Today's guest is Kat Zhang, whose novel HYBRID--about a girl with two souls--recently sold to Harper Children's in a 3-book deal. (And since I've read it, I can tell you it is AMAZING--put it on your calendars!) You can catch her at
her blog or on
Twitter. She is represented by Emanuelle Morgen of the Judith Erlich Literary Agency.
I’m not sure how unusual this is, but one of my favorite parts of writing is the revision process. There’s something magical, of course, about the first draft, about the initial crafting of the story—the surprise around every corner, the unformed characters, the development of the world and settings. But for me, the real beauty lies in the revision, when you take all this wondrous mess that has spilled out onto the page and mold it into something ten times better than it was before. For me, the first draft is like the making of the clay; you add the main ingredients, get the right constancy, the right overall color. But it’s not until later that you actually begin sculpting.
Of course, this might not be the case for everyone. I had a teacher once who said that when he wrote a story, the first day he wrote about a paragraph. The perfect paragraph. Then the next day, he’d spend half his time perfecting that first paragraph even more, then adding another perfect paragraph, and so on and so on for years. I guess it worked for him, but honestly that would drive me crazy and I’d never get anything done.
On the other hand, I know people who can churn out a complete first draft in two weeks and then spend the next half year editing. Personally, I work somewhere in-between. I’ve never completed a first draft without satisfying the itch to go back and at least revise a little of the beginning (usually this happens about halfway through the draft), but I try not to get too caught up in it.
After all, there will be enough revising to do later on. The whole publishing process, for the average writer—especially a new one, involves so much revision. Revision for yourself, for your critique partners, for potential agents, for your agent after you’ve signed, for editors after you’ve sold…And it could be revision of anything. You might be asked to change your ending. Or your setting. I’ve known people asked to change their character names, and many whose books undergo title changes...in fact, we’re discussing alternate titles for HYBRID right now!
In many ways, HYBRID the way it is now is very different from the way it was when I finished the first draft a little more than a year ago. In fact, it’s quite different now than it was when I signed with my agent back in September! To be sure, some parts are exactly the same, word for word. But others are the rewritten version of the rewritten version of the rewritten version. And honestly? I don’t regret a single change. It’s been such a pleasure to see the story grow and strengthen under the influence of both my agent and my critique partners, and I can’t wait to see how it will continue to grow with the help of my editor.
When the book comes out (a tentative Fall 2012 release! An oh, how amazing it is to say “when” instead of “if”), readers are only going to see one version. They won’t see the numerous drafts, the multiple ways the ending might have gone, the scrapped outlines and discarded characters. But all those were necessary to create the story that exists today. If writing HYBRID has taught
This week's guest post is from Kat Zhang, who (don't hate her) is still in college studying English. Kat was a finalist in our first lines contest and recently signed with Emmanuelle Morgen of Judith Ehrlich Literary Management. She spends her free time whipping her book HYBRID—about a girl with two souls—into shape for submission to publishers. That is, when she’s not writing for her college newspaper or performing as a Spoken Word poet. She also contributes to Let The Words Flow, a site where aspiring writers may learn more about story craft and the publishing process, and blogs privately at the The Katacomb.On Letting Go of Timelines
It seems like just about everyone in the writing world is in a rush. Rushing to finish their book. Rushing to start querying. Rushing to get onto subs and make that first sale. I completely understand. To be honest, I’ve spent most of my life rushing to get published, too. As I kid, I swore up and down I’d get published before sixteen (you’ll excuse me. I was twelve. And kinda dumb). Then the age to beat became eighteen. And then twenty-one. I haven’t hit twenty-one yet, so that goal is still possible, I guess, but lately, I’ve come to the realization that… (wait for it)...there really is no rush. And guess what? It’s not about publishing early or publishing before someone else or anything like that. It’s about writing a good book. A great book. It’s about putting your absolute best work out there.
And most of the time, that means you’re not going to do things perfectly the first time around. It’s a funny thing how first-time novelists expect to make it big with their first book (hey, I’m not judging. I totally believed it too). Now I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but how many other professions have people expecting to get everything exactly right their first time on the job?
I divide my life into novels the way other people might divide their life into places they’ve lived or people they’ve been with. Unfortunately, this means that I don’t really have anything to label my pre-twelve years with, but I just rather lovingly call them the “pre-novel” years.
I started working on my first novel at twelve. There’s nothing like a first novel, is there? This is the one that really lives inside you for the rest of your life—at least this is true for me and many of my friends. This is the first one. The baby. I was twelve and had no idea about how to go about getting published, what on earth agents were, or even what a character arc meant (my biggest problem was a lack of plot, but we won’t get into that). I poured my heart into this first novel, and if nothing else, my writing style (I’m talking pure sentence level here) improved more from the ages of twelve to thirteen than it has in the years since. Which could just be sad, but hey, I’ll take what I can get.
Did I believe at the time that this would be the book to get me on the best seller’s list? To make me famous and get me on morning talk shows? T
Guest blogger Kat Zhang did a great article about
Endings and Climaxes on
Let the Words Flow today. It reminded me that we all spend a lot of time worrying about the beginning of a novel, and far too little time thinking about the end. This is, I believe, the reason a synopsis, outline, or other form of plan is necessary. Otherwise, it's just too easy to write yourself into a corner.
Kat's advice is sound. Here's my takeaway:
1) Have the protagonist solve the final problem.
2) Make sure the protag has earned any victory through growth, courage, self-sacrifice, and hard work.
3) Ensure all tools the protag and antag use have been woven and layered in throughout the book.
4) Take time for wrap-up in the denouement, hinting at how the protag's growth will change the world around her going forward.
Read the full article:
http://letthewordsflow.wordpress.com/2010/04/22/guest-article-endings-and-climaxes/And for further information on climaxes and endings:
http://writingforstagescreen.suite101.com/article.cfm/writing_great_endings_the_climaxhttp://www.creativejuicesbooks.com/creative-story-writing-cliffhangers.htmlhttp://thedarksalon.blogspot.com/2009/10/act-climaxes-turning-points-plot-points.htmlhttp://www.writersdigest.com/article/use-casual-writing-to-connect-the-dots/http://www.writersdigest.com/article/3_Tips_for_Writing_for_Kids/http://www.helium.com/items/1456842-fiction-writing-writing-a-plot-climax-novel-action-ending-a-bookWrite a satisfying climax,
Martina
I'm glad you guys enjoyed the post :)