Author Insight: Swapping Stories

Do you ever share your story with anyone prior to submission? At what point and with who?

"Not anymore, no.  Before I had an agent, I exchanged work with a few trusted (and wildly talented) authors.  I still do on occasion if there's something in a scene that I just don't think is working but can't put my finger on no matter how many times I come back to it.  So now, it's more to brainstorm a sticking point rather than have someone do a critique.  My agent is a brilliant editorial sounding board for new projects, so I utilize her when necessary too." - Kay Cassidy, author of The Cinderella Society.

 

"I do! I have a cadre of critique partners and beta readers who help me figure out what kind of mess I'm dealing with in my story. I work my readers in shifts--send some a first draft, send some a second, and a few more even get a third. It keeps the perspectives fresh." - Beth Revis, author of Across the Universe.

"No. I tried working with critique partners, and it didn’t work for me. I found myself second-guessing everything I wrote and losing touch with my own vision for the work." - Ty Roth, author of So Shelly.

"I have several people that I swap stories with, mainly other YA writers. I usually write the first draft and let it sit awhile before I send it to my readers. I also have two teen readers that go over my drafts to give me their perspective, which is really valuable." - Cynthia Omololu, author of Dirty Little Secrets.

More Author Insight: The e-book bandwagon

  As a reader, are you on the e-book bandwagon or would you rather have a physical book? Do you feel differently as a writer?

"I prefer to have the good old fashioned books, but on a whim I once bought an ebook on my phone while waiting for my car to be serviced, just so I could resume reading it." - Lauren Destefano, author of Wither. 

 "I love physical books.  I love looking at them and holding them and smelling them and turning their pages.  Reading is like a love affair: sometimes you tear through it anxious to get to the end, and sometimes you linger over every page to draw it out as long as you can.  Yet, I think e-books are here to stay.  I might never have read The Passage if I hadn't picked it up in e-book format.  When I travel, I love that I can pack my Kindle and iPad and not have to be burdened with one of the twenty books I was thinking about reading.  If I'm indecisive (and I frequently am) I don't have to make the tough choices. E-books are convenient.  As a writer, I don't care how you read my book.  I actually like Cory Doctorow's method of allowing unrestricted, free access to his books.  The first book of his that I read was Little Brother, and I downloaded it in PDF off his website.  I became a fan and got others to buy it. When his next book For the Win came out, I bought it at the store.  I believe in free, unfettered access to information. I think e-books scare a lot of people because they think it'll lead to piracy much like what happened with the music industry, but I believe that if we give people access to the things they want in the format in which they want it and then get out of the way, people will choose to do the right thing." - Shaun David Hutchinson, author of The Deathday Letter.

"I use an e-reader to read manuscripts for books I've been asked to blurb. I'd rather have a physical book - I think they are beautiful. E-readers are convenient but don't offer the comfort of a book. A book is like good company." - Andrea Cremer, author of Nightshade. 

"I love this question. As a reader, I love physical books. My family members all have Kindles and love them, but I just can't make the leap. I recently moved and I have about 30 boxes filled with books, so it's become fairly obvious that I'm a fan of the actual book. As a writer, though, I want people to be able to read my words through every possible avenue, whether it's a library, bookstore, or e-reader. The way people tell stories will always change and it'll be interesting to see how the publishing industry changes along with it." - Robin Benway, author of The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, and June. 

"As a reader, it depends. E-books are sooooooo convenient: one device, a ton of books. And for books that are roughly a bajillion pages? Wow, e-readers rock. But there’s really nothing like the feeling of an actual book in my hands. So...it depends on my mood. As a writer, there’s still part of me that feels if you can’t buy it in a bookstore, it doesn’t count. And then the rest of me says, “Grow up, Kessler!” I think I’ll always love physical books, but I’m becoming more and more comfortable with e-books, especially as the technology keeps improving." - Jackie Kessler, author of Rage. 
 

Author Insight: The e-book bandwagon

As a reader, are you on the e-book bandwagon or would you rather have a physical book? Do you feel differently as a writer?

"Definitely hard copy.  I bought a Nook this fall because it makes it easier to exchange work with other authors during the draft stage, and I like being able to check out books from my library on it.  But when I find a new book I want, it's almost always in hard copy form.  So far, anyway.  :-)" - Kay Cassidy, author of The Cinderella Society.

 

"Depends. If it's a book I want to keep forever, hard copy all the way (hardcover if I can get it). Otherwise, I'm fine with an ereader or paperback. I feel the same way as a writer, too." - Beth Revis, author of Across the Universe.

"I was an early owner of an e-reader. Over time, I’ve learned that I prefer physical books. I especially prefer scouring for books in bookstores and libraries to scrolling selections and downloading text. Also, with the spike in the use of e-readers, I’m really beginning to miss spying what books others carry or have shelved in their homes. I’m in no way opposed to e-readers, especially if it inspires reluctant readers to read more frequently. With that said, however, I’m not overly given to nostalgia or resistant to the inevitable transition to e-readers. They just make sense." - Ty Roth, author of So Shelly.

"I like both for different reasons. I love ebooks because I can have it downloaded before I’ve even really decided that I want to read it. I love hardcovers too, especially if I know I’m going to be able to get it signed." - Cynthia Omololu, author of Dirty Little Secrets.

How L.J. Smith helped me rediscover my love of reading...

My parents are both big readers. They're the type of people who can go to the library or the bookstore and get lost in the stacks for hours perusing the possibilities. And true to form, they always emerge with a stack of weighty looking books. Hardback, five-hundred-plus pages, and bearing a strange resemblance to the Oxford Unabridged Dictionary... Sometimes they were fiction, sometimes not, but they were always books my parents could bury themselves in for days.

