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One of my favorite quotes ever (and unfortunately I can't remember where I heard it, a movie I think) is:

"If you're going to fail, fail spectacularly."

And no, that doesn't mean do a crap job. It means go for it. Don't hold back, or play it safe, in the hopes that you won't make a huge fool of yourself if you get it wrong.

If you shoot for the middle, all you'll get is mediocre. That and the knowledge that you could've tried harder but you didn't.

So the next time you sit down to write, or work out a plot, or anything else in life, ask yourself. Am I doing everything I can to make this great? Am I trying to make my story fit in with what everyone else is doing?

Is there a crazy idea you have for a story that in your gut, you know it could work, but you're afraid to try it? Are you shoving it aside to write something more mainstream/"now"/generic? Ask yourself it that's really what you want to do, and if it's not, go for it. And even if you fail, it will be the kind of glorious failure that shows your heart, and what's wrong with that?

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 "Because our brains can no longer think beyond a tweet, we can't write well."    

from a PW article, "Books Without Batteries: The Negative Impacts of Technology," by Bill Henderson, April 11, 2011. 


What do YOU think?

And be honest now. Would you be a better, stronger writer if the internet didn't exist?  Or is Bill Henderson wrong?  Has blogging and tweeting actually IMPROVED your writing?

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Why does everything take so long? Um . . . maybe because I put it off forever?

But today my choices were clean off my desk (never) or finally update my Book Store (okay, yes). So what you’ll find there are not just some random selection of novels, biographies, science books, food books, etc., but an actual thought-out list of recommendations for some great reading in a bunch of different categories.

What have I read most recently that I absolutely loved? Why, Judi Dench’s memoir, of course. If you’re a fan of Dame Judi–and really, how can you not be?–then you’ll enjoy her book AND FURTHERMORE, even though those of us who aren’t British may not be as familiar with all the names she drops from her days in the Royal Shakespeare Company and all that. But I’ll tell you what, thanks to her memoir (which I’m now re-reading a week after I finished it, because I just want to), I’m on a Judi Dench movie kick lately. This weekend it was CASINO ROYALE and QUANTUM OF SOLACE, because even though Dame Judi was fabulous as Queen Elizabeth in SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, really there’s nothing better than watching her as M in the James Bond flicks.

And thanks to one of her scenes in QUANTUM OF SOLACE, I really want to start answering the phone, “What is it?” That’s right, Judi, make them get right to the point.

The other book I’m absolutely rabid about right now is Laura Hillenbrand’s UNBROKEN: A WORLD WAR II STORY OF SURVIVAL, RESILIENCE, AND REDEMPTION. That book will amaze, horrify, and most likely change you. I’ll tell you one thing, it certainly makes you want to stop complaining about every little thing in your life. I listened to the audio book on a long car drive recently, and it not only made the miles fly by, it also made it a little dangerous at one point because I was crying so hard I probably should have pulled over. Sorry, Safety Monitors. But that book was so inspiring I’m probably going to read the print version next, because I really need to experience it again.

Both the Judi Dench memoir and the Laura Hillenbrand biography can be found in my book store under the category “Burly Adventurers Who Inspire Me.” Because you don’t have to be a mountain climber to make it into that group–you just have to lead a remarkably bold and fearless life.

My final current recommendation, listed under “Favorite Books on Writing,” is James A. Owen’s DRAWING OUT THE DRAGONS: A MEDITATION ON ART, DESTINY, AND THE POWER OF CHOICE. Owen is the bestselling author and illustrator of the CHRONICLES OF THE IMAGINARIUM GEOGRAPHICA series, starting with HERE, THERE BE DRAGONS. His new book grew out of the inspirational talks he gives to middle school and high school students, encouraging them to pursue their dream of being writers and artists. I’m already pursuing that dream, but dang if I wasn’t re-inspired. It’s like one of my other favorites, Stephen King’s ON WRITING, but without the drugs.

So there! Another item I can mark off my to-do list! Now what else can I do instead of cleaning my office?

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I don't read a lot of high-fantasy (read, none), so I can't say much about that, but I do read a lot of paranormal and lately dystopian. In a great paranormal or dystopian novel, the author has emerged the reader in her world and she's done it organically. Without dropping a load of backstory bricks on us.

The first book that comes to mind is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and I think it's a perfect example because we've all read it. At least I think we have. If you haven't, go do that.

