Grammar Hampers Voice

Lips borrowed from: http://www.faqs.org/photo-dict/phrase/637/lips.html

I got my first peer review for my character sketch today (I‘m taking Creative Writing at Uni). My hands shook with excitement as I waited for my internet to download the document. My eyes tuned out and in focus before I started reading. Clear description of character...dialogues are clear...use less emphasis on the narrator...good development...good pacing at the beginning, needs to slow down at the end...tenses kept changing back and forth (Me: What? No way! Of course it‘s past when he‘s thinking back and present when he‘s in the now. The distinction is clear!)...There were some grammatical errors!

Grammatical errors? Okay, so I haven’t learned as much English at the Uni as the other students in this class (it’s a master’s degree class, but I got an exception because of my enthusiasm), but, in my opinion, there was nothing wrong with the grammar. I even posted the character sketch on my crit-group forum and no one said anything.

That leaves me with the question: Should novels be strictly grammatically correct? And (like the debate on TV/videogame violence) is it the author’s responsibility to provide reading material that is grammatically correct?

My answer is no and heck no! Misspellings and non-intended errors should be eliminated, of course, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with flexing grammar a little to provide a good story. The author’s purpose is to provide the reader with entertainment and emotional experience. At least that’s what Randy Ingermanson says, and I hereby take that up as my motto. If that means bending the rules of grammar to better suit the holy purpose, then authors should do that!

I’m also a strong believer in “grammar interferes with Voice” (yes, capital V). Which has more voice in it? “I don’t want to be here!” or “I so don’t want to be here!” I’m gonna say the second and break the grammar in this sentence to inject some voice into my blog. Most people speak with grammatical errors, so why shouldn’t the people whose PoV we’re reading from do so as well? And I’m not just talking about dialogues – internal monologue and overall action as well. Doesn’t that make them more real to us?

I’ll be the first to admit that I read the Twilight series in 10 days and fell in love with it. I didn’t know anything about writing until long after that, and I have read countless books since then. Looking back, I see that the grammatical correctness of Twilight is enough to put an insomniac to sleep, whereas series such as Sookie Stackhouse and House of Night would keep the insomniac entertained during his hours of suffering. There’s a reason those series have the most memorable characters! Those books are packed with grammatical errors – probably all intentional – and I don’t care one bit. I don’t even care much about most of the unnecessary adverbs and the occasional passive tense, even though I try all I can to exclude those  in my own writing. The books are entertaining, emotional and fantastic.

If I want to learn “proper English” I’ll read books on English grammar!

On Word Count and Querying

Image borrowed from: www.nurseryeducationonline.com/-c-62.html

Attempt One:

Before I started on my manuscript, I was terrified that I wouldn't be able to write enough words for a full length novel. I tried writing a novel when I was 15, and it ended up being 3,000 words. I did a little better on a fan fiction that ended up in 74,000 words (16 chapters), which I think is quite amazing. It's packed with adverbs and other no-no's, but it's a good story with a good plot and sub plots. I was 26 at the time. Today I find that the more I write, the longer the word count. It is a challenge for me to keep it low enough, because there's just so much to write about. The first attempt at full manuscript ended in 125,000 words. I queried it as such, and got an auto-rejection. It may have been because of the word count, or because the query letter was horrible, or because the writing was terrible and packed with no-no's. Probably all of the above.

Attempt Two:

At the time, I had no idea there was such a thing as "appropriate word count" for young adult fiction (or any other age group, for that matter), I just thought that more words equaled better writer. I compared my manuscript length with Cassandra Clare's City of Bones, and Stephenie Meyer's Twilight, by doing formulaic count of words I was taught while learning to type. I remember the day I learned about appropriate word counts. I sat in the black chair in my office, curtains pulled closed to shield the tiny room from light, desk cluttered with books, print-outs and stationary. The silly little text on my screen said 110,000 max for YA novels. I felt like giving up. How could I possibly cut a single word out of my novel? Every single word was important. But after a lot of research, a reading of a book on how to write, and a second look at the manuscript, I realized that there was quite a bit I could cut out. The revised 125,000 worded manuscript became 111,000 words. Much better, or so I thought.

At WriteOnCon, I discovered that 111,000 is way too much. There was an agent who went over queries live. She began by plucking out all the manuscripts over 90,000 words and tossing them into the bin. She said that the manuscripts with higher word count have to be truly exceptional. She said that 90,000 words +/- 5,000 is max in YA (apparently opinion on this differs, possibly because my novel is Fantasy, which means a little more leeway with some agents). That means I'll have to cut it down to at least 95,000 to avoid such auto-rejections from agents. Before the WriteOnCon, I had submitted queries to a lot of agents. I also received quite a number of rejections. The reason could be because of the word count, or because the revised query letter was terrible, or because the revised writing wasn't quite up to snuff yet. Probably all of the above.

Attempt Three:

I learned from this that you should only query a few agents at a time, because of the learning curve. If I had submitted to all the agents I've now submitted to with my horrible first query - all of them would reject it. If I would submit to all the agents I have yet to query with my terrible second query - all of them would reject it.