I inherited their love of reading, completely with a tendacy to run my fingers across the spines as I walked the shelves. Granted, as a child I wasn't ready to tackle hundreds of pages. I doubt I could have even carried those books, but I did love them.

Sadly, in middle school I lost my love of reading. I can make a lot of excuses for why books and I grew apart. I was a busy kid during those years with lots of school sports, non-school sports, performances, competitions, etc. But the truth is, I don't know what happened. There's no specific moment I can pinpoint that changed it all. I just put my books away and never looked back. In fact, I can't honestly tell you that I remember reading a book until the summer before my freshman year in high school.

My mom took me to the bookstore I guess because she needed to pick something up or maybe she was secretly hoping that I'd find something for myself. She parted me in the teen secetion (still an extension of Children's at the time) and told me that she'd be back. So I scanned titles, looked at covers, pulled out books and reshelved them until I ran across one book in particular.

The book in and of itself was nothing special. It was a tiny paperback with a cover done in that distinctive '90s style a la R.L. Stine or Christopher Pike, but I'd never heard of the author -- L.J. Smith.

My mom bought it for me without a single question and I devoured it. And when the last page was turned I went back to the beginning and started over. It was the only book I read until the next book in L.J. Smith's the Night World series came out the following spring.  I had to have them all the minute they were released and I had to read them as soon as I got home from the store. I still have my original set of these books along with the Vampire Diaries, the Secret Circle, Dark Visions, and the Forbidden Game. I also own the bind ups of each.

These books, particularly the Night World series, are near and dear to my heart. I've been waiting for well over a decade for the final book, Strange Fate, to be released although it looks unlikely. (It was scheduled for April of last year, then this year, and now it's listed on Amazon for 2014.) But that's neither here nor there because L.J. Smith has given me so much more than a pile of books. She gave me a renewed love of reading. Without her writing I might never have picked up a book again.

I don't fangirl over famous people. It's not in my nature, but I think if there was one person who might get a fangirl moment out of me it would be L.J. Smith. That's why I was so outraged about a month ago when I learned that she had been fired from writing the Vampire Diaries series and subsequently saw this letter from her.

I understand the politics of the industry and have some knowledge of the intricacies of contracts and books-for-hire, but I was no less upset that the woman who had crafted a world so many readers have come to love would  no longer be guiding the characters she created as the story moves forward. Even moreso, it hurts my heart to know that she will have to relinquish the series and watch someone else take over. I know how difficult it is for me to hear that as a reader. I cannot imagine how difficult it is for her as a writer.

For all she has given me I want to do something to give back and to celebrate her writing, so I'm giving away a full set of Night World bind-ups. If you haven't these books and you love young adult fiction then you are missing out. They have been out there for well over a decade and have remained relevant to the genre, falling out of print briefly and making a triumphant return. They've stood the test of time, and if you don't own them then I want you to have the chance to add them to your collection.



More Author Insight: How to begin

  What's the hardest part about starting a new book? Do you have a trick to get started?

"It's like jumping into a cold swimming pool; think about it too long and you'll never do it. I don't think about it. I just open a word document and start writing on blind faith, often having no idea what the story will be or who's telling it. As a result, I have hundreds of Word documents with failed/abandoned stories, but this is also the method that led me to write Wither and the short stories on my website." - Lauren Destefano, author of Wither. 

 "Falling in love.  It's stupid, but I have to fall in love with a book in order to write it.  I have to let it consume me.  And I think that's how it should be.  Like real relationships, who wants to spend countless days and months and years with something you only kind of like? There's not really a trick to it.  When it's right, I just know it." - Shaun David Hutchinson, author of The Deathday Letter.

"Setting aside time to be alone and simply write. I create a playlist to get my mind into the setting of the book - that always works." - Andrea Cremer, author of Nightshade. 

"The hardest part is finding the character's voice. I can always hear them perfectly in my head, but when I write their words down, sometimes they look wrong. The same goes for plot & setting: I can always picture my books as if they're movies, but sometimes they just seem ridiculous on the page. I think writing the first 10-20 pages of a book are torture. I would rather edit than write a first draft any day of the week." - Robin Benway, author of The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, and June. 

"I must, must, must have the right opening line. Usually from there, the rest flows. Okay, sometimes not. But usually." - Jackie Kessler, author of Rage. 
 

Author Insight: How to begin

What's the hardest part about starting a new book? Do you have a trick to get started?

"It always starts with an idea for me. I have a drawer full of story folders, so I'm never at a loss for ideas. :-) But since I'm a plotter, I always begin by figuring out what's driving the main character (aka the goal, conflict and motivation) and what the key turning points are in the story. From there, I flesh out the story piece by piece until I understand it and the characters well enough to begin putting words on the page." - Kay Cassidy, author of The Cinderella Society.

 

"The hardest part? All of it. But that's also the best part. Writing is such an amazing, frustrating, glorious, painful thing, all at once, all at the same time. There's no trick, or anything--just a matter of sitting down and doing it." - Beth Revis, author of Across the Universe.

"The hardest part for me is staring up at that mountain and knowing how much time, energy, and sacrifice it will take to climb it, especially when there’s no book deal on the table and the possibility is very real that the story I’m committing to may never be published. At that moment, I pause and consider all of the other things I could do with that time and energy, and I weigh the cost and benefit in the totality that is my life. For now, I’ve determined that the undertaking is worth it, so I start climbing one sentence at a time. As for tricks, I don’t have any, but I’ve always seen the first and last scene of my novels before anything else. The writing is just a matter of filling in the middle." - Ty Roth, author of So Shelly.

"Starting is SO hard.  I usually sit with a character and idea for several months. The main character usually starts talking to me – when I get a great first line, then I know it’s time to sit down and start writing. " - Cynthia Omololu, author of Dirty Little Secrets.