Katniss doesn't go over all the details of her world, how things used to be, what caused the shift, and how things work now, but she does give us a bit of information about things like the tracker jackers, so that we can see what they are and very briefly what they were created to do. She lets us in on the history of a revolution against the Capital that ultimately spawned the annual Hunger Games--important information that is interesting to the reader. She doesn't dwell on it. She tells us exactly what we need to know and only when we need to know it.

Think about the mutts. Imagine how much that scene would have been slowed down if Katniss would've pushed pause and explained in detail how and why they were originally created. We figured out very quickly what they are, or as much as Katniss knew about them, and we moved on with the action.

I think the most important thing to remember when creating a fantasy world is what is natural for the characters. If your MC doesn't know how the monster was created, then she shouldn't be telling the reader. The reader should be discovering this information with her, but only if and when it's necessary. If she's never seen an ipod, then she shouldn't be telling the reader how her music player compares to one. As writers it is up to us to find a balance between information and action, and it is never not always easy.

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You've all seen those cheap horror films with the busty blonde babysitter, right? You know the one where she hears strange noises in the attic that can only be an evil killer-zombie-ghost with fangs? And she grabs a flashlight, because the electricity suddenly went out, and she climbs the stairs to investigate, armed with nothing but her um...wit.

***I tried to draw a cartoon here, but the girl looked like she had two watermelons stuck in her throat and a spaghetti noodle where an arm might be. I am not an artist.***

It might "work" in those movies, but it doesn't work in your book. Unless that's the kind of story you're writing. In that case, just turn away now.

Your character needs to have brains to make your story interesting and believable. When revising one of my manuscripts, I kept bumping up against this wall, trying to make my MC do something that she really didn't want to do. Something she would never do, because she's witty and clever, and what I was trying to force her into was stupid.

If you're trying to force your MC to put out a fire with a garden hose, instead of calling the fire department, she better have a darn good reason for it. If she doesn't, you might need to try a different approach.

Happy revising!

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My son, Bryce, is profoundly hearing impaired. Recently, I was searching online for related information and stumbled upon Stephen Parrish's blog and Jan. 14th, 2011 post "The Sound of Running Water." It was a very interesting post on his sudden deafness (from a virus), which doctors have told him is temporary.

I then saw that Parrish is the author of The Tavernier's Stones. Being interested in all things book- and writer-related, I contacted him on Facebook and asked to be his FB friend. This morning, his acceptance greeted me, while the collosal winter storm "enemied" Chicago.

I clicked on Parrish's profile page on Facebook and found my way to his website. Listed there are many reviews of his novel and this description:

When the well preserved body of a seventeenth century cartographer suddenly floats to the surface of a bog in northern Germany, a 57 carat ruby clenched in his fist, the grisly discovery ignites a global race to find the Lost Tavernier Stones of popular European folklore.

I've been wanting to read something outside of the genres I typically favor...and I love maps and stones...so I'm going to put The Tavernier's Stones on my to-buy list and look forward to reading it. Here is a link to his book on Amazon.

But wait! That's not all!

I went back to Parrish's blog to see if there was a new post, and then noticed the bookcovers along the right margin. There, at the top, was 41 Things to Know About Autism (Good Things) by Chantal Sicile-Kira. Hmmm.... autism is a subject near and dear to my heart, as many of you know, so I traveled over to Amazon to look up Sicile-Kira's book, which just came out last year in March (one month after Lucky Press published There Are No Words by Mary Calhoun Brown, which features a young girl with autism who travels back in time to save her grandfather's friend).

So, as I now return to Facebook to check the status of a dear new friend who recently had oral surgery, I am struck by the serendipity already in place in this morning. To those who discount social networking as irrelevant and a waste of time (and who may not, I suppose, even be reading my blog), I want to tell them, "No, it isn't. Not for me."

Facebook has brought me in contact with Kim Austin, a wonderful photographer in Austrialia. (Feast your eyes on some beautiful seaside photos here.) It has connected me, better than my initial mailed letter ever could have, with Rachel Simon, a wonderful author I've appreciated for many years but now have gotten to know even better as I read her posts and blogs about the pre-release tour Grand Central Publishing launched her on for the May 2011 release of The Story of Beautiful Girl. I've learned so much from her, much of it through her FB page, which alerts me to her blog posts.

