Capilocks and the Three Critique Partners

Once upon a time, there lived a young writer with stories worth gold bouncing from her head. She dreamed of an amazing house—a publishing house that would take her manuscript all the way to Happily Ever After. So after Capilocks trudged through the Forest of Revision, she set out to find a critique partner that was juuuuuuust right.

The first partner she found was a tough one. He flashed his red Sharpie and laughed a maniacal laugh as he slayed each sentence and made them his own. He belittled her ideas, told her to only write to the trends, and tweeted mean things about her crappy first drafts.

Capilocks shuddered. “This relationship is too hard.” She wished him well, gathered her tattered ego, and backed away.

The next partner she found was quite cuddly. She dotted her I’s with smileys and hearts, embraced every adverb, and proclaimed, “Brilliant! Send it!” whenever Capilocks scribbled out a new manuscript on the back of a phone message. Capilocks liked this new partner. She never criticized and always encouraged, but Capilocks' stories were still rather suckish.

“This critiquer is too soft,” she said. Capilocks looked around for someone new.

At last, she landed in a relationship with a fabulous writer and caring soul—someone who wanted her to succeed, but wasn’t afraid to ask tough questions. Someone who encouraged her voice, but hid the postage stamps and guarded the send button until manuscripts were polished and prime.

“This critique relationship is just right,” said Capilocks. And it was.

I’ve been blessed to work with some amazing critique partners and dodged a few that didn’t work for me. Where do you go to find great critique partners? Do you ever find it’s tough to critique in a way that’s juuuuust right? Please share in the comments below.

Surviving The Wait

You hit send. And so it begins. The waiting. You check your sent folder. Yep. It’s gone. Now what? Do you spend the rest of your days hitting F5 to refresh your inbox? If you don’t at least feel the pull, I question your humanity. But you know, there’s no guarantee of a response. So here are ten different things you can do while waiting.

10. Be a kid again. Go down a slide head first. Blow bubbles. Color a picture. Walk on your hands in the swimming pool. Do something fun, and practice not caring what anyone thinks about it.

9. Find fun songs about waiting & sing them loudly as you drive through town with your windows down and your hair tangling in the breeze. We writers don’t have to look like soccer moms, you know.

8. Volunteer. Come out of your writer’s cave and see what cause needs some love. Tutor a kid. Help out in an animal shelter. Serve others at a soup kitchen. It will help put things in perspective again.

7. Ketchup. No wait, I meant catch up. That laundry pile looming and threatening to bury you in your sleep? The kitchen floor confettied with Goldfish crackers and Cheerios? Take charge of it before paranormal elements emerge.

6. Create flash fiction. Can you write a mini story? There are some fun contests out there with prompts and prizes to get you started.

5. Let out that nervous energy in a way that feeds your soul. If it’s running, run. If it’s playing guitar, strum. If it’s dancing, twirl. Your family will thank you.

4. Create a spreadsheet. When responses come in, you’ll want to keep good records so you'll know who you sent what and how they responded.

3. Read. Read for fun. Let a stranger’s story dance in your head. And when you finish that book? Read another one.

2. Plot, plan, dream. Start thinking about your next writing project. It’s time.

1. Write something new.

So what do you do when the waiting starts? Comment below and let us know.

Query Flops Contest

After years of tweeting with each other, Donna Earnhardt and I finally met IRL (in real life) in March. She is every bit as fabulous and funny in person as she is online. One of the things that got us especially giggly was remembering and retelling some of the blunders of our submissions past.

You see, the more I learn, the more I learn I have to learn. If you’ve been seeking publication for a while, go back and look at your first letter to an agent or editor. *shudders* It’s bad, right? The more you follow agents and editors on Twitter and their blogs, the more you learn about how to make your submissions more professional.

With that in mind, I’m having a contest to celebrate our flops! What did you do when querying (We’ll all assume it was a very long time ago) that you wish you could take back? Make up the name of the agent or editor involved—we don’t really want it popping up in their Google alerts, do we? Then tell us what you learned from your mistake.

 On Friday, April 27^th, I will put the names of the brave souls that entered into a hat and let my youngest pick a winner. One winner will win a pair of Old Navy flip flops, so you’ll know we are thankful you’ve learned from the flops of your past.  Be sure to include your email address or Twitter handle if I can’t find it through clicking on your name. U.S. entries only, please.

