Wisdom from Kathryn Stockett, Author of *The Help*

Okay, so if you haven't already, you really need to read this.  It's an article by Kathryn Stockett -- she talks about her book, The Help, and everything she went through to get it published.  More specifically, everything she went through to get an agent.

    Her book was rejected 60 times.  The 61st letter was an offer of representation.  She kept trying for three and a half years before she got an agent.  Now her book's a bestseller and has its own movie.  Nice turn of events, right?

    Anyway, if you're querying or going to be querying in the future, I hope you'll keep this in mind, maybe even print it out.  Even if you're not writing, if something else is your passion, it's a great reminder to never give up.  Plus, bonus:  The way she writes is sort of hysterical.  That never hurts. 

    A lot of people claim J.K. Rowling as an inspiration.  She is, no doubt, but in the "agent rejection" respect, her story never really encouraged me much.  I mean, sure, she got rejected by multiple publishers before her book sold, but she got representation from the first agent she queried. 

    On the other end of the spectrum, Kathryn Stockett got representation from the sixty-first agent she queried, and won over the first publisher she tried. 

    What sort of stories encourage you?

Writing and Yearbook Photos -- The Connection

The first tornado warning of the season sent my sister and me into, well, something of a frenzy.  My parents tried telling us the worst weather would veer away from our area, but that didn't prevent us from packing up about half the stuff in our house.

    For the record, yes, this leads back to something writing-related.  Doesn't it always?

    In my scramble to gather everything I'd ever valued, I stumbled across my first *cough*story*cough*.

    After flicking through the pages (there were around forty before I finally either quit or lost the notebook), if there was any part of me that wasn't looking for a rock to hide under, it was probably laughing uncontrollably.

    It was awful.

    Like, really awful.  (I hate to admit this, but yeah, it was about a talking animal.  Worse -- a mouse, with references to The Cricket in Times Square and everything.)

    But hey, I was a third grader when I wrote it.  So I guess my transgressions verged on forgivable?

    I'd already found some of my other "stories" in tornado-roundup-mode, of course, any they were mostly pretty horrible.  (The unoriginal story lines, nonexistent plot, cliches . . . I won't scare you with the specifics.)

    The thing is, pulling out a piece of old writing is a lot like pulling out past yearbook pictures -- most of the time, you'll have forgotten just how bad it was. Typically, the older the writing (or picture), the worse you can expect it to be.

    But I don't think it's all bad news.  That just means your work will always improve, right?  Even after you find your voice, even after your writing itself has stabilized into some form of consistency -- the writing still improves.  Because what you write about, and how you execute it, will always be getting better and better.

    So all this is why, though my younger sister gave me the mocking of my life after reading about that little mouse, I have only one thing to say to the third-grade Jenna:

    Thank you.  A lot.  No, seriously.

    Okay, so maybe two things --

    Also, don't run into that column on the porch, because you'll mess up your knee and be confined to crutches for a few months, which we could both do without.

    But you get the idea. 

Whatever Editing Doesn't Kill You, Makes Your Book Stronger...

Since I'm still deep in the throes of editing, I've decided you might as well suffer along with me.  With that thought in mind, I'm writing another editing-related post.

    As far as I know, nobody likes revision.  I mean, chopping up your manuscript and stitching it back together again isn't exactly most people's idea of a fun time.  But somehow -- and maybe it's all just warped my brain or something -- I don't really mind editing.

   Okay, so my brain's definitely been warped.  Let me explain myself, though.

    I really love every part of the writing process, and I figure all writers do.  Obviously, it's not all fun -- I don't actively enjoy editing.  But I do enjoy the results: a tighter, healthier, more reader/agent-friendly manuscript. 

    The same can be said for outlining, which I really need to get better at.  (In fact, after I've got my huge sweep-through edits done, I'm going to have to sit down and figure out the official game plan for book two.  If I'd only done that for the first book, I wouldn't be having these editing woes right now.  Ah well.)

    So really, I think it all works out for the best.  Time consuming, maybe, and a total headache, but definitely worth it.  But what about you?  Any thoughts?
   

Patience? I'm Not Its Biggest Fan

Ah, patience.  It's not really one of the virtues I've been blessed with.  At all.

    I'm the type of person who taps her fingers and stares the clock down when I'm waiting for something -- that's awful enough already, but for a writer, it's borderline-deadly.

    Think about all the things we have to wait for.  There's planning the book (which I don't do nearly enough anyway), actually writing it, the countless revisions, the query letters and the wait on those responses, then partials or fulls, and more response times.  And then you and your agent have to start submitting to publishers, waiting till it's in print, then for readers, a fan base, blah, blah, blah.

    As you can see, there's a lot of waiting involved.  I've been through some of it, which hasn't been fun, and I have a lot more to, um, enjoy. 

    But that's okay.  It'll be more than worth it, and this is good training for everything that comes after. 

    I promise.