Thanks to social networking I've met so many wonderful artists and writers and readers and people with a connection to the subjects I'm interested in: books, writing, publishing, disabilities, dogs, painting, altered arts, museums, restaurants, photography, creativity, scrapbooking/journaling, and crafts. I've also been able to share information about my business, Lucky Press,

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We're reusing older posts here at SIS this month, and this week I'd like to re-share a few simple tips to remember when writing.

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I'm knee deep in revisions, so I thought I'd pick up a couple of books on writing this week, and both of them (so far) are excellent. I believe Valerie may have recommended one of them once before, but here they are.

Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell
This is the first book in this series that I've read. So far I'm really enjoying it. Some of the steps in this book might seem like a no-brainer to you, but some of us need it spelled out. If you're part of the former, it never hurts to have a good reminder.

There are a lot of great examples in here on scene structure, building suspense in dialog, creating a bond with your reader via your main character, character arc, plotting, revising, etc. There are different activities you can try out on your own to see what works and why.

I've been told this is a great series to go with and so far, I'd have to agree.



I'd like to hear your recommendations. Read any great books on writing recently? Something we haven't covered in past posts? Have you read either of these two books?

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Looking for a little light reading/book chat/way to procrastinate whatever tasks are on your to-do list today? Head on over to the excellent Mother.Write. (Repeat.) blog, where I’ll be answering reader questions about all things books until 5pm. today.

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I’m currently in the process of finishing up intensive manuscript revisions with several of my clients. And since I’m a total geek, I think it’s a whole lotta fun. But I’m not so sure my clients agree with me, at least not at this particular moment in time.

Giving editorial advice and doing revisions with clients is a large part of my job, and I take it quite seriously. That’s why, even when I sign clients whose manuscripts are in fine shape, I have them do at least one round of revision before I submit their project to publishers.

Why am I so keen on revision? Is it because I enjoy being a slave driver? Because I’m addicted to the pretty colors that pop up on the screenwhen I use track changes? No and no. You see, editors are constantly bombarded with manuscripts—way more projects than they could ever hope to accommodate on their seasonal publishing lists. For that reason, editors say no to many more projects than they say yes to. Which is why it’s of utmost importance for a manuscript to be in tip-top shape before sending it out to publishers. It helps you stand out from the pile, rather than getting lost in it.

When I begin an edit with an author, and sometimes even before I sign them, I give them some variation of this speech: Before I submit your book to publishers, I’m going to edit it. At the beginning of the edit, you’re going to love me. Somewhere around the halfway point, you’re going to start to think I’m annoying and picky. About three-quarters of the way, you’re going to hate my guts. And by the end, you’ll love me again.

At this point, I have a couple of authors in the three-quarters stretch.  I know they’re tired. I know they dread seeing my name pop up in their inboxes, asking for more changes here or there. I know they feel like they’re going to rip their hair out if they have to look at their manuscript for another second. I know that every time they see my yellow highlights and my wordy little track changes, complete with my over-use of inspirational exclamation points (it’s a writing tic of mine!), they feel like calling me up and telling me where to stick my suggestions.

But that’s okay with me. I can live with them shaking their fists at me or ranting about me on Twitter or to their writing groups. What I can’t live with is sending a manuscript out into the world that’s in less-than-nearly perfect shape.

These days, editors have plenty of reasons to say no, even to manuscripts that show flashes of greatness. It’s not my job to give editors reasons to say no. It’s my job to give them a reason to say yes.

And so: Revisions.

You may hate me for it now, but you’ll love me for it later.

What about you? Do you enjoy revising your work? Do you have any revision tricks or tips that you use to get through the process?

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If you have never participated in the Twitter feed #kidlitchat, you really ought to give it a shot. The discussions are always about smart topics and draw a wide range of commentators—both veterans and newbie writers, editors, agents, and the occasional gibbering weirdo. (I’m looking at you, @chrisrichman.) The tweets ratchet up the Twitter client in a fast and sometimes furious stream, so quick as to be nearly unreadable. Trying to follow the many threads of conversation is like watching three hundred tennis matches held simultaneously on the same court—there’s no way to keep the threads separate, and yet … you try anyway.

Last Tuesday night’s chat was a gem. You can read the transcript here, but the gist of the discussion was this: What qualities make a manuscript middle grade instead of teen/YA? How do you know which you have?

