickrAnother quick Thursday post to announce the winner of the twenty-fifth fixing the first page feature giveaway!

*drumroll*

And the twenty-fifth winner is…


KATHERINE FRAZER!

Yay! Congratulations, Katherine!

Thank you to all you fabulous entrants! If you didn't win, as always, there will be another fixing the first page giveaway in August, so keep an eye out! :)

How to Condense Without Losing Anything Useful

Photo credit: M1keez on FlickrIt's not uncommon for writers to rely on filler words while writing—and especially while first drafting. From filter phrases to adverbs all over the place, drafts that aren't scrutinized to condense the writing are often full of words that unnecessarily clog up the writing.

Good news is while this is totally not something you should worry about while first drafting (seriously), when the time comes to take care of this issue, it's relatively easy to do. Time-consuming and painstaking, yes, but thankfully not too difficult to do.

To make it even easier, however, I've decided to add to my how to make cuts without losing anything useful post with more easy-to-remove words to look out for.

Starts/begins to. This is actually a tip I picked up from my editor, and it's a good one—9/10 times when you preface an action with "starts to" or "begins to" you don't need that phrase. Just by describing the action, the readers assume it's just started unless otherwise stated. 
Immediately/without warning. Like "suddenly" these words are usually unnecessary. I'll refer you to the other post for a longer explanation. 
That. I'm not going to say you never need "that", but oftentimes I find "that" is super overused. In sentences like "She said that I should go," for example, removing the "that" improves the flow and we don't lose anything by cutting it. 
Up/Down. For these two I only mean in very specific cases: sitting up/down, standing up/down, etc. In those cases, the up/down is unnecessary. 
Dialogue + action tag. I see this a lot, and tend to do this a lot when first drafting and just slapping words down, but when you have a dialogue tag and an action tag, you usually only need one—and oftentimes I go with the action tag because it's more visual (although there are exceptions, of course). So, for example: "'Where've you been?' he said, scowling" could be condensed to "'Where've you been?' He scowled." 
-ly adverbs. One of my last condensing steps is to go through and do a search for "ly" to cut down on my adverbs. While I definitely don't recommend removing all of them (adverbs can be useful!), writers in general tend to use them more than necessary, so it can be good to go through and do a quick sweep. 
So those are some words I look out for when condensing my writing— what phrases or words would you add to the list? 
Twitter-sized bite: 

Need to lower your word count but not sure where to start? @Ava_Jae shares six easy condensing tips. (Click to tweet)

Do you tend toward wordiness? @Ava_Jae shares six ways to condense your writing. #edittip (Click to tweet)

Vlog: About My Editing Services

Someone asked, so I'm answering. Today I'm talking about my editing services and why you may want to work with a freelance editor.


RELATED LINKS:

Ava Edits (my freelance editing site)On Editing (playlist)
Would you ever consider working with a freelance editor? Why or why not?

Twitter-sized bite: 

Looking for a freelance editor? @Ava_Jae vlogs abt her editing services & why working with an editor may help. (Click to tweet)

How to Get Your Characters to Connect

Photo credit: GraceOda on FlickrSo I've been doing a lot of editing lately, while also first drafting and reading, which means I've been thinking a lot about characters. Specifically, how to spark that magical character-reader connections.

Oftentimes, when writers are querying, they'll hear from agents or editors that the reader just didn't connect with their work. There can be a million reasons for this, but when the connection is missing from your characters, I've found there's often a reason you can point to directly in the manuscript, and many times that reason is a lack of depth in the POV.

When reading, the best books don't make you feel like you're reading about someone, they make you feel as though you're experiencing whatever the characters are experiencing. You feel their pain, you know their emotions, you hear their thoughts, you see what they see and smell what they smell and feel what they feel. Of course, you aren't literally experiencing everything, but a great book will make the connection feel so deep it's almost as if you are.

So how do you accomplish that with your characters? There are a few keys you can focus on to really deepen that connection:


