YA Rebels - Wednesday Looks at the Query that Landed her THE AGENT

Hey guys.

Today on the YA Rebels I look at the query letter that first got me my agent.





And the query:

Dear Ms. Tipton,

I understand from your agency's website that you enjoy young adult fiction, and so I hope you'll consider representing my 56,000 word YA novel, "The Shadow Mile."

When their car hit the river three years ago, Nell's mother died, and Nell went to sleep. A deep, dreamless, sleep. The doctors called it a coma. She called it coping. But when Nell woke up a week later, something stayed behind. Since the accident, shadows have begun to bend the wrong way, the seams of the world glinting on the edges of her sight. One day a shadow peels itself straight off the wall and flutters away, like a moth. Even to Nell, this is a bit peculiar.

A world away, Death is growing restless. Bound to the Shadow Mile, the place between the living world and the one beyond, the reaper has grown sick of its mundane occupation. When the reaper decides it wants out, it calls in a professional. Death enlists recently departed scholar Lucas Bradley Link to devise a plan that could not only free the reaper, but ultimately lead to the downfall of the living world. Step one: Lure a living soul into the Shadow Mile, and steal their life

When Nell stumbles into Death's trap, she finds herself in the dreamlike Mile, where doors are one-way, people are shadows, and when it rains, the sky actually falls. A shifting space where getting out is much harder than falling in, and the price for staying too long is steep.

"The Shadow Mile" is a cat-and-mouse-game that forces Nell to confront her mother's death and her own disconnection as she tries to find her way back home before the reaper steals her life.

I am a rising senior in college, and this is my first novel. Thank you in advance for your time.

Getting Your MC/Narrator to TALK.

So, over the past few days I took a course to get my scooter/motorcycle license,got hit by a motorcycle, and then proceeded to crash my own scooter during a drill on a very, very rainy Sunday. Front wheel locked and went straight over the handle bars.

I also started writing a new book (yay, new book, but won't be saying word 1 about WHAT it is).

The thing about a new book is it means a new MC, and in the case of a first person narration, a new VOICE.

I have a few tactics for starting books, one of my favorite being to create a list of shots, essentially vivid still frames from the book. But no matter how much info I know about plot, or how many vivid moments I've got jotted down, I can't really get into a rhythm until my MC decides to TALK, to tell me the story in his/her own words. Once that happens, the book finally begins.

THANKFULLY, my new MC took pity on me.

If your MC won't start chatting, here are two things that work for me:

-Think about how your MC would describe the other characters in the book. This tells you about their voice, but also about relationships and dynamics and other things that tend to come in handy when building a story.

-Sometimes you can "interview" your MC, or any character in your book, but I prefer to take a walk with mine. As I walk and let my eyes wander onto different things, paying attention to the way thoughts trickle in, that is when I start to make progress. I start to think of where my MC's mind goes when they wander. And the seemingly innocuous thoughts are often very telling. I recommend not confining your MC to a list of questions, but letting them ramble.

I'm sure there are many more ways, but these are the two that seem to work for me. Do you have any techniques?

YA Rebels - Wednesday Q&A + QUERY CONTEST

Hey guys.

This week at the YA Rebels we're doing a Q&A session, and we're also holding a query contest. Anyone who wants a query critique can enter, just by leaving their favorite line of the WIP in comments section on the youtube page.

Today, I talk about how I start books, pseudo-outlining, being inspired by other authors, and my hatred of waiting...




As usual, you can also view HERE.

Enjoy!

On Critique Partners

Do you have critique partners?

They're a funny thing for me. Up until about six months ago...

I'd never had one.

They kind of scared me.


THE PRE-CRIT PARTNER LIFE:

See, I'd gotten used to being judged by my agent, by editors, then by my editor, but not by my peers. Part of me justified by saying I got this far without one, but let me tell you, crit partners are INVALUABLE.

First I should say that my mother is my ultimate reader. No story makes it past our front door and out into the pub world without crossing her desk. She's incredibly intelligent, and honest, and if others are beta readers, she's the alpha.

So I didn't really know if I wanted crit partners, or how to go about getting them, and then one day a good writing friend of mine offered to read NEAR WITCH. I was TERRIFIED, because I didn't want this person's opinion of me to decrease if they didn't like the ms. I feel like our stories are clothes, and people judge other people by how they dress.

But I sucked it up and gave it to her.

And the feedback this person came back with was so thorough! So HELPFUL. I was in shock.


OH, SO THAT'S WHAT EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT:

The shock led to the realization of how much better my books would be, and I got braver and extended the circle of critique partners.

Now I have 4-5. All of them are authors at or around the same part in the publishing process. All of them are people I know and trust.


CRIT PARTNER ADVICE: 

That last part is VERY IMPORTANT. These people are handling material that is private and precious (to me) until it makes its way onto the shelf.

Get to know your crit partners, choose wisely, test the marriage, do everything you need to, because if it's a good fit, it can be an incredibly fruitful, and hopefully fun, relationship.

Oh, and make sure I have a spectrum of NICE to EVIL. So I have 1-2 who are gentler, and 1-2 who will tear me a new one without fail.

Wherever your crit partners fall on the spectrum of mean, having them is great practice for letting your book out into the real world, and because of them, it will look a lot better when it gets there.

Forgive Me.

So I've been sparse, and I'm really sorry. I have a MAJOR deadline this upcoming Friday, and several things I'm trying to juggle, in addition to figuring out a PLAN B since I'm not getting into any MFA programs (and it's okay) and I have to remember to shower and sleep...

But I will resurface soon with an ACTUAL post full of yummy content. I promise. Please stick with me.

<3
V

YARebels Vlog - Wednesday...

...hopes for residues, fears lunch tables, and announces a contest winner!!



As usual, if the above isn't working, you can click HERE.

AND!

Next week the YA Rebels are answering questions, so if you have any, either for me personally or someone else in the group, or the group as a whole, ask them now!

--> http://www.formspring.me/yarebels

What Makes Me a Rebel??

This week the topic on the YA Rebels was just that, what makes us Rebels? The answers will vary from the silly to the sincere, of course, but this one is actually really important to me.

It's about not being afraid to try.




As always, if you can't see, you can go HERE.