The answers were all interesting and, for the most part, valid. Some dismissed the categories as the joint creation of publishers and booksellers; others tied the categories to the age of a novel’s protagonist or a word count; still others quoted interesting takes from fine writers. (My favorite was Tobin Anderson’s assertion that for middle grade books, he writes to the target audience, while in teen fiction he writes from the vantage of the target audience.)

[I disagree with a simple "It's the age of the protagonist" saw, if only because there are so many examples of books that don't fit into the box. Here are four off the top of my head: Brian Hall's The Saskiad. Tony Earley's Jim the Boy. John Wray's Lowboy. Russell Banks' Rule of the Bone. The first two are definitely adult in terms of tone and interest level, while the latter two have a strong interest for teen readers and yet are determinedly adult.]

At any rate, none of the suggested criteria seemed to capture my take, which has to do more with a quality of the prose. How complex is the writing? The vocabulary? Does it spend more time on abstraction or concrete things? Does it rely more on the outward markers of experience, or is there an interiority to it? That is—is what happens to the characters’ ways of seeing as rich and interesting an element as what happens to the characters in the outward world?

[I know, I know—you're thinking, That is art, my friend—you should go into the business of creating informational visuals, because this one is about as clear as one of my Uncle Tommy's boozy stories about his time in the Navy and pushing that truck up the muddy hill and—oh, forget it.]

To my mind, there is a direct relationship to the sort of complexity I’m talking about and the age of the readership. In the chart I whipped together above, we have picture books in the lower leftmost corner (Harry the Dirty Dog, say) and in the upper right-hand quadrant, the most self-conscious post-moderni

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In my younger and more vulnerable years, I was given a piece of advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. (And no, it is not to shamelessly rip off The Great Gatsby’s opening line; that I do all on my own.) The advice was this: Write a thousand words of your work-in-progress each day. No more, no less. Just a cool grand.

Here’s the why of the advice:

• A thousand words is a fair bit, to be sure. But it’s not so much that you can’t see the end of your target when you sit down to begin. It’s not so much that you can get lost in those thousand words. It’s not so much that you’ll have to set aside hours and hours of your day that really should be spent working for a living or cleaning the house or reading other people’s books or petting the cat. It’s just enough that you can do it in a good hour or so of work. That is to say, it’s eminently doable.

• A thousand words a day means you can draft the entirety of a seventy-thousand word novel in three months. Not in a NaNoWriMo blaze of ill-considered prose, but in a measured thousand-word bites.

• If you’ve noticed that my math is off in the above calculation, that’s because I’ve allowed for mistakes and blind alleys and pages that have to be burned. Did your characters lead you on a long digression that has no bearing on anything else? You can cut it easily and go back. Why? Because even if that bit is, say, seven thousand words, that’s only a week’s work, and you will quickly make up that lost time by your daily thousand words.

• After that three-month draft is complete, you can then revise the work three times in the remaining nine months of the year. Me, I rekey the entirety of the manuscript every time so that I weigh every line and nuance to make sure I want it. Other people find this tedious. But however you work, again revising only a thousand words a day, you can push through three serious revisions of your novel in the remainder of the year.

• And why stop at a thousand? This is the question I most hear from people. “I’m writing in a white heat! I don’t want to stop! I want to finish this section!” But that is precisely when you should stop. Why? Because the next day, you will know what comes next. You’ll sit down to your work and know the next page or two because you already had them in mind. And by the time you reach the end of what you’d had in mind yesterday, your head and momentum will have given you the beginnings of new material. Stopping after a thousand words ensures that you never write to the end of your inspiration and face that dreaded blank page. You leave your desk having prepared yourself for the next day’s work.

A thousand words is kind of an arbitrary number. It is the number my long-ago advisor chose, but you can adjust it to suit your needs. Graham Greene wrote exactly eight hundred words and boasted that he would stop mid-sentence when he’d reached that number. (He had a finely calibrated internal word counter, apparently.)

But he wrote every day—the set number of words—no matter what was going on in his life. Writing every single day makes it easier to beat a path to the well, makes it easier to re-enter the fictive dream of the manuscript as though the preceding 23 hours haven’t intervened. And that piece of advice—”Write every day”—is why today’s post is Rule #2.

Do you all write to set word count? Does it work for you? Or do you sit at your desk for

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September—ah, September! The hot haze of summer has blown away, and along with it our laid-back summer ways. The publishing industry, which has been snoozing away these last few weeks, is back from its vacation, and editors are at their desks and ever-anxious to discover that One. Perfect. Novel.