Show emotion. I wrote a whole blog post on writing emotion effectively and the difference between telling and showing emotion, but the short version is this: every time you see a named emotion ("I was so angry," "he looked sad," etc.) in your WIP, stop and think about how you can rewrite it without naming that emotion. Think about what that emotion makes your character feel physically, how it affects their thoughts, and actions. Think about what it feels like to experience that emotion— and rather than naming it, describe it instead and let the readers put together the pieces. (P.S.: A truly excellent resource that makes this a billion times easier is The Emotion Thesaurus  by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi—I can't recommend it enough!)
Cut down on filtering. Similarly, I've also already written a blog post on how to (and why you should) remove filter phrases, but I'll do a quick summary here: filtering is a form of telling, and appears in phrases like "I thought," "I remembered," "I saw," "I smelled," "I felt," etc. It's often unnecessary and adds a layer of distance between the reader and the character because you're filtering what your character is experiencing through writer-speak. By removing the phrases whenever possible and just describing your characters experiences instead, the writing becomes more immediate and helps to establish that sense of closeness to the POV character(s). 
Get us in your POV character's head. What are your characters thinking? Why do they make decisions the way they do? How do they come to one conclusion or another? In limited third or first person POV, readers should know what your POV character is thinking (and feeling) at all times. Even if readers disagree with your character's reasoning for one decision or another, they should see your character's thought process there on the page, so they never have to stop and ask themselves, "but why did they do that?" This often requires slowing down while writing to think about what your characters are thinking or feeling as the events of their story happens—but this is vital to getting your readers to feel as though they really understand your characters. 
So those are my top getting-your-characters-to-connect tips! Now I want to hear from you: what gets you to connect to characters in books you read? 

Twitter-sized bites: 

Having trouble getting readers to connect to your characters? @Ava_Jae shares some connection-forging tips. (Click to tweet)  

How do you get your characters to connect to readers? Author @Ava_Jae shares some tips. (Click to tweet)

Fixing the First Page Giveaway #25!

Photo credit: Kain Kalju on FlickrSo incredibly, we've hit July's halfway point and August is on it's way, which means it's REALLY FRIGGIN' HOT. (Seriously, I'm used to balmy, cool summers in my state and this year has been The Worst.)

But in much happier news, it also means it's time for the twenty-fifth Fixing the First Page feature!

For those who’ve missed before, the Fixing the First Page features is a public first 250 word critique. Using the lovely rafflecopter widget, anyone interested in winning a PUBLIC (as in, featured in a post on this blog) first page critique can enter.

For an example of what this critique will look like, here's the last Fixing the First Page post.

Rules!

ONLY the first 250 words will be critiqued (up to finishing the sentence). If you win and send me more, I will crop it myself. No exceptions.
ONLY the first page. I don’t want 250 random words from your manuscript, or from chapter 3. If you win the critique and send me anything other than the first 250 words of your manuscript, I will choose someone else.
I will actually critique it. Here. On the blog. I will say things as nicely as I can, but I do tend to be a little blunt. If you’re not sure you can handle a public critique, then you may want to take some time to think about it before you enter.
Genre restrictions. I'm most experienced with YA & NA, but I will still accept MG and Adult. HOWEVER. If your first page has any erotic content on it, I ask that you don’t enter. I want to be able to post the critique and the first 250 in its entirety without making anyone uncomfortable, and if you win and you enter a page with erotic content, I will choose someone else.
You must have your first page ready. Should you win, you need to be able to submit your first page within 48 hours of my contacting you to let you know you won. If 48 hours pass and I haven’t heard from you, again, I will choose someone else.
You’ll get the most out of this if it isn’t a first draft. Obviously, I have no way of knowing if you’re handing me a first draft (though I will probably suspect because it’s usually not that difficult to tell). I won’t refuse your page if it’s a first draft, but you should know that this critique will likely be of more use if you’ve already had your betas/CPs look over it. Why? Because if you don’t, the critique I give you will probably contain a lot of notes that your betas & CPs could have/would have told you.
There will not be a round 2 (unless you win again in a future contest). I hate to have to say this, but if you win a critique, it’s NOT an invitation to send me a bunch of your revisions. I wish I had the time available to be able to look at revisions, but sadly, I don’t. If you try to break this rule, I will nicely say no, and also remember to choose someone else should you win a second contest. Which would make me sad. :(
So that’s it! If you’re okay with all of the above and would like to enter to be the twenty-second public critique on Writability, do the thing with the rafflecopter widget below. You have until Wednesday, July 20 at 11:59 EST to enter!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Current Impending TBR

Photo credit: ZapTheDingbat on FlickrSo I've been doing pretty well with my reading goal this year so far. I've currently read 39 books in 2016 (I'm aiming for 70), which puts me three books ahead of schedule. Between the library, ARCs, my owned TBR and books I can't help but purchase, I always have an abundance of books on hand—it's just a matter of deciding what to read next.