In other words, to avoid auto-rejections based on word count, I have to slice my manuscript even further. I'm doing that with the aid of critique partners - something I never had before - something I should have had before. I have also tried to be honest with myself, and cut out pieces that I knew, deep down, were not supposed to be in the story. With the first 6 chapters rewritten/revised, plus a whole chapter later in the manuscript removed, the word count is already down to 104,000 words. After WriteOnCon, I have a formula for a fantastic query, along with amazing critiques from Elana and Casey that I won at the conference, so I'm hoping I'll be able to produce a kick-ass query before I continue my agent querying next year. I also realized, during WriteOnCon, that I have to take a second look at adverbs, and other tics that are frowned upon. The reason I'm not querying until January next year is not only because agents are generally less likely to sign new authors late in the year, but also because I'm taking Creative Writing at university, and I'm learning heaps.

We're reading Sol Stein's Stein on Writing. Chapter two is so inspirational that I had to put down the book and jolt down ideas. He talks about the importance of the first line and first paragraphs in a book. He gives fantastic examples (real examples are so rare in those educational books on how to write!), and I now know that I have to change the beginning of Book of Black. In fact, I've been inspired to change the whole first chapter with a whole new concept to dive the kids into the other world faster. He helped me see how my first chapter is a bit distracting. It's a good chapter, but there's a misleading story that doesn't set the tone for the rest of the book. I see now that this first chapter is material for a different story.

So, with all these new discoveries, and with the aid of the amazing WriteOnCon, that was a revelation to me, I hope that when I start querying again, I won't get auto-rejected because of word count, I will have a catchy query letter, and that I will get a contract because of my new and shiny writing skills.

Fantasy Genre

Vampire Girl from the Dark Moon homepage

I'm a total sucker for vampires. Ever since I watched the movie Interview with a Vampire in my teen years, I've been hooked on those fang-bearers. I even love watching Angel! (The vampire, not a fallen angel). I absolutely adore Charleine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series, and I read any YA vampire novel I can get my hands on.

I didn't choose to write about vampires when I was designing my story. I started creating my magical characters before Twilight hit the theaters (which was when I discovered the books), so YA vampires weren't big in my world at the time. I should be thankful for thinking outside the box when I decided to write a book, because now agents and publishers aren't taking in new vampire novels. At the time, I had no idea there were such things as trends in book publishing, and I thought that if someone wrote a good vampire novel, they'd get it published. As for me, I suppose I wanted to create something that was mine from the start.

I have also read books about fallen angels. I must admit that angels don't appeal to me as much. I don't know what it is. They're supposed to have the dark element, but they just don't do it for me. I'm now reading Fallen, by Lauren Kate, and we'll see how I feel after that. It's definitely something I wouldn't choose to write about.

Then I've read books about fairies, and I honestly don't know if I could ever write books about fairies. At least not the kind of fairies I've read recently. Elves are a different matter, and to me, they're not the same (although they sometimes seem to star in fairy books).

I can't bring myself to check out a werewolf book from the library. I've seen them in movies and read about them as vampires vs. werewolves, but I always cheer for the vampires. Edward was always the one I rooted for, and Jacob was just annoying at times. The same goes for the movie Underworld, which really wasn't a great movie, but it's about vampires, and so I watched it. Charleine Harris has werewolves and fairies, but I let that slide because I love her vampires so much.

I suppose that if I can't write about vampires (if I want to be published -- and I do), I'll have to continue creating my own race of fantasy creatures. I don't know if that'll ease my way into publishing or hinder, since it might be a risk for publishers to introduce new creatures. I have caught myself wondering if I should write a vampire series, I even have an idea for one, but reading the agent/publisher blogs I've decided not use my time on that and rather continue with my own creation.

Vampire books will always be the thing I love to read. I hope that although agents/publishers are rejecting such books today, they'll never stop completely so that suckers, such as I, can continue reading what we love.

What are your favorite creatures in fantasy novels?

Dystopia: The New Utopia

There has been a lot of discussion about trends in the writing market recently. It seems that one can't really jump right into the current trend, because when one finally finishes the manuscript, agents/publishers are no longer accepting trend novels because the market is "filling up".

The YA trend has been vampires since Hurricane Twilight sent teenage girls racing to the bookstores. Everybody wanted to catch the gust and wrote vampire YA (books that I still greedily seek out). There is now an overflow of unpublished manuscripts and agents are rejecting all queries that have the word "vampire" in them.

The current and near-future trend seems to be YA Dystopia. I actually had to look up that word (anti-utopia), and I get it; I like watching movies where the world is inside-out after some catastrophe, and I should be able to enjoy such books as well. Of course, a dash of paranormal wouldn't ruin it for me.

When I read about the dystopia trend, I immediately thought that maybe I should try to write one, but by the time I'd get it done, everyone and their cousin will have sent out query letters and agents will be rejecting all queries containing the word "dystopia".

One might say that unpublished writers live in a dystopian world and are desperately trying to reach utopia. I think that the only chance writers have to ride the wave of trends is by either having manuscripts ready before the tide hits to be able to ship them out immediately when their genre is prophesied to be the next big thing, or to be abnormally fast at creating manuscripts, and risking the manuscript being rushed.

If you want to break into the market, you'll have to write what sells; and what sells is the current and next trend. Kristin Nelson recently talked about how most queries she's receiving today are about ghosts telling their stories, psychics solving a mystery, vampires (still, as she puts it), and people seeing things in dreams that lead them on an adventure. Apparently writers are expected to think outside the box and try to invent the next hype, but at the same time it is difficult to sell the manuscript because it involves a great risk to publishers.

I have tried to be innovative in my manuscript and created paranormal beings that I haven't seen before. Now the big, hairy and nasty question is: are they too innovative for the publishers to take the risk?