There’s something so energizing about back to school time. It always makes me think of getting organized, setting new goals, and accomplishing them. And is there a better time than back-to-school to refresh your commitment to your craft, your creativity, and your goals as a writer? I think not.

With that in mind, I’ve cobbled together a list of advice about the act of writing. You’ve heard some of it before, no doubt, but if you try doing just one of the things on this list,  you’ll see an improvement in your productivity–and your writing.

1. Write often. Blogging doesn’t count. Texting your friends doesn’t count. Tweeting that you’re thinking about writing doesn’t count. Facebooking that you have writer’s block doesn’t count. Unplug yourself from the white noise of social networking babble and write.

2. Finish what you started. You know how it happens—you wake up in the middle of the night with an idea for a novel that’s so brilliant, so amazing, that you simply have to get out of bed and write it down because you’re convinced you’re about to become the next J.K. Rowling. You work on it feverishly for awhile, then you start to feel kinda lost about where you’re going with the story, and before you know it, you’ve forsaken your novel for surfing the internet. It’s still there, languishing on your hard drive. You think of it fondly, but just haven’t found the time to get back to it. Guess what? Now is as good a time as any.  So whether you join one of those crazy nanowrimo thingies or set your own goals, commit to finishing a project.

3. Read well. US Weekly does not count. Sh*t My Dad Says (though hilarious) does not count. Sports blogs do not count. For your pleasure reading, choose something well-written (and maybe something—gasp!—out of your comfort zone) that will help you think about craft and inspire your own writing. Personally, I always seem to return to the classics. I re-read The Great Gatsby over the summer, and enjoyed it so thoroughly that upon finishing, I had to fight the urge to go back to the beginning and read it all over again.

4. Get out of your own head. Writing is quite the solitary journey, but just because you write by yourself doesn’t mean your work in progress should remain under lock and key until you’ve lovingly typed that final page. The best way to improve your writing (other than writing consistently), is to find inspired, like-minded individuals whom you trust to read and critique your work. So if you haven’t already, join a crit group, and if possible, make plans to attend writer’s conferences (either locally or nationally), where you can attend workshops, meet other writers, and get the chance to put your work in front of editors and agents.

5. Carry a notebook. Keep a notebook in your purse (or your man-purse or messenger bag or whatever guys are calling their purses these days). Use it to jot down sudden ideas, titles, thoughts, and impressions of what you see and experience. By jotting down things that touch you, impress you, strike you as beautiful or funny or odd, you’re giving yourself permission to take a break from the rush of daily life and reconnect with the world around you. It’s good for the soul—and for your fiction.

6. Set a weekly goal. Too often, I see writers tweeting away about being waaaay shy of their daily word count goal for their WIP (gee, maybe that’s b/c they’re tweeting instead of writing). Well, rather than set a lofty daily goal for yourself, why not try a more reasonable goal? With life being so busy, it’s entirely understandable tha

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Well, Labor Day is past and so we here at the Crow hope you all are settling down to some serious work. We certainly are.

Among the many helps we’ve found during our off time is this memo from the mighty David Mamet—the profane, too-often-too-thinky, shamelessly wordy (and so close to my heart) playwright, director, and essayist. His sage advice keeps us focused, our eyes on the prize and our noses to the grindstone and our shoulders to every cliché within shouting distance.

On the off chance his admonitions might help you, you can find them here. This is a note he sent to the writers of the now-defunct television show The Unit, which, despite its unfortunate name, has at least given us this kick in the ass.

Okay, summer’s over! Now put your butt in your chair and get to work!

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It’s award season and the results are finally in!

No, no, not those awards, which remind us that the people who create children’s books are artists as well as craftspeople.

No, I’m talking about the Bulwer-Lytton Awards for worst opening sentence. It is Edward George Bulwer-Lytton whose 1830 masterpiece Paul Clifford begins:

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

In his honor, each year hundreds of writers compete to write similarly overwrought and overextended sentences, and they are always a riot. Mere badness isn’t enough; these entries are all hilariously awful. Check them out at the link above!

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I was fortunate enough last summer to speak with Bruce Coville at an SCBWI event in Orlando. (He’s an amazing speaker—truly amazing—and if you catch word that he is speaking somewhere, by all means go and see him.) Bruce mentioned something he called “The Rule of Twenty.” He doesn’t recall where he picked it up—a business article? a self-help book? a primer on original thinking?—but wherever it came from, I have since relied on it and relied on it often.