Just the other day I finished The Accident Season by Moïra Fowley-Doyle, so currently, the next couple books I plan to read include:
The Star-Touched Queen  by Roshani Choksi The Last Leaves Falling  by Fox Benwell (w/a Sarah Benwell) Sekret  by Lindsay Smith Skandal  by Lindsay Smith Fast Connection  by Megan Erickson and Santino Hassel???I put question marks at number six, because I don't know what I'll pick up from the library when I return my library books, which is kind of half the fun of going to the library. I have my eye on Denton's Little Deathdate , but whether or not I get it will depend on if I happen to find it that day.
And of course, this isn't set in stone, but I just started The Star-Touched Queen shortly after I wrote this post (Monday), and I've been dying to finally read The Last Leaves Falling and Sekret and Skandal forever, and Fast Connection just released so I'm psyched about that too, which means those will likely be my next picks...but we'll see what happens. 
All of this is to say reading is fun and talking about books is fun, so now I'm going to ask you guys: what books are on your imminent TBR list?

Twitter-sized bite: 

What books are on your (very) soon-to-read TBR list? Join the discussion on @Ava_Jae's blog. (Click to tweet)

Vlog: More BEYOND THE RED Books!

I've posted about it here, but I hadn't yet on my YouTube channel, bookishpixie, so here it is. The announcement vlog. And the last you'll hear about the book deal this week. :)



RELATED LINKS: 

MORE AMAZING NEWS (blog post)BEYOND THE RED (buy links)INTO THE BLACK (Goodreads)THE RISING GOLD (Goodreads)All About BEYOND THE RED (Part 1) (vlog)
Twitter-sized bite: 

ICYMI: @Ava_Jae vlogs her book deal news about BEYOND THE RED's newly announced sequels! (Click to tweet)

On (Finally) Drafting a Sequel

Photo credit: Pierre Wolfer on FlickrSo now that the news is out and I've shared my delight and excitement on just about every platform I have, I can finally talk about writing sequels.

Because for the first time since 2007 when I realized partway through a draft for a sequel for my very first manuscript that said manuscript wasn't going to get published (and good thing), I'm writing a sequel. Have been writing one, actually, since last month.

I've been calling it WIPThing, because until this week I couldn't actually publicly say I was writing a sequel for Beyond the Red, as the publication announcement for books two and three wasn't up yet. But now it is! So I can talk about what's it's been like to write a sequel thus far, because I am doing that thing.

I'd heard from many writers about the struggles involved in writing a sequel. There's a lot more pressure, as readers are expecting certain things after reading the first book, plus the pressure of any second book sequel or not to perform as well or better than before, plus the trials of writing a book at all, plus deadlines, so yeah, traditionally, sequel-writing has been known to be a difficult thing for writers.

I knew this very well. And I fully expected it for myself.

Plotting, as usual, was difficult. It helped that I already had a basic idea of how things would go and had been thinking about it since, oh, 2013 or so, but actually working out the details of this happens and that happens followed by this thing then this has always been difficult for me, and this time didn't prove any differently. Plus I had the added pressure of knowing if what I plotted wasn't good enough, my publisher might not want to publish it, so that complicated matters.

Eventually came time to write the first two chapters for the proposal my agent would submit to my publisher. I remember sitting at my computer, looking at the word sprint timer with a blank page in front of me, and that was the moment where I felt that pressure. Where I knew whatever I wrote had to be really good or it wouldn't get picked up. Slowly, I started writing, and I forced myself not to worry about the quality just yet (because revisions, I knew, would be in a few days, but not right now), and I wrote.

And you know? While I was scared and while I did feel the pressure, it also felt really exciting. Because I'd been dying to write this sequel for so long, and now I could finally write it. Or write two chapters of it, anyway.

After the two chapters were done, then came time to revise, trade with critique partners, revise, trade with betas, revise and send it off to my agent. There were a few more revisions after that, at which point I had to put it away and wait for news and focus on something else.

Then in June I got the thumbs up as well as a deadline and the real pressure began. I started drafting, and it was slow at first— my word counts were lower than I liked, but I was slogging through. And even though my daily sprints were taking longer than I wanted, I was still really excited because I was writing a sequel. And I was having a lot of fun doing it.

Eventually, I hit my stride. I'm now about 61k in, and I've been keeping to my 2k/day goal. Originally I'd planned for this first draft to be around 70k, but my math projections (yes, I know, math) comparing my current word count to the number of scenes I've completed and the number of scenes I have left is projecting the first draft will probably be closer to 86k, which means I may not be done with the first draft by this weekend as I'd originally hoped, but that's okay because I gave myself some wiggle room. But we'll see what happens—I may very well breeze through some scenes with a lower than average word count and finish closer to 70k after all. Or not. (UPDATE: As of this morning I have upped my word count goal to 85k, which is a more realistic expectation.)