When Books Hit the Big Screen

I am beyond excited about The Hunger Games movie. I devoured all three books in the series and love that it was filmed in North Carolina. If it wasn't for my "mom duties," I would have camped out, swung from trees, or whatever else it might have taken to land a part as an extra.

All this has me thinking about other books that became movies. We readers have great expectations and clear pictures in our heads, so I'm curious which ones worked for you. Two of my favorites were The Princess Bride and The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe. I've read both books too many times to count and was amazed at how brilliantly the story on the big screen reflected the one I'd grown to love.

What about you? What are your favorite book to big screen transformations? Will you be standing in line to see The Hunger Games on opening night? Comment and let us know!

Keeping It Real in Fiction

I love words. Printed words. Cursive ones. Spoken words. Whispered ones. The different heights and shapes of their letters. The things words get your mouth and tongue to do. The way words can make someone feel powerful, or peaceful, or loved.

One of my favorite words I learned in college was verisimilitude. We were talking about ROBINSON CRUSOE at the time. Verisimilitude is when a character or event in a story seems real because of the details given. These can be obvious details, like when you open the refrigerator door you feel a cool burst of air as the light turns on.

But with characters, I think they sometimes become more real when the details are unexpected. Like when the southern mom makes lousy sweet tea or the boxer is terrified of butterflies and views them as flying worms.

This doesn't mean writers should be inconsistant with their characters' characteristics. If your main character is a vegetarian, they shouldn't eat steak. But throwing in a few quirky details breathes life into characters and keeps them from seeming too flat or cliché.

Even if I didn't love the meaning of verisimilitude (which I do), I like the way it feels to say it. It makes your mouth do that thing it does when you silently mock someone who is lecturing you. You do that too, right?

So what words do you love? It doesn't have to be a literary word-- just any old word that makes your heart happy. Please share a favorite in the comment section.

Guest Book Review and Giveaway for THE BOY PROJECT: NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS OF KARA MCALLISTER

To celebrate the upcoming release of Kami Kinard's debut book, my 9-year-old daughter reviewed THE BOY PROJECT: NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS OF KARA MCALLISTER. Comment by 12/16/11 for a chance to win book bling: a BOY PROJECT bracelet! Here's what M.L. had to say:

This book ROCKED! When I first picked it up, I thought it would be another mushy gushy book about a girl that likes a boy who doesn’t like her back, but by chapter two, I was hooked. I laughed when she decided to make a project about how to get a boyfriend and loved how she became a trend setter using duct tape. Kara is a creative, artistic girl, searching for her soul mate. The ending was absolutely wonderful. I recommend this book to girls with a good sense of humor. It would make a great movie too.

Be sure to preorder THE BOY PROJECT (available January 1, 2012) and visit http://www.kamikinard.com for more information.

Contest: Dodging Writing Questions

Holidays aren’t easy for writers. With the kids out of school, quiet time happens only during the wee hours when everyone else is ordering gift cards online or wrapping presents. And then there’s that awkward moment when we’re questioned by our REAR (Regularly Employed Anonymous Relatives). See if this sounds familiar:  

REAR: How’s your writing coming?

Me: Fine. *looks for a deviled egg and a good hiding place*

REAR: Have you finished that book you were working on?

Me: Well, the first two drafts. My critique group has it now.

REAR: You could have just sent it to me. I read Twilight last year.

Me: Uh, thanks?

REAR: So as soon as they’ve read it you’ll send it off to all the major publishing houses, right?

Me: I’m sure I’ll have more revisions to do. Then I’ll send it to some Beta readers. Then I’ll revise some more.

REAR: Huh. My neighbor has a friend whose aunt wrote her dog’s memoir. She sold copies at our class reunion. I bet I could get her to give you some pointers. She finished her book in three weeks and published it all by herself a month later.

Me: The tea is sweet, right? *hurries off & volunteers to sit at the kids’ table*

If it felt familiar, just know you are not alone. Preparing your book for publication is a long process. I’m still not sure why we’re called writers instead of revisers. So for a little fun, tell us your best topic-dodging line when you’ve given up on getting your REAR to understand and just want to change the subject. On Monday, December 5th, I’ll let my littlest pick a commenter out of a hat to win a package of Eraselets (cute little bracelets that you can also use as erasers). http://www.eraselet.com/  U.S. entries only please. J