What is it? Put most simply, it is this: It is only when one reaches the twentieth or so idea that one starts entering the realm of the truly original idea.

The first five or ten? Those are the obvious ones that the brain goes to along its well-traveled paths. Most people’s heads will go that way and think of that thing. (Are you disappointed when you can see the plotline of a movie from a mile away? That’s thanks to the filmmakers working the shallows of the Rule of Twenty.) In the teens, you are starting to bushwhack into uncharted territory, where most people’s brains rarely go (because they are not as focused on craft as, say, a writer is). But by the time you hit twenty, you’ve likely discarded all the obvious and nearly obvious, and now you are working in a territory that is peculiarly yours. Those ideas you’ve worked toward will have the snap of the real and a complexity that speaks volumes.

Bruce was talking about the naming of things—characters, realms, books, what-have-you. Names are hugely important in fiction, of course, and our most beloved writers are masters of naming. But naming is about much more than simply giving a place or a character a telling handle, it is also the way the writer establishes his or her authority, where the writer becomes the author, if you will. Is the name too simple? Too easy? Too telling? Does it have hidden qualities?

Can you imagine Dickens without Magwitch or Havisham or Pecksniff? Rowling without Hogwarts or the Weasleys or Snape or her latinate spell names? Dahl without Trunchbull or Augustus Gloop? Pullman without the aletheiometer or Iorek Brynison or places like Bolvangar? The naming here does important work—so much so that a lot of exposition can be left out. Thanks to etymology, we know that “panserbørne” in The Golden Compass means more than simply “armored bear” (the Danish translation)—we hear echoes of Rommel’s panzer division, and there is an instant military air to the term. (That children won’t necessarily hear that, but that’s okay—the name is dark and rich and has extra dimensions folded within it.)

But naming is only one part of it: The Rule of Twenty can and should be used to consider plot twists and any other part of writing a story when you suspect you may have taken a too-easy route. Chances are that you have. So push yourself, reach that twentieth idea that is yours and yours alone, and see what you end up with.

Are there other rules that you use to ensure you’re being as original and creative as you can be? What are they? I’m going to try and add regular posts here under the rubric “The Rules” that collect some of the most useful ideas, and we can all use the help!

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I recently judged a contest for the blog at QueryTracker.net, a great site for writers at the query stage looking for more information about potential agents (and where my client Cole Gibsen first learned about me). I agreed to help out and, seeking something that would be both 1) easy on me and 2) beneficial to writers, I decided to limit the entries to pitches of 25 words or less. To see the winners and more details about the contest, head HERE.

I can already hear many of you groaning. If boiling  down a story into two or three paragraphs for a query is like stubbing your toe, then fitting an entire novel into 25 words is like getting a 50 ton anvil dropped on your cat. You know, if you really like your cat. Despite the painful nature (sorry, Kitty!) of the contest for some, doing this sort of exercise is certainly worthwhile.

The 25-word pitch (sometimes the “elevator pitch,” sometimes the “mom pitch,” sometimes the “you only have 15 seconds before your audience loses interest pitch”) is a skill writers should have in their toolbox no matter what stage of their career in which they find themselves. Even juggernauts of literature still get asked, “Oh, so what’s your new project about?” And while we’re more likely to nod for 15 minutes as Ernest Hemingway explains the ins and outs of his latest nautical story, hearing “It’s about an old Cuban fisherman trying to catch a marlin. But, you know, it’s about life, maaaaan” is more useful. Confusing, since Hemingway is 1) dead and 2) not a hippy, but useful nonetheless.

As an agent, it’s super helpful to have these sorts of pitches ready. I never know when lunch or drinks with an editor will turn into an opportunity to talk about a project I represent. It’s not just with editors, either; I’ve had plenty of conversations where someone wants to know what the heck it is I do and what sort of books I’ve sold. To pull out a succinct, quick description makes things loads easier and lets us get back to our game of Jenga.