As I've been writing, I've been making mental notes about what I'll need to add in revisions. I write drafts sparsely, often adding an average of 20k words in revisions, so knowing that I've missed some things is fine at this stage. But the more I write, the more I've fallen in love with my characters more and more, and the more I've loved returning to this world with deserts and monarchs and aliens and humans. And it's been so fun to deepen the world, to learn new things about the territories and expand upon what I built in Beyond the Red.

I'm not done with the first draft, not yet, but I'm proud of it already. It's felt good to finally work on this book that I hoped I'd be able to write for so long. It's felt amazing to reach this milestone, and I'm so delighted I'll get to do it again next year with book three, too.

I know there will be angsty days in the future, days where the pressure feels heavier and scarier and I'm not so sure about what I'm doing. But today I couldn't be happier, and in terms of first drafts, this one has gone pretty smoothly so far.

Sequels are scary, but being able to finally write a book I've been hoping I'd be able to write for over two years is an amazing amazing thing.

Have you ever written a sequel? Do you plan to? 

Twitter-sized bite: 

On first drafting and writing a sequel for the first time, @Ava_Jae shares her thoughts. (Click to tweet)

Book Review: THE REST OF US JUST LIVE HERE by Patrick Ness

Photo credit: GoodreadsNote: ICYMI, I got the thumbs up to share some pretty amazing Beyond the Red news yesterday. :)

So forever ago, a friend of mine DMed me on Twitter about this ARC she was reading that had a lot of anxiety rep and she was curious to see if I'd read it yet. I hadn't, but I very much respected her recommendation so I added the book, which I was already curious about anyway, to my TBR. The book eventually published, and for a long time I didn't get around to reading it, partially because every time I read the sample I just...wasn't that into it for whatever reason? But then I saw it in the library, and after remembering how few books I'd read with neuroatypical rep this year, I grabbed it.

I'm glad I did, because my friend was right and I really loved The Rest of Us Just Live Here  by Patrick Ness. But as usual, before I say why, here's the Goodreads summary:

"What if you aren’t the Chosen One? The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever the heck this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death? 

What if you’re like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again. 

Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world, and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life.
Even if your best friend is worshipped by mountain lions. 

Award-winning writer Patrick Ness’s bold and irreverent novel powerfully reminds us that there are many different types of remarkable."

So right from the start I thought the premise of writing about the regular people in a Chosen One story was pretty brilliant—and it turned out even better than I'd hoped. Ness doesn't just play with the Chosen One trope—he pokes fun at sooo many YA stereotypes, from the Chosen Ones having "cool" names, to the ridiculousness of some of the romantic plots, to Chosen One deaths and brave sacrifices, etc. etc. There were a lot of moments that made me actually laugh out loud, and it gave the whole book a really playful tone that I very much appreciated.

Then, of course, there's the anxiety rep. The protagonist, Mike, has OCD, and while my anxiety never pushed me into endless loops like his (though I am familiar with loops, and especially familiar with feeling the need to wash my hands "one more time"), there was a lot that felt really familiar and real while I was reading. Doubly so because like Mike, I once worked in a restaurant at the height of my anxiety breakdown and would wash my hands so many times there I'd leave with dry, cracked hands. This is just one example. I took pictures of other lines that really resonated with me, but point is, at least to me, the anxiety rep felt pretty solid. So solid that after the first night of reading I had to put the book down and take a deep breath because it was almost triggering. Of course YMMV, but for me, at least, the representation rang true.

So all that said, I really appreciated seeing some real, respectful anxiety/OCD rep on the page. The cast of characters is also super diverse, which was an especially great bonus.

All in all, I really enjoyed this one and would totally recommend it to those looking for a fun read with some neuroatypical rep. I will caution, though, that if you're likely to be triggered by vivid anxiety rep, you may want to skip this one or go in with eyes open at least. But now I'm going to have to read more Patrick Ness books because this was excellent.

Diversity note: The protagonist, Mike, has OCD. Other prominent characters include his sister, who has an eating disorder (but is in recovery), his friend and love interest who is Black, and his best friend who is gay.

Twitter-sized bites:

.@Ava_Jae gives⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️to Patrick Ness's THE REST OF US JUST LIVE HERE. Is this quirky YA w/OCD rep on your TBR? (Click to tweet)

We know the Chosen Ones, but what abt everyone else? Try Patrick Ness's THE REST OF US JUST LIVE HERE. (Click to tweet)