So how do you write these things, anyway? There’s no perfect formula, but I like to always start with who the story is about, what challenges the protagonist faces, and some standout detail that makes it feel unique. For example, when pitching my client Cole Gibsen’s book KATANA, my 25 word pitch was: “It’s KILL BILL meets BUFFY, about a teen girl who discovers she’s a reincarnated samurai, but would rather be breaking hearts than breaking bones.” Who is it about? A teen girl. What challenges does she face? She’s learned she might be a samurai warrior, for the love of Pete! What makes it feel unique? All of it, really, but most notably for me, the notion of a kick ass teen who may or may not use swords. Swords, people! This pitch doesn’t get into many of the elements that make this project so fun and awesome, but it’s enough to make people (hopefully) say, “Huh, that’s interesting!”

Let’s move to an example many of you will be familiar with. As I’ve said on here before, I’m a big Roald Dahl fan. As a third grader, I  declared to anyone who would listen (and some who wouldn’t) that CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY was the best book ever written. I’ve since revised this opinion, but if I was looking to tell a someone about the story, I may

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I’m an avid sports fan. How avid? Well, I used to contribute content for a fantasy football website. I shared partial season tickets for the Philadelphia Phillies before moving to NYC. I subscribe to ESPN the Magazine. I was even once a mediocre athlete, earning seven varsity letters during my high school career. There’s more, but I don’t want to terrify you.

Given the above revelations, it should come as no surprise that I’d love to find sports books for children. But not just any sports books for children: I want books that are fresh, intelligent, and about more than just the games on the field.

Blame it on my frantic fanaticism, but I’m very picky about the types of sports books I enjoy. Have you written about a ragtag group of losers who rally to beat the bad guys? Yawn. Does the hero believe in himself and score the winning touchdown/three-pointer/perfect triple axle despite overwhelming odds? Bo-ring.

I’m looking for stories that incorporate sports but don’t rely on common clichés like the unlikely triumph of underdogs or the homerun-to-win-the-game-on-the-second-to-last-page. I don’t want to be able to guess the ending 75 pages before it occurs. Just like a terrific game, a sports book should have surprises, memorable characters, drama, and something the audience has never seen before. You’ll also need to have a unique element to differentiate it from the scores of other movies, books, and TV shows that have come before it.

A key element for me is for the game action to be well researched and authentic. If a child plays a particular sport and you’re confusing terminology, chances are all verisimilitude flies out the window and you’ll lose the audience. Be careful, too, not to explain things too much: you’re not writing a manual on how to play the game, but a book that incorporates the action into what’s hopefully a rich story.

A good recent example of a sports novel that worked for me is Kurtis Scaletta’s Mudville. Mudville is more than a baseball book–it’s also a tall tale (the setup is that a game between rival teams has been postponed for 22 years due to non-stop rain) and a book about the importance of family. Scaletta’s knowledge of baseball shines through, but the game itself works in concert with deeper familial drama to create a story that transcends the normal sports story.

I also tip my hat to Mike Lupica’s books (not that the bestselling author and sports columnist needs another hat tipped his way). Even though his novels sometimes veer into familiar territory, Lupica knows the games so well that his works come to life through the sheer authenticity of the situations. I like, too, how he’s not afraid to mix in real life drama and difficult situations. His books, too, transcend the action on the field.

So when thinking of me for a sports book, know that I want works that feature authentic game situations, unique hooks that haven’t been done to death, and elements that push the story beyond whatever is happening on the field. If you have those elements in place, please send your projects my way!

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The jig is up. There is no secret handshake. No magic formula. No deus ex machina for writers.

Aghast?

I was. Next thing you know, they'll be telling us there is no Santa Claus. Yeesh.

Leaving the big red guy out of it for a moment, I have to admit, when I started out writing, I was certain there was a secret formula. All I had to do was figure it out and the bestsellers would flow from my pen. I mean, honestly, it wasn't the craziest idea I've ever had (there have been crazier, like the time I decided I could prove girls are every bit as good as guys and jumped from a bridge into a river after a guy. Don't ask.) So what was it for writing? Writing for exactly two hours each day? Or writing nonstop, foregoing sleep, until I'd birthed my idea? Or if that wasn't working out, how about writing standing up, like Hemingway. Or drunk?

I will shamefacedly admit, I've tried all of these "formulas" out and then some. None of them worked. So finally, I resigned myself to the fact that I'm not clever enough to decode the secret handshake and will have to plug along writing as best I can.

It wasn't until I read Stephen King's On Writing a few weeks back (after four picture books and a middle grade novel, hundreds of school visits, and I don't know how many conference speeches) that I had my "Eureka!" moment. There is no secret formula to writing.

Not, at least, in the way I was thinking. I mean, the big secret is, to write. That's it. Everything else is fluff.

What King showed in his book was enlightening for me, or maybe I really had finally hit that "clever enough" to understand it point. His journey to authorhood, i.e. the early years of his life and what prompted him to want to write, couldn't be more different than mine, or thousands of other writers. It's eclectic, unique, what makes Stephen King, Stephen King and not Stacy Nyikos. His candid, tell all approach to describing his life as a writer made that clearer than anything I'd ever read before.

The thing that separated him from thousands of other writers is stubbornness. He plugged away at writing, day after day, year after year, rejection after rejection, until he had honed his skills - his, not Charles Dickens's or John Grisham's or anybody else's - to the point that he had mastered them.

And then he kept writing.

The best piece of advice he ever got in all those years of struggling and writing was a line scrawled at the bottom of a rejection letter from an unknown editor: 2nd Draft = 1st Draft - 10%.

Okay, so there is a formula.

But that's for revisions.

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We’ve all heard it said, from the writer’s point of view, that this is “A Bunny Eat Bunny World,” and you know it’s true. This is not an easy profession we’ve entered into and only a few select authors can manage to support themselves with a full-time gig. I am not one of them. In fact, one day last week, I woke with the horrible conviction that it was time for me to throw in the towel. Why I felt that way, and why the feeling was so strong, I don’t know. Although there have been times in the past where the struggle toward publication felt like an uphill battle, I never reached the point where I was ready to quit; until last week. What changed? Nothing. Is my career hopeless? Maybe.

My track record is better than some and worse than others. I’ve a handful of magazine articles to my name, my first picture book (NATURE’S LULLABY) released last fall and as of today, I have three others being held for consideration at major houses. There is not a day that goes by I don’t do some form of work toward getting my manuscripts and name out there. My husband and family are very supportive and I belong to many great groups who share my passion. I also pray real hard that success will come my way. And let it be known I’m not greedy. I don’t need to be responsible for the next Harry Potter, or Twilight series. I just want my work to reach the children. I know that sounds corny, but it is truly how I feel. I read lots and lots of books. Most of which are YA and PB, and let me tell you, I’ve run across quite a few stinkers in the bunch. How often have you read a book that really sucks and you wonder how on earth this person ever found someone to publish it? How often have you thought, “My stuff is way better than this?” Those are the times that seem to push me under the furthest. Even my children give me similar sentiments after reading a particularly boring or just plain senseless book.

“Mom, why can’t you get published? You’re stuff is way better than this junk!”

Although I know they mean it as a good thing, that simple comment does major damage to my writing psyche. I mean, why IS this crap making it to print while mine sits dejectedly on an editor’s desk? When will my ship come in? Of course, the economy doesn’t help and the major slump in picture book sales doesn’t do much for my career either. But none of it explains my sudden urge to give up my writing career and my quest for publication. As the day progressed, my mood did not lighten. In fact, if anything, a dark pallor settled upon me and I shied away from the computer and books and any of the things connected with the industry. Bunny eat bunny, indeed. I felt like I had been chewed up and spit out by Peter and Benjamin Bunny both.

When my work time rolled around,(daughter’s nap time)I realized it was time to take a good hard look at myself and my work. Admittedly, some of my manuscripts could use another revision, but some of them are spot on. As I sat amidst the gloom of my shaded bedroom ignoring all media outlets, I thought about those manuscripts that don’t need more work. The ones I truly believe are ready. These works of mine were composed of passion and a burning need to create. I realized I couldn’t stop writing if I tried. And why bother writing if it is not for the world to see? No, I am NOT ready to give up. Perseverance is key. With a little luck, a lot of persistence and the talent I know I possess, I will get more bites, I will see my work in print and I will not be quitting anytime soon! So, bunny eat bunny, or dog eat dog, I am the alpha and I refuse to lose.

So now, with new conviction, I have forced my doubts aside. I will keep moving forward against a tide which keeps pushing me back. Because I know my stuff is worthy and one day I will find that editor or agent who believes it too.

Now, my only hope is that the day comes while I’m still living and breathing. It would be just my luck that my writing finally comes to fruition posthumously in an Emily Dickenson sort of way. I guess I am still holding on to a few teensy weensy doubts. But hey, I’m still writing